Reminiscences

Reminiscences of Sargachhi

SWAMI SUHITANANDA (Continued from previous issue. . .) Swami Premeshananda (1884 – 1967) was a disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi. For over two decades he lived at Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Sargachhi, West Bengal. Under his inspiration countless people led a life of spirituality and service, and many young men and women entered into monastic life. His conversations – translated from Bengali and presented below – were noted by his attendant who is now Srimat Swami Suhitananda Ji, one of the VicePresidents of the Ramakrishna Order.

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30.1.61 (contd…)

Question: Is there any harm in following Tota Puri or Trailanga Swami?

Maharaj: Is it enough to know only the nirguna, the Attributeless? He who is nirgunais again seen through Maya as saguna, endowed with attributes, and as the manifest world. He knows rightly who knows both the nirguna aspect of Brahman and His maya. Otherwise , the real weight will not be known (reference to an analogy given by Sri Ramakrishna).*

The concepts of brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, and shudra are not limited to any particular time or place — they apply to all situations. Think about it. In every activity all four types are required. One person makes the plan, another person implements it, still another person removes the obstacles, and someone else does the calculation.

Skill in dealing with people is of great advantage because it helps to find out the real essence of a man. Not just the common people—one should behave well with even the servants. Holy Mother commented, ‘What! Servants for sannyasis?’ Baburam Maharaj said, ‘The servants also serve Sri Ramakrishna; because they are poor they take some money. We should take care of their well-being.’

1.2.61

Question: What’s the meaning of नैव किंचित्करोमीति युक्तो मन्येत त त्त्ववित ् । पश्यन् श्रृणवन्स्पृशञ्जिघ्रन्नश्नन्गच्छन्स्वप न् श्वसन् ।। (Gita 5:8)

“As long as one has not realized God, one should renounce the world, following the process of ‘Neti, neti.’ But he who has attained God knows that it is God who has become all this. Then he sees that God, maya, living beings, and the universe form one whole. God includes the universe and its living beings. Suppose you have separated the shell, flesh, and seeds of a bel-fruit and someone asks you the weight of the fruit. Will you leave aside the shell and the seeds, and weigh only the flesh? Not at all. To know the real weight of the fruit, you must weigh the whole of it—the shell, the flesh, and the seeds. Only then can you tell its real weight. The shell may be likened to the universe, and the seeds to living beings. While one is engaged in discrimination one says to oneself that the universe and the living beings are non-Self and unsubstantial. At that time one thinks of the flesh alone as the substance, and the shell and seeds as unsubstantial. But after discrimination is over, one feels that all three parts of the fruit together form a unity. Then one further realizes that the stuff that has produced the flesh of the fruit has also produced the shell and seeds. To know the real nature of the bel-fruit one must know all three.” — The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, pp.327-328

Maharaj: The meaning ofनैव किंचित्करोमीति is ‘I am not the body-mind-intellect.’ Therefore, all the fruits of action belong to this body-mindintellect; I am free from action. Were Sri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother always conscious of their own real nature? Mother said, ‘At times I forget.’ It is just as sometimes, while watching a game, we become identified with it. But Sri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother were free. As Sri Ramakrishna said, the passengers of a train don’t have the key to the compartment with them, but the officials have it; they can get on and off of the train whenever they wish.

Q u e s t i o n : W h a t i s m e a n t b y contemplating an avatara?

Maharaj: Meditate in this method: I am not the body-mind-intellect; I am sitting with Sri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother. I am also Consciousness like them. I behold my gross and subtle body. Work is being done by the gross part and the impressions of those works are being collected in the subtle body.

What are Sri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother, other than God incarnate? That selfsame attributeless Sat-Chit-Ananda, through the hole (reference to an avatara being the hole in the wall through which the infinite is perceived), created a frame, and through that enacted the role of showing the world the path. The One who came as Ramakrishna had come earlier as Gauranga; it is not that Gauranga incarnated as Ramakrishna. Both were born in brahmin families. The brahmins are highly respected in society; therefore, they were born in brahmin families. Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhwa too were brahmins. Rama, Krishna and Buddha, who came in earlier ages, were kshatriyas.

There are no miracles in this world. Without action there is no effect; the rootcause is bound to be present somewhere or other. Have you not read in Raja-Yoga that the yogis can do anything? Swamiji gave the name Swami Adbhutananda to Latu Maharaj. Apparently he was a miracle — his transformation was truly extraordinary (adbhuta). But if you delve deep, you will find that he had the requisite samskaras (past impressions), and that is why he felt the affinity (towards Sri Ramakrishna).

However, if there is any miracle, it is the divine play of avataras. He who is Para-Brahma appears in human form and talks, acts, and roams about like a man. Yet there is no change or diminution in Para-Brahma; Hecontinues to remain Para-Brahmaeven then.

The love, charm, and grandeur manifested in the divine play of an avatara are indescribable. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw from Athara-Nala (an ancient bridge at the entrance of Puri town) that a child of dark complexion was playing the flute. At once he left behind his companions and rushed onwards to embrace Lord Jagannatha. That was because he saw everything as Consciousness. Sarvabhauma (a Vedic scholar and logician who was present in the Jagannath Temple when Sri Chaitanya entered it the first time and, overwhelmed by the love of God, fell unconscious) rescued him from the clutches of the temple priests and kept him in his own residence. Have you heard the song – Aji kokila-kujane (The starting lines of a B e n g a l i s o n g c o m p o s e d by Swa m i Premeshananda; it celebrates the birth of Sri Ramakrishna and goes like this: ‘Today as the cuckoos sing….’)? It is difficult to control our emotions when we hear such songs; we just burst into tears. This is a song for children to sing while dancing. Kali Kirtan, the hymns to Mother Kali, present devotion mixed with knowledge; the hymns of the Vaishnavas present loving devotion. (To be continued. . .)

Assimilating the Human Possibilities Vision

SRINIVAS VENKATRAM

The Human Possibilities Vision, gifted to us by Swami Vivekananda calls upon every person to unfold his or her full potential as a person, and thereby be fulfilled. How do we help millions of ’vision-hungry’ people recognise and assimilate this life affirming message of Vedanta?

I

Over a century ago, Swami Vivekananda reminded us that each soul is potentially divine and the goal of life is to manifest this divinity within.

The challenge ahead of us is translating this compelling vision into new models of education, new models of work, new models of living, and new models of institutions and society.

The Science of Human Possibilities is the pathway or means to translate this vision into reality.

II

To understand the term ‘science of human possibilities’, let us begin with the core axioms.

Axiom 1

potentiality and the more we manifest this potentiality, the more fulfilled we are as human beings.

Axiom 2

When this potentiality (in a seed form) becomes manifest, it translates from a dormant potentiality to an active possibility. The real challenge therefore is to enable human beings to translate more and more of their dormant potentialities into active possibilities. A second, equally important challenge is to nurture and develop the active possibilities so that they are fully manifest as unique capabilities and contributions associated with the individual.

The axioms, by themselves, are fairly simple and known widely to anyone familiar with Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature. The real question is: how to translate this vision into millions of transformed human beings across India and the rest of the world?

This means that the real bottleneck is not understanding these axioms, but assimilating them, thereby reshaping our engagement with ourselves, with others, and with society at Inside each human being lies infinite

large.

III

Why is it so important that a large number of people must assimilate this vision of human possibilities?

To answer this question, let us consider the following implications of this vision:

Srinivas Venkatram is the Founder-CEO of Illumine Knowledge Resources, a cognitive sciences and knowledge interventions lab, and he is inspired by Revered Swami Ranganathanandaji Maharaj, 13th President of Ramakrishna Math and Mission. (to learn more: illumine.in) srinivas@illumine.in

Implication 1

When we accept ourselves as having infinite possibility, we are investing ourselves with extraordinary self-respect and self-esteem. This gives us both strength and resilience to deal with life and its challenges in a far more effective manner.

Implication 2

When we accept others as having infinite possibility, we must necessarily accept that all human beings, at the most fundamental level, have to be treated equally and with the same respect and regard we would reserve for ourselves. This negates all forms of inequality, racism, or superiority based on caste, class, position, or any other basis for human inequality at the social level.

Implication 3

The very act of recognition of both oneself and others as infinite, implies that we must let go of judgment, fault finding, and ‘classification’ or ‘slotting’ of human beings. This implies a radical change in our interhuman dealings.

Implication 4

This vision challenges our conceptions of organizing education on the basis of comparison of students, and asks us instead to treat each student as pursuing a unique journey of growth, with all comparison limited to the individual’s own past performance, current performance, and future performance.

These are but a few of the implications of this vision of human possibilities. It is a profoundly affirmative vision of humankind and of the whole process of human learning, growth, and development.

In short, the vision of human possibilities, if adopted on a society-wide scale, has the potential to (i) radically transform social and interpersonal relationships, (ii) change people’s conceptions of themselves, their careers, (iii) enhance their understanding of what constitutes a happy life, (iv) wipe away many of the barriers to human fulfillment that humankind has created for itself due to its present vision of human beings.

IV

If all these benefits await us, what stops us from making the change?

The answer is the challenge of helping people accept and assimilate these ideas on a large scale in our society.

Assimilation Challenges - 1

The first set of assimilation challenges that people face is understanding the very idea of human possibilities. All of us have been conditioned from childhood to think in terms of a c h i e ve m e n t a n d p e r fo r m a n c e . We acknowledge a possibility in a human being only when it has been ‘proven’ through some concrete achievement or visible performance in the world. This means that most possibilities are never visible to people around us (who are conditioned to see success and achievement alone), and to the individuals themselves (since they themselves are trained to respond to expectations and metrics of success in all their actions).

‘Possibilities’ lie in the space of becoming — between dormant potentiality and active achievement . This means unfolding possibilities needs both internal and external enablers. External enablers include affirmation, respect, space for experimentation and growth, and the absence of judgement, comparison, and evaluation. Internal enablers include helping individuals to develop atmasraddha or ‘faith in oneself’ so that they may experiment with new possibilities and accept/ digest failure and struggle along the way.

Assimilation Challenges - 2

The second set of assimilation challenges is around our ‘models of self’ that we have unconsciously or consciously developed over the years. These include how we think about ourselves — our identities, self-descriptions, models of personal growth, our vision of success, and so on. These are deep rooted and often come in the way of opening ourselves to our own possibilities.

These ‘models of self ’ shape our responses to life and define how we approach critical life situations and respond to them.

At an aggregate level, these ‘models of self’ shape our basic stance to ourselves and our aspiration for ourselves.

It is by examining our models of self that we can answer questions such as: Who are we? Are we mere producers/consumers of goods and experiences? Are we achievers relentlessly engaged in a rat race in a constant state of comparison with others? Or are we essentially becomers and contributors – who grow and offer the fruits of our growth to the world around us?

Assimilation Challenges - 3

The third set of assimilation challenges is around our ‘capacity to respond’ to various situations and scenarios we face. The more we develop a wider capacity to respond, the more we are: (i)able to build a positive and strengthening relationship with people and circumstances and us. For example, do we ‘react’ to events around us or do we digest our experiences and respond accordingly? (ii)transform situations that can inhibit and stop us from unfolding possibilities. For example, how do we deal with both successes and failures? How do we transform obstacles into opportunities? And so on.

(iii)consciously develop higher-order capacities like the ‘capacity to learn’ which helps us develop ourselves not just in terms of skills and capacities, but also in the way we handle various situations we deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Adopting the vision of human possibilities really means helping people deal with these sets of assimilation challenges — (i) reorienting the basic structure of expectations from self and others, (ii) reorienting their ‘models of self’, and (iii) developing their ‘capacity to respond’.

These are deep rooted cognitive challenges which need a systematic and scientific approach if they need to be addressed on a society-wide basis.

V

How do we address such deep-rooted cognitive challenges and that too on a large scale in our society?

It is only by answering this question that we can help people discover and embark on a journey of unfolding their infinite human possibilities, and in that process find greater fulfillment in their lives, and develop greater faith in the vast potentiality that is within their own selves?

To answer the question of how cognitive change can be brought about on a large-scale in society, we need to understand the term ‘assimilation’. How does assimilation take place and how is it different from education as we know it? Our present education system is built around the idea of ‘comprehension’ or ‘knowing’ of ideas and concepts. This includes within its ambit how we remember, connect the concepts to real world, learn to analyze and evaluate situations related to the concepts, and also apply these concepts effectively in the real world.

However, ‘knowing’ ideas does not mean that we ‘become’ the ideas. For example, we

may understand the concept of trust but not necessarily become trustworthy. Similarly, we may understand, and even write a sophisticated essay on heroism, but not necessarily be heroic when we face a situation that demands such a response.

Assimilation refers to the process of ‘becoming’ in contrast to comprehension of ideas which refers to the process of ‘knowing’.

If we say that someone has assimilated the idea of trust, we imply that the person has gone far beyond ‘understanding’ the idea of trust and is able to act/ practice in a trustworthy manner. At the very least, it means that the basic mental models that support trust behavior are in place and have begun reflecting in practice.

A cognitive or knowledge intervention that aims to achieve such an outcome on a scalable basis is called an assimilation intervention.

If we want people to awaken their infinite potential and unfold their hidden possibilities, then we cannot achieve this by asking them to study a textbook or even watch a film on the subject. We will need to do something else — which we call an ‘assimilation intervention’. An assimilation intervention is one where: (i)the ideas themselves have to be transformed into living ideals which people must choose to become, (ii)individuals must be given the concrete belief — the sense of ‘I can’ — that the ideal is realizable by them and is within their grasp, provided they can put in the effort, (iii)individuals must be given the enablers — tools, methods, new ways of thinking and working by which they can easily proceed on the journey of becoming — just as an adventurer arms himself or herself with maps, right equipment, tools, guide books, etc.,

(iv)(where organizations are involved), the necessary cultural, performance, and other enablers are put into place (and disablers removed), so that the individual’s journey of becoming is aided rather than impeded by the organization.

Do all people need such support to make the ‘journey of becoming’? the answer is no — there are a few people who, through the strength of their aspiration and yearning for a great ideal are able to awaken and unfold their inner possibilities with little or no outside effort.

But for the vast majority of people, a systematic framework to help them unfold their potential can prove immensely useful.

Even more important, through such interventions, the critical gap in our educational system, in our training and development systems, in the workplace, and in skills and capacity building system can be addressed. They can focus not only on knowledge and skills, but also on the larger task of awakening and unleashing the human potential of schools, colleges and workplaces in a far more effective manner.

VI

The vision of human possibilities, and fo r t h a t m a t te r, s eve ra l o f Swa m i Vivekananda’s life transforming ideas can be delivered through systematically designed assimilation interventions. Here are two case examples.

Case Example 1

Enabling school children to accept and assimilate the vision of human possibilities in their lives.

Illumine Knowledge Resources took over four years to design a comprehensive assimilation intervention for students in standard 7, 8 and 9 in schools.

Designing such an intervention required us to address a basic question: What does ‘human possibilities’ mean to a young student?

To answer this question, Illumine formulated the Human Possibilities Framework comprising three types of possibilities – possibilities that we engage with at a Physical Plane, possibilities that we engage with at a Knowledge Plane, and possibilities at the Character Plane which we called Universal Possibilities open to all people.

This Framework, comprising 18 key ‘possibility dimensions’ allows a child to explore and grow in multiple ways and at multiple levels of depth. For example, the level of Physical Possibilities includes dimensions such as playing games and sports, expressing oneself, creating value, engaging with culture and society, etc. The possibility of ‘expressing yourself’ for example, allows a student to discover and explore all forms of creative expression including art, craft, music, film, and several new forms emerging today as the number of media for expressing themselves proliferate.

At the next level, the level of Knowledge Possibilities includes dimensions such as realising a creative vision, learning in all parts of my life, extending the limits of human knowledge, etc.

At a much deeper level, at the level of Universal Possibilities, there are 6 possibilities, such as seeking perfection, being a truth seeker, living in harmony, etc. The universal possibility of ‘being heroic’ for example, allows young children to explore the dimensions of mental, physical and moral courage, the necessity for reconciliation of both obedience and freedom, the heroism involved in being committed to a goal, and so on.

Such an approach allows students to engage with Human Possibilities not as an abstraction but as a buffet of opportunity spaces through which their full potential is unleashed.

At present, this vision of human possibilities is being delivered to more than 5000 schools and several hundred thousand students by Ramakrishna Mission, Delhi who is Illumine’s partner in the intervention.

Case Example 2

Enabling working professionals to accept and assimilate the vision of contribution — to self, for organization, and to society (based on Swami Ranganathanandaji’s vision of enlightened citizenship).

Designing such an intervention requires us to answer the question: what are the basic models of thinking that can help a working professional discover and embrace the expanded vision of contributorship in his/her life?

What kind of models of thinking are necessary for working professionals today?

Here are a few examples of the kind of shifts which working professionals must make: (i)They need to move from frozen, outside-in identities based on power, position, degrees, etc., to dynamic and agile inside-out identities based on their intrinsic capacities to contribute and purpose/outcome orientation. (ii)They need to stop complaining and ‘waiting’ for the environment to be congenial in order to produce. They need to stop being victims of circumstances and start becoming creators of their destiny. (iii)They need to go beyond seeing their role as a ‘job description’ or a cage of rules, to an opportunity and space to contribute. (iv)At the same time, they need to operate with high levels of integrity, seeking to create trust surplus instead of trust deficits. (v)A highly collaborative environment demands that people move from a competitive one-upmanship mode to a mode of enlightened self-interest. (vi)People need to create value for organizations rather than be trapped in activities for their own sake, or destroy value with an extreme focus on costs and efficiency.

The challenge is not to ‘tell’ working professionals that they must act differently, but to enable them to discover and assimilate these ideas in the context of their work lives.

It is by transforming these ‘models of self’ and ‘models of work’ that the vast untapped potential of our workforce will be unleashed, and individual workers too will find fulfillment and create impact through their work lives.

This intervention is being delivered in two major state universities in India — Gujarat Technological University and Biju Patnaik University, Odisha. All India Council of Technical Education has also signed an MoU with Illumine to take this, with corporate assistance, to other states in India.

Furthermore, many large organizations — public sector, multi-national, large Indian groups are all recognizing the need to develop contributors in the workplace who can help them deal more effectively with an uncertain world.

These are but two examples. There are several more, including the i-Become Initiative for youth, assimilation interventions for less educated, low-skilled workers, and several others.

Each addresses the challenge of awakening the infinite human possibilities in a manner specific to that audience group.

VII

In conclusion, the vision of human possibilities is both vast and yet specific to every different audience group. Thus, the notion of human possibilities represents a dynamic vision which helps connect an individual to the larger world in which he or she lives.

It is therefore not enough for people to encounter the life-giving ideas of Vedanta - Swami Vivekananda in quotations and lectures. They must now be enabled to assimilate these ideas within the context of their own lives and human concerns.