Pariprasna

Q & A with Srimat Swami Tapasyananda (1904 to 1991), Vice-President of the Ramakrishna Order.

Approach the wise sages, offer reverential salutations, repeatedly ask proper questions, serve them and thus know the Truth. — Bhagavad Gita

QUESTION: When we are under the absolute control of the three Gunas of Prakriti how can we ever use our will? Is free will a misnomer?

MAHARAJ: In Sri Ramakrishna’s sayings we get perhaps the best answer to this question. He says man’s condition is like that of a cow which is tied with a string tethered to a post. The cow has got some freedom. It can move about and graze over as wide an area as the length of the rope would permit, but not further. It cannot run away from the post except when the owner comes and releases it from the connection with the post. So also God has given some freedom to man. There may be determinism of Nature, but man being basically the spirit, the freedom of spirit is always there to counteract that determinism, if man would tap his spiritual nature. No doubt it is limited in the embodied state by the tether of the body-mind. If we exercise that freedom in line with the laws of moral and spiritual growth, we will get greater and greater freedom, until we are ultimately released from the tether of the body-mind. Ultimately only God’s will prevails or rather, it is the only Will. When we think of ourselves as separate from the Will, we are like eddies in the current of a flowing river. The eddy moves in its own way, but it is a part of the force working as the whole current. So also if we are identifying ourselves with God’s Will, of which ours is a part, then what we call our will is one with His will and there is absolute freedom. In separation however there can be only limited freedom.

QUESTION: What is meant by ‘giving power of attorney to God’? When is a spiritual aspirant fit for it?

MAHARAJ: This expression ‘giving power of attorney to God’ was used by Sri Ramakrishna with reference to a devotee Girish Chandra Ghosh. Girish was a man of tremendous faith, intelligence and sincerity; but he was an artiste and a bohemian by nature, quite hostile to all routine, rules and regulations. The Master gave him certain disciplines to practise regularly at certain parts of the day, but Girishcould not promise to practise any of them, for the simple reason that he had no regular time for anything, even for his meals or sleep. He took life as it came and never planned. Being constitutionally incapable of any fixed discipline, he was asked by Sri Ramakrishna to give him the power of attorney. The idea is, legally when you give the power of attorney to a person, that person will do all things on your behalf and you need not exert or think about those affairs. In this way Sri Ramakrishna offered to take all the responsibility for the spiritual progress of Girish and Girish deposited his trust in him cent per cent. Here there are two or three important facts to be remembered:

1. Girish was a man of extraordinary faith, sincerity and intelligence. So when he said a thing, he really meant it, although it took him a long time to know the full implications of it. 2. Girish had an attitude of absolute trust in the Master, in his spiritual greatness and in his capacity to save. Such trust, faith and submission naturally opened Girish’s mind, unhindered and uninhibited, to the holy influence of Sri Ramakrishna to work upon and effect a gradual transformation. His faith and intelligence enabled him also to take all success and failure, happiness and misery, with equanimity, as lessons for shaping his life. This attitude of ‘at-one-ment’ with the master had gradually to become his natural mood, for without that he could not eschew all egoistic impulseswhich is really the ultimate implication of ‘giving the power of attorney’. 3. There was the unique personality of Sri Ramakrishna, whose presence had the potency to elicit the best that was in each aspirant. So Girish got also the active, though unnoticed, help of the Master. All these brought about his gradual spiritual transformation.

If all these conditions are at least partially fulfilled, then one can speak of ‘giving the power of attorney’. Such unwavering faith and sincerity as were found in Girish are however very rare. Where they are not present, it is better that one makes conscious personal efforts, with the conviction that limited power and intelligence are given to one by God for exercising the same, and that such selfexertion, under the sanction of His will, is the path of spiritual progress for man. The test of one having really given the ‘power of attorney’ is that one’s mind will be at peace afterwards. Success and failure, happiness and misery will not agitate or depress one who has done so in all faith and sincerity. If these are not observed to be present, then one must conclude there has been no real resignation.

As for Girish, Sri Ramakrishna the world-teacher was present in flesh and blood before him to take charge of his responsibility. Others have not however got this good fortune. But it is the conviction of the dovotees of Sri Ramakrishna that he, the great Master, is always with those who pray to him in truth and in spirit. If one could, like Girish, throw all one’s burdens on the Master with absolute and unwavering faith, the Master will certainly come to that aspirant’s help. Selections from Spiritual Quest: Questions & Answers by Swami Tapasyananda

Reminiscences of Sargachhi

(Continued from page 18...)

abominable rites became rampant and the entire country was stricken by tantric adultery. Then there appeared Kumarila Bhatta with his Vedic ritualism and Shankara with his Advaitism to protect Hinduism. But neither of them preached religion to the common people – their religion was only for the intelligentsia.

After this, Ramanuja and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, just by the power of the Lord’s name, flooded the entire country with a torrent of devotion. Just as the Muslims were required only to acknowledge Allah, Chaitanya preached that just by uttering the name of Hari, one will become a Vaishnava, a Hindu. This saved Hinduism. He intoxicated the whole country with love and devotional singing. Many erstwhile Buddhists became yogis and vairagis by accepting parts of Hinduism and Vaishnavism. Some became Tantrics and upheld parts of Vedic ritualism.

Anyway, because of the mass revolution brought in by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Vaishnavas became modest and virtuous in conduct. During those days of Muslim rule, the Hindus would have faced great problems if they had not cultivated humility and avoided open conflict with the rulers. (To be continued. . .)

If Swami Vivekananda Were Here Today

WILLIAM PAGE

What would Swami Vivekananda say if he were here among us and could observe the brave new world we’ve created since he passed away in 1902?

This is a presumptuous and highly speculative question. It presumes that we know Swamiji so well that we can predict what he would think about any given subject. And since we don’t know him that well, it’s impossible to do that. But if we’ve studied his life and teachings and observed his thought patterns, it’s possible to hazard a few guesses. I’m going to hazard a few guesses—and they might all be dead wrong.

Those who have read about Swamiji’s life will know that, when he arrived in the United States in 1893, he was greatly impressed by its high level of technology, its efficiency, its dynamism. Later he became more aware of the evils that lurked beneath the surface. He criticised the crass and shallow materialism that pervaded American life.

Both trends have escalated since 1893. American technology is now even more advanced—and so is its shallow materialism. Worse, America has exported both, so that now both its technology and its materialism are found almost everywhere.

In Swamiji’s day, most long-distance travel was by train and steamship. Now we have automobiles (even self-driving ones!), international jetliners, and rockets. Journeys that took weeks and even months in the past by land and by sea now take only one or two days by air. We’ve been to the moon. We’ve sent probes to Mars. We have technological marvels that Swamiji could not have dreamed of. We have the computer! The iPad! The smartphone! The Internet! Facebook! Selfies! Twitter! And an app for every purpose.

I think that, in general, Swamiji would applaud all these material advances. They make our lives easier and more comfortable, and thus give us more free time to devote to religious practices and service to humanity.

But they all have a dark side. With the computer come viruses. With the Internet come Internet addiction, cyberbullying, and a thousand online scams. With Facebook comes a quantum leap in narcissism, facilitated by selfies. I’ve heard that some people take photos of what they had for lunch that day, and post them on Facebook. Imagine that! The entire world is dying to see what you had for lunch today! It’s well known that the greatest obstacle to spiritual growth is the ego. Facebook, together with selfies, represents the greatest victory of the ego since the invention of the mirror.

So I think that Swami Vivekananda would applaud our advances in technology, but would laugh at some of the uses we put them to. And it’s for sure that he would wonder what we’re doing with all the free time these modern marvels have given us. Do we indeed devote more time to our religious practices and serving humanity? Not so you’d notice it. Instead we waste it watching television, surfing

the Internet, texting our friends about trivia, and posting selfies on Facebook.

When it comes to religion, I’m afraid that Swamiji would be dismayed by the current situation. The Pew Research Center has found that in the rich and developed countries, religious commitment, as measured by church attendance, is in decline. It still flourishes in the poor and undeveloped countries. Worldwide, uneducated people tend to embrace religion; educated people turn away from it. This generalisation suggests that, in our brave new world, piety correlates with poverty and unbelief correlates with affluence. But this is nothing new. Ages ago, Jesus Christ declared, ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ (Luke 18:25)

Given this situation, what are religious aspirants to do? The contemporary world calls us old-fashioned and obsolete; the jet-setters laugh at us. The onrushing avalanche of materialism—of cynicism, superficiality, and greed—is flattening everything in its path. Religious aspirants have no choice but to do what we’ve always done: be strong, stay true, and stand fast. But get out of the path of the avalanche and let it sweep past. Sri Ramakrishna remarked that the world is like the curled tail of a dog—you can’t change it. Try to straighten the tail, and as soon as you let go, it will snap back into its original shape.

We may not be able to change the world, but we can change ourselves; and changing ourselves is what religion is all about. If we are true aspirants, we have no choice but to stick to our guns no matter what follies may engulf the world. That means remaining true to the essentials of religious practice—prayer, japa, meditation, scriptural study, singing of bhajans, keeping holy company if we can find any—and

trying to serve the Shiva in every jiva as best we can.

There remains the question of what Swami Vivekananda would think of present-day India and its people. I’m not an Indian, and I don’t know India or its people well enough to say. Swamiji declared religion to be the very backbone of India, and his great fear was that Indians would forsake religion for politics. But aside from an aggressive nationalism, the real competitor with religion in India today is not politics. It is the lure of technology, and the secular mindset that goes with it. In ages past, Indian boys wanted to be sadhus. Now they all want to be computer geniuses and start up their own companies.

If Swami Vivekananda were to address the Indian nation today, he might say something like this:

‘Children of India, ‘You are heirs to a great religious tradition. In your veins flows the blood of the Vedic rishis, the sages of the Upanishads: Satyakama and Shvetaketu, Narada and Nachiketa, Gargi, Maitreyi, and Yajnavalkya. You are heirs to the Buddha, Mahavira, Patanjali, and the great acharyas, Shankara, Ramanuja, and Madhva. Yours too is the legacy of later saints: Jnaneswar, Tukaram, Kabir, the Alvars, Chaitanya, Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharshi, and legions of others whose names are unknown.

‘Be worthy of them! Do not exchange the diamonds they have given you for cheap beads of glass! Do not do, say, or even think anything that would make them ashamed of you. Having inherited such a noble tradition, be noble yourselves. Always act in such a way that Mother India will smile with pride and proclaim to all the world: “These are my children!”’

Educational, Medical and Other Services for the Poor and Afflicted Through Ramakrishna Math, Ramanathapuram

Scholarship for the 80 poor students

Free medical camp

Free Coaching class for 75 students

On returning to India in January 1897 after his triumphant visit to the West where he propagated the ancient religion of our country, Swami Vivekananda had stayed in Maharaja Bhaskara Sethupathy’s Palace Guest House for 3 days from 29 th to 31 st January, 1897 and delivered speeches that awakened our nation. A Math centre was started at this spot sanctified by Swamiji’s stay and affiliated to the Ramakrishna Order on 26-6-2016. Those who live at Nagachi, Mandapam, Pamban & Rameswaram are mainly poor fishermen & women whose children, unable to afford higher studies, go for daily labour or fishing. The Math is conducting a number of service activities for these poor people.

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Activity Education: Educating 80 poor students in Nursing, Polytechnic, and Arts & Science Mobile Medical Service: Conducting medical camps Free Coaching Classes: Coaching for 75 poor school children besides giving them food, uniform, notebooks, etc. Tailoring Course: 3-month classes for poor women & gifting them One Tailoring Machine to earn their livelihood. Free School Uniform: For 500 poor students Construction: Monks’ Quarters & Community Hall

Expenditure Rs. 30,000/ per student for one year. Total cost = Rs. 24 lakhs Rs. 6 lakhs per year

Rs. 4 lakhs per year.

Rs. 6 lakhs per year

Rs. 3 lakhs per year Rs. 2.15 crores

You can also create an Endowment for Rs. 10000/- and above for the above activities. We request you all to give a helping hand to these poor children of God, through your small or big contributions and be the recipients of the Lord’s blessings. All donations are exempted from 80 G under Income tax act, 1961. The Cheques/ Drafts/ M. O. should be sent in the name of “Ramakrishna Math, Ramanathapuram”. Or it may transferred through RTGS to the following account:

Account name: Ramakrishna Math Branch: Ramanathapuram IFS Code: IDIB000R051

Bank: Indian Bank A/c No.: 6426034057

Please inform us with your address and PAN number after transferring the amount through RTGS. Yours in the service of the Lord, Swami Sutapananda

Adhyaksha

Seeing God Everywhere

N GOKULMUTHU

There is a nice story in the book ‘Hindu Symbology and Other Essays’ by Swami Swahananda of the Ramakrishna Order. A devotee of the Divine Mother lived in Ramanathapuram in Tamilnadu in South India. His name was Veerai Kavi Rajendra. Once he decided to go alone on a pilgrimage to Kashi. His daughter was keen to accompany him. But as the journey was long and difficult, Rajendra and his wife persuaded the girl to stay back at home. Bidding adieu to family and friends Rajendra started walking towards Kashi. When he had gone a mile, he saw his daughter running towards him. She told him that on her strong insistence, her mother had finally allowed her to go with her father. Then, Rajendra too agreed to take her along with him.

The father and daughter visited several places of pilgrimage on the way to Kashi. The daughter served her father in various ways like washing clothes, cooking food, fetching water, and preparing the bed. After visiting various pilgrim centres in and around Kashi, they started walking back to their village. Almost one year from the day they had left the town, the father-daughter duo arrived at the outskirts of their town. The girl told her father that she would run ahead and give the family the happy news of their safe return. The father agreed. The girl ran ahead.

When Veerai Kavi Rajendra reached the village, his family and friends received him with great warmth and joy. Rajendra enquired about every one of his family and friends. He naturally did not ask about his daughter for she had been with him all along. In the evening his wife rebuked him, ‘Have you forgotten that we have a daughter? Having enquired about or talked to everyone you knew, you never even asked about our daughter from whom you were away for so long. The poor girl is feeling left out and is weeping.’ A surprised Rajendra protested that she was with him all the year. This was a shock to the family for the daughter had been at home throughout the year. Veerai Kavi Rajendra was moved to tears when he realised that it was the Divine Mother who had accompanied and served him for a whole year in the form of his daughter.

There are numerous such incidents recorded in the lives of various saints and devotees. We can never ignore the possibility that the stranger travelling with us in a bus, or our mother who has come to serve tea, or the servant maid who has come to work in our house today, or the person making the unsolicited marketing call to our phone, or whoever, is actually God who is playing with us in the form of the actual person. We cannot ignore or despise any person with whom we interact in our day-to-day life. We need to treat eve r yo n e w i t h d i g n i t y a n d b e h ave appropriately.

This does not mean that we should pamper everyone. As Sri Ramakrishna says, ‘Tiger is also God. But that does not mean you should go and hug it.’ Give everyone and everything its due respect. Holy Mother says,

‘Even a broom cannot be thrown away carelessly. It has its role in the household. We have used it and we will need it later. It should be given its due respect.’

Going one step further, it is really God who has become everything and everyone. Even the ‘actual’ person with whom we interact, is in reality, God. It is God who appears to our mind andsense organs as the world. There are two ways in which this happens. If we ask a biologist what all living and dead things are made of, he will reply ‘cells’. If we ask a chemist what the world of living and non-living things are made of, he will say ‘atoms and molecules’. If we ask a physicist what the world is made of, he will say ‘quarks and leptons’ or something like that. Science is searching for that ultimate ‘one thing’ out of which everything in the world is made of. Advaita Vedanta says that ‘one thing’ is God, defined as Existence, Consciousness, Bliss. Thus God is the material cause of the world, as gold is the material cause of different ornaments. Also, God is the goldsmith, who is the conscious intelligence behind the world. Thus, we can safely say, ‘God came to my house this morning in the form of my servant maid and cleaned the floor.’ We can say, ‘I drank God in the form of water.’ We can say, ‘I slipped on God in the form of a banana peel and fell down!’

The world is God. God is not limited by the world. God appears as the world. He is infinitely more than the world. God is the only thing that exists, devoid of any features, changeless, eternal, homogeneous, partless, consciousand infinite. The world appears on God, i.e., with God as the substratum, even as a snake appears on a rope in the dark. The apparent snake does not affect the rope, though there would be no appearance of the snake without the rope. As God is both the material and conscious cause, the appearance of world in God has much more role of God than in the case of the rope, where the conscious seer is different.

The first name of the Lord in the Vishnu Sahasranaama is ‘Vishwa’ or world. The first mantra of the Isha Upanisad starts with ईशा वास्यमिदं सर्वं ‘God resides in everything in the world.’ The second sutra of the Brahma Sutra says जन्मा दि अस्य यतः ‘From, in and into (also by) whom the world has its origin, existence and dissolution.’ The Bhagavad Gita has innumerable verses where the world is given as an appearance of God. Almost the entire chapters 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 are dedicated to this idea. Several verses in other chapters also convey this idea.

Thus, to the question, ‘Does God exist?’, the scriptures reply, ‘God alone exists.’ To the question, ‘Can I see God?, the reply is, ‘Everything that you see is God only. It is only understanding and recognition that you need.’

Then what about the prophets, saints, incarnations, etc.? Though it is God who appears as everything, the manifestation is different in different objects and people. A saint manifests the divinity within him more than others. Knowing the real nature of God, the saint manifests the divinity by emotional nondependenceon any particular person, object or situation. Peacefulness, righteousness, compassion, humility, selflessness, gratefulness, etc., become his natural traits. All differences are only in the manifestation of the inherent divinity.

Conventional concepts of God as compassionate, omnipotent, etc., help a devotee to start on the spiritual path by forming a personal relationship with God with a ‘personality’. As the devotee develops, his concept of God will evolve to a more impersonal one. Swami Vivekananda says, ‘It is good to be born in a church, but it is the worst possible fate to die in a church. It is good to be born in a sect, and the worst possible thing to die in a sect with sectarian ideas.’ Finally everyone has to come to the idea, ‘God alone exists. Everything is a transient appearance of God in that form.’