I met this gentleman who was a peddler of Hinduism. He preferred ‘student of religion and spirituality’. He frequented a particular Ashram and a saint in that abode; and was flush with the benefits of spiritual education and Hinduism. I was totally uninvolved in the discussion until he threw a question at me. (Maybe just to prove his intellect … since I have a history of looking lost)
‘Vivek, what do you think of religious education in India.?’
Me? ‘I think it’s a total waste of public time. People reach a certain age in life when they have nothing worthwhile to do, they immediately seek a holy person and a holy abode, make frequent trips, come back home, hang a huge picture of religious person X and have an amazingly smug look on their face, of a person who has all the answers.’
GP was aghast: “What do you mean by people at a certain age… look at all the young people who frequent the ashrams?”
Me ‘Maybe some people reach that ‘having nothing worthwhile to do in life stage’ a little too early.’
GP still trying to get a foothold of the discussion throws it back at me. ‘Why do you think it is a waste?’
Okay, before I start tell me something about yourself.’
“Well … I’m 68 years old, have 3 children, am retired, live in Bhubaneshwar.”
‘Tell me GP’ji what is your aim in life.’
“My aim? Well I have many aims ... my aim is to be a good father, a good grandfather, a good citizen, many aims. Also to be a good student of spirituality. ‘Guru is God’, my son.”
‘Why is being a good father your aim? Have you not been a good father, until now?’
“Oh no. I’ve always been a good father, but you see that’s a process.”
‘Let’s say for sake of argument .. you have three children .. and they’re standing at the railway track and a train runs over them, and they’re all dead. What’s your reaction going to be?’
“What kind of a question is this? How can you even ask something like this? Don’t you know what the reaction of any father would be?”
‘No … I have no kids, so I have no idea.’
“So that you know, any father would be devastated. The way the world works it is the old that die first and then the young. It is indeed an extremely unfortunate father who would have to see his children dead in front of him. This is a foolish discussion. You have no idea of what you’re talking about.”
Me : ‘Well, sorry for being so rude … but it’s nice to get a strong reaction.
Let me tell you a story now, a tale from Indian mythology.
Dronacharya was the teacher of the Pandavas and Kauravas. One day, Dronacharya called all the young Kauravas and Pandavas and led them to an open field. In the middle of that field was a tree. On the tree, was a parrot sitting.
The exercise was to shoot an arrow into the eye of the bird.
He called the first student and asked him “What do you see?”
The student replied,’ I see the hills, the river, the field, the tree and the bird.’
He shoots the arrow and it misses.
Dronacharya calls the second student and asks him, “What do you see?”
The second student has a similar answer and a similar result.
This happens with all the students and finally there’s only one of them left. Arjuna is the last person to make an attempt. The bird is still in the tree, oblivious of everything around. Dronacharya asks Arjuna the same question.
His answer: ‘I see only the eye of the bird.’
Dronacharya is pleased with the answer and Arjuna goes forth and gets the bird in the eye.
The moral of this story is that if you’re aiming for the eye of the bird that’s all you should see.
When I ask you a 68 year old man, a retired man, on what his aim is, he has many.
To be a good parent? Is that a worthwhile aim at 68? Your children are 33, 28 and 26 years of age respectively. If you die today, will they be marooned, will they have no bearings on how to live their lives or earn a livelihood? No, they’re perfectly capable of that. So does there exist the role of a father here?
Every relationship has a shelf life. The shelf life of a fetus inside a womb is around 9 months. The mother cannot say let me keep this inside for a few more months .. her body cannot carry such a grown up baby, the baby will not survive for a longer time than the stipulated 40 odd weeks on her internal body fluids. Similarly you cannot go and sit in office when you are 68. You are done, you are retired. This gives a chance for younger people to work in the organization and that’s how life should be. Similarly as a parent your aim is to make your children self reliant, and capable of standing on their own feet. You have done this job. So you’ve fulfilled your role as a good parent. No point hanging on to it. A dead body should be cremated, else it spreads germs and bacteria. The parent child relationship has run its course. Time for you to move ahead. If you are a 68 old person and have fulfilled all your responsibilities in life, you have only one responsibility left and that it towards yourself. Your aim in life at this stage is to attain enlightenment and become one with God. That is the aim of every Hindu.
There are 4 stages in the life of a Hindu, the 3rd is Vanaprasathanam. When the householder renounces what he has and embraces a life of spirituality. It’s difficult in the current situation .. but your mind needs to understand and be conditioned to the fact that that should be your aim.
So you mentioned the wrong answer when I asked you the question. Your aim in life is to be one with God. That is the eye of the bird.
Why should you be devastated when your children die?
If you read the Bhagvat Gita, it clearly says that you are not the body, you are neither father, brother nor son. You are a soul, seeking salvation. When you are not the body and not a father, why should you grieve over the death of another non-body that you yourself know cannot perish?
I’m sure you must have read the Gita numerous times and know exactly what I’m talking about. But why is it that it fails to register when you are in a situation?
Let me enlighten you on this as well.
I had a friend. He was a very big devotee of the Swimming Bhagwan. Every morning he woke up, took a bath, lit a lamp and performed puja of the Swimming Bhagwan idol, in his home. He read swimming mantras for half an hour every morning. His house was filled with hundreds of religious books on swimming. Every evening he used to visit the Ashram of the Swimming Swamiji and listen to the Swimming pravachan. He came back home in the evening, read one of the many holy books on swimming , mediated and went to sleep. He did this for 25 years.
And one day he decided to jump into the swimming pool. He drowned.
People were astonished. How could a person who had such great devotion in swimming, a person who read all the books in swimming, who had an excellent swimming swamiji as his guru, drown?
After a lot of research they realized that he had drowned because he had never practiced swimming. So to learn swimming, you need to practice swimming.
The person who wins an Olympic goal in swimming is not the person who has read the most books in swimming or prayed the most to the Swimming Bhagvan. He’s the one who has practiced the most. (assuming he has the skills)
Similarly for Hinduism. Anyone who has achieved literacy and has a good memory can quote from the religious texts. But it is only a learned person who can apply these texts. A good doctor practices medicine, does not get into hypothetical arguments on medical cures.
So by reading all the Upanishads, the holy scriptures, a person may know enough of religion to impress his ignorant family and friends. But has he practiced enough of it to be one with god? No.
It’s one thing to know the alphabet and another to use it to construct a sentence, so that you can convey a thought and use its energy. Right now you have all the alphabets but are not using them for what they are meant to be used for.
Why do people fail to learn in spite of having such learned Gurus?
Say I’m a teacher in English literature. I give a two hour lecture on Shakespeare and then ask the students “What are your thoughts on Shakespeare?”. They all come right to the podium and fall at my feet and look very happy. But no answer.
I’m surprised and ask them again. My question was, “What are your thoughts on Shakespeare?”.
They all come again to the podium and place an offering in cash and kind at my feet.
At this point I’m a little livid, and again ask them the same question.
They all come to the podium, hug me and seek my divine blessings.
The question still remains unanswered.
The problem is that people are not interested in an education here. Let’s start with basic concepts. ‘What’s a teacher?’ A teacher is a person who imparts an education. A student is a person who imbibes an education. In the absence of any transmission of knowledge, there can’t be any student teacher relationship. This is exactly the problem with religious/spiritual education in this country. There are great Gurus available, but people insult them by looking towards them as breathing gods. It’s like a talking temple; Tirupathi, where the God speaks back to you.
Enlightenment is neither contagious nor hereditary, it needs to be imbibed.
If I am a student of physics and am asked questions on physics and have no answers, it reflects badly on me and my teacher. Similarly if you claim to be a student of Hinduism or spirituality, you should know and practice enough or you’re disrespecting, discrediting your teacher who is putting in such a huge effort to show you the real path.
This is the main reason why religious education fails in
How did Valmiki become a saint?
The story is that Valmiki was a thief and when the saints asked him whether his family would partake in sharing the sins of his crime, he was confident that they would. When he realized that that wasn’t the case and his family had washed their hands off his sins, he took to the holy path.
Currently in
Valimiki’s children pointed him to the right path, today’s children do not. They accept their parents for all their shortfalls.
God is everywhere.
What does that mean?
There’s god in this wall, in this sofa in this wooden stool, in the door. But you do not see god, say in the door. So a poor wood carver cuts a piece from your door and carves a status of Lord Krishna. And then you see the God!! But that God you see is actually just a piece of wood, a piece of a tree or a stone, a piece of rock. But you do not worship every rock or tree that you see. Why is that so? It is your ignorance that stops you from seeing God in every tree and stone .. and only in the ones shaped to look like the God you want to see.
If God is everywhere, why is it that you fail to see the God in me?
Worse .. why is it that you fail to see the God in you?
So finally who is a Hindu? Why do people think they are Hindus?
Because their Daddy is a Hindu, because they have Hindu written on their birth certificate?
Who exactly is a Hindu?
Does any women who wears a mangalsutra become a Hindu?
Or for that matter the crimson powder? Yes? In that case if a Westerner suddenly starts wearing a mangalsutra or the crimson powder does she become a Hindu? Similarly do you stop being a Hindu if you just get rid of those physical objects? Or if you burn/lose your Caste certificate?
Are you a Hindu because you have statues of
So the question remains, ‘Who is a Hindu?’.
A Hindu is a person who has the qualities of a Hindu?
If you read the Gita it clearly says God is within you. It does not say that you should have a Kodak color picture of Sree Krishna and pay obeisance to it. Neither does it say that you should visit Tirupathi, Gurvayur, Kashi else you will not attain enlightenment.
But you do all this that is not mentioned and ignore everything that is actually said. Essentially you throw the essence of religion out of the
A Hindu is someone who believes that the Guest is god.
Who know that Guru is God.
Who does his karma without any expectation.
Who understands that anger, sorrow, excitement, lust, are all base emotions that need to be controlled.
Who also know that God is within him.
So is it not Hinduism to imbibe all of the above? Isn’t a person who practices all the above classified as a Hindu, even though he may not know it?
Essentially a Hindu is a person who has all the inner traits of a Hindu.
Unfortunately in
If there are three people standing in front of you, how can you look at them and decide what religion they practice? You can’t. If you place each of their hands in boiling water, they will all jerk it back, the same response. Physically you can’t make them react otherwise.
Emotionally how do they react to say their offspring dying? If all of them react the same, then are they of the same religion? Or they all have no clear understanding of the religion they follow. If you are a Hindu and understand that there was no son that was dead, since you are not the father, but a soul in search of salvation, you are sufficiently enlightened.
The Earth is a geoid, since it is flat at the top and protrudes from the middle. It’s not round.
But when a 3 year old asks you what the shape of the earth is, you say ‘round’. The reason being, at that level of intellect he may be only able to grasp so much. When he is older he can be explained that the earth is actually a geoid and he will understand it.
Similarly for religion. A ritualistic religion is the lowest form of religion. It is for the impoverished spiritual devotee, at the earliest stage. As a devotee understands spirituality more and more, he starts shedding the physical aspects of it. A really spiritual person is one who shakes of all the material trappings and rituals associated with a religion.
Maybe you know everything that I’ve explained in this conversation, but you still did not convey that, when I asked you a few abrupt questions? Why is that? Give it a thought and ask yourself ‘why is it that even though you know the truth you fail to realize it at the time you need it the most’. Karna was a great warrior, but he was cursed. He was cursed that he would lose all his knowledge at the time he needed it the most. Just like he was cursed, so is every Hindu in this country. They do not have the knowledge when they need it the most. It deserts them. That is why they have the same reaction as their opponent in a fight or a riot.
So what do you believe in? You state that ‘Guru is God’. Do you really believe that?
There was a Guru who recently asked all his disciples gathered at his ashram, ‘Do you believe that Guru is God?’ They all replied, ‘Yes we do’. He then closed the gates of the Ashram and informed them that from now on they would have to stay at the Ashram itself. The devotees were shocked. Some of them wanted to go home to see their children, others their grandchildren, some to pay off their utility bills. No one wanted to stay there. The Guru told the devotees, ‘You have all retired from your work, fulfilled all the responsibilities towards your spouse and children why then do you need to go home?’ But they still wanted to. If they really believed that Guru was god they would have stayed.
Maybe they did actually believe that Guru was God, but there were not really in the quest for God, and their reluctance to stay is testimony to that. Guru may be God, but they were not ready for God, as yet. ‘Guru is God but we want to go home and do fun things like paying the electric bill, doesn’t make sense.’
So if I were in the quest for God, my Guru will help me get there. I will be at his feet and nowhere else. If he tells me that the Ashram does not have the policy of people staying over, I will buy a house close to the Ashram and be close to God. This is .. if I’m actually in the quest for self-realization.
How do you resolve the problem of people not getting sufficient enlightenment? Why is it difficult for people to practice Hinduism in spite of so much literature and excellent people dispensing knowledge?
A person who has spent his entire life using his right hand cannot make a switch to using his left hand on a whim. Using the right hand is a reflex for him and it will take a huge huge effort to make your left hand the hand you use the most. But suppose someone cuts off you right hand, you are now forced to use the left hand. Your left hand will gain expertise and get stronger and more responsive. Similarly for religious education. When you’ve spend your entire life in material pursuits, believing that this is my mother, wife, kids, house, it’s impossible to just wake up one morning and implement a “I am a soul in search of salvation. I am neither father, brother nor son.’
Every Ashram needs to give people a kick start, a shock so that they can leave their historic thinking behind and adopt a new one. There is a logic in Vanaprasthanam, in people leaving their home and seeking a guru. They leave the issues of running a home behind and can concentrate solely on their spiritual education.
Most global schools that impart a good education, insists that the students stay in campus. For religious education too this should be the norm. A person who visits a place stays for a short time and goes back home is a tourist. If ever you go to an Ashram and feel the need to go back, you still have a lot to learn. The Ashram is your home, and until you feel that, you have a long way to go. You have a choice whether to be a religious tourist or a student of religion. Make the right choice.’
GP’ji, ’But if everyone starts joining the Ashram then the Ashrams will be full. I’m sure I can get a good religious education even from home. God is everywhere. ‘
Why are you concerned about every one else? Look for what’s right for you. Very few people will resist habit and join an ashram.
The youth should understand that they have a huge role in the religious education of their parents. When the children are young the parents start their education by taking them to the nursery school. The children wail and cry and resist change. And then they enjoy the change and embrace it. Every Hindu child who has parents who are older than 65 should forcibility enroll them in a resident ashram for their own good., the parents may cry and look for excuses like ‘I’ll go as soon as you get married, or get a kid, or after the next World Cup’ .. but their growth lies in the Ashram. Please deposit them there. Once they stay there for a few years maybe they will come back home and have the knowledge that will benefit the whole family. Else they may really get enlightened stay there and dissimilate knowledge to the masses and benefit society as a whole instead of just their family.’
GP’ji did not have much to say now. Hopefully he is now a more serious student of spirituality.
