Kabir - दुःख में सुमिरन सब करे

Kabir, a 15th century mystic poet and saint in India wrote the following lines: 

दुःख में सुमिरन सब करे

सुख में करै न कोय

जो सुख में सुमिरन करे

तो दुख काहे को होय

In sorrow everyone prays to Him (reference to God), but in happiness, no one does. If you pray in happiness, then how can there be sorrow. 

There are two aspects to this. One I fully agree with, and another I completely disagree with. 

1. Expand it beyond remembering Him. Take care of you health when you are healthy. Take care of your wealth when you have it. So, this is truly sage advice.
2. The other side, however, is more philosophical. A different name for religion is "hope." When all else fails, you pray to God - your last hope. As they say - "God helps them who help themselves." So, instead of asking God for help all the time, one must try to help themselves - and reserve praying only for when all other means have been exhausted.

What calls itself magic isn't. And what does not call itself so actually relies on magic.

During a recent stay at an AirBnB, I was in a house with an extensive collection of books - including this one that caught my eye.  I was so fascinated that I ordered the book from Amazon within minutes. This book isn't about magic as you normally think of it. But it is about magic, the magic called religion. It is about Paganism, about wizards and about witches. This book was my first insight into Paganism. And, my attraction was due to the fact that the book could very well be describing Hinduism. The sections are: 1) The arts of the ritual, 2) By the light of the Sun, Moon and Stars, 3) The Symbolic Tools, 4) Marking the Cycle of the year, and 5) Developing super senses.

Given that Hinduism and Paganism as so close to each other, that it would not be inappropriate to classify the two together.

Like Hinduism, there is emphasis on rituals, and on nature around us - positions of stars, planets and moon, time of the year, "elements" like fire. And on gemstones and chanting. And on meditation.

There are differences too. Most practitioners of Hinduism believe in its magic, yet, will bristle if you use the term magic. Paganism calls itself magic.

Pagan magic is done through rituals. In my brief introduction through this book, I see that most Pagan rituals are mindful activities - each ritual has a specific meaning that the performer needs to pay attention to. On the other side, most Hindu rituals (not all, mind you) that I have had the chance to experience have been done mindlessly - you do what the priest or the text tells you to do without knowing anything about the why of it.

It is time we tried to understand Hindu rituals - by asking questions before doing them. They all have deep meaning - it is just that the meaning is lost. Lost because priests performing them either did not want the masses to know, or they themselves did not know. I suspect it is the first one that led to the second one. That is what makes it magic. And we need to make it practical magic rather than blind one.

Misplaced Fondness for the Ancient

We have always wondered about ourselves. In their attempt to understand the world, our ancestors used to ask the sages, priests and shamans.

In the millenia since life evolved on earth, human beings have discovered a lot. There are still many unanswered questions, but they are much fewer than they used to be. Most of us have accepted the explanations that human endeavors have provided. Yet, there is a group of people that clings to the past, in spite of all the discoveries made.

1. Chanting: Before writing was invented, knowledge was transferred orally. In order to ensure that exact versions were transmitted between people, there used to be chantings. Those pre-writing days are long gone. Yet, people continue chanting. They have forgotten the original purpose - chanting has become a goal in itself.
2. Rich meals after child-birth: When nutritious food was scarce, the best had to be preserved for the mother and the new baby. The net result was that new mothers were fed high-energy foods. Scarcity of food is long gone. Yet, some people insist on feeding the new mothers very rich foods - in the name of tradition. Result - unnecessary health implications.
3. Mercury Chelation vs. antibiotics: Before antibiotics were invented, mercury was used as a poor antibiotic. I have recently run into a movement that says that antibiotics should be eschewed in favor of chelation? Why - because that is what the ancients did.

Why do people do this? Because many of them don't pause to think. And, many are led in this parth. By those sages, priests and shamans who have seen their power shrink due to new discoveries.

Unfortunately, there are still gullible people who fall for this - damaging their own lives and those of their loved ones. The sages, priests and shamans meanwhile laugh all the way to ... wherever they go for their pleasure.

Choosing Happiness

"How we perceive and respond to circumstances matters more than the circumstances themselves."

This is one of the guiding philosophies of the positive psychology movement - a movement which says that traditional psychology has focused on mental problems. This movement attempts to raise the happiness level for everyone, not just those with problems.

Since we can choose how to respond to any circumstance, we can control our happiness. And, since we can learn to respond better, we can learn to be happier.

This circumstance vs, choice of reaction to these circumstances is a recurring theme at many places. Stephen Covey also uses this to base his theories on.

The same theory is also a big part of Jain Philosophy - could be others too. Jainism says two things on this:

1. Circumstances are determined by your past Karma,
   
2. Your reaction to these circumstances accumulates additional karma.

This brings up interesting situations on how you react - you have many options including the following four. You can choose a reaction that leads you to be:

1. Happy at present and in the future.
2. Happy at present, but unhappy in the future.
3. Unhappy at present, but happy in the future.
4. Unhappy at present and in the future.

Presumably, if option 1 is available, everyone will choose that. However, if option 1 is not available, which one do you choose - 2 or 3. Interesting dilemma.

Recognizing leaders from other countries

Long time ago, during a visit to Mexico City, I was pleasantly surprised to see a street called Mahatma Gandhi Road in Chapultepec Park. I wondered if India too had recognized some foreign leaders in the same way. Given the history of involvement with peaceful affairs world-wide, I knew that India must have done it, but just could not recall any instance.

The question got answered last week. As we drove from the airport in Delhi to the hotel, I passed through Mustafa Kemal Attaturk Marg. Mustafa Attaturk is widely considered to be the father of modern Turkey.

Have Priests Gurus And Swamis Hijacked The Bhakti Movement?

People go to the temple for "darshan." They have statues and pictures of Gods in your home, so that they can pay their respect to God every day. People name their children in the names of Gods, so that in calling our their children's names, they are also speaking out God's name.

The same people also participate in havans, keertans and the so called satsang. And people have priests come over and perform ceremonies of which they know nothing about - either before or after the ceremony. Much of this is driven by priests, gurus and swamis (PGS).

Why?

Because Indian culture is big on Bhakti Yoga.

But, is this what Bhakti was intended to be? According to Wikipedia, "it was initially considered unorthodox, as it rebelled against caste distinctions and disregarded Brahmanic rituals, which according to Bhakti saints were not necessary for salvation. " Those Brahminic rituals have now been replaced by rituals prescribed by these PGS.

So these PGS have merely taken the place of Brahmins. Like Brahmins, they have become the intermediaries between lay people and God; this intermediary role is exactly what the Bhakti movement sought to eliminate. People blindly do what the PGS tell them to do. In fact, not only have the PGS replaced Brahmins, in many instances they have replaced Gods themselves. So, for many people, the GPS's word is God's word; there are statues of PGS in their homes. And, temples have been dedicated to PGS.

Maybe we need another movement - of how to reconnect to God without intermediaries. But people have to use religion in better ways. Just sitting and praying, and hoping that the world, society and human beings will improve is going to merely replace these PGS with someone else.

Family Values, Spirituality and Rituals

Of family values, spirituality and rituals, what is most important in the upbringing of children? If you answered "all three," you would be right - at least in my book. Of course, others have their own views.

(Why call them family values, why not humanistic values - yes, indeed they are humanistic values, but they are more often than not imparted in the family, and may relate to individuals as well as society.)

We need a balance between these three - and that balance is something very difficult to achieve.

This difficulty leads to "outsourcing" or "delegation." People don't want to teach their children family values themselves, so they take shelter in the so-called spirituality - "go learn what is spiritual and you will be fine." Even that is difficult for some people - they say - "go do the rituals, and you will be fine." Unfortunately, religion in India is full of these rituals, with no thought to spirituality and values, rendering these rituals totally meaningless. And there are enough people in India who peddle these rituals, creating cults around themselves. These cult-masters build a culture of obsequiousness where everything is outsourced to the master. People do what the master tells them, without regard to spirituality or family values or even thinking for themselves. The net is that there is much harm to the society.

Religion being the opium of the masses, it is the educated people who need to lead the way by showing balance. If they too fall into this easy path of - don't need to teach family values or spirituality, because rituals are everything, then you have to worry about the society.

Not every ritualist is non-spritual and not every spiritual person lacks family values. Clearly, there are balanced people in the world. And, we need more of them, not people who emphasize rituals over everything else.