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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

God's grace, Enlightenment and Guru


             

While I too believe that most part of philosophy and literature of Sanathan Dharma suffered from uncritical love as well as unloving criticism, the two extremes.

            I welcome such comments like the one you have written to me but unlike the article you wrote to Hindu this one makes my adrenal work more than my brain. I would like to point out certain things based on the observations made by you. Of lately it has become  a fashion  and favorite past time to cry foul and/resort to  arm chair criticism about everyone who has /is doing or attempting to do  something really positive for spreading some aspects of a very vast area of philosophy called Sanathan Dharma.

           

             1] There is no hard and fast rule as far as getting God's grace or enlightenment is concerned. There are hundreds of examples in Hindu literature. There was visionary, a drunken, unschooled  truck driver who had visions of spiritual philosophy of Sanathan Dharma several  years back and who went on to teach oriental philosophy .He wrote, rather dictated, his visions to his girl friend when he was suffering from cancer which was later on published as a book  titled "Secret Splendor" by Charles-Earnest-Essert available at  the Theosophical society LIBRARY wherein he writes clearly based on his visions that to get god's grace you need not necessarily be a saint, a moral person, great intellect or even a sane person as we understand sanity. Besides all these concepts of religion, rituals, sadhanas are necessary for ordinary mortals, not for enlightened souls .You can read the reviews of this book in the following link including mine http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Splendor-Charles-Earnest-Essert/dp/1889051136

            In fact on the contrary only when we go beyond the shackles of all these conditioning and presumptions we would be free to receive and perceive enlightenment. I would like you to read books on ILLUMINATI and books by many scholars like Rohit Metha's biography of J.Krsihnamurthy and his works on kundalini, Gopi krishna's vast research on kunadalini, Woodrof's works on serpent power  etc all these people have  done extensive research on the neuro-physical aspects of Kundalini as well as Tirumular's Tirumandiram and Pathanjali's yoga suthras [incidentally I was lucky enough to read all these ,of course the translations of the last two] . When you read them you would know, that those aspects of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa's life which you seem to derogatorily comment on, are either the result of or they were the cause of enlightenment beyond normal, fallible human intellectual perception with all its conditioning to which we are all accustomed to and probably the only perception we know of or capable of knowing.
           
            All those works talk about the stimulation and /or impact of and on the psychedelic acids in the brain as a cause or effect of kundalini power. This is the biochemical and physiological manifestation of kundalini . That’s why if you read Illuminati you would come across the experiments done with drugs to induce that [please note I am neither advocating nor admonishing that method] .Many western scholars including Arthur Koestler, Julian Huxley have also done such experiments. Intense meditation creates a similar effect; you can know more about this if you read the wonderful book s of Angarika Govinda on Meditation. As for as the fallibility of our normal perception I would like you to refer to this entry in my blog http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2010/02/real-perception.html

        2] Regarding Aryan invasion theory please read pages 71 and 72 of my book SWAMI VIVEKANANDA MY OBSERVATIONS
http://www.scribd.com/doc/81460772/Swami-Vivekananda-The-Great-Saint wherein I have given passages of Swami Vivekannada’s speeches on this topic

               The hoax called "Aryan Invasion Theory
                “A gentle, yet clear brushing off of the cobwebs of the so-called Aryan theory and all its vicious corollaries is... absolutely necessary, especially for the South [of India]; and a proper self-respect created by a knowledge of the past grandeurs of the ancestors of the Aryan race – the great Tamils”. (CW, Vol.4: Aryans and Tamilians, p.301.)
                “[There has been] speculation whether there was a distinct, separate race called the Aryas living in Central Asia to the Baltic. [Also as to] so-called types - the "blonde" and the "brunette". [But] the races were always mixed. Coming to practical common sense from so-called historical imagination: the Aryas in their oldest records were in the land between Turkistan and the Punjab and Northwest Tibet.” (CW, Vol.4: India's Message to the World #13-18, p.309.)
                “The Americans, the English, the Dutch and the Portuguese got hold of the poor Africans and made them work hard while they lived; and their children of mixed birth were born in slavery and kept in that condition for a long period. From that wonderful example, the mind jumps back several thousand years and fancies that the same thing happened [in India]; and our archeologist dreams of India being full of dark-eyed aborigines, and the bright Aryan came from - the Lord knows where. According to some, they came from Central Asia. There are patriotic Englishmen who think that the Aryans were all red-haired. Others, according to their idea, think that they were all black-haired. If the writer happens to be a black-haired man, the Aryans were all black-haired! Of late, there was an attempt made to prove that the Aryans lived on the Swiss lakes. I should not be sorry of they had all been drowned there, theory and all. Some say now that they lived at the North Pole. Lord bless the Aryans and their habitations! As for the truth of these theories, there is not one word in our scriptures, not one, to prove that the Aryan ever came from anywhere outside of India - and in ancient India was included Afghanistan. There it ends. And the theory that the shudra castes were all non-Aryans and that they were a multitude, is equally illogical and equally irrational. It could not have been possible in those days that a few Aryans settled and lived there with a hundred thousand slaves at their command. These slaves would have eaten them up, made "chutney" of them in five minutes. The only explanation is to be found in the Mahabharata, which says that in the beginning of the Satya Yuga there was one caste, the brahmins; and then, by difference of occupation, they went on dividing themselves into different castes, and that is the only true and rational explanation that has been given. And in the coming Satya Yuga all the other castes will have to go back to the same condition.”(CW, Vol.3: The Future of India, pp.292-293)

                   The hoax called "Aryan Invasion Theory

                “What your European pundits say about the Aryans' swooping down from some foreign land, snatching away the lands of the aborigines and settling in India by exterminating them, is all pure nonsense, foolish talk! Strange that our Indian scholars, too, say amen to them; and all these monstrous lies are being taught to our boys! This is very bad indeed. I am an ignoramus myself; I do not pretend to any scholarship; but with the little that I understand, I strongly protested against these ideas at the Paris Congress [in 1901]. I have been talking with the Indian and European savants on the subject, and hope to raise many objection to this theory in detail, when time permits. And this I say to you, to our pundits, also: "You are learned men; hunt up your old books and scriptures, please, and draw your own conclusions." Whenever Europeans find an opportunity, they exterminate the aborigines and settle down in ease and comfort on their lands; and therefore they think the Aryans must have done the same! The Westerners would be considered wretched vagabonds if they lived in their native homes, depending wholly on their own internal resources; and so they have to run wildly about the world seeking how they can feed upon the fat of the land of others by spoliation and slaughter; and therefore they conclude that the Aryans must have done the same! But where is your proof? Guess-work? Then keep your fanciful guesses to yourselves! In what Veda, in what Sukta, do you find that the Aryans came into India from a foreign country? Where do you get the idea that they slaughtered the wild aborigines? What do you gain by talking such nonsense?... India has never [exterminated weaker races and settled on their lands for ever]. The Aryans were kind and generous; and in their hearts, which were Large and unbounded as the ocean, and in their brains, gifted with superhuman genius, all these ephemeral and apparently pleasant, but virtually beastly practices never found a place.”( CW, Vol.5: The East and the West, pp.534-537)".


            3] Who are we to decide what is a normal brain and who or how should be a GURU.


            4] Finally I would like you to know how and who was Vyasa? How and who was VALMIKI? Were they normal? How was even Sri Ramana Maharishi? Only people who do not care for so called labels of normal behavior can even in ordinary matters create an impact.
             

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