NEETMEDICALGK

By Anjali Kalia

The recently concluded COP26 conference held in Glasgow has highlighted the urgency to address the problem of climate change and rapidly rising global temperatures. The planet is crying for help. Scientists have proposed that we work towards being carbon neutral to balance our carbon emissions; that is absorb the same amount of carbon that we emit, by planting more trees and adopting eco-friendly, sustainable practices – being mindful of our carbon footprint.

Besides population explosion and decades of abject misuse of natural resources, in the last few years we have witnessed an array of natural disasters, from forest fires, volcanic eruptions, storms and earthquakes, to rising sea levels.

What we observe externally is also happening to us internally. The fire of rage, anger, resentment, denial and indolence is pervading through our being and playing havoc with our mental and physical wellbeing.

Doctors and healers are consulted to no avail. They may provide some respite and we feel a little better, only to indulge in the same things that made us unwell in the first place. Much like what is being done to the planet. A lot of talk but no drastic measures on the ground. But now it is time to look within.

Spiritual mentor Meena Om, founder of Pranam, often talks about the need to complete one’s karma cycle to travel light. Recently, while talking to this writer, she spoke about meeting with open arms a person who had a falling out with one of her disciples. Why meet this person who she knew had behaved badly in the past?  She replied nonchalantly, “That’s because I had to close the karma cycle with her.”

Life is also about being karma neutral, not only carbon neutral. We cannot address larger changes around us by remaining heavily laden with karma. Only when we are neutral, net zero, close our karmic cycles promptly, can we be free to evolve. Growth happens through actions performed to reduce karmas; evolve by being free from them.

Meena ji frequently states that only karm, action, can cut karmas, karmic nets. Just go on performing every action without judging, criticising, or berating it. It has been lovingly placed in front of us by Nature to help us mitigate our karmic cobwebs. By questioning the same we add more confusion to it, starting another cycle of action and reaction.

Net zero is a state of being sthitapragya, equanimous, and this happens only when we have cut our karmic bondage.

The reverse is also true. Stay unaffected and release the self from the chains of karma. When we all start being more mindful of the ‘thought, word and deed’ garbage that we collectively spew all over the universe, Nature too will start regaining her equilibrium. It is not possible to save the planet by external cosmetic actions alone. A holistic approach is required that involves all aspects of humanity.

For healthy, spontaneous and effortless living, we need to drop our karmic load as early as possible. Karma attached to parents, gurus and the motherland can only be pacified by seva, true service; love and reverence towards every matter and being, and Creation. May we all act collectively to heal ourselves and our heavenly planet.

Lighting the deepam on Arunachala for freedom:Pranav Khullar:TOI:THESPEAKINGTREELighting The Deepam On Arunachala For Freedom

By: Pranav Khullar

Nov 18, 2021, 13:11 IST

The Puranic tradition has it that while darshan at Chidambaram, being born at Tiruvarur, or dying in Kashi are all considered auspiciously capable of granting liberation, merely thinking of Arunachala at Tiruvannamalai is enough to attain a liberated state of mind. This invocation of Arunachala was often quoted by Ramana Maharshi to convey the mysterious pull of the place, which could turn the mind inwards into an inquiry into its source, the Self. Maharshi was himself magnetically pulled towards Arunachala at the age of sixteen, after a near-death mystical experience, which as he was fond of saying later, made him seek out his real father in Shiv, and his real home at Arunachala.  

The Skanda Purana talks about the mythological symbolism of the Arunachala hill, seeing it as a Taijasa Linga, representing the fire element. Arunachala is seen as that great column of light, fire, that not only ignites the spark of freedom for a seeker but lights up a fire which will eventually burn away all desire and root out the mind-ego.

The mythological story goes that Vishnu and Brahma once quarrelled on the issue of superiority. Shiv appeared to both as a column of light, asking them both to restrain from arguing with each other. Vishnu and Brahma began a new quest to prove each other’s superiority by trying to find the upper and lower ends of this column of fire, by assuming the forms of a boar and a swan. While Brahma tried to conjure up his side of the end of the column, Vishnu conceded defeat in finding the other end. But Vishnu was considered the winner, as Brahma had attempted to bluff Shiv. Vishnu represents the intellect in this story, Brahma the ego, and Shiv the Atman, the Self. Since the column of light was too fiery to look upon, Shiv manifested this column as the hill of Arunachala itself, a linga in itself.

The fire element represents the fire of freedom, which needs to be ignited, the fire of wisdom which alone can take one beyond the false conditioning that one is the body and mind alone. This notion that ‘i am the body and mind’, Maharshi believed, could be erased by an inquiry into the source of that very mind itself. It will reveal the false identification with the body and mind, which inevitably brings sorrow and pain. Yet one is tempted back into this notion time and again, as desires never seem to cease. Ramana stated that this journey from the ego to consciousness needed to be taken immediately, and Arunachala was a place that could trigger this leap of wisdom easily.It is this very love of the manifestation of Shiv as Arunachala that is celebrated on the Kartigai Deepam day, as a huge Deepam, lamp, is lit up on top of the hill to represent that column of light. Deepam is a symbol of that need to ignite that fire for freedom. And Arunachala is the place where the ‘i’ vanishes and the mind goes into a great silence, from which one will finally remerge, having learnt to ride the wild tigers of the mind.  The thought of Arunachala, Maharshi would say, is enough to take the path of self-enquiry.

Karthigai Deepam is on November 19

Be a light to oneself,this light is the law:J Krishnamurti:THE SPEAKING TREE:TOIBe A Light To Oneself; This Light Is The Law

By: J Krishnamurti

Nov 19, 2021, 19:03 IST

A new consciousness and a totally new morality are necessary to bring about a radical change in the present culture and social structure. This is obvious, yet the left and the right and the revolutionary seem to disregard it. Any dogma, any formula, any ideology, is part of the old consciousness; they are the fabrications of thought whose activity is fragmentation the left, the right, the centre. This activity will inevitably lead to bloodshed of the right or of the left or to totalitarianism. This is what is going on around us. One sees the necessity of social, economic and moral change but the response is from the old consciousness thought being the principle actor. The mess, the confusion and the misery that human beings have got into within the area of the old consciousness, and without changing that profoundly, every human activity, political, economic and religious, will only bring us to the destruction of each other and the earth. This is so obvious to the sane.

One has to be a light to oneself; this light is the law. There is no other law. All the other laws are made by thought and so fragmentary and contradictory. To be a light to oneself is not to follow the light of another, however reasonable, logic, historical, and however convincing. You cannot be a light to yourself if you are in the dark shadows of authority, of dogma, of conclusion. Morality is not put

Morality is not put together by thought; it is not the outcome of environmental pressure, it is not of yesterday, of tradition. Morality is the child of love and love is not desire and pleasure. Sexual or sensory enjoyment is not love.

High in the mountains there were hardly any birds, there were some crows, there were deer and an occasional bear. The huge redwoods, the silent ones, were everywhere, dwarfing all the other trees. It was a magnificent country and utterly peaceful, for no hunting was allowed. Sitting under one of those massive redwoods, one was aware of the history of man and the beauty of earth…. Going slowly along the narrow path, round the bend was a bear with four cubs. They rushed off to climb up trees and the mother faced one without a movement, without a sound. About fifty feet separated us; she was enormous, brown, and prepared. One immediately turned one's back on her and left. Each understood that there was no fear and no intention to hurt, but all the same one was glad to be among the protecting trees...

Freedom is to be a light to oneself; then it is not an abstraction. Actual freedom is freedom from dependency, attachment, from 

the craving for experience. Freedom from the very structure of thought is to be a light to oneself. In this light all action takes place and thus it is never contradictory. Contradiction exists only when that law, light, is separate from action, when the actor is separate from action… The ideal, the principle, is the barren movement of thought and cannot co-exist with this light; one denies the other. This light, this law, is separate from you; where the observer is, this light, this love, is not. The structure of the observer is put together by thought, which is never new, never free. There is no "how", no system, no practice. There is only the seeing which is the doing.

You have to see, not through the eyes of another. This light, this law, is neither yours nor that of another. There is only light. This is love.

Abridged from Krishnamurti's Journal, Brockwood Park, 11th Entry, September 24, 1973, courtesy: KFI

There is an internet group called The Fussy Librarian whose members can get to read and keep a weekly selection of ebooks for free.

The list on offer, which changes every week, generally consists of thrillers, mysteries and romantic novels, all by relatively little-known authors, and you can select as many as you like for no charge at all.

We are constantly reminded that there is no such thing as a free lunch. So, how come there is such a thing as a free read? The answer is that the writers who participate in the scheme want to attract as many free readers as possible, in the hope that at least some of them will in future become cash-paying customers of their works, paving the way for the authors’ ascent to ‘bestsellerdom’.

In marketing argot, this is what is called a ‘loss leader’. The seller of any product, from a new brand of instant coffee to a range of cosmetics, will put on special sale an item at a loss-making price as a hook to attract future buyers at much higher prices.

The Fussy Librarian could be an example of a loss leader sales strategy.

However, could there be a non-commercial reason behind the modus operandi of The Fussy Librarian?

When he was a young, struggling writer in Buenos Aires, Jorge Luis Borges would haunt working men’s bars and cafes in the evening and, surreptitiously, slip in the pockets of their jackets and coats hanging by the doorway copies of the poems he had written, on the chance that the sheets of paper would be discovered, and read, before being thrown away.

What impelled the aspiring writer to seek communion with those whose worlds, both outer and inner, were so very different from his?

Before Newton explicated the workings of gravity, scientists and philosophers described gravitational phenomena as ‘action at a distance’, effect B being linked to cause A with no discernible connection between the two.

What was called action at a distance in the physical world has a parallel in the realm of human consciousness. What is this action at a distance, this force of gravity that can connect two or more people and turn them into a gestalt, an entity which is larger than the sum of its individual parts?

To someone like Borges, who sowed the seeds of his penned thoughts to reap a random harvest from the minds of men very dissimilar to him in almost every respect, the action at a distance, the gravitational bond, was to be found in the written word used as a bridge to span the separateness that encloses us, islands in the river of life.

The writer – be it of a novel, a poem, a postcard, a text message: How r u? C u l8r – by the very act of writing affirms the existence of a reader, the one for whom the writer has written.

Writing is an affirmation that an other, the reader, must exist. By such an affirmation the writer’s own existence is predicated on the logically prior existence of the reader.

Descartes said: I think, therefore I am, a statement which leads only into the blind alley of self-conscious solipsism.

The writer’s symbiotic credo is: You read, therefore we exist.





Home  Editorials Peace And Prosperity The Jain Muni’s Way

Peace and Prosperity The Jain Muni’s Way

By: J K Jain 

Nov 15, 2021, 09:35 IST

Digambar Jain muni Acharya Gyansagar was indeed a gyansagar, an ocean of knowledge, in the real sense. A great saint, social reformer, and epitome of penance, Acharya Maharaj spent a large part of his life studying sacred scriptures, spreading the teachings of Mahavir, and raising his voice against the ills in society.  

The Jain sage firmly believed that the concept of Anekantavad can resolve all conflicts in the world. Each substance has various attributes contradictory in nature. To have proper understanding one has to look at things in totality, from all angles. Four visually impaired persons will always describe an elephant in four different ways. The person touching its legs would say that the elephant is like a pillar, whereas the one who is feeling its trunk would describe it like a thick rope. The man touching its ears would say it is like a big fan, and the fourth one touching its tail would describe the pachyderm as a thin rope. Everyone is right in his own way.  

However, the problem starts when we stick to our point of view and refuse to respect others’ perspective. Mahavir was among the first world teachers to declare that the same truth can be viewed differently by diverse people. In Jainism, there are 24 Tirthankaras in every kaal, period. Mahavir never said that only Jains should progress in the world; he gave the same respect to plants and trees as he gave to human beings. He promoted the concept of Anekantavad that teaches us to be tolerant, said Acharya ji.

Contrary to what people think, Jains are not atheists. Removing misconceptions about the Jain belief system, Gurudev would say that the universe, cosmos, according to Jain cosmology, is Anadi Nidhan. It is not created, protected, or destroyed by any superpower called God. It exists since time immemorial and will continue till infinity. It consists of six dravyas, substances, namely jiva, soul; pudgala, matter; dharma, ether; adharma, anti-ether; akasha, space; and kala, time. The jiva journeys through 84 lacs yonis, species, according to its good or bad karmas, and pudgala, karmic particles, remain attached to the jiva till it wanders; dharma helps the jiva and pudgala move from one place to another; adharma helps them stay, remain stationary; akasha provides space; and kala helps substance in Parinaman, continuous change of form. The jiva is the doer of its karma. God doesn’t punish or reward it for its deeds. Why would he punish his own children? The jiva reaps the fruit of its karmas when they fructify. Every soul can attain nirvana, salvation, by freeing itself from the karmic bondage through penance and renunciation.  

Progressive in his outlook, Gyansagar ji, was a social reformer who spoke against female foeticide and also opposed widespread evils like gambling and bursting crackers during Deepavali. He believed that to get wealthy, worshipping Lakshmi is not as important as doing good karma. “Why worship Lakshmi? Earn your livelihood honestly, do good karma, and wealth will automatically come to you. Don’t kill innocent, small creatures and cause pollution by bursting crackers and fireworks. Celebrate Deepavali differently, distribute sweets and provide monetary help to the poor and needy and be the reason of their happiness. Then Lakshmi will be yours forever,” he said.

 

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TRUTH AS TOLD BY THE FATHER OF THE NATION

TRUTH QOUTES FROM THE STORY OF MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH BY MAHATMA GANDHI

ON LOVE ,ON BEING HUMBLE

“What barrier is there that love cannot break " “The seeker after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him. Only then, and not till then, will he have a glimpse of truth.”

ON BEING AWAKE, ON HUMILIATION

“But you can wake a man only if he is really asleep. No effort that you make will produce any effect upon him if he is merely pretending sleep.” “It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.”

Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interaction with the world around us. In our daily lives we take these sensations for granted, but how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived? This question has been solved by this year’s Nobel Prize laureates.

David Julius utilized capsaicin, a pungent compound from chili peppers that induces a burning sensation, to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that responds to heat. Ardem Patapoutian used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a novel class of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs. These breakthrough discoveries launched intense research activities leading to a rapid increase in our understanding of how our nervous system senses heat, cold, and mechanical stimuli. The laureates identified critical missing links in our understanding of the complex interplay between our senses and the environment.

Chetan Bhagat: India's Tuition Pandemic Recently, the Chinese government announced a bold, sweeping and almost draconian crackdown on its booming educational tuition sector. Under its new policy, private tutoring businesses have to restructure as non-profit companies. They are banned from listing on the stock market or raising foreign capital. They are prohibited from offering tutoring classes on weekends and school holidays. Parents and students are being encouraged to report schools and teachers who make extra income through private tutoring.

The story of the endearing butter thief

By: Swami Tejomayananda

Aug 28, 2021, 11:00 IST

Krishnachandra Bhagvan delighted everyone in Vraja, especially all the gopis, cowherd girls, with his unending lilas, sports, of sweetness. He would sneak into the homes of the gopis and drink all milk and eat the curd and butter – not a pat but pots of butter! Sometimes, he would even break those pots. At other times, he would feed the milk and curd to the monkeys. This was one of his favourite pastimes, for all the monkeys were his friends who helped him during his Ram avatar. Actually, for all the butter he stole, he himself ate very little. Most of it, he simply gave away to others.

Every day, the gopis would rush to Yashoda’s house with endless complaints. Even so, all these complaints overflowed with love. The joy we feel when we give our children something to eat is far greater than eating it ourselves. And when a child comes sneakily, his eyes darting watchfully from here to there to ensure he does not get caught – this playful scene itself gives us immense joy.

Yet people call Bhagvan a thief – butter thief. Who is the real thief? The entire universe is his, so from whom is he stealing? Actually, we are the thieves. We have forcibly taken everything that is his and now insist that ‘this is mine’ and ‘that is mine’.

Butter is the culmination of churning curd; it is the primary purpose for churning curd. The Lord looks only for the main objective or essence in everything. The gopis would make butter with great love, and this is what the Lord saw and accepted. He accepts our pure intentions, our unconditional love, and our sincere efforts.

The gopis would milk their cow, boil the milk, make curd from the milk, and churn butter from the curd. And then? After all that work, they would keep it aside and not readily give it. We too, put forth much effort and enjoy the fruits of our actions, but we also create and collect more vasanas or innate impressions, along the way. After performing so many actions, what do we really gain in the end? Just a collection of vasanas that we are not ready to give up. So, the Lord tells us to give him all our collected vasanas, or he will come and take them away himself. What unfathomable compassion this is!

Now, if not this Lord, who else will you love? That Lord who steals away all our vasanas with his own hands, who liberates us, we call a butter thief, when his only concern is to grant us ultimate salvation.

Thus, one significance of stealing butter is that the Lord sees only the intention behind our actions. Another is that he frees us from all our vasanas.

The third significance is that in actuality, he does not come to steal milk, curd, or butter. In the Bhagwad Gita, Krishn says, “With whatever sentiment one looks upon me, in that form he attains me.” He is that Lord who comes to steal the hearts of all. Each and every gopi always kept hoping and waiting that the Lord would come to her home to steal the butter. If we turn to him with love, he in his compassion will surely fulfil that desire.

Speaking about Sri Krishna is like introducing one to one’s self,” Amma told the thousands of people gathered in Amritapuri to celebrate Krishna Jayanti. The day had been filled with festivities—Go Puja1 in the morning, a procession of young gopis, gopas, Radhas and Krishnas in the afternoon, uriyadi2 until the sun went down, and then Bala Gopala Puja to the recitation of the Srimad Bhagavatam4 until the midnight hour.

Once the midnight hour arrived, Amma began leading everyone is bhajans celebrating the Lord: “Agatanayi Agatanayi Vishnu Devan.”

In Amma’s satsang, which followed the bhajans, Amma stressed the infinite potential dormant in human beings and the power of their free will. “We can become like Sri Krishna; we can become like Kamsa,” Amma said. “We can become like Rama; we can also become like Ravana.”

Amma then spoke about the glory that was Sri Krishna. “Life is not mathematics, science, logic or philosophy,” Amma said. “It is a continuous flow of experience. We can transform our lives into an experience of spreading happiness to one and all. Sri Krishna’s life was the perfect example of this. If all our infinite, innate auspicious qualities were to take the form of a human being, the beautiful result would be Lord Krishna. He expressed the infinite power inherent in humankind to its fullness. It is for this reason that he is glorified as the Purnavatar—the complete incarnation of God. Sri Krishna was both ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. He was human and yet not human. He was complete in all ways.”

Amma concluded her talk by stressing the importance of innocent love and faith, saying that their birth in the heart of the gopis was in fact a greater miracle than Krishna’s lifting of Govardhana Hill.

“We need to transcend logic and firmly establish ourselves in innocent love and faith. We need to look at life through such eyes. Then all experiences will become blissful, like amrita [nectar]. That is the message of Lord Krishna’s life. … Sri Krishna’s words and actions demonstrated the different facets of life, the secrets of para-dharma and apara-dharma4 , and the subtleties of action, inaction and enlightened action. To understand Sri Krishna’s message, we need unwavering love, devotion and faith.”

Bhagavan Krishn’s unparalleled influence on the world has prevailed for thousands of years, pervading every aspect of life, including devotion, literature, the arts and even political strategy. The Bhagwad Gita is the core text of Sanatan Dharma, which Krishn gave to us by teaching Arjun. It is a scripture that transcends all religious boundaries.

The Bhagavatam defines Krishn as a purna avatar – a complete incarnation. The word ‘avatar’ means ‘to descend’. It signifies the totality of consciousness assuming a human form. Krishn was a purna avatar in that he always abided in the True Self – ever perfect, with no ups and downs or mental disturbances. However, just as a policeman goes undercover dressing as a thief to catch a thief, so did Krishn; he went down to the level of man. When we see how some people live – devoid of dharma, with no sense of charity, just greedily grabbing and accumulating what is not theirs, hurting others, wasting this precious gift of human birth just eating and drinking – we can understand Krishn’s avatar as descent; going down to each one’s level in order to show them how to live life in a way that would bring peace to themselves and to others.

Through his life and teachings, Krishn awoke bhakti, jnana and the true spirit of karma in us.

Bhakti is love for the imperishable. From an objective point of view, it is the love towards one’s goal. Without it, one cannot move forward on any path. In any area of action, it is love that elevates a person. Whether a book is about science or history, the words in it are comprised of letters; they are its foundation. In the same way, the foundation of any path is bhakti. Bhakti is nothing but constant and continuous remembrance of God.