Classical Spirituality and Dynamic Spirituality

The classical spirituality is on the way to its death bed. It is on the way of being ruined. It is no longer effective. It has no scope. It can neither transform you nor transform the world. What is Classical Spirituality? It is a spirituality that just believes in doing something and not doing another thing. It is more like Mahatma Gandhi’s three monkeys. And what are these three monkeys? One monkey says, “Don’t see evil”. The second monkey says, “Don’t hear evil”. And the third monkey says, “Don’t speak evil”. And if you ask these monkeys as to what is good, bad and evil, they have no idea really. They may have the idea of the good, bad and the evil that is fed from outside. They do not have their own awareness. They do not have their own understanding. They have been fed the definitions of good, bad and evil from outside. The same way we feed the data and programs into the computers. These three monkeys are carrying different ideas and notions of good, bad and evil given to them from outside. Good and bad are relative perspectives. They differ from place to place, person to person and time to time. What is good to me may not be good to you. What is good in India may not be good in the whole world outside. And what is good today may have been bad in the past. For example, Sati (immolation of a widow on the pyre of her husband) was a good thing and a great virtue in the past, and today it is a big social evil and a crime. The kings and rich people in the past had many wives and today it is a bigamy and considered a crime. Long back in China there was this understanding that a woman is like a thing and a toy. She does not have a soul. And, therefore, she can be killed by the husband and that killing was not a crime. And the husband was not punishable. In India in the past a woman was considered a big hurdle on the path of spirituality. And spiritual freedom was considered an almost impossibility to a woman. Jainism even thinks that a woman has to take the birth of a man in her next life in order to attain to Moksha or spiritual freedom. The classical spirituality believes womanhood a curse for Moksha or spiritual freedom. Initially even Buddha did not allow women in his Sangha. And the whole credit goes to Ananda who first convinced Buddha to introduce women in his Sangha. In a Sangha where there were men and women, the women had to observe and follow more vows than men. One thing that was very great of Buddha was that he was not a rigid person. He was a very sensitive and sensible person. The classical spirituality was anti-women and anti-desire. The ancient spirituality was developed, organized and controlled by male chauvinism. These are just few examples to illustrate the point. There are many such beliefs and myths on the path of classical spirituality.

The modern, dynamic and quantum spirituality has to be totally different. I can not impose my ideas and notions of good and bad on the other. I can not get guided and controlled by the ideas and notions of good and bad of the other. For example, to clean the bathrooms and commodes (toilets) of others was a great service and virtue in the eyes of Mahatma Gandhi. And he imposed this notion on his wife and others. And this was not acceptable to his wife. And she followed this out of force and coercion. And she did not do this out of her own heart and soul. It was an imposition and not her own innate understanding that it is a great virtue. How can I impose my values and virtues on the other? The value or a virtue is like the process of flowering and fruition. The seed of value and virtue has to grow in the soil of my own being. You know what the psychology is? The more you tell a person not to do something, he will unconsciously try to do the same thing. Just see the psychology of the children. They do what they are told not to do. Then what is the way? The only way is to introduce one more monkey in the camp of the three monkeys of Mahatma Gandhi. And this monkey is a monkey of Mindfulness and Awareness. This monkey is not against desires. This monkey knows how to transform desires. What is spirituality? It is a way to transform the desire into divinity. This monkey is not against doing anything. This monkey is in favor of doing things with mindfulness and awareness. This monkey knows how to transform the doer in the doing. This monkey is not a male chauvinist. This monkey knows that every human being is a Ardhanarishvara. At one end Shiva says that he is a Ardhanarishvara. And our classical spirituality thinks that it is a domain of only males. Shakti says that she is a Agama and Shiva is a Nigama. This question was asked to Shakti and she answered it this way. Had we asked the same question to Shiva, probably he would have given a similar answer because he strongly believes in Ardhanarishvara.

We either do things or do not do things at three levels. Firstly at the level of the body. Secondly at the level of the mind. And thirdly at the level of the heart. At the level of the heart it is in the state of an emotion. At the level of the mind it is in the state of a thought. And at the level of the body it is in the state of an action. Emotion, thought and action are not three different things. They are just three different manifestations of the same thing. Emotions are subtle. Thoughts are gross. And actions are the grossest. Forget about bad actions, Krishna says that even to think of a bad action is wrong. I can shake my hand with the other person out of friendship. I can hug the other person with my body out of love and friendship. And I can use the same hand and the body to hurt the other person. I can hurt the other person even with my emotions and thoughts. The heart, the mind and the body are just vehicles. They are just carriers of our emotions, thoughts and actions. They are neutral things. They are absolutely not at fault. The false thing is a bad intention. The bad thing is an evil intention. So what is important is contemplation, observation, awareness and witnessing of the emotions, thoughts and actions. The fourth monkey, therefore, can help us to know how to observe and witness our actions. Observation, Mindfulness and Witnessing is a science in itself. J Krishnamurti says that the observer is the observed. What does it mean? If the observed action is that of anger then the observer is angry. If the observed action is that of love and compassion then the observer is loving and compassionate. The observer is the observed is one principle. This principle has been given by J Krishnamurti. Let me give you the second principle. And the second principle is that the observation changes the nature of the observer and the observed. The process of observation removes the impurities in the emotion, thought and action.

The fourth monkey is the monkey of observation, watchfulness, mindfulness and awareness. It will take care of the other three monkeys. You don’t have to worry unnecessarily. The fourth monkey will help you feel wise, think wise, do wise and be wise. Everything will be taken care of automatically, please just be aware of all that you are doing 🙂

“These are the four monkeys. One monkey says, “Don’t see evil”. Second monkey says, “Don’t hear evil”. Third monkey says, “Don’t speak evil”. The fourth monkey says, “Don’t just get bogged down by all these emotions and thoughts. You can not close your eyes. You can not close your ears. You can not close your mouth. You can not shut your heart and mind. The heart is full of emotions. The mind is full of thoughts. And that too various types of thoughts. Psychologists and Neurologists say that our mind produces some 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts per day. The mind is in fact a thought producing machine. It can never be shut down. It is shut down only once in life. Yes, you are right. It is shut down completely on death. The only best way is to observe and witness these thoughts. What happens in the process of observation and witnessing eventually is that the mind attains to stillness, stability and equanimity and then it automatically gets control of the thoughts, emotions and actions. And the result is that of a silent and blissful mind.”

Is there anything called Destiny?

Is there anything called the destiny? There is only destiny and except destiny there is nothing. And you need to understand the definition of destiny. When desire meets divinity, it is called destiny. Perhaps, nobody has given you this small definition till date. And when the desire meets the devil, it is called destruction. This definition again has not been given to you by anybody till date. You can scan through all the Vedas and the Upanishads and everything that is written till date in the name of divinity.

The fake Swamis and fake Gurus always talk to you about anti-desire. They always tell you to go against desire. And in their so called Ashrams they have everything from earth to sky. This is their renunciation. And in the name of renunciation or Sanyas they are enjoying everything. And just see the stupidity of everything. They are telling you to leave everything and come to their Ashrams. And they are also telling you to abandon Sansara. And please remember that the life will remain a hell until Sansara becomes Sanyasa. Sansara means the world that we live in. It is the epicenter of all our emotions and actions. And Sanyasa or renunciation means the quality that we give to our actions and emotions. The desire dissolves into divinity when it becomes hundred percent pure. And the desire is nothing but the direction that we give to our life energy.

The scientists say that matter is energy and energy is matter. The matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. And the matter and energy are interconvertible. The matter has the opposite called the antimatter. And for every particle there is an antiparticle. And without this the creation is impossible. And pure energy is released when matter comes in contact with antimatter. It appears to us that they are opposite. But they are not. In fact they are complimentary to each other. They compliment and compensate with each other. The energy that is released through this process is an absolutely pure energy. It is the purest form of the energy.

The same is the story of the human evolution. The same is the story of our expanding consciousness. We all are also made of these two opposite energies. Again a caution. Just for the heck I am calling them as opposites. They are complimentary and compensatory. It is a language-barrier. It is a limitation of language. Because the language is dual. The language is not possible without duality.

In Chinese mythology the symbol used for this is Yin and Yang. In fact they can not even be separated by the word “and”. It is a language problem. They are conjoined. They are always together. And the single purest premordial energy is called “Chi”. This energy is so pure that you can not see it. And through creation it manifests into its opposites. The creation is possible only through the manifestation of this energy in the form of Yin and Yang. Yin is a feminine energy, and Yang is a musculine energy. This is the symbology that is used in Chinese Mythology.

In the Hindu Mythology the symbol used is Shiva and Shakti. And the union of these two energies is called the formless Ekalinga. And this purest energy, Ekalinga, manifests into its opposites or complementaries called the Shiva and Shakti. Shiva is masculine energy, and Shakti is a feminine energy. Ekalinga is a meeting and melting of these two energies. The whole creation is an interplay of these two energies. It is a meeting and melting point of two emotions. It is a meeting and melting point of two thoughts. It is a meeting and melting point of two minds.

When these two energies fight, destruction happens. And when these two energies reciprocate, creation happens. These two energies are reciprocal to each other. These two energies can either become friends or enemies. When they become enemies, destruction happens. And when they become friends, creation happens.

And in the same way, the East and the West are the metaphoric divisions of the mother earth. The West thinks that there is nothing beyond matter. And the East has always been saying that there is a spirit within the matter. The matter and the spirit are conjoined in such a way that their division and separation is impossible. The body and the soul are conjoined in such a way that their separation is impossible. The harware and the software are conjoined in such a way that their separation is impossible. When the West meets the East, there is a scope for infinite creation. And when the West fights with the East, there is a scope for enormous destruction.

What are these inner divisions when it comes to the growth of a human being? Where are these inner divisions when it comes to the evolution of a human being? These inner and psychological divisions are that of the “Conscious Mind” and the “Unconscious Mind”. When the conscious mind fights with the unconscious mind, there is bound to be conflict, anxiety, and destruction. And when the conscious mind is used to understand the unconscious mind, there is bound to be clarity, creativity, and bliss. These two are not two different minds. These two are not two different compartments. These two are not straightjacket and tight-water compartments. They are just two aspects of the total mind. They are just two polarities of the total mind. The total mind has always been pure. The total mind can never be impure. And all the actions that emanate from the total mind are bound to be pure and divine.

The ancient sages of the Upanishads have used the Ashrams as a method to transform the mind. They have used the Ashrams to relax our minds. In the Sansara we have always been told to use our conscious minds. And as a consequence a major part called the unconscious mind is suprressed. And over a period of time this suppression creates stress and anxiety in life. And this brings monotony and boredom into life. And hence the Ashrams have been used to break this boredom. The literal meaning of Ashram is non-doing. It is a Sanskrit word. There are three words: Shram, Ashram, and Vishram. Shram means doing. Ashram means non-doing. Shram means winding. Ashram means unwinding. Shram means action. Ashram means non-action. And Vishram means going beyond both. The literal meaning of Vishram is relaxation. And relaxation is an existential thing. You can not do relaxation. And you can not undo relaxation either. Relaxation happens. You can be in relaxation. This is part of the divine. This is our destiny. Vishram means a happening. It is neither a doing nor a non-doing. And all this is possible only when we understand both the perspectives and transcend them. This is how the desire moves in all phases and facets of life. Dhyana or Meditation is an art of transforming this desire into divinity. And this is our destiny. This is our destination.