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Let us have concord with our own people, and concord
with people who are strangers to us; Ashvins, create between us and the
strangers a unity of hearts. May we unite in our midst, unite in our
purposes, and not fight against the divine spirit within us. Let not
the battle-cry rise amidst many slain, nor the arrows of the War God
fall with the break of day.
Atharva Veda 7.52.1-2. HV, P. 205

Monday
LESSON 274
Teaching of Life's Sanctity
Nonviolence has long been central to the religious
traditions of India -- especially Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
Religion in India has consistently upheld the sanctity of life, whether
human, animal or, in the case of the Jains, elemental. There developed
early in India an unparalleled concern for harmony among different life
forms, and this led to a common ethos based on noninjuriousness and a
minimal consumption of natural resources, in other words to compassion
and simplicity. If Homo sapiens is to survive his present predicament, he will have to rediscover these two primary ethical virtues.
In
order to understand the pervasive practice of nonviolence in Hinduism,
one must investigate the meaning of life. Why is life sacred? For
India's ancient thinkers, life is seen as the very stuff of the Divine,
an emanation of the Source and part of a cosmic continuum. The nature
of this continuum varies in Hindu thought. Some hold that the
individual evolves up through life forms, taking more and more advanced
incarnations which culminate in human life. Others believe that
according to one's karma and samskaras, the process can
even be reversed, that is, one can achieve a "lower" birth. Even those
Indians who do not believe in reincarnation of an individual still hold
that all that exists abides in the Divine. They further hold that each
life form -- even water and trees -- possesses consciousness and
energy. Whether the belief is that the life force of animals can evolve
into human status, or that the opposite can also take place, or simply
that all things enjoy their own consciousness, the result is the same
-- a reverence for life.
The human mind is exactly like a
computer. Programs that go in are the beliefs. Their performance is the
attitude, and the knowledge or the impetus that passes through both
determines the output or the action. Children will learn the basic
attitudes from their mothers and fathers by absorbing the beliefs that
their mothers and fathers have placed into their subconscious mind,
even prenatally. This is the first stage of writing the code, as a
programmer would do in creating a new application. Later the child
learns through observation, through seeing what the parents do and how
they solve their problems, either reverently in the shrine room or
hurtfully through arguments, contention, back-biting and getting one's
way through emotional blackmail. By the age of six, the program is
finished, application complete, and beta testing begins. Children today
face the world at this early age. Need we say more? Look at your own
families.
Talk about peaceful means of dealing with problems,
not allowing even your words to promote injury and harm. Let your words
bring peace into others' lives and hearts. Work on your own
consciousness. Purify yourself so that you are free from anger, free
from hatred, free from wanting anyone to suffer, either at your own
hand or in any other manner. Don't buy endangered plants, animals or
products from exploited species, such as furs, ivory, reptile skin and
tortoise shell. Volunteer your time to help groups who are sincerely
working for a peaceful world. Learn more about other cultures and
philosophies so your appreciation of them is genuine and deep. Work to
strengthen your community and the people near you. Reduce stress in
your life. Be joyful. Do all this and you will do much to bring peace
and tranquility to your part of the world. This is what Mahatma Gandhi
did, and look what a difference he made.
One person who lives ahimsa
truly can be an instrument of peace for many. And you can make a
difference, too, by affirming within yourself the vow not to injure
others either physically, mentally or emotionally. Remember this one
thing: peace and the choice to live the ideal of noninjury are in your
own hands.
There is no longer a rural community or a national
community. It is an international community. That change was well
rooted in the planet a decade ago. When the Vietnam War stopped -- the
last big war of the twentieth century -- that marked the beginning of
the new era. People started using their minds to solve problems, and
using their weaponry only for defensive measures.
Tuesday
LESSON 275
Peace and Righteous
In Gandhian philosophy ahimsa means nonviolent
action which leads to passive resistance in order to put a point
across. Basically, he taught, don't hit your opponent over the head. If
he tells you to do something, stall and don't obey and don't do it and
frustrate him into submission. And yet, on the other hand, when a gang
of tribals came in and raped the women in a village, Gandhi said there
should not have been a man left alive in the village. They should have
stood up for the village and protected it with their lives.
So,
to me, that means if an intruder breaks into your house to rape the
women or steal things, you have the right, even the duty, to defend
your own, but you don't have the right to torture him. Ahimsa needs to be properly understood, in moderation. Ahimsa
in the Jain religion has been taken to extremes. To explain
nonviolence, you have to explain what violence is, as opposed to
protecting yourself. Is it violent to own a dog who would put his teeth
to the throat of a vicious intruder? I don't think it is. If
nonviolence is to be something that the world is going to respect, we
have to define it clearly and make it meaningful.
Not all of Earth's one billion Hindus are living in a perfect state of ahimsa
all of the time. Sometimes conditions at hand may force a situation, a
regrettable exception, where violence or killing seems to be necessary.
Hindus, like other human beings, unfortunately do kill people. In
self-defense or in order to protect his family or his village, the
Hindu may have to hurt an intruder. Even then he would harbor no hatred
in his heart. Hindus should never instigate an intrusion or instigate a
death; nor seek revenge, nor plot retaliation for injuries received.
They have their courts of justice, punishment for crimes and agencies
for defending against the aggressor or the intruder. Before any
personal use of force, so to speak, all other avenues of persuasion and
intelligence would be looked into, as Hindus believe that intelligence
is their best weapon. In following dharma, the only rigid rule is wisdom. My satguru, Siva
Yogaswami, said, "It is a sin to kill the tiger in the jungle. But if
he comes into the village, it may become your duty." A devout Hindu
would give warnings to scare the tiger or would try to capture the
tiger without injury. Probably it would be the most unreligious person
in the village who would come forward to kill the tiger.
Many
groups on the planet today advocate killing and violence and war for a
righteous cause. They would not agree with the idea that violence, himsa,
is necessarily of the lower nature. But a righteous cause is only a
matter of opinion, and going to war affects the lives of a great many
innocent people. It's a big karmic responsibility. Combat
through war, righteous or not, is lower consciousness. Religious values
are left aside, to be picked up and continued when the war is over, or
in the next life or the one after that. It is said that in ancient
India meat would be fed to the soldiers during military campaigns,
especially before combat, to bring them into lower consciousness so
that they would forget their religious values. Most higher
consciousness people will not fight even if their lives depend on it.
They are conscientious objectors, and there have been many in every
country who have been imprisoned or killed because they would not take
up arms against their brother and sister humans. This is the strictest
expression of Hinduism's law of ahimsa.
Wednesday
LESSON 276
Justification For Conflict
One of the most famous of Hindu writings, the Bhagavad Gita, is often taken as Divine sanction for violence. It basically says that for the kshatriya, or soldier, war is dharma. Lord Krishna orders Arjuna to fight and do his kshatriya dharma in
spite of his doubts and fears that what he is about to do is wrong,
despite his dread of killing his own kinsmen. Arjuna says, "If they
whose minds are depraved by the lust of power see no sin in the
extirpation of their race, no crime in the murder of their friends, is
that a reason why we should not resolve to turn away from such a crime
-- we who abhor the sin of extirpating our own kindred? On the
destruction of a tribe the ancient virtue of the tribe and family is
lost; with the loss of virtue, vice and impiety overwhelm the whole of
a race. ...Woe is me! What a great crime are we prepared to commit!
Alas that from the desire for sovereignty and pleasure we stand here
ready to slay our own kin! I would rather patiently suffer that the
sons of Dhritarashtra, with their weapons in their hands, should come
upon me and, unopposed, kill me unresisting in the field."
Krishna
gradually convinces Arjuna to fight, beginning with the following
argument. "Death is certain to all things which are born, and rebirth
to all mortals; wherefore it doth not behoove thee to grieve about the
inevitable. ...This spirit can never be destroyed in the mortal frame
which it inhabiteth, hence it is unworthy for thee to be troubled for
all these mortals. ...Thine enemies will speak of thee in words which
are unworthy to be spoken, deprecating thy courage and abilities; what
can be more dreadful than this! If thou art slain, thou shalt attain
heaven; if victorious, the world shall be thy reward; wherefore, son of
Kunti, arise with determination fixed for the battle. Make pleasure and
pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, the same to thee, and then
prepare for battle, for thus and thus alone shalt thou in action still
be free from sin" (from Chapter 1, Recension by W. Q. Judge,
Theosophical University Press).
Hindus for a long time have
taken this text as justification for war and conflicts of all kinds,
including street riots and anarchy. It is indeed unfortunate that this
particular composition has been championed to represent Hinduism rather
than the four Vedas. At the turn of the twentieth century, the Bhagavad Gita was not yet a popular book in America and Europe, but the Upanishads and Vedas were. When I was growing up in Hinduism, at about fifteen years of age, the Gita was
being slowly introduced in America and became an embarrassment in
metaphysical circles throughout the country, as something to explain
away. "How could a religion based on ahimsa and such high
ideals promote as a major scripture a story based on ruthless
internecine war and violence?" Arjuna could be considered history's
first conscientious objector.
Mystical seers, both Hindus and Western teachers, at that time, in an attempt to justify the Gita
as scripture, explained that Krishna represented Arjuna's higher self,
and Arjuna himself was his lower self, or the external ego. Krishna
encouraged Arjuna to kill out attachments to family, friends and foes,
to become a yogi and realize Parabrahman. Teachers attempted to satisfy the minds of their followers that, in fact, the Bhagavad Gita was an allegory of man's struggle within himself toward the highest realizations. Unconvincingly, contemporary swamis and astute commentators tried to justify God Krishna's urging his devotee to kill his friends, his relatives and his guru,
that all would be well in the end because the soul never dies. I was
never satisfied with this and found no alternative but to reject the
book altogether, despite its many lofty chapters. I agree fully with
those awakened Indian swamis who have called it kolai nul, the "book of carnage," a book that gives divine sanction to violence.
The Bhagavad Gita was also known at that time as a historical poem, not a divinely revealed scripture at all. It is smriti, specifically Itihasa, meaning a man-made history, a poem excerpted from the Mahabharata
epic. But all that aside, no matter how it is interpreted, whether it
is revered by millions of Hindus or not, let us not be mistaken that
the Bhagavad Gita gives permission for violence. The Mahabharata itself says, "Ahimsa is the highest dharma. It is the highest purification. It is also the highest truth from which all dharma proceeds" (18.1125.25). An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is definitely not a part of true Hindu doctrine.
Thursday
LESSON 277
No Sanction For Terrorism
In every country there is the army, the navy, air
force, police, the protectors of the country, the collective force of
citizens that keep a country a country. This is dharma. In protection of family and nation, in armies and police forces which give security, it is indeed dharmic for kshatriyas
to do their lawful duty, to use necessary force, even lethal force. But
for this collective force of protectors, of peacemakers, of
peacekeepers -- which includes the law courts and the central
administrative authorities who oversee the courts, the armies, the
navies, the air force -- would the priests be able to function? Would
the businessmen be able to acquire and sell their goods? Would the
farmers be able to plant their crops and harvest them? Could the
children play fearlessly in the streets and countryside? No. The answer
is obvious.
Those who take law into their own hands in the name of dharma, citing their case upon the Mahabharata, are none but the lawbreakers, anarchists, the arsonists, the terrorists. The Mahabharata gives no permission for anarchy. The Mahabharata gives no permission for terrorism. The Mahabharata gives
no permission for looting and diluting the morals of society through
prostitution, running drugs and the selling and buying of illegal arms.
The Pandavas, the heroes of this ancient epic, were not rabble rousers.
They were not inciting riots. Nor were they participating in extortion
to run their war. Nor were they participating in the sale of drugs to
finance their war. Nor were they participating in prostitution to win
their war. Nor were they participating in enlisting women to help them
fight their war. Nor were they having children learn to snare their
victims.
Yes, dharma does extend to protecting one's
country. But does it extend to taking a country from another, or to
stealing lands? Were the Pandavas trying to do this? No, of course not.
They were only protecting the status quo to remain sovereign over their
kingdom. Let us not presume to take the Mahabharata and Ramayana
as permission to do whatever one wants to do, for any cause whatsoever.
Simply because it is said in certain Hindu texts that Krishna lied,
stole some butter and dallied with the maidens does not give permission
to the ordinary person to lie anytime he wants to, steal anytime he
wants to or be promiscuous anytime he wants to and perhaps make all
this a way of life. This definitely is not dharma. It is
lawlessness, blatant lawlessness. In the modern age, to create a nation
or even a business enterprise upon the death of another, upon lands
confiscated, stolen, illegally acquired, usurped from another's realm,
is definitely not Hindu dharma, and this is not Mahabharata.
Friday
LESSON 278
Two Kinds Of People
I have often been asked how it is that some people
work for peace and others seem always to work for contention. There are
two kinds of children or souls that are born on this planet and are
spoken of in our Vedas and other scriptures. Some come to Earth
from up down and others from down up. This means that the children who
come to Earth from up down come from a place in the inner world of
higher consciousness, and the children who come to Earth from down up
come to Earth from a place in the inner world of lower consciousness.
We call the place of higher consciousness the Devaloka and the place of
lower consciousness the Narakaloka. The Devaloka is a heaven world and
the Narakaloka is not.
The Narakaloka exists wherever violence
and hurtfulness take place, whether in the inner or outer world. We see
such things in action on television. On the astral plane the terrible
deeds perpetrated by Narakaloka people are much worse than in the
physical world. Children who are born into Earth consciousness from the
Narakaloka will not respond to meditation, yoga or any kind of
quieting controls. They are strangers to self-discipline and enemies to
their own parents. The parents of these offspring do have a challenge,
to be sure, and are bound by the karmic implication of neglect
to face up to it and make every effort to reform, lift up and thus
enhance the learning of the young souls whose forces of deception,
anger and resentment are stronger than their responsibilities to
parents and society. Many such parents wisely direct their difficult
offspring into agriculture, farming and nurturing nature, thus allowing
them to blend with the forces of nature and rise into higher
consciousness as they learn from the slow processes of nature. Some
well-meaning but mistaken families demand of them a high education and
suffer the results of their upbringing for a lifetime.
In
contrast, children who are born into Earth consciousness from the
Devaloka do respond to meditation, yoga and all kinds of methods of
self-control. These are the gentle people. Self-control and personal
advancement are the reasons they have taken a birth. There are ways to
tell the difference between these two types of people. The mere fact
that someone becomes penitent would show us that he is really a
Devaloka person. This is because Narakaloka people don't become
penitent. There is another way to tell the difference, and that is by
looking into the eyes of the person. Narakaloka people generally have
dull or sullen eyes, whereas Devaloka people have bright, clear,
wide-open eyes. The former come from the world of darkness, the latter
from the world of light. It is difficult to tell the difference at
times, because the Narakaloka people are very cunning, and they will
try to appear in the way they feel they should to measure up to your
standards. They must be tested.
Peace will only come when the
Narakaloka people are lifted up and made to obey the new standards in
the world, standards which must be set by the Devaloka people. It is
when the Devaloka people are in charge that peace will truly come; it
can come in no other way. So, if the Devaloka people really desire to
have peace on Earth, they should not be shy but take charge.
Saturday
LESSON 279
Curbing the Lower Natured
The problems of conflict reside within this
low-minded group of people who only know retaliation as a way of life.
To antagonize others is their sport. They must be curtained off and
seen for what they are. Improvement has to come through their own
self-effort. But they are always overly stimulated by doing so many
mischievous acts and misdeeds that self-effort toward any kind of
improvement is never even thought of. Yet, they must learn from their
soul's evolution, and their own mistakes will be the teacher, for they
are in the period of their evolution where they only learn from their
own mistakes.
People of the lower nature cannot be made
peaceful. They are not open to persuasion. They are sovereign in their
own domain. There are many doors into lower consciousness, and if the
Devaloka people get too involved with people of a lower nature, they
may have violence awakened within them. Lower-consciousness people are
always looking for recruits to bring into their world. This sounds like
a sad story, but it is true nonetheless. You see it happening around
you every day.
It would, of course, be wonderful to think that
all people in this world are on the same level -- and certainly they
are in the deepest sense. But our sages and rishis, and wisdom
itself, tell us that we cannot expect the same of everyone in this
birth. By recognizing the differences in each soul's maturity, we also
recognize the process of reincarnation, which gives us young souls and
old souls.
People ask me from time to time, from the Hindu
point of view, how to curtain off the lower-nature people. My answer is
that people are curtained off from each other through their beliefs and
the attitudes that they hold. Believing beyond a shadow of a doubt that
a person is of the lower nature and is incorrigible in this life would
create the attitude of avoiding his company, not antagonizing him, and
this is the best protection. Societies all over the world are trying to
control these people who have come to Earth from the world of darkness.
This is one of the great concerns of all governments.
However,
the problem is not only with people of the lower nature, it is also
with people of the higher nature. They tend to be lazy. The more
conscious a person is, the more responsible he or she should be.
Therefore, the people of the higher nature should carry most of
society's responsibility and not leave it to others. If the high-minded
people really want peace, they have to all get to know each other and
then join hands in love and trust and work together. In every religious
organization on the Earth an emphasis to help people is put forward as
a duty and a fulfillment. Many of the groups reach out for membership
and bring people from the Narakaloka into their midst. It is not long
before the lower-natured people turn their once-sincere and happy
religious community into a devil's playground. They always begin by
pitting people within the group against each other. If that is
successful, then they pit their religious organization against another
one. So, you can see that the Devaloka people have to join together,
break down the barriers between themselves, work together, love and
trust one another and protect their groups from this kind of intrusion.
This is the first big doing. Once this is done, the rest will take care
of itself quite naturally.
National and international peace
movements are beneficial in that they keep the decision-making
governments of the world aware of what the people want. They help the
higher-consciousness people to become acquainted and to forge new
principles for a global dharma.
Sunday
LESSON 280
Ahimsa in Business
I was once asked for my insights on applying ahimsa in the business world. Ahimsa
in business is taught in a reverse way on American television: Titans,
The West Wing, Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Dallas, LA Law -- popular shows
of our time. Their scriptwriters promoted himsa, injuriousness,
in business -- "Save the Falcon Crest farm at any cost, save South
Fork, save the corporation." Now the national news media reports
attempts to save Microsoft, save the tobacco industry, save the hand
gun manufacturers. The fight is on, and real-life court battles have
taken the place of TV sitcoms which have long since been off the air.
In both the TV and the real-life conflicts, whatever you do to your
competitor is OK because it's only business. The plots weave in and
out, with one scene of mental and emotional cruelty after another.
The
Hindu business ethic is very clear. As the weaver Tiruvalluvar said,
"Those businessmen will prosper whose business protects as their own
the interests of others" (Tirukural 120). We should compete by
having a better product and better methodologies of promoting and
selling it, not by destroying our competitor's product and reputation.
Character assassination is not part of ahimsa. It reaps bad
benefits to the accusers. That is practiced by many today, even by
Hindus who are off track in their perceptions of ahimsa. Hindus
worldwide must know that American television is not the way business
should be practiced. As some people teach you what you should do and
other people teach you what you should not do, the popular television
programs mentioned above clearly teach us what we should not do. The
principles of ahimsa and other ethical teachings of Hinduism show us a better way.
Many
corporations today are large, in fact larger than many small countries.
Their management is like the deceptive, deceitful, arrogant,
domineering king, or like the benevolent religious monarch, depending
on whether there are people of lower consciousness or higher
consciousness in charge. Cities, districts, provinces, counties, states
and central governments all have many laws for ethical business
practices, and none of those laws permit unfair trade, product
assassination or inter-business competitive fights to the death. Each
business is dharmically bound to serve the community, not take
from the community like a vulture. When the stewardships of large
corporations follow the law of the land and the principles of ahimsa, they
put their energies into developing better products and better community
service. When the leadership has a mind for corporate espionage, its
energies are diverted, the products suffer and so does customer
relations. The immediate profits in the short term might be gratifying,
but in the long run, profits gained from wrong-doings are generally
spent on wrong-doings.
Ahimsa always has the same consequences. And we know these benefits well. Himsa always has the same consequences, too. It develops enemies, creates unseemly karmas which
will surely return and affect the destiny of the future of the business
enterprise. The perfect timing needed for success is defeated by inner
reactions to the wrong-doings. A business enterprise which bases its
strategies on hurtfulness cannot in good judgment hire employees who
are in higher consciousness, lest they object to these tactics.
Therefore, they attract employees who are of the same caliber as
themselves, and they all practice himsa among one another. Trickery, deceitfulness and deception are of the lower nature, products of the methodology of performing himsa, hurtfulness, mentally and emotionally. The profits derived from himsa policies are short-term and ill-spent. The profits derived from ahimsa policies are long-term and well spent.
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