Treating all with respect

The readings of the past few blogs on Hinduism have been from the Upanishads, which are in a way like the "Old Testament" of the Bible.

The next few readings are from the Bhagavad Gita, which means "Song of God." It is in a way like the New Testament of the Bible.

It is from a later time than the Upanishads. And it's main character is Krishna, just as the main person in the New Testament is Jesus Christ. Like Jesus, Krishna is believed to be God incarnate, and in most of the Bhagavad Gita, he is speaking from the viewpoint of God to his friend Arjuna, and to us all.

There is much more I could say by way of introducing the Bhagavad Gita, but you can find out a great deal for yourself by "googling" it. My purpose here is to provide you in the next several blogs with some passages from this book, which was a main inspiration for Gandhi, and I hope will inspire you as well. Certainly, the Song of God is dear to the hearts and inspires the devotion of millions of Hindus throughout the world. I think you will see why as you ponder these passages.

The first one I offer you is from chapter five of the Bhagavad Gita:

God is not the author of people's good or evil deeds.

People do what is evil when their inborn wisdom is blocked by ignorance.

But this block is removed by knowledge of the Soul, which dwells within every living being.

This knowledge shines like the sun, revealing God's Presence.

To the extent that you acquire this knowledge,

you become less and less capable of harming anyone or anything.

The Soul is equally present in priests and outcasts, elephants, cows, and dogs.

Knowing this, you are prompted to treat all living beings with equal respect.

You feel at ease in the company of all kinds of persons.

With your mind rooted in God, you see Divine perfection everywhere.

Good fortune does not inflate you.

Bad fortune does not deflate you.

Free from delusion, your mind is clear and calm.

You are dependent on no one and nothing.

Yet you are at one with everyone and everything.

Thus you experience profound inner peace, which nothing can shatter.

You have attained the supreme goal of human existence, which is union with God.

This is my prayer of response:

Creator God, though Your Presence dwells in all You create, I do not alwats remember or recognize this shining Truth.

I have been deeply conditioned by the view that only humans have souls, and that other creatures and beings, having no souls, can be used and even hurt and destroyed.

All around me I see disrespect between men and women, and between humans and animals, plants, and indeed all that exists on this beautiful planet.

Is it any wonder there is such struggle, such lack of peace?

Our only hope as humans is to be so rooted in You, so filled with the Light of Your Truth, that all our actions are guided by a deep and abiding respect for You and for all of Your the beings you have created.

Cross Over the Bridge

One of the questions you might share with me is this: How can I get from where I am in consciousness, outlook, viewpoint, attitude, etc. to a better place, a place I want to be?

Today's reading from the Chandogya Upanishad. one of the most famous and loved of them all,

answers this question of how we get from "here" to "there" in a wise and wonderful way, I think.

See what you think........

The Soul is the Bridge

by which people may pass from a state of worried, worldly consciousness

to a state of blissful heavenly consciousness.

Day and night cannot cross that Bridge.

Old age, death, and grief cannot cross that Bridge.

Deeds that are evil as well as good cannot cross that Bridge.

Those who are blind as they approach the Bridge have their eyes opened as they cross it.

Those who are wounded as they approach the Bridge have their wounds healed as they cross it.

Those who are sick as they approach the Bridge are made well as they cross it.

The Bridge is the boundary between darkness and light,

between the darkness of the world, and the supreme Light of God,

into which no darkness can enter.

Those who are self controlled and pure may cross the Bridge

from worldly consciousness into that consciousness that is the City of God.

There, they enjoy perfect freedom.

In the City of God, the Soul reigns supreme.

The Soul desires only what is Real and Eternal.

The Soul thinks only of what is True.

This is my prayer of response:

God of Light and Bliss:

You Who are the Soul of all and the Soul of my soul,

Lead me across this Bridge

from the worldly consciousness that confines me

in darkness, fear, and grief,

haunted by old age, sickness, evil and death

into that realm of consciousness which is the cure of my blindness,

the healing of my wounds and illnesses,

and the experience of Joy which drives out all sadness.

I struggle to purify my mind and will by focusing on You, Soul of my Soul,

rather than the evils of the world my senses report.

When I manage to fix my mind and heart on You,

I find myself crossing the Bridge,

and thus entering that state of freedom and joy which is

Your Presence,

the City of God,

the Realm of Heaven.

How do You Sense the Soul?

Perhaps you have wondered, as I have, about that mysterious something we call the "soul."

We use the word in various ways, which make its meaning slippery.

We say certain music, or food, has "soul."

We speak of someone with "soulful" eyes.

Perhaps we remember Jesus' words "What good does it do to gain the whole world, and lose your own soul?"

Today's reading, taken from the Upanishads, those ancient Hindu Scriptures written long before the Christian era, gives a fascinating understanding of the soul.

Here is what the Brihadranyaka Upanishad has to say: I wonder how it's view might be helpful to you?

No one can understand the sound of a drum without understanding both the drummer and the drum.

No one can understand the sound of a conch shell without understanding both the shell and the one who blows the shell.

As there can be no water without the seas,

no touch without the skin,

no smell without the nose,

no taste without the tongue,

no sound without the ear,

no thought without the mind,

so there can be nothing without the soul.

When you throw a lump of salt into water, it dissolves.

You cannot take it out again and hold it in your hand.

Yet, if you sip any part of the water, the salt is present.

In the same way, the soul can be perceived everywhere and anywhere.

The soul has no limit or boundary.

At present, there is duality.

You perceive beings as other than you. You see them, hear them, smell them, and think about them.

Yet, when you know the soul, and when you recognize that the soul within you is the soul of all beings,

how can you regard yourself as subject and all other beings as objects, when you know that all are one?

But, what is the soul? you ask.

The soul is consciousness.

It shines as the Light within the heart.

The soul is waking life and the life of dreams.

When the soul inhabits a body, it seems to assume the bodies' frailties and limitations.

But when the soul sheds the body at death, it leaves all these behind.

Here is my prayer of response today:

Great Source of my soul, Soul of my soul,

I confess that I often forget the presence and importance of my soul, and the soul of others.

I get caught in the cage of my sensations and the mirage of appearances, all conditioned by my particular perspective and experience.

I seem to be separate from others, and have a hard time relating to some of them, especially when I don't like them. I focus on their personalities, their looks, their actions and words, so different from mine.

I don't focus on their souls, that mysterious underlying pure being which is also Your Being.

I want to get better at sensing the soul, Your pure Presence, in me and in all created beings,

so that I may experience the mysterious, all-pervading Unity that lies behind the diversity of life

in this world, and in this way be blessed.

Amen.

What are Friends For?

One of the elements the great religions of the world have in common is the wise advice to seek friends who are can be worthy and helpful companions on the spiritual journey. Given society the way is, and always has been, it is difficult to stay faithful, and to learn what we need to know, without the help of "soul friends."

These are persons who love God and seek truth as we do, and who have made the spiritual journey a priority in their lives. They will help you when you fall, encourage you when you feel like giving up, and share the treasures of their insights with you. They will keep reminding you of how important it is to care for your soul, and offer you suggestions from their own experience of how to do that effectively.

Today's reading, from Rig Veda 10, speaks of the importance of friends sharing spiritual knowledge with each other.

All people have eyes and ears, but their insight and understanding are not equal.

Some people are like shallow ponds that reach only to the mouth.

Others are like deep lakes in which people can immerse themselves.

When people gather for worship, some have nothing to say,

because they do not know the One they worship.

Others overflow with praise, for they know the One they worship in their hearts.

Friends should encourage one another in the contest of life.

They should save one another from error by sharing their knowledge,

just as they should save one another from hunger by sharing their food.

They should push one another forward to win the Divine prize.

There are many ways of sharing knowledge.

Some people can compose poems like trees,

in which each line is a branch bearing the blossom of Divine Truth.

Some can sing songs whose melody and rhythm are the music of Divine Love.

Some can recite the wisdom of ancient sages.

Some can perform ancient rituals.

This is my prayer of response:

Creator of all, I know about those shallow ponds.

They are all around me.

Rare indeed is the deep lake in which I might immerse myself.

I pray You will deepen me, that I might be

a deep lake of Living Water in which others may immerse themselves

and be healed and refreshed.

I thank You for the soul friends in my life,

who share their spiritual knowledge with me,

and encourage me through the trials of life.

May I be such a friend to others.

May what I write bear the blossom of Your Divine Truth.

May I sing the music of Divine Love.

May I teach the ancient wisdom of the world's sages

as I myself have been taught,

and so feed other hungering hearts.

Amen.

The Name of God is Truth

Today's reading I pass on to you is from the Vedas, the most ancient of India's sacred scriptures, said to have been composed over several centuries a thousand or more years before the Christian era began.

Hindus believe the sages who received and recited and wrote them were divinely inspired.

One of the most famous of these Vedas is the Rig Veda. The word "rig" refers to a priest's chant during worship. This reading is from Rid Veda 8, and is titled "The God of Truth." It is interesting that Gandhi famously once said "The Name of God is Truth." One wonders if he might have had the words of this reading in mind.

If you try to grab the God of Truth with your little mind, God will slip away from you.

If you try to control your life, you will find out that it is God alone who controls everything.

God possesses all the wisdom of the wise and all the visions of the poets, and is their Source.

God gives clothes to the naked and heals the sick.

Through God, the blind see, and the lame walk.

God defends those who are persecuted.

By intelligence and skill, God drives away evil.

Those who seek earnestly will find the God of Truth.

God is generous to those who are generous to others, but the greedy never get all they want.

Those searching for ancient knowledge that has been lost, find it.

God guides and encourages all who seek to penetrate Divine mysteries,

and stretches out their span of life.

Here is my prayer of response.

God of Truth,

I know I can grasp only a little of the great Truth that You are.

Still, I long to know as much of Your Truth as my little mind can comprehend.

For Your Truth is the dazzling Light that dispels the shadows of illusion

in all minds and hearts.

It shines in ancient knowledge given by You to sages and saints the world over.

I seek this Light of Truth wherever it may be found,

and want to walk in the Light You have given,

that I may not stumble and fall into falsehood.

I am grateful for Your kindness and mercy to the afflicted, the sick, and the persecuted.

I thank You for Your goodness to me,

guiding me and encouraging me as I seek Your Truth

above all,

Amen.

Ancient Mother, I Hear You Calling

Ah, India. The place of my childhood, where I lived the first fifteen years of my life.

It was here I first experienced the living Hindu faith,

the only place where the Divine as Feminine is still revered in Her Feminine form,

the cradle of the Easter

wisdom that has come West with such luminaries as Emerson, T.S. Eliot, Beatrice Bruteau, and many more.

India is known as a Hindu country. But both India and Hinduism are enormously diverse. In India many languages are spoken, many tribes and races lives side by side, and many other religions have taken root.

In fact, Hinduism itself is not really one cohesive, coherent, clearly differentiated religion, as Islam, for instance, certainly is. It holds within itself many ways of understanding the nature of the Divine, human nature, human life and it's purpose, and how to live wisely and well.

Although the more philosophically sophisticated understand the underlying Oneness of the Hindu vision of God, that Oneness is expressed in an enormous diversity of deities and forms of worship. Still, the sages of India have captured this seeming paradox well in their well known saying: "One God, many Names."

India also has many sacred scriptures, and one expert has said one could define a Hindu as someone who believes those scriptures to be divinely inspired and authoritative for faith and life. These scriptures include

the ancient Vedas (believed to be more than three thousand years old), the Upanishads, which are believed to be from the first millenium before the Christian era, and the Bhagvad Gita, or Song of God, which also predates Christianity. I will be drawing from these scriptures in the readings I share with you and put into my book "Flowers from Gardens of Faith." I will also include, as I did for Islam, some poetry by highly revered Hindu poets.

But before I launch into these treasures of faith, let me share with you a bit of my experience growing up in Hindu India as well as Muslim Pakistan. I lived there from 1941-1955, which were the turbulent years of the struggle for independence led by Gandhi, and the partition of India into India and Pakistan. As a child, a great deal of this was "over my head." The memories I have which relate to this blog are not political, but very personal and spiritual.

I remember vividly the garlands of brilliant yellow and orange marigolds which were so often hung around the necks of people who were being honored. Flowers were always blooming everywhere in profusion, and they were used daily for prayer offerings in the Hindu temples and shrines that dotted the landscape. And there were shrines as well in every Hindu home I ever entered; in taxi cabs in the form of flowers and a picture of a favorite deity or two on the dashboard; and on streets in the villages and cities. The impression was of a people who were incurably religious, deeply spiritual, addicted to God in multiple forms.

There were frequent colorful, musical religious festivals with parades to delight a child's heart. The boarding school I attended for a few years was very near a major pilgrimage route to the source of the Ganges, which was an especially auspicious place for pilgrims to go, since the Ganges is considered a very holy river. We often watched as pilgrims passed by, some chanting, some using prayer beads, others talking and laughing. Everywhere, even poor women wore brightly colored saris that flowed as they walked, and were like human flowers brightening even the grungiest city streets.

Always, I saw Hindus greeting each other with a bow as they clasped their hands in front of their hearts and said "Namaste" which means, "the divine in me greets the divine in you." When I wondered as a child about those red dots in the middle of the foreheads of so many Indians, I was told it was a sign of the third eye, the eye of God, the eye with which we can see God in all.

Our fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Ziegler, read aloud the great epic stories of India about Ram and Sita, Krishna and Arjuna, Hannuman the monkey God, Ganesha the elephant god, and many more. Those stories still echo in my mind, right along with the western Greek stories of Ulysses and Theseus and Jason's search for the Golden Fleece.

Finally, there are the memories of groups of Indians gathered under a spreading banyan tree, with someone playing the tablas (drums) and someone else a harmonium, while the rest sang and sang devotional songs and chants called bhajans, with their faces lit up with loving fervor.

And weaving through it all, the smells and tastes of Indian curries, and Indian sweets, which were an integral part of Indian daily and devotional life.

It is with all this in my heart that I share with you the Flowers of Faith from the Garden of Hinduism planted and tended by Mother India.