Gandhi and a study of the Self

Two of my blogs, this one and another focused on Nainital contain spiritual content. The latter is more specific to Nainital District, its history, development as well as local spirituality. This one is of wider interest. From time to time, I have found that a certain post will fit in both blogs and therefore post them in both places with the same or similar title. This one will be like that too.

A recent post in the Nainital blog considered the question, of holy men and cults and considered if they were fraudulent. So many of them are, especially those that are attempting to make a living out of their activities. They are easily discovered because they often focus on the rich while ignoring the suffering masses. Such cults may be based on a branch of an ancient religion or be an entirely new one. The latter may be more dangerous since they have not been tested and exposed by time.

A human who does not follow any religion or cult is better off then another following a false or fraudulent one. Spiritual cults work on the psyche and from here it is possible for fraudulent cults to manipulate humans into inhuman behavior, even violence. Many would have heard of the evil cults of Charles Manson or another Japanese one (I forget its name) whose main activity appeared to be the killing of innocent persons. Such cults that lead humans into evil, violence and early demise have existed since ancient times.

Then there are politico-religious cults that lead their members into violence with the belief that they are perpetuating violence for a just cause such as liberation of their territories from an occupying power. There is nothing more unjust than killing innocent persons, even more unjust than the occupation of any territory on earth. Further, such persons do not realize is that violent resistance has rarely freed an occupied country whereas peaceful resistance and non-cooperation such as those of Gandhi have achieved liberation with ease. The fact that Gandhi truly loved the lord was proved by the last two words he uttered before he died – He Ram i.e. O God. He was assassinated on the 30th of January 1948. Today is his death anniversary.

In modern times there also exist spiritual cults that do not necessarily lead a person into violence or any other great evil but they may be just plain nonsense or useless. One could make one up that asks its member to face north every morning and say wa, wa wa --- while beating the ground with a stick and hopping on one leg or something equally silly. I suppose its OK if a human joins such a cult. Just a bit of harmless fun! It is similar to others who join various activity clubs. After all, one has to do something to pass time as long as one lives. One might make some new friends if nothing else. However, even here one must be cautious. Some of these seemingly innocent cults may seed the mind with a false idea that can retard natural evolution and growth of a soul for an indefinitely long period of time.

Rather than get overly influenced by a deficient or fraudulent spiritual philosophy, one is much better off if one just lived a clean moral life and kept a safe distance from these fraudulent cults. One can progress brilliantly if one communes with nature besides. However, if one is keen on spiritual knowledge, one is safer while following a historical religion such as mainstream Christianity or Buddhism that has been known to produce happy, compassionate and humane societies; or, one may follow independently the words and works of saints that have worked to alleviate human suffering, working amongst the oppressed, poor and sick. The New Testament declares – beware of false teachers that are like wolves in sheep’s clothing. The teacher who said those words did not work for the prosperous Jews or Romans of his times but rather the suffering masses and the sick. It is a different matter if some of the same Romans he ignored while he lived may have taken over and made a fine business of some of his words while deleting some words that were not convenient.

Consider an often-propagated idea of a few modern spiritual cults or so called Gurus – Live in the Moment. What these cults are saying is that a person should not dwell in the past or future but dwell in the moment. On the face of it, the concept looks attractive; however there can be nothing more dangerous than this belief in retarding a person’s spiritual or evolutionary progress. One evolves by learning form one’s past experiences, reflecting on the past to draw lessons of wisdom; reflecting on faults and weaknesses with a view to removing them; repenting for past sins so as not to repeat them etc. Certainly such reflection on the past must not be done while one is driving or doing some other task. In the latter case, it is best to live in the moment and focus on the task at hand. Reflection on the past has to be reserved for one’s quieter moments. The philosophies (that are not named here) that propagate the concept of living in the moment do not bother to make this distinction. They just tell you to rubbish the past. Philosophies that propagate such a heinous concept need to be rubbished instead.

An earlier post of this blog – Happiness is like a Building – mentioned that happiness is like a building that stands on four pillars. One of these pillars is the regular study of the self in order to find and reduce one’s faults. An ancient philosopher who wrote the first text on yoga in Sanskrit mentions that three things can carry a human to the highest levels of evolution: - hard disciplined work done as a sacrifice (Tap), A study of the self (Swadhyay), and belief, trust and love of God (Ishwar Shranangati). This three-fold practice has been termed as kriya yoga by Patanjali. Gandhi too followed this doctrine rigorously while upholding truth and non-violence that are prerequisites to kriya yoga. In recent times some modern cults have hijacked this term for other different and esoteric forms of yoga that they maintain secrecy over. They reveal it once you pay them.

A recent holy personality of Nainital known as Baba Hairakhan who died in 1984 recommended a variation of the original kriya yoga without naming it as kriya yoga perhaps because that term had been hijacked.

Saint Kabir (1456-1575) of India has been mentioned elsewhere in this blog. He lived in a mud hut, earning his living as a weaver. In his spare time, he composed spiritual poetry that many came to listen at dusk (when weaving was impossible because of the fading light) from far and wide. His poetry consisted primarily of brief couplets in Hindi. They contain wisdom and knowledge just as the Proverbs and of the Old Testament do. I have quoted one of Kabir’s couplets in an earlier post that declares, many believe in God in times of difficulty but promptly forget Him when the going is good. Here is another one in Hindi that fits in with our present discussion:

Bura jo Dekhan Main Chala, Bura na milya Koi
Apan dil jo khojya, mujh sai bura na koi.

My translation:

I searched the wide world for a bad person, a bad person I found not one
Then searching my own heart, more evil there was none.

In quiet moments of reflection, one can look into one’s past and see the wrongs one may have done. No one else can look into one’s past as clearly as oneself. Therefore, it is not surprising that if we make a dispassionate evaluation, perhaps the most evil person we have known in our lives is none other than oneself. Forget, Jack the ripper. He was insane.

I too have wondered at the wrongs that I have done in this life by reflecting on my own past. First, there are the impulsive wrongs that one commits when one is blinded by a strong emotion such as anger or fear. These wrongs can at least be appreciated soon after the moment passes. More surprising are the wrongs one commits over extended periods of one’s life and does not even realize that one is doing anything wrong. A quiet reflection on one’s past in quiet green surroundings, when one is all alone (i.e. not in the company of other humans) help a person to realize the folly and work towards becoming a better and happier person.