Of Men and Mystics – of Peace and Happiness

Photo of the Himalayan foothills near Haidakhan and superimposed text by author

This note should have been entitled women and mystics but you know how the human mind is, it would have jumped to sexual connotations and that is not what this note is about although it does have a bit of that too. It goes without saying that it is nice sexual experiences very many humans look for soon as they have had nice food and when they are done with all that, they go about the world looking for fame, wealth, important positions in society and so on.

It is pursuits such as these that drives much in the world. When these interests are in control, society runs reasonably well; when any such drive becomes excessive and when it involves ethical violations, for example when a few usurp most of the wealth of the world while others starve or worse, suffer homelessness, then we have an upheaval and people may rise to chop the head off a queen as they did in France or to have a communist revolution as they did in Russia or a revolution against communism as they in Russia, or a revolution against democracy in jingo land and then a revolution against military rule that follows in Jingo land, because soon after, the new leaders get on to the same game and build two nice mansions by the sea and another with taps of gold, a shit pot studded with jewels, a sauna and a swimming pool while their private bar stocks every kind of wine on the planet. One should think that such leaders at least would be the happy ones in society, but wonder of wonder the leader suffers from excruciating pain of piles and a fistula, a hernia and a couple of medical stunts and stents in his heart.

Down to ordinary humans like you and me, we look for the same sort of stuff, albeit with a little more realism so that we do not have to end with that excruciating pain in a rear or a central part of our anatomies. One could classify all the wants of humans in five categories

The first is health and freedom from pain. Some times the condition may be minor such as a mild diabetes or hypertension that can be managed with a small dose of a pill from the pharmacy, a dosage that steadily increases with the years undoubtedly because human cells are adaptable and learn to adapt to foreign chemicals just as bacteria adapt to antibiotics with time, a steadily increasing dose that drives us to the grave sooner or later if we are lucky and if we are unlucky it could leave us with a stroke and a painful bedsore in the care home where a nurse will come and pump you with Valium so that she may enjoy her coffee and cinnamon bun peacefully in the cafeteria while complaining to a friend about how her husband has begun to pick his nose at the dining table lately while his trouser stinks from incontinence.  Many humans are luckier in that they do not need that daily pill or are sensible enough to go for a walk instead. Even here though they will eventually suffer from stiffness, decreased mobility, obesity and a host of other things with age so that life is not what it could have been otherwise.

The second thing that is important to humans is how their basic needs are met, of pure air to breathe, clean water to drink, nice healthy food to eat and a nice comfortable place to live in pleasant green surroundings and not just two or three cells of a beehive in something called a high rise block where many modern humans live, where the people upstairs have  a dance party over your couch, bed and nut; the couple next door likes to indulge in something primitive to the beat of  loud thumping music that goes thumph. thumph, thumph. and the view from your window is a  crowded street below and another high rise across the street from where drifts up air laced with nitrous emissions, aerosols and the rest.

The third thing of importance to humans is their human relationships beginning with those they live with and going on to those they work and deal with on a daily basis and extending up to the wider human society in which a few may strive for fame. The fortunate ones have nice human relationships but because the human mind is a changeable thing that pretty wife may soon start nagging or turn up her nose in bed while the sweet child who showed so much promise earlier in some cases becomes obese or takes to drugs and tells you to buzz of if you suggest otherwise.

The fourth thing for humans is their daily routine, the things that they have to do daily just to get on with their lives, for example having to drive an hour through a road rage filled path to work either way and then to put up with the most boring work and nauseating boss that they just have to put up with a pretend smile akin to the grimace of a severely constipated person in distress, because they have to pay bills and the mortgage every month.

The fifth thing for humans is finally to deal with themselves and the fact that they may have to deal with anger, frustrations, fear, depression etc. which the heady drink of whiskey seems to ease for some for a few hours in the evening only to wake one up suddenly in the middle of the night to bring it all back with greater force. Episodes of entertainment in life serve a similar diversionary purpose from time to time, helping to take the mind away for brief periods from what bores or troubles in life.

Within these five broad areas, a human strives to find his peace and happiness and has succeeded in varying degrees from the beginning of time. It is for improvements in these five areas that humans attempt to collect hoards of money but most who do manage to earn a pile get so busy in hanging on to it or striving for more that they do not get to use it for these improvements before stepping into their graves but instead add to their worries in preserving it before the grave frees them most rudely and suddenly from those worries and cares.

However, despite the dismal picture painted so far an immense amount of happiness is possible in life and many attain to it by inculcating values of love, truth and simplicity in their lives; cultivating contentedness by making the most of what they have or can be acquired with relative ease; and by choosing green areas to live in if possible in preference to concrete ones, so that they can enjoy the joy nature and mother earth, unblocked and unfettered by layers of concrete and man-made constructions, provides at all times to all her children, humans being some of the most dearly loved ones.

and the mystics

However, from amongst the lot of humans on our planet there have been a few who have refused to play the game and preferred to step out. If they are of a spiritual kind and that spirituality is apparent they may be called mystics by others. Such mystics bring down their wants, needs and close human relationships of a personal kind to a minimum or at least down to what matters most. The reference here is to the sort of relationships humans maintain within society but on another plane their relationships are wider and embraces all life of which they feel they are a part.  The tendency of mystics is to regard all of mankind as one large human family and all life as one large family of the Almighty.

They do not give up on pure air, water, green surroundings and sunshine but may choose lodging in the wilderness or a monastery or perhaps even find a quiet green corner in a city. In the modern world it is difficult for most humans to recognize them because fraudsters don the disguise of mystics to entrap victims and real mystics move about in ordinary attire to avoid attention. They stick to a simple diet that is healthy and pure but not expensive and does not need caviar, saffron, Swiss cheese and truffles. Wholesome organic food is the cheapest of foods, the purest form of it is what the forests and nature yields for free. The expensive organic kind in the market is like the shrewd or novice business person in a mystic's robe out to indulge or exploit the naive rich while disregarding the salt of the earth - the common person and the poor. It is one of the ways in which the genuineness of some modern mystics can be discovered i.e. by checking if their clients are the rich or the poor. Genuine mystics serve the poor and the needy but the pretender works on the rich albeit in a holy garb surrounded by spiritual stuff to enhance the act.

It may be pointed out that there is nothing wrong in engaging in a business that caters primarily to the rich. They are the best section of society to do business with. The problem arises when the business is cloaked in a spiritual garb, because spirituality is about disinterested service and not about business. It is evil, like cloaking the use of violence in a spiritual garb, because spirituality is about love, not violence.

They do not purchase tea or coffee but the flowers and herbs of the forest offers them a variety of drinks, a different one for each season, sweetened with the honey from the bees that the bees gladly offer to them in return for protection and care, love and compassion they provide, the same love and compassion they provide to all other life in the forest.. The popularity of a single herb like tea amongst a wide section of humanity is like the popularity of a single religion, political philosophy or a single operating system on your computer - the result of clever business marketing practices.

They have no one to impress so they need only that extra robe of common cotton and not a tuxedo, a black suit and a tie. Since their needs are down to  a minimum they do not have to make that painful daily commute to their job but just go for a walk by the river instead to hear the music of the gurgling brook, tweeting birds and the dance of the butterflies or more to keep themselves occupied they may briefly tend to their vegetable patch, fruit trees and a couple of pet cows or more to keep disciples busy if they have some. Mystics tend to attract disciples as flowers attract the bees, and unless they take steps to prevent that, mystics can easily end up with a crowd of dedicated followers. Whether a mystic encourages that or not depends upon the task they may be engaged in in any particular phase of their practice, for these differ with each, some require isolation and others require engagement.

Mystics who have a little land for their use besides forests rarely if ever grow things like wheat, rice or barley. That is the job of farmers and they can easily get some in return for some of their surplus milk, fruits and nuts - apples, jack fruit, almonds and chestnuts; but they do love to grow fruits, flowers and vegetables, for their relationship is with Mother earth, Father Universe or the Lord and they do not have to put up with any human nagging when they return to their simple hut set amidst the wild flowers, trees and the sweet loving song of birds they feed every now and then, because they live sans human company with the angels and the Lord, at a distance from disciples if any. When they step out of their abodes the birds come and hop around them with a thank you and a tweet while a cow lifts it head for a loud moohello and in some cases the tigers or lions from the forest too drop in to rub their manes against his legs because he has rescued a few from a pit when they were cubs and fed them milk with a spoon or a bottle. Since their life is simple and disciplined they sleep well and are at peace to enjoy good health but god-forbid if they get into some deep pain or trouble they quickly exit to the other even nicer hut, without fear or hesitation,  that the Lord their savior has reserved for them.

But few from amongst men shall become mystics for the allure of what the world offers is extremely attractive and difficult to overcome. The world shall go on and there will be enough to grind their butts out to keep the few mystics amongst them fed in return for wise words and solace that they offer from time to time when the going gets a bit too tough to handle it all just by themselves or with the help of that shrewd old lady who understands the workings of the scheming world like the back of her hand and the tickle between her legs. Both kinds need each other and therefore both shall continue to exist as long as the planet does. it is the existence of opposites that makes creation possible.

The most well known and perhaps the most saintly of mystics i.e. those very close to the Universal consciousness amongst humans have been Jesus and Buddha, but there have been thousands of others who fall between the level of ordinary humans and saints, each with their own unique style and a few perhaps just as saintly as the leaders but perhaps not as widely known i.e. not as widely and vigorously propagated or marketed by followers charged with love, business zeal or a vested agenda.

LOL! laugh about it all because just as greed, passion and anger are the three gates to hell, laughter is a small side gate to heaven.

Image above  about Buddha was shared on facebook from https://www.facebook.com/TMmeditation?ref=stream

The book ‘The Babaji Affair’  by the author available with most leading online retailers contains stories of some Himalayan mystics, their lives, thoughts, doings and adventures while describing how they interact with the rest of humanity. The book contains stories of mystics that illustrate how these mystics may change the travails and agonies of ordinary humans into exhilarating joy and beauty with utmost ease. For within their austere, at times naked frames they hold a drop of the power of the Infinite Universal Consciousness that creates the universe merely with a wish or a smile.