Continuing Chapters 7 & 8

So, I've said that, for me, the crux of these two chapters is that they set about directly addressing the ultimate question: What is the one thing we can know that will give us ultimate knowledge?

In chapter 7, Krishna speaks as an embodiment of that answer. Krishna is speaking as God if you like. Or if you prefer, he is speaking as a manifestation of Universal Consciousness. He is acting as the very voice of the Theory of Everything. And he is trying to convey the essence of his nature:

8. I am the taste of living waters and the light of the sun and the moon.  I am OM the sacred word of the Vedas, sound in silence, heroism in men.
9. A am the pure fragrance that comes from the earth and the brightness of fire I am. I am the life of all living beings, and the austere life of those who train their souls.
10. And I am from everlasting the seed of eternal life. I am the intelligence of the intelligent. I am the beauty of the beautiful.
11. I am the power of those who are strong, when this power is free from passions and selfish desires. I am desire when this is pure, when this desire is not against righteousness.

These are the ways in which Krishna is expressing that 'He', as the manifestation of the Ultimate, is the very 'isness' of all things. He is the very essence, the very nature - the most fundamental cause and manifestation - of all things. He is Brahman, he is that upon which existence is founded, he is the Theory of Everything.

Again, I find it interesting to muse that in science, we don't say that the fundamental forces are 'in' the universe, or that the fundamental particles are 'part' of the universe. Instead, these are what the universe is. My body is made of cells, the cells of atoms, the atoms of protons, neutrons and electrons, the protons and neutrons are made of quarks. The quarks may be made of tiny strings. These are not artificial. Science hasn't made them. Instead they are each a step closer to the fundamental nature of all reality.

The Rishis, though, say that the fundamental nature of all reality is Sat Chit Ananda - Existence Consciousness Bliss.

The fundamental nature of reality is 'existence-consciousness-bliss'.

Remember I talked about emergence in the last post? About how something seemingly complex appears to emerge from something simple. This desk I am sitting on is cluttered with books, papers, keyboards, monitors, a tin of pepsi. But that complexity is just an illusion. It's all just atoms. 'Book' is just a concept we invent to describe a particular configuration of atoms. It's not really a book, that's just a feature that emerges from the underlying atoms.

They're not really atoms. Atoms are not real. Atoms are just a feature that emerge from the underlying protons, neutrons and electrons.

They're not really protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are not real. They are just a feature that emerges from the underlying quarks (called Truth, Beauty and Charm).

They are not really quarks. Quarks are not real. Quarks are just a feature that emerges from the underlying strings.

They are not really strings. Strings are not real. Strings are just a feature that emerges from the underlying Consciousness.

This is stated again in the next verse:

12. And know that the three Gunas come from me...But I am not in them: they are in me.

And to continue:

13. How the whole world is under the delusion of these shadows of the soul, and knows not me though forever I am!
14. My mysterious cloud of appearance is hard to pass beyond; but those who in truth come to Me go beyond the world of shadows.

So, the Gunas, the Yogic aspects of nature are in Krishna, not He in them. I've often heard it said that 'there is no room in science for God', and Krishna here is saying just that! Science - the natural world - does not contain 'God' or the ultimate reality. Rather, God contains all else. There is no room in science for God. But certainly, there is room in God for science!

The whole world is under the delusion of these shadows of the soul. By 'shadows', I understand 'things which have appearance but no real substance', and by this I understand protons and atoms etc. These are not 'real' things, these are 'shadows of the soul', or 'things manifested from the underlying consciousness'. The whole world is existing in the belief that manifest nature is the ultimate reality.

The 'mysterious cloud of appearance' is exactly the same. Another term describing the manifest world as something fleeting, and ultimately unreal. Again for 'world of shadows'.

So, 'those...who come to Me' go beyond the world of shadows. Remember Krishna is speaking as a manifestation of the Ultimate ExistenceConsciousnessBliss, and so when he says 'comes to Me', he means someone who has direct conscious experience of that ultimate Consciousness which is the fundamental basis of all existence. On having that experience, one 'goes beyond' normal existence. Again this emphasises that the ultimate reality is beyond this manifest world, and is of the nature of pure Consciousness.

For someone who loves science, and has for my whole life felt a strong pull to both God and Science, this is tremendously exciting. This means that finding the Grand Unified Theory, or the Theory of Everything is not an objective, detached experience. Rather, the ultimate answer to the question of the Theory of Everything is experiential: the only way to find the answer is to become the answer. Imagine that! Even better than being awed and moved at an incredibly beautiful set of field equations: you can actually be the answer to the ultimate question. You can have your existence as the conscious manifestation of the ultimate answer to the ultimate question!

Now that's got to be worth striving for!

Bhagavad Gita Chapters 7 and 8, The Mundaka Upanishad and CERN

For this months Mrityunjaya session I am suggesting we consider chapters 7 and 8 of the Bhagavad Gita.

Each chapter is very short, consisting of 30 and 28 verses respectively.

The reason they have piqued my interest this month is that they relate very much to what is going on at CERN with the Large Hadron Collider. Not so much it's immediate goal of finding the Higgs Boson, but what it represents in terms of the human races' quest for what science used to call the 'Grand Unified Theory', and now calls the 'Theory of Everything'.

What science is striving for is a single theory, or model, or piece of knowledge that on it's own and by itself describes how the Universe came into existence, and how the Universe operates. In other words, what they want to know, is, what is that one thing, which when known, gives the knowledge of all things.

Which is interesting, because here is verse 3 of the First Khanda of the Mundaka Upanishad:

3. Saunaka, the great householder, approached Angiras respectfully and asked: 'Sir, what is that through which, if it is known, everything else becomes known?'.

Sound like a familiar question?

Now, I hate pseudo science, and have no time for it at all. But taking the most open-minded outlook I am capable of, that sounds to me like Saunaka was asking for a Theory of Everything.

Of course, the 'everything' is understood differently. Modern scientists are looking to fill some embarrassing and troublesome gaps in a couple of amazingly accurate theories that between them come tantalisingly close to covering everything. They are looking for particles missing from the Standard Model of Quantum Mechanics, and also trying to do away with some meddlesome 'free variables'. The existence of mass is one such 'free variable'. The Standard Model takes mass for granted, and doesn't explain it. Professor Higgs extended the model to remove this omission with some truly groovy mathematics and not a little imagination. The idea of the LHC is to see if the prof is correct. If so, that's a step towards a complete 'Theory of Everything'. Another thing that needs closing off in science is the chasm between two astoundingly successful models of the universe, one for small things (atoms) and one for big things (bigger than a few atoms). Sadly, these theories cannot both be right on a deeper level. They both work amazingly well in their own right, but in a very dep way, they contradict each other. At least one of them is wrong at a fundamental level, possibly (I'd say probably) both.

So that's all really technical stuff, and highly mathematical. It seems unlikely that either Saunaka or Angiras had a grip on modern physics.

But they and modern physics are, still, nevertheless, both asking precisely the same question: What really is the Universe? Where did it come from? And please give me one piece of knowledge that can provide all the answers!

Let's think about that. At least many hundreds, and possibly thousands, of years ago, a group of people who lived on the shores of the Ganges had somehow come to the conclusion that there is a single piece of knowledge that gives the answers to all questions. And yet the same idea didn't surface in Western Science until really quite recently, and only really did so because it was found, about 80 years ago, that Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity could not work together!

Science doesn't yet have an answer, and I have a radical, unpopular and - to be honest - unfounded, opinion as to why that is.

In my opinion - and that's all it is - the reason Science does not have, and cannot have, an answer to their own problem is that they do not factor Consciousness into the equations. Science does not really accept the existence of consciousness. Most scientists believe that it is simply an illusion caused by the the complexity of the human brain. Imagine a ball of string accidentally tangled up in such a way as to look like a face. There is no face. The face has no real existence, but the complexity of the way the string is tangled causes the impression of a face to emerge. That's a close analogy to the current reductionist view of consciousness. They even use the term 'emergent feature'. The brain is so complex that the impression of consciousness emerges, but has no reality.

Hmm. Ok.

So who is it that is deluded into perceiving this emergence?

Well, that's another matter.

My point is that I believe science will continue to fail until it realises that Consciousness is not only an intrinsic aspect of the Universe - every bit as much as gravity, for example - but is in fact, a huge step towards answering the ultimate question:

'What is that through which, if it is known, everything else becomes known?'

And of course, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita approach the question from the perspective Consciousness, not the perspective of the Strong, Weak, Elctromagnetic and Gravitic forces. The starting point for the philosophers of the Upanishads was not rolling balls down slopes and watching apples fall from trees. Their starting point was similar to the finishing point of Rene Descartes: I think therefore I am. For the Vedic seers, consciousness was the most refined and most promising start point for their investigations into the absolute nature of existence.

So, whilst Science has progressed looking ever outwards, investigating the interactions of 'things', the Vedic philosophers delved inwards. This lead scientists to the fundamental forces of Nature, and lead the Vedics to the fundamental Nature of mind.

Now, both of these things are great, and I am not in any way denigrating Science. In fact, I adore Science.

But maybe it becomes clear why the same question - precisely the same question - has lead to very different attempts to answer it.

So, what is the answer given by Angiras? Well, his answer is in fact the rest of the Mundaka Upanishad, which is long, obscure and wrapped in Hindu thought. But contained within it are some nuggets. In fact, contained within is the answer. But I feel that a better version of the answer to largely the same question is given by Krishna in the Gita, chapters seven and eight.

Interestingly, Krishna directly alludes to Mundaka in Chapter 7 verse 2:

2. And I will speak to thee of that Wisdom and vision which, when known, there is nothing else for thee to know.

He continues:

5. But beyond my visible nature is my invisible Spirit. This is the fountain of life whereby this universe has its being.

By 'visible nature', we should understand 'nature which is detectable', so this includes the fundamental particles and forces. The invisible Spirit should not be taken to mean 'magnetism', as is so often and so infuriatingly done, or as any of the other forces of nature that are 'invisible' to the naked eye. The Spirit to which Krishna alludes is something beyond this normal range of detectable objects and forces.

7. In this whole vast universe there is nothing higher than I. All the worlds have their rest in me, as many pearls upon a string.

Here's an interesting coincidence. Of course the name 'Krishna' means black or dark. Just today in the Sunday Times there was an article about a bunch of scientists who conjecture that the distribution of galactic clusters and superclusters are formed along vast ribbons of dark matter.

So, for now, that's plenty.

Maybe those attending our next session could read Chapters 7 and 8, and see what thoughts come to mind for discussion!

Catching Up

Well, the May event happened, and was really good. We had, I think, ten people on the night, and we can run to a few more with a bit of creative seating.

A couple of people mentioned that they would be happy to do more chanting than we have been doing, so I'm going to look towards adding a couple more mantras into the mix.

Unfortunately, we didn't get chance to talk about the Gita this time, which is perhaps as well, as even I hadn't looked at the verses in preparation, and I chose them!

So, I tink this time we'll keep the same verses. They can be found in this post (Chapter 5, verses 4-12), and I wil start to put my thoughts about them together as soon as I can.

Bhagavad Gita 5: 4 - 12

These are the verses I suggest for contemplation for our next Saturday Sadhana (from Mascaro):

5.4 Ignorant men, but not the wise, say that sankhya and yoga are different paths; but he who gives all his soul to one reaches the end of the two.
5.5 Because the victory won by the man of wisdom is also won by the man of good work. That man sees indeed the truth who sees that vision and creation are one.
5.6 But renunciation, Arjuna, is difficult to attain without Yoga of work. When a sage is one in Yoga, he soon is one in God.
5.7 No work stains a man who is pure, who is in harmony; who is master of his life, whose soul is one with the soul of all.
5.8 'I am not doing any work' thinks the ma  who is in
5.9 harmony, who sees the truth. For in seeing or hearing, smelling or touching,  eating or walking or sleeping or breathing, in taling or grasping or relaxing, and even in opening or closing his eyes, remembers: 'It is the servants of my soul that are working'.
5.10  Offer all thy works to God, throw off selfish bonds, and do thy work. No sin can then stain thee, even as waters do not stain the leaf of the lotus.
5.11 The yogi works for the purification of the soul: he throws off selfish attachment, and thus it is only his body, or his senses, or his mind or his reason that works.
5.12 This man of harmony surrenders the reward of his work and thus attains final peace: the man of disharmony, urged by desire, is attached to his reward and remains in bondage.

March/April Meeting

Well, the March/April meeting went ahead last night. There were six of us in all and it was a good session, I think.
I hadn't had much time to give thought to the Gita verses, and there wasn't rally much discussion about them, as I don't think anyone else had either.
The event took place in the evening of a MADYA seminar (Pornamurti and I are on the MADYA committee), and it left us in a bit of a rush to arrange everything.
The events are small but very enjoyable. I'd like to see a few more people ideally...

Bhagavad Gita 2.9-18

2.9 When Arjuna the great warrior had thus unburdened his heart, 'I will not fight, Krishna,' he said, and then fell silent.

2.10 Krishna smiled and spoke to Arjuna - there between the two armies the voice of God spoke these words:

2.11 Thy tears are for those beyond tears; and are thy words words of wisdom? The wise grieve not for those who live; and they grieve not for those who die - for life and death shall pass away.

2.12 Because we all have been for all time: I, and thou, and those kings of men. And we all shall be for all time, we all for ever and ever.

2.13 As the spirit of our mortal body wanders on in childhood, and youth, and old age, the Spirit wanders on to a new body: of this the sage has no doubts.

2.14 From the world of the senses, Arjuna, comes heat and cold, and pleasure and pain. They come and they go: they are transient. Arise above them, strong soul.

2.15 The person whom these cannot move, whose soul is one, beyond pleasure and pain, is worthy of life in Eternity.

2.16 The unreal never is: the Real never is not. This truth indeed has been seen by those who can see the true.

2.17 Interwoven in his creation, the Spirit is beyond destruction. No one can bring to an end the Spirit which is is everlasting.

2.18 For beyond time he dwells in these bodies, though these bodies have an end in their time: but he remains immeasurable, immortal. Therefore, great warrior, carry on thy fight.

Mascaro.

Bhagavad Gita 3.29 - 31

Continuing my look at the verses selected for the next Mrityunjaya meeting, lets move on to verse 29:

29. Those who are deluded by the qualities of material nature become attached to material activities.

The cause of attachment to material activities is delusion brought on by misunderstanding of the qualities of material nature.

The nature of the misunderstanding was mentioned previously: the idea that we carry out actions, and that we have a a conscious free-will.

It is this delusion of our activity in the world that gives rise to us believing we have some kind of investment in what goes on. We believe, mistakenly, that we are making decisions, and we are carrying out actions, and therefore we feel a sense of responsibility and ownership for the results of those actions. We also believe that just as we make our decisions and our own choices, so do other people. So when someone else does something that contradicts our expectations and desires, we get all hot under the collar about that, too.

It is our delusional belief that we are acting and being acted up by others that leads us to this feeling of interacting with the world, when in fact our true nature is as observer of the world.

30. Dedicating all actions to Me, meditating on the Supreme Spirit, becoming free from the wising and selfishness fever, you must fight!

We all know that 'fight' is figurative, and part of the story structure of the Gita, and that what it really means that we must do our duty. We must carry out our lives by following our Dharma and our samskaras.

And we can best achieve this by dedicating al actions to Krishna (or however you choose to name your conception of the Devine). So we perform our actions, to the best of our abilities, but we do them not for ourselves, but for God. Keeping God in mind at all times, we perform our duties with no selfishness, and no formulation of wishes for the results or outcome of our actions, as our actions are not ours, they belong entirely to God.

31. Whoever constantly practices tis teaching of Mine, with pure faith and without complaint, is released from karma.

Released from karma.

I can think of two ways of interpreting this: The way for mere mortals, and the real deeper meaning that applies only to those really elevated beings we hear about on occasion.

The interpretation for mere mortals, such as myself:

Released from Karma does not really mean 'released from karma'. Karma is a natural law and applies to everyone and everything. What this means is, because you are no longer attached, you are no longer impacted emotionally, intellectually or otherwise by the events that occur to you. Stuff still happens, but you understand that it's not really you it is happening to. Stuff is happening, and it's just forces of nature acting on other forces of nature. You are not involved in it anywhere. You just observe, perform your duty with dedication to God.

But what it really mean is:
Karma is a natural law. That's like saying 'released from the laws of physics'. Hmmm.

Well, some people are that released. Some people so seriously 'grok' that they are not in this world, that they are just the observer, that they are genuinely no longer bound by it's laws.

Maharaji swallowed enough LSD give an elephant the trip of it's lifetime, but it had no effect on him at all. Because, tripping is the consequence that follows if one is subject to the laws of nature, and Maharaji was not so subjected. Te laws of physics state that you can only be in one place at one time. Maharaji was frequently seen in multiple places at the same time. He would be at a festival in Brindavan, with hundreds of devotees, and on the same day he would be in his Kainchi ashram with hundreds of others. The laws of physics say this is impossible. But Maharaji was not subject o the laws of physics.

Karma is just another such law, and in the final stage, freedom from karma ia accompanied by freedom from all limits.

This type of miracle is very rarely mentioned in the Satyananda tradition. It's not a tradition with a big focus on the sensational, but when we were in Rikhia in October, I was taling to one of the Swamis, and they mentioned something. They mentioned that at one of the big events where many people are fed at the ashram, the feast was underway, and the person managing the kitchen came to realise that people were taking much more of the sweets than had been anticipated, and there would be a considerable shortage, and not everyone would be served.

So the kitchen wallah ran to Paramahamsa-ji and said 'Paramahamsa-ji, we are running out of sweets, and there will not be enough for everyone!'

Before Paramahamsa-ji could answer, another swami ran in and said 'Paramahamsa-ji, the sweet seller from Deoghar has just arrived with two carloads of sweets. He decided to close shop today, and give them all to you!'

Paramahamsa-ji turned to the first fellow and said, 'Why are you bothering me about having too few sweets! You can see we have plenty!'

February Verses - 3.28

I said I had some thoughts on this verse. And I do.
Hopefully I'll be able to express them.

Here's the verse:

28. But those who know the truth, O Arjuna, understand the relationship between the gunas and action, and are not attached.

Or from Mascaro:

28. But the man who knows the relation between the forces of Nature and actions, sees how some forces of Nature work upon other forces of Nature, and becomes not their slave.

We'll have to excuse the 'man' references. Genderless pronouns are not very comfortable in the English language.

So, 'the man who knows the relation beween the gunas and action'.

This is quite strong stuff. In these two verses (this and verse 27) is the denial of free will, and the statement that it is the belief in free will that causes suffering (attachment).

"the man lost in selfish delusion thinks that he himself is the actor"

So says verse 27. So, to believe oneself the actor is delusional. But, if I am not the actor, then what is the actor?

in fact all actions are carried out by the [...] qualities of nature.

All actions are carried out by the qualities of nature. Not by me.

...some forces of Nature work upon other forces of Nature...

So, action, or change, is just forces of nature acting upon each other. No mention of conscious decision. Because, from the perspective of the Gita, so called conscious decision is just another action. And so it comes about by the acting of forces of Nature upon one another.

In other words, there is no conscious decision. A 'decision' is just a consequence of the interacting forces of Nature. The idea that we can decide anything, is delusional. The idea that we act.

So all of existence, including our own actions, and the delusion that we ourselves take those actions, is merely the ebb and flow of cause and effect. It is the eddying of the flow of karma.

And it is by not realising this that we become involved in the world. We believe we are making our own decisions, and we believe we are making our actions, and when things turn out other than we expect, we get unhappy. And when things go as we wish, we get happy. We either become attached to what is, or we become attached to what is not.

If, on the other hand, we see material existence as simply the interplay of the forces of nature, and we understand that we (or what we perceive as 'we') are just a leaf floating on the eddies of karma, then we can avoid attachment. We can float through life without being battered against the rocks.

So we don't change anything by our actions. Because our actions are not our actions. Whatever we do, no matter how much we agonise over it, that's what was always going to happen, and he only thing we achieved by agonising over the decision was the creation of agony. Or rather, the illusion of agony, in our illusory minds.

The Bhagavad Gita needs a word. Unfortunately, the word was not invented until about 1960. That word is 'grock'. Grock is a martian word.

The Gita says:

28. But those who know the truth, O Arjuna, understand the relationship between the gunas and action, and are not attached.

Well, I know that truth. But I'm not liberated. But that's because the Gita meant to say 'those who grock the truth'.

Robert Heinlein invented the work grock. It means to know. Not just to know, but to REALLY know. To have something so fundamentally in your knowingness that it goes beyond mere knowing, and is fundamental to your truth.

For example, I am Phil Lewis. I grock that completely. There is nothing anyone can say or do to convince me I am actually someone else. I breathed in just now. I don't just know that: I grock it. It's so fundamentally true to me, that the knowing that I just inhaled goes beyond mere knowing.

And that's how we get free. Not by merely knowing that we are leaves on the wind of karma, but by grocking it.

Baba Neeb Karori grocked it. He grocked it in public.

So, one day in the morning, he told the people at the house where he was staying to prepare dinner for an extra 18 people.

In the afternoon, Ram Dass and his party were driving along, and they had to decide. Should they go straight to Maharaji (who nobody had told they were coming), or should they divert to Khumb Mela. In the late afternoon, they made their decision. They went straight to Baba. They were all astounded (as were the hosts) when the amount of food prepared was perfect, and the 18 people in the bus arrived just as it was being served.

But it's very simple to explain. Nobody decided to skip visiting Khumb Mela. Nobody decided to go straight to Maharaji. They always were going to Maharaji, and there was no decision to be made.

February Verses - Some thoughts on 3.27

These are some of my thoughts on the verses from the Gita chosen for the February meeting.

Firstly, the overall 'gist' of the passage is duty, why it is important to perform ones duty, and how one should approach that duty.

Verse 27 tells us that

"He whose mind is confused by egoism imagines 'I am the doer', whereas in fact all actions are carried out by the three qualities of nature."

So the concept of 'I am the doer' is an imagination of the ego. The ego is the little self, the 'I' who I mean when I think 'I am typing this blog'. So whenever that I thinks 'I am doing...' anything, then that is an imagining of the 'I' itself. Really, 'I' am not doing anything, and 'I' never can. Events are occurring, events are unfolding, and the sense that 'I' am responsible for any of those events is an egotistical illusion. In truth 'I' is not capable of 'doing' anything (for confirmation of this, just ask my wife!).

So, 'in fact, all actions are carried out by the three qualities of nature'. Hmmm. I'm not sure that's a good translation. I think the translator has imposed a Sankhya interpretation where it is not appropriate. The Verse in the Gita says:

"prakriteh kriyamaanaani
gunaih karmaani sarvasaha
ahankaara vimoohaatmaa
kartaaham iti manyate"

Word for literal, this is:

"ordinary-state honourable-operation
quality engaged-in all-enduring
ego free-self
I-doer so believe"

The important point here is that the word gunaih does not carry any connotation of 'three'. Often in yoga, we think of Sattvas Rajas and Tamas whenever the gunas are mentioned. In fact, this interpretation of the Gunas is quite specifically belonging to the Sankhya philosophy. Whilst Sankhya is mentioned in and treated by the Gita, it is not the overriding philosophy of the Gita, which is Yogic and Puranic.

In Yogic and Puranic philosphy, the term Gunas more classically applies to the five gunas as represented by the tattwas: akasha, vayu, tejas, apas, prithivi (spirit, air, fire, water, earth). In other passages where the Sankhya gunas are the intended meaning, they are described explicitly as tribhirguna: 'three sided gunas', or 'triple aspect gunas'.

I personally find it easier to understand this verse as saying that all actions are carried out by these elemental gunas, rather than being carried out by the abstract sankhya gunas. But maybe I am wrong?

The next verse states that if you understand the relationship between these gunas and action, then you are freed from attachment. I have a take on that, and hope to get a chance to blog about it in the next couple of days...

February Mrityunjaya

Next months Mrityunjaya session will be held on Saturday 26th February. 7PM for a 7:30PM start.

For more information, email mrityunjaya dot mantra at gmail dot com.

We will be following roughly the same program. Hopefully my cow dung will have arrived from India, and we will be able to perform Mrityunjaya as a havan!

As this is the first time we'll be doing the 'reading circle', I've taken the liberty of choosing the passage for the this meeting. I have chosen Bhagavad Gita, 3.27-35.

From Juan Mascaro:

27. All actions take place in time by the interweaving of the forces of Nature; but the man lost in selfish delusion thinks that he himself is the actor. 

28. But the man who knows the relation between the forces of Nature and actions, sees how some forces of Nature work upon other forces of Nature, and becomes not their slave. 

29. Those who are under the delusion of the forces of Nature bind themselves to the work of these forces. Let not the wise man who sees the All disturb the unwise who sees not the All .

30. Offer to me all thy works and rest thy mind on the Supreme. Be free from vain hopes and selfish thoughts, and with inner peace fight thou thy fight. 

31. Those who ever follow my doctrine and who have faith, and have a good will, find through pure work their freedom. 

32. But those who follow not my doctrine, and who have ill-will, are men blind to all wisdom, confused in the mind; they are lost. 

33. 'Even a wise man acts under the impulse of his nature: all beings follow nature. Of what use is restraint?' 

34. Hate and lust for things of nature have their roots in man's lower nature. Let him not fall under their power: they are the two enemies in his path. 

35. And do thy duty, even if it be humble, rather than another's, even if it be great. To die in one's duty is life: to live in another's is death.

From 'Walking with the Gita' (MacCuish et al):

27. He whose mind is confused by egoism imagines 'I am the doer', whereas in fact all actions are carried out by the three qualities of nature. 

28. But those who know the truth, O Arjuna, understand the relationship between the gunas and action, and are not attached. 

29. Those who are deluded by the qualities of material nature become attached to material activities. 

30. Dedicating all actions to Me, meditating on the Supreme Spirit, becoming free from the wising and selfishness fever, you must fight! 

31. Whoever constantly practices tis teaching of Mine, with pure faith and without complaint, is released from karma. 

32. But those who, out of envy, disregard these teachings and misunderstand everything, become lost and are the cause of their own suffering. 

33. All beings act according to their own nature, even the wise. Why try to force anything to be otherwise? 

34. It is natural for the sense o be attracted to that which is pleasant and to reject the unpleasant, but you must not come under the power of these two forces, because they are your enemies. 

35. It is better to perform your own duty imperfectly, than someone else's perfectly. In fact, it is better to die in ones own duty, because following someone else's path is dangerous.

First Saturday Mrityunjaya

Poornamurti and I are now holding once monthly Maha Mrityunjaya sessions, on the last saturday of each month.

At these sessions, we will open with Shanti Mantra, chant Mrityunjaya 108 times, followed by Guru Stotram. We'll then chant anything else anyone wishes to suggest.

We are also going to try to specify a verse or passage from a 'suitable source' each month. We'll publish this at least a couple of weekse before the meeting. Those interested can then read, cogitate, meditate etc on the passage, and we can discuss at the meeting.

Finally, we shall close with Shanti Path.

This Saturday was the first of these. We had not yet decided to do the readings thing, but Saddhana had brought along the Sankalpa of Paramahamsa Satyananda-ji, which she read out for us. It's beautiful piece of writing:

I am an invisible child of a thousand faces of love

That floats over the swirling sea of life,

Surrounded by the meadows of the winged shepherds,

Where stillness of divine love and beauty

Rain in the spring and bloom in the midnight

Summer’s warmth of softness.

Often I pass to the place

Where there is no separation of the sun and moon,

But where eternal light spreads a carpet

Of sparkling reflections of itself

Within the hearts and eyes of all,

Even those who are blind to see.

Where sweetness has no taste,

For it is the essence of all beings,

And where teardrops water flowers of happiness

And pass into brooklets of experience

And then to the open sea.

Life often cuts at my body and mind,

And though blood may be seen passing,

And a cry might be heard,

Do not be deceived that sorrow could dwell within my being,

Or suffering within my soul.

There shall never be a storm

That can wash the path from my feet,

The direction from my heart, the light from my eyes,

Or the purpose from this life.

I know that I am untouchable to the forces

As long as I have a direction, an aim, a goal: To serve, to love, and to Give.

Strength lies in the magnification of the secret qualities

Of my own personality, my own character,

And though I am only a messenger, I am me.

Let me decorate a thousand faces with colour of inspiration

And soft, silent sounds of value.

Let me be like a child,

Run barefoot through the forest

Of laughing and crying people,

Giving flowers of imagination and wonder that God gives free.

Do I have time to ask whom I shall love?

From whom shall ask for something more

Than all I have been given,

Or what is meant by the signs that pass before my windows?

I learnt to read half a century ago but found it useful

Only for speaking to those who continue to live by books.

I shall not pretend to understand

Nor shall I try to reason for the satisfaction of rationalisation.

Yesterday I sat in the park and shared an orange

And an afternoon with the divines and myself

And who am I?

Don’t be deceived by my words, my manner, my way,

Or by my friendliness, or by the image of that of a man.

I sleep, eat, talk and play with you and others,

But remember that the gift of inspiration, or perfection,

Is a priceless island of treasure,

Which that whom we call God placed at the end of the rainbows.

If I believe I have the strength to hold back seas, to move mountains,

And the determination to live and love life,

It is because I have felt and seen an image of inspiration

Visible to my unseeing eyes.

Yes, yesterday I cried when I read sorrow in the heart of my love,

For I am more than human,

And I laughed from my belly

When I saw two camels playing in a sea of yellow.

I am not insensitive, nor have I dulled my senses,

But never shall I become submerged or lost

In the experience of these images,

Of these feelings, of these emotions.

Don’t think that as a child

My heart cannot turn as hard as stone,

When the arrow of opposition to what I believe in

Tries to pierce my centre of principle and character.

I have a cause, a meaning, a worth for individuality,

All as a means for living in this life,

For striding steps forward, for achieving a mission.

Shall I fall on bended knees

And wait for someone to bless me

With happiness and a life of golden dreams

No. I shall run into the desert of life with my arms open,

Sometimes falling, sometimes stumbling,

But always picking myself up;

A thousand times if necessary,

Sometimes happy.

Often life will burn me,

Often life will caress me tenderly

And many of my days will be haunted

With complications and obstacles

And there will be moments so beautiful

That my soul will weep in ecstasy.

I shall be a witness,

But never shall I run or turn from life, from me.

Never shall I forsake myself or the timeless lessons I have taught myself

Nor shall I let the value of divine inspiration and being be lost.

My rainbow coloured bubble

Will carry me further than beyond the horizon’s settings,

Forever to serve, to love, and to live as a sannyasin.

Poornamurti and I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to those who attended, and hope to see you all again at future gatherings. For those who cold not come this time, please know that you are alway welcome.

Here is a photo of the little altar we put in place: