Dance of Shiva

I wrote this to a person who I came in touch on Ryze.

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Dear Dr. Alam,

It seems you wanted to connect with me. My apologies on not being able to call you up, inspite of my intention to do so. Work has been quite pressing last few weeks.

Just got a chance to get online to read your posts in the god-talk network, which I have posted at the end of this message for your reference.

Having read the same, I am sorry to say it is very dissappointing that this comes from a PhD holder. I’ve wanted to sit and meet you and try and question your thinking and beliefs for quite sometime now. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to get this discussion on my list of priorities. Anyway, for now, I am going to take you head on.

Firstly, the use of the word Allah, as a preference of over using God, itself has deep root in your thinking, which I believe is the root cause of Islamic fundamentalism. During my visits to several countries I’ve (and so have my relatives observed this) noticed car bumber stickers and wall hangings saying "There is no God but Allah". This reference to God in one particular language (Arabic) and refusing existence of the same spiritual force, in any other language, is an example of extreme fundamentalism. I am afraid, inspite of using His references as ‘Allah/God’ your references of God as Allah in an earlier post, and in this as well, shout out of the same fundamentalism.

Secondly, does Allah command? This judgmental God/Allah is someone who does not appeal to me at all. There are many more beautiful definitions or experiences of God which have been talked about in books and by different spiritual messengers who have been born and continue to be born.

This brings me to another point. In your belief, all messengers stopped after Muhhammad. This is a very sad state of thinking. The topic of the discussion where you posted this message was "Pagan Christ", a book written by someone, and having read a review by another person, I observed the key message being that "any human being could become the Christ; christdom existed as a latent energy in all humanity, and the church worked to suppress this truth about christ’s message".

This is completely consitent with all Indian faiths. Kabir and Sai Baba, both inspite of being muslims, are reverred as God himself in our country by Hindus and Muslims (although there are more Hindus who have adopted Sai Baba than Muslims; Muslims have infact ignored him and his message). I had a discussion with a muslim girl colleague of mine, who differentiated between Muhammad and say Sai Baba (or Guru Nanak, Satya Sai Baba, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Eckhardt Tolle, others) as being ‘the chosen one’ and ‘Pir’. This is the problem with Islam. You reject anyway that this massive humanity can raise itself to Godhood, and the last human being who did so, was Muhammad himself.

Going by such fundamentalism, and while I have not read the Quran, it seems it even says if you are not a muslim, then you cannot go to heaven.

Did Gandhi go to heaven?

Also, where is this heaven?

Thirdly, you mention "…only submission to the communications of the commands of Allah is the most virtuous…". I have a different version of ’submission’. You version maybe of subservience; my version is called ’surrender’. To understand ’surrender’, you’ll have to dwell in a lot of Vedantic reading. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s, ‘Celebrating Silence’ is a good place to start.

I would highly recommend that to open your mind a bit, you read a non-Indian, non-Hindu writer - Neale Donald Walsch - and his triology - "Conversations with God - I, II, III". If you read it with a questioning mind, rather than a "subservient" mind, you will rise to a new level of spiritual consciousness. This is the best service to Allah/God that you could offer.

No one made Adam; no ones a sinner; we’re just here to experience - this endless cycle creation and destruction; the Big Bang and the eventual collapse of the universe will go on cyclical in this eternal game; You are here to experience yourself as Krishna. Krishna was again a human form, who was self-realised about his divinity. Then there are others like us who have a chance to do so in this human form - raise our consciousness to that of Muhammad, or Jesus, or Guru Nanak, or Buddha, or Al-Hallaj, or Rumi, or Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, or Eckhardt Tolle, or Andrew Cohen, or Ramana Maharishi, or Bahaullah, or Sai Baba, or Kabir, or Neale Donald Walsch, or Dr. Jaya Row, the list is endless.

Someone said "there are more spiritually self-realised people in India than probably the whole world put together". You’ve been born here for a reason. Be a seeker. For that you need to question all your beliefs and your premises. Even from the mere purpose of leading a healthy mental and emotional life, I think it is good to question, and discover Truth yourself. If you die not discovering it, my belief says you will get another chance, and another birth (also this is not merely belief now; there is a stream of medicine in Hynotherapy becoming extremely popular, and within it is a sub-stream of past-life regression; it maybe a good idea to read some material on that; there is a book called "road Less Travelled", by a leading psychiatrist of USA, and he mentions a premise in human evolution has to be the cycle of re-birth).

You have written "…n my quest for enlightenment…". Well, if you have the right spirit, experience enlightenment, not by subservience, but by questioning, finding, exploring. In India, ou have an opportunity to do so, like no other country.

God (or the Universal Force) instilled this quality to ‘question and think’ in us. Subservience is the worst form of disrespect to the Almighty.

Regards,
Rahul

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Dear Jack and Debra,

The main premise in all sects of Christianity is that Jesus is the Son of God

This is what is wrong as per the communications in Qur’an.As a Muslim/obedient one to the commands of Allah/God,Jesus Peace be on him was a messenger of Allah.This has been pointed out in the commands of Allah to Muhammad.Those who consider Jesus as son of Allah, are falling in a polytheistic trap and pious Christians never understood him as a son but a messenger.

and was sent down to teach of God’s love, His Plan, and His Ways, and to save us from our sin through his Crucifiction.

This is a false idea that he died for our sins.He was sinned by many in his times and those who sinned are accountabel to their sins. Allah will grant mercy to those He will.The birth of Jesus was like to the birth of Adam,who was created from clay.

Please read Qur’an and we will learn more as only submission to the communications of the commands of Allah is the most virtuous.

I have stated in previous posts that a great reference for many is Kenneth C. Davis’s "Don’t Know Much About the Bible". It goes into great detail regarding each section of the Bible and clarifies many of the questions we Christians have about it’s passages and their meanings. Some other great books that have helped me in my quest for enlightenment are:

Dear Jack and Debra,

I would like to also suggest reading from Maurice Bucaulle book on Quran,Bible and Science.

Please forgive me for being upfront.

I would have liked to write in more detail.
Seeking guidance for all and praying for the repvilege to all for seeking guidance from Allah.

http://www.thiaoouba.com/tomb.htm.

An excerpt:  

"…It is implied that Jesus acquired all his knowledge from scholars in Japan, went to Judea to teach and then escaped crucifixion. Someone else died on the cross. There was no resurrection. This “legend” cannot be true, because "Japanese Jesus" DID NOT preach and did not perform ANY miracles when he came to Japan after allegedly escaping crucifixion. How could Christ forget everything He knew?

According to "Thiaoouba Prophecy", Jesus (Joshua) born to virgin Mary in Bethlehem, after an "angel" from Thiaoouba (tYehova) implanted the embryo, escaped the slaughter of 2606 babies and arrived in Egypt. After surprising all scholars at the age of 12, he left his parents at 14 to travel with his 12 years old brother Ouriki to Burma, India and China. Eventually he arrived in Japan at the age of 50. He got married there, and had 3 daughters. Finally he died in Herai where he had lived for 45 years, gaining respect and love of everyone. Christ who appeared at Judea and died on the cross was another, very special man…."

That’s the title of a book which says that Jesus survived the Crucifixion and travelled to India. I have come across atleast two books on this topic earlier:

• Jesus Lived in India
• Jesus was a Hindu, by Savarkar

While both maybe ridiculed by Orthodox Christians and mainstream Historians, there is evidence in these two books worth exploring. It seems to be one of those things that no one wants to touch so as not to open a Pandora’s box of controvery.

Now, a friend forwarded a link to this website: http://www.tombofjesus.com/. So, there are many many moe books on the topic.

Also, a friend of mine, Imran, a Kashmiri, is making a film on Jesus’s years in India, including Varanasi, his studies of Hinduism, Shaivism in Kashmir, and final adoption and practice of Mahayana Buddhism, which has been influenced by Shaiviite philosophy and Advaita philosophy in the Hindu streams of thought.

Some additional links and things to think about:

•  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0946551995/ref=ase_thetombofjesusch/102-2074515-4228917?n=283155&tagActionCode=thetombofjesusch
• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1852305509/sr=1-1/qid=1152767525/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-2074515-4228917?ie=UTF8&s=books

Enjoy the links! 

Just got back after seeing a play organised by Vikram Sarabhai Foundation titled "Dear Bapu". The play was an exchange of letters between Gandhi and Nehru, during their 20 years of association in India’s Freedom movement.

I’ve disliked Gandhi, as I belong to the rather radical school of thought that we had the partition because of him, Pakistan was able to attack India in 1948 and lead to the Kashmir problem because of the Rs.20 Crore that he insisted we give to Pakistan, and a whole lot of similar issues such as the support for Khilafat movement, etc. I had somewhat read (as a kid) Nathu Ram Godse’s book of his testimony in court during his trial for assasinating Gandhi, and just like most kids have had this fascination for revolutionaries (I was brought up on Bruce Lee ).

hmmm… strange… I was writing this to praise Gandhi, but while writing some of the political blunders mentioned above, I became "present" once again, to crazy things that Gandhi did.

Anyhow. The play has left a nothing less than "profound" impact on my thinking, and what I have always thought of this man called Gandhi.

The more I  carefully heard the actors act out the conversations between Nehru and Gandhi, the more it dawned on me, that this man, was born a century earlier; very difficult to be comprehend in times of capitalistic fervour, where "money is power", and development and progressiveness of a civilisation/society is measured by the size of cars and the height of multistoreyed buildings.

At Centre for Science of Environment, New Delhi, I had read something which I will never forget in my lifetime - "Frugality is Indian tradition. Modernity sees Frugality as Poverty".

Gandhi lived this! He wanted the whole of India to live frugally - just on the basic material needs, required for minimalistic survival.

The issue of India living as slaves was raised by Nehru (and also by most of my family during a discussion on the play over dinner), if we lived in technological backwardness. However, the key here was that Gandhi wanted India to lead and set an example for the world, that it is possible to live frugally, and live well; and indeed it is the only way to "live progressively".

India getting invaded was not on his mind, I guess, as he had just played a HUGE role in throwing out one of the most powerful empire from his land. 

I am certain that India had no choice but to move in the direction of technological progress, but we forgot the small basic cultural and socio-economic values of our villages. We forgot that in the zeal to build Dams, IITs and Industries, we must even more focus on Spiritual values, Water harvesting through village ponds, primary education through village schools, and focus on local resources (forests, land and water).

India is in a mess, because we did no listen to Gandhi. He said he could not imagine that Mussalmans were not an integral part of India and were a separate nation; he disagreed with the word Independence and wanted to replace that with Poorna Swaraj which had a much deeper connotation to him, than the term’s English equivalent.

I read in Life Positive magazine recently that there are communities getting formed the world over, which are heralding the coming of the "new age".

It says "Their lifestyles usually include more than one of the following elements: intentional community, living by what one loves, ecological lifestyles, living simply, natural health and living, organic of natural farming, healing the earth, right livelihood, a personal spiritual practice, self organisation, alternative and local economic and social-support systems, multi-culture and diversity groups which cut across boundaries of belief, faith religion, nationality and race…..What is common to all of them is a dissillusionment with modern society with its materialistic, fragmentary and conflict-ridden systems, its artifice and exploitation of nature. They are also bound by a search for a more holistic and simpler way of life that is ecologically sound, meaningful and spiritually resonant."

Gandhi, it seems, was looking to create such a Commune in our world.

Gandhi believed, and wrote to Nehru, that he was acting as puppet of the Divine, and acted as he recieved instructions/inspiration. While Nehru was completely at a loss to understand why he would bring up references to God, during his advise to the Congress on resolutions, etc., I completely resonate with Gandhi on this one.

We’ve kept Spirituality out of Politics for far too long for our own good. Why only politics, we’ve kept it out of our medicine, our childbirth practices, our social fabric, agriculture, business and industry, education and food.

Nutan Pandit’s childbirth classes recently, were a revelation and a relief as she was reaching out with the same, shall I call it "Gandhian values" (or Spiritual values or even, traditional Indian values).

Fritjof Capra in his book "Uncommon Wisdom" talks about his discussion with one of leading researchers on Cancer - Dr. Simonton - learns how a person facing a stressful life situation or a crisis, responds  with several options, and among other things, develops Cancer or catatonic schizophrenia (but not both). Dr. Simonton then adds that apart from these two unhealthy ways to "escape" from a crisis, can also have a third kind of escape route - the one into social pathologies - violent and reckless behaviour, crime, drug abuse. He goes on to say, "If there is reduction in illness but at the same time it is an offset by an increasing crime rate, we haven’t done anything to improve the health of society".

The discusssion continues - "…If the escape into physical illness is blocked by medical intervention, the person might choose to escape into crime or into insanity". "That’s right", Simonton concluded, "and that is a much mor meaningful way of looking at health than from the narrow medical point of view. The question of whether medicine then has been successful becomes very interesting….If you are able to reduce physical illness but at the same time this increases mental illness or crime, what the hell have you done?".

Dr. R. D. Laing, one of the leading Psychiatrists the world has seen, during a disucssion on insanity, said to him, "..insanity is a sane response to an insane society."

Homoeopathy treats the person’s mind, and belongs to the holistic system of medicine, where a change is brought about in the thought process of a person. You could consider is "energy-medicine", and I would not shy away from equating the same with Ayurveda on the one hand, and with Pranic healing and Reiki on the other, while also not forgetting to equate it to Psychotherapy (in its non-Freudian form).

Gandhi wanted to create an "alternate world", and I guess his errors in judgement on Pakistan and his "supposed" minority appeasement must be seen with his idealistic world view. I say "supposed", as in his alternate idealistic world view, there should have been equality and no mistreatment for any community, including within Hinduism. Even the criticism attributed to him of giving separate status to backward classes, and thus further dissociating them from the society, by calling them "harijan", I suggest must be seen from his alternate world view.

The play was a revelation! This is the first time I have been able to articulate and bring together and put in a logical manner, my conversations with people and books, over the years. I hope this is just the beginning.

God bless Dr. Kamala Choudhury, a Gandhian, who concieved this play, and made it possible.

Change the people’s belief systems to address the World’s problems

The problem that India faces, and so does most of the world, is a Spiritual problem. It lies in two factors a)"God is someone other than us" and b)"exclusivity of God". Riots, Poverty, Conflicts, Wars, Fundamentalism, all these are symptoms of a deeper problem. Homoeopathic system of medicine, understands the symptoms but treats whole body, as one organ. It does not treat the human body as a set of different organs, which have to be treated separately, in case they develop a disease or begin to malfunction.

The world’s problems are similar. Christianity and Islam specifically, believe in the "exclusivity of their God/Allah", and their’s being the "true religion" and the "only means to God".

Add to this, a God whose word is ‘written in Stone’; without any opportnity for human beings to evolute to Godhood, a God who judges, and punishes if you do not do this or that; and you have the right recipe for perfect mess!

These religions in their preaching have reduced Human Beings, capable of becoming a Rumi, Bahau’llah, Buddha, Adi Sankara, Sai Baba, Meera Bai, Vivekanada, Al-Hallaj, Ravi Shankara and Guru Nanak, to mere cats and dogs, who have to follow a certain regimen, so as to reach some next-life paradise, by completely denying their human experiences in this life, killing if need be (themselves or others), to keep the word of their "only true God" (and in the case of Islam, even the name given in a particular language - "Allah" - is the only true name).

Till we realise that we are all rooted in One-ness - a complete being; where just like the if the Heart is malfunctioning Homoepaths look for a disease elsewhere; to treat poverty or a decline in Civil Society (which after all produces the Politicians) we have to look deeper into the human belief systems.

Everyone in the world has a belief - their own religon; it could be the religion of no-God, or an ‘exclusive-God or Allah’, or even ancient societies who worship nature - yet everyone has a religion and a belief underneath.

The problem has to be addressed in this space.

I am by no means suggesting that Hindus are not plagued by this disease, yet, the acceptability to other people’s "way to God" is deep-rooted; there is no ‘rightness’ about the Hindu way alone. The Hindu philosophy as a whole is completely rooted in "Aham Bhramasmi" (I am That) or "Shivoham" (I am Shiva). This is a reflection of the acceptance of human capability to reach Godhood - any human being, without any binding on religion, caste or sex, colour or race. So if a Sufi Saint such as Al-Hallaj calls out "I am That" (and displays it in actions - through Love and Compassion) - a Hindu would easily bend and touch his feet; the same is mostly not true for followers of Islam and Chritianity.

The moment we remove "exclusivity of God" and the concepts of a "judgemental God who punishes us for doing (or not doing) this or that" from our belief-system; and to this the flavour of "oneness" and "importance to human experience" (of even being God, among other experiences), then we can create a Hunger-free, Conflit-free, Peaceful and a Loving world.