THE GOSPEL OF KABIR

Kabir was an illiterate weaver but was realized with true knowledge about life. Living in the traditional city of Varanasi steeped in tradition and rituals it was impossible to convince the religious establishment about the simplicity of his message. They created an unfortunate ruckus about this caste and lack of erudition. The religious zealots of both communities as well as the military rulers insulted and persecuted him. He in turn also resorted to similar tactics to ridicule the establishment and their ways. He explained that experience is the only basis of true knowledge.  Without practice, without realization, erudition is only a burden on the mind.  The infinite cannot be comprehended through the finite means of intellect and logic, nor can it be described in language, which again is limited to the world of mind and matter. Kabir strongly rejected all external observances and worship and said that if by worshipping stone God could be met, he would have gladly adored a mountain. Even when he was near his death, while most people would reach Varanasi for their final breath, he walked out to die in Magahar (Uttar Pradesh) only to prove that it does not matter where the body is discarded. Such was the courage of his spirit and conviction. However to be fair, Kabir was not a rebel by any standards. His message and poems resonates with the rhythm of the Vedas, Upanishads and the teachings of Gautama Buddha. In a sense Kabir did not utter anything new that was unknown to this land but like the Buddha he only distributed existing knowledge in the language of the common folk. Like the Buddha Kabir too was self-realized and was loved by the ordinary folks but disliked by the upper castes who felt threatened by their sincerity and popularity.

Kabir laced his teachings and his poems with examples from the daily routine life which he saw around him, that of a weaver or a potter. He created link between their how they lived and how they ought to live. He motivated his followers to break their ties with this illusory and impermanent world and establish ties with the supreme formless and attributeless God. Kabir spoke about ‘dying while living’, ‘dying before death’, implying to become ‘dead’ or imperious to the world and its attachments, that is adopting a mental attitude of complete detachment from all physical comforts and needs. He said that the sense organs are the gateways through which one became entrapped and therefore one has to watch over the sense organs to remain detached and focused on God. For Kabir, God was the universal energy that existed in everything around us, and yet neither bound nor restricted to anything. God represented the life force freely flowing across various forms and the master of all moving and nonmoving elements. Such a God could never be known through texts and rituals or the outer sensory world. Such a God could only be found by turning one’s focus inwards, could only be experienced through meditation aided with name repetition. For the sake of his various followers he would chose to call his Master both Ram and Allah because naming it anything would not change its essence.

Kabir glorifies such a Master as the fountainhead of ambrosia and says that even if one is able to unite with the Master at the cost of one’s head, it is a cheap bargain. The realization of the Master within oneself is possible only when ego is completely annihilated.  Such a state is the apex of love and surrender.  Kabir always equated God as love and love as God.  One should always be absorbed in the love for the Master because longing strengthens love.  It makes love all-absorbing and intense.  Kabir proclaimed that love is the essence of all spiritual pursuits.  Love is also a path of agony, sighs and tears; it is a path of sacrificing one’s entire being. He alone is entitled to drink the nectar of love who offers the price of his head.

 Kabir considers the sole objective of life to be united with the Master and for that the path is within. The biggest obstacle on this path is the mind.  Kabir calls it a thief because it robs a man from pursuing his sole purpose of life and diverts him to mindless pursuits through lust, anger attachment, greed, avarice, jealousy, hate and ego, thus dissipating the precious opportunity of human birth. Mind also is always changing, always restless, never sticking to one form of pleasure but delights in variety and gives up one pleasure the moment it tastes something better. Moreover in the world every action has a motive force or causes behind it and in turn, every action becomes the cause of future effects.  This sequence of cause and effect, which keeps the soul confirmed within the perimeter of the worlds of mind and matter, is known as the law of Karma. The motive force behind all karmas in the mind, and body is the instrument that executes the mind’s dictates.  As a result of these actions, the mind comes back to the world again and again in different bodies and surroundings.  The soul, knotted together with the mind, has to follow.  Kabir says that the soul is tied by the chain of karmas like day and night. Even good deeds cannot liberate the soul from the chain of birth and death, for such is the inexorable law of cause and affects that in order to enjoy the reward of good actions, the soul has to come back to this world. Kabir suggest three ways to overcome the force of the threefold affliction of karma; namely acceptance, surrender and name repetition practice. Kabir says that the devotee can only be free of the bondage of the mind by concentrating it on the region of the universal mind i.e. the all-pervading power. When the devotee grasps the original state of the mind, the mind becomes still. For this one has to take the help of the mind, for only through the mind, the mind can be controlled and attain perfection. 

The feelings of success and failure that accompanies the process of going through one’s destiny lead to further karmic bonds.  Man therefore should accept with open arms whatever comes his way.  Kabir urges his followers to live in the world like a guest and not get involved in the affairs of the world. Living according to God’s will means doing one’s duty in the world without getting involved in it and without bothering about the result of one’s efforts.  Kabir compares the human body to a pot made by the great potter where the pot has no say and is entirely at the potter’s mercy.  The potter can put them in the open to face the sun and rain or store them carefully within his house. Since he has molded them he protects then from damage if he wants to or breaks them if he so desires.

Kabir describes his path as the middle path.  It is neither a path of attachment, nor of renunciation. It is neither of involvement, nor of segregation. It is neither of abstinence, nor of indulgence.  It is a path of moderation. The true follower stays in his family, fulfills his obligations and attends to his spiritual exercises thus attaining a state of inner renunciation while living in the world with discrimination, contentment and purity of thought and conduct.

Bibliography: (a) Kabir – The Weaver’s Song by Vinay Dharwadker published by Penguin Books, First published 2003.  (b) Sant Kabir – Bard of Ram and Rahim by Pandit Ram Sharan published by Vijay Goel, First edition 2009. (c) 1008 Kabir Vani – Nectar of Truth and Knowledge by lalchand Doohan ‘Jigyasu’ published by Manoj Publication 2008 edition.

CHANGING COMPLICATIONS

The other day, as I was signing the financial statements of a client, the officer sitting in front of me burst out remarking, “You are a very ambitious man and also a very complicated one.” I stared at him and he continued that my signature seems to suggest that I was ambitious and complicated at the same time. I nodded and smiled but refrained from opening my mouth. After they all left I wondered at the ordinary remark. It was causing extraordinary disturbance. I knew that I was complicated but the ambitious adjective sounded false. How could I accept it when I prided myself as a person completely disinterested in money? Now doubts crept in.

Am I ambitious? How? By what parameters do I become so? What is the real complication in me? Why are these facts hidden from me when it is so apparent through my signature? Of course the thought did cross my mind that the officer could be an idiot and must have just uttered some nonsense to ignite conversation. But then I had never met him before and he had no justifiable intentions to cause me harm. It looked more like he was simply expressing something which he had observed as a reality. So I went on questioning myself in utter disbelief.

Slowly over the next few days I unraveled the mystery to uncover some essential truths about myself which ultimately brought in some peace.

No doubt since the past few years the charm of earning money and wealth has lost its intensity on me. But then ambition is not merely about money alone. At the bottom of my heart I still do crave for name, fame, appreciation, praise, sex and love. My day dreams are mostly about such ambitions with a pretty lot of activities ranging from work to leisure.  In all my day dreams I am always the seeker but very soon I laugh at my dreams, chiding my flights of fancy. I wring the neck of my dreams, now if that isn’t a complicated personality. I strangulate my ambitions with the justification that they are not meant to come true but the silent existence of the ambition inside my heart I have never questioned till date. If my conviction were to be so strong then these ambitions should never have survived in the very first place. I am floored; there is no answer to that and therefore now even the money matter claims come under a cloud. Besides, the clandestine presence of the ego does nothing to simplify the issue. The ego rises its head time and again especially to assert that I deserve or don’t deserve this and that. Thus, while I generally loathe the overall kind of life that I am leading, I find that I am still rolling in its distinctive corners enjoying myself.

Well that is not the end of the problem. On the one hand while I continue to entertain silly but worldly ambitions, on the other hand I am becoming more and more interested in the altruistic way of living. This is a complication that I am living through as a change that I can feel and experience. In this regard a few realisations have stuck to my heart. They came in one by one, for the first time many years ago and since then repeatedly many times and again recently through some books. One can very well say that they have been implanted and yet they seem so natural to my heart, so comforting. 

One, the illusions that we create and play out in everyday life so seriously amounts to nothing at all in the end. In the long run there is no such thing as good or bad, success or failure, big or small, white or black or even multi-colors. At the moment of the event it looks most important but from the very next moment, its importance starts to diminish until over time becomes zero. Some events take a negative value and sometimes the facts of the story changes to become a myth. For instance today religion is full of such supernatural myths which many thousand years ago would have been a popular history with some magic but atleast near to natural or normal, which again still earlier would have been actual events but with very different and ordinary facts. Then again while every living person has a personal story, for some reason known only to nature, only a rare few survive the test of time and value. Most fade out. Cities decay and die, places of worship and other structures crumble and fall, kingdoms vanish into the air, events of art and adventure are surpassed and forgotten, fashion and jewelry change with the winds, shape and size of life forms dissolve without any trace, relationships and sacrifice are also lost in time.  Change is the cornerstone of life, impermanence is its only structure and to survive is the sole objective.

Second, to survive is the only objective of living. Each life form on this planet essentially wants to survive this moment and the next, as simple as that. To survive this moment it has to eat and rest. For this it has to earn its food, take up some activity, build up some relationships, keep itself fit, create a quiet little place for it to rejuvenate, entertain its mind and indulge in creativity. To survive the next moment it has to partake in sex and procreate. Apart from these, life has no other purpose. Lest somebody misunderstands, I wish to reiterate that to survive is the objective of life meaning not only for humans but all life forms. Sadly other than humans, no other life form has taken life to mean anything more serious. I also find it funny that we humans have made life so complicated with the help of our mind which it was never meant to be. Basically the mind was never needed to survive but even with the use of the mind we have only crafted unhappiness for it.

Third, love is the only element binding everything around visible as well as invisible on this planet. The word ‘Love’ here is very symbolic and goes to denotes much more than mere affection and adoration. It includes such thoughts and also connotes a combination of caring, sharing, sacrificing, protecting, supporting, worshipping, pining, appreciating, and doting. Love means to have a very benevolent nature and attitude towards everything inside and outside. Love is the only way to live. To be less reactive and more grateful, it is the only rule that works.

Fourth, live your life in acceptance of your own inner calling, your own strengths and limitations, your own form and location. Everything that happens by itself and easily is the path of ones’ own soul and it could be either comfortable or difficult. A line borrowed from a famous writer, “It is better to commit mistakes on the path that ones’ soul is meant to walk on, than to live a perfect life on a path that is not meant for ones’ soul.”  Tough and pleasant times are only passing phases, and are mere perceptions. Live in acceptance of your fair share of circumstantial challenges, be honest and fair, facing bravely the good and the bad with similar strides and most important remaining unperturbed by both. Discharge your own obligations calmly without trying to influence and being influenced by the outside world.

In conclusion, experiencing a transformation generates confusion due to the dynamic fashion in which change is happening. Complication exists because the truth of yesterday in no more the complete truth today and is bound to become false tomorrow. 

History Repeats

I once again realized that I was a total good for nothing. Instances which bring such a realisation home happen often, at regular intervals, but that day was singularly special, and yes atrocious. A client who had run into financial bad weather had stopped the Stock Audit for nearly a year now which we were conducting. The work involved a lot of travel painful logistics and hard labour. The results were also positive and benefited the organisation immensely. Every year end as a part of the assignment I had to issue a Stock Certificate for the benefit of their Statutory Auditors. Last year the value of stocks in the certificate was inflated but I had certified. Anyway for some reason the work was called off. Therefore for this year end March 2013 I thought I would not be doing the dirty job again. However right on 1^st of April itself, the entrepreneur telephoned me and requested me to sign the Stock Certificate, even for this year, even when we had not conducted any stock verification. I remained speechless for a while. He requested once again and I accepted silently.  I simply said, “OK send it” and hung up the phone. He sent a message immediately, “Thanks”.   I was shocked at the obvious triviality with which businessmen treat the CA profession and their responsibilities. I am terribly disappointed and upset in the manner in which I succumbed to the request. Before giving my consent the thought did cross my mind that I can easily and justifiably refuse. I was not obliged to sign as I had not undertaken the task and moreover nothing was going to be paid to me for signing such a false certificate. Such a certificate is misleading to the Statutory Auditors, to the financers and other users of the financial statements. I am misleading all of them.

 The only reason (and that too a hopeless one) that I found on searching myself was that someone had requested me and I could not refuse. Maybe he believed that he could succeed at convincing me because I am stupid. But that is beside the point. Maybe he believed that I won’t say no because I am not known to be strict and honest. That too is beside the point. The point is not about him, his attitude or his belief. The point here is that I could not refuse not to become a partner in the crime. The truth is that I do not value myself, and I do not value my work. The truth is also that I do not belong to this profession. I feel bad and criticize when others indulge in corrupt practices but I cannot hold myself back when it is my turn. I am too weak hearted and have no scruples. A number of times I have found myself wasting time and surfing the internet when I could easily go through some self-study literature and enhance my knowledge. At those moments I have found myself wanting, lazy and disinterested in the profession itself. My heart really is not in this. At the same time I am unable to move out of it. I feel trapped and possibly relishing this victimhood because I simply crib about it and do nothing else.

It is said that there is a time for everything and things happen at its own time. It is also said that events in life repeat when our attitude and response pattern remains the same. It is time for me to move on or is it? I trust my life to unravel the trash from the sublime and pray that I have the guts to distinguish the two and chose rightly.

Conversation on Life

Swaroopa sent me an SMS one day in the usual manner in which she sends strong thoughts. On that occasion it led to a prolonged conversation.

Swaroopa, “Life is many things, it is whatever meaning you give it, but no matter what it means, you must make the most out of it because you only have this life once.”

Reply, “Sorry I don’t agree.”

Swaroopa “But why?”

Reply, “Life has no significant purpose, infact it has no purpose at all, just like a tree or an insect lives, humans also live. Second, life does not happen once, we live again and again. Our thoughts and actions each time creates our circumstance for the next time. So…”

Swaroopa, “If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”

Reply, “There is nothing unusual or ordinary in life, it is thinking which creates such images, and it differs from person to person.”

Swaroopa, “No, I have some reservations, trees and insects don’t have brains, to decide what is the purpose or aim of their life, whereas human beings can do so, may it be a right thought or not.”

Reply, “Every life form has a brain, it regulates the body, attacks or does some activity for food, takes care of new born and makes strategies for survival.”

Swaroopa, “Though we live again and again, not everybody remembers their past life, so jo bhi hai wahi sahi hai, that is the ultimate truth at that moment.”

Reply, “Correct, live for the moment and you will live happy. That is the only key.”

The dialogue over mobile phones ended there. I don’t know whether I succeeded in conveying my thoughts correctly to Swaroopa and therefore this explanatory blog came into being.

People now-a-days consider it wise to pass on philosophical messages downloaded from some website without examining its contents on the scale of impact and utility to human welfare. Some of such messages are downright wisecracks shrouded in the image of philosophy. Swaroopas’ message was one such, which is plain lies and only serves to put psychological pressure on the reader. Instead of making their lives easier it only taunts them to make it complicated.

Secondly the question also struck me as to who am I to oppose the YOLO cult and why should my belief be the sacrosanct one. I conceded that one in part. While I am definitely nobody to deny the YOLO cult of its rightful place in the world of beliefs, I know that my belief and understanding is the right one. Repeated births or rebirth has been clinically chronicled by a western Doctor, a product of its scientific culture, Dr. Brian Weiss in a series of publications since more than two decades ago. Since then many western and eastern medical doctors offer treatment for illness through Regression. Eastern pundits have been crying themselves hoarse propagating the rebirth theory since ages but here I chose to ignore them. But what is it that structure or element which ensures a rebirth? Well, it is the mind.

A body is temporary and intelligence and brain power is bound to the body. Mind is the platform that coordinates both intelligence and body so as to aspire towards dreams. While survival and progeny are the objectives of the body and intelligence, desire - its creation and fulfillment is the objective of the mind. Mind is the most powerful element in this world. When in focus and concentrated it can control anything in this universe but when let loose it has a tendency to wander, shift constantly from one subject to the next and become uncontrollable. To hold on to the mind is difficult but not impossible. The depth of the mind is known only to a few who have learnt to control it, but its height can be enjoyed by many as can be seen in the field of science and art, inventions and creativity. The mind has Electro-Magnetic (for want of better word) nature or character. A thought entertained in one’s mind attracts similar thoughts in others. A thought converted into desire works out its own fulfillment with the support of positive impulses and efforts from the body and intelligence and without any negative signals from anywhere. A strong and unfulfilled desire of the mind therefore plays out into a new body.

Life which ticks in every moving and non-moving form in this universe is energy. As a result of various activities of the mind, intelligence and body, one type of energy gets converted into another and a revised restoration of balance is ensured by nature. This restoration of balance happens in the form of destruction of extra benefits and factors which are causing the imbalance. While we can’t visualise and foresee the work of natural restoration of balance, we can often see it as a material price being paid for getting material something. However this rebalancing doesn’t always take place instantaneously and sometimes it takes its own sweet time. The mind is an element made of this life energy and is therefore ruled by the natural law of balance. The mind which has extracted some benefit without paying its price, or has made a sacrifice without enjoying the benefit is bound to return in a new body to repay.

A question arises that if the mind is so powerful and a part of the life energy then why should it get involved with unfulfilled desires and unpaid benefits. The answer is because the mind is bound to ignorant body and ignorant intelligence therefore in the relentless pursuit of Maya it too becomes ignorant and gets involved in the game of Maya.  Mind can become bound to a body by way of habits, sensations (good and bad) and sense gratifications. Mind is also molded by experience, arguments, influence and can be made to change with efforts. Such an ignorant mind which has lost touch with the truth and bound to the body and intelligence becomes the ego and an ego is always entangled in the cycle of rebirths.

Therefore my suggestion to all is that, ‘come, snap out of this illusion, recognise the truth about life, it has no purpose, break the chains of body and intelligence, detach the mind from them, and life simple, just because we breathe.