Truth is, What we say by experience

Dhanpal Solanki Jain

Diwali is one of the most popular festivals in India. Better known as Deepavali or the festival of lights, it’s a celebration that’s embraced by everyone. Diwali brings together people of different faiths and persuasions, with each adding flavour and fun to the festival.
In Jain Dharma, Diwali is celebration of Tirthankar Mahavira’s contributions to humankind; it commemorates Mahavira’s attainment of moksha or salvation in Bihar’s Pavapuri.
Mahavira contributed to the growth of scientific temper and encouraged people to overcome superstition and blind faith. His teachings advocate gender equity, and also equity in all spheres including economic, political and social. He emphasised the importance of all species and he advocated a compassionate and ethical way of life that would help us evolve to higher planes.
Mahavira promoted the concept of aparigraha or non-possessiveness to protect biodiversity from human greed. The other important fundamental philosophy of Jainism is anek ntavda or principle of pluralism and multiplicity of viewpoints, and adoption of compassion and non-violence as a way of life.
The fivefold mantra in Jainism offers obeisance not to God, but to the arihants or perfected beings, siddhas or liberated souls, acharyas or masters, upadhyayas or teachers and sadhus or seekers. Individuals must find release through their own efforts; not through divine intervention. The first Tirthankar and founder of Jainism Rishabh Dev gave us the triple concept of Asi – Sword of Defence, Masi – arts, culture and education and Krishi – representing the agricultural way of life.
In Jainism, Diwali was first referred to as dipalika or splendour of lamps, in the Harivamsha Purana written by Acharya Jinasena. In his words, the Tirthankars illuminated Pavanagari by lamps to mark the occasion. Since then on, Diwali, the day when Mahavira attained nirvana, is celebrated with lamps.
As tribute to the penance and sacrifice of Mahavira and his valuable contributions to our understanding of life and beyond, Swetambar Jains observe fasting during the three days of Diwali. Devotees sing and chant hymns and mantras in praise of the Tirthankar and congregate for samaik or prayer and recite verses from the Uttaradhyayan Sutra, containing the last teachings of Mahavira.
All celebration is marked by austerity, simplicity, serenity, equity, calmness, charity, philanthropy and environment-consciousness. Firecrackers are avoided as they cause noise and atmosphere pollution. Jain temples are decorated with lights; sweets and diyas or lamps are distributed – the lamps denoting knowledge or removal of ignorance. Devotees from around the world try to visit Pavapuri on this special day, offering their respects and prayers.
The Jain year commences with pratipada, following Diwali. Jain entrepreneurs launch their accounting year from Diwali. Jain scriptures also mention that one of the ardent disciples of Mahavira, Gandhara Gautam Swami attained enlightenment on this day. In Mahavira’s absence, he meditated to such an extent that his soul became liberated from all karma. Hence prayers and meditation should be performed with utmost dedication in order to help eliminate the difficulties of life and finally help the soul to attain moksha.
Diwali is celebration of Mahavira’s nirvana as well as a day that marks new beginnings, a kind of New Year. Hence members of the Jain community wish each other a Happy New Year.

    Today is the Niravana Kalyanaka Divas of Tirthankar Mahavir.

dhanpal.jain@gmail.com

Jaya Row

There are many who believe that to turn spiritual you have to change your wardrobe, diet and lifestyle and adopt a sombre and boring pattern. This does not appeal to those who continue in their materialistic ways. A few inspired ones change everything except their thinking! They fail to benefit, get frustrated and give up. Rare is the wise one who focusses only on ‘attitude’. And succeeds!
You have a fundamental choice in every situation, at every moment. You can be unhappy and complain. Or you can be happy and cheerful. It has nothing to do with the world or what it presents. You could have the best of things and still be miserable. You may have nothing and yet be deliriously happy. The difference is in your attitude.
In life, everyone is denied a few things. But all of us have been blessed with millions of gifts. If you focus on what you do not have, you will be unhappy. If you choose to focus on the things you have, you are grateful and you develop an irresistible desire to share, contribute, and give. This makes you happy. The most precious things come for free, which you do not even consider! Hence you live life feeling deprived and deficient when, in fact, you could be totally fulfilled and abundant.
An object is red in colour because it reflects red. It gains what it gives and loses the other colours it takes. So shift your focus from ‘what can i gain’ to ‘how can i add value to others’ and success will be yours. Besides, all selfish people are unhappy. To the extent you turn unselfish you will be happy.
Do you have conflict with the people you love most? Do you blame the ‘other person’ for it? Maybe it has to do with your attitude. Do you have expectations of your family members? Do you make demands on your spouse and children? This is not love. It is attachment. Love tainted with selfishness is attachment. You only love yourself. You claim to love because they happen to cater to you in some way. This causes conflict and untold suffering. In the end you lose them. Attachment is the single most important cause for breakdown in relationships. Physically hanging on to spouse and children does not make for meaningful relationships. You need to earn their love and respect. Shift your stance from ‘hanging on’ to ‘letting go’ – from binding them to releasing them from your clutches; from focussing on your happiness to enabling their fulfilment. Accept them for what they are, not for what they can do for you.
The world and all that it offers is temporary, fleeting, passing. Understand the transient nature of the world while living in it and you will be happy. Transact with the world, enjoy it, but always remember that it will pass. Give it the right value, not the exaggerated value you have for it now. Begin the search for the permanent. The journey itself becomes thrilling. Then you will experience true happiness irrespective of what you have or do not have.
So change your attitude, not lifestyle. Your life will change from drudgery to revelry. From mediocrity to Excellence.

M N Chatterjee

Adi Shankara exalted the Mother Goddess: “Immersed in dangers, O Durga, i turn my mind to you, O ocean of Mercy and spouse of Shiva; please don’t consider this as anything less than heartfelt, since children remember their mother when they suffer from hunger and thirst.”
During Navratri, the nine-day festival that celebrates the feminine principle, the ‘Chandi’ or Devi Mahatmyam of the Markandeya Purana is recited before daybreak. The word ‘Durga’ means a fort – something that is difficult to access. It is a pointer to the fact that her origin is traced to the determined efforts of all the harassed gods who had to share their power and weapons with her to make her powerful enough to successfully challenge the rampaging demons that were terrorising the earth, heavens and the nether world. The word also implies ‘Durgatinashini’ – that is, one who removes sufferings.
Her iconographic representation during Durga Puja follows her portrayal in Devi Mahatmyam as Mahishasuramardini, the destroyer of the buffalodemon. Astride a lion, she is shown thrusting her trident into the chest of the buffalo-demon, halfemerged from the carcass of a slain buffalo. It is the climactic scene of the narrative when, after a series of fierce and protracted battles with the tricky demon changing his form and shape, the Devi ultimately traps him in the deadly combat and restores cosmic order to the great relief of the helpless gods. The supreme deity is flanked by goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati and gods Kartikeya and Ganesha, representing prosperity, erudition, prowess and auspiciousness.
Her 10 hands carry weapons and articles that bear symbolic significance. The conch suggests sound and the mystic Aum. The sudarshan chakra or divine discus is an unfailing weapon which shows her to be invincible in her battle to uphold righteousness. The thunderbolt enables her to destroy the target without being hit back. Through the grimacing lion she conveys her firmness, strength and determination, the qualities she wants her devotees to imbibe.
She is hailed as ‘Bhuktimuktipradayini’ suggesting that she can grant freedom from material bondage to achieve ultimate liberation.
Since the Devi’s advent is around harvest time she is closely associated with vegetation and nourishment. An epithet of Durga is Shakambhari or the herb-nourishing goddess. She is also worshipped as Annapurna or Annada the goddess of food and as Navapatrika, consisting of a plantain tree and eight other plants and herbs, representing all that is necessary for sustenance of life and well-being. Hence, Durga is also a harvest goddess and the goddess of fertility. In the spring she is invoked as Vasanti Devi. She is also venerated as Jagaddhatri, fosterer of the earth.
The annual enactment of the gory battles is of allegorical significance. The seemingly irrepressible demon representing the chaotic and dark underworld is face to face with the Supreme Deity representing light and all that is good in life. The anthropomorphic villain is a repository of some of the heinous traits found in us. But Mahisha had once done severe penance which impressed Brahma so much that he gave him a boon that no god could kill him. Hence the emergence of a mighty goddess to subjugate him.
The cyclical presentation of the protracted battles every year also shows that it is not easy to rid oneself of the pernicious instincts entrenched within. But hope burns bright in the belief that everyone has a divine spark that could light the fire of self-purification.

chatterjeemn@hotmail.com

Sunder Dinesh

There was a man called Jonah who disobeyed Lord’s command and was thrown into deep sea.  Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah and he was inside the fish three days and three nights.

From inside the fish Jonah explains about his experience through prayer he made to  Lord. He cries with great distress.  He called inside it was a depth of grave. He was broken and swept by the sea current and sea weave swirled over him. The engulfing water threatened him. The deep surrounded him. Seaweed was wrapped around his head. He was sank down to the root of the mountain. The earth  beneath barred him forever. His life was ebbing, there are many who cling to worth less idols forfeit the grace of the lord.

The life inside the fish is more or less similar to the  life in this world. The above bible story explains one of the kind of experience, but in practical we encounter with many such fish. There are Sharks, Cat Fish , Gold Fish , Tadpole, Crabs to swallow our soul and make our life miserable. Fish lives in water by eating the dead matters and smaller creatures to keep the water unpolluted from decaying dead matters. So it is obvious that what we find inside is the matter that are banned by nature that causes harm to other living creatures.  The level of mental torture caused can be determined by the type of Fish and its eating habit.

There are many such spiritual creature that swallow our soul and take our mind and body to different kind journey of experiences both good  and bad.  In our distress and agony we should not loss our faith and hope on God. Through prayer and meditation we will be brought out and placed in a safe heaven.

I would like to share my own experience with such creatures that swallowed my soul and taken me to a painful experience of inmost being.  What I saw inside is the people with mentally retarded cling to worldly desires like greed, pride, lust etc. In general fish is a garbage collection and storage system that keep us safe from the anti social element that cases harm to other living creatures particularly human beings.  All these creature make us mad and lead to mentally unsound condition through worldly desires.  Unorganized worship of idols is one of the chamber in many that forfeit us from God’s grace and barred us forever inside the creature.

Sunder Dinesh

In the beginning there was mind through which we seen this world and our self, then got embodied as a body.  The embodied mind slowly gains knowledge and wisdom through learning and experience.   Mind has capability to take any form that exists in nature and sense it as his own.  Mind takes birth by surrendering its knowledge gained in present life, moving to another body that has no knowledge and experience.  We gets a entirely formatted mind with no data or memories of previous life during our birth in this world.

Since birth for many years we are unaware of other entity called soul until mind embodied with soul.  Now mind had dual body one is immovable property that is body made of flesh and another is movable property this soul its constitution is unknown.  Mind’s cope of learning and experience is extended after it embodied with soul.

Soul has the power and energy that required to operate, maintains, manage and control this world and nature.  Mind get contented with soul’s concert that deficient in our physical body.  Soul cannot be destroyed by natural elements like Fire, Water, Strom, Space and Rock.  Soul can be ruined by another thriving soul.  Through faith, prayer, meditation and grace we can save our soul from another invading soul.  Soul can be replaced with new soul once it exhausted during spiritual labor, but the soul that are prey to another invading soul can be recovered only through faith, prayer, meditation and grace.

Our physical body is glued to this world.  It play as a catalyst to mind and soul.  Mind wonder with soul and finally it returns to it dwelling place that is our physical body.  Mind, Body and Soul may seems to be three different entity but it is evolution of mind into body and then soul.

 Anirudh Kumar Satsangi

Religion and Yoga reflect identical meaning.  Religion (re-ligare) means union again with Ultimate Reality or binding back to Absolute.  Yoga is the derivative of Sanskrit root ‘yuj’ which means yoking of power of body, mind and soul.  Yoga primarily consists of concentration, meditation and realization apart from practicing asans, mudras and breath control which help to achieve concentration and physical and emotional well-being.  Yoga is experimental technique of spiritualism.  Religion is blend of ritual and spiritual.  Rituals dominate religion these days.  Whereas rituals are altogether not necessary for practicing yoga. Yoga in India has been practiced since the dawn of the human civilization, according to Hindu mythology millions of year back.

In Bhagavad-Gita Lord SriKrishna says to Arjuna:
“I taught this immortal Yoga to Vivasvan (sun-god), Vivasvan conveyed it to Manu(his son), and Manu imparted it to (his son) Iksvaku. Thus transmitted to succession from father to son, Arjuna, this Yoga remained known to the Rajarisis (royal sages). It has however long since disappeared from this earth. The same ancient Yoga has this day been imparted to you by Me, because you are My devotee and friend, and also because this is a supreme secret”.  At this Arjuna said: You are of recent origin while the birth of Vivasvan dates back to remote antiquity.  How, then, I am to believe that you taught this Yoga at the beginning of creation?  Lord SriKrishna said: Arjuna, you and I have passed through many births.  I remember them all, you do not remember.

Famous historian Romila Thapar has described in her book A History of India about the status of Yoga in 300-700 A.D.  She writes:  “Yoga (Application) which was based on the control of the body physically and implied that a perfect control over the body and the senses led to knowledge of the ultimate reality. A detailed anatomical knowledge of the human body was necessary to the advancement of yoga and therefore those practising yoga had to keep in touch with medical knowledge.”

As far as anatomical knowledge of human body is concerned it is very much required for the optimum result during practice of Yoga.  Yoga system has very close connection with the human anatomy i.e. chakra or nerve centres distributed along the spinal column and in brain region.
Besides, connection chakras with the practice of Yoga, chakra has also great role in the development of personality.  People do not realise that personalities can grow to include a balance of all the six chakras. Jung referred to this growth process as “individuation”, and associated it with life’s spiritual dimension. Danah Zohar evolves a model of spiritual quotient (sq) based on the six petals of a lotus and its centre, corresponding to the seven chakras described by the Hinduism’s Kundalini Yoga, as an aid to the process of individuation in the mid-1990s.   Contribution of Danah Zohar for coining the term spiritual quotient for the first time is immense.  But she did not establish any mathematical relationship, which is very much required, for this quotient.

Deepak Chopra has given a formula of spiritual quotient in terms of Deed (D) and Ego (E). According to Deepak Chopra S.Q. =D/E.   He (2006) writes:  If Vedanta is right and there is only one reality, then all desires must follow the same mechanics, desires arise and are fulfilled in consciousness. Making yourself happy involves ….. I have a ” Spiritual Quotient” where SQ = D/E. Where D = Deeds and E = Ego. Now you can ONLY have an SQ = infinity when E = 0. If E is little even then SQ is approaching infinity (or one is close to be a “Great Master”) but not actually “Pure .This appears to be very fascinating but it is highly abstract which cannot be measured experimentally, accurately and precisely. However, this formula has immense value to understand S.Q.

I have also discovered a mathematical relationship for S.Q about eight years back in 2001. I have used physiological parameters which can be measured accurately and precisely and can be tested and verified experimentally. According to this formula S.Q. can be expressed as the ratio of parasympathetic dominance (P.D.) to sympathetic dominance (S.D.). Parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) are the two parts of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which is largely under hypothalamic control. Hypothalamus is situated very close to the Sixth Chakra. During practice of meditation at Sixth Chakra these centres are galvanized which has very positive effect on practitioners spiritual, emotional, psychological and physical well being.

According to this relationship spiritual quotient can be written as:
S.Q. = P.D./S.D.
If the value of S.Q. comes >1 (greater than one), it can be assumed that the person is moving towards self-realisation and if the value of S.Q. comes <1 (smaller than one) it can be predicted that the person is living under stress.

There are various types of meditation available, which are being practiced by sages, saints, seers and others.   The difference in various versions lies in the fact that these practices involve concentration to meditate at different centres known as Chakra in Yoga System.  These chakras are, in fact, energy centres which correspond to nerve centres distributed along the spinal column and in brain region.

Some practitioners start to meditate at Basic/Root Chakra (Muladhara) – situated at the base of spine, some at Heart Chakra (Anahata Chakra), some at Ajna Chakra – Optic Chiasma – Master Chakra and some from even higher centres situated in the brain region.  Among all these types of meditation, practice at sixth chakra is considered to be the most ideal which brings about optimum results.

Sixth Chakra is situated very close to hypothalamus.  The hypothalamus is a portion of brain that contains a number of small nuclei with a variety of functions.  One of the most important functions of the hypothalamus is to link nervous system to the endocrine system via the pituitary glands.
Autonomic nervous system (ANS) is largely under hypothalamic control.  ANS consists of parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS).  PSNS is activated during meditative calm and during stress SNS is activated.  When PSNS is activated, heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure decreased.  Supply of blood in the digestive tract increased.  When SNS is activated heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure increased.  Supply of blood to the muscles and exterior organs increased and to the digestive tract decreased.  In addition to these, there are many other parameters which can be compared.  Parasympathetic Dominance (P.D.) is the state of PSNS activation and Sympathetic Dominance (S.D.) is the state of SNS activation.  Instruments are available in medical science to measure these parameters.
Now we can assign numerical value to each parameter.  Then put the value in the formula for S.Q. and see the result.  We can show the calculation as mentioned below:

S.Q.= P.D./S.D.   = Σ X / Σ Y
Where X=x1+x2+x3+ …….
And      Y=y1+y2+y3+…….

During PSNS activation (P.D.), we assign ‘1’ to each parameter (x1+x2+x3+…..) and ‘0’ to each parameter (y1+y2+y3+…..).  During SNS activation (S.D.), we assign ‘1’ to each parameter (y1+y2+y3+…) and ‘0’ to each parameter (x1+x2+x3+….).

 By putting the numerical value, thus achieved, in the above formula for S.Q. we can calculate the Spiritual Quotient of an individual.

Contact : anirudh.dei@gmail.com