Understanding God in Mauritius....

Throughout the thousand of years, civilization have come and gone and within them have interpreted and modeled God as different according to their environment and social norms. Again at that time, the transport and communication modalities never enabled massive inter religious exchanges nor clashes and everybody lived happily according to their beliefs and as these civilization died, so did their faiths and beliefs.

If my understanding of the world and its evolution is correct, I will wander to say that we, the human race have been given a part of God. A unit of this human race, a human comprises of the Soul and the Body. Throughout these years, we have used our conscience and practicality to focus on the materialistic word with evidence of science while keeping the unknown under either strict scrutiny or total oblivion.

By my quite inquisitive nature, I will dare to say that the Holy texts of three main religions of our time, that is, Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism speak the same language. True, many people argue that they have been written by man or distorted through translation and through the ages, but from what I have gathered and understood are that they all represent the same Divinity put in different interpretation. Different parts of India pray the same divine representation under a different name with different rites.

Suppose that One must realize that there is God anywhere and everywhere. God is energy as a basic interpretation. Funnily, I usually take the example of Neo from the Matrix when he awakes again at the end of the first movie to see everything in matrix form. Imagine you are Neo and the Matrix is pure energy ad this is how the world is. I am not imposing my view but sharing my understanding with you.

Now suppose our human nature is as such that we are molded by what is within and around us. We are shaped according to biological, spiritual, cultural, psychological and social spheres which gives us our identity. Socially acceptable norms in one country can be misunderstood/rejected in others. For example, recently, the use of the scarf in women of Islamic faith in France being banned did cause a long debate and movement of resistance and unrest.

With the actual world where money talks and science rules, the human has lost this spiritual aspect to a very much extent and many follow religion just as tradition, without understanding a single word that is being said. I have friends and acquaintances that know the Qur’an by heart or the Gita word for word and can recite it but unfortunately not understanding a single word of what is being said. I have even got comrades who usually quote from the Bible while not grasping its meaning which of course you may challenge me to be subjective yet again. Of course, I am sure that you may find many of such examples around you in the world of today who call themselves as a follower of that particular faith but not respecting it by behaving against its preaches.

Religion is a means of communication with God and is a translation of spirituality. They provide an insight of the unknown, set the guidelines and rules of a society as a whole while forming the follower individually to a particular perception and behaviour. 

We have focused a part of our mind on materialistic progress but many of us have been incapacitated in the development of spiritual welfare and understanding. We have grown outwards while our inner growth was kept to a strict minimum.

Such behaviour has impoverished our understanding of our so called religious faith and following as parents of society do. So, the burden of work, of sustaining a family among others (i.e. materialistic) has distanced the human away from the religion and spirituality as a whole. Hence the parent/s, follower of a particular religion/s, will practice his/her beliefs and the child will learn behaviorally from them and ass it on also.
So, with the intricate balance between the spiritual and material spheres of life, one will most probably shorten the practice of faith/ religion to provide more time to the material needs of the family unit and as this is passed on, these beliefs are distorted, lost and finally not followed anymore.

Adults have also mainly focused on the academic performances of their offsprings rather than their spiritual education and for those whose have thought about it, there is the risk factor that their minds have been manipulated by some religious leaders in the past for personal gains and hence distorting the whole chain reaction of spiritual education that is supposed to have been aimed at.
It is now to some extent that people are realizing that the materialistic society has weakened the pillar that spirituality is with a society plagued by drug addiction, prostitution, alcoholism, depression, homicides and suicides.
It is with firm belief that I support the inclusion of religious awareness and historical events of the country in the academic curricular to form the future generation to think with a less biased and more open mind that will embrace the same message of all the sacred texts rather than cross their arms due to their different religiocultural beliefs.
This weakened pillar of spirituality is like an injured diabetic foot of our nation where the germs of dirty politics will feast upon and this is what our Mauritian society has faced for so long now, with communalism being like a boiling volcano ready to erupt anytime, with no mention of still fresh wounds of such riots in the last 50 years.

This leaves me with two messages for you to take in, take home and everywhere else:
Stop using religion as political weapon!!
1 sel lepep, 1 sel nation!!

Thanking the Divine...

Water, Our Elixir

We thank you, O Water for having been our amniotic fluid, in which we bathed our fertilization.

Before we even walked, you gave us the depth of the abyss for us to evolve from those microscopic cells

You gave us the strength of developing tissue, shape and organs

You sheltered us from the freezing winter, hiding he warmth for our green food to grow in.

You smiled as we excreted into your own fluid, as we reproduced into other beings, as we evolved into us.

When we became too big for you, you still did not turn your back on us. You kept the fishes and plants alive for us to reap the beauties of our chorion.

Yet, today, we abuse of you. We mix you with burning acid and dyes.

We soil you in the worst dirt of our progress.

We drill Mother Earth and spill her insides into you, staining you deep down, suffocating the corals, poisoning the fishes.

We put this dark make-up to cover your divine blue and you kept washing the shores and giving the wells.

Do You not regret giving us that strength?

Do You not wish that we were never brought into that world?

Does you navel not cry as we made you childless?

Will You ever forgive us one day? Do we even have the right to seek that?

Earth, Our Mother

We thank you, Mother for having been together as a planet.

You have been the womb of our life with your peaks and troughs, kindly sheltering the water for us to be, to live.

You have been here when we made our first steps naked, dripping with the placental sludge, shying away from the fearsome predators, hiding from the cold nights.

You have captured the warmth of the sun, getting burnt sometimes, scorching your skin in numerous places, but yet, you mustered the strength to keep the coziness for us.

You generously did sow seeds to make us reap those fruits of survival.

You let us drill parasitic holes into you to churn out your insides.

You keep crying as we kept progressing with those steel armies.

You kept silent as we continued pillaging your kindness, maliciously fondling you at the core, bombing you with weapons.

You kept hoping that we will understand…yet we just kept raping you.

We just kept shedding the blood of your own sons and daughters in your face, greedy of what will never be ours.

Now you’re fragile, poor of our own loot.

Don’t You ask yourself why you fostered such virus into your womb?

Don’t You hate yourself for having fostered such idiots?

Do You just keep forgiving with the little life you’re left with?

Will You ever forgive us one day? Do we even have the right to seek that?

Fire, Our Father

Hail the heat that made one became many and yet stayed as One.

Grace the Light that blasted and became the thermoplasm in Oxygen.

Fire that sulks with water and teases Mother.

You were the shadow we never saw unless you wanted.

As per lightning strikes on Mother’s dead skin, you scared us wit lightning.

You scolded us when we tried to touch you with bare hands.

As we finally got your approval, you became our happiness.

We shared you and shared with you: fruits, vegetables, fish and meat

You are still Father, caring yet punitive.

Soon, we started fooling you. Some used you to burn this own brothers

Many used you to annihilate, to molest the sweet tooth of innocence.

Yet a handful realized the purity of your body to connect with the Supreme

Your fierce eye pierces all evil, yet they can also wield it

Yet, Father of All, we tickle you to hate, We slapped you to roar blindly.

A benefactor that many have used to evil ends, soiling the hands blue and painting the skies black.

How many times, because of us, your children that you fought with Mother?

How could you let us feed your anger onto Mother?

Mature, yet childish, pure but still sinful, are you a gullible father?

Are your sins ours? That smell of charred skin, that ash of lost bones? Tell us?

Will you keep destroying all? Will you let anyone wield you at ease for, probably, the worst?

Will You ever forgive us one day? Do we even have the right to seek that?

Wind, Our Bliss

Tormenting wind that sweeps all

You have been present since mum and dad knew each other

You have been their good friend, always dancing in the good times,

But also fighting the rough waves of evolution.

You have always been waiting for us to reap your energy,

Kindly caressing our sweat while we ploughed,

Blowing into our wheat the breath of life…

Now, we spray your smile with the grey smokes

We cough up the Mother’s sputum onto your cloth

Keeping you away from your cherished freedom

You howled of pain as we tortured you

You sought helped, hiding in the higher grounds, but yet

We conquered the skies, chasing you like an infidel

Trying to tame you, we whip our spit in your eyes,

Laughing joyfully on our supremacy of all, but yet none.

We have no questions for you for the scars of our growth, you bore with them silently breezing through our hair

We wish that you all love us once again,

Forgive us all.

Give us the Supreme Pranayama of Truth…

Life is a competition, Love isn't...

LIFE

Competition-A struggle between or among others about anything.

Life starts as the sperm cells in the semen compete to reach the inside of the ovum, fuse with it and create life.
Gestation is a competition, fighting off infection and abnormal development.
Birth is a competition, hence wisely called the trial of labour.
Newborn, infants, toddlers, children, adolescents, adults, elders all live as a competition.
The struggle for life has been minimised by many for the revolution of comfort that the modern world has given to many of us.
However, one does not realise that from fertilisation till death, this is a fight against others and self, influenced by multiple factors.
These include poverty, education, psychological behavior, personality, mentality, opportunity and determination.
We shall not go into prehistoric times to relate competition between the Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens, Homo Erectus and so on as well as with with different animals of these ages.


One must realise that when you compete, your worst enemy is self. For the lack of inspiration, motivation, determination and dedication dulls your thrive for success, for survival

When one goes to school, is it to study or to run away and fool around?
When it comes to CPE, SC, HSC, let alone the frequent streaming that happens in some schools, is it for fun or to sow values of meritocracy within ourselves?
When one goes for a job interview, is it just for the experience of for really aiming to get the advertised job?
When one works, is it for pleasure alone or a duty to bring the everyday bread for upkeep?
When one is admitted tot he hospital, is it because s/he wishes a free place to stay in some instances for some while, or is it for treatment, whether preventive, curative or palliative?
Even passing on is a struggle, the "breath of death", as I call it, coupled with a deteriorating state makes it the so-called struggle.

However, for many, Comfort blinds Realisation. Modernity dampens Values because Competition fosters Individuality and selfishness.


LOVE

When it comes to Love, it is like a rainbow with all the seven beautiful colours, yet discrete, still merging but always as One.

Love is not only about romanticism only, but first and foremost, the love of self.
Love of Self does not mean to be a Narcissistic megaloman but it simply means to be happy wit self, to accept who you are, to love your physical features and thoughts.
Love of Self is the love of your strengths, weaknesses, qualities and setbacks, the acceptance of the past, the realisation of the present and the project of the future.

Love also is Familial - The love of those called the Living Gods- The Parents, the love of the children, brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, aunties, of the whole family

Love is Friendship - that is, no family ties, no close genetic association but that only of coherent personality, mentality or aim regrouped in a social atmosphere that fosters personal development, uplift, trust and sharing.

Love of Objects, whether material or mental, is patriotism, when referred to a country, or fan when referred to a sports club and so on. It also includes love of a philosophy, of a lifestyle, of principles. Loving is not living in some instances but does represent he idealism portrayed by some who hold such things dear to heart.

Love is, of course, Romantic. For it to be a Romantic Relationship, however, it depends of the personality of the people involved, on their interaction and the context. Romantic Love, as per my personal definition includes the liking of the physical and mental features coupled with sharing and trust which symbioses into understanding the living while living the understanding. If one goes missing or absent, the Tripod of Romantic Love shatters to death.

Love can also be referred to as that for God - Divine Love, which many have various connotations and interpretation of the Supreme. The application of Rituals, of prayers and chats to praise the Lord and seek His Blessings.

Competition, as such, does not happen in Love.

Accepting the Self as such does not mean stasis as coupled with life, improvement comes if One really loves the Self.
For the latter to happen, one need to self-reflect, to talk to self, to become an observer of himself from a third person view, and comment - seeing the good, the bad and the potential rooms for improvement.

Divine Love loses its definition when One seeks the Love of Self in Objects and Ideas.
Wrong interpretation of the Essence of the Divine created wars and reaped bloodshed in the world. This is when competition springs out when love is being talked about, when Love of the Divine becomes either more love that the other of the Divine or love of the stronger Divinity than other. The same happens when it comes to Love of Objects, Family or Romance.

Just like One who sees a mirage of an oasis in the hot desert and runs towards it, the same happens with the loss of the Essence of Love as it is being sought in other - The imbalance caused primarily affects the Love of Self and impacts on Other Loves.

Competition in Love happens when coupled with Life.
Life is not love, Love is not Life but once you fall in love with Self, Life will be Loved and be Loved.

Until then, live life, love love.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar : The Unfolding of Enlightenment

On May 13, 1956, in the town of Papanasham (literally, the annihilation of sin), Vishalakshi and R S V Ratnam were blessed with a son.

He was born on Shankara-jayanti , the birthday of Adi Shankara, the great 8th century proponent of Vedanta , and his naming ceremony took place on Ramanuja jayant i, birthday of the great saint of India Sri Ramanuja. As the village where he was born was famous for both Shiva and Vishnu temples, the parents named him Ravi Shankar Narayanan.

Very soon it became clear that this was no ordinary child. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's infancy and early childhood were so permeated with miraculous events that family and friends alike were filled with incomprehension and wonder. Who better to speak about this than the parents? Sri Ratnam, or Pitaji, as he is fondly called, is a scholar of Sanskrit and Tamil .

-=Divine Child=-

He recounts one such event. "As an infant, he loved to swing from a large wooden cradle. One day when I went to see the boy, all the chains which were holding the cot fell down. Normally the chains would have fallen in the centre of the swing. But miraculously the chains fell outwards, not in the centre." The boy's mother, as she watched the cot crashing down, fell into a swoon, fearing she had lost her child, but the father noted that the baby remained unperturbed.

Another incident which is frequently recounted is when at the age of four the young boy, accompanied by his kid sister, Bhanu, went to listen to recitations of the Bhagavad Gita , a seminal text of Hinduism.

As the teacher commenced her chanting, the boy got up and corrected her. He could recite the entire text as if he knew it by heart! By the age of nine he had mastered the Vedas, the ancient Sanskrit texts which many regard as the font of Hinduism.

-=A childhood spent in contemplation=-

In his childhood he was frequently found immersed in meditation and prayer. He exhibited the same reverence for every particle of creation and poured out the unqualified love, which have become his hallmark in adult life. Reminiscing about his childhood, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said, "I would bunk the sports class... I would go to play football, and looking at my feet I would say, these feet cannot kick anything, let alone an inanimate ball."

His love is without judgement, without measurement and it is offered equally to all. He draws to him every kind of person, those whom society reveres and those whom society shuns, and in His presence the inner transformation occurs in each and every one of us. The shining faces of those who have come into contact with the Master are a continuous testament to the power of unconditional love and his willingness to take responsibility for the whole Creation.

-=Touching lives everywhere=-
Having completed his studies simultaneously in Vedic science and western education (with a university degree), the young Master travelled extensively, meeting with leading intellectuals, Supreme Court judges, men of letters and spiritual Masters. Everywhere he touched the hearts of people with his knowledge and love.

Then in 1982, he went into a period of silence. When he emerged from this ten days later, he was ready to share with the world the knowledge of Sudarshana Kriya, a rhythmical breathing practice which forms the core of his Courses the world over.

The Art of Living had arrived!


"Celebrate when you are alone
Celebrate when you are with people,
Celebrate the silence and
Celebrate the noise.
Celebrate life and
Celebrate death."
~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Jai Guru Dev!

http://spirituality.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1947446288.cms