Presented By His Holiness Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, Kauai’s Hindu Monastery,Kapaa, Hawaii, at the Hindu Temple of Greater Cincinnati During Murugan Kumbhabhisekam, July 02-04, 2004
Introduction: My Guru, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, had the gift of bringing down to earth in a very practical way the guidelines for becoming a more spiritual person. It is easy to talk high philosophy in Hinduism. “Man is God. We are divine,” and so forth. It is easy to say profound things such as “You are a being that has unlimited power within you.” To bring spiritual teachings down to the level where we really are a more spiritual person this year than we were a year ago – that is the challenge and what we will explore this evening.
The ability to do exactly that is part of Gurudeva’s genius. He gives us these very pragmatic guidelines along with the high philosophy and in the process keeps us feeling good about ourselves. We don’t take the approach that we have all these weaknesses and therefore man is weak and sinful. That is not the point. Man is a divine being, meaning man is the soul or spiritual being. But we also have these other qualities that come along with being a person. We have instincts. We have an intellect. We have an ego and we need to get them all under control so that our soul, our spiritual nature, dominates over all. As Gurudeva says, “Peace is control, and control is freedom.”
The attitudes involved in striving to make progress on the Hindu spiritual path and the attitudes involved in studying dance and are indeed the same. Our first topic this evening focuses on four similarities between the two.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Our first comparison of the spiritual path to the study of dance is the attitude toward strengths and weaknesses. Does a young woman become a better dancer by focusing on the movements she does well? Of course, she does not. She has to focus on the movements that she does not do well and strive to improve them. Said another way, she becomes a better dancer not by focusing on her strengthens but rather by focusing on her weaknesses.
Looking at the spiritual path, let’s take the example of a man who has wonderful devotion but has trouble being consistent in performing his daily disciplines. Clearly there is a need to use more willpower and create a new habit of being consistent every day
Continue to Improve: A second comparison is the attitude toward improvement. A good dancer has the attitude that she can always perform a dance better than she has ever done it before. She feels there is always room for improvement and that her movements can always be even further refined.
Looking at the spiritual path, let’s take as our example the principle of ahimsa, nonviolence in thought, word and deed. It is indeed a central principle of Hinduism. Of course, most of us do not indulgence in physical violence. Therefore, we may conclude that ahimsa presents no challenge to us.
However, let’s look more closely at the definition of ahimsa which is not harming others by thought, word or deed. This points out that even though we are not harming others with our actions, we can take the attitude of striving to improve our behavior even more by carefully watching our speech and avoiding harming others through our words. The common forms of verbal violence are joking, teasing, gossiping and backbiting, and every reduction we make in harming others less through our words produces spiritual progress.
Learning from our Mistakes: A third comparison of the spiritual path to the study of dance is our attitude toward mistakes. Many dancers when they first start are very self-conscious about their mistakes. They make a mistake and get flustered and can’t really concentrate on the rest of the dance class. A good teacher will encourage them and point out that mistakes are natural. All dance students make them. Because of the teacher’s encouragement, we soon overcome being self conscious of our mistakes and take on a more positive attitude which is if we make a mistake in a dance movement, next time we will try our best to do the movement better.
For all of mankind, no matter where one is on the path, spiritual advancement comes from learning from one’s mistakes in life. Unfortunately, this process is often inhibited by the idea that somehow we are not supposed to make mistakes. A common first reaction to making a mistake is to become upset that we made the mistake, get emotional about it, or, if it is a serious mistake, to become quite burdened and even depressed. We need, however, to be like the dancer and simply resolve to do better next time. Thus a good second reaction to a mistake is to think clearly about what happened and why the mistake occurred and find a way not to repeat the mistake in the future. Perhaps we were not being careful enough, and resolving to be more careful next time will prevent the problem from occurring. Perhaps we did not know something, and now we have that knowledge and can simply resolve to use that knowledge next time.
Nonintellectual: A fourth and final comparison is that they are both nonintellectual. You do not become a good dancer through reading a book. Though some reading is involved, the main focus is on the actual practice of dancing. Our physical body is significantly changed and gains new abilities through the many years of dance practice.
Reading spiritual books is certainly part of making progress on the spiritual path. However much more important is the regular practice of spiritual disciplines. Our emotional, intellectual and spiritual natures are all significantly changed through performing spiritual disciplines for a period of many years. Gurudeva’s Satguru, Siva Yogaswami of Jaffna, Sri Lanka stressed this point by telling certain devotees, “It’s not in books you fool.”
Before we look at the many spiritual disciplines found in Hinduism, let me share a story. Three years ago we were visited by Dr. Seshagiri Rao, editor of the Encyclopedia of Hinduism, who in discussing this project with us made the insightful comment that Hinduism not only informs but it also transforms. My guru often described Hinduism as the path of personal, spiritual transformation.
What causes this transformation to take place? Does it come when we pilgrimage to a sacred place such as Chidambaram once? Does listening to one lecture of a swami cause it to occur? Neither of these, of course, is sufficient. Transformation comes from an individual performing spiritual disciplines regularly. As we mentioned before in comparing it to dance, it takes practice, lots of practice.
Hindu Disciplines: Let’s turn now to the specific kinds of spiritual disciplines found in Hinduism. First it is fair to say that no other religion contains such a vast wealth of spiritual practices from such elementary concepts as noninjury, truthfulness and honesty to the advanced yoga practices of breath control and meditation. Hinduism’s vast array of spiritual practices can be divided into four categories: good conduct, service, devotion and meditation.
Good Conduct: The first category of spiritual practices is good conduct. Good conduct is the foundation of all other practices in Hinduism. It is also called developing good character. Good conduct begins with overcoming basic instinctive patterns such as the tendencies to become angry and hurtful. A helpful list of these tendencies is contained in the ten classical restraints called yamas, which are: noninjury, truthfulness, nonstealing, divine conduct, patience, steadfastness, compassion, honesty, moderate appetite and purity.
This naturally leads into a second set of practices which are called the niyamas and are of the nature of religious observances: remorse, contentment, giving, faith, worship of the Lord, scriptural listening, cognition, sacred vows, recitation and austerity. Good conduct also includes performing one’s duty to family and community, honoring holy men, respecting elders and atoning for misdeeds.
Service: The second category of spiritual practices is service. Service is also called karma yoga or seva and refers to religious service given without the least thought of reward, which has the magical effect of softening the ego and bringing forth the soul’s innate devotion. An example of service is performing simple chores at the temple such as sweeping the floors or polishing the brass. Another example is holding religious feedings at a temple once a month.
Devotion: The third category of spiritual practices is devotion. Devotion is also called bhakti yoga and centers around regularly worshipping the Deity at the temple and inwardly striving to awaken a profound love of God in our hearts, soften our intellect and develop a deep sense of humility. It includes devotional singing, pilgrimage and even performing our own puja in the home shrine room.
Meditation: The fourth category of spiritual practices is meditation. Meditation is also called raja yoga or ashtanga yoga as it consists of eight limbs. Meditation begins with asana–sitting quietly in yogic posture–and pranayama, breath control. Pratyahara, sense withdrawal, brings awareness into dharana, concentration, then into dhyana, meditation. Dhyana finally leads to samadhi, God Realization. Jnana Yoga is also a type of meditation that involves philosophical study and discrimination between the Real and the unreal.
Personally Experiencing God: Our second topic for today is the subject of personally experiencing God and begins with a story. As publisher of our magazine Hinduism Today, I provide a two-page opinion piece entitled publisher’s desk for each issue. In a recent publishers desk, I wrote on the topic “I Want to See God! Some pertinent suggestions to sincere seekers on where and how to look for Divinity.” The reason I chose this topic was to emphasize that one of the greatnesses of Hinduism is that it is experientially oriented rather than belief oriented. In other words, the goal is not to simply believe in God but rather to eventually experience God. In some religions the ultimate experience the religion offers is having a strong belief in the existence of God. In Hinduism, however, believing in God is only a first step toward an ever deepening personal experience of God’s presence.
The idea for this article came from a visit to the home of a Hindu family of doctors in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. The son who had been raised in the US asked the question aren’t all religions pretty much the same? Does it really make a difference which religion you practice? I answered the question in a simple way at the time but keep thinking about it afterwards and finally developed an analogy that goes like this.
Aren’t all medical clinics pretty much the same? Only if you have a simple illness. If you have a complex problem and need the more sophisticated medical equipment and specialists, then they are definitely not. For example, someone is suffering from chest pains and goes to his family doctor who lives nearby. The doctor is not sure what the problem is and suggests he goes to the hospital to have certain tests taken. He does so and the hospital after taking the tests is still not sure of the problem and refers him to a cardiologist living in a large city nearby for even more tests. Clearly all medical clincs are not the same. Religion is similar to this. If all you want is to live a virtuous life, religions are all very similar at that basic level of practice. But if you have an interest in personally experiencing God, then only a few religions have within them the practices that lead to that experience.
A good example of this fact has been occurring in Catholic monasteries for decades. Some of the monks in these monasteries have the desire to personally experience God. What do they do to pursue this? They turn to Hindu scriptures such as Patanjali’s Yoga Aphorisms to provide them proper guidelines for deep meditation as there are no teachings regarding this in Christianity.
Returning to the Publisher’s Desk I wrote, it begins with the classic story of how Swami Vivekananda when he was still a college student in Calcutta went around to the religious leaders in the Calcutta area and asked them all if they had seen God. None of them gave a satisfactory answer to him until he met Sri Ramakrishna. The answer that Sri Ramakrishna gave was “Yes, I see Him as clearly as one sees an apple in the palm of the hand; nay even more intently. And not only this, you can also see Him.” This answer deeply impressed the young Vivekananda who soon after accepted Sri Ramakrishna as his guru.
Though many individuals are inspired by the thought of seeing God, it seems very distant and unattainable. This is because we think of jumping somehow from a 0% consciousness of God’s presence to 100% awareness of God’s presence. This is where our concept of enlightenment may be a barrier, that enlightenment is an instantaneous event, coming out of nowhere, totally transforming us like a flash of lightening. It is more helpful to think of enlightenment as a gradual process which involves increasing our control over our instinctive nature, controlling our thoughts better and experiencing more and more of our innate divinity.
To experience God, do we sit on a mountaintop, go into a cave or simply close our eyes? Where do we go to see God? Perhaps the easiest place to start is to see God in great religious teachers. We feel a spiritual aura about them that is different. We see a light in their eyes we do not see in others. The mere sound of their words encourages us to live a more spiritual life.
Another way to see God, which is a little more difficult, but still easy to do, is too look deeply into the eyes of another person. Look beyond the individual’s personality, go deeper than his or her intellect and see the individual’s pure life energy as God. The great saying or Mahavakya that describes this approach to experiencing the Divine is “God is the Life of our life,” or in the tamil language “uyirkuyir.” This practice does not stop just with people but should also include trying to see the life energy in trees, birds and animals. This is because God is our life. God is the life in all people. God is the life in the trees, in the birds and in the animals. Becoming aware of this Life energy in all that lives is becoming aware of God’s presence within us. There is a beautiful verse from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad which elucidates this concept. “He who knows God as the Life of life, the Eye of the eye, the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the mind – he indeed comprehends fully the Cause of all causes.” In Hindu culture we have an opportunity everytime we greet another person through the traditional gesture of namaskara to practice looking deeply enough into the eyes of the other person to see God within them as the life of their life. This is fulfilling the deepest meaning of namaskara which is “I greet the God in you.”
Having traditional Hindu temples in our community provides us with one of the most important ways to see God, through the Deity’s image in the temple. This is the devotional or theistic approach. The Hindu temple is not simply a place we go to listen to a lecture on Hinduism. It is a sacred place, built and maintained in such a way, that we can go there to experience the Divine. Gods and devas are in the inner, spiritual worlds and able to bless us through the image in the temple. The image is like a temporary physical body they use during temple ceremonies.
Though occasionally a devotee may have a vision of the God, the more common way we experience the Gods and devas is as an uplifting, peaceful, divine energy, or sakti, that radiates out from the image. It is easiest to feel their blessings at the high point of the puja when the flame is held high. Also their blessings are strongest on their major festival days such as Maha Sivaratri for Lord Siva.
Meditation is internal worship, looking within to experience God. Here’s a story to illustrate. I remember coming out of meditation at a temple in South India a number of years ago and a young man coming up to me and asking what I had been doing. I responded by saying just as God can be experienced when we go into the temple we can also experience God when we go inside ourselves. The person was not convinced by my answer.
This is the monistic or meditative approach to experiencing God, going deeply enough into ourselves to find that part of us that is identical with God. At first we experience God as peaceful and blissful feelings, later as a brilliant clear white light and later still as a consciousness that permeates all and finally as a transcedent reality that is timeless, formless and spaceless.
The key to deepening our experience of God is the regular practice of spiritual disciplines. And it is fair to say that no other religion contains such a vast range of spiritual practices, from such fundamental virtues as noninjury and purity, to temple worship, advanced yoga practices and meditation.
I was recently asked a question by a New York radio show on Hinduism as well as by Hindu pilgrims to our Hawaii monastery. The question is this: we are all so very busy with the demands of modern live there is little time left for spiritual practices. What do you consider the most important practices to be followed.
The answer I gave was to do two things. Establish a shrine in the home and worship there every morning. And secondly, go to the temple once a week. A popular saying in English is that the family that prays together stays together. In Hinduism, ideally this refers to all members of the family participating together in the morning worship in the home shrine as well as the weekly worship at a local temple.
The religious vibration of the home shrine can be strengthened by going to the temple regularly. Specifically, some of the religious atmosphere of the temple can be brought home with you if you simply light an oil lamp in the shrine room when you return home from the temple. This simple act brings devas who were at the temple right into the home shrine room, where from the inner world they can bless all family members and strengthen the religious force field of the home.
The home shrine works best when it is an entire room and not just a corner of the living room or bedroom. In the shrine room offer fruit, flowers or food daily. Learn a simple puja and the chants. Even the older children can learn to do a simple puja. Meditate after each puja. Visit your shrine before and after leaving the house. Worship in heartfelt devotion, clearing the inner channels to God and the Gods so their grace flows toward you and loved ones. Parents can train their younger children to worship in the home shrine before any important event in their life such as an major exam at school.
Worship that is conducted in the home shrine is called Isvarapujana. Isvarapujana also refers to worship we conduct for ourselves rather than worship done by a priest for us. It includes actions as simple as offering a flower to as advanced as performing a full puja. The type of puja done by a lay person is called an atmartha puja, personal worship rite, whereas the puja done by the priest in a temple is called a parartha puja, public liturgy and worship.
Some Hindus are afraid to do an atmartha puja because they feel they don’t have enough training or don’t understand the mystical principles behind it well enough. Most Hindus depend on the priests to perform the pujas and sacraments for them, or to train them to perform home puja and give them permission to do so through initiation, called diksha. However, simple pujas may be performed by anyone wishing to invoke grace from God, Mahadevas and devas. In my Guru’s book “Loving Ganesha”, he gives a Ganesha puja that can be performed by anyone.
After the atmartha puja is concluded it is customary to sit for a few minutes in meditation, internal worship, taking in to the soul level the refined feelings, the prana, that the puja has created and which still remains in the room. In this way we receive maximum blessings from the puja.