Moral Inconsistency

Over the centuries, we have fought many moral frontiers. Once upon a time, people thought it was OK to brutalise certain tribes and races. Some groups once propounded the philosophy that women had no souls and were therefore inferior entities. In so many ways we have now overcome such ludicrous proposals and have recognised equality of humans regardless of gender, ethnic background, age or economic status.

The next moral frontier, however, concerns another species. People seem to think that because animals have a different type of body it’s justifiable to indiscriminately kill and enjoy them for our own pleasure. Brutal treatment of highly evolved mammals that experience complex emotions has become a common practice in modern society. It seems we are unable to link the cleanly packaged meat we find in fast food outlets and on supermarket shelves with the bloody and violent slaughterhouses from which they come.

We often treat our pets as well as our friends and families. We groom them, feed them, clothe them and even send them for manicures! If we go out and brutalise someone’s pet dog, the law will come crashing down on us for our inconsiderate and cruel acts. On the other hand, the vicious killing of millions of other animals is completely ignored. After playing with their pet dog someone just drives right over to the restaurant and orders a steak! This is the incredible moral inconsistency of the modern world.

A spiritualist tries to live in the most harmonious, natural, healthy and nonviolent way as possible. With World Vegetarian Week just gone, it may be worth considering our diet and the effect it has on the world, other living beings, and our own consciousness. George Bernard Shaw once commented, “While our bodies are the living graves of murdered animals, how can we expect any ideal conditions on earth?”

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No Man's Land

When we take to the spiritual path, we can often suffer from a lot of shame and guilt. Every tradition sets high ideals and expectations in terms of thought, word and action. However, within us also remain the deep-rooted materialistic desires that we have developed over the years, many of which are opposed to spiritual ideals. Thus there is a moment-to-moment internal battle going on, a battle between what we feel impelled to do and what we know we should be doing.

We may walk away from the material world, philosophically recognizing the futility of the temporary pleasures that are on offer there. However, the spiritual world and all it’s fulfilment seem far away. Thus, aspiring spiritualists can find themselves stuck in a no man's land. It’s a place from which we look back at the world and materialistic life and think, 'I can't go back there', and a place from which we look ahead to spiritual life and think, 'I can't imagine I will ever get there'. So as pleasure-seeking entities, we become frustrated, neither enjoying material pleasure nor getting the higher taste of spiritual life. The ancient classic Mahabharata says that two types of people are happy: the first is the totally ignorant, and the second is the spiritually perfected. Anyone in between will feel unfulfilled to a greater or lesser degree.

However, for advancing spiritualists there is always incredible hope. They know that intense spiritual practice will purify their consciousness, free them from the bonds of selfishness, and allow them to experience the higher taste of spirituality. And sometimes, when the spiritualists do slip up, they feel guilt and shame at having failed. However, that shame and guilt does not debilitate them and stop them from advancing toward spiritual purity and bliss. To become hopeless in spiritual life is what a no man's land actually is, where one is haunted by guilt, yet cannot make progress. That is very painful to see, and it is something we should always help each other avoid.

(Special thanks to Tattvavit prabhu, one of our senior monks, who edited this post. His encouragement and inspiration has helped me continue my feeble attempts to write on the spiritual subject matter)

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Learning Lessons for Life

On Monday, two of our senior monks visited the pioneering ‘Krishna Avanti School’ in North West London, so I decided to tag along. It’s the first ever state-funded Hindu School in the UK, and I must say one of the most spiritually dynamic projects I have come across. Children from the age of 4 will be taught spiritual principles of tolerance, compassion, respect and devotion to God, alongside the standard national curriculum. As we met some of the young children, something amazing dawned upon me. Spirituality really requires that we become childlike again.

Children are extremely enthusiastic, inquisitive, non-duplicitous and eager to build friendships with others. When one’s heart is decorated with such qualities, divine insight and inspiration will automatically manifest. Within those children I saw amazing potential to show the world what a successful, honorable, open-minded and spiritual citizen would be like. The impressions of spirituality within the childlike consciousness run very deep. They are definitely learning lessons for life.

So what about us who are getting on in our lives (it was my 28th birthday last week :)? Well, we may not be able to physically transform into the body of a child, but if we can atleast develop the childlike approach it may serve us well. Instead of simply following society’s norms or blindly engaging in religious ritual, let us become inquisitive like the child – eager to learn more and go deeper in our understandings of spiritual philosophy, culture and practice. Instead of descending into diplomacy, politics and backbiting, let us become straightforward and non duplicitous like the child – enthusiastic to break free of our own superficialities, and also relate to others on a deeper level. Instead of shutting out others, becoming intolerant and dogmatic in our approach, let us learn to build bridges and friendships like the child – earnestly searching for unity in diversity.

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Unconscious Incompetence

We all make mistakes, and recently I was reflecting on being corrected by others. It’s easy to give good advice, but often very difficult to take good advice. As soon as somebody gives us feedback or criticism, the knee-jerk reaction is to defend ourselves, find fault in that person, and in some way justify how their comments are inaccurate and invalid. One who creates a shell around his persona, shutting the doors to good advice, will find it very difficult to overcome all the impurities in the heart. However, the spiritualist who is able to see divine instruction coming through all people in all circumstances, is able to very quickly advance in the spiritual journey.

Last week I unnecessarily became angry at someone and wrongly accused them of something. I felt quite frustrated and disappointed with myself. Knowing the principles and qualities of a spiritualist, how could I allow myself to descend to that level? I thought I was a good natured, reasonable, noble person. I concluded that I may well be on the spiritual path, but I am definitely a ‘work in progress’.

Sometimes a pillow can look very clean, but as you strike it, clouds of dust start appearing. Similarly, as we practice spirituality with seriousness and sincerity, the gross and subtle imperfections within our own character become more and more apparent. Before we can remove the dust, the dust must surface. Thus, through observing our own character, and also being open to the observations of others, we can understand that we’re not perfect and must diligently engage in the spiritual process to become purified in character.

In psychology they talk of ‘Unconscious Incompetence’ – the idea that someone is acting improperly and is not even aware of it. One then progresses to the stage of ‘Conscious Incompetence’, where one has actually realized the problem and come to terms with it. From there, one makes a concerted effort to act in the proper way – this is known as ‘Conscious Competence’. Finally, the proper behaviour becomes so ingrained in the consciousness, that one does it automatically. This perfected stage is known as ‘Unconscious Competence’.

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Problem of Evil

Certain questions always seem to surface. With regards to the existence of God, a popular one is the problem evil: ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ The Greek philosopher Epikouros, succinctly summarises the contention. Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? If so, it would jeopardise His omnipotence and strength. Is God able to prevent evil but not willing? Is so, it would challenge His all-compassionate nature. If God is neither willing nor able to prevent suffering, could you really call Him God? So the question remains as to how suffering can coexist with the notion of a compassionate, all-knowing and all-powerful God.

The Vedic teachings approach this dilemma by broadening our perspectives. The scriptures introduce the concepts of Karma and Reincarnation, positing the idea that this life is merely a chapter of existence, and our situation is ultimately a reaction to our activities in past lives. Our experiences in this life (both positive and negative) are meant to educate us about the nature of this world and our deeper purpose here. Experiences are meant for our spiritual evolution and growth, and sometimes that education may come in the form of distress and pain.

Children are often eager to touch different objects of interest, many of them quite dangerous. Once, a mother who was observing her child repeatedly trying to touch a moving fan used an ingenious technique to educate him. She turned the fan off, and when it was still moving fast enough to cause some pain, but slow enough to avoid any permanent damage, she allowed the child to put his hand in the fan and be hit. Feeling the pain, the child resolved never to do repeat the act, but simultaneously all his fingers remained intact! Similarly, karmic pain and suffering helps to educate us without permanently damaging us. The soul (the self) is ultimately beyond the body and the mind and never becomes scarred by the misfortunes of this world. These concepts are not meant to blame people for their own suffering or justify someone’s pain, but rather help us approach life’s challenges with a deeper perspective in mind. As one introspects and reflects in hard times, rather than blaming others or slipping into dejection and hopelessness, one will experience amazing insight into the spiritual reality.

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Distractions on the path

One of our distinguished teachers explains that there are three major temptations in this world – temptations that can allure anyone at any stage of their spiritual evolution. In Sanskrit they are termed kanaka, kamini & pratistha. In English, these translate to wealth, the opposite sex, and position & prestige. All negative qualities like anger, greed, envy, criticism, pride, harshness and so on, generally have their roots in one of these desires.

A modern day spiritualist, however, will find it incredibly difficult to refrain from interacting with these three things. It is difficult even within a spiritual community, what to speak of the day-to-day world. However, when we are dealing with matters of money, interacting with the opposite sex and exercising power, influence and control over others, there must be great vigilance and caution. The moment we develop a mood of exploitation and enjoyment of these things, at that time our spirituality is lost and we descend again into the material realm. Thus, spiritual life is like a tight rope. One must tread very carefully.

It is not that as one advances on the spiritual path, one can feel more security from these allurements. As one’s tree of spirituality grows, the roots of humility, gratitude and feeling of spiritual dependence must also grow deep, lest the tree may extend so big that it topples over. The real spiritualist is not a shooting star, but a pole star. I force myself to reflect on this again and again as I make some feeble attempt to remain on this wonderful and exciting path of spirituality.

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One World One House

I just returned from Amsterdam where we had a huge Hare Krishna procession for the annual Queensday festival. I’ve never seen such crowded streets in my whole life. As we weaved through the revellers, chanting the famous Hare Krishna mantra, everyone smiled, many sang along, and some enthusiastically danced with us without a care in the world. The chanting seemed to break the barriers of caste, creed or culture and penetrated their hearts on a much deeper level. As I observed our party – men, women, young, old, from all backgrounds economically, socially and politically – all chanting together in great joy, I realized that this really is the process that has the power to unite the world.

The world is desperately searching for the common ground we need for world peace and unity. The great saint Srila Prabhupada who founded this movement once walked by the United Nations building and remarked “they call this the United Nations, but every time I come here there are more and more flags!” Without a spiritual foundation, we may at best manage some superficial unity and cooperation, but on a deeper level the division will remain.

Real peace and unity comes from seeing the spiritual equality of all beings. Such a vision destroys all racism, nationalism, ageism, sexism – even ‘species-ism’ (the idea that humans are superior to all other animals and can treat them in whatever way they want). Prabhupada was commended as “having built a house in which the whole world can live.” This house is not simply a physical building, but rather a house of profound spiritual consciousness. It’s a house which is centred around the Supreme Person, but not in a way that alienates or marginalizes any living being. It’s a house in which the chanting of God’s names is the activity which creates and sustains the spirituality. Most importantly, it’s a house open to any sincere spiritual searcher who really wants to find the essence in life.

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