Select quotations from
Mystery of Man and the Universe: Divine Grace and Our Surrender
by Neduntheru S. Kannan
Religion can often play an important role in developing spirituality. There are, of course, instances where the absence of commitment to a religion in no way compromises spirituality. The deeper experiences of spiritually evolved people often go beyond the prescriptions of religion and not necessarily against religion. Most religions prescribe prayer formats of one kind or another but there are mystics -- only very few - whatever their religious persuasion who dispense with prayers, having graduated to a higher level of understanding and communication. That is a phase, when religion is perfectly interiorised without the crutches of any rituals or outside support. They would not even need any particular place of worship or a marked zone of silence or retreat, much less an admiring motley crowd of followers. They become invisible power-houses of spirituality and sources of inspiration and transmission. (p. 44)
From the Buddhist perspective, the origin of suffering is ignorance and the main symptoms of that ignorance are attachment and craving. (p. 45)
Geoffrey Chaucer...maintained that the conspiracy between the physician and the apothecary to keep the patient ever a patient was part of the natural order of things. (p. 68)
The genuine seeker, wherever he is placed, has always a formidable problem...The question arises: how does he go about it, learn to distinguish the right from the wrong, and more importantly, how does he recognize the true and unfailing teacher? (p. 77)
A person who loves is blind to the faults of the object; the man who hates is blind to the virtues. Desires too give rise to prejudices; we are always prone to taking as true that which is in agreement with our desires. (p. 77)
A man who is not at peace within himself necessarily projects his in-fighting into the society of those he lives with and spreads conflict all around. (p. 79)
On a daily personal level, everyone has things or people they hate and blame for their suffering and this hatred and blame bring relief of a kind. (p. 89)
In Dr. Conway Morris’ view, ‘science can explain the beetle, the lotus leaf and the spider’s web but not why they appear beautiful to people. (p. 100)
The Upanishads declared long ago -- Purity of mind, of intellect and of action, all these are possible only with the regulated intake of approved quality food. (p. 191)
For, my dear, the mind consists of food….When the food is pure, the man becomes pure. (p. 192)
All the major Vedas -- the Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva Vedas -- recognize the importance of maintenance of the seasons’ cycles that are likely to get altered due to the climate changes on account of inappropriate human actions. “Do not harm the environment; do not harm the water and the flora; earth is my mother; I am her son; may the waters remain fresh,...Tranquility be to the atmosphere, to the earth, to the waters, to the crops and vegetation.” This Vedic prayer invokes divine intervention to bless and protect the environment. For any indiscreet action, if committed affecting the earth, the seers prayed for forgiveness, “Whatever I dig from thee, O Earth, may that have quick recovery again. O Purifier, may we not injure thy vitals or thy heart.” The seers of RigVeda speak on behalf of earth for its principle of replenishment -- “You give me and I give you.” Reverence for life, whether they are plants or animals or fellow humans, is the keynote of Vedic wisdom. Some excerpts from the hymns of Atharva Veda addressed to the mother Earth are worth quoting and pondering:
May those born of thee, O Earth, be, for our welfare, free from sickness and waste. Wakeful through a long life, we shall become bearers of tribute to thee. (p. 194-5)
“This Supreme self is not attained either through thinking or by meditation or by listening a great deal. That Supreme is attainable by the individual self, whom He chooses. To him the Supreme reveals His form. (Kathopanishad 2.23)
The personality of man is the cumulative effect of all his past thoughts, desires, and acts. Past activities which have been completed are irreversible and what has resulted finally has to be faced and dealt with appropriately as an on-going operation. Man thus creates and shapes his own destiny. If it is held that destiny has been pre-ordained without the consent of the person concerned, it would be a very superficial and fatalistic understanding of reality. The Supreme has enabled man to think, desire and act. He leaves man to his thoughts, desires and actions -- the quality of which is entirely man’s making, even as he is burdened by karma on the one hand, with knowledge and aspiration on the other….If karma is the child of deterministic laws, dharma is the power of free will. When the power of dharma is unleashed, it weights down the scale. Lifting the pan of karma lightly into the air. Every choice exercised correctly helps to unburden the weight of karma.
It is not therefore an overstatement to declare that man is the architect of his own destiny. (p. 218)
Kathopanishad says that the jiva is not born and he does not die. The use of expressions like birth and death only means embodiment and disembodiment. Ramanuja says that the jiva is indeed an effect of Brahman eternally as an individual being as a mode or prakara of Brahman. (p. 242)
If the souls are not eternal and immortal, we will have to face an absurd situation, in which one soul reaps what he does not sow and another soul does not reap what he sows with great effort. The truth that good actions and bad actions do make a difference to the happiness in actual life in due course, over several births, is certainly the benchmark on which everyone has to order his life all the time. Not everybody acts accordingly and this explains the effect of karma -- presence of good and evil -- which does not have to be ascribed to God, calling him an unjust and merciless God. (p. 242)
Man is verily thought-shaped: as is his desire, so is his thought; as his thought is, so he acts; as he acts, so he attains...Nothing can sprout without a seed. No one can obtain happiness, without having performed acts capable of yielding happiness. If he spreads happiness around through his actions, he reaps happiness eventually in some form or other. If he causes misery on the contrary, misery accrues to him doubly in due course. This is again a cause-effect sequence in human chemistry, although the two cannot always be easily connected in point of time. (Newton’s law in ethics) (p. 247)
Mysticism is not magic or miracle-mongering. The intuitive experience of the mystic is immediate and ineffable. God is not inferred; he is intuited and that experience is neither feeling nor emotion…(It is) intoxication, a very real flow of spirituality. (p. 288)
Taittiriya Upanishad. Bhrigu approaches his father Varuna and requests him to teach him Brahman -- the ultimate Reality. The father asks the son to go and discover Brahman for himself….Bhirgu progresses step by step, from matter (food sheath), to life (breath/prana/energy sheath), to consciousness (mind), to intellect (Buddhi), to bliss (ananda). Bliss is that state of dreamless sleep that is beyond words and senses.
The Divine body of Paramatma, worthy of worship, is declared in Antaradhikaranam (1.1.7), thus establishing that Brahman has also a beautiful golden figure, accessible to the meditating yogis -- the Chandogya Upanishad refers to the golden radiant person who is seen in the sun and the eye. (p. 343)
The Vedanta of Sankara marks a strictly orthodox reaction against non-Vedic elements of belief and doctrine; it is however too little in sympathy with the wants of the human heart; comparatively few are those who rejoice in the idea of a universal non-personal essence in which their own individuality is to be merged and lost forever -- who think it to be sweet ‘to be wrecked on the ocean of the Infinite.’
Schopenhauer, a German philosopher, after reading the translations of the Upanishads, stated: “Their reading has been the consolation of my life and will be of my death.” Nobel Laureate Erwin Schrodinger’s What is life is one of the great science classics of the twentieth century...The book testifies to the influence of the Upanishads on the physicist, who declares that the recognition of Atman represents the quintessence of deepest insight into the happenings of the world. (p. 346)
Grace can come about only in response to the aspirant’s longing for Him; in the absences of that pure selfless love, the seeker lacks the primary qualification to be eligible for His grace. (p. 348)
The effects of unsavory karma have to be wiped away and this can be achieved only be a determined bid to come out clean through constant endeavor to cultivate a life of virtue, charity, compassion and conformity to (scriptural) injunctions. (p. 349)
To work alone you have the right and not to the fruits. Do not be impelled by the fruits of work. Nor have attachment to inaction. B.G. 2.47
What is emphasized here is action for its own sake, uncontaminated by desires that bind and fetter, in other words, action in a spirit of worship...With this understanding as the basis of karma, all acts performed in absolute equanimity of mind, progressively leads to the weakening of the effects of former deeds done with worldly desires. In stages, understanding gets illumined; delusions vanish and an attitude of complete detachment from earthly values is entrenched in making way for intuitive apprehension of the self.
As karma yoga is practiced to fullness, Jnana yoga is initiated, when the aspirant reaches the state of a steady-minded person maintaining absolute equipoise. The path is now set for the perception of the self and that leads to bhakti, the final means for liberation or moksha. Conquest of desires is not a process of suppression which renders renunciation insecure and incompatible. The senses are very wild, powerful and unpredictable. To restrain them completely requires a gradual preparation through desireless action, backed by an understanding of the nature of the self.
...Only one who pursues a life of action and reaches fullness can hope to secure a passage to a life of contemplation -- which is certainly not attained by refraining or abstaining from action. IN fact, in life, everyone is always and all the time attached or attracted to one activity or another under the compulsive influences of nature -- sattva, rajas, and tamas. It would therefore be logical to accept the position and proceed from a plane of regulated and refined action and then aspire for progress, without struggling to break the natural laws. (p. 350)
Where is the bondage in the performance of karma? Actions do mean involvement and commitment but they have to be done without attachment; actions undertaken for the sake of obligatory sacrifice of oblation do not bind at all. Lord puts it in a nutshell in his instruction: Therefore, Arjuna, be unattached and always perform your prescribed duties (obligatory actions, dharma). He who does so reaches the supreme goal of life. (p. 351)
B.G. 11.53-5: Neither by Vedas nor by austerity nor by gift nor by sacrifice, can I be seen in this form as you have seen me. But by single-minded devotion can I, of this form, be known and seen in reality and also entered into, O Arjuna. He who does all actions for me, who looks up on me as the Supreme, who is devoted to me, who is free from attachment, who bears enmity towards no creation, he comes to me.
Self-surrender is spiritual surgery which does not fail to yield the effect at the desired point of time but the success depends as much on the surgeon as to the cooperation and faith of the patient who gives himself up wholly without the least reservation. (p. 356)
It is declared in the Gita: “Everywhere in all the material universes, the dispositions of nature -- the gunas of prakriti -- perform all works. But deluded by egoism, man thinks - ‘I am the doer’”.
Man is born with certain tendencies -- samskaras -- that he acquires commensurate with his activities -- karma -- in previous lives. These tendencies are made up of the three gunas: sattva, rajas, and tamas. The relative proportions of these qualities determine broadly his character. Generally, his thoughts and actions are dictated by the samskaras, because nature compels him to act according to his character. “Not even for a moment one can remain without performing some action or other. Everyone is forced to act according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature (gunas). (p. 357)
Without free will, the law of karma becomes inoperative; we could use the limited free will to pursue purely material prosperity and pleasure that will have a degrading effect on the samskaras we keep building for the future; or we could generate sattvic samskaras, which will help us, evolve spiritually and ultimately take us to the goal of liberation. (p. 357)
Loving and direct contemplations on the part of the seeker is the pathway to the bliss of communion with Brahman and ultimately, that is the supreme joy of life in God. This path of Bhakti is not a royal road -- it is indeed a razor’s edge as Katopoanishad puts it -- demanding exertion and dedication with the preparatory discipline of karma yoga and jnana yoga, in other words philosophical understanding and meditational devotion.
Seven disciplines involved in Bhakti yoga (yoga of devotional service):
Bodily purity through sattvic food
Freedom from desires
Meditation on the Supreme with mental calm and detachment
Performance of duty (kriya yoga)
Practice of virtue (honesty, integrity, purity in speech and action, compassion, benevolence, non-injury to others in thought, word and deed
Freedom from despair, disappointment and grieving over past misfortunes and sorrows
Freedom from undue excitement or elation (steadiness)
All that is required is that the jiva should refrain from resisting Isvara’s eagerness to protect him (p. 377)
The measure of happiness and sorrow a person is fated to experience now has already been determined by the good and evil acts of his earlier life. It is the inexorable law of karma. Man may go round all the worlds but he cannot secure happiness more than what his past work would justify….Wise men who understand this truth will neither grieve nor be puzzled or worried about all these happenings in life. The long and short of it is that the actions in past lives invariably constitute the raison d’etre for the joy, grief and misery in this life.
If karma is so merciless, would a person stricken with disease refuse to be treated with medicines as prescribed by the Ayurveda Sastras or decline to perform propitiatory acts like gifts, charity, rite of fire, prayer with offerings and also refrain from resorting to other remedies prescribed in the Sastras? Would that not mean that the prescribing Sastras are futile? If a person is destined to suffer or continue to sin helplessly thanks to his Karma, what is the relevance of Sastras mandating that nobody should sin at all but do always the good in accordance with Dharma? If a person, impelled by the inherited tendency to do well always, is acting correctly on his own there is no need for any Sastras to dictate a righteous course of conduct for him.
It is explained that the effect of bad karma creates a tendency to sin again, but it is possible to resist the tendency with the help of knowledge of Sastras and the freedom to act, conferred by the Lord. (p. 385)
The very act of prescribed atonement with repentance and a determination not to sin again amounts to the sinner experiencing the effect of Karma in the normal course. The atonement here is not a make-believe operation but the turning point to repent and keep away from sinning again.