(
Dedicated to two of my favourite teachers: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Prof. Venkatesh Ramaswamy)
I had ordered Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s ‘An Intimate Note To A Sincere Seeker’ online a few days ago. Couldn’t and can’t wait to read it, received the delivery 15 mins back. Super excited, all set to sit down and indulge in some really uplifting soul-talk, I decide to check out what’s happening on Facebook, to avoid any distractions later. So I sign in and happen to see a link that totally puts a smile on my face.
One of my favourite teachers, Prof. Venkatesh Ramaswamy had posted a link to his blog : “baba venky --- venky sirs itcha to become baba”. One of my fondest memories of his lectures was the way he would mock all these “new-age” spiritual philosophies, and his impersonation of “Sri Sri Sri Sri Sri Sri Sri” Ravi Shankar (only Venky Sir’s students would know the significance of the extra-Sri’s ;) would have the entire class in splits.
So today, when the sight of his link “baba venky” sent me rollicking right down memory lane, I couldn’t resist telling him about this little comedy of associations and I did.
He replied (on FB) saying -
nothing against babaji ravi ji. but most of what he says is old hat.we know it. but dont practice it. anyway read the book if u have paid for it .
The word “old hat” came flying at me in the head. Old hat for what we call ‘new-age spirituality’??? Ironic, isn’t it?
But the fact is that what sounded absurdly anomalistic at first, I realized couldn’t be more true.
Venky Sir was so right. Sri Sri
is old hat. Everything he teaches and talks about
is old hat. All religions
are old hat. All spiritual theories
are old hat. There’s nothing new about any of them!
Take any religion or spiritual school of thought, they say the same thing! The basic foundations, the core, the crux, the essence is identical. We know it all, but we don’t practice it.
That’s what Sri Sri says too – we know it all. The soul knows it all. How can we not know our true nature? We are our true nature. Not outside of it. Not inside of it. We are it.
And that true nature, that one eternal truth has been parroted for eons by every religion and faith and spiritual philosophy that exists. And if it is truly the truth, there can’t be versions of it, right? Media differs, not the content! Fundamentally, it’s gotta be the same and it is. Truth verified. Authenticated. Repeated. Regurgitated.Vomited. But we still don’t seem to get it.
So on being and not knowing or knowing but not applying or having the knowledge but not putting it to practice, my take is this:
We are a stubborn species, inherently averse to change. Hence, the solution lies in drilling that voice into your head that nudges you to be happy, irrespective, to the extent that it goes off like an alarm each time you’re on the verge of spiralling down. How do you do this? Take tips from what the television and media in general, has done to us. Subconscious rationalization.
Media has made us believe we need that car, that television, that notebook, that fancy wedding, that 15 karat rock, by rubbing it in all day, everyday, everywhere for YEARS! Slowly but surely, these ‘created’ needs creep in stealthily to be perceived by us as ‘natural’ human needs (Google neuro-linguistic programming or NLP) ! And now there is no other way but to have them! And it’s perfectly “normal” for us as a society to be miserable if we don’t get them!
So yea, do the same, subconscious rationalization, but with a twist. Do it for a good cause. “What you do the most becomes you. You become what you do the most.” or Batman’s “It’s not who you are underneath but what you do that defines you.”
Through practice and only practice and surrounding yourself with things, literature, people, that reinforce and rub in the Happy Voice all the time, comes a point where you don’t need that voice to remind you to be happy. Congratulations, you have been reconditioned into being yourself! Who you really are! The ability to see goodness and seek goodness and be goodness has been restored and now THIS feels normal. You’ve come undone.
So we see, it’s no secret society that teaches its privileged members some magic trick that makes your life awesome! There’s nothing to be taught. How can we be taught to live? We can only be reminded. A refresher of sorts.
Most of us today, when asked about our religious faith, proudly strut “I am not religious. I am spiritual.” It is fundamentally incorrect (I am itching to say
stupid) to say this because every religion is a spiritual philosophy in itself.
Someone who digs deeper and tries to understand what being spiritual really means will realize that it simply means finding that balance in life. To be centered, is to be spiritual.
Meditation, chanting, prayers, mind-control offer highly practical tools that guide us into developing powerful, positive, strong and extremely potent minds that remain unruffled and balanced irrespective of the rubbish that goes on around us! So, if your boss’ only living wish is to make your life hell, being spiritually centered, i.e, knowing what really matters and what doesn’t, will give you the common sense to not bother, keep your head down and do your job, as opposed to, scream, yell, gossip, abuse, politicize and eventually quit! Same is the case with rejections that so often take the life out us, make us dejected, disappointed, complete wastes of nature!
Whether you follow a “mainstream” (for lack of a better word) religion, or a lesser known cult of a spiritual school of thought, if you can, without flinching an eyelid say that you’re able enough to remain happy, positive, strong in faith and hopeful even in the darkest of situations – then spiritual, religious, atheist, agnostic or Art of Living for that matter – call it whatever you like, you’re going the right way. The way doesn’t want a name, all it wants is for its travellers to be happy :-) How nice of it, isn’t it? The way makes your faith a straight line. Unwavering. Calm. At peace. At home.
So I shall take baba venky’s advice and read the book I’ve paid for. And maybe read another 10 that say the same thing. I shall keep reading them and applying them to make sense of the life that we’ve been given! And the only sense that one can make in life is to be happy. Irrespective. :-)
Quoting my dad here who had once said to me :
“Beta, in life one should be an expert at being happy!” :-)
Old hat, dad! Old hat! ;)
