Where the women are loved

 

Nowadays one sometimes reads about incidents in India of mistreatment and disrespect of women, and that can never be condoned. However just like a few trees do not define a forest, an aberration does not define a civilisation.

Contrary to common belief, in India, as in most agrarian societies the Goddess the provider of all things, as mother nature, has always been revered. In such societies the female has always been respected, loved and worshipped. Hindu and later Sikh tradition have always honoured women with the highest status of which women are rightly deserving.

Somewhere along the way, this valuable lesson which kept man and nature in harmony got disturbed. Influence of patriarchal and alien religions and cultures industrialisation, urbanisation etc. amongst other causes has taught man that nature and hence females are to be exploited for man's convenience and pleasure. Exploitation can never bring honour, dignity or love, only submission and resentment.

Our salvation and lasting joy can come only by loving and cherishing nature, which is manifested in the female.

Culture is shaped by both tradition and historical influences, and provides us many valuable lessons. Love, trust, and respect can never be legislated, or taught. Respect for women can only be instilled in the hearts and minds of our children by the example of elders and parents in every household.

It is not possible to impose values like respect, love and trust upon individuals, nor can it be taught in classrooms. Though this  is often attempted by the government, media, priests, schools, and civil society with little or no benefit except to enhance their own grandeur and power.

I can share what I have learnt.

If you are a man attempt not to understand them, rather try to cherish and respect the women in your life. If you are a woman, then accept them as imperfect yet honour, respect and care for the men in your life. If we do this the days of our life will be wholesome, because divine energies will reside along with us.

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* The Manu-Smriti, also known as Manav Dharam Shastra, is the earliest work on Brahminical Dharma in Hinduism. Manu-Smriti is believed to be the word of Brahma, the Creator and it is classified as the most authoritative statement on Dharma.

The scripture consists of 2690 verses, divided into 12 chapters.  It is presumed that the actual human  author of this compilation used the eponym ‘Manu’, which has led the text to be associated by Hindus with the first human being and the first king in the Indian tradition.

Vitality of Laughter

 Laughter is a natural and universal phenomenon witnessed in every society through all times. In some cultures it comes easy and increasingly in some societies it has been greatly repressed particularly in public.

A society that cannot laugh is unnatural and one can judge how liberated a civilisation is, by how easily and openly the people laugh. 

Government officials, bosses of all kinds, rich and powerful people, priests and clergy, Masters and teachers, and in short, people who wield any position of authority, generally consider their presence in society as very important, even vital. With seemingly  heavy weight on their shoulders they generally find it difficult to smile, leave alone laugh.

The great philosopher Osho made a vital observation. When we laugh, our mind stops  analysing, thoughtless and free from anxiety, greed, regret, etc. This is exactly the same state we attain in meditation, to be free of the mind.

When we genuinely laugh, for those precious few moments  we get disconnected from our material, mental, and emotional worlds. abandoning by reflex our artificial selves and revert to our most natural childlike, innocent state of being.  The very same goal sought by all great masters.

It is at that moment we [encounter the sacred](https://www.guruwonder.in/post/happiness-is-our-encounter-with-the-sacred). 

We will laugh, and laugh frequently when we look at the absurdity of reality and of human existence and our ways. If we can only get over the ridiculous notion that laughter is a sign of the  socially, financially, politically, intellectually and religiously lowly, we could easily progress in nourishing and setting free our spirit.

I crack jokes all the time, and don't mind it when my family and friends point out my idiosyncrasies and strangeness, after all I am human and unique just like everyone else. Laughing at oneself is spiritually therapeutic, for it tends to demolish our arrogance and release us from our ego (ego being an artificial construct we use to identify and define ourselves). This is a precondition for spiritual liberation.

This is why every royal court had a jester, a person who reveals the heavy truth in a light manner to let the monarch and the court know that they are but mortal and thus keep the monarch and his subjects sane and balanced.

The possibility of laughter is universally available to everyone, and probably the easiest way to meditate. Laughing frequently will lightly and in small steps could lead us to spiritual liberation.

Have you laughed recently?

‘Political Correctness’ screws up life.

 

'Political Correctness' specifies what is considered as the appropriate way for members of society to dress, speak, and behave both in private and in public.

Power within every society or organisation is always concentrated in the hands of a small minority. This is why Political Correctness, has remained the most powerful weapon used by political and religious leaders and their forces to control the majority of the members of society.

A culture can be defined by its Political Correctness. Generally the greater the demand for correctness, the greater is the control of political and religious forces on the lives of members of society.

The best way for political and religious leaders to retain control over members of society is to impose as many restrictions as is possible on the people, particularly women. Why the great emphasis on control of women? This is because when one controls the man, one tends to control an individual, but when one controls a woman one can usually control an entire family.

One should view with great suspicion people and self proclaimed leaders who demand political correctness, for with these demands they have begun to impose dictatorial control over our lives.

Political Correctness has always been around, and imposed through followers of organised religion. It it has become prominent only recently with the increase in production, and distribution of news, information and entertainment through various media channels. It has also become a very powerful tool in conditioning of youngsters within educational institutions. 

Political correctness appears as a reasonable restriction or demand on behaviour and the use of particular language, but in reality it is an attempt to muzzle thought.

One of the greatest victims of political correctness is humour and comedy. Laughter and happiness are defining features of human existence irrespective of culture. A society that cannot laugh freely is a dead or dying society. Only a free and living society can laugh with abandon, and only an evolved human being can laugh at himself or herself.

"Against the onslaught of humour, no force can withstand" ~ Mark Twain.

Have you laughed or been able to speak what you think and believe yesterday?

If not, then you may have already been politically corrected.

What Meditation is not

 

The Western mind deeply influenced by Judaism, Christianity and Islam which has no room for meditation. Contemplation yes, meditation no. Hence the Oxford dictionary erroneously defines 'meditation' and 'indulgence in thought. Ignorance can mislead us.

The concept of meditation originated in the East where great Masters shared it with their disciples. Unfortunately, even though India is the birth place of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, there is a lot of misunderstanding about meditation. Arrogance can mislead us.

Every seeker of the Truth struggles to experience and understand. A true master teaches without considerations of money, power, or benefit of any kind.  (Disciples out of gratitude almost always make a voluntary contribution in money or kind to their teacher). Hence the true master remains openly honest, terribly blunt and virtuously open, keeping only the disciples development in focus.

Here is  something from the great Master J. Krishnamurti that I would like to share with my readers. 

There are many schools of meditation, each following its own methods and systems. claiming that if one practice these methods /systems, the practitioner will achieve a certain form of enlightenment. They claim that by their methods of meditation one can realise or experience an extraordinary state of existence.

A system or a method implies a mechanical repetition and that cannot be called as meditation, because repetition can only dull the mind. 

Meditation is awareness, the awareness of our own thoughts, without trying to suppress,  manipulate or control our thoughts. To simply observe dispassionately, the whole momentum of our thinking, this constant chattering that is going on within us.

Daydreaming is not meditation, for meditation requires a great discipline. Not the discipline of suppression or control, but the subtle discipline born out of observing one's own thinking.

One can therefore meditate at any time of one's choosing and at any place. Meditation is observation, an acute awareness of what is happening around us and also within oneself.

Meditation is not praying, for meditation is the emptying of the mind of everything we know, for only then can we begin to know the unknown.  To see something new one must empty the mind of the past. Our experience of God or Truth or whatever we choose to call it has to be something new. It cannot be something born out of centuries and even thousands of years of conditioning or propaganda.

God or truth as we know it by organised religion is constantly decaying, if not dead. Truth is a living experience, that means it is here and now without baggage from the past. 

A mind must be emptied of the past to become aware of the living Truth as it is today. To realise this Truth of the present the mind is silenced of all baggage of the past and all the chatter in the mind in the present.

The silent mind is not the absence of noise, rather it is the mind that has become aware of and understood its own thoughts. Such a mind grows silent and the body stills. Then an extraordinary state is achieved, the brain cells themselves become quiet. That is real meditation. 

Meditation is often misunderstood as submission to some scriptural or human authority, or the chanting or mere repetition of words.

Real meditation is 'Simran' a stilling of the body and mind so as to be acutely aware of all that is without and within our mind. It is only then can we awaken to the Truth frequently referred to as God, a 'Truth' realised by ourselves rather than one given to us by others. 

Do we possess, the audacity to awaken?

Religion, is about emotion, not knowledge.

As I sat there listening to Gurbani Kirtan, (hymns) being sung, I was transported to another inexplicable time and space. Overcome with emotion, tears rolled down my cheeks, I could not hold them back.  Tears have salt as do the oceans, that is why we shed tears when we connect with Creation.

The Guru's message carried on the waves of music, and melodious voice, piercing my entire being. A great calm engulfed me and simultaneously I felt awake and alive.

When the minstrels had finished, the priests took over and the emotions partly receded. When I emerged from the congregation and the chit chat of society was almost everywhere. Talk of business, society, family, politics and gossip brought me back to complete normality. 

The religious experience had lifted me an individual soul to a height, and society had dragged me back to the ground.

Why could I not achieve that high for a longer time, a high with out alcohol or drugs? Why not that freedom without wealth, position or power?
I could, but I had to do it alone. Society could not help me even if the government or the priests decreed. My family and friends could also not help, even though they loved and cherished me. My employees and associates cannot not no matter how much I cared and looked out for them. 

I alone, can birth tranquility within myself and that of my  being with the universe. Religion helps me, if I take its message to heart and not to the mind. 

Bhai Kuldeep Singh ji

Unfortunately we have become too literate and excessively intellectual.
We think we know a lot by reading, analysing and dissecting, but we know little unless we feel something. 
The mind which was to serve the being has become our master. Not only is the mind a master it is a terrible and fickle master.

Of course man cannot live by emotion alone, but it allows us to plumb and reach the deepest of ourselves and that is why religion is so essential. 
This is why the greater the religion the more it binds us humans to the universe through music, singing, poetry and dancing. Religion which touches our spirit makes us childlike, wondrous, loving, trusting, friendly and respectful.
This is the one and only true Religion as brought to us by countless Gurus and Masters called by thousands of names. This is the religion of the Divine and all are capable of experiencing.

When religion does not stir the soul it is not religion. 
When religion is of the mind it is an exertion, a duty, a utility, and a weapon. It makes us arrogant, suspicious, distant, hostile and destructive. None of these qualities can  create a better human nor a better humanity. This is the religion created by men which many know and practice.

Religion of the heart is spirituality, the religion of the mind is politics.

The choice is ours. To experience the wonder of creation or to know the cunning of man. 
Religion, know it less, experience it more

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You can listen to some of the hymns as sung by Bhai Kuldeep Singh ji (of Amritsar)
Tu Mero Pyaro
Gur Bahan Pakad, Prabh Seva laayen

What are religions fighting over?

Everyone belongs to this same religion.

"When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion."

 - Voltaire