adiYen would like to share some thoughts with all regarding two fundamental pillars of our religion [our religion has been dubbed as "Hinduism" but truly should be called Sanaathana Dharma (Eternal religion)]. adiYen would like to pose to adiYen a question: Question: -------- Why should adiYen do good, be good (exhibit kindness, charity, etc.) and not commit sin (like not killing others, stealing, etc.)? Answer: ------ Our Aachaaryaas repeatedly stress the following two tenets of Sanaathana Dharma: 1. Law of Karma - "what goes around comes around" 2. Rebirth - "life after death of the body, and reincarnation of the Jeevaathma or soul" Either: (i) adiYen should believe in the above two pillars of Sanaathana Dharma implicitly, without any reservations or doubts whatsoever - because adiYen's Aachaaryaas have said so (a course of action that adiYen finds to be the easiest of all) - this may be called the Path of Faith OR (ii) adiYen should find out if the above two are true by adiYen's own efforts and analysis - this may be called the Path of Self Inquiry There cannot be a third alternative - either adiYen believes without question, or adiYen is prepared to undertake efforts to verify the veracity of the two cornerstones of Sanaathana Dharma. Path of Faith: ============= adiYen lives by faith day in and day out: (i) when adiYen goes to sleep at night, the faith is that adiYen will wake up the next morning (ii) when adiYen takes to the road, the faith is that adiYen will not be targeted by any other motorist and killed (iii) when adiYen travels in a taxi, ship, train, or aeroplane, adiYen trusts the drivers/pilots implicitly, and believes that these strangers, some of whom adiYen will sometimes not even see (in a plane, for example) will safely pilot adiYen to adiYen's destination (iv) when adiYen has to see a medical doctor, adiYen trusts the doctor implicitly to cure (and not exacerbate) adiYen's illness And so on. Hence adiYen finds that the Path of Faith is the easiest of all. Assumption in the Path of Faith: ------------------------------- The caveat for the Path of Faith is: One should believe in our true well-wishers - like our Aachaaryaas, and not in "godmen" and other charlatans who offer temporary relief, and long-term suffering. Where spirituality is concerned, adiYen feels that one should opt for strategic initiatives in preference to tactical options. Path of Self Inquiry: ==================== This Path is strenuous - involves arduous efforts, has many pitfalls, and may not be suitable for all. Examination of the tenet of Rebirth: ----------------------------------- In the Path of Self Inquiry, if adiYen had to verify the Rebirth principle, adiYen could approach it in the following way: If adiYen could somehow dissociate or separate adiYen's essence (Sookshma Shareera) from adiYen's gross body (Sthoola Shareera), then adiYen would know for CERTAIN that adiYen would continue to exist, even after adiYen's gross body perished - this would naturally lead to the conclusion that if adiYen could occupy adiYen's gross body in this birth, then later on, adiYen could occupy another gross body - and thus the principle of Rebirth would be verified. The experience noted in the above paragraph is what some would call an out-of-body travel experience. It is said that the Great Aadi Shankaraachaarya left his body in the safe-keeping of his Shishyaas, and occupied the body of a king to experience (Kooduvittu KoodupAidhal), by proxy, Grihasthaashrama. Out-of-body travel also leads to other conclusions by extension such as: till the "spirit" (one's essence) occupies another body, it lives in a "spirit-world"; there are embodied and disembodied spirits - meaning that we are embodied spirits, and other disembodied spirits could try to enter our body and take control, just as we entered this current body of ours; there are good and bad spirits, etc. The dangers associated with out-of-body travel (as outlined by some Experts) are: (i) One could misuse the gift and invite serious trouble - it could completely take one off the Path, and onto a dangerous sidetrack of pain and suffering (ii) When traveling out-of-body, before one comes back to one's current body, evil spirits could enter one's current body (iii)If not well-versed in out-of-body travel, one may not be able to come back and occupy one's current body at all. All said and done, if one does have an out-of-body experience, one need not fear death, because one would know for CERTAIN that what dies is the body, and not the self (Jeevaathma) - we need to realize the truth of the Rebirth principle and lose our fear of death, either by direct experience, or by complete Faith in our Aachaaryaas. Examination of the tenet of Law of Karma: ---------------------------------------- In the Path of Self Inquiry, the Law of Karma may be verified either by direct experience or by inference. For direct experience, one should develop the power of intuition (subtle levels of thinking, feeling and knowing) to be able to link causes and effects in one's own life - the learned say that meditation of the right kind will help in this regard. Pitfalls include pseudo-intuition, sophistical reasoning, etc. The Path of Self Inquiry is thus dangerous for most people, the Experts say, because most people do not qualify themselves BEFORE treading this Path. Qualification would include things like Yama, Niyama, Shamam, Dhamam, celibacy, etc. For verification of the Law of Karma by inference one simply has to correlate causes and effects in the lives of other people. For example: (i) Jesus Christ/Adolf Hitler (cause and effect) (ii) Vaali in the Raamaayana (cause) and the hunter who shot an arrow at Lord Krishna towards the end of the Dwaapara Yuga (effect) (iii)Parikshith insulting a Rishi (cause) and his death after a week (effect) (iv) Mother Seetha insulting LakshmaNa and disobeying his requests not to cross the lines he had drawn on the ground (cause) and Her abduction by RaavaNa and subsequent Agni Pariksha (effect) And so on. ------------------------------------------ adiYen, Ashok K __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com
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