Stepping Stones To Spirituality...

Chapter 7: Religion and Spirituality

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The subject of today's discourse is Religion and Spirituality.

First, we shall see what we currently understand by the words religion and spirituality and then we shall see what we are supposed to understand by the words religion and spirituality.

Santana Dharma is the spiritual tradition from which the religion Hinduism manifested. Santana Dharma is the spiritual ocean and the backbone of Hinduism. I will use Hinduism and Santana Dharma as the basis to explain the words religion and spirituality.

Before I start, I want to clarify a few things. When I use the word Hinduism or compare it with other traditions, I request people of other religions not to feel offended. Sometimes, when we need to explain or emphasize the greatness of something, we need to compare it with other analogous things.

Just to express the greatness or uniqueness of this culture and tradition, sometimes if I compare and make a few statements, please do not feel offended.

One more thing, whatever I am expressing is the Truth, which is logical and can be argued and settled. Even then, I do not want anyone's feelings to be hurt; so, I wanted to say these words to set some context before I delve into the topic.

Religions need updating

Hinduism is the only religion, which allows people to update it. All other religious scriptures end with a very clear statement that they cannot be updated or sometimes, cannot be commented upon by anyone.

Even software can be updated but some scriptures cannot be updated! They have closed their minds to the possibility of updating the tenets of the scriptures to suit the needs and culture of the times.

The moment we blockade the possibility of new commentaries, we make things redundant. The moment we prohibit updates, in that very moment we would have killed the whole religion, since what was good once upon a time may not be good for today. What was acceptable, as the right © 2021 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved thing to do, once upon a time may not be the right thing to do today! Not only may, it wont be. The same tenets just cannot be good for today, because our body, mind, and social structures; in short, everything has changed.

Two kinds of Scriptures in Hinduism

In Hinduism, we have two kinds of scriptures. One is known as Sruthi, and the other as Smrithi.

The scripture, called Sruthi has a lot of commentaries translating the Sanskrit word Sruthi to mean 'heard'. Please understand; the word Sruthi cannot be translated as 'heard'. It has to be translated as experience.

Many times, when the Sanskrit to English translation is done improperly, the entire gist of the correct meaning is lost. Let me give you an example, brahmacharya, which has been wrongly translated into English as celibacy. This has led to so many complications and problems. The word brahmacharya means living like Brahman. Acharya means living like and Brahman means God. Therefore, living like God or living with God is what brahmacharya means. Living with Existence is the right translation of the word.

Usually, the moment people hear the word brahmacharya, they understand it wrongly as celibacy and ask me, 'Master, should we renounce everything to achieve wisdom? Should we become a brahmachari (one who practices brahmacharya), should we give up everything?'

I tell them, there is no need to give up anything. Just give up what you do not have, that is enough. Live with what you have and give up what you do not have. Many times, we live with many fantasies about things, which we do not have. When we give up what we do not have, we will start living intensely with what we have.

We continuously live with the things that we do not have. We have our spouse and family; live with them intensely. However, we have many fantasies, of how our wife should be, how our husband should be. Drop those fantasies!

Just drop what you do not have, that is enough.

That is what we must understand by the word Brahmacharya. Living with what we have; living with reality. If we understand this word correctly, we will know that it does not ask us to leave our husband or wife or our homes.

The very culture of the rishis (sage), from which the Technology of Enlightenment originated, was a Grihastha Dharma (householder way of life). Grihastha refers to someone who runs a house, in effect a married person. All rishis were married, yet they were called Brahmacharis. They lived with rishi pathnis (rishi's wives), they had children, yet they were called Brahmacharis.

How can we explain this? The word Brahmacharya means living with existence, not living as celibates. Celibates have a different title, a different name: Naishtika Brahmachari and they lead a different lifestyle.

When we translate Sanskrit words, even if we make a small mistake, the whole truth will be lost.

The word Sruthi should be translated as experience, not as heard. It is this experience, of the rishis, that forms the basic scriptures of our Hindu philosophy. The Upanishads, the scriptures that describe the ultimate experience of our rishis, are the Sruthi. These scriptures cannot be changed, since this is the ultimate experience of our rishis.

The Sruthis do not speak about the day-to-day experiences or the approach to achieve that state. They just state the goal and talk about it. We call these scriptures as Shastras or Sruthi. They just give statements on what the rishis experienced, when they reached the higher consciousness. This is the first level of scriptures.

The second level of scriptures is the Smrithi. These scriptures give instructions on how to practice the great truths in our day-to-day lives.

It is like applied science. The Smrithi is a scripture that explains how to follow the Truth in our everyday life. Without its applications, science has no use; but without the main theories, the applications cannot be created.

We cannot have applied science without the main theories and there is no use for the main theories, unless we can apply them in practice. Both are necessary. The main theories capture the way that the world works, and these are applied in ways to suit the times. Especially when it comes to the day-to-day applied science, there should be an option for updating. Today, we cannot restrict ourselves to the way that science was applied in the 19th century.

Of course, no other traditions, no other Masters have delved so deep into human consciousness. No one else has done so much work in human consciousness that they could differentiate so clearly between Sruthi and Smrithi, between Experience and Practice. All other spiritual literatures have either mixed these two or confused the two resulting in a statement that nothing can be updated; nothing can be changed. Some scriptures go to the extent of saying that nobody can even comment on them. It is such a sensitive issue.

Let me give you a small example. We get a train schedule. We look it up, and go to the station to catch a specific train. After waiting an hour, we realize that the train is not coming. Then we enquire with the authorities, and they point out to us that we are using last year’s schedule. It does not work this year! This is not the mistake of the railway department, but ours.

If we wait for a train based on the timetable of last year, and don’t see the train, we either blame the Railways, or we start saying that there is no such thing as a train that exists on the Planet Earth!

We are doing this same thing, many times, with the scriptures. We try to follow what the old scriptures say and when we do not see the results, we start blaming the system. Only the Indian Rishis had the intelligence, to allow their future generations to amend their train schedule. All other systems have banned the very idea of amendments, the very idea of updating. Just by banning the idea of updating, they have destroyed their whole system.

Many religions have now become just like a corpse. If we have a corpse in our house, not only is it occupying unnecessary space in the house, but also it is dangerous to our health. Therefore, we need to immediately remove the corpse and bury it. If we do not do that, it will be dangerous for our health.

When we follow old books, which cannot be updated, it becomes very difficult to live a regular life, leave alone a spiritual life!

Only the Hindu Masters had the trust, courage and foresight to allow their scriptures to be updated.

I want to reiterate this: you need trust in the disciples, trust in the next generations to allow them to comment on your words. It is only the Hindu Masters, who had so much of courage as to allow the disciples to comment on their words.

Actually if you see, every book of a Master is commented upon, by the disciples. The Brahma sutra, was written by Vyasa, Sankara commented on it, Sankara's disciple Sureshwara then wrote a Vaartika (glossary commentary on the work), then Sureshwara's disciple Athamananda wrote the Tika (note) and it went on and on, down the generations..

Of course, the Masters had the courage and trust to allow their disciples to update their words. You need to have tremendous courage and trust on your disciples; that they will understand the thread and the main message, that they will understand the core.

Spiritual Freedom is necessary for Spiritual Growth

Only in Hinduism, the idea of commenting is allowed. In no other system is this idea allowed.

In fact, in Hinduism, if a person does not comment on the three basic scriptures - Upanishads, Brahma sutra and Bhagwad Gita, he cannot even be called an Acharya (teacher). We cannot be called a teacher unless we have our own unique commentary. This gives us so much of freedom to think, so much of freedom to understand, so much freedom to preach what we experienced as the Truth.

Hinduism is the only religion, which gives so much of freedom.

There is a beautiful statement by Vivekananda, an enlightened Master, who lived in the last century. He says, 'freedom is the basic condition for any growth. In any field, if we want growth, we must be given freedom.'

The countries, which gave freedom in the line of science, have made tremendous progress in the field of science. The countries, which gave freedom in the field of medicine, have grown a lot in that field. Those countries which had great political freedom researched and experimented with all the political systems and created the best political structures.

In the West, people have so much social freedom that, every individual has complete freedom to choose the way he wishes to lead his life. Almost every individual is respected. Even though one might not have the intelligence to choose, one still has the freedom to choose.

Of course, the big danger is having freedom without intelligence. This is a very big danger! Many people come and ask me this, especially disciples who live around me all the time. Whenever I make a rule, whenever I say something, someone will come back and question me. The first thing I do is to relax the rule and give them complete freedom. Actually giving them freedom is the best

When people do not have enough intelligence, and we just give them freedom, naturally they will be in a dilemma. That is the worst punishment. The West is facing that problem today. However, even though it faces problems of dilemma, freedom is worth having! The West has achieved this state because they have social freedom.

In the same way the East has achieved spiritual freedom; they have achieved such high-conscious experiences because they have had spiritual freedom.

In the East, nobody needs to follow any particular religious system. We can have our own God if we are not satisfied with the existing 33 crores (330 millions) of Gods, as the ancient scriptures say. I think that in the past, the population must have been 33 crores of people and each one must have had his own God; that is why there were 33 crores of Gods.

Now we may have to say that there are around 6 billion Gods, based on the current population. There must be 6 billion Gods, so that each one has his chosen deity.

The concept of chosen deity exists only in Hinduism. If we are not satisfied with all the existing Gods, we can create our own. We have the formula to create our own God or Ishta Devatha in Sanskrit. It is completely our choice. We are given all the possibilities; we can cook our own food; we can make our own rules; we can create our own path.

It is like this: A disciple goes to a Master and asks, ‘Master, I have to cross this forest, please help me’. The Master replies, ‘go 1100 ft, there will be a big snake, take a right turn, then go 200 ft where there will be a lion, take a left turn, go 3 ft and there will be a tiger, in another 4 ft there will be a forest fire, take a right turn and you will reach the other side’!

If the Master gives instructions like this to the disciple will he be able to cross the forest.

If the Master gives instructions based on the path that he himself had taken to cross the forest and based on what he saw years ago, will the disciple be able to cross the forest. No, because the tiger may not be there today, the forest fire may not be there today. We do not know.

Any clear-cut rule, any clear-cut guidance is always misguidance. All guidance is only misguidance. When we try to guide using standard rules according to our experience, please be very clear, we are misguiding people.

Instead of that, any intelligent Master will give us a torch, a burning torch, ‘carry this torch and go, use your intelligence!’ Just provide a person a way, using what he can see the route; give him techniques to protect himself from animals and then naturally the person will cross the forest.

All our scriptures are trying to do the second thing: they are trying to give us a torch and the way to go beyond the obstacles. They never give details. This is actually a problem we are facing. When we do not have details or the understanding of what we are trying to cross and yet have so much freedom, we tend to abuse the freedom.

Crimes are nothing but abusing the freedom given to us. In developed countries, crime rate is high, because there is so much freedom. In under-developed countries, the crime rate is low, because © 2021 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved of the lack of social freedom and people living like slaves. Just like how the crime rate is high in the countries with greater social freedom, in much the same way, people with greater spiritual freedom also abuse it.

Now, I am opening the truth completely in front of you. If you look deeply, you may be a little confused about what exactly I want to convey through this discourse. Please understand: I do not want to convey any conclusion. I am just opening and presenting all the possible arguments and all the truths, so that you can come to your own conclusions.

I do not want to come to any conclusion in this discourse. I want to create a little confusion inside your Being. I want you to think and understand on your own, about the whole system.

Unless we are a little confused, we will never grow! As long as we have clear-cut, spoon feeding concepts; as long as we are given the concepts directly to swallow, we never internalize or we never start working on ourselves.

People come and tell me: ‘Master, sometimes I really feel confused after reading all the books.’ I tell them that means you have really read the books and understood. The purpose of the book is done!’

In the Bhagvad Gita, Krishna the enlightened Master, explains to his friend Arjuna, the gist of spiritual wisdom, the nature of the Atman (soul) and the different techniques to attain it. This dialogue happens through seventeen chapters. Yet, in the eighteenth chapter of the Gita, Arjuna says, ‘O Krishna, now I feel more confused than I was before I started speaking to you. What have you done to me?’ Krishna then says ‘right, you have heard exactly what I wanted to say’.

A little bit of confusion, a little bit of doubt, a questioning attitude is the necessity for growth. That is why I am trying to present both the sides: the positive side of Smrithi and the negative side effects on our mind, when we approach it without enough maturity.

The Smrithi gives us recommendations and techniques that we can practice in our daily lives to reach the state described in the Sruthi. The Smrithi gives us guidelines, yet enough spiritual freedom to explore and blaze our own path. That is the positive. Yet, when we do not have the mental maturity, when we do not understand the underlying details, our mind can easily lead us astray, and we end up abusing the spiritual freedom that is given to us. That is the negative side of the mind, which I want to clarify.

Sruthi is Spirituality; Smrithi is Religion

Let me summarize:

The first thing is we have a set of literatures called Sruthi, which cannot be updated or changed, as they are the experience of the Masters.

The next thing: Smrithi is the literature, which can be updated according to the times. We can change a few statements; we can change a few systems. Yet when it comes to the freedom, sometimes we tend to abuse that freedom without having enough intelligence to catch the thread.

The third is the idea, which we need to understand about religion and spirituality. Spirituality is Sruthi (the Upanishads) and religion is Smrithi (the day-to-day literatures). A concept exists and we write some books to explain the concept in daily life. These books are the Smrithi. These books are like the visualization of higher concepts.

In the main scriptures, the Sruthi, we speak about the Atman, Brahman, the all-pervading, and the all-knowing, God or Divine or Energy. In the Puranas (the mythologies, the second-level literature, the Smrithi), we speak about how to implement those great truths in our day-to-day lives. The model personalities who followed these truths, the role models, are spoken about. Hero worship started in the Smrithis where our Masters created ideal personalities, like Krishna, Rama and Balarama (characters in Hindu mythologies).

The meta-physical experiences, when translated to the physical plane become mythological stories.

Let me give you a small example to show how the meta-physical was translated to the material. When a Master experiences God-consciousness, the higher experience of awareness, he feels boundary-less, all pervading, ecstatic and blissful. When he feels this experience, he naturally tries to express it through words to his disciples, when they ask him.

He says, ‘Oh! It’s just like a thousand-petal lotus flowering or blossoming inside my being.’

Immediately the disciple misunderstands and begins to visualize, ‘Oh, there is a thousand-petal lotus in the Master’s head that just blossoms or opens up. That is why he is having this experience!’ Then he paints the picture of a thousand-petal lotus at the top of the head. This is how the concept of Sahasrara Chakra (one of the seven major chakras or subtle energy centers in the human body) happened. It is said that there is a thousand-petal lotus in the Sahasrara Chakra, at the crown of our head, and when our energy reaches there from the bottom of our spine, the lotus blooms and starts spreading the Anandha Gandha, the fragrance of bliss or joy.

Actually, if we open our heads and look in, we might not find a lotus; we might find only clay! The expression is not physical; it is meta-physical. It is a meta-physical experience expressed in a different way, and when the disciple hears this, he visualizes it in a different way. A meta-physical experience conceived and understood or expressed in a physical way, becomes a mythological story, a Purana; it becomes Smrithi. It is not completely factual but it is the truth.

Understand; the Master experiencing the thousand-petal lotus flowering in his Being is not a fact but the truth. There is a very big difference between fact and truth. Fact is what we see with our two eyes. In most cases, the truth filtered through our senses is observed as a fact. Truth is what we can perceive only with the third eye; truth is the third dimension of fact; truth is something more than fact. Usually the truth should be understood through our third eye.

If we try to analyze the truth with our logic, with our limited vision of facts, we will miss the whole juice of it. That is why so-called logical people question our Puranas, again and again misunderstanding the words of our rishis. A big group of so-called atheists, so-called logical thinkers are formed in our system, because they do not understand the difference between fact and truth. If we can understand the difference between fact and truth, we will understand why our religion was created, why our great Masters created the Puranas.

Some of the Puranas say things, to which we cannot logically relate. If one is a very logical person, one can never relate to the Puranas when taken as they are. However, why should an enlightened person, who has experienced the ultimate, say such an illogical thing? Why should he make a statement that does not suit our logic?

He makes the statement from the level of truth; we try to understand it from the level of facts.

That is why I always tell people, science and logic is yet to catch up with the mystics. Just because we are not able to catch up, we should never blame the mystics; we should never blame the experience of the Masters.

When the Masters make a statement like 'There are stars in the sky 24 hours of the day', it is not a lie. It is the truth! There are stars, but we may not be able to see them in the daytime because of the sunlight. Just because we are not able to see them, we cannot say that there are no stars. Just because we are not able to see the truth with our limited vision, we cannot doubt the truths declared by our Masters.

The logical person is yet to catch up with our Masters. If we are too factual, when we are too dependent on the experience of the five senses, we cannot accept that there are stars in the sky in the daytime also. Only if we use the right instruments, the right telescope can we see the stars in the daytime. In fact, if we go into a deep well and see the sky from inside the well, we will be able to see stars even in the daytime.

Of course, with the right instruments, with the right method, we will be able to experience what our Masters say. When we do not know the right method, we start blaming our Masters.

There is a very big difference between truth and facts. Facts are realized with a 120-degree vision, and truth is experienced with a 360-degree vision. For realizing the truth, we need a third eye; we need a higher sense, a higher awareness and a higher perception.

For example, when we read the Puranas, they explain extra-ordinary things like Hanuman lifting a whole hill and flying, or Krishna, as a small child, killing a huge snake. If we read with our logical mind, we will always find it illogical. We cannot believe a small child dancing on a snake and then killing it, we cannot believe a small monkey lifting a huge hill and flying off with it in his hands!

All these things look very illogical, but if we look deep, we can see that they are not just facts. These statements were made to give the reader, the effect of the incident or to illustrate the power they had; in other words, the impact of the incident in reality.

Historians record Senses; Masters record Consciousness!

We need to understand one more thing. Usually, historians record only what has happened in the plane of vision; they record incidents in the plane of length, breadth and depth. What happened, according to their vision or understanding, is what is recorded. They can record only in the level of their vision, which we also see through our eyes.

However, when the Masters see, they see other dimensions as well. They see not only the length, breadth and depth but in terms of space and time also.

We need to understand this concept of space and time.

A small story:

An old man had gone to a nearby village for some business. He was returning to his own village and when he was a little distance away, he saw that his house was on fire. He started shouting, screaming, rolling on the ground and weeping, ‘oh, my house is on fire…please help me, somebody help me put out this fire’.

One of his sons ran towards him and told him, ‘do not worry Father; we sold the house only two days ago.’ Immediately, the old man got up and smiled. ‘Oh, is that so? Then there is no problem,’ and his demeanor became normal. Within ten minutes, another son ran to him and cried ‘no no, father, it is true that we have sold the house, but we have not yet received the money for it!’

Again, the old man started rolling on the ground and wailing, ‘oh, no! What am I to do with this fire, my house burning down? We have not even received the money.’ Just then, his wife came to him and reported, ‘no no, do not worry, we got the money this morning and it has already been deposited in the bank’.

Again, the old man stood up, stopped wailing and became normal.

Look into this incident carefully. The person is the same, the incident remains the same, yet we see two different reactions within a span of just ten minutes! Within the ten minutes, he suffers, then he consoles himself, then again he is suffers, then again he consoles himself. He undergoes different emotions, different moods but the underlying incident is the same.

If a historian records this incident, he will record only what happened in length, breadth and depth. He will record only one thing: what happened in the outer world. The house was on fire on this day and time. He can record only what has happened in length, breadth and depth.

Only a rishi, a person with a higher consciousness can see this incident in its whole. He will be able to record not only what happened in the length, breadth and depth dimension, but also what happened in the space; what happened in the consciousness of the owner; what happens in the space and time because of this incident; what is the impact of this incident on the man’s consciousness.

We need to understand one important thing: we cannot just read the length, breadth and depth and decide history. History cannot be reduced just to the level of facts. We need to understand much more deeply - the impact of the incident on human consciousness. Only then can we really realize the truth.

All historians try their best to record incidents in terms of length, breadth and depth and in the process, miss out recording their impact on human consciousness.

For instance, consider Mahatma Gandhi fasting against British rule, and a housewife fasting after a fight in the house. These two incidents cannot be the same. Gandhiji fasting for the country’s freedom and a housewife fasting for her freedom cannot be the same! If a historian records these incidents, naturally he will record that Gandhiji fasted two days for the freedom of the country. The homemaker fasted for two days for her needs. This is what the records will show.

If we make a factual recording, naturally we will record both the incidents in the same way. Any intelligent person will agree that both are not the same. The impact of the two incidents, the impact of the facts on space and time is very different. When we record a history or an incident, we need to consider not only the length, breadth and depth, but space and time also.

Our Puranas were written by the Masters, who could realize the impact of an incident on space and time also. That is the reason why in some places certain statements were made, which we think as illogical or an exaggeration. It is not really exaggerated. The statement was created for us to understand or realize the importance of that incident on human consciousness.

The incident of Hanuman lifting the Sanjeevani hill and flying may not be factual, as is described. He may not have lifted the huge hill, he may have lifted just a portion but the incident had a major impact on history. He was bringing the particular medicine to the battlefield and it was a timely help to Lakshmana (Lord Rama's brother), to get his life back. That incident has contributed a lot to history. To impress or to express the importance of the incident in space and time, to express the importance of the incident in human history, the Masters would have expressed it in the way they did. They would have painted a more glorious picture of the incident, than what actually was fact.

What we need to understand is the spirit, the thread behind the incident.

Now, I come to the main subject.

With this understanding, if we look at our religious practices, we can see how they are the embodiment or the expression of spirituality, how they are directly connected to spirituality. The religious scriptures, religious doctrines, religious rules and the religious way of life itself were created based only on this angle. These scriptures are the practical day-to-day manuals to live by and experience the great truths experienced by the great-enlightened rishis.

We need just this one understanding; how historians usually record only the length, breadth and depth and how our rishis have recorded length, breadth, depth, space and time. The way in which our rishis have recorded is holistic; they have not missed anything. Regular historians tend to miss a lot, and they have missed a lot! That is the reason all Western history is based only on the date and year and never on what the impact of an incident was on human consciousness.

In the East, we created Puranas, and in the West, they created history. History is superficial, just recording the incidents, without bothering about their impact. In the East, Masters have given more importance to the impact of specific incidents on humanity. That is why we say, if we want to know the history of the East, we just have to read the history of a handful of Enlightened Masters. Then we will come to know the complete history of the East. We cannot say that about the West, because historians did not bother about the impact of a particular person or incident on humanity.

In the East, Masters wrote history based not just on recording incidents, but also on their impact. Very big incidents might have happened on Planet Earth, but if these did not have much of an impact on consciousness, the people of the East would not have bothered to record them. There might have been very small incidents, which changed the way of thinking. These were recorded faithfully with a lot of importance given to them; some so-called exaggeration, I mean that we cannot © 2021 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved analyze and criticize the incidents based on just our limited logic and understanding. We need to have the complete vision on why these statements were made.

We need to approach the whole of religion, all our rules and regulations, with the concept of why it was created. What did the Masters want to convey through these practices, through these rituals, through these customs? What did they want to express, what did they want to give us? What did our Masters want to tell us through these instructions?

If we have that much of respect, that much of understanding, that much of patience to look into, with the question of what they wanted to convey, we will be able to understand, appreciate and follow the truth; follow the real thread, which is expressed through our religious practices. We will be able to receive the wisdom. We will be able to experience the truth expressed by our Masters. All we need is a little bit of compassion towards the teachings of our rishis. We need to have a little openness to the teachings of our rishis.

This one understanding; of length, breadth, depth and space and time, is all what we need to understand religion and spirituality. Usually, because we do not have this understanding, because we are unable to differentiate between facts and truth we confuse religion and spirituality. We mistake religion, as spirituality or spirituality as religion and in the end, tend to condemn everything; tend to drop everything. Instead, if we look with understanding, we will be able to segregate, analyze, understand and experience the truth about which is spirituality and which is religion. We will be able to create our own methods, techniques and even our own religions to reach the spiritual experience.

With this one knowledge, our whole life can be transformed from contradictions into real spiritual experience. Without the understanding of fact and truth, religion and spirituality contradict each other. However, with this understanding of fact and truth, religion and spirituality complement each other. It is up to us whether we are in the contradicting plane or in the complementing plane.

Even though it is a little difficult, rather, you think it is a little difficult, contemplate on this great truth and your whole life will be transformed. All your questions will disappear.

This one understanding, this one truth will solve all our questions, almost all the questions we have on religion and spirituality.

Questions and Answers

1. You said that Smrithi is alterable and it changes with time. In the Bhagvad Gita, Krishna talks about the caste system, he talks about who can be a Brahmin, etc. However, in India, we have so many problems with the caste system, so if Smrithi is properly interpreted, it should not give rise to any problems. Am I correct?'

It is an important question. Let us analyze this.

First thing: Our Smrithis, especially the Bhagvad Gita, state that caste is based on a person's mental setup and not by birth; not based on the yoni, but based on the Karma.

The very system is based on the mental setup of the person, not by birth.

So, why should the caste system have been created, even based on mental setup? Human beings cannot live without a community system. People need to feel they belong to some group. We cannot straightaway tell people to feel connected to the whole universe. That happens only after enlightenment. Until such time, they need to feel that they belong to a particular community.

Therefore, the Masters decided, ‘let us create a community system based on which people will grow.’ In India, the community system was created based on wisdom and intelligence. It is intelligence, to which importance is given.

The person who worked for the sake of others’ well-being, who did his work as a service, was called a Brahmin. Brahmins shared knowledge or wisdom. The person who worked out of fear, for protection, either of himself or of the people whom he thought of as his own, was a Kshatriya. The person who worked out of greed, to acquire more wealth was a Vaishya. The person who worked to serve all the other groups just to satisfy his own hunger, his thirst; working primarily for himself, was called a Sudra.

This is the way the Masters created the community system based on intelligence and not on birth. In the course of time, somehow, just like all truths, this truth too was lost.

One more thing, for any great experiment, any great innovation, if the next generation does not continue good research and development (R&D), the researches will end in failure. Some how, our R&D department was not too strong; it failed!

That is the reason we started associating ourselves with birth instead of the mental setup. At least, our community was created based on intelligence, but in other countries, they created communities based on money. One small example: get into the aircraft. When we cross the first-class seats to go to the economy class, tell me how the first class passengers look at us? In just the same way that a fanatic, higher class person looks at a lower class person!

In every country, the community or caste system exists. Never say that only in India does the caste system exist. Here at least we based it on intelligence, in other countries, it was based on money.

In India, the whole importance goes to intelligence. If we want to be considered a higher person, we need to study. If we want the highest social respect, we need to renounce and we need to become intelligent. That is why in Tamil they say, ‘thuravikku vaenthanum thurumbu’, even a king will come and touch a sanyasi’s (sage) feet, even though he has nothing. He has only one thing: his intelligence, his wisdom and he just shares it, with the world.

In India, even if the community system has degraded, the original system was created based on intelligence, not money or power. Respect was given to the person carrying wisdom, the wealth of knowledge, not the outer world wealth. All other countries give respect to money or power; ‘might-is-right’ becomes the governing philosophy of all other systems.

If we see, in the social way, according to any other country’s standard, I am a mere boy with nothing. However, if we see according to the Indian standard, I am t respected, even worshipped. Even the top-level political people or business people worship me. Why should they? We are respected just because of the enlightenment, the wisdom or the service we are doing.

One more thing, just because the caste system is degraded now because of a few people, we cannot condemn the original system. Just because some mistakes happened at some point, we cannot condemn the whole system. The system has helped us in so many ways.

Now, it is time for the system to die.

Nevertheless, let us clear the system of its corruption, with respect and gratitude. Why should we continuously condemn and weaken ourselves? If someone has a tumor in his hand, let us do some surgery and take out the tumor, why should we kill the person himself? We somehow got the tumor; we have some misunderstanding, so let us now analyze and clear it and use the other parts. There is no need to condemn the whole system itself.

We need to look into all these things with a little more love and a little more compassion.

Please understand. It is only because one community associated themselves with the scriptures, that the scriptures are still alive. They were preserved just because one community took the responsibility for it. They gave up all the outwardly comforts, they gave up everything in the outer world, they dedicated all their time, energy and effort just to recite those scriptures and thus preserved the scriptures. Our scriptures are the oldest scriptures, preserved in an authentic way, without any system, without any other method to record, any other way to transmit, any other way to preserve but just by repeating and memorizing. Hundreds of thousands of slokas (verses), millions of aphorisms, have been preserved just because of the dedication of one community. Our system is not entirely wrong; just a few small corruptions have entered.

All that we need to do is some surgery for the tumor, not murder the system. When we have the attitude of murder, we not only will kill the system, but we also will be killing ourselves.

Even though we might not understand, we might not believe, we might not accept; we belong to that system. So, go for surgery and not for murder. That is the right attitude.

2. There are all these great ideals in spirituality. However, what bothers me is that I find a great divergence between the ideals and the daily life. To be quite honest, there is not only caste discrimination, but also a variety of other discriminations, such as the discrimination against poor people. When a house cleaner comes to work in the house and she is ten years old and is missing school, my heart aches. That will not happen in the West. I am not defending the West, but we need to be very cautious when we make statements about the West. Yes, ours is a great religion, and I have great love for it, but have we updated it? Have we moved with time? Whose responsibility is it to make sure we continuously update the religion as we go? I also find a great love for materialism, which is totally against the laws of Hinduism. It is not enough for spiritual ideals and great men like You to practice the religious ideals but it should be possible for the common man to practice it. How can we say that we do not have spiritual freedom in the East and we do not have spiritual freedom in the West? We need to look at what we mean by spiritual freedom.’

First thing regarding the statements that you made: are they your conclusions or your questions? If it is a question, I am here to answer; if it is your conclusion, then I have no right to answer.

You made a statement about the poor girl working and missing school. Please understand, just because of our religion much of the misery and suffering is avoided by our population. For our population, because of our religion, so much of misery is avoided!

Just look into the history of the West. Their population is ten times less, yet there is so much more violence. Our people are so silent, so beautiful, accepting the poverty, accepting the disease, accepting everything because of our spiritual background.

India is in a much better condition, if we compare the quantity, the volume of the population. If we see all the basic things, we are doing much better compared to the West.

One other thing, you said I needed to be careful when I make comments. In the beginning I said very clearly, when I want to show the uniqueness or the extra-ordinariness of the culture, I have to compare a few things. Please do not feel hurt.

I have to say a few things when I represent the truth. I am not here to condemn anything. Nevertheless, I am here to show the truth as it is, to explain the facts as they are. I say repeatedly that whatever statements I made are the truth and fact! I am very clear and I reinforce the letter and spirit of the statements that I made in the whole discourse.

The next thing: in India, we are able to handle so many problems only because even the common mass of India follows the spiritual principles. Please, do not expect the mass of India to become enlightened. I tell you one thing, go to any Indian village, talk to a farmer and we will find that he knows much more spiritually, can talk much more spiritually and is more religious than any great professor of Philosophy from any other country. Only because they practice the religion, our people are not rebelling; they are not violent, even with so much of suppression, poverty and disease.

Just look into the life in the West. For instance, if somebody is homeless, do we go near him? We are afraid of him; we do not even lower our car window. We know he can harm us where as in India, if a beggar comes, do we feel disturbed? Do we feel threatened?

In the West, I am advised, if a lower class person comes close, not to lower my window, that he may be violent. However, in India, a homeless person is not violent. We cannot see violence associated with poverty. Poverty is not a sin in the Indian constitution, in the Indian system. Either we are handled with compassion or we are neglected. In all other systems, poverty is a sin. With poverty, one has no right to exist in society. If we look deep into the social systems we find that the gangsters, the homeless; they all continuously rebel against the rich people; they are continuously into terrorist activities. If we compare, on a per-individual basis, I do not think, in India, we will see anything close to the scale that we see in other countries; it may be less than 1%.

This type of rebelliousness against the rich is far less in India because of the spiritual ideas like karma; accepting their life, that the whole world is nothing, etc. All these concepts are infused into our system much more than in any other society. Poverty, in a way, is respected in our country especially when we come to the educated society; in many ways poverty and a simple way of life is respected.

In India, when a beggar comes and stands near us, we either give him money or we neglect him. That is all. We do not disrespect him just because he is poor. If we did not give him any money,

© 2021 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved we actually feel a little guilt. Either we do something, or if not, we carry a little guilt, that we are not doing something we are supposed to do. Even that guilt is nothing but an offshoot of spirituality.

I do not think that in other countries this exists. In the West, we feel frightened, we feel threatened by him. We disrespect the person because he is poor.

Another thing in India is that whether we want it or not, whether we believe it or not, continuously, these types of ideas are put into our head, continuously we are made to listen to something about spirituality. If you see the number of people we handle, you can be sure that we have done a great job! I can applaud the job done by our people. I do not think any other country can handle such a variety of languages, such a variety of cultures.

For this population, no other country will be able to manage the peace; no other country will be able to manage the social setup.

I travel around the world continuously. In the last year, I have flown almost two hundred thousand miles. However, when I go to different countries, I do not find the huge variety in any other country that I find in India. The difference between Europe and America is much less than the difference between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu (neighboring states in India), such a variety of languages, such a variety of clothes, and such a variety of food.

India is able to exist as a country without any problems just because of the religious faith and structure.

Please be very clear, already we are doing a good job. We do not have to think we have to go from bad to good. We have to go from good to better. It is enough that we have condemned ourselves for so long. It is time to stand up! We are not in a bad shape at all. In fact, we are in good shape, just need to get to a better shape! That is all, only from good to better, never from bad to good!

We have done a great job!

One more thing I want to mention: I tell you honestly; at least the main problems of caste system are not there in present-day India. Enough of culture and acceptance has spread around the country. We should not speak about India with the data that we collected about 30 years ago, from times before our people migrated to other countries.

Today, practically every village has an educational and medical facility, and has some understanding about life. Especially after the new way of life and social service began spreading around the country, helped by the post-Vivekananda movements that serve society. India has surely gotten much better.

I do not want to go into minute details. Please go into this deeply and see. We do not even hear of many types of crimes. We hear of them only where the things have become westernized.

In India, all the houses are open, children move around wherever they want. At least I have seen this in my village, I used to enter into any house and eat. With hardly a few hundred houses, I could enter into any house and eat because that is the way we lived. We cannot even imagine all these things in other countries. Whenever we hear about child abuse and other crimes, the number of cases is on a lesser scale compared to the volume of people.

The other thing is that only in areas where television and other western influences have entered do we see an increase in such crimes.

In the past and in the present, we have done a great job. Of course, we can do better, no doubt, but we do not have to feel worthless. Sometimes, our own guilt that we have not achieved what we wanted, is projected on society; we collect the data, which supports our guilt, and project a picture. If we stand on the platform of truth and analyze, it is always from good to better, not from bad to good.

You say that a ten-year-old girl is working. It is not only here, you can collect data from wherever you want and verify. I see so many Mexicans and other girls working in many houses in other countries. Of course, the age is a little higher, that is all!

In addition, you talk about education. Even after education, what do they do? So, why are there so many gangsters? Even the idea of a gangster does not exist in India. In India when a crime is committed, it is done so for the sake of some money or benefit. There are three kinds of crimes: crimes done for the benefit of the world, crimes done to have direct benefit by robbing the person, and crimes done for no reason other than the sake of enjoyment. I can say that the third level of crime is practically non-existent in India.

We hear, in other countries of so many gangsters and about their crimes done just for the sake of enjoyment, like shooting on the highways! I have never heard of such crimes in India. People shoot, people kill, but for some benefit, some reason. However, in other countries, I hear so much of the third-level crime, committed due to deep depression and rebellious consciousness. ‘Why should the other person have something while I don’t?’ In India, people do not say ‘Why should he have while I don’t have?’ Instead, they say, ‘how can I have?’ The third level of crime is the Tamasic (indolence) kind and I can say this is practically absent in India.

Another thing: we should never believe the western media projection of India. The media also plays a major role in creating these misconceptions.

For nine years, I walked the length and breadth of India without touching money. Actually, this experiment is called parivrajaka in Sanskrit. It is supposed to be done as a vow, by all spiritual teachers just to understand the common life of the country. You are given the rule that you should not touch any money; that you should not preserve food for the next meal. For nine years, I lived like this. I was a healthy young man and for nine years, I did not work for my food, for my clothes or for my shelter. I just claimed that I was meditating, doing research on inner science and I was given food, clothes and shelter, everything, with respect.

Where else do you think this can happen? In any other country, they would have asked me to work or they would have put me in a homeless shelter with disrespect. I was given everything; and not just in one place, not just in one village but in every village. I have walked from Kanyakumari to Tapovan, from the southern tip of India to the north and from Akshardham to Ganga Sagar, from the west to the east. In every village, you do not know the love and the respect that these people have, for our truths, for our wisdom, for our spiritual practices. Above all, even if they are unable to practice it, they have tremendous respect for the people who do practice it. That in itself is a great thing!

84 When we have respect for someone who practices, naturally every year we may imbibe one truth at least, in our life.

The very respect for our hero will make us imbibe those qualities in our life. I have seen in some villages, especially in Gujarat (a state in north-west India), there is so much of Bhakti (devotion). Once I was traveling from Akshardham (a town in Gujarat) and I stayed in a village. An elderly woman invited me to her house. I went and stayed there. All the property she had was just a cow and a hut. She made her living from the cow’s milk, by making curds and selling it. I stayed with her for 10 days. She had a small Krishna idol. She lived with that idol of Krishna for company; she talked to that Krishna, she practically lived with that Krishna. She would go out everyday to sell the milk, she would bring back the money and put it at Krishna’s feet and would tell all her complaints to Krishna, ‘today that person did not give me the money, today he cheated me, today I got more milk.’ After 10 days, I told her that I was leaving to have darshan (worship) of Somnath (a Shiva Temple in Gujarat state in India). She said, ‘no, no, why are you leaving? I will not ask you to work, I will give you food all the time, please stay with me. You don’t have to work’

See the love!

I became very emotional and said ‘Ma, it is because of people like you that India is alive.’

I know the backbone of India. Do not speak from the superficial skin and sweat of India, speak to me from the backbone! What we see from the western media is the sweat smell, not the backbone. I have seen this in every village; in every village, I walked through or sometimes rode through, using a bullock cart (cart drawn by bulls), covering almost 30,000 miles! So, I know the backbone. The media is sensational - they need sensations to show people. I can relate a thousand such incidents.

If you can quote one ten-year old working without going to school, I can quote millions of people who give education for other people who cannot afford it. You know, only in India, the charitable education institutions give free education to so many people. More than 43% of education is given to people by religious charitable institutions. In no other country is this much of education given by the charitable institutions!

One thing to note when it comes to percentage is the quantity. Another country’s 100% is India’s 5%! See the quantity. I know how many thousands of people are given free education in India. At least in the last 50 years, we have done tremendous work. Especially the post-Vivekananda movements have done an enormous job. I am the very proof! How many houses are ready to give food? How many villages are ready to take care of the spiritual truths? Just because of this, this saffron cloth that I wear!

Moreover, remember: I can be a robber; I can be a thief. There can be so many possibilities because I am new to that village. We have media in the villages also; there are enough televisions and the people are aware of folks coming in different disguises and committing crimes. Nevertheless, beyond all these things, the spirit and culture are still alive.

Just a week ago, I was in the Himalayas. We saw thousands of sanyasis, just wandering as I had done; not caring about the next meal. These people, who are taken care of by society, are enough proof that we respect the religious ideals and that we follow religious ideals. We have done a great job, if we see the size of the population.

After going all over the world, when I come back to my country, I just feel like touching that sand and putting it on my head. I feel so much of gratitude to the culture, to the country in which I was born and brought up.

Let me tell you: when a premature child is born, we need an incubator to keep the baby healthy. Just like that, India is a spiritual incubator. I tell you, the Indian culture is a spiritual incubator. We may say there are one or two holes here and there but it is still a working, usable spiritual incubator.

Devotee: I just have a comment to make from Vivekananda’s words: ‘If only we can combine the spiritual wisdom of the East and the material wealth of the West. ’

Nithyananda: Yes, I am all for progress but I am not for condemning!

Please be clear, we have not done anything wrong!

Please understand, only on a full moon day can we see the black patches on the moon. We cannot see the patches on a new moon day. By its own light, the moon shows its black patches. By its own glory, India shows its own problems.

Because we have the ideals of perfection, we understand and realize our problems. The moment we understand our problems, we prove that we are great; that is enough proof that we are intelligent.

Why do we say that we have the problem? We say that because we have the ideal of perfectionism! That itself shows we have done great things. The idea of perfectionism reaching a billion people is itself a great job!

Understand, even in the lowest slum, they celebrate Vinayaka Chathurthi and Durga Puja (festivals in honor of Hindu Gods). They may not know the spiritual ideal of Vinayaka (a Hindu God), but they know that there is some energy greater than us, so they have simple rules like, we need to bow down to that energy, we should do this, we should not do that, etc. Reaching even the most diluted and lowest morality or an idea, to a billion people, is not a joke. That itself is a big job! Understand that that itself is a big job!

When I was in Brazil, a priest came to meet me. He was a Catholic from India. I asked him, Father, how are you here? He said, ‘Master, any religion, if it wants to flourish, has to come only to India. If they want workers, they have to come only to India. Whether its Christianity or Hinduism, we have to get them only from India! Brazil has a very big representation of Catholics, but no one becomes a monk. Nobody takes up the spiritual life. Therefore, Rio de Janeiro has only 3 native Catholic monks and 33 Christian priests from Kerala (an Indian state). In India, the spiritual life is in our blood.’

Whether it is Krishna or Siva or Christ, living the spiritual life is a basic thing. It is in the blood of the population all across the country! That alone shows we have done a big job.

I have seen this in many countries, not only in Brazil. Fulltime dedicated people; the monks or the spiritual servants are from India.

Another thing is that in London, churchgoers are 2% and in India 93% of Christians go to church! Even other religious systems are stronger in India because the very root, the very understanding of following a higher life is in our blood. Indian Christians are more dedicated to their beliefs. Whatever our people believe in spiritually, they are dedicated to that. If we penetrate and see the root, we will see that our ancient Masters have done a tremendous job.

When compared to the volume of people that we are handling, whatever service we do, it is like mixing asafoetida (a pungent Indian spice) in the ocean.

Somebody asked me once, ‘Master, You think You can change the country by just Your service? Whatever You do, it is just like mixing asafoetida in the ocean. The smell of the ocean is not going to change. How do you think You can help the whole world?’

I told him: ‘I do not know if I can change the whole ocean or not, but I am sure my hand smells beautiful. I am enjoying that, nothing else can be done.’

Nithyananda!!

Thank you.