Combining ancient wisdom with modern inspiration
Conquer the angry man by love.
Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness.
Conquer the miser with generosity.
Conquer the liar with truth.
From: The Dhammapada
Photo by Trishatur, Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries.
Traditionally science and spirituality have been at loggerheads. Science is concerned with man’s material success, spirituality, on the other hand, is interested in man’s inner realities. Is this conflict inevitable, or can the different arts of science and spirituality be complementary?
"Science has the capacity to show mankind the full development of the mental life. Spirituality has the capacity to show mankind the possibility and inevitability of the life beyond the mind, the supramental life."
- Sri Chinmoy [1]
Science deals with the finite, material world; it examines the functioning of matter. Spirituality considers the inner reality, a consciousness that cannot be explained by mental reasoning. This creates a division, the scientific mind says, "only what can be proved on an outer level is meaningful." In response the ancient spirituality of yoga suggests; "the material world that we see is actually maya, an illusion."; the underlying reality of the universe, is what we feel in our silent meditation. On one level, science and spirituality deal in seemingly mutually exclusive methodologies
Science argues that progress comes from improvements in our material well-being. In this regard, science and technology have been of great help in developing better living standards for man. However, although science has helped increase material well-being in society, this has quite often, not led to increased happiness. Spirituality states that, what is important is not the accumulation of material comforts; real abiding happiness comes through living in harmony with our soul. Thus science and spirituality offer 2 very diverse approaches to the meaning of life and human happiness.
However, to expect the same thing from science and spirituality is perhaps a mistake. They offer different truths and explain different aspects of creation. There is no reason why science and spirituality cannot be harmonised.
Science creates material power. With the technology of science we can destroy the world, or we can harness its power for the betterment of humanity. If spirituality is the guiding force behind science, technology can be used to transcend the poverty and ignorance of man. If science is used only as an instrument of power, its results can lead to destruction and suffering.
Spirituality believes in the inner life, but spirituality does not involve just a retreat from the world. Real spirituality involves the manifestation of spiritual ideals. Both, the inner and outer world, are aspects of God’s creation. For its manifestation spirituality requires the help and knowledge of science. In this regard, science is an invaluable mechanism for the dissemination of spirituality’s message.
"Let us listen to the message of Matter through the voice of science. Let us listen to the message of the Spirit through the voice of spirituality. Finally, let us not forget that spirituality is the soul and science is the body."
Article by Richard Pettinger
Oxford, Sri Chinmony Centre,
References
[1] Excerpt from Eastern Light For The Western Mind by Sri Chinmoy.
| [2] | Excerpt from Songs Of The Soul by Sri Chinmoy. |
Religious and artistic similarities between the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths are to be shown in a ground breaking exhibition of some of the world’s earliest surviving sacred texts.
Sacred: Discover What We Share, opening tomorrow at the British Library in London, will feature rare and exquisite examples of early Bibles, Korans and Torahs.
Graham Shaw, the head curator of the exhibition, said the show was conceived in order to explore and examine the interactive nature of these sacred texts.
"What can been seen is that the Old Testament Christian Bible is essentially the same as the Hebrew Bible of Judaism, and in turn, Islam takes many of its stories from Christianity and Judaism. There is a textual link that can be studied in the exhibition," he said.
Sacred Discovery what we Share at British Library
news info from Independent
Lord Rama
Book Review – The Song of Rama by Vanamali
By: Kate Carvalho
As a dedicated fan of Vanamali’s spectacular The Play of God My heart skipped a beat when I saw her latest book The song of Rama on a book stall. I knew it would be hard to match the genius that is The Play of God, but I was more than ready to delve into the dense forests that play host to the epic that is The Song of Rama
Being fairly ignorant of Rama I was curious to acquaint myself with this first of Avatars or human descendent s of Vishnu himself, who descends to earth from time to time in order to redeem mankind from the treacherous grasp of ignorance, usually personified in a terrible and almighty Rakshasa or demon.
It seems as though Rama has come up against quite a bit of flack since his reign, as Vanamali dedicates quite a bit of narrative to his defense. I have to admit there were times during the story where I was ready to fling the book out the window in a fit of rage against the seemingly unthinkable stone heartedness of Rama towards the stainless Sita. Thus the need for Vanamali’s explanations and indeed justifications of Rama’s actions. Ultimately I discover that Rama did not come down to earth to please Sita, himself or me. His main purpose was to establish and extol dharma or righteousness. And that he did – at all costs, and for this he must be applauded.
I was expecting ‘The song of Rama’ to be just like The Play of God but with Rama replacing Krishna as the lead role. This expectation was proved to be all wrong by the great author Vanamali. The story of Rama is vastly different than that of Krishna, and Vanamali has treated it thus in an entirely different manner. Whereas The Play of God was a sensuous feast of prose, beauty and enchantment, the story of Rama begins with sorrow, continues with sorrow and ends with more sorrow. Unlike Krishna who in his earthly foray still maintained his superhuman godliness, Rama, although divine, was a man, with the same frailties, weaknesses and susceptibilities, He is more like us – more human, and in a way his actions more instructive to those of us who still operate on the human level. Sri Chinmoy – an authority on Rama, poses this question …"if an Avatar does not play the human role, who is going to follow him?"
Rama and Sita sacrificed their own happiness for the sake of the Kingdom, nay – for the sake of humanity and it is through their sacrifice that we have prospered. Even the hardest of hearts would have found it difficult to not shed a tear throughout the duration of the story at the enormity of Sita and Rama’s anguish.
The Song of Rama is an engaging and colourful read, a bitter-sweet love story replete with kingdoms, heroes, scandal, trickery, devotion, battles, honour, Monkey armies, demons… rendered in beautiful language – all the ingredients for a great and enthralling story which will inspire you, break your heart, but ultimately make you a better person.
By: Kate Carvalho
Kate Carvalho resides in beautiful Christchurch, New Zealand. She has a penchant for and regularly writes about cooking, reading, health, sports, music but most importantly spirituality and meditation. She has been studying the latter under the tutelage of New York based Indian spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy since the year 2000.
Related:
The Song of Rama by Vanamali at Blue Dove Press
The Song of Rama by Vanamali at Amazon.com
My Rama is My All – by Sri Chinmoy. A play about the life of Rama
Ananda are a group of British musicians, dedicated to playing the spiritual music of Sri Chinmoy. There music is ideal for meditation.
Ananda Music website
More selections of Meditation Music
Many people who are on a journey of self-discovery were introduced to the possibility through reading a book which opened their eyes and made them realise there was something deeper to life than what we see on the surface.
For many people, reading these books marked the starting of their inner quest in earnest, and set off a chain of events which might even have led to them pursuing an altogether different path than the one suggested in the book; nevertheless reading the book was a crucial stepping-stone that helped them to become aware that there was more to life than what just lay on the surface.
The term ‘life-changing book’ is all to often little more than publisher’s blurb nowadays, but there are a few books for whom this claim has held true over the years:
These two books have a very childlike feel to them, but this childlike form lends itself for use as an allegory for bigger and deeper questions. Most memorable quote from the Little Prince: "It is only with the hear that one can see properly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."
This book is one of the most widely-read accounts of Eastern philosophy available. In this book, the author describes his childhood spiritual experiences and remerkable spiritual figures that he has met. In particular, the chapters where he describes the guidance he recieved from his teacher, Sri Yukteshwar, is one of the best accounts of the meditation teacher-student relationship available.
A reworking of the tale of how the young prince Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, or the enlightened one. After embracing the extremes of austerity and luxury, the prince attains enlightenment throuth the middle path. Multiple Guinness record holder and long-time meditator Ashrita Furman first became interested in Eastern philosophy after reading this book, beginning a journey which was soon to lead him to his teacher, Sri Chinmoy .
Each good thought
Is the birth of
A new hope.
From 77,000 Thousand Service Trees vol 42
Photo by: Richard
Ganesh is one of the primary Hindu deities. Ganesh or Ganapati is known as the remover of obstacles. It is said a seeker should invoke Ganesh before praying to any other God, or spiritual Master.
Lord Shiva lived on Mount Kailash with his consort Parvati (sometimes known as Durga). Both performed tremendous austerities and spent many hours deep in meditation trance. There came a time when Lord Shiva left his heavenly abode to visit the other Cosmic Gods Brahma and Vishnu.
Parvati was left alone on Mount Kailash and she took the opportunity to have a long bath; this was an opportunity to clean herself of the many layers of sandalwood paste that Shiva devotees and placed upon her over the previous years.
Whilst bathing Parvati instructed Nandi, Shiva’s attendant, to guard the door and let no one into the house whilst she was bathing. However whilst she was bathing Shiva returned and demanded to enter his own house. Nandi felt he could not refuse his Master, so Shiva entered the house, much to the annoyance of Parvati. Parvati felt angry that both Shiva and Nandi, had refused her request.
In response to Parvati’s anger Shiva decided to leave Mount Kailash again. For 6 years he stayed away letting Parvati’s anger diminish.
It was in response to this that Parvati decided she needed her own devoted attendant. Therefore Parvati collected all the mud from her bath. (Which was very extensive due to all the Sandalwood paste accumulated from Shiva’s devotee’s. Through her austerities Parvati had accumulated extensive occult power. Thus when she had molded a statue of her son, she was able to give it life. Pleased with her creation she named it Ganesh. Ganesh proved very devoted and kind to his Mother, Parvati.
There came a time when Parvati was once again taking a bath and she instructed Ganesh to keep watch and not let anyone in. It was during this moment that Shiva returned from his self imposed exile. On returning to his abode in Mount Kailash he discovered this young boy guarding his house. Furthermore Ganesh refused Shiva entry into his own home. Shiva became very angry, but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t force his way into his own home. The young boy had exceptional powers and strength.
Humiliated he couldn’t enter into his own home Shiva called on the help of Brahma and Vishnu. With their help they were able to devise a plan to outmanoeuvre Ganesh. They managed to defeat him by cutting off his head and Shiva was able to enter his own house.
Parvati then came out of her bath to discover her beloved son Ganesh had been decapitated by her own her husband Shiva.
Shiva was mortified when he realised he had killed his wife’s son. Thus with the help of Brahma and Vishnu he promised to use his occult power to bring him back to life. As creator Brahma has some experience, but unfortunately Ganesh’s head had already been dispose of. Therefore the 3 cosmic Gods went into the forest to look for a suitable head. The first animal they came across was an elephant so they took his head and put it on to Ganesh’s body. The 3 principle Cosmic Deities were then able to bring Ganesha back to life.
Parvati found her new son Ganesh to be very beautiful. Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu were also pleased with the strength and devotion of Ganesh therefore they resolved that Ganesh should henceforth be the first God to be invoked. If a seeker invoked Ganesh first, Ganesh would remove all obstacles to a seeker’s progress. Traditionally Ganesh is invoked even before a seeker’s spiritual Master.
Ganesh at Wikipedia
Songs on Ganapati at Sri Chinmoy Songs
By: Vidagdha Bennett
Complain? groan, grumble, mutter, fret and fume, air a grievance, gripe, grizzle, kvetch, beef, bellyache, whine, find fault.
Decidedly, it is difficult to imagine anyone who does not fall into this category on a fairly regular basis. The possibility that there might exist a Pollyanna, somewhere, who does not get up each morning and immediately launch into a rant against the weather, the surroundings, the morning news, the day ahead and so forth, bedazzles any normal individual.
Complaining is part of our everyday diet. It is not an activity we choose; it is ingrained. And yet, now a pastor in Missouri has stepped forth to rid us of this scourge. With all the best intentions in the world, Pastor Will Bowen, a 47-year-old clergyman based at Christ Church Unity in Kansas City, has come up with the bright idea of purple plastic bracelets. Those among his flock who have been "complaint-free" for 21 straight days are eligible to wear the bracelets on their right wrist. Those who sadly lapse must switch to the left wrist and start their three week countdown all over again.
I imagined that the market for this decorative accessory might be one or two individuals at a stretch, but no. People magazine of March 12, 2007 reports that Pastor Bowen’s church has so far shipped more than 125,000 of the free bracelets to other communities since the novel concept was introduced.
How, I wonder, does one survive even a single day without complaining to your heart’s content (if that is not a contradiction in terms) about something? When Pastor Bowen’s poise is challenged, he purportedly says, "It’s another day in paradise."
In a recent poem about complaining?a poem which holds more than a hint of irony?spiritual teacher and philosopher Sri Chinmoy writes:
That is precisely the crux of the matter, of course. Living saints are somewhat sparse on the ground these days. And then there is the issue of whether we really want to stop complaining. Over long centuries, we have elevated complaint to an art form in itself; we have refined and honed the language of complaint so that it is rich in associations, humour and wisdom. Even a fair number of our proverbs (to wit, "Too many cooks spoil the broth") betray their origin as complaints.
There are even complaints which aspire to the level of prayer?not snivelling lists of God’s oversights but bold and daring attempts to prompt a seemingly stone-hearted God to respond to the forlorn cries of the human heart. The Saviour Christ’s heart-rending utterance, "O Lord, why hast Thou forsaken me?" is, undeniably, a complaint against his Father on high.
And while we acknowledge that most of our complaints?whether to nature, the government or God?are markedly ineffective, their very utterance gives us a certain satisfaction and enjoyment which Pastor Bowen would deprive us of. There is also the contingency that without the lively to and fro of complaining, we would simply run out of conversational topics. Political debate, for example, would simply become a thing of the past!
And another thing. Pastor Bowen blithely urges us to embark forthwith on the monumental task of counting our complaints. Counting them! As if it were possible to count the stars in the sky or the blades of grass on your lawn. Counting them? The days are not long enough, my friend, to encompass such a feat.
Alas, I do not envisage that I will ever qualify for a purple wristband worn on the right wrist and the lustre of sainthood that it betokens. Regrettably, the very fact of contemplating such a proposition has caused a whole new crop of complaints to sprout spontaneously in my mind. How could it be otherwise? The ever-wise Sri Chinmoy, while not endorsing complaints as such, points out the fact that they may, indeed, be unavoidable:
Luke:
"I can?t believe it. "
Yoda:
"That is why you fail.?
Anne Frank:
"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death."
Excerpt from Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, Part 60
Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, wrote some tremendously inspiring speeches which shaped the course of history. Jefferson was not a good public speaker and he preferred communicating through writing instead, but in this field he was probably one of the most eloquent correspondents ever.
The preamble to the Declaration of Independence is possibly the most famous of Jefferson’s writings, and to this day it evokes the original spirit of the American nation:
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness….’
The Declaration of Independence then goes on to cite a list of grievances against the British crown. among them, Jefferson wanted to include the following denunciation of slavery:
‘He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither…’
In the end, this clause had to be dropped to ensure the acceptance of the declaration by some of the Southern states.
After the war, Jefferson served in the legislature of his home state of Virginia. He sponsored many pieces of legislation, the most famous of which was the Statute of Religious Freedom, which was passed in 1785. Up until then, people holding different religious views from the majority could be stripped of public office and imprisoned. Jefferson’s bill begins with a passionate argument against compulsory religion:
‘Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do….our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry…..’
Jefferson considered this bill one of his three finest achievements, along with the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the University of Virginia. It became the inspiration for the first amendment to the United States Constitution, which guaranteed freedom of speech and religion for all.
In 1800, Jefferson became president after an extremely close election. The election deepened a great rift between federalists, who wanted stronger power for the fledgling United States government, and republicans like Jefferson, who viewed centralised government as a necessary evil that must be contained and not allowed to overshadow states’ rights. Despite his views, he used his inaugural address to reach out to his defeated opponents and call for unity:
‘Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions….’
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