paradise never lost

175
6 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 7 The Garden of Eden Once upon a time, there was a Heaven. There was a big and beautiful garden in it called the ‘Garden of Eden’. Since time immemorial two old men had been living in it, the God and the Devil. God was the master of the place and He had employed the Devil perhaps as a gardener there. May be with the passage of time the two old men began to feel a monotony about the place. So God the Almighty created Adam as a small pretty boy. The God said to Adam that Adam was His son and so Adam admired the God and respected Him. One fine morning when Adam was playing in the Garden, God–the Father approached him and showed him a tree— ‘The Forbidden Tree’ and advised him never to eat anything from it. Adam started playing and sporting and making merry around the whole place and the two old men were very much delighted to watch him grow. But soon the poor young boy became very bored in the company of two seasoned old people. So God-the Almighty made Adam fall sleep and took one of his ribs from his chest and created Eve out of it. The two children were same bone and marrow, so right from the beginning, they had a harmony between them. They were happy in each other’s company and the two old men, the God and the Devil, were also happy to see them grow. The whole place was filled with the mirth and the laughter of the two children. One day God approached Eve also and told her that she too was his daughter as Adam was his son. Eve too respected God and admired him. But strangely enough God the Father forgot to instruct her about the Forbidden Tree. One day also the Devil came to Eve and told her that she was his beloved daughter and he loved her more than he loved anyone else. The nice little Eve was very humble and so she replied, “Yeah uncle, besides God I am your daughter too”. Eve liked the Devil and Eve liked the God and she developed a kind of regard for both of them. This is strange but true that although the Devil had been His timeless companion, God the Almighty had never cared to instruct him anything about the Forbidden Tree even upto the last. As it goes even since those days fathers have been talking about it to their sons only but

Upload: rscrown

Post on 21-Nov-2014

130 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Paradise Never Lost

6 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 7

The Garden of Eden

Once upon a time, there was a Heaven. There was a bigand beautiful garden in it called the ‘Garden of Eden’. Sincetime immemorial two old men had been living in it, the Godand the Devil. God was the master of the place and He hademployed the Devil perhaps as a gardener there. May bewith the passage of time the two old men began to feel amonotony about the place. So God the Almighty created Adamas a small pretty boy. The God said to Adam that Adam wasHis son and so Adam admired the God and respected Him.One fine morning when Adam was playing in the Garden,God–the Father approached him and showed him a tree—‘The Forbidden Tree’ and advised him never to eat anythingfrom it. Adam started playing and sporting and making merryaround the whole place and the two old men were very muchdelighted to watch him grow.

But soon the poor young boy became very bored in thecompany of two seasoned old people. So God-the Almightymade Adam fall sleep and took one of his ribs from his chestand created Eve out of it. The two children were same boneand marrow, so right from the beginning, they had a harmonybetween them. They were happy in each other’s companyand the two old men, the God and the Devil, were also happyto see them grow. The whole place was filled with the mirthand the laughter of the two children.

One day God approached Eve also and told her that shetoo was his daughter as Adam was his son. Eve too respectedGod and admired him. But strangely enough God the Fatherforgot to instruct her about the Forbidden Tree. One dayalso the Devil came to Eve and told her that she was hisbeloved daughter and he loved her more than he loved anyoneelse. The nice little Eve was very humble and so she replied,“Yeah uncle, besides God I am your daughter too”. Eve likedthe Devil and Eve liked the God and she developed a kind ofregard for both of them. This is strange but true that althoughthe Devil had been His timeless companion, God the Almightyhad never cared to instruct him anything about the ForbiddenTree even upto the last. As it goes even since those daysfathers have been talking about it to their sons only but

Page 2: Paradise Never Lost

8 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 9

never to their daughters and never to their servants either.So, it happened that incidently one day the Devil came

across the Forbidden Tree, instinctively took a ripe and juicyfruit from it and tasted it to his hearts’ delight. The effectwas wonderful. The old Devil discovered a kind oftransformation happening to him and thought that he hadbecome as wise as the God Himself. Not only this the Devilalso understood that the God had been jealous throughoutabout anybody becoming wise and so He had concealed thisinformation even from one who had been so much like himotherwise. The Devil liked the pretty nice Eve most and sohe went to her straightforward to share his adventureimmediately. He went to see Eve who was busy with wateringsome flowers at that time and he transferred all hisunderstanding to her immediately. He advise Eve to eat afruit from the tree herself without any unnecessary lingeringon. Eve took the advice and she liked the fruit very much,the fruit which looked like a plump and ripe Apple. She hadeaten only half of the fruit when suddenly she felt an urgefor Adam to whom she approached at once. She handed overthe remaining half of the fruit to Adam who was the only oneof her own kind. Adam was very fond of Eve, she was hisclosest bosom friend in the Heaven, so he ate readily theother half of the fruit before he could remember the God’sadvice. The effect upon both of them was again miraculous.Soon they found a great attraction coming up in them towardseach other. Soon they noticed that God had created themdifferent. So Adam could see two small apples lurking overthe surface of Eve’s breast and Eve could notice a snake-likething hanging from Adam’s abdomen. Soon they began tofeel that they were enough for themselves, they did not needGod’s patronage any more. In fact they were no less wisethan the Father himself after this awakening. So they madeup their mind to say goodbye to the Heaven and see theWorld with their own eyes. Now, the God was really scaredof Adam who was following Eve and of Eve who was followingthe Devil himself. So He decided to allow them to leave theHeaven and make the Earth their new abode now. Heunderstand that it was human to err.

This happened and the Devil smiled and smiled at theGod and was not a villain but a wise being in his own eyes.Consequently, Abraham happened on the Earth, Moses

happened on the Earth and fourteen hundred more yearselapsed after the time of Moses too. Mankind went onmultiplying on the Good Earth and went on to plough it.Man would raise his eyes and his hands towards the skyand would unceasingly say—

“Dear old God, still you are without a wife and still youare unmarried. When you grow too old what will happen toyou? It seems you will never learn to sin like us.”

Mankind would continually disobey the God in themanner of Adam and Eve and the Devil would smile andsmile at the God invariably. This is true that the Devil wasold and tired but the God was equally old and tired too andso He was not in a position to take any revenge upon theDevil although He was not very happy with his doings. Thiswas the time when Jesus happened on the Earth and wasborn of a virgin mother. The Earth used to be full of ignoranceand of disobedience before he was born to redeem it. TheForbidden Tree had been working wonders as usual. So Jesusdecided to obey the God and remain unmarried like God thefather and preach repentance to others who were mistaken.Naturally God was very happy with Jesus and declared himhis only son and his Christ for all time to come. He gave alsoa sword to Jesus which was as invisible as the sword of DonQuixote. Jesus being a real youngman jumped quickly uponthe Devil, caught him by his long beard and raised the swordupon him. The Devil became frightened of this only eagerson but somehow he managed to escape from the Heavenand hid himself under the bottom of the Earth in the form ofa twinkling bright star for quite some time to come.

Nineteen hundred years more elapsed since the time ofraising Jesus to the Heaven till the time of Osho who provedhimself a most worthy master and a leader of mankind. Itwas Osho himself who claimed to be in the same traditionwhich the Devil had begun so enthusiastically. He narratedthe story of the Forbidden Tree again in a very impressivemanner acknowledging it as the ‘Tree of Knowledge’. Oshosaid that it was not the ‘Tree of Ignorance’ but it was the treeof doubt, of discovery, of Science, of self-transformation, ofmeditation and of spiritual awakening.

It is mentioned in the Holy Bible that soon Osho willhave a disciple called ‘The False Prophet’. It is to beremembered that the Holy Bible is an all time book of

Page 3: Paradise Never Lost

10 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 11

prophesy and the prophet is but a prophet howsoever falsewe may denominate him.

It seems that he will teach as the following—“The time is gone when people loved for ever”.“They promised each other to meet again even on the

other side of the river of death”.“Now a days Love enters from the door and escapes from

the window.”“So the lover is emancipated and the beloved is

emancipated too.”“If Love is there, Law need not be.”“If Law is there, Love need not be.”“What is marriage? You touch a dead rock with your

vibrating fingers and imagine that it is the touch of a roseflower.”

Perhaps he will teach some more maxims also.“I am not a monster, nevertheless a double-tongued

monster with black piercing eyes. I do not say what I meanand I do not mean what I say”.

“When the doors are flung open, the Paradise is Lost”.“When the doors are closed together, the Paradise is

regained”.“A Paradise is nevertheless a Paradise and nobody is a

fool except the Wise.”Like Buddha, Osho may also designate ‘The Forbidden

Tree’ as the ‘Tree of Knowledge’ or of ‘Self-Transformation’.It seems that Moses had an implication that ‘Forbidden Tree’should have been considered the ‘Tree of Ignorance’ onlybecause the Devil, Adam and Eve all invited misguidancethrough it. But all the great masters have held that it didnot initiate misguidance, only it would lead to the ultimatewell-being. Now both the versions are with you and the choiceis yours to which you should agree.

My query is whether these two versions are really differentor they lead to the same truth? If there has been no realconspiracy between the God and the Devil why did the GodAlmighty allow the Devil to prevail even in his own place?God is said to be omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.Are the God and the Devil not two faces of the same reality?The word Devil originates from the Sanskrit word Deva whichmeans a Deity. Why did the God decide not to take Eve intohis own confidence and not allow her to come close to Devil?

Why did He create a son who could disobey even a worthyFather and a daughter who would be humble even beforethe Devil? All these great questions are meant inevitably toattract all those minds which think. The Indian Upanishadssay, ‘Ekohum Bahushyami”. This Sutra means that in thebeginning the Brahma was alone and it decided to manifestitself into many beings. According to Hindus this was theoriginal desire the Brahma did conceive. It is very likely tobe true. It seems that the same might have happened to theGod of Moses too. He had been absolutely alone before Hecreated the Garden of Eden. It seems that quite for sometime He himself used to keep the Garden. But very soon Hemust have become bored so He created the Devil to sharethis boredom with Him. It seems that for some time to comethey must have managed very well but before long they hadto create Adam and Eve also. Innocently the Devil must havecome across the Forbidden Tree and must have helped themankind to grow on Earth. I can see no contradiction betweenthe Upanishads and the Book of Moses here. So, to me, thestory is simple and the Devil seems to be just another versionof the God Himself.

According to Bible, the Devil is supposed to personifyhimself into three important personalities. First is Gautam,the Buddha about whom it is said, ‘The most Godless personon the Earth yet the most Godlike’. Also Hindus have said avery strange thing about Buddha. They admit him as anincarnation of course but they say that he had come to theEarth just to misguide people and to ease the overcrowdedHeaven. It is believed that at the time of Buddha’s birth theHell was lying absolutely vacant with all apartments in itsealed and locked while the Heaven had become too muchburdened. So the God had to descend to the Earth in theform of Gautam, the Buddha to solve this problem ofoverpopulation in the Heaven. This hypothesis seems to belogical because after Buddha India has been facing theproblem of overpopulation every now and then and Indianscan manage to live happily even in a Hell. Secondly, theDevil manifested himself in the form of Osho who admittedthat he was both a saint and a rascal. It seems logical thatSaint John had depicted Gautam, the Buddha as the FirstBeast and Osho as the Second Beast. According to therevelations soon we expect the false prophet also. May be it

Page 4: Paradise Never Lost

12 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 13

proves to be a person in particular or the whole disciplehoodof Osho in general. I want to assert without much loss offactuality that we can consider the whole tradition of OshoMystery School as the False Prophet. It is good also to avoidall unnecessary confrontations.

Here, I want to assert one thing more. I am neither aperfect holy man nor a perfect unholy man. So the reader isadvised never to believe in the revelations to me. He onlyshould remain aware of the element of truth in mystatements. He should read this narration critically andshould not dismiss the King Lear’s statement that there is amethod in every madness too.

It was towards the last years of the ninth decade of thetwentieth century, One evening, Osho came to the BuddhaHall and declared that Jesus was unenlightened. The secondday, he came to the Buddha Hall and declared that J.Krishnamurty, too, was unenlightened. The third day, hecame to the Buddha Hall and declared that all the audiencewere enlightened and it could not be otherwise. The fourthday, he came and said that none of us but he himself wasenlightened and sometimes he felt very sad for us and evenwept under his blanket out of compassion. The fifth day, hecame and told us that there were no past lives at all. Thesixth day, he confessed that in one of his past lives he usedto be a German and that was why he understood Germansvery well. Now, this had become too much for me, so justafter the discourse, I blurted out—

“Here is a strange master! If everyone of us is enlightenedand there are no past lives either what Osho has been doingall these years around the globe? If everyone dies and isliberated, why so much ado about nothing? What is goingon all about and what for?”

One lady disciple of Osho from London who was standingnearby overheard me and became very uneasy at my remarks.She retorted in a loud voice, ‘Hey, here is the man. He seemsto be Krishna himself’. By this she referred perhaps to J.Krishnamurty whom the British call either JK or Krishnaprecisely’.

Immediately afterwards this joke spread very fasteverywhere in the Ashram and people continued to call meKrishna now and then and this practice continued even afterOsho left his body in January 1990. Out of uneasiness and

disgust I took a short leave from the Ashram and went toMahatma Gandhi Road. I decided to establish myself as anintellectual like J. Krishnamurty. For this purpose, Ipurchased some books by J. Krishnamurty from the ChristianBook shop and as a matter of coincidence I also purchasedmy first ever book of the Holy Bible. As is habitual with me,to begin with, I opened the last chapter of the Holy Biblewith the title ‘The Revelations to Saint John’. Nobody has sofar claimed to have understood it and there was a great scopefor originality in it. In this chapter I found the descriptionsof the Devil, the First Beast, the Second Beast and the FalseProphet. It was written that the number of the False Prophetwould be triple six—

“Here lies the wisdom. It is a man’s number and hisnumber is 666”. Suddenly some divine wit entered my souland I said to myself obviously it meant Sex, Sex, Sex. So Ireached the understanding that it could point to none butOsho’s tradition here. In the Ashram intellect was not a wordfor admiration and I had been feeling like a Shylock moresinned against than sinning. So I composed the followingtwo rhymes and strangely enough also started to sing them.The first rhyme was—

Sexy Sexy Sexy angels say to meI am sexy very sexy yes to meMy cap is sexy, my beard is sexyMy watch is sexy, my robe is sexyAnd everything underneathSexy piece, oh sexy piece, oh sexy piece!This song used to be very popular in those days. Also the

second song was very popular which was in the manner ofthe second stanza—

What is your file numberWhat is profile numberWhat is your smile numberWhat is your style numberTripple six dear six, six, six.Tripple sex dear sex, sex, sex.Everyone from the West immediately understood point

and everyone of them was really vexed. One young prettygirl even stood up over her breakfast table and tried to ridiculeme—

“Well, I must understand now as I am the daughter of

Page 5: Paradise Never Lost

14 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 15

Devil himself. Now I can see the point”.(This is a strange coincidence, someone told me that her

father had been once the President of USA).Those days were very remarkable. One Western Swami

came to me while I was changing my robe in the lockers andwhispered—

“Please, be a little soft. You are too hard upon a Westernmind. People may run away from here.” It triggred an alarmin the Ashram which I could not speculate. I wanted to explainto them that this narration was not against Osho and so Idecided to write a book explaining everything. Here is thebook !

Now I must come to the point again. What I found out inthe Bible was not a regression. Later on I discovered thatOsho himself had left clues regarding the possibility of thisinterpretation in as much as that he said that the path ofmeditation was the path of Devil. This book is devoted tounderstand for the first time ‘Revelations to Saint John’ in aright perspective and that is why, I have chosen this title‘The Paradise Never Lost’. As a matter of consequence it isgoing to prove itself a complete handbook on Mysticismbeginning perhaps some five thousand years ago till now.We will have to go through and correlate the prominent faithswhich prevailed before Christ and after Christ and areprevailing even now.

In fact, Mysticism has only two paths—the path of Faithand the path of Doubt. Faith belongs to the God and Doubtbelongs to the Devil and those who begin with doubtinvariably attain to Faith. The path of faith is the path ofuniversal love, of unwavering trust, of obedience and ofegolessness whereas the path of doubt is the path of effort,of self-transformation and of meditation. Also, the path offaith is known as Bhakti and the path of doubt as the pathof Yoga. So even in a spiritual nation like India the basictraditions have been only two and all deviations have beeninsignificant. I attempt to make this point clear now. Thedevotees hold that it is almost impossible to attain to thetruth without love, respect and surrender because ego is theonly problem. Love towards any Enlightened Being can do.This Enlightened Being can be a living master or a masterfrom the past or a diety or even a symbol. Hindus have threetraditions devoted to the path of love—the Vaishnavas, the

Shaivas and the Shaktas. Vaishnavas preach devotin towardsBhagwan Vishnu and his incarnation such as Rama andKrishna. Shaivas preach devotion towards Lord Shiva andShaktas preach devotion towards Enlightened womenSaraswati, Parvati, Durga, Kali etc. These Enlightened womenthey call Shaktis. Sikkhism too is a path of devotion, theydirect their prayers towards their Enlightened Gurus andalso towards other Hindu deities like Rama, Krishna etc. Infact, Sikkhs are not a different religion, they are only aculture. Christians believe in Jesus Christ just as Hindusbelieve in Rama and Krishna. In fact pegs are not important,only coats are important. For example, Allah is almostinvisible and without a form. Someone would come to Jesusand say you have healed me. But what Jesus replied wasvery significant, he would invariably say, “Your faith hashealed you.” Faith can move mountains irrespective of thefact in whom it resides. Judaism, Christianity and Islam arecalled the Angelic paths and all these are paths of devotion.According to them and according to the Sufis also, only theholy angels can lead a seeker to ultimate well-being andwithout the help of holy spirits it is not possible to come outof misery. Michael, Gabriel and Khizra are some of their mostcelebrated angels although in Koran the number mentionedis ninetynine. So the path of devotion, in short, means toseek the help of those beings who have gone ahead of us.For this purpose everything like mantra, tantra and yantrais also useful.

Now it is imperative to come to the concept of God inparticular. To the Jains and the Buddhists, God is just aprinciple. According to them, God is the Absolute Law orDhamma. The law of cause and effect which is so obvious inthe external world, when applied to human psyche is calledthe ‘Law of Karma’ by Mahavir and of ‘Eternal Dhamma’ byBuddha. Neither Mahavir nor Buddha believes in apersonified God, according to them God exists only in theform of an existential harmony. To the Hindus also God isnot a person but the centre of all creation and the ultimatebeing itself. It is the material and the effective cause of allthat exists. It is also the formal cause and the purpose of allexistence. The Hindu word for God is Brahma which is neithermale nor female but the only conscious substance. He is theabsolute soul into which all the souls dissolve after liberation

Page 6: Paradise Never Lost

16 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 17

from the cycle of death and rebirth. He is like ‘Nataraj’ – adancer and this creation is his dance. We cannot separatethe dancer from the dance because in the absence of dance,the dancer has no relevance. According to Judaism,Christianity and Islam God is not a dancer but a creator.God is only the effective cause of existence but not thematerial cause. God is only the form but not the matter orthe substance. This cosmos is his creation and after the actof creation He is found outside of it and is a being superiorto it and is an invariant. He has not only the absolute powersof creation but also the absolute power of destruction. TheHindu Brahma is like a substance but not like a person. Thewhole emerges from it, remains in it throughout and fallsback again into it as a wave does in the ocean. There is noduality between the creator and the creation. For the Hindusreligion has been like an act of love during which the loverand the beloved become one. All the religions born outsideIndia are however dualistic in their Meta-physics. All thereligions like Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Bhaktinevertheless insist upon Faith. Without faith no spiritualknowledge is possible. Faith and humbleness, obedience andtrust are indispensable. The Upanishads say it is not knownby the argument and the Holy Bible says Faith can move themountains.

In my opinion disobedience is the first sin in the story ofGenesis. It is not sex which is the original sin. Some peoplemight have misinterpreted it like that. Adam and Evedisobeyed God and that was their first sin that is to say thatdoubt towards the God was the original sin. Doubt belongedto the Devil and they had lost Faith which belonged to theGod. The feeling of sex followed consequently with thematurity to doubt. The Psychologists hold that it is aroundthe age of seven that a child begins to doubt and it is againaround the age of seven that a child begins to understandthe distinction between a boy and a girl. First of all Doubtarises in the Devil’s mind. The Devil conveys it to Eve andEve seduces Adam. Doubt was the first act of disobedienceand it was followed by still another act of disobedience. Adamand Eve decided to foreshake the God and to leave the Heaven.Moses might have considered this as a downfall but thereare some others who should have considered this thebeginning of maturity. This was the initial point of the

spiritual growth which will become complete with the regainof the Paradise. Every child has to loose it so that it can beregained. Once the doubt arises and the faith is lost, onlythe Devil can become the master.

Here we take up ‘The Revelation to Saint John’ again. Ihave come across a book ‘Jesus Lived In India’ from Osho’slibrary. This book is written by a European philologists HolgerKersten and Osho has approved of this book. According tothe writer Saint John himself had lived in India. His nameand photograph was found with the predecessors of the Nathtradition of Yogis. There are also other sources of evidenceto support the hypothesis that Saint John had practicedyoga in India for quite some time. One can read MiguelSerrano’s ‘The Serpent of Paradise’ and Nicolas Notovich’s‘Life of Saint Jesus’. Saint John had come to India some fivehundred years after Buddha’s Nirvana. When Buddha hadbegun his ‘Sangh’ all his disciples were ascetic people buttheir number was limited only to five hundred till Buddhaleft his body. After Ashoka the great Buddhists had becomea prominent faith in India. The time when Saint John cameto India, it seems that perversions like ‘vamachar’ and‘vazrayan’ had already taken the hold of Buddhist religion.Vazrayan has been a cult of Buddhists which believed thatthe use of meat, wine, fish, gambling and sex wasindispensable for the attainment of spiritual growth.Naturally Saint John became disgusted with the BuddhistSchool and he mentioned Gautam, the Buddha as the firstincarnation of Devil or the First Beast. We can understandthe reason for his disgust and the logic for the number 666.In fact, the First Beast, the Second Beast and the FalseProphet all represent the same tradition which has its originin the Holy Devil himself.

With the advancement of knowledge, the knowledge ofScience, Social Sciences, Jurisprudence, Constitutionalismand all such disciplines, faith has become more and moredifficult and doubt has become more and more natural. Allthe ancient scriptures have been written in such a mannerwhich does not conform to the pattern of modern thought.Now the humanity has grown very much intellectually andthe religious books look like comic books of children. How tohave faith? Every intelligent person has to begin with doubt.In the first place, there is no certainty that God should exist

Page 7: Paradise Never Lost

18 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 19

as a person or as a being or as a principle. What we know isour consciousness and the universe surrounding us withmatter, with other living creatures and with time and space.With the advancement of science man has come to knowthat Nature is governed by the ‘Law of Cause and Effect’.Hindus, Buddhists and Jains have applied this law also intothe psychological, the metaphysical and the spiritual realms.Hindus call it Rit; Buddhists call it Dhamma and Jains call itthe law of Karma. This law manifesting itself as the law ofKarma in the psychological realm is the reason for birthsafter this birth. However, the religions originated outside ofIndia are silent over the question of rebirth. These religionsneither deny the phenomenon nor they confirm it.

In fact, Doubt has a beginning in the Devil himself. Heeats from ‘The tree of knowledge’ and finds himself as wiseas the God Almighty and so the Devil proceeds to guide alsoAdam and Eve on this path of wisdom. So to me it is not awonder that in the revelations this path of doubt, ofmeditation and of transformation is referred to as the pathof the Devil. In his revelations Saint John describes themasters and the preachers of this path as the ‘kings andhorns’. In contrast to the Devil, some Angels remainedobedient to the God and so their path is referred to as theAngelic.

Once we come to know the truth of this assertion, manygreat masters like Shiva, Patanjali, Buddha, Mahavira,Gordceff etc. have prescribed this path, before Osho becomesevident to us. There is no wonder that the word ‘Devil’ shouldcome from the Sanskrit word ‘Deva’ which means the divine.In fact, it seems that the office of the Heaven functions intwo wings—‘The office of the God’ and ‘The office of the Devil,and both these wings are complementary to each other. Inthe story of Genesis the conspiracy between the God andthe Devil seems to be obvious. Clearly, it is the Devil who isthe first creature to have eaten the forebidden fruit only thenhe could know the effect of it. But the Devil is not cast awayfrom the Heaven, why? God is said to be omnipresent,omniscient and omnipotent and the Devil could not evenhave come to existence without the permission of the God.Why did the God allow the Devil to play his trick upon Adamand Eve too? It seems that God never has had any problemswith the Devil who has been a continuous problem from the

angels and the mankind. The Devil returns to the Heavenagain and again and the God feels comfortable with thesituation. His passport and visa seem to be permanent. Itseems that the God rather feels incomplete without the Devil.

Right from the beginning there have been two disciplines.The seers of the Upanishads, Moses, Jesus, Mohammad,Nanak etc. all taught the path of faith whereas the mysticslike Patanjali, Buddha, Mahavira, Gorakh, Osho etc. all havepreached doubt and meditation. There have also been manyZen masters and other yogis from India, Tibet, China andJapan who have contributed to the path of effort now andthen.

The Kathopanishad states—“The self is not attained by listening to those who know.

Neither it can be attained by listening to and retaining thescriptures. The self-knowledge comes only to those whomthis existence chooses. This enlightenment is revealed to thechosen ones without any effort on their part.”

There are others who argue that faith is uncommon.Everyone cannot have a prayerful state of mind. That is why,everyone cannot receive enlightenment. Doubt is the naturalstate of mind and we have to transform ourselves. Thesepeople would argue that before eating the fruit of knowledge,Adam and Eve were ignorant like small children. Of coursethey lived in a Paradise but they knew nothing about life.Even animals live in a kind of Paradise but they are not asconscious as an enlightened person. Jains designate thisstate of Adam and Eve as ‘Nigod’ and the Paradise regainedas ‘Mokhsa’. With the eating of the fruit of knowledge theycame to experience the world which Jains call ‘Sansara’. Thisis true that through self-transformation Adam and Eve wouldsome day becomes as wise as the sages and would reclaimtheir Paradise again. So we can say that Doubt is the firststep towards Enlightenment and Enlightenment is theabsolute disappearance of any trace of Doubt at all. As amatter of fact, the Devil acted only as an Enlightened Masterwhen he instructed Adam and Eve to eat the fruit ofknowledge. Because he knew that in the end they both wouldbecome as wise as the God himself. Jesus was wise eventhough he was on the Earth while Adam was ignorant evenwhile he was in the Heaven. Adam’s Paradise was a fool’sparadise but when Jesus would regain it, it becomes an abode

Page 8: Paradise Never Lost

20 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 21

of wise beings. That is the difference. Adam was below mindwhile people like Jesus can transcend mind. Birds andAnimals too live in a kind of Paradise because they are belowmind but they will have to loose it and they will have toregain it. Those who begin with Doubt, end in Faith but allthose who begin with belief, end in confusion because everybelief has doubt hidden underneath. Very worthy people havebelonged to path of Doubt also. Gautam Buddha did notaccept Vedas and other scriptures as authority but he wasno less wise than any of the Upanishadic seers. BertrandRussel was right to say that he was most Godless and mostGodlike. People like Patanjali and Buddha; Mahavira andGorakh; Shiva and Osho have had rare insight indeed andonly such people could help the multitudes who followedthem. It is rare to be Enlightened but it is a miracle to be anEnlightened Master.

In my opinion, when we come across the descriptions ofthe Devil, of the Beasts, of the False Prophet, of the ‘kingsand the horns’ in ‘Revelations to Saint John’ we shouldunderstand that the reference is towards the great masterslike these. Although the Holy Bible has taken too much libertywith the words, it should not be taken as a matter ofcondemnation. Even the Angels are no match to the Holysages the Bible has referred to. It should be considered justas a matter of difference of opinion regarding themethodology. None is higher and none is lower. However,when the Holy Pope points out that the science of meditationis not in conformity with the Holy Bible, he advances a rightkind of logic, howsoever little he may be knowing aboutspiritualism. But the Holy Pope must remember that oneman’s poison is another man’s food and the Pope is notsupposed to know everything.

It seems indispensable here that we should discuss themetaphor which we call ‘The Day of Judgement’. Both theBible and the Koran describe it. It is a great parable and themeaning is not just literal. In the state of ignorance everyhuman being is like a corpse and his own material body islike a tomb enclosing his spirit. This is the meaning whenJesus says ‘Let the dead bury the dead. Come, follow me’.Only at the time of self-realisation the real life happens andthe dead is raised from the grave. The dead becomes a ‘dwij’or a ‘twice born’. This is the meaning of resurrection of the

dead from the tomb. Before Enlightenment everyone is in aneternal hell of misery and of ignorance. After Enlightenmenteveryone is in a state of eternal bliss. That is why, the Koranstates that both Hell and Heaven are forever. We canunderstand it from one more point of view too. Hell is eternalbecause it has no beginning but only an end. Heaven iseternal because it has a beginning but no end. So both areeternal in time. The Hell spreads from minus infinity to zero,the Heaven spreads from zero to plus infinity. In both thecases the span is infinite. When Enlightenment happens toa person, he immediately recognizes the Enlightenment ofJesus or Mohammad also. This is but natural, only like canunderstand the like. Only a cuckoo understands the languageof another cuckoo. This is the meaning when Jesus orMohammad says, “At the Day of Judgement, I will bear yourwitness before the God.” Also, every day is the day ofjudgement. The day one’s eyes meet the eyes of God it isQayamat for him or her. Those who can look in His eyes willattain to the Eternal Heaven and those who cannot look intoHis eyes continue in their eternal Hell. Enlightenment isbeyond time and space, so we can say that it happenssimultaneously to everybody. Because time is not there, sothere is no meaning of before and after in the state ofEnlightenment. Even if two persons do not awake at thesame hour from their dreams of being beggars, they cease tobe beggars simultaneously because in no interval of timethey have really been begging. A prince in excile has alwaysbeen a prince, the sooner he remembers it, the better it is.Enlightenment once happened remains for ever and the literalmeaning of Qayamat is ‘That which remains for ever’ or the‘everlasting state of being.’

So, Qayamat is a great parable but not a historical eventbecause it cannot happen in time. The books of Holy Bibleand Holy Koran have narrated it as a metaphor so that onlythe wise can understand the meaning. Ignorant people cannotcheat and assume to be philosophers. It is done to expose allkind of hypocrisy. Jesus was born twice and Mohammadwas born twice, this is obvious from the parable of the‘Judgement Day’. Not only this, Bible, just like Hindusscriptures, mentions two kinds of Enlightenment—‘The Firstraising of the Dead’ and ‘The Second raising of the Dead’.

Now, we come to the greatness of people like Buddha

Page 9: Paradise Never Lost

22 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 23

and Osho. According to Osho, doubt, discovery and self-transformation is the only obvious way. Doubt is natural, ifwe suppress it we can create a belief only; we cannot attainto Faith because faith is something deeper. Osho calls hissystem as Dhyanyoga. Love, Prayer and Faith are states ofmind, we cannot impose them from the outside. Neither wecan practice to be loving or prayerful or faithful. A heartspontaneously full of love, of gratitude and of bliss towardsexistence in all circumstances is a rare phenomenon. Themind interferes with the heart because the world is too muchwith us. Although prayerfulness is a higher state of mind,everyone cannot be prayerful and everyone cannot be lovingand nothing can be done about it directly. If we do not havefaith, we do not have it and no hypocrisy can help. So whatto do? Everyone has to begin with meditation. Eithermeditation succeeds or it fails. If meditation succeeds onebecomes Enlightened as it happened with Mahavira. If themeditation fails we are thrown to a state of utter helplessness.This happened with Gautam Buddha. He had understoodthe futility of the world by going deep into it. He understoodthe futility of his renunciation also because all the methodsand all the disciplines had failed. In this egoless state ofmind Buddha became enlightened. We can understand thewhole happening. This explains to us also Buddha’s emphasison desirelessness. In the state of utter helplessness all desiresdropped. With the dropping of all desires all the futuredropped; all the past had already dropped because Buddhahad renounced out of maturity not out of ritual. So all pastbecame irrelevant and all the future became irrelevant.Buddha was thrown into timelessness. This timelessness isour centre and knowing this centre is Enlightenment. Comingback from the periphery to our centre is enlightenment. It isreturning to the source. Desirelessness is enlightenment.The desire to become enlightened is the last barrier, Nirvanais the last nightmare. Desires create hope and hope createstime. Time belongs to the periphery and timelessness to thecentre. So with dropping of all the desires the time also dropsand suddenly we are at the centre. So Osho has been rightto say that one hundred percent must begin with meditationbut ninetynine percent of them will reach throughegolessness. Being egoless is being prayerful. Withoutmeditation a few can attain to prayer and so meditation is

the only way to begin with. Nobody can begin with prayer.Either we are prayerful or we are not prayerful and nothingcan be done about it. But we cannot stand still forever andso we have to begin with meditation the moment weunderstood the futility of worldly desires.

In fact, meditation is never without effect. It invariablyleads a seeker to a state of mind which is relaxed, authentic,innocent, loving and grateful. Through catharsis and deepmeditation we always attain to a second childhood and theKingdom of God does not seem to be irrelevant. To a meditatorbliss becomes spontaneous and contentedness becomes thevery nature. Once we achieve this innocence of mind we canbecome receptive to some Enlightened Being too. ThisEnlightened eing can be God himself or some angel or someEnlightened Master. This receptivity towards an Enlightenedsource makes one’s transformation spontaneous. Thisreceptivity is prayerfulness. Invisible hands can support usand much energy can flow. Before this innocent and authenticstate of mind this receptivity is not possible. So what I wantto insist is that meditation can make us a medium also andour iron starts becoming gold from this touch. Even fullyenlightened persons can accept to become mediums becausethe human form has its own limitations.

So, even people like Jesus and Mohammad have acceptedto become mediums. There are indications that Jesus was amedium for the Holy Ghost and Mohammad was a mediumfor angel Gabriel. The second Christ is yet to come and hewill become a medium for angel Michael. Our masters ofthis life and past lives can render much help once our hearthas become unburdened and open to the existence. And thiscan happen only through meditation. Once our fourth, fifthand sixth chakras have opened, much help can flow andinvisible hands can take care of us. With the opening of theseventh chakra we begin to receive the Grace of God whichis the ultimate energy because God has no forms and nolimitations. But in each case through meditation we have toreach a particular state of well-being and of spontaneity.

The Indian seers have said that human beings sufferfrom six kinds of perversions—those of lust, anger, vanity,greed, prejudice and jealousy. If we can get over these, thegrace of God can become available to us. This grace energyTulsidas has called ‘Ram Ras Barase’. So with the help of

Page 10: Paradise Never Lost

24 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 25

Yoga and methods of meditation we have to work upon atleast from the first to the fourth centres, only then prayercan be meaningful. Before this, prayer is just a ritual and itcan lead nowhere. In fact, prayer is not an act but it is astate of being. This is another matter that some people areborn prepared through their past lives. So the path of love isnot relevant to each and every human being. We have to gothrough much catharsis and through much meditation beforewe can become available to bliss or prayerfulness. A man ofprayer simply wonders why others cannot pray. Why everyonedoes not get his prayers heard. We know that everyone cannotbecome a poet, or a musician or an artist, in the same mannereveryone cannot become a devotee. Talents are inborn thatis acquired in the past lives and similar is the case withprayerfulness. Everyone is not born a Nanak Saheb or aRamakrishna because these people come prepared throughtheir past lives. For others, these people are no less thanmiracle. Exceptions only prove the rule and so everyone hasto begin with meditation. Either the meditation will take careof us if we belong to the first type or our meditation will leadus to prayer if we belong to the second type. For some peopleboth meditation and prayerfulness will occur simultaneously.In fact, prayer has nothing to do with rituals. It is irrelevantif one goes to a temple or to a mosque or to a church ornowhere. Rituals cannot help and rituals cannot harm.Formalities are formalities and hypocrites are not entertainedin the Kingdom of God.

With the opening of our fourth, fifth and sixth chakraswe may become connected to some Enlightened Beings andprayer may follow. With the opening of the seventh chakrawe become connected with God himself and the Grace ofGod has to follow. The Grace of God is the purest form ofdivine energy; Hindus and Sikhs represent it symbolicallyas ‘Prasad’. Once our Seventh Chakra opens, the wholeexistence becomes a temple. Sufis call it ‘noor-e-illahi’ orthe light of Allah. It is reported that nobody could look in theface of Mohammad or in the eyes of Vaheguru. The seventhchakra has immense possibilities, it is said to be a ‘LotusWith Thosand Petals’ just to approximate a comparison. Whenthe Seventh Chakra has opened in its fullness, we areabsolutely enlightened. All boundaries disappear, the waterinside the pitcher becomes one with the water outside as

Kabira has put it.One more point we need to discuss here. Prayerfulness

is a state of mind, it is not important to whom the prayer isdirected. The prayers may be directed to a master, toBhagwan Vishnu, to God–the Father or to Allah or to theExistence itself. One is prayerful if one is unconditionally in aloving state of mind towards the whole existence. That is why,Jesus had said, “Love is God” and also he had said, “I giveyou but one commandment–love God with all your strengthand with all your might”. Mohammad too, is great becausehe refuses to create any fairy tales around Allah. His Allah isthe most abstract form of a divine being. It is neither likeBhagwan Vishnu nor like God–the Father, Allah has no wives,no sons and no relatives close or distant. He never takes abirth on the Earth. He never descends to the Earth,howsoever, great the emergency may be. Only the Devil hasto come to the Earth time and again. Allah is both presentand absent. He is like both the Saguna Brahma and theNirguna Brahma of Hindus.

Here, it is interesting to note that whenever a seekerhappens to surrender to an Enlightened Being, histransformation can happen without any effort on his part.This happened to J.Krishnamurty, his masters had beenworking upon him. Once the seeker opens his heart, themaster or any other Enlightened Source whatsoever can helpa lot. That is why, the disciples have praised their mastersso much. The disciples have said, “The master is Brahma,the master is Vishnu and the master is the Lord Shiv himself.The master is the ultimate reality visible to the eyes. That iswhy, I bow down to the master.”

Hindus believe in numberless enlightened persons.Christianity and Islam speak of many angels which are abovemankind. These are more divine even than Jesus orMohammad, naturally they believe them to be enlightened.To Mohammad Gabriel is a great help. To Christianity bothMichaelangelo and Gabriel are important and to the SufisKhizra is the angel which guides every seeker on the path.

Sufis have gone even to the extent of saying that Khuda(God), Khudi (Self) and Khudai (creation) are one and thesame reality. Even in the Koran it is written that Allah isboth the observer and the observed. This reminds us of J.Krishnamurty’s famous statement ‘The observer becomes the

Page 11: Paradise Never Lost

26 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 27

observed’. To the Hindus every enlightened master is of thesame caliber as the Prophet Mohammad. When anEnlightened Master becomes fully awakened and is liberated,his vision is broadened and he becomes as wise as an angellike Michael or Gabriel. But all angels are forms of God, only‘Nirguna Brahma’ has no form. The ‘Nirguna Brahma’ or‘The Param-brahma’ corresponds to the Mohammadan Allah.Mohammad has said we need to bow down only to Allah.This shows not only his wisdom but also his self-denial. Thisalso shows how much he had been against any possibility ofhypocrisy. In all other traditions we come across so manysaints who want to assert themselves. Mohammad said itwas a blasphemy to bow down to any such a hypocrite. Wemust learn from everyone who is wise but we must bow downonly to Allah. This was very wise on his part because everynew tradition begins like a revolution but ends up like asuperstition. Soon the hypocrites occupy the places whichlie vacant because the wise men have gone with the winds.

There are two very concrete reasons for which thehumanity should always feel indebted towards Osho too.First, because Osho has explained very dilligently and verysuccessfully that all the enlightened persons have had thesame experience but their expressions have been different,in as much as different religions have used different parables,terms and symbols for the same experience. The secondreason for which we must feel grateful towards Osho in histeaching that enlightenment has a beginning but it has noend. Even after leaving the human form the consciousnessof an Enlightened Being goes on evolving. First of all, thereis self-realisation, we come to know ourselves asconsciousness which is without the framework of space andtime; then at the second stage consciousness becomes cosmicthat is we see the same consciousness pervading everywherein every creature. With this second realization we becomeone with the whole existence, such a person has been calleda Brahmin. A self-realised person is a dwij (twice born) butnot a Brahmin. Nirvana is the ultimate stage with no identityleft behind but nobody can describe this experience. God isinformal and He is at the highest point of this hierarchy.Patanjali calls God the original master or the master of allmasters. So there are three stages-self, Brahma andParambrahma. God is the Parambrahma and so is the Allah.

Not only the creation is evolving but along with it the God isevolving too. Matter is physical energy and Mind ispsychological energy but consciousness transcends everyform of energy because it is the source of all kinds of energywhatsoever. According to Genesis this original source is theGod.

In the beginning there are only two beings—the God andthe Devil. The God who was called Khuda and the Devil whowas called Nakhuda. God represented Faith and Devilrepresented Doubt and there were only two principles. TheDevil means divine and the Devil is the God in disguise. Infact, he was blessing in disguise. The Forbidden Treesymbolizes meditation, Science, Technology and HumanEnterprise etc. The Upanishadic term for it has been ‘Avidya’.God symbolizes Faith and the Upanishadic term for thisprinciple is ‘Vidya’. Upanishads have asserted that there areonly two priniciples—Vidya and Avidya and both areindispensable for happiness, to become complete. We all knowthat Science and Faith are both indispensable for thehumanity. The problem is that Science and Faith each claimsto be more intrinsic than each other and likewise meditationand devotion each claims to be more effective than each other.The War of Armageddon is the war between these twoprinciples. As a matter of fact, this war cannot have abeginning and this war cannot have an end. But we mustnot forget the God and the Devil have been at ease with eachother and will continue to be so forever. They never fight butallow their angels and christs to have a tournament. It is agreat fun. Anyway, each of them has a right to the Paradiseand the Paradise is Never Lost. This is another matter thatsometimes the angels of the Lord become dominating andsometimes the angels of the Devil become dominating but itmakes no difference to the Paradise.

Some intellectuals think that ‘Jehad’ or ‘The War ofArmageddon’ is a war outside. These people are mistakenbecause it is a kind of spiritual war only. This spiritual warhas to continue from the beginning to the end becauseotherwise is not possible. Sometimes the angels of the Christwill seem to dominate and sometimes the angels of the Devilwill seem to make a score. But it is a very friendly contestand it has to do nothing with the bombs and the missiles.Nobody has a right to defame the Bible or the Kalamepak

Page 12: Paradise Never Lost

28 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 29

howsoever a warmonger he may be. Jesus and Mohammadbelong to whole of the mankind and no one has a right toposses them. But spreading of the misunderstanding of theholy books can prove very dangerous too. There is a dangerthat the Islamic extremists can consider the Christian nationsas the armies of the Devil and the vice-versa and this canresult in an onset of the Third World War. I am here toadvocate Jesus, Mohammad and Saint John because Iunderstand them and it becomes my sacred duty to spreadthe truth about them. Only enlightened people can have aright to challenge my authority and the authority of Osho inthis matter but they will find no purpose for it. All those whoknow have always been on the same side and all those whoare ignorant should beware to interfere with them. Even ifthe wise people contest between them, the contest is to helpthe mankind but not to harm it. So beware and repent lestthe day of great turmoil should take hold of us. Amen!

The Contemporary Background

Osho began to preach towards the last part of thetwentieth century. Among his predecessors two persons havebeen important—Vivekanand and J. Krishnamurty. The styleof J. Krishnamurty is untraditional and it forms a categoryby itself. J. Krishnamurty does not acknowledge any of thetraditions, it may be Hinduism or Christianity or Islam. Hisexpression is more like the western philosophers than likethe spiritual preachers. Between Vivekanand and Oshoalmost one century has elapsed and the human knowhowhas changed tremendously since then. Osho had to preachin a scientific, political, economic and cultural environmentwhich was very much different from the environment in whichthe mystics before him had happened. For example, thecontemporary scene has been different from the times ofKrishna, Buddha, Jesus or Mohammad. Osho is right to saythat although every seer has the same experience but hisexpression differs. In brief, in this chapter we will discussthose major influences which Osho had to assimilate whileexpressing himself. These influences include very prominentsystems of our times.

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

First of all, we take Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. Theevolutionists claim that the human body has evolved from aunicellar creature amoeba through a process of arduousrevolution. He is not one whom God has created in his ownimage or one who is to resemble the holy angels; he has noelement of divinity in him. At the most now he can be said tobe a bridge between the animals and the angels, a bridgebetween the Earth and the Heaven but deeply rooted for allpractical purposes into the Earth. Man is evolved from animaland also a part of the animal kingdom.

Medical Science, too, seems to support this theory. Thesame drugs are applied to the human system as are applicableto other animals of the Mammal Family. In fact, we administerour new productions first of all to animals like rats, rabbits,monkeys etc. and only when the results are favourable weapply them on the human volunteers. Except for the

Page 13: Paradise Never Lost

30 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 31

magnitude the effect is the same. So no intelligent personcan ridicule the theory of evolution today. It seems to havean element of truth in it. Anyway, it is popularly accepted bythe modern man. Now it seems that man has not come toconquer the Nature but he has come only to share its gifts,to the extent that the disturbance in ecological balance canresult in absolute disappearance of the mankind itself fromthe surface of the Earth.

It has many practical implications to a spiritual seeker.For example, the concept of celibacy has become a matter ofridicule. The Medical Science has established now that thesemen can have no outlet except the sexual one. It cannotbe channelized to follow some alternative route in the body,all channelization is impossible. Also, the formation of semenis a biological happening and it is beyond the scope of HumanWill. The formation and secretion of semen in a grown upman is as natural as menstruation in a woman. In fact, boththese phenomena are counterparts of each other. Howsoeverdivine a man may be, he cannot withhold his sexual outletsas a woman can not stop her process of menstruation. Oneprocess pertains to the sperm and the other pertains to theovum. Even ascetics like Buddha and Mahavira are notsupposed to have done it. So all those who claim to becelibates are obviously hypocrites. All celibacy is absolutelyout of question.

Similarly, food and sleep also are essential needs for thebody. One who practices too long fasting goes into cerebralcomma before he dies. One who plays loose and fast with hissleep gets his mental processes disturbed. Jains use fastingand Sufis use sleeplessness as a part of their spiritualpractices respectively but one has to be careful using them.One has to be careful also in using methods of meditationlike ‘Tratak’. Body has its own systems and spiritualismcannot be a fight against the body but only against theperversions of mind. Body is not the enemy, only mind isthe barrier. All the practices like Hathayoga are not onlyunnecessary but also damaging too. Kabira has been provedright that a spiritual seeker should live a spontaneous life.

The School of Psychoanalysis

Secondly, Sigmund Freud came up with his school of

Psychoanalysis which later on introduced Psychiatry as abranch of Medical Science. The School of Psychoanalysisestablished very diligently that all suppression of the naturalsexual instinct led only to sexual perversions likeHomosexuality, Lesbianism, Dildos, Kleptomania, overeatingetc. Furthermore it is one of the major causes leading tovarious kinds of neurosis and psychosis both. It may lead toSchizophrenia, to depression, to mania, to phobia, to anxietystates, to insomnia and to many other psychic disorders.The Psychiatry has established also that the spouses wholive an unhappy married life and the children of such parentsare very much prone to mental sickness. Marriage is moreoften unsuccessful than it is otherwise and to psychiatristsan unhappy wedlock has become a nightmare.

Is there any alternative to the institution of marriage ornot? Just now there seems to be no alternative. Howeversome revolutionaries like Osho have thought it indispensableto search for an alternative society. The psychiatrists cannotapprove of a forced wedlock because unhappy familyconditions are the greatest factors contributing to mentalsickness. No intelligent society is in a position to force twounknown persons behind a wedlock. The divorce is becomingas easy as possible but people are still away from happiness.In fact, there are certain observations which put a sign ofinterrogation to the institution of marriage itself. By nature,both man and woman are polygamous and it is a matter ofroutine that after a certain time the honeymoon sinks andthe search for a new partner begins and not many can resistthe temptation. The monotony and the monogamy of marriagecan even drive some sensitive people crazy, however it leadsinvariably to a loss of interest in life and a hidden state ofsuppression. In fact, the monogamy is against our geneticcode and all morality imposed by the society proves to beskin deep only. The Western societies which are permissiveare more capable of research, invention, discovery andhardwork compared to the Oriental societies in which taboosare very common. It is a matter of experience that the Westernpeople are more social, more generous and more respectfultowards life than the Eastern people with home sickness.All our morality is seen to lead to gloominess and withdrawalonly.

Now we have to understand Freud’s view about

Page 14: Paradise Never Lost

32 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 33

renunciation also. Freud has opined that man has two kindsof intrinsic desires—the Libido and the Mortido. Libido isthe desire to live and Mortido is the desire to die. Libidodominates in all those people whom we call normal andMortido dominates in most of the people who are mentallysick. Although both these desires are present in every humanbeing simultaneously but one of them is dominant and theother is recessive. It is not abnormal that in the old ageMortido should become the dominant factor or in chroniclesickness it should become dominant. Here we are remindedof the birth story of a character Jarasandha of Mahabharata.We all know the Jain word Nirjara which means decay ofPudgal (matter). Jara is opposite of Nirjara and so it shouldmean attachment to matter. ‘Sandh’ means a tie or a deviceto keep together. So Jarasandha means one who is kepttogether through attachment to matter. According to Freudevery human being is a Jarasandha. Half of his being isborn of Libido and the other half is born of Mortido. Whenboth these halves are put together by attachment we cometo life and when both these halves are torn away we die.These two halves belong to two mothers who are jealous ofeach other and so they are always seen to pull us in oppositedirections. Freud has pointed out that all renunciation meansthat the Mortido has become dominant over the Libido andlikewise all renunciation is an effort towards gradual suicide.

Consequently, the Western Society today is very muchcondemnatory towards any sort of renunciation whatsoever.According to them no one renounces in a normal state ofmind and even great people like Buddha, Mahavira, Gorakhetc. have suffered from the will to die. At some point of timethey have decided that now they should move towards death.So all asceticism and all austerity is unwelcome to a scientificmind these days. That is why, Osho could never insist uponrenunciation and detachment. We all know that Osho hadbeen a student of both Philosophy and Psychology while hewas in the university and that he had a tremendousunderstanding of modern psychology too. This fact has madehim different even from his contemporary mystics like JK.He always used to say he could not afford to be stupid becausehe had been a thoroughly educated person.

Freud has been very much against suppression too.Whatever we deny to ourselves comes back again and again

to our minds and gradually it occupies all the space of minds.If we have only one broken tooth removed from our mouthand all the rest of them intact, our tongue again and againgoes to the place from where this only one missing tooth hasgone. Whatever has been denied becomes most attractive toour minds. I myself have gone through an experiment. Forone month I stopped taking all sugar. I took no sugar evenwhile drinking tea or coffee or milk. After a few days everynight I started dreaming of sweets. Although in India, wehave really delicious sweets but the sweets which began toappear in my dreams, I had never even imagined before.Each night I would find myself standing in a confectioner’sshop and would see sweets of hundreds of varieties of scoresof sizes and of dozens of colours. Sweets and sweets all aroundput in small and large containers would surround me. Butunfortunately before I would begin eating these, my eyeswould open and much dissatisfaction would follow. It seemsthat Freud has been right that suppression cannot helptranscendence. Whatever we suppress is bound to slip intothe unconscious territory of mind and nothing can be doneabout it. Gradually we become obsessed with it rather thanbecoming immune of it. We have to go through an experiencewith thorough awareness whenever required only then wecan think of becoming transcendental to it. No one can attainto peace of mind with a continuous habit of repression.

The Advanced age of Marriage

We have to look at another fact too. The age of marriagehas gone up considerably high in last fifty years or so. Todaywe live in a society which is very competitive and complicated.Before one settles down in life, one finds that the prime ofyouth has already gone. It is only between twenty-five andthirty that a person gets permanent employment and canlook forward to a married life. The days of child marriagehave gone with the winds of changing times. The need forsex arises as early as the age 15-18 and the sexual energy isat its peak between 15 and 30 only after which it movesdownwards. The age of sexual maturity is reached at least10 years before marriage and so it has become very difficultto avoid pre-marital relations. The human biology does notjustify any lessons of chastity and virginity in this context.

Page 15: Paradise Never Lost

34 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 35

Either again the society needs to regress back to the practiceof child marriage as was customary only a few generationback or the society has to allow pre-marital relations. It seemsthat social and economic changes have already closed thepossibility of child-marriage and pre-marital relations arebecoming more and more prevalent. Incest and Prostitutionare not permissible by the contemporary Indian societybecause the Indian society is not a bold and courageoussociety. Osho said he was ahead of time but the society ischanging so fast and so certainly that it seems that he wasonly fifty years ahead of his time.

The Woman’s Liberation

There is still one more trend coming up, the fact ofwomen’s demand for liberation. Only recently women havebecome economically independent. Just now we have reacheda point of cultural advancement when a lonely woman canfeel secure (I am not talking about a comprehensive globalsituation whatsoever). So today some women decide not tomarry and to have a free life. The Government also havemade appropriate changes in law as much as to the effectthat a child is not considered illegitimate if the mother refusesto declare the name of the father. In most of the WesternCountries today a woman need not mention the father’s nameas a legal requirement. There are some other women who domarry but most certainly they decide to defy the sanctity ofthe wedlock. They consider adultery and illegitimatemotherhood as a matter of natural right. It is surprising buttrue that the recent economic independence of women hascaused a real threat to the very institution of marriage. Manhas been economically independent since time immemorialbut man cannot beget children and so his independence hasnever caused a threat to the wedlock. The liberated womanhas become a real threat not only to the institution ofmarriage but also to the proper inheritance of personalproperty. It is the irony of Nature that to ensure hisfatherhood a man has to honour the institution of marriageand the ethics connected with it but to become a mother awoman need not depend on marital ethics. A man can neverbring home another woman’s off-springs but a woman oftenintends to impose another man’s issues upon her husband.

This is obvious cheating because fathers too work hard andsacrifice their earnings for the welfare of children. The Westhas become almost used to it but in India it is a newdevelopment. In a liberated society a man is never certainabout the children. Even the most intelligent and the mostsincere men can remain deprived of the right to begetbiological off-springs. Even a very intelligent person may rearchildren which are idiots and a very virtuous man may rearchildren which are even criminals. Under such circumstanceshas marriage not become only a matter of formality?

When Osho came in touch with the Western peoplearound 1970 he could see the absurdity of the whole situationand expressed his unhappiness. It gave his outlook an anti-marriage tilt. I came across his book ‘The Mustard Seed’which is a series of discourses on Jesus delivered around1970; he has pointed out that all deep relationships aredisappearing and this is a matter of great concern. He hassaid that in the past marriage used to be a deep commitmentbetween a man and a woman but now it is not so. In aliberated society, the husband is nothing more than one ofthe many boyfriends and the wife is nothing more than oneof the many girl friends. It seems that Osho gradually becameattuned with the Western culture but he always used tocondemn the institution of marriage and preach that it wasall against spiritual growth.

The Genetic Engineering

Osho was a master who paid much respect to Science.He could envisage that the approaching age is going to belongto the genetic engineering. Even today we can hear thefootsteps just nearby. Many times cloaning has beenperformed successfully. In a few words Genetic Engineeringmeans that it is possible to have mutation, permutation,combination, transformation, elimination etc. of genes takenfrom different sources and through processing them to havea child with details already prescribed. Now it is possible todecide beforehand all the attributes of a child such as sex,intelligence, aptitude, temperament, height, weight,complexion, colour of hair, colour of eyes etc. Also by makinga positive use of genetic engineering we can get rid of all thegenetic diseases for which the heredity has been responsible.

Page 16: Paradise Never Lost

36 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 37

For this, we have to give up is the conventional insistencethat the sperm should come from the husband and the ovumshould come from the wife. Instead we shall have to usevarious sperm banks and ovum banks to give birth to a newchild.

For example, in the future it will be possible to beget agirl who looks like Aishwarya Roy, plays on sitar like PanditRavi Shankar, writes fictin like Amrita Preetam, be a greatscientist like Einstein, have green eyes like Germans, haveblack hair like Indians, and be tall like Dutch people etc.Genetic Engineering can make all this feasible but for thishappening we will have to deny the right of fatherhood toman and right of motherhood to woman. It may look inhuman and unethical in the beginning but the quality ofproduction is going to become the most important factor inthis competitive world. With the passage of time no couplewill be left in a position to give birth through an ordinaryprocess only because it can pertain to their genetics.

The Life of Spiritual Search

Osho had come to understand other reasons also whichwent against marriage. As a spiritual guide he could seethat Freedom was indispensable for the spiritual growth of aseeker. A mind ridden with responsibilities, anxieties andfuture scheming cannot rest in the present and cannotexperience timelessness. Infact, the ancient masters likePatanjali, Buddha, Mahavira, Shankaracharya, Gorakhnathetc. also understood this necessity for Freedom, that is why,they made celibacy a pre-requisite for initiation. The reasonwas not that they were against sex, the reason was theywere against wastage of time after worldly concerns. Butthese days, after the growth of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution,Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry, Human Anatomy etc. anyinsistence on celibacy has become ridiculous. The discoveryof methods of Family Planning has made it possible even fora spiritual seeker neither to marry nor to suppress the naturalsexual drives. Also, if a seeker is married previously he canavoid too many children. Osho is reported to have said thatthe contraceptive pill was a greater invention even than theinvention of the Atomic Energy. First time in the history ofmankind sex has become delinked from childbirth. Now one

can have sex, as much as one likes without having theresponsibility to bear children. According to Osho, with theadvancement of Science and Technology more and morepeople are going to become fed up with the riches like Buddhaand Mahavira had become and consequently more and morepeople are going to become interested in spiritual quest too.

Now, in brief, I may again describe the factors whichmade a real impact on Osho’s philosophy regarding the Manand Woman relationship. These factors are as the following—Necessity of Freedom for seekers, insistence of modernpsychiatry on non-suppression, anatomical impossibility ofcelibacy, the methods of birth-control, Genetic Engineering,Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, the advancing age of marriage,women’s demand for liberation, the monotonous andsuppressive nature of marriage, growing irresponsiblebehaviour of working women towards children and the oldpeople. Having thorough contemplation of all these factorsOsho had to devise a formula which he did through liberationfrom the bondage of marriage. In his opinion love is enoughto keep a man and a woman together, no legal enforcementis needed.

Osho and his Concept of Freedom

Here one more thing is worth consideration. For Oshofreedom used to be greatest value. Freedom was not a meansbut an end in itself. To Osho, security induces a kind ofspiritual sleep whereas insecurity and living from momentto moment helps the seeker to come out of his spiritualslumber. That is why, Osho invariable preached that weshould live in insecurity. Osho has said even in a battlefieldmany people have attained to self-realisation because theinsecurity had to be greatest there. When it comes to lifeand death no one can afford to remain unaware. So Oshowas in favour of both freedom and insecurity which wouldresult from remaining unmarried. It was his crystal clearunderstanding that only freedom in the beginning could leadto the freedom in the end. What is not present in the seedcannot be expected to sprout and multiply in the tree.

In Osho’s view only freedom could lead to love, meditation,companion, prayer and finally to liberation. Liberation isnothing except absolute freedom and all spiritual search is

Page 17: Paradise Never Lost

38 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 39

essentially a search for freedom. In this way, we can saythat freedom is the ultimate, the absolute and the supermostvalue for a spiritual seeker. Married people usually try toposses each other and so they hinder each other’s growth.No surprise that they come to develop a kind of mutual hatredwhich becomes their second nature. To a husband a wife isnot a person but a commodity to possess and the vice-versa.The institution of marriage reduces a person from a divinebeing to a mere commodity. That’s why, only Radha couldsee the Bhagwan in Krishna but none of his wives could doit. Radha was just a beloved of Krishna and was never marriedto him. But in the temples only Radha and Krishna areworshipped together not any one of his wives because onlyRadha could come spiritually close to Krishna. For the wivesKrishna was just a possession, only for Radha he was divine.Only love can be divine not a right to possess. So nothing isso much against the spiritual growth of a seeker than theimprisonment of a wedlock.

It seems that there are certain guidelines which Oshohas provided for his disciples in particular and not perhapsfor the outside world in general. The younger disciples shouldchange their love-partners as frequently as possible. No oneshould intend to continue with the same partner for morethan a week. A week should be considered enough time toexplore each other. The younger people should try tounderstand more and more persons from the opposite sex.Finally, when they have found a person with whom theirenergy and temperament match, they should try to settledown in life. This stage comes naturally between the ages of35 and 40 round about. By this age, they should start livingin on the basis of love, not on the basis of marriage. Whenthey come to a point of perfect understanding and theybecome certain there will be no need for them to separate,they can choose to have children. But the seekers shouldalways bear in mind that their mission has been meditation,not skin deep pleasures. Each and every disciple, howsoeverbusy, is required to meditate regularly. This was exactly thepattern, Osho’s disciple used to follow in Osho’s communes.The goal of life is meditation without fighting the naturalinstincts of the body.

Here I admit most humbly that I am not a social reformerand also that people like Osho are far ahead from the madding

crowd. Yet the society in which we live is changing too fastrecently. I have been a teacher in Indian universities andthis is my experience that much change has taken place inlast twenty years or so. With the advancing age of marriage,pre-marital relations have become more frequent than beforeand also divorce is not a rare happening recently. We havereached a point in India where marriage is considered amatter of agreement and not a matter of social obligation.All those who considered marriage as a divine ‘Samskara’have proved themselves to be a class of idiots by themselves.They ought to be put into a dustbin or into a museum today.In fact, they have known nothing about the changing factsof life.

We hear much gossip about Genetic Engineering today.Before proceeding further there are certain questions to beraised. The first problem is that every adopting mother andevery adopting father may not feel attachment towards thechild who has been engineered genetically. Even if the lawinterferes the child may have to bear a miserable fate. Asociety has to take much precautions in such matters. Wemust remember too that qualities such as Beauty,Intelligence, Dexterity, Goodness are all comparative. Forexample, if every person is engineered to be beautiful, beautywill loose all the meaning. No society can be without problems,however intelligent all its members may become. In fact, wecannot change the intrinsic nature of life which is dualistic.May be we do not dare to opt against genetic engineering,yet we will have to be very careful and attentive. Childrenare very innocent and very tender and they cannot defendthemselves. Much love, care, devotion and sacrifice is neededon the part of the parents to rear a child. We cannot forgetabout the common psychology while creating a Utopia likethis. Osho was at the peak of human awareness and there isno wonder if he was more Utopian than he was practical. Wemust respect him very much but before all this existencehave become the same Absolute Self for us too, it is prudentto remain thoughtful in practical matters like this.

The Political Scenario

By the year 1960 all the Asian and African countriesexcept South Africa had become independent. Democracy

Page 18: Paradise Never Lost

40 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 41

became the vogue of the day. It was post World-War situationand declarations like the Atlantic Charter exhibited greathonour towards Human Rights, Constitutionalism, the Ruleof Law and the Equality before law. At present, onwards,any expression even in the field of Mysticism does not takethe same form as it did in the past.

The past belonged to Monarchy and Despotism. Thissystem of government influenced also the spiritual expressionof that time. For example, the Jewish God used to rule withan iron rod in his hands. For all practical purposes He was avery angry and revengeful God. He always pleased to send tothe Earth calamities like Famines, Wars, Floods, Slavery,Epidemics etc. He was ever ready to punish his subjects.This seems to have been his only task. The God of Hindustoo used to be a sovereign ruler like Lord Rama and LordKrishna. He used to be an embodiment not only of kindnessbut also of punishment. He would protect the righteous butruin the wrong doers. Anyway, the God of Hindus of thosetimes used to be a symbol for the Supreme Power. The Godof Mohammad has been a Being to fear and to bow downbefore. He has been a superior Being and a category byHimself. Although He has been compassionate and forgivingtoo, but not even in his dreams a Mohammadan dare tocondemn his God, howsoever angry may be the feelingstowards Him. The obvious punishment for any kind ofblasphemy has been the sentence for life. Even greatest ofmystics like Al-zia-ul-Mansoor Shamzad etc. were killed fortheir so called disobedience towards the concept of God.Although Jesus was the son of a mere carpenter comingfrom an ordinary walk of life, his disciples thought it properto depict him as a man of miracles. He was depicted as theonly begotten son of God and his death was described as hisown choice because he wanted to redeem others of their sins,because through his death he wanted to save the world. Muchglory and myth was fabricated around his personality aswas the style of those days. He is reported to have said,“When Abraham was not, I was. I am the beginning and theEnd. I am the first and the last. I am the alpha and theomega. I am the bright morning star. Come, follow me.”

In the past, as we discussed earlier, the image of anenlightened person was portrayed as the image of a kingand a ruler because those were the days of monarchy on

Earth. With the advent of democracy this style of a divinebeing has become outdated. That is why, for last twothousand years there have been no Gods, no incarnations,not even sons or nephews of God. Rama, Krishna and Jesushave been the last of them. For last fourteen hundred years,the God has not even gathered any courage to send even aProphet to the Earth, Mohammad has been the final one.Why is it so? Because the old order changes giving place tonew and all is good with the world. The political systems onthe Earth have changed and none is now superior and noneis now inferior.

Osho and J. Krishnamurty have been the first amongenlightened persons who have claimed no excellency. Theyalways have insisted that they are ordinary persons. Oshohas said it time and again that the only extraordinary thingabout him has been his being extraordinary ordinary. Hehas been the same human flesh and blood but has beenfulfilled in his ordinariness. He never tried to becomeextraordinary but this remaining contented with oneself isthe only extraordinary thing possible. Rajneesh began to callhimself Bhagwan only because today Science too has becomea superstition and out of this superstition people have beenconcluding that all talks about Self and Brama are old anduseless principles. He wanted to create an awareness of theeternal aspects of truth. Jesus has said the same thing thatno one lightens a lamp and puts it under the cot. A lampbelongs generally to the top of the roof. Jesus has also saidto go to the rooftops and shout because people are in sleep.Ignorance is collective and ignorance is united and so all theenlightened forces either from the past or from the presentalso have to unite. We have to use every device to fightignorance today, this device may be Hinduism or Christianityor Islam whatsoever. By all means we have to reveal theTruth. Osho has explained that to him Bhagwan means ‘ablessed one’. It does not mean God-the creator, God-thesustainer or God-the annihilator, that is, it does not meanGod of Bhagwadgeeta. Osho said always that everyone wasa Bhagwan once he had come to realize. It is for first time inthe History of Mankind that an enlightent person behavedhimself like a very lively and playful human being. Oshonever demanded any awe from his followers. He said he wasjust a good friend of theirs. Yet he was a master most

Page 19: Paradise Never Lost

42 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 43

honoured and most beloved by all around him. He had almostthree hundred thousand disciples when he left his body andmost of them were ready even to lay down their lives for hissake. Although Osho always respected everybody’s freedomand asked everybody to respect the freedom above all, hisdisciples nevertheless were very obedient to him.

Krishna said that he was the great and the greatest. Allthe existence emerged from him and all the existence againwould disappear into him. One need to do nothing butworship Krishna and Krishna would serve to each and everydevotee liberation put on a tray of gold. Krishna admittedhimself to be very great but the effect Bhagwadgeeta producedon Indian minds was just the opposite. The Indian womendismissed Krishna as an omnipotent Lord depicted by Geetaand Bhagwat and recreated him as a Playboy of their desire.They took too much liberty with him; they imagined himeven as their romantic lover. Lord Shiva too was considredas one of the original trinity. He was as sovereign a lord asBhagwan Vishnu himself. But, later on his male organbecame more important than even himself and began toappear more frequently in the temples than his own idol. Ina way, only Hindus have dared to make a religion in whicheven making love to God is permitted. Naturally, Hindus didnot create any fanaticism but the Hindus did not consider itnecessary to take the spiritualism seriously also. Veryadvanced philosophies and very celebrated schools ofEnlightenment were reduced just to a formal ritualism. Todaya common Hindu knows nothing of Upanishad, or of Geeta;to him religion is just a routine ritual. This is very derogatory.

Jesus, too, in the manner of Krishna declared that hewas the only son of God and one not born of sin. All otherswere sheep and he was the only shephere to help them. Justlike Krishna he said that people ought only to follow himand all their sins will be forgiven. Every one who follows himwill be saved. People even fixed their chairs besides the throneof God-the Father. Everything was fullproof but thisexpression became a problem even to Jesus himself. TheJews crucified him just to examine his claim on his father.They thought that as he was the only sone of God, so Godwas bound to save this son without whom He would becomechildless. The Jews wanted to see the God free of charge andthis was the easiest trick they could play upon the God. The

Jews wanted to see a miracle happen without any loss butthey got frustrated. Even the disciples of Jesus thought theyneed not take any effort to save Jesus. God would save Jesus.So all except Saint John escaped from the scene ofcrucifiction. Even Saint Peter denied Jesus three times beforethe dawn. Christians say he died on the cross, anyway, theyshould know it better. What is obvious to humanity is thefact that just within a few hundred years when the NewTestament was composed, Christians themselves,nevertheless, crucified the teachings of Jesus and hisunderstanding of life. The Jews could crucify his body onlybut the early Christians crucified his very spirit. They reducedhim to the status of a conjurer performing his street magicevery now and then. Only Saint John in his Gospel has donea little justice to him. Gospel according to Saint John is theonly profound Gospel included in the New Testament. ThisGospel according to Saint Thomas also has been discoveredfrom the dead sea and has a different story to tell. This gospelhas a better description of Jesus and narrates Jesus as agreat master. Everyone is advised to go through Osho’s book‘The Mustard Seed’ which is a series of talks on Gospelaccording to Saint Thomas. The world could not derive muchbenefit from the wisdom of Jesus and all the credit goes tothe over-enthusiastic early Christians. Now-a-days peopleare very likely to say “who cares about the breads and thewines!”

Only Mohammad had been wise in his humbleness. Hedid not allow his followers to consider him a divine being.Instead he provided them with a most abstract divine entityin the form of Allah. That is why, all his followers stood byhim through the thick and the thin, through the life and thedeath and through the peace and the strife too. His hidinghimself behind the Allah protected him from all unnecessarynuisance. All the greatness would belong to Allah and all theordinariness to Mohammad. His devotion to Allah wasunprecedented and was admired by all his fellows and friends.

It is not a wonder that Osho had a very good opinion ofMohammad. He himself was a man like Mohammad as faras humbleness is concerned. He never claimed to be a specialone and a category by himself. He only asserted that everyonewas responsible for his bondage and everyone could comeout of it. Everyone created his own Heaven and his own Hell

Page 20: Paradise Never Lost

44 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 45

around himself. He was no one to save others. Osho said hecould only share his understanding of life, of love, of prayer,of meditation and of benediction with all those who had cometo him. He had come to share not to save.

Osho said it is proper for a disciple to consider his mastersuperior to himself because a disciple has no vision but it isfoolish for a master to consider his disciples as potentiallower beings. He used to say that enlightenment is everyone’schoice and no master can force it upon his disciples. Oshogave a new glory and a new freedom to mankind. Hecondemned no one and tried to awaken everyone. He reallylived the statement of Shankaracharya, “A sleeping Devdattais as much a Devdatta as an awakened one is”. He used tosay that no one is superior and no one is inferior, peoplemay sleep and people may get up.

His mission was Meditation, Prayer and Freedom andhis compassion was overflowing bliss and benediction. Hedid not even expect thanks from those who received his graceand love. His love knew no bounds and he was only toogenerous to allow it. I can state about Osho, but one maxim,‘Never Before Never After’. Amen!

Meditation: The Absolute Freedom

Meditation is being herenow. Meditation is being availableto the present moment. All reality is in the present and allreality is herenow. But man is not herenow, so there is nomeeting between the two. Man is unceasingly engrossed inthought and thoughts have only a psychological reality, notan existential one. All thoughts pertain either to the past orto the future which has not yet come. As long as man isabsorbed in thoughts, he lives in a dreamstuff of his own.That is why, this world is said to be Maya. This createsignorance and ignorance creates anguish and misery. Aninsane person is one who cannot distinguish between hisown dreamstuff and the world outside; his experiences wedescribe as illusion, delusion, hallucination anddisorientation. A person becomes mad when he considershis imagination in the waking state of mind to have objectivereality; this is another matter that in the dreaming state ofmind everyone considers his imagination to be real. Inmadness, the same begins to happen in the waking state ofmind also; a subject cannot distinguish between hisimagination and the objective reality outside. So on the oneextreme there is madness and on the opposite extreme thereis meditation. Meditation is the utter silence of mind whenall the involuntary mental processes such as thought,memory, day-dreaming, apprehension, anxiety, imaginationetc. stop. A normal person is in between the two-madnessand meditation. He is healthier compared to a mad personbut not as healthy as a man of meditation. So this continuousverbalization has to stop only then one can attain to thetruth. Silence of mind is not the truth but it can become asure passage to the ultimate truth. It can become a jumpingboard from where we leap into the truth.

Meditation means to live in timelessness. In fact, thereis no past and there is no future either. Past is the creationof our memory and future is the creation of our imagination.Present is just a bridge between the past and the future. Ifthere is no past and there is no future, there cannot bepresent also. If both the ends supporting a bridge are unreal,the bridge cannot be real. So the time is not an existential

Page 21: Paradise Never Lost

46 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 47

reality but just an apparent reality, that is to say time ispsychological. If all changes cease to occur outside andmental processes cease to be inside, the time disappearsand this is the state of a perfect Yogi in meditation. Thenwhat is about space? We always observe space in connectionwith objects. If all the objects disappear, the space alsodisappears. In deep sleep and dreams the outside objectsalmost disappear from our consciousness and we forget wherewe are sleeping. So, in brief, thoughts create time and objectscreate space. Now again we come to our basic question, whatis meditation? Meditation is an experience in which allthoughts disappear and all objects disappear butconsciousness remains. So, in meditation there cannot beany time and there cannot be any space. Rather meditationis a state of contentless consciousness. A state ofconsciousness tithered to no objects physical or mental isMeditation. In this state of consciousness the observer, theobserved and the observation become one. The mirrorbecomes empty with its quality to reflect intact but there isnothing to be reflected. So meditation is returning to thesource or coming to the centre or self-realisation. Theconsciousness releases itself from the periphery, from thebody and the mind and returns back to the centre. So inmeditation all the objects disappear, both physical andpsychological. There is no furniture of the Heaven and theEarth and no psychological impact of it on the humanconsciousness.

This looks like some philosophy, so let me try to simplifyit. If I talk to someone I am not silent. Suppose I stop talkingto others but begin talking to myself without speaking mythoughts aloud, I am not silent again. This process we callthinking and thinking too is a monologue. It cannot be saidto be silence of mind. In fact, small children cannot evendifferentiate between thinking and speaking. There arechildren who cannot read a book without uttering the wordsoutside and every child when alone talks to himself.Meditation is utter silence; we do not talk to others and wedo not talk to ourselves either. There is no speech and thereis no thought, this is meditation. That is why, in India a seeris said to be a ‘muni’ which means one who has attained to‘maun’ or silence.

Meditation is No Mind. Let us understand it. Mind is a

flux like a flowing stream of water. Continuously we are givingenergy to our thoughts, emotions, memory, dreams,apprehensions etc. as psychological processes. We arecreating them voluntarily and involuntarily continuously.The stream of water which is flowing should be called rivering,similarly the flux of psychological processes we should callminding. If there is no minding, there is peace; as long asthe process of minding continues there is no peace. In fact,peace of mind is a phrase consisting of two contradictoryterms. Either there is peace or there is mindstuff. So ‘absenceof minding’ is a better term. Osho and the Zen monks havecalled it no mind. The state in which all the flux of mindcomes to a stop is the state of No Mind. When Jesus usesthe term ‘Peace of Mind’ he uses it knowingly, because itdoes not mean ‘absence of mind’ but a state of mind in whichthoughts have become less and less. Is it possible to becomea man of No Mind? All the mystics including Osho and J.K.both have replied in the affirmative. In Japan they say—

Sitting silently, doing nothingThe spring comesAnd the grass grows by itself.Japanese call it zazen which is the most powerful method

of meditation according to them. Of course, we do not intendto discuss the methods of meditation here.

Meditation should not be defined as concentration, maybe even people like Patanjali and Vivekanand have done it.The purpose of meditation should be relaxation whereas allconcentration creates tension in us because it involvesattention. Whosoever has encountered truth has encounteredit in a state of absolute relaxation. T ruth comesspontaneously as a leaf falls or a flower opens or a breezeblows but no sound of a footstep is heard. It always comesas a thief in the darkness of the night. The ultimate experiencecan be described as Sat-Chit-Anand that is as a state ofexistence, consciousness and bliss. All attention leads usaway from bliss and so it leads us away from the ultimateexperience too. The whole existence is in a state of perpetualrelaxation except the mind of man. There is no doubt that inthe end extreme attention can also lead to relaxation butthis is not advisable since concentration can sometimes evendrive a person crazy. Every method of meditation can lead towrong results if it is practiced in a wrong manner. So

Page 22: Paradise Never Lost

48 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 49

witnessing is the best method which the Japanese call zazen.Meditation seems to be impossible in the beginning. Some

psychologists agree with David Hume while claiming thatthought is the activity of brain and the absence of thought isnot possible as long as a person is living. But it is not withoutexperience that all enlightened people down the ages havebeen talking about this state of No Mind. It is a matter ofcommon sense that animals and small children are in a stateof almost thoughtlessness, so why cannot a grown-up personregain it? It can be verified through scientific instrumentsalso that an infant is almost in a state of no mind. The societygradually creates in him the flux of images and of suppressedemotions and this suppression creates the process ofinvoluntary minding in the child. Without language nothought is possible and so thinking in words which we callverbalization has to occur at a later stage in a humanoffspring. In the beginning only images can come to the mindof a newly born child. Our system of education, too,strengthens continuous thinking. In fact, the people whomwe call intelligent are people who think too much. That iswhy, Maharshi Raman has defined Meditation as a processof delearning. Now, we come to understand what verbalizationis. When a child, for example, looks at a flower for the firsttime, the child is there, the flower is there, the looking isthere but there are no thoughts to interrupt between andqualify the experience. When a grown up persons looks at aflower, there are many intermediate thoughts coming to hismind. For example he may say to himself—this flowerbeautiful, this flower is pink in colour, this flower has a verysweet fragrance, this flower is very fresh and I must notpluck it etc. This process is called verbalization and it pollutesor distorts the act of looking. We do not look at the flowerdirectly but in the presence of the thoughts which interfere.A meditator has to drop this verbalization happeningcontinuously. One just has to remain aware during the wholeprocess and the process drops by itself. In fact, ourunawareness or inalertness creates this process and we haveto break this habit. We should not remain halfhearted in allthat we do. We have to disallow all the interference whichour similar past experiences create. We do not have to fightwith our thoughts, we have just to come more and more tothe present moment. So the first tip for a meditator is that

he should try to become aware of this process of Verbalisation. In fact, our half heartedness creates verbalization. If we

do not put our total energy into action, some part of thisenergy is used to create verbalization. Verbalization seemsto be a psychological substitute for the lack of attention. Soa very essential tip for a mediator is TOTAL ACTION. Whenwe eat we should put our total energy into the act of eating;when we drink we should put our total psychological energyinto the act of drinking; when we look at a picture we shouldput our total attention into the act of looking. When ourtotal psychological energy is put into action, no energy is leftto create interfering thoughts. Gradually, through attentionwe can break our habit of verbalization because it is we whoallow the energy to go to verbalization. Our efforts to do awaywith verbalization are not without rewards. Whenverbalization stops we come into the present and when wecome into the present, bliss follows spontaneously. In fact,the bliss has always been there. Through nonverbalizationwe can avail it.

A meditator should always avoid suppression. We shouldlearn to express our emotions such as anger, love, hatred,tears, laughter, jealousy etc totally and unreservedly. If wesuppress, the suppressed energy creates in us involuntarymental processes. It is not advisable to throw our emotionson other people because it can create a chain reaction. Butwe can express our emotions totally behind a closed door inour aloneness or in a forest where there is nobody around.We do not call a person wise who does not clean his houseregularly and does not throw the garbage outside for thefear of public opinion. The same is true of our emotions. Themore we suppress our emotions, the more perverted andtension-ridden we become. A meditator should not aim atbecoming a serous-looking gentleman. All seriousness isdisease, let it be cast into golden letters. A wise man shouldalways behave in a childlike manner.

We all have got some experiences which have a taste ofmeditation in them. These experiences can help us tounderstand what meditation means. Whenever we fall intothe present moment, we feel the blissfulness of meditation.Coming sometimes the food is delicious and we become totallyabsorbed into the act of eating and there is enjoyment.Sometimes a song is very sweet, we become totally engrossed

Page 23: Paradise Never Lost

50 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 51

in singing or listening to it and there is enjoyment. When wemove into sex for the first time with a new partner, we areabsorbed totally into the act and the bliss follows. At least inthe moment of orgasm we all fall to the present moment andthat is why there is so much appeal for sex. The more tensea society becomes, the more sexual it grows. Because sexbecomes the only method to stop the rustle and bustle ofmind.

To some people, Nature too, has a great appeal. Whilethey sit with Nature, the mind is silent for the time being.Wordsworth has reported, ‘Then I cease to be’. This is thestate of utter silence or meditation. When a person, forexample, goes to a beautiful place like Kashmir for the firsttime the natural beauty of the place quietens his thoughtsand he comes to like the place. He becomes totally absorbedwhile looking at the immense beauty. But to the Kashmiriswho live there and have become habitual of the place, theplace looses all the appeal. They need not remain total intheir seeing.

If a person drives too fast, there may be danger awaitingahead and so he cannot afford daydreaming and that is whysome people enjoy fast driving. People who have been verymuch in tension, fast driving can become an obsession onlyfor this reason. To get rid of tension, they may go onincreasing the speed and it may become dangerous. To themountaineers mountaineering may induce a state ofthoughtlessness and so they like it. Whenever the life of aperson is at a stake, the train of thoughts stop and that iswhy to many people dangers and wars have an appeal too.When the life itself becomes surrounded by danger, the energycannot move into the thoughts, the person happens to fallto the centre and sometimes he becomes enlightened too.Akido or Swordfighting is a very good technique for meditationand it is actually suggested in some Zen monasteries inJapan. In brief, Sex, Good Music, Good Food and Dangersare some common experiences known to almost everyoneand similar to meditation.

We can consider meditation from another point of viewtoo. There are three states of mind known to every normalhuman being. Jagriti or the waking state of mind; Swapnaor the dreaming state of mind and Sushupti or the state ofdreamless sleep. In the waking state of mind our

consciousness is primarily attached to the outside objects.For example, we are seeing certain things, we are listeningto certain sounds, we are smelling certain odours, we arefeeling cold etc. In the waking state of mind, ourconsciousness is primarily engaged in perception. Then wefall asleep and start dreaming. In the dreaming state of mindour consciousness is full of images, symbols, emotions,imaginary objects etc. There is always a kind of conceptionin the dreams; primarily our consciousness remains titheredto conception. Then the dreams are gone and we enter deepsleep of which there is no memory. We are not conscious ofthis state of mind. Neither there is perception nor there isconception. Meditation is the fourth state of mind called‘Turiya’. The word Turiya literally means different from thethree. It is like Sushupti with awareness. If one can becomesuddenly aware in the state of dreamless sleep it can becomea glimpse of Samadhi. In Sushupti there are no contentsoutside or inside but there is no memory either. In Samadhitoo all contents disappear but there is memory or awarenessor consciousness there. That is why Jesus said again andagain to his disciples even the night before the crucificationday, “Do not fall asleep, be aware while I am still here”. Thereare no contents of consciousness either in Sushupti or inSamadhi but what makes difference is our awareness.Samadhi is an experience while Sushupti is absence of allexperience. My understanding is that every day in Sushuptiwe fall back to the state of Nigod for a little while. But thiscannot continue too long since we have becometranscendental to this state already. In Sushupti again weregress back to the same state when we are matter, minerals,vegetables, trees etc. In meditation too, we are in the samestate of contentless consciousness but this time we are fullyaware and we become transcendental to the wheel of lifeand death which we call Sansara. When this state becomeseternal we are liberated. There is relaxation either in Nigodor in meditation and between these two ends there is changeand all change brings tension and all change brings time-consciousness. In fact, time-consciousness is the world andtime-consciousness is the anguish so much talked about bythe existentialists. Man is a bridge between Nature and Godand he is always in the becoming and all becoming is anxiety.It seems that in a cycle of daynight we pass through all the

Page 24: Paradise Never Lost

52 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 53

states of consciousness through which we have evolved uptonow. Existence itself is evolving from matter to perfectconsciousness and we, too, are a wave in this stream ofexistence. When meditation becomes permanent, Samadhibecomes spontaneous and the mind does not arise againand again, one becomes enlightened. It is said that a fullyenlightened person can know all the past, all the presentand all the future to come. But we should remember thatenlightenment has a beginning but it does not have an end.However, an enlightened person knows himself as a soulwhich is different from our psychosomatics (body-mind) andis also supposed to know all his past lives too.

How can one attain to Meditation? There are four stagesof meditation – Vaikhari, Madhyama, Pashyanti and Para.Vaikhari and Madhyama pertain to the waking state of mind,Pashyanti to the dreaming state of mind and Para to thedreamless sleep. One has to begin with the waking state ofmind. We must remain total in all our actions; we mustremain in the present while doing all our worldly affairs.That is while we act we have to avoid daydreaming,verbalizing, falling a prey to imagination etc. When we eatwe should become the eating; when we walk we shouldbecome the walking, when we take bath we should becomebathing. All our actions should be performed wholeheartedly,that is to say we should remain mentally present whileperforming all our routine actions. This remaining awareduring all our actions is called the first stage Vaikhari. Oncewe become able to act with awareness, our awareness canwitness our thoughts and emotions also. In this second stageof Madhyama we can see our anger before it actually arisesor we can watch our sex energy before it manifests itself intobodily changes etc. In the third stage gradually our awarenesscan penetrate even to the dreaming state of mind. We aredreaming and then suddenly in the middle of the dream webecome aware of our dreaming and the dreams disappear. Akind of awareness always associates even to the dreamingstate of mind and we can remember all our dreams. Thisthird stage is called Pashyanti. In the fourth stage we becomeaware even in SUSHUPTI or dreamless sleep and it becomesa glimpse of Enlightenment. This fourth stage is known asPara. Beyond these four stages of Meditation is Samadhi.Samadhi is when Meditation becomes effortless and it

becomes a part of our being.In the beginning it is very difficult to become aware

without methods. So one has to begin with the methods.One hour in the morning and one hour in the evening isenough to begin with. Only those methods should be usedwhich have been devised by some Enlightened Master andshould be used under the guidance of those only who havegone through them personally. The traditional methods orthe methods from the remote past cannot help now. Why?The civilization has been changing everyday and our mind isa product of civilization in the main. The pattern of educationalso is changing everyday and so our mindflux is changingtoo. Man is not as relaxed and non-suppressed as he usedto be in the ancient times. Man is very much tense andrepressed today. So the inactive methods do not help now.Chaotic methods are necessary which allow a lot of catharsisuntil we can attain to silence. Our civilization has trained usin such a way that we live more and more in the head andless and less in the heart. We continuously doubt, argueand disbelieve. This is a part of the scientific temper orrationalism without which we cannot persist today.Consequently, methods have become more and morenecessary. Man in the past was spontaneous but moderncivilization has imposed much repression upon him. We haveto suppress almost all our emotions such as anger, sex, tears,laughter etc. If a person, for example, has to suppress angerthis suppressed energy moves to his astral body and itbecomes a complex there. The same is true about all otheremotions too. Either an energy is expressed as such or ittransforms to some other form or it moves into theunconscious. No energy can remain static. Before attainingto the Peace of Mind one has to release all these complexes.That is why, catharsis is needed and also some methods oftransformation become indispensable. To understand themethods of meditation, the reader is advised to keep Osho’sbook – “Meditation: The First and Last Freedom”.

However, one can always spare one or half an hour dailyand sit down with closed eyes. With our eyes closed we shouldwatch our thoughts and emotions without encouraging ordiscouraging them. We should become a witness, that is, weshould watch them as we watch the clouds in the sky or thescenes on a television screen or the unknown people passing

Page 25: Paradise Never Lost

54 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 55

through the street. We should form no judgment of them, nointerest, no commentary, no encouragement, nodiscouragement, no attachment, no contempt etc. That iswhy, Jesus has said, “Judge ye not”. Throughdisinterestedness we stop giving energy to our thoughts andthe thoughts become less and less and we can experiencethe gaps between them. Because our thoughts haveunconscious momentum through life after life, the thoughtscannot disappear all of a sudden. But witnessing them orwatching them without interest leads towards silence of mindsure and steady. The seekers are advised to do one catharticmethod in the morning and one passive in the eveningeveryday. Gradually, we approach the Kingdom of God andsuddenly one day we find ourselves inside it. There is nodoor, there is no knocking and suddenly the Kingdom ofGod is there.

One more thing we have to remember. It is as good totravel hopefully as to reach. Meditation is a bliss from thebeginning to the end because what is not in the seed cannotexist in the tree too. So begin meditation and enjoy it, moreand more. Remember that meditation is witnessing,meditation is awareness, meditation is transformation,meditation is awakening of energy, meditation is relaxationand meditation is centering. Blessed are those who feel thirstyfor they shall drink from the eternal source of life. The pathis not something different from the destination, thedestination is just the last step of the path. We must considermeditation not as a means but as an end in itself. Enjoyingmore and more of it, going deeper and deeper into it, themeditation becomes the Enlightenment. It is not a matter oftime but a matter of intensity. It takes time because we needtime to prepare ourselves to go into the deeper waters.Everyone who wants to meditate is advised to see Osho’sbook ‘Meditation: the first and last freedom’ and to purchasecassettes for methods of meditation. Amen!

Prayer : The Art of Ecstacy

To begin with, we have to understand the basic featuresof Yoga. According to the Science of Yoga we all have sevencentres. The important among these centres are the first,the fourth, the sixth and the seventh centres. These areknown respectively as the sex, the heart, the third eye andthe centre of thousand petal lotus flower. The first centre issaid to be mooladhar which means the basic foundation.This centre connects our being with the Nature or Earthand our legs belong to this centre. Infinite energy lies dormantnear the first centre, we have to awaken this energy andmake it transcendental. The more and more energy we canawaken, to higher and higher centres it can reach. Thisenergy can open all our centres and can make us enlightened.This is the basic principle of Yoga.

We have to awaken the energy at the first centre and notwaste it as it has to move to higher and higher centres. If theenergy starts awakening, in the beginning more energy cango to the sex act but we should continue with our practice. Apoint comes when the sex act cannot dissipate it, so there isno need of repression at all. Finally, this energy can open allour seven centres. With the opening of every centre we gothrough a new kind of transformation and we are never thesame again. All ethics and commandments become our verynature. Finally with the opening of the seventh chakra in itsfullness we become a divine being. The fourth centre or theheart centre is the centre of all negative and positive emotions.All negative emotions come from our animal inheritance andall positive emotions are a matter of evolution. We havesuppressed a lot through life after life and we have muchsuppressed energy at the heart centre. This centre remainsclosed as long as there are repressions in our personality.So Catharsis can help a lot in the opening of our heart centre.Dynamic, Kundalini, The Mystic Rose and No Mind are themost powerful techniques for Catharsis. Once the heartcentre is opened the negative emotions begin to transforminto the positive emotions; for example, hatred is transformedinto love, anger is transformed into compassion, jealousy istransformed into regard etc. With the opening of the third

Page 26: Paradise Never Lost

56 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 57

eye we can encounter a world which is astral and non-physical. The cosmic eye is known as the third eye also.With the use of this eye we can see the aura of a person, theastral body of a person etc. Whenever we fix our eyeballs theenergy starts to move towards the third eye and the vice-versa. With the opening of the Seventh Centre our beinglooses all the boundaries and we experience oneness withthe whole existence. Kabira has described this experienceas, “When the walls of a clay pitcher are broken, the waterwhich is inside it becomes the same as the water of the riveroutside”. This happening is Enlightenment, before this aseeker is just on the path. Once the seventh centre opens,we no more identify ourselves with the Physical Body or withour mind stream. We can to know ourselves as pureconsciousness and remain no more identified with the bodyor the mental processes. This identification we call ego andso Enlightenment is the egolessness.

The circles which have the same centre but differentperipheries are called concentric circles, and man is like manyconcentric circles. The outermost circle pertains to action,the second circle pertains to thought and the third circlepertains to emotion in us. Finally at the centre we are just aconscious substance. Primarily this centre is realized as theAtman (Self). By and by we come to know that this centre isthe centre of the whole cosmos also and as such it can betermed as the Brahma. This is the meaning of theUpanishadic saying that Atman and Brahma are one. Thereis a continuous flow of energy from the centre to the peripherywhich we call the creation or universe and this outflowingenergy is known as the grace of God. This energy isimpersonal, existential and absolute in its nature.

If we understand life more and more we become moreand more humble and our ego starts melting. What happenedto Gautam Siddhartha? All of a sudden, he came across asick person, on old man and a dead one and he understoodthe futility of life and the futility of his own ego too. No wiseman can be an egotist. Sometimes mere experience of lifeproves enough to induce in us a state of mind which is almostegoless. Same happened to Gautam Buddha, he was shakento his roots all of a sudden and all his investment in egodisappeared. Whenever we are egoless the grace energy startscoming to us. This energy can be felt descending from the

seventh centre by every man of awareness. That is why, thereis a meaning in the Sufi saying, “Before a seeker starts movingtowards God, the God has already travelled the half-waytowards him”. Every humble person can receive the Graceand can allow it to transform him. This state of mind isknown as Prayer. In Hindu and Sikh congregations, theydistribute some eatables known as Prasad and this eatablesymbolizes the grace energy. The Muslims too raise theirhands towards the sky or spread their garments as they feelthey are receiving some invisible gift. When Jesus says “Blestare those who are poor at heart, for there shall be the kingdomof God”, he is referring to Prayer. Thus egolessness is prayer.It is a state of mind and it has nothing to do with rituals.Prayer in its purest form has nothing to do with being aHindu or a Mohammadan or a Christian whosoever.

The discipline which deals with the descendence of thisgrace energy is known as Bhakti or devotion. This graceenergy can be used for the transformation of a seeker andthe master can help this transformation in his way. All energyis neutral, we can allow it or we can disallow it, we can putit to a good use or it can go waste. So for a devotee a mastercan be a great help. This showering down of energy can takevarious routes with various people. Someone can begin tosing like Nanaka; someone can begin to dance like Meeraand Chaitanya and someone can begin to compose greatpoetry like Tulsi and Surdas. Anyway, Bhakti is the path ofmusic, dance, poetry, art, aesthetics and beauty. Thedescending energy can open all our centres including theheart centre and the third eye and finally it can reach veryroots of our being. If a mystic on this path can manage toopen in fullness his third eye and his heart centre, he canbecome a great master like Jesus and Nanaka. A mystic canalso attain to liberation even without working on his heartcentre and the third eye but then he cannot help others. Hecan become only a Saint or a Social Reformer. So every masteris a mystic but every mystic is not a master. Great mastersare generally born prepared through their past lives and mostof the times this preparation is accomplished by some mystictradition. John-the Baptist was a seer, when he saw Jesusfor the first time he said, “Here comes the Christ. I can seethe sky open and a white dove descending on him”. Jesuswas an energetic person and his energy was the Grace Energy.

Page 27: Paradise Never Lost

58 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 59

A yogi has to try just the reverse, he tries to take his energyup from the first to the seventh centre. He tries to awakenthe energy which is lying dormant near the sex centre andthen to raise it up upto the seventh centre. A devotee feelshis energy just the other way round, he finds the grace energydescending from the seventh centre to the every roots. Thepath of Yoga is arduous while the path of prayer is that ofreceptivity. A man of prayer has only to learn how to allowthe grace energy to overtake him and how to express itsworking through his being. He has just to learn a let-go anda non-fighting attitude. Generally, no method is necessaryon this path, one has only to allow the energy to work uponhim. In Old Testament prophet Jacob has said, “I wrestledwith God the whole night when he descended on me”. Thisattitude is unwanted and finally even Jacob had to surrenderto God. So a devotee has to learn faith and gratefulness anda surrounding attitude. But he feels more and more blisscoming to him and so surrender becomes easy gradually.Osho used to say if you find yourself more and more blissfuleveryday you are on the right course, blissfulness is thecriterion. Also, Osho used to say that prayer is the expressionof one’s gratitude towards the Existence. This is the meaningof thanksgiving in the Holy Bible. In short, the paths of Yogaand Bhakti are complementary to each other.

Most of the seekers are a mixed type. They can feel both,the energy ascending upwards and the energy descendingdownwards too. My understanding is that everyone mustbegin with meditation. For first one year every seeker mustdo only the chaotic and cathartic meditations like Dynamicand Kundalini. Having done these meditations he should dothe groups like ‘The Mystic Rose’ and ‘The NO MIND’. Afterthis he should go for the silent meditations like NADBRAHMAand VIPASSANA. So we should always begin with meditations.When through meditations we have opened our first, second,third and fourth centres prayer may begin happening. Tosome people it happens and to others who are still enjoyingego-trips it does not happen. We cannot receive energy belowthe fourth or the heart centre. Our heart centre is connectedwith our hands and if the energy descends on the fourthcentre, our palms will automatically be raised towards thesky. Jews, Christians and Muslims have known such peopleand now it has become a part of ritual to them. Some people

do receive energy at the heart centre through their handsraised in prayer. The prayer becomes purer and purer as weproceed to open our fifth, sixth and seventh centres. Myunderstanding is that there are more masters in their astralbodies than the seekers need to have. When we open ourfourth, fifth and sixth centres and much help may follow.We can receive energy from these masters at the fourth, fifthand sixth centres but with the opening of the seventh centrewe become connected with God himself. There is a mentionin the Holy Bible and also in the Koran that the Holy Ghosthad helped Jesus and the Angel Gabriel had helpedMohammed. These are the possibilities at the sixth centre.Perhaps the second Christ will become a medium for theAngel Michael as it is mentioned in the Revelations. Sufishave been talking about Angel Khizra down the ages. Allthese angels are like masters in their astral bodies.

During the ancient times man was simple, straight andunrepressed and prayer was spontaneous and easy. Withthe intellectual growth of mankind and growth of complexitiesin society prayer has become more and more uncommon. Aman whose inner and outer is the same happens to be theman whose lower four centres are open and are in a harmony;only such a man can expect to be prayerful. Hypocrisy,repression and ego are some of the impediments which canprevent us from becoming prayerful. With more and moreintellectual growth all the energy moves towards the third orthe mind centre and there is no opening of the Heart. Assuch prayer has become rather rare in our times.

Today, almost everyone has to begin with meditation only.There should be no wonder that the most ancient religionslike Vedanta and Judaism are both religions of prayer.Upanishads, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Sikkhism allare traditions devoted to PRAYER in some way or the other.But with the growth of civilization religions of Meditationalso had to come up to complement prayer. Patanjali, Buddha,Mahavira, Gorakhnath and Osho will be remembered everfor their insistence on meditation or on some kind ofdiscipline. Here is a Christian story: “Once upon a time therewere three rustic and innocent men. They knew nothingabout prayer, so they devised a very simple prayer mentionednowhere in the scriptures. Their prayer was: ‘We are threeand you are three so have mercy upon us. Of course,

Page 28: Paradise Never Lost

60 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 61

Christianity too, believes in a trinity; God the Father, Godthe Holy Ghost and God the Son and so this prayer worked.Even great miracles followed in the presence of these threeuneducated persons. The news reached the Chief Priest alsoand so he came to see these three wonderful people. As hehad come he thought it proper to teach them the right prayergiven in the scriptures. Soon these persons forgot the rightprayer because they did not know how to write it. The priestwas returning back so they rushed towards the priest andin their hurry they even forgot to take a boat and walked onthe river water. The priest, too, was astonished but heunderstood the real meaning of prayer and took his adviceback”.

A prayer is heard only if it arises from an innocent heart.Mischievous people cannot pray and cunning words are notheard. Prayer is a matter of falling in synchronization withan Enlightened Being and this need a sincere and sensitiveheart. Perhaps we are all like iceberg in the ocean of existence,when the ice starts melting oceanic waves begin to touch usand penetrate us. This is prayer and our ego is the onlybarrier. Prayer is an oceanic experience, it is prayer whenour drop begins to feel that it belongs to the ocean. When werealize that all that surrounds us is a cosmos not a chaos, itis a system not an accident, we become relaxed, thisrelaxation is prayer. So a person with a negative attitude oflife cannot pray. It is prayer when one can see a harmony, asynchronization, a system and a beauty all around. So prayeris relaxation and it is on oceanic experience.

Prayer is cosmic orgasm. When two bodies meet andmerge into each other, what follows is a sexual orgasm. It isecstatic but momentary, intense but fleeting; we do have aglimpse of the beyond but this glimpse leaves us very soon.No meeting is permanent at the physical level; but ourphysical body is not the only body. The next three bodies –ethric, astral and mental – consist of energy only and theseare invisible to the eyes. When too physiques meet and mergeinto each other we call it sex; when two egos meet and mergeinto each other, the meeting goes a little deeper and thismeeting we call love. Love is an energy orgasm, it happensat the level of second, third and fourth bodies. That is why,even without feeling a necessity to touch each other loverscan go on sitting together even for an eternity. Even if there

bodies are apart, they feel a kind of meeting and this is themystery of love. Lovers meet at a level deeper than thephysical and their love is no less fulfilling than the actualsexual act. Love is the primary form of mysticism. Keats hasrightly said, “It is better to have loved and lost than not tohave loved at all”. With love the world of mysticism beginsand that is why all our poetry, music, song, dance, art,literature etc are found obsessed with this experience. Mostof the people stop at the level of sex, few experience love andfewer experience prayer.

When the experience of being in love is liberated from aparticular object and it becomes a perpetual state of mind, itbecomes prayer. When this whole existence becomes ourbeloved, our love becomes prayer and this can happen onlythrough a right understanding of life. When our being meetsand dissolves into the whole existence, this meeting becomesprayer and it can endure even forever. This Totality takentogether becomes our beloved; everywhere we can see beautyand we find ourselves in love with it, this is prayer. Everythingis beautiful, good and divine and all this existence is thesame substance, this state of mind is prayer. Upanishadshave called this state of mind upasana or being near thedivine; so upasana is prayer. When there is sublimation ofsex energy, it becomes love and when there is sublimation oflove it becomes prayer. So it is prayer when we realize thiswhole existence as our home and when we realize that weare here to melt and merge into our eternal beloved. Whentwo bodies meet, the meeting can only be transitory becausebodies are not without limits; when two lovers meet, themeeting is followed always by separation because our mindsare everchanging; once this whole existence has become ourbeloved no separation is possible; this eternal meeting isprayer. When we want to merge into the body of a person itis sex, when we want to merge into the being of anotherperson it is love and when we want to merge into the totalexistence it is prayer.

Love of Nature is prayer. We cannot see the divine whichis an invisible principle, but Nature is the outermost layer ofthe divine. One who finds Nature full of inspiration in all itsmoods is a man of prayer. As Wordsworth has put it, “Naturenever did betray the heart which loved her”. When our egostarts disappearing we begin to feel a harmony with Nature;

Page 29: Paradise Never Lost

62 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 63

we begin to fall in a synchrocity, a rapport and a dialoguewith Nature. This being with Nature is prayer. When we beginfloating with a floating cloud; when we begin blooming witha blooming flower; when we begin to feel a dance in ourheart with a singing cuckoo; when we begin to feel colourfulwith a rainbow, we are sure in a state of prayer. Wordsworthwas right to say –

One impulse from a vernal woodMay teach you more of manOf moral evil and of goodThan all the sages can.Being near Nature is being in tune with the divine and it

is prayer. The infinite vastness of Nature instructs us whatman has made of man.

Prayer is the path via positiva. Every one has suppresseda lot of energy at the heart centre. Every civilized person is asuppressed person. This suppression continues life after lifeand much catharsis is needed before we can open our heartcentre and the emancipated energy can move towards thenext chakras. To a devotee or to a man of prayer the GraceEnergy can flow down from the seventh chakra and thisenergy can take the form of music, song, dance, poetry, finearts etc while it works upon the heart centre and opens it.Such a person can become even a great musician like Surdas,a great poet like Tulsidas or a great dancer like ChaitanyaMahaprabhu. All these are the possibilities of the Graceenergy working at the heart centre. Those who are on thepath of prayer generally follow no methods and thisspontaneous overflow has created a lot to aesthetics. Ameditator on the other hand depends on methods to cleanhis heart of suppressions such as dynamic or deep breathingpractices – such people bring nothing to humanity exceptthe silence of mind which of course is the ultimate language.These methods are fast and effective and can open the heartcentre too silently. That is why meditation is known as thepath via negativa whereas prayer is known as the path viapositiva. This is true that many yogis like Patanjali, Buddhaand Mahavira have created great systems of philosophy butall philosophy belongs to the mind centre whereas music,poetry and arts originate from the heart centre. In fact,philosophy pertains only to the thought and has nothing todo with the heart. So it is the state of prayer which contributes

to beauty and it is the perfection of meditation whichcontributes to truth. A poet has commented, “If other greatlaureates admire my poems then it is poetry otherwise it isjust an excuse to remember Radha and Krishna”. We cannotforget however that men of prayer like Surdas, Tulsidas,Kabira, Meera, Nanaka etc have contributed much to makelife rich.

Now, we come to the practices like chanting on rosary ormantras etc. Every enlightened person is connected withthe same grace energy which is absolute, impersonal andinvariant. But every enlightened person has a differentpersonality, a different sequence of past lives, so this absolutegrace energy once being received by a particular enlightenedperson manifests itself into different variations. That is everyenlightened being has a specific energy. The energy of Buddhais not the same as the energy of Krishna and the energy ofRama is not the same as the energy of Mahavira etc. This wecan understand with the help of an examples. Suppose wehave different containers which differ in colour, shape andsize and we lay them open. The rain water which showersdown this container is the same rain water but it becomesdifferent after it occupies the different containers havingdifferent solvables. So the grace energy which is available toevery enlightened person is the same but it undergoestransformation after it has been received. Every enlightenedperson is unique as far as his constitution, karma, sanskaraand the infinite chain of past lives are concerned. So theenergy of every enlightened person is unique and have aunique effect on one who receives it. For example, the windwhich passes through a flute and a clarinet is the same butthe music produced is different. Now, we can ask to ourselveswhat is the meaning of initiation by a particular master?The disciple becomes connected with the master’s energyand the energy can transform the disciples. This is the onlymeaning of initiation. The master’s energy is received at thesixth or at the lower chakras whereas the grace energy isreceived at the seventh chakra and we can received boththese energies simultaneously too. Can a person becomeconnected to a particular master even without meeting himphysically or even after the master has left his physical body?Yes, there are certain methods. Some of these methodsinclude mantra, idol, picture, chanting name etc. When a

Page 30: Paradise Never Lost

64 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 65

seeker chants Rama-Rama or Ali-Ali he becomes connectedto a unique enlightened energy which is different from allother enlightened energies including the grace energy.Different names and mantras generate different energies andthis difference can be perceived if we have opened our thirdeye. For example, the mantra ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’connects a seeker, if he is receptive, to Buddha’s energywhereas the mantra ‘Hari Om Tatsat’ connects us with theVishnu energy and these energies are different. Any personwho meditates can feel the difference which is evident. Ifyou chant the first mantra it becomes difficult to sing anddance but if you chant the second mantra it becomes difficultto sit silently doing nothing. Every mantra has a differenteffect. We should choose only that mantra which suits ourspontaneity. Some mantras will make us tense and somemantra will make us relaxed. We must opt for relaxation butnever for tension. Chanting a wrong mantra can even makea person mad. We cannot fall in tune with every enlightenedbeing. If the recital of a mantra creates restlessness in ourbeing we must stop using it. Then this mantra is not for usand it does not suit our constitution, it does not suit ourown energy at the lower centres. This energy phenomenonhas nothing to do with the religion we are born in. It is agreat science in itself and only an enlightened person canprescribe a right mantra to us. Not that all Hindus can usethe same mantra or all Christians or all Mohammadans.The science is deep and not without dangers. That is why,the mantras sometimes have no meaning at all but only aparticular pattern of sounds. We call such mantras the seedmantras. These mantras are more exact and more effective.For example, the mantra ‘Om tun nun nun’ has no meaningbut it connects us to the Krishna or Shiva energy. Even themantras ‘Om Hari Tatsat’, ‘Hari Om Tatsat’ and ‘Om tunnun nun’ have different effects. The first mantra connectsus to the Nirguna aspect of Brahma, the second mantraconnects us to the Saguna aspect of Brahma and the thirdconnects us to the celebrating aspect of Braham. So themonks should use the first, the worldly people should usethe second, and the artists should use the third mantra.The third mantra is excellent if we want to produce poetry,song, dance and music. Every genuine mantra has a part‘om’ or ‘amen’ in it which pertains to the seventh chakra and

the grace energy and rest of the mantra pertains to the lowercentres.

A sculpture also may represent a particular enlightenedbeing. Sometimes many interesting metaphors have beenused. For example, we take the idol of Lord Ganesh. LordGanesh never looked like his idol, in fact, no one can do it.But there is a story behind this image. Shiva means the‘ultimate welfare’, Trishul means a weapon with threedraggers which represent the three kinds of sufferings –Adhibhautic, Adhidaivic, Adhyatmic mentioned in theUpanishads, and chopping the head means disappearanceof ego. Shiva and Parvati both were enlightened persons.Parvati created a child from the filth of her body. Every humanbeing is just a filth of his mother’s body unless he becomesself-realized. In ignorance everyone identifies himself withthe flesh and bone and so everyone is just filthy. So thedescription means the child was not born enlightened asthe devas were expecting of him; in fact, he was a greatnuisance in his early childhood. Shiva and other gave norecognition to the child. Shiva did not even recognize him ashis atmaz (a part of being). Not even this, the story says LordShiva came holding a Trishul in his hands and chopped thehead of the child. This means that the child had to passthrough all the three kinds of sufferings before he acceptedthe discipline of his father and became enlightened. Finally,the child became enlightened having no head at all not evena physical one; he became so egoless that he was worshippedbefore everyone else. His head was replaced by the head of ababy elephant because elephant was considered the wisestin those days. All this is symbology but Lord Ganesh acceptedthis idol to represent him. Also, there is a more generalmeaning of the story. This whole life is Shiva, the welfarefriend. The three kinds of miseries – the physical, theaccidental, the spiritual make the Trishul. Our headrepresents our ego and chopped head means egolessness.The head of the elephant represents a new kind of wisdom(Pragya). Then this statue becomes a symbol for every humanbeing in ignorance, through transformation, and finally self-realized. But this particular statue has a code behind it andit can be used to become connected to Lord Ganesh onlyand to no other being. In fact, every idol has to be a kind ofcodework.

Page 31: Paradise Never Lost

66 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 67

Similarly Hanumana was an enlightened person but hebelonged to the ‘Vanara’ tribe of aboriginals. In the earlytimes man was very close to Nature and many tribes werenamed after the names of animals such as Vanara (Monkey),Rikhsa (Bear), Naga (Serpent), Kashyapa (Tortoise) etc. ManyBrahmins still use Kashyapa as their family name but theyare not animals, similarly according to my understandingVanaras too were as perfect human beings as the others.But Hanumana is depicted as a monkey and the meaning isjust symbolic. This too is a kind of codework. There is asecond meaning of this symbol also. Our mind is the monkeyand it is a good servant but a very bad master, so Hanumanais depicted as a servant in Rama’s court, Rama being a symbolfor the Absolute Self. But this idol will serve only for a possibleapproach towards Hanuman and towards no one else. Allthe idols in India have been symbolic, these were cast in aparticular way not out of ignorance but to reveal wisdom.When the foreigners came to India they could not understandthe science behind idolatory. Idolatory has been a greatscience with Hindus and idols were used as keys to becomeconnected with enlightened people. So many people haveused mantras and idols as means of prayer too. But we mustremember that every idol is not a key and every temple isnot a living temple. These are just devices like a wireless set,a radio or a remote control etc. These symbols work only ifthe enlightened persons have made commitments throughthem. The statues can look strange because they have strangetruths behind them sometimes.

Christians have used the cross as a symbol and manypeople believe that this symbol used to exist even beforeJesus. Some people believe that it is a distant form of HinduSwastika. Anyway, it works to become connected with theangelic tradition. The form of a symbol is not important,only the commitment behind it is important. Anything canbe used as a device to materialize a particular kind ofcommitment. My understanding is that the earlier Hinduincarnations also were enlightened human beings but theyagreed to have animal symbols such as Matsya (fish), Varah(pig), Kashyapa (tortoise) and Nrisinha (the lion man). Allthese have been spiritual jokes having tremendous meaningbehind them. Rama and Krishna too are symbolic wordsmeaning respectively ‘the omnipresent’ and ‘the centre of

the universe’. Of course, Hindus too have been great in theirmethods of prayer, howsoever, uncivilized they may have beenconsidered by the Western people. The priest in every templewas expected to be a seer, a man of the third eye who couldsee the invisible world. Whenever a worshipper could reallyreceive the grace energy, to confirm this happening, prasadwas given to him. Prasad is the Sanskrit synonymous forthe English word Grace. It was given to those only whoseprayers were heard. To me it is obvious that Western scholarslike Maxmuller could not understand even the alphabets ofHindu religion. But this I intend to discuss in my later book‘Discovery of Indian Thought’ in detail. Only a few chanceremarks are relevant here.

Many of the symbols which we call Yantra, Mantra, andTantra have been genuine devices to provoke enlightenedbeings but little knowledge always has been a dangerousthing. Hindus had devised numerous forms of prayer. Theyused temples, idols, remembrance, chanting, mantra, yantra,tantra, rosary etc to make their prayers heard. Hence inprayer we use certain symbols and devices to becomeconnected with enlightened beings. But this methodology isthe most primary form of prayer and advanced seekers maynot resort to it. Also one thing more should be rememberedhere, just a ritual out of habit cannot bring anytransformation.

So, one must always begin with meditation and allowthe prayer to happen. We must also remember that half-hearted efforts and rituals are good for nothing. A prayer isheard only when it becomes a question of life and death,only if it has an intensity and sincerity of heart. Otherwise itis just ceremonial and brings only prestigiousness. A sincerityof purpose, an intensity of enquiry and a totality of devotionis needed to make a prayer worthwhile. Jesus is right to say,“Love God with all your strength and with all your might”.Nothing should remain reserved in us, only then the prayerfollows. Then all that we do is prayer and all that we don’t dois also prayer. Prayer becomes our very being, we becomeprayerful in our spontaneity. Amen!

Page 32: Paradise Never Lost

68 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 69

What is Mysticism?

Is truth rational? Like all other mystics Osho, too, hasalways said that truth is both rational and irrational. Byirrational we do not mean something contrary to reason orsomething anti-rational but something which is beyond thescope of reason. We mean to say that the ultimate truth issuper-rational, it surpasses the preview of rationality. Reasonalone is not enough. In fact, we can divide truth into twocategories – the practical truth and the absolute truth. Thepractical truth which is within the scope of reason theUpanishads have called ‘Avidya’ or ‘Aparavidya’; while theabsolute truth which transcends reason the Upanishads havedesignated as ‘Vidya’ or ‘Paravidya’. For example, the ‘Isha’Upanishad states –

“Those who concern themselves with Avidya alone enterdarkness but those who devote themselves to Vidya only entera deeper realm of darkness. It is through Avidya that wereach the end of life and it is through Vidya that we attain toeternity. Vidya and Avidya both are indispensable to makelife worthwhile.”

Today we live in an age of scientific temper and all of usare brought up in this manner. Rationalism is a kind ofkeyword today and it is a kind of aspiration we are allsupposed to attain. So our minds are obsessed withrationalism. I need to explain this point in detail.

For this purpose, we have to examine source of knowledgeto begin with. How do we receive knowledge? We can classifyknowledge into four categories –

1. Perception2. Conception3. Aesthetics4. IntuitionFirst of all, we take perception.

1. Perception :-

Perception is the knowledge received through our fivesenses of sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. All thescientific instruments and apparatus are only extension ofour above five senses. The knowledge of Natural Sciences

come under this category. Physics, Chemistry, Biology,Geography, Geology, Medical Science etc. derive theirknowledge primarily and considerably via perception. Tomake this point clear we take some examples –

(a) A prism decomposes the sunlight into a spectrum ofseven colours. (We do not seek any logic)

(b) The time taken by a body falling under gravity throughthe same distance is independent of its mass (Newton’s Lawsof Motion)

(c) 2H2+O

2 = 2H

2O

(d) 2Nacl+H2SO

4 = Na

2SO

4+2HCl

(We cannot explain it logically)(e) Pencillin is an Antibiotics.(f) Calmpose induces sleep.(g) The Sun rises in the East.(h) The Earth has only one Moon.(There is no logic)So we see that perception need not always be logical or

rational. Most of the times perception is perception and it isneither rational nor irrational.

The Validity and Limitations of Perception

Since time eternal man has perceived the sky as blue.Some religions have even talked about more than one skiesone after another. But now the science has established thatthere exists nothing like a sky, it is an empty illusion. It justappears but has no factual reality about it. This is an examplethat what we perceive is not always valid. Everyone of us isfamiliar with the perception of a mirage in a desert. Thereare other examples when perception has misguided themankind invariably. For thousands of years mankind believedits observation that the Earth was the centre of the Universe;the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars all appeared to revolvearound the Earth. All early civilizations had based therecalendars believing this fact. In the West, this astronomicalsystem was called the Ptolemic system. Just a few centuriesback Copernicus came with his new calendar based on thefact that the Sun did not move around the Earth but vice-versa was the ease. I have read Bertolt Brecht’s drama ‘TheLife of Galileo’. When Galileo for the first time advocated

Page 33: Paradise Never Lost

70 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 71

that Copernicus was right, he was ridiculed by the churchauthorities. The Cardinals laughed at him and mocked himand all of them but one who was a Mathematician said,“Please Galileo take hold of us, because the Earth is revolvingtoo fast and we are rolling up and down”. This is of course agenuine perception but we all know today that the Earthhas two kinds of motion, one around its own axis and theother around the sun and none of us has to hold one’s bodyin a place. Scientists have proved that we all are subject toconsiderable Atmospheric Pressure but none of us has everperceived it. This too indicates the limitation of perception.Recently, science has come with a certain assertion that thereis no matter and all the material world around us is just anillusion. In fact, to scientists all the world around us hasdisappeared into nothingness. Matter which had ever beena matter of common experience has become just a dreamstuffas Shakespeare had already suggested.

‘We are such stuffAs dreams are made of and our little lifeIs rounded with a sleep’.In fact, science has come to realize that matter is

condensed form of energy only and energy is the only realitysurrounding us. All that we perceive is energy. Moreover,modern inventions and discoveries in the fields oftelecommunication, television and supercomputers have puta big question mark on the significance of time and space aswe observe them. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and ExtraSensory Perception have further changed our traditionaloutlook about the absolute validity of time and space today.

Perception has its limitations otherwise too. There aremany branches of knowledge which have very little to dowith perception such as Abstract Algebra, Logic, WesternPhilosophy, Music, Telepathy, Clairvoyance etc. I will explainthis rigorously and more exactly when I take up conception,Aesthetics and Intuition.

2. Conception

Conception is the knowledge derived through intellect. Itcomes to us through axioms, categories, a priori ideas,concepts, reasoning, argument, logic etc. We can illustrateconception with the help of a few examples to follow.

(a) Kepler’s LawThe attraction F between two celestial bodies is given by

F = λ M1M

2/d2 where λ is constant M

1 and M

2 are masses

and d is the distance between the bodies. This law was notderived experimentally but only through MathematicalCalculations.

(b) The concepts of Abstract Algebra such as Set, Group,Ring, Module etc.

(c) The concepts of Western Philosophy such asArchetypes, Cave-metaphor, Monad, Pre-existing harmonyetc.

(d) The concepts of Euclidean Geometry such as point,straightline, Parallelism, Infinity etc. For example, we takethe definition of a point –

“The point is an entity which occupies an infinitesimilarlly small space.”

In fact, we can never perceive such a point. Whenever,we locate a point, we construct a circle with a very smallradius. Suppose the space occupied is E, it can have furtherinfinite subdivisions viz,

*That is to say, it always represents a sequence of infinite

concentric circles. The parallel lines are defined to meet atinfinity but this definition is just a Mathematical conclusionbecause it has nothing to do with perception.

(e) The Indeterminate Forms of Mathematics form a kindof conceptual knowledge only. These forms are seven -

*(f) The concepts of Mechanics such as the Velocity at a

point, the acceleration at a point etc. In fact, a moving particlecan never be located exactly at a point because it is alwaysmoving through. At the most we can perceive it in aneighbourhood. Yet we have to assign such definitionswithout which no Physics is possible.

(g) The concepts of Calculus such as Limit, DifferentialCoefficient etc.

Let f(x) = x2-a2/x-a; we say lim f(x) = 2a.But f(x) = 2a anywhere.(f) Einstein’s Formula E = mc2 has not been derived

experimentally.

The knowledge of Natural Sciences is primarily based

Page 34: Paradise Never Lost

72 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 73

upon perception or experimentation whereas the knowledgeof Mathematics and Western Philosophy is exclusivelyconceptual. But there does exist a sure correlation betweenthese two kinds of knowledge. Although, conception hasbrought forth only two disciplines which we call Mathematicsand Western Philosophy but no Science can be possiblewithout them. This is true that the conceptual knowledge isalways rational but it need not have an outside reality. Also,this kind of knowledge too is not without limitations.

Nevertheless, I cannot forget the observation made byDr. N. D. Gautam in this context. He used to say, “This is mymystery why every human mind thinks in exactly the sameway. Why all of us agree to the same axioms, a priori concepts,reasonings, logical systems etc?”

This seems that after all even conceptual knowledge ismysterious. Leibritz, too, must have come across the samequestion when he had to assign the concept of pre-existingharmony. This might have been the reason or otherwise,anyway, we call the philosophies of Descarte, Leibritz andSpinoza Rational Philosophies.

3. Aesthetics

We come to a beginningless question – What is Beauty?We all know the familiar story of Majnu. The king of Majnu’splace felt a great pity for him. he ordered that all the mostbeautiful young women of the kingdom be gathered togetherin Majnu’s presence. Then he asked Majnu to select any ofthese beauty-queens and dismiss Laila from his mind. Whatdid Majnu reply? Majnu said none of them was even dustunto Laila’s feet; to see the beauty of Laila one needs toborrow the eyes of Majnu. A child looks very beautiful to itsparents but it may look just commonplace to others. So whatI want to assert is that neither beauty is perception nor it isan intellectual comprehension. There must be some facultyin us which is different from both, the senses and theintellect, and through which we realize beauty. Even Kanthad to acknowledge this faculty when he gave it the name‘the inner sense’. Wordsworth also has named it ‘the innereye’. This I most humbly dare to call a distinct source ofknowledge and I denominate it as AESTHETICS.

What is true of beauty is true also of Music, Abstract Art

and Poetry. A song may sound very pleasant to one ear butnot so remarkable to another. It reminds us of John Keats –

‘Heard melodies are sweet but those unheardAre sweeter, therefore ye soft pipes play onNot to the sensual ear, but more endearedPipe to the spirit ditties of no tone’A poem may have much appeal to one heart but no appeal

at all to another. I have come across many intellectuals whocannot at all appreciate poetry. The beauty of Nature maybe a benediction to poets like Wordsworth but it may meannothing to a Jain philosopher. A painting of Picaso is worththousands of dollars to his admirers but it may mean nothingto most of us. We cannot bring it home even for free. I havea friend Dr. D. S. Chauhan; when we used to be hostelmateshe told me one day, “Whenever we look at a person we mustsee the abstract beauty in him or her. The face and featuresare not very significant”. There should be no wonder thatthis classfellow of mine became a well-known painter too,and he has been working in the field of abstract art. In fact,all the fine arts have become abstract today in search ofbeauty which transcends perception. Abstract art is thesearch of beauty which our senses and our intellect cannotcomprehend.

So, the statement is meaningful when we say that somepeople possess a particular kind of Aesthetic sense whereasothers do not. What I intend to assert is that aesthetics isnot a matter of perception and more than it is a matter ofconception. Although we have to use both perception andconception in aesthetics, aesthetics is something more,something specific and something transcendental. We canlook back here to the Upanishads. There is a saying inKathopanishad, “Conception is beyond the senses, mind isbeyond the conception, intellect is beyond the mind andconsciousness is far beyond all these”. There is a suggestionhere that we know because we are conscious. In this maximfour faculties of human existence have been mentioned –senses, mind, intellect and consciousness. Let me correlatehere. Perception primarily is concerned with the senses,conception primarily is concerned with the intellectualcomprehension, Aesthetics primarily is concerned with theappeal to mind and intuition happens only to theconsciousness and is the only form of direct knowledge.

Page 35: Paradise Never Lost

74 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 75

Intuition I will take up later on. Here I want to make clearonly this point that mind and intellect are not synonymousin Indian epistemology. Mind contains both heart andintellect, emotion and reason and is even morecomprehensive. In short, the implication here is that weperceive through the senses, conceive through the intellectand have aesthetic knowledge through mind, manas or theinner sense. There is one more implication here that intellectis superior to aesthetics and with this implication I do notagree. More people have reached the ultimate truth throughaesthetics than through the intellect. Aesthetics (manas)pertains to the path of devotion whereas intellect (buddhi)pertains to the path of doubt. The first we call the Angelictradition and the second we call the path of the beast.

There are limitations also of aesthetics. Aesthetics as asource of knowledge is neither universal nor absolute norultimate. Yet it is nevertheless a bonafide source ofknowledge. In search of the ultimate truth we cannot dependon perception or conception or aesthetics or all of these takentogether. We have to look for still another faculty of humanexistence which we call INTUITION.

4. Intuition

First of all, I want to explain what is NOT INTUITION. InMathematics and Philosophy we come across ‘a-prioriconcepts’. Some philosophers like Kant have mistaken theseconcepts for intuition; I dare to say that this is not mymeaning of intuition. This misunderstanding prevails becausethe Western philosophy identifies human consciousness withmind which is not the absolute truth; in another words aWestern philosopher is not aware of any faculty other thanthe psychosomatics and so intuition is confused to meanaxioms which is not the case. As far as consciousness isconcerned all Western philosophers are almost on the sameplatform as of David Hume.

Again, I should make it clear that time and space are notmodes of intuition as Kant has acknowledged them. We neverobserve space without objects and we never observe timewithout change. So time and space are relational conceptsin our minds. This is true that all the objects of ourobservation are in space-time and so we can say that time

and space are part of our essential framework of mind andhence I have no objection to description of these as the basiccategories of mind. Kant seems to be right on this point;time and space may belong to our mental framework ratherthan the existence outside. May be time and space originatefrom the manner we encounter the outside existence andneither of these belongs to the thing in itself. But we mustremember that may be time and space are categories of mindbut not of consciousness. Our consciousness is notcharacterized either by time or by space; it is transcendental,absolute and ultimate. Let me make it clear again that timeand space have nothing to do with INTUITION as I want todefine it.

Intuition is direct knowledge, the knowledge whichhappens without the mediation of senses, mind and intellect.In Indian philosophy we numerate ten outer senses, five ofthem are senses of action and five of them are senses ofknowing. Besides these ten senses mind, intellect and egoare said to be three inner senses. Intuition is the knowledgewhich happens without the mediation of ten outer sensesand three inner senses. Intuition happens when there is notime and where there is no space. Someone asked Jesuswhat will happen in the kingdom of God and Jesus said,“Time shall be there no longer”. Let me say both time andspace disappear in the kingdom of God. The Indian seershave called it ‘Kaivalya’ or “Kewalgyan’ which means literally‘knowledge only’ and this is exactly what I call intuition. Letus understand the implications which follow. The process ofknowledge ordinarily has three aspects. First is knower(gyata); second is known (gyeya) or knowable and third isknowledge (gyan). We can call them respectively observer,observed and observation too. Kaivalya means both knowerand knowable disappear only the knowledge is there in itspurity and spontaneity. The mirror has become empty. Kewalmeans only and Gyan means knowledge, kaivalya is the moreexact word and it means literally aloneness. In this state,the observer disappears, the observed also disappears butthe spontaneity to observe remains. It is innate for ourconsciousness to know or to be aware, this spontaneousuncaused awareness is there; it is pure awareness havingno context; it is absolute and unrelated. The object beforethe mirror has disappeared, the image inside the mirror has

Page 36: Paradise Never Lost

76 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 77

disappeared, the mirror is empty but mirror means an entitywhich reflects. Let us put it in another way. Intuition happenswhen the knower, the known and the knowledge coincide.The knower knows himself directly without the interferenceof senses, mind, intellect, ego, time, space etc. This isintuition, self-realizations, Pratyakhsa and Self-evidentknowing. J. K. has said time and again, ‘the observer becomesthe observed’ and this is what I call intuition. There is notime and no space; neither this nor that and this is intuition.

The Hindus call it Self-knowledge; Jesus calls it ‘Thekingdom of God’; Mohammad calls it Qayamat (eternity) andYogis have called it ‘Savikalpa Samadhi’ (The solution).Anyway, I prefer to call it Self-realization which is to mesynonymous with kaivalya or intuition. This knowledge isabsolute, ultimate, invariable and unchangeable. Becausethere is no time and no space and nothing is known acceptthe knower himself, there cannot be a possibility of doubt.That is why, Indian seers have always said that truth is self-evident and needs no outside proofs. It is there irrespectiveof all evidence, irrespective of all doubt and irrespective ofall relativity. In fact, intuition is the only valid form ofknowledge.

One more point needs to be made clear here. With theadvancement of science we have come across phenomenalike Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Materialization, Transportationetc. All these come under the head ESP (Extra SensoryPerception). Let me add that Extra Sensory Perception is notintuition. Why? We have to understand these phenomenaexactly. Telepathy means distant mind reading. A telepathis a person who can know the thoughts of his subject withoutany obvious communication in between. Researches are beingmade on telepathy in connection with the cosmonauts sentinto remote space and the results are recorded to be positive.Sometimes even the instrumental devices fail but telepathsare more successful. A telepath can read the thoughts of thecosmonauts with almost perfect accuracy. Clairvoyancemeans vision from remote. There are people who can seewhat is happening in places as remote as even thousands ofkilometers. There are certain people who can produce thingsout of thin air; this phenomenon we call Materialization.Perhaps there are people who can transform the cosmicenergy into matter. Also, there may be people who can move

things without applying any obvious external forces to themand this is known as Transportation. These are various formsof ESP and perhaps some more forms too are possible. Thisis not my concern here to consider the validity of these claims.All I want to say is that ESP, even if it is valid, has nothing todo with my concept of intuition because ESP always occurswithin the framework of space-time if it ever does.

There is only one suggestion which I want to advancehere and maybe I am the first one to advance it. Thissuggestion is that matter and mind are not two. Thought isalso a kind of energy like heat, electricity, light, sound etcand this energy we can call psychic energy. Science hasproved that energy and matter are interconvertible and somind and matter are one. In a way thought, too, is materialand so ESP is not much different from conventional forms ofperception which all of us are familiar with. The science ofYoga has ever narrated ESP as “Vibhuti’ or ‘SpecialHappening’ and has advised the seeker not to indulge in itlest he should get lost into wilderness from where only agood sheperd can recover him and this is very rare luck.This is the meaning of the parable of the lost sheep.

So, Intution is direct knowledge without any mediationas it is intrinsic to our consciousness. All mediums are boundto pollute and Kant is right that only through perceptionand conception. We can never know the thing-in-itself. Ifknowledge has to be absolute, Intuition can be the only validsource of knowledge. Sufis have been right that reality(Haquiquat) has a mask on its face and our eyes cannotunveil it and look every now and then. Mysticism beginswith intuition and a mystic has to be a man of intuition. Inshort, perception is concerned primarily with senses;conception is concerned primarily with intellect (buddhi);aesthetics is concerned primarily with appeal to mind (manas)and intuition is concerned intrinsically with ourconsciousness (Atman). The first three are instruments forpractical knowledge (Avidya) whereas the last is inevitableand spontaneous source of the ultimate truth (Vidya). Thefirst three make our lives worth living but the last leads usto the eternal springs of water or to the kingdom of Godwhich may have many mansions but a unique centre whichis our own consciousness.

Page 37: Paradise Never Lost

78 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 79

Heisenberg’s Principle

The ultimate small material form is known as an‘Elemental Particle’ or a quantum. The quantum and energyare interchangeable. Einstein has described it vide theformula E = mc2 where E stands for energy, m for the massshattered and c for the velocity of light. A quantum behavessometimes as a particle and sometimes as a wave and thisbehaviour has to be unpredictable. If we observe a quantumthrough our apparatus, its behaviour is changed as weobserve it. It behaves like both matter and energy changingfrom one form to another in an unpredictable manner. Weshould understand, however, that a quantum is not an atombecause an atom can be broken at least into twenty-foursubparticles. Some scientist even claim that this number ofelemental particles has been observed to be even greater thantwenty-four. However, we define a quantum as the ultimatematerial form beyond which matter ceases to be and becomesenergy.

Mathematical form of Uncertainty

This is my assertion that there is also a Mathematicalcounterpart of Heisenberg’s Principle of Uncertainty. Let usgo into it. There are seven indeterminate forms inMathematics viz.

*Out of these only three * are basic. Through division and

logarithm we can reduce * and *. Further, we can reducealso * which can be said to be the only basic indeterminateform (or alternatively * is only the basic indeterminate form).

(a) The form 1*It occurs in the manner lim *.This form corresponds to the origin of universe. All

universe is one substance manifesting itself in numerousforms and this process is unending. There is a Sutra inUpanishads ‘EKO HIM BAHUSHYAMI’ which means in thebeginning there was only one entity generating itself throughitself in an unending sequence of forms. We can ascribe amathematical model to this Sutra as lim * 1n. Kathopanishadhas described another version of this process. The ‘brahma’is like a seed which we can call a soul or a monad too. Thisseed is broken and a tree spouts from it begetting many

seeds again and the universe is unending series of such trees.To this process also we can give a Mathematical Model. Theuniverse is like a cyclic group generated by 1 or 1n and isdenoted as the follows:-

*According to Mathematics the universe can be neither

finite nor infinite but only indeterminate because 1* is anindeterminate form. That is why the universe is said to beMaya. Also, we know that for *. That is the universe canhave only one substance, all forms which appear to bedifferent are essentially one. This is the Non-Dualism of theIndian philosophy. Mathematically 1, 12, 13, …, 1n, … cannotbe said to be the same (*) and these cannot be said to bedifferent either. This is Non-Dualism.

Hence this Indeterminate form corresponds to theVedantic Hypotheses of Universal Manifestations.

(b) The form *In Mathematics this form occurs as lim (1/x – 1/y)There is a sutra in Ishavashyopanishad corresponding

to this Indeterminate Form. The sutra literally is renderedhere in two parts –

“The non-material formless existence is infinite and thematerial formless existence is also infinite and the infiniteformal emerges from the infinite formless.” (First Part)

This part corresponds to *. The first infinity reprents theformless existence and the second infinity represents theformal existence. This sutra says that it is possible that theformal infinity my emerge from the informal infinity.Mathematically, this means that * is a valid concept. Whatis the remainder? According to Mathematics the remainderis neither zero nor it is infinity but it is indeterminate. Thiscorresponds to the Vedantic Principle that the FormlessBrahma is infinite and the Formal Brahma is also infiniteand the formal emerges from the formless. Also, like canemerge from the like and so there is a non-duality betweenthe formless and the formal. (We can subtract y from x onlyif x and y are one substance).

The second part of the sutra is –“At the time of great dissolution, the Infinite Formal

returns back to the Infinite Formless and the consequent isagain Infinite.”

This corresponds to the sutra * which is true in

Page 38: Paradise Never Lost

80 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 81

Mathematics also.Now to my readers who do not know much about

Mathematics, I want to explain the concept * and the reasonwhy it is ideterminate.

Let N = 1, 2, 3, 4, ….. (Set of natural numbers)Then O(N) = ∞W = {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, . . .} (Set of whole numbers)Then O(W) = ∞Z = {0, ±1, ±2, ±3, . . .} (Set of integers)O(Z) = ∞Now W – N = {0}Z – N = {0, -1, -2, -3, . . .}So, ∞ – ∞ can take arbitrary values, sometimes this and

sometimes that. In fact,∞ = ∞ + x, x = o, 1, 2, 3, etc.∞ can take arbitrary values. Such an entity is said to be

INDETERMINATE.The interpretation of Shankaracharya, however, is not

correct that the Infinite Formal emerges out of the InfiniteFormless and what is left behind is again Infinite. Accordingto Mathematics what is left behind is Indeterminate, notinfinite. This is what we call the concept of Maya.

(c) The form ∞/∞This indeterminate form corresponds to Heisenberg’s

Principle of Uncertainty. We can explain it as the following –The space occupied by the total FORMAL existence or by

the totality of Quanta is infinite and the number of quantais also infinite. So, the space occupied by a single quantumis ∞/∞ and this space is indeterminate, mathematically?What are the implications? The ultimate elemental particleoccupies indeterminate space and so sometimes it behaveslike a particle and sometimes like a wave. By definition itmust be a particle but it cannot remain a particle becausethe space occupied is indeterminate. This indicates that thematter becomes energy in the limiting case. This can be takenas a mathematical proof of the Heisenberg’s Principle ofUncertainty. I leave it to the Nuclear Scientist whether thisproof is rigorous or not.

What are the metaphysical implications of this principleof uncertainty? What is certain is matter and energy andwhat is uncertain is consciousness and freedom. It is believedthat the ultimate particle reacts as we observe it, it changes

its behaviour. So the ultimate reality has freedom andconsequently it is neither matter nor energy butconsciousness; that is to say everything has emerged from aconscious substance. This is what we call Mysticism.

Aristotle’s Dialectic Logic

Aristotle’s Dialectic Logic provides only two categories‘IS’ and ‘IS NOT’ and both these categories are mutuallyexclusive.

Now, we denote ‘It is A’ by the symbol AWe denote ‘It is not A’ by the symbol A*

Then Aristotle’s Logic impliesA ∩ A = Q AUA = U (The universal set)We can state this Dialectic Logic as follows –“Either a thing is A (Asti) or it is not A (Nasti) and these

two categories are exhaustive and mutually exclusive.”Now, we come to our enquiry –“Is quantum a particle?”The answer is that a quantum is a particle and it is not

a particle and it is both and yet unpredictable.A quantum is both A and A*.Also here A ∩ A ≠ Q and A ∪ A ≠ ∪So if we accept the validity of Heisenberg’s Principle, the

Aristotle’s Dialectic Logic fails here in High State EnergyPhysics.

What can we do now?We cannot suffice with only two categories “IS’ and “IS

NOT’. We have to admit a third one which is ‘ISUNPREDICTABLE’ and we have to admit that these categoriesare not mutually exclusive. That is either one of them canhold or two of them can hold together or all the three canhold together.

The Sevenfold Jain Logic

This reminds us of the age old doctrine of Syadvad. Inthis logical system we take three categories ‘IS (Asti)’, ‘ISNOT (Nasti)’ and ‘Unpredictable (Avaktavyam)’ and thesecategories do not exclude one others. The behaviour of aquantum conforms to this logic and it does not conform toAristotle’s logic. We have to acknowledge the validity of thislogic now because Heiserberg’s Principle is an experimental

Page 39: Paradise Never Lost

82 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 83

truth. Also, because Heisenberg’s Principle relates to Nuclearphysics, Syadvad seems to be true not only as a logical systembut also as a metaphysical doctrine.

Now, we ask our question again?“Is Quantum a Particle.”The number of answers is now 3c

1 + 3c

2 + 3c

3 = 7

We get 3c1 statements by choosing only one of the

categories; we get 3c2 statements by choosing two categories

together and we got 3c3 statements by choosing all the three

categories together.So we get seven statements –(1) Syat Asti (somehow it is particle)(2) Syat Nasti (somehow it is not a particle)(3) Syat Avaktavyam (Somehow it is indeterminate)(4) Somehow ‘it is’ and ‘it is not’(5) Somehow ‘it is’ and ‘it is indeterminate’ too(6) Somehow ‘it is not’ and ‘it is indeterminate’(7) Somehow ‘it is’; it is not and it is indeterminate.This is exactly the Sevenfold Jain Logic but the statements

are put in a different order. It seems that the ancient seershad arranged them in an order they thought to be convenient.The ancient system makers have put it according to thefollowing permutation –

(1 2 3 4 5 6 7, 1 2 4 3 5 6 7)

The Concept of Invisible Triangles

It is said that the early Greek philosophers believed thatmathematical concepts, figures and formulas could representthe ultimate nature of existence. I do not want to disagreebecause many interesting things have come to my mind whichcorrelate mathematics and philosophy essentially. First ofall, let me state The Concept of Invisible Triangles as thefollows:-

Statement :- The whole existence consists of invisibletriangles, that is, the reality always has three aspects to it.

To begin with I come to Geometry. An object needs atleast three distinct points to it, only then it becomesconceivable. Let me explain it. Can we conceive a single point?A point, by definition, is an entity which occupies aninfinitesimally small space, say E. Now, this portion of space

can further be divided into an infinite number of subportionssuch as –

*That is to say that every point contains an infinite number

of points in it. we can never depict a single point, wheneverwe depict a point, it comes out to be a circle with a verysmall radius. The radius can both increase and decreaseand yet the point is said to be the same point. So a point isneither concrete nor a stable structure. If we look at a pointthrough a microscope, it will appear as a circular disc whichcan be made to shrink or to expand and my assertion willbecome more evident. So a single point cannot materializeitself. We all know that the Western Philosophy originatesonly from conception as mathematics does. Now, this conceptof a point in Geometry corresponds to the idea of individualself in philosophy. Neither the point occupies any space inthe limiting situation nor the individual self is supposed tobe spatial.

Suppose, we take two points now and join them to get aline segment. This line segment again cannot be concrete.The width of a line segment is negligible (it is not a rod) andso the area of a line segment is zero and it cannot create anyimpression on our senses. Two distinct points only cannotmake an object real because this object will have zero area.Also, a line segment is not a stable structure because it canbe extended towards both the extremes. Its length can bothincrease and decrease so that it is not a definite, stable,conceivable structure. The line segment is the locus of apoint which moves from infinity on one extreme to infinityon the other extreme.

*This is very important. Because this property corresponds

to the concept of time in philosophy. A straight line representstime which has been beginningless in the past and whichwill be unending in the future. If the origin O represents thepresent moment, the left portion may represent the past andthe right portion may represent the future. Also, the linesegment corresponds to the idea that our self is eternal andwe have infinite births. A point which represents the selfmoves from minus infinity to plus infinity and we have beenalways there. No wonder it corresponds to the idea of infinitesequence of births.

Page 40: Paradise Never Lost

84 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 85

*Now, we take three distinct non-collinear points and join

them. This structure is both stable and concrete. It is stablebecause none of the three sides can be extended or decreasedwithout making it another structure. Also, it is conceivable,real and concrete because it has a definite area which canmake an impression upon our senses and our minds. So anobject can materialize itself only if it has at least three distinctpoints to it. Every concrete object can be subdivided intosub-objects and so the universe is reduced ultimately toINVISIBLE TRIANGLES. That is why, we need at least a threedimensional space in which it becomes possible to place theobjects. This discussion is very useful when we come to thenuclear physics or to the High State Energy Physics. Is itnot interesting that actually we all of us live in a space whichis three dimensional?

Now, we come to the Nuclear Physics itself. When wediscovered Atom we thought we had reached the ultimateparticle but soon we discovered it consisted of threesubparticles – Proton, Electron and Neutron. Proton has apositive charge, electron has a negative charge and neutronhas a neutral charge. Some scientists now claim that theyhave succeeded in breaking atom into as many as 24 or 120elemental particles. This seems to be plausible and thisnumber may go even higher. The only fact I want to insist isthat this number will ever be a multiple of three. Why shouldI say this? It is because one-third will have the positive charge;another one-third the negative charge and rest one-third theneutral charge. Three particles will always form a sub-groupand will be discovered having energy connections within thissub-group. In this manner the universe will always be foundto consist of invisible triangles, also because an object,howsoever small, can be materialized only if it has at leastthree distinct non-collinear points to it. My understandingis that the nuclear scientists will discover the universe tolook like a mathematical model because it cannot beotherwise. Howsoever mysterious this may seem but we livein a universe which is designed in such a way that ourconception and our perception have an inevitablecorrespondence to each other.

The Blackhole and The Monad

My understanding is that the scientist has alreadystumbled upon the idea of self without knowing it. May be,the science so far has failed to correlate it. The nuclearscientist finds that matter transforms into energy and energydisappears into nowhere. Conversely, it is observed that fromnowhere the energy comes and it transforms itself intoelemental particles. It is a matter of observation that in highState Energy Physics the law of conservation of energy isnot found to hold. Scientists assume that the energy comesfrom and disappears into a blackhole and maybe exhibitsitself again to form anti-matter. My humble observation isthat a balckhole can neither be a circle or a sphere becauseneither of these is a stable structure. With the change ofenergy strata it will have a tendency either to spread or toshrink. A BLACKHOLE CAN BE STABLE ONLY IF IT HASRADIUS ZERO. Also Leibnitz could not assume that evennature had Monads, but let me assert that every balckholeis a Monad of radius zero and every nucleus contains ablackhole. Why is it that the energy is not conserved? Myhumble suggestion is that it is not conserved because ofMonads present in every nucleus. My understanding is thatit is imperative that we should assign also some degree offreedom and consciousness to Monads, maybe this is notfound to be very obvious.

However, the scientist will never be able to visualize orknow directly a blackhole, for the obvious reason thatblackhole have radius zero and transcend time and space.They are just like the human self, conscious points of zeroradius. It seems that the nuclear scientist has discoveredMonads everywhere and has made an advancement uponLeibnitz philosophy.

There is a scientific hypothesis that the universe isexpanding. This fact, too, approves of my hypothesis thatchange is the rule of existence and every circular or sphericalstructure has a tendency either to expand or to shrink. Onemore thing I shall like to suggest here. The universe will goon expanding upto a particular point of time, then it willbegin to shrink and finally it will disappear to become ablackhole of radius zero. Buddha has said that all that is inspacetime is subject to change, is subject to emergence and

Page 41: Paradise Never Lost

86 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 87

is subject to disappearance also. May it be so! The fatherwho lives in the heaven has decided to build a great fire(perhaps the fire of time) and burn all that ceases to bearfruit. It seems that He is wiser than us and it seems that Heshould know the better. Amen!

The Great Upanishads

Mystics have been very rare. If we look into the history ofmankind we do not find very many of them mentioned.Particularly, outside the East, we have very few spiritualgeniuses such as Moses, Socrates, Zarathustra, Jesus, SaintFrancis, Mohammad, Gurdieff etc. It seems that in India,China and Japan we have known such more people. Yet theirnumber is not very convincing. Why is it so? There is a sayingin Bhagvadgita –

“Among thousands of persons rarely someone seeks thetruth and even among the seekers rarely someone ever attainsto it.”

The Kathopanishad, too, has reported –“Wise is he who can attain to the truth, a wonder is he

who can communate it to others and a miracle is he whocan attain to it through someone who knows.”

So should we content ourselves with the assumption thatmystics have to be few and far between? Osho has a differentstory to tell. He has said that among millions who achieveonly one becomes a part of history because we do notrecognize the enlightenment of a person, we recognize onlythe qualities of leadership in him. For example, the mankindhas remembered Krishna not because of his enlightenmentbut only because of his political genius; the mankind hasremembered Buddha not because of his Nirvana but onlybecause of his great disciplehood; the mankind hasremembered Nanaka not because he was man of truth butbecause of his poetry and his tradition etc. We recognize anenlightened person only if his enlightenment is accompaniedby some other rare worldly endowment and this cannot beusual because the world cannot remain too much with anenlightened person. In fact, this is the very meaning ofenlightenment. So according to Osho countless people havebecome enlightened but very few of them could create reasonsto make them known. For example, Surdas was a great poet,Shankaracharya was a great philosopher; Kabira was greatreformer and Meera was a poetess etc. This is a very rarecombination that enlightenment could appear along withsome very great qualities for fame, for the obvious reason

Page 42: Paradise Never Lost

88 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 89

that meditation makes a person introvert and unconcernedwith the masses. But very rarely such coincidence haveoccurred. For example, Surdas was as great an artist asShakespeare and as much spiritual as the seers ofUpanishads but we cannot expect such accomplishmentsevery now and then; Shankaracharya was not onlyenlightened but also he was as great a philosopher as Kantor Nietszche. But such a meeting of the temporal and theeternal has to be an exception rather than usual. That iswhy, there are so few seers known to the history. Most of themystics seek, attain to and dissolve into silence. Osho, likehis other companies, always used to assure that everyonewould be enlightened one day and it could not be otherwise.Enlightenment is our very nature. Few of us can recognizethe peace of a mystic but most of us recognize only thenuisance which sometimes even a mystic happens to create.

In fact, a spiritual truth is not like a scientific truth.Everyone has to find it for himself. Everyone has to die tobecome resurrected. It is like a flight into the sky, nofootmarks are left behind to be followed. Each time we haveto rediscover the path by ourselves only. Is there any specificpsychology, any specific view of life, any specific conditionsof living, any specific beliefs which may prove helpful towardsenlightenment? For this enquiry we have to go through theimportant schools of enlightenment and we have to examinethe ways of living of those people who have attained. Thismay provide us some suggestive information, although thiscannot lead us to any decisive conclusion. Every person isunique in his constitution, disposition and experience of pastlives and so everyone has to break a fresh ice. It is the way ofthe white cloud and a flight of the alone towards the alone.

Upanishads are the most ancient statements of the seersavailable to humanity. It seems that the age of theUpanishads was the golden period for enlightenment. Thepeople of this era were simple and enlightenment wasconsidered to be spontaneous and inarduous. Theupanishadic seers have not even cared to mention theirnames while creating the spiritual scriptures of the highestorder ever. They were egoless people and considered the truthto be impersonal. They did not consider it proper to intrudetheir personalities while expressing truth which was ultimateand absolute. All the history of mysticism and all the spiritual

traditions which emerged later on have a definite influenceon them of the Upanishadic narrations of truth. As we goalong our query, we will find that all the important traditionssuch as Vedanta, Sankhya, Yoga, Geeta, Buddhism, Jainismand Christianity etc have inherited considerably from theUpanishads. We can like to ask ourselves if there is anythinglike a history of religious expression as mankind began toinhabit various countries and continents all over the earth.All the civilization have been in touch with each other rightfrom the beginning and it is natural that we should have acommon history of thought. It is true that different traditionshave originated from different enlightened persons andexperience. No thought has been the source of these traditionsbut everyone must have learned from his predecessors whilefinding his way with the words. This really seems to be thecase. The Upanishadic expression has definitely madesignificant impact on all the traditions which sprang up inthe course of time. As we proceed along, we shall be able tosee that all the religious have common spirit and commonessence. This should not seem to be amazing because allmankind has been one, all our sufferings and problems havebeen the same and we have shared our experience of lifethroughout the course of history.

The Upanishads not only have been the ancient mostbut also the purest expressions of truth. As the Ganges flowsdown, its place of origin Gangotri, gathers more and moremass, yet it remains the same Ganges. The truth has alwaysremained the same ultimate and absolute, only one needsthe eyes to see it. Or course, right from the beginning wecome across two kinds of systems say Yoga and Bhakti orprayer and meditation or faith and doubt or whatsoever wemay call them. One path we called the Angelic and the otherwe called beastly. We shall understand that the Paradisehas never been lost, sometimes the angles of God haveprevailed and sometimes the angles of Devil have prevailedbut the God and the Devil always have been in perfectharmony. In fact, it has been the some office functioning intwo wings. We can easily discover the Eternal Testament ofconspiracy prevailing between the God and the Devil always.It seems that they are helping each other to play theirindividual parts of the same game, the game meant for theultimate well-being of mankind.

Page 43: Paradise Never Lost

90 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 91

The Upanishads are parts of Vedas and the Vedantaphilosophy. The word Veda literally means awareness andthe word Vedanta means the conclusion of Vedas. Vedasbelong exclusively to the Brahman tradition and so do theUpanishads. In fact, Upanishads are included in the fourVedas at various places.

Upanishads initially have divided people in two Varnasonly – The Brahmans and the Khatriyas. These two varnasare described as the two eyes of the person of ‘Brahma’ whichis the ultimate substance. The word varna literally meanscomplexion or disposition. Brahmans were the people of jnana(self-realization) and Khatriyas were the people of action.Literally, the word Brahman means one who has a perfectknowledge of Brahma whereas Khatriya means the ruler ofa province. Later on due to social, political and economicconditions a new varna vaishya emerged from the Brahmansand another new varna shudra emerged from the Khatriyas.Literally ‘Vaishya’ means ‘of Brahma’ and Shudra means ‘ofsmall mind’ or simply ‘small’. Untouchability was notprevalent in ancient Hindus and shudras were notuntouchables. Vaishyas were Brahmans who had to workfor money and shudras were the Khatriyas who lost in war.Thousands of years after, due to political reasons, someshudras were forced to become the untouchable sections ofHindus. There was no Jatipratha or caste system in thebeginning. This has been a later development.

The reasons for upsurge of two varnas were psychological.There are two types of people, the introvert and the extrovert.The introvert were concerned more with truth and theextrovert were concerned more with action. Brahmans werethe introvert type and Khatriyas were the extrovert type.People of both the types could attain to the truth. The seersfrom the first type were known as Brahma-rishis and theseers from the second type were known as Rajarshis. Forexample Janak and Krishna were both Raja-rishis. It seemsthat in the times of Upanishads none was lower and nonewas higher. The varna was not decided by birth, it was decidedonly by the type of personality.

Upanishads are selections from Vedas and there are asmany as 110 Upanishads or even more but 11 of them arevery important. Basically Vedas are poetic not philosophicalin their style, so we can make selections only from there

where philosophical method has been used. Also, all theVedas are symbolic in their expression and so Upanishadsare selections from only where this symbolism is not allpervading. So the selections have been made in such a waythat even people in the present can comprehend them. Themost important Upanishads are – Ishavasya, Katha, Kena,Prashna, Mundak, Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittariya,Shvetashvatar, Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka. Some ofthese Upanishads I intend to explain in this book also sothat the reader can become familiar with the spiritual climateand the philosophical trend prevalent in those days.

Geeta, too, is called the essence of Upanishads and so isthe case with Brahma-Sutra. Geeta is a part of Mahabharataand Vedvyas has written it, Brahma-Sutra also has beencontributed by the same writer. An alternative name forBrahma-Sutra is Vedant-Sutra and Badarayan is anothername for Vedvyas himself. Anyway Upanishads, Geeta andBrahmasutra all the three taken together are said to be‘Prasthantrayi’ or the ‘progressive-triad. These three formthe essence of Hindu religion and they serve as a bridgebetween Vedas and the six schools of Hindu philosophy viz.Mimansa-Vedanta, Sankhya-Yoga, Nyaya-Vaisheshika. Allthese six systems are said to be theist philosophies in asmuch as these systems accept Vedas as evidence or as thedeclaration of the seers. The Buddhist, the Jain and Charvakaphilosophies do not consider the Vedas as evidence and thesethree are known as atheist systems although the first two ofthem believe in past lives and in liberation (nirvana). Onlythe Charvaka philosophy does not believe in existence of selfafter physical death. So Upanishads form the point ofbeginning, Geeta and Brahmasutra attempt to explain theUpanishads and we get these six systems of Hindu philosophyemerge. All these I will take up in the course of procedure asper the necessity.

The Ishavasya Upanishad

All the Upanishads are non-dualistic in their faith andcontent. The essence is said to be one and it is called Brahma.Although the word Ishwar which means God comes fromIsha, in this Upanishad Isha is synonymous to Brahma onlybecause in the very first shloka Isha is said to be both the

Page 44: Paradise Never Lost

92 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 93

material and the effective cause. Upanishads do not preacha personal God. This confusion should be completely ruledout. The very first shloka states that Isha is the all pervadingreality. Whatever exists in this universe is Brahma andBrahma is the only all pervading reality that exists. In fact,this reality is not very much different from Spinoza’sdescription of substance. The Upanishad begins with theremark that only one essence pervades all the existence andwe should enjoy it with a spirit of renunciation and of devotionto Brahma. This implies we should enjoy all the essentialbeauties, pleasures and gifts but we should not becomeobsessed towards them. The phrase which has become amaxim with the Hindus included in the first shloka means‘enjoy the existence with a spirit of devotion to Brahma andremain unattached’. This is the oriental conception thatattachment brings desires, desires bring bondage, bondageconsolidates ego and ego results in ignorance but we canremain unattached through our devotion to Braham andthrough our love towards all the existence. So while enjoyingthe world we should not remain unaware, we should remaina witness. If we become more and more witnessing we cometo understand that we are not the body and mind and thatwe transcend all the mundane. For non-attachment eitherlove towards the existence is the key or meditativeness isthe key. This maxim instructs us who can enjoy the existence.Non-attachment leads to self-realization, only a self-realizedperson comes home and feels released. This whole existencebecomes his home. Only with such a relaxed state of mindand such a sensitivity we can enjoy the gifts of existence. Tosummerise one can attain to non-attachment either throughdevotion or through meditation. This non-attachment leadsto self-realization and only a self-realized person can relishthe beauties of existence. Only one who can remainunattached is capable of real enjoyment. Real enjoymentcomes through realization and relaxation. Also, the shlokasays that wealth is a fleeting phenomenon, it belongs only tothe existence and it is not wise to puff our ego throughrichness. We must avoid to be excessively greedy. In fact,neither the greedy nor the fearful can enjoy the life. Theirown desires and apprehensions enslave them and all thisexistence becomes an imprisonment to them. This seems tobe contradictory but this is truth that only enlightened people

can enjoy even the physical pleasures. Only those who areblissful can taste the pleasures too. It is more important toknow the art of enjoyment than to collect the worldly richesand become crushed under their burden. There is one moreimplication to which this maxim indicates. A wise man isone who loves all other human beings and if a person isreally wise and rich he begins to share his wealth with others.We all know that Mohammad has been a very good illustrationof this principle. The Koran preaches that it is good for everybeliever that he should distribute a portion of his earningsas a matter of devotion to God. Through wisdom and richnesseveryone learns to share. This was Gandhi’s basicunderstanding behind his principle of trusteeship. A man oflove does not intend to possess but becomes a trustee forthe wealth which belongs to the whole universe. Osho usedto say again and again he only used everything but possessednothing. The day money becomes a servant not a master wedo not hesitate to share it. Only as long as money remainsthe master we remain enslaved.

Upanishads do not teach escape from life. One shouldlive in this world and one should perform all his proper duties.The seers of Upanishads have had the opinion that our bodyitself is a miniature universe and as long as we are embodiedwe cannot escape from the world. One must perform all theright actions without fear and greed and wish to live for ahundred years and must always bear in mind that dutiescreate no bondage. Right action does not pause a barrier inthe way to liberation.

We have to understand here the concept of NISHKAMKARMA. Nishkam Karma is the right action and NishkamKarma is the unreserved action too. In a given situation therecan be only one right course of action if we keep in view allthe universal obligations. We live in a universe and we aresubject to all the universal forces acting upon us. These forcescan have only one resultant effect, if we act in accordancewith this resultant we are in a tune with the existentialharmony and the universal spirit. If we act disharmoniouslyand do not obey the universal spirit we cannot fulfill theuniversal purpose. If we can see the right course of actionand we act accordingly, this is Nishkam Karma. Now, wehave to understand what are the reasons which make us goastray from the right course of action. If we do not become a

Page 45: Paradise Never Lost

94 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 95

victim to ego and can avoid perversions like Lust, Anger,Vanity, Greed, Prejudice and Jealously we can minimize thepossibilities for the wrong action. We all know that ego is thegreatest problem which prevents us from doing the needful.Lust, Anger, Vanity, Greed, Prejudice and Jealousy are saidto be the six perversions of human psyche and ego or vanityis the supermost of them. If we are guided by ego and anyone of these perversions our action cannot be the right action.Nishkam Karma is possible only if we remain aware that weare not misguided by any of the perversions. We mustremember that whenever we go against the stream our egois strengthened and whenever we float with the stream ourego is relaxed. An egotist person always wants to break thelaws and a man of understanding always wants to follow thelaws. While performing Nishkam Karma we are only amedium for the universal forces, that is to say, our personalprejudices should not create any barrier in the way of rightaction. If an officer behaves in accordance with rules, rulesare the doer and we call it the rule of law but whenever hebreaks the rules he becomes the doer. So ego is the greatesttemptation which persuades us to act against the existentialharmony. We must ponder over the given situation and decidewhat should we expect from some other right minded personin this situation? If given the situation all wise people x, y, zare expected to behave in the same way as we are doing,then it is Nishkam Karma. Also, INACTION is not NishkamKarma. In brief, Nishkam Karma is right action and we mustfollow it unreservedly; we should not run away from theneedful action.

Also, Nishkam Karma is total action and we mustunderstand what total action is. Whenever we act out ofgreed and fear we create a split inside our own being and webecome divided. The action which ensues from this split ofmind is neither total action nor Nishkam Karma. We all knowthe story of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth althoughkilled Duncon out of greed but this action created split inthem and both of them went mad and became splitpersonalities. There is a story in Hindu scriptures too.Hundred times death knocked at Yayati’s doors, but Yayatibecame afraid of death each time and he sacrificed all hishundred sons one by one and had to repent later on. NishkamKarma never creates split and repentance.

If action itself is proper, it is performed out of a sense ofduty and if it is imperative we do not expect any reward forour action. Whenever we act out of wrong motives our onlypurpose is to seek some return from the action. There is apopular saying in India, “Do the good and throw the doerinto the well”. This is Nishkam Karma.

Such a Karma cannot create bondage. Wisdom does notlie in abstaining from Karma but wisdom does lie indiscriminating the right from the wrong. In brief we mustabstain from being selfish, egotist and perverted, then ouraction becomes the right action. Only right action can leadus to self-realization which should be the aim of life. Thosewho do not care for enlightenment, in a way, assassinatetheir own beings and such people choose to live in helleternally. Bliss, Peace and Fulfillment cannot be their stateof being. Hence again and again Upanishads invest onNishkasm Karma as the purpose of human life.

Isha Upanishad is famous also for its invaluablesuggestions regarding knowledge. This Upanishad dividesknowledge into two parts – Practical Knowledge (Avidya) andThe Ultimate Knowledge (Vidya). Avidya makes life worthliving and Vidya leads us to the springs of eternal life. Avidyais the study of matter; it is the science of nature; alldiscoveries and inventions in natural sciences make ourearthly abode comfortable, happy and free of suffering. Vidyais the science of enlightenment and it leads us to bliss,fulfillment and immortality. It leads us from all the bondageof ignorance to absolute liberation. According to thisUpanishad we cannot dispense with either Avidya or Vidya.It is a blunder to devote to one and neglect the other. Boththe courses of action lead to darkness or misery.

Besides the Epistomological the Upanishad has aMetaphysical aspect too. All the worldly thing – Matter,Nature, Human beings, arise and disappear in time andspace. All that arises in time and space is subject todisappearance and dissolution. Those who run only afterthe transient, invite sufferings only. Our own consciousnessor self is eternal, it is not subject to change and it is non-temporal and non-spatial. Those who run after eternal onlyinvite suffering too. A balance is needed between the transientand the Eternal, between this world and the other. Both theaspects of existence are indispensable and we should devote

Page 46: Paradise Never Lost

96 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 97

our endeavour to both of them. It seems that the main themeof this Upanishad is to assert a balance between jnana andkarma, that is between self-realization and worldly duties.Both are indispensable and imperative. If we neglect anyone of these aspects our well-being cannot be completed.

What prevents us from attainment of truth? TheUpanishad says the face of the truth lies covered by a goldentray which is our ego. Ego is the only barrier between thetruth and us. One may ask what is the ego? The Vedanticreply to this is that ego is the false centre in us. We identityourselves with the physical body and the processes of mindand this identification is ego. We identify ourselves with ourbodies, our senses, our intellects and our minds and this isego. Until we realize the self in us we should remain awarethat we are not the body or the mind. We must learn toremain a witness to all our faculties of body, of mind and ofintellect. One day we are bound to come across the real centrein us which is not the ego. This seems that this Upanishadmade a great impact on Geeta which describes NishkamaKarma in detail and this should not be considered a wonderthat Gandhi who was a man of action himself liked thisUpanishad very much.

Kenopanishad

The word Kenopanishad is the sum of two words ‘Kena’and ‘Upanishad’. The word Kena means ‘by whom’ or ‘throughwhom’ and the word “Upanishad’ means ‘to sit near’ or ‘toget together’. This Upanishad is in the form of a dialoguebetween the master and the disciple. It begins with a querryon the part of the disciple. The disciple asks, “what is thefirst cause behind the activities of our senses and our minds?Who motivates the mind, the spirit, the speech, the eye, theear etc? Who is beyond all our senses and our minds and yetthe supreme material and efficient cause behind them? Whois the mind of the mind, spirit of spirit, speech of speech andwho is the supreme truth having known which the wise menhappen to transcend the vicious circle of life and death?”

The master replies, “the answer to all this querry is‘Braham itself’. He proceeds to explain what this ultimatesubstance is which we call Brahma. This is the well-knownstyle of Upanishads which we call neither this nor that. The

master has to use a negative terminology. Brahma is not anidea which we can imagine or assume or conceive, in factwhatever we can conceive of Brahma has to be far from thetruth. Braham does not have its source in human speechalthough he is the effective cause behind all speech. Brahmais not a subject of our thought although he is the effectivecause behind all thought. Brahma is not a subject of visionalthough he is the effective cause behind all our vision.Brahma does not derive its vitality from our vitality althoughhe is the effective cause behind all vitality whatsoever.Brahma is not an entity whom it is possible to worship. Allthat we can imagine, all that we can conceive, all that towardswhich we can direct our prayers is not Brahma. It is neitherthis nor that, yet it is the source of all that exists on theearth or the heavens.

Kenopanishad states that we cannot find a single humanbeing who is fully ignorant of Brahma and also we cannotfind a single human being again who can know the Brahmathrough and through. How to explain it? The ignorant peopleare like fish in the ocean. A fish is never aware of the oceanalthough the ocean is its very life. The fish is born in theocean and it lives in the ocean and so it cannot conceive ofthe ocean as a human being cannot conceive of theatmospheric pressure around him. A fish cannot conceive ofthe ocean as long as it is allowed to remain in the ocean, itfeels the difference only when it is taken out of the oceanand it dies consequently. It is possible that a fish may leavethe ocean but a human being can never say good bye toBrahma who is the all pervading principle. Just like thisBrahma is our source of being but we cannot conceive of itbecause there is no way that Brahma should leave us. Thisis our state in ignorance. Of course when a person becomesenlightened he realizes Brahma as the centre of his ownbeing and also as the centre of the cosmos, such a personwe call a Brahman. Yet a part is a part it can never know thewhole till it dissolves into the whole and disappears. As longas a glacier is there it cannot know the whole of the oceanand when it disappears, there is no one who can report.Osho, too, has said again and again enlightenment beginsbut never ends. Even the consciousness of an enlightenedperson grows every moment. The similar is the message ofKathopanishad, we are all people of the path, none is fully

Page 47: Paradise Never Lost

98 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 99

ignorant and none is omniscient. However, this is a verytypical assertion and it is found nowhere else in theUpanishads.

Freud has written that every human being has two kindsof desires working in his unconscious, one is libido (desireto live) and another is mortido (desire to die). In most of uswho are not insane the libido is dominating over the mortido.Exceptionally a human being becomes self-realized but thedominance of Libido over Mortido is enough proof that ourtheism is deeper rooted than our atheism. That is why,Kenopanishad has rightly compared our state of ignorancewith a man who knows unconsciously of Brahma but is notaware of it consciously. This is the difference betweenSushupti and Samadhi. We all attain to Sushupti as a rulebut Samadhi very rarely. It is just like a fish in the oceanwho lives the ocean but is unaware of it consciously. TheUpanishad may have an implication that in Sushupti we allbecome one with Brahma but in the waking state of mindwe move apart. In the third part of the Upanishad we have avery beautiful story narrated. Many aspects of reality havebeen personified here. Agni personifies fire, Vayu personifiesair and Indra personifies the clouds and rains. In fact, it is ausual practice in the Vedic scriptures to personify the variousaspects of Nature as corresponding deities. Here literally Agniis the god of fire, Vayu is the god of air and Indra is the kingof gods. In this story Brahma himself is personified as aYakhsa, a kind of angel and the power behind AUM has beenpersonified as UMA. Uma is said to be the wife of Shiva whois the lord of the ultimate welfare. Now, the story— the deitiessuch as Agni, Vayu, Indra etc. conquered all the demonswhich used to bring hardship for the mankind. After thisvictory these deities became conceited. We can all understand,the different aspects of nature help us to invent devicesthrough which we eradicate our hardships. So Brahmadecided to teach these deities humbleness and propriety.The Brahma manifested itself in the form of an illuminousYakhsa. The deities were amazed as they looked at him. Firstof all, they sent Agni to encounter that Yakhsa.

The Yakhsa enquired, “Hello, youngman what can youdo? What is your might?”

Agni replied, “My name is Jatveda, Jat means origin andVeda means knowledge. I share the existential secret behind

the origin of the universe. The universe has originated fromme. I can burn everything, should I begin now?”

This reply advanced by Agni is full of wisdom. We allknow today that electric charge too is a form of fire and thewhole universe consists of elemental particles charged withelectricity. It seems that even the Upanishadic seers used toknow how the universe had emerged.

The Yakhsa said, “Hey, wait a minute.”The Yakhsa produced a straw and asked Agni to burn it.

But Agni could not even touch it and so he felt humiliatedand left.

In fact, Yakhsa was the Brahma and this STRAWrepresented self or consciousness of an individual. We allknow that fire cannot burn our self. Next, the deity Vayucame to see Yakhsa. The Yakhsa asked, “Now, who are you?”

Vayu replied, “My name is mother’s might or Matarishva.”This answer too is very significant. Vayu means air and

this is a scientific fact that the atmosphere comes intoexistence because the temperature is not the sameeverywhere on the surface of the earth and it is only becauseof the gravity of the earth that we all remain surrounded bythe atmosphere. So the answer of Vayu that the earth washis mother and he represented his mother’s might was veryscientific.

The Yakhsa enquired, “Hey, handsome! come on. Whatcan you do?”

Vayu replied, “I can blow soft and I can blow hard. I canmake everything to fly.”

Again the Yakhsa produced a straw but Vayu could noteven touch it. Yakhsa knew it very well that no air couldtouch the self.”

Of course, Vayu felt embarrassed and humiliated andwithdrew.

Finally, Indra, the king of deities marched towards Yakhsabut the Yakhsa disappeared as he saw him. Indra could noteven talk with the Yakhsa. In the place where Yakhsa wasstanding he saw Uma now.

We all know that Uma is the wife of Shiva who happensto be the god of Nirvana (ultimate welfare) and myunderstanding is that UMA represents the strength behindthe soundless sound of AUM. This description implies thatfirst a seeker hears the sound of AUM and then he realizes

Page 48: Paradise Never Lost

100 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 101

the self or the Brahma. In fact, all the existence includingthe deities is born of this sound of AUM.

Indra asked Uma, “Mother, who was the Yakhsa?”Uma replied, “Of course, he was the Brahma himself.”There is an alternative implication also. Agni represents

the intellect (buddhi) in us, Vayu represents the flux of mind(manas) in us and Indra represents the ego in us. All thesethree intellect, mind and ego taken together are said to be‘the inner sense’, in Indian philosophy. The story means thatour self is beyond reach of not only the aspects of nature butalso of our inner senses. Even mind, intellect and ego arebarriers which impede the way to self.

Now, the question remains why Yakhsa disappeared andIndra saw Uma standing in his place. Let me tell the meaning.Ego cannot encounter the ultimate truth and so Yakhsadisappeared but Uma felt compassion for Indra and shewanted to convey that she was the way. Indra needed to domeditations and the mantra of AUM was thought to be agood method of meditation by the seers of the Upanishads.We shall see that other Upanishads such as Kathopanishadtoo have given excessive importance to AUM.

Now, the querry what is AUM and why is this mantra soimportant? Even the Bible says that in the beginning therewas the word and the word was with the God. This word isAUM which the Christian mystics have reported as Amen.The Zen masters call it the sound of one hand clapping.Kabira calls it ‘Anahat Nad’ or the sound of no collision.When a spiritual seeker goes deep in his meditation, justbefore he can transcend time and space, he comes acrossthis sound which is not a result of striking objects. Thissound is a bridge between the formal universe and theformless substance and many seekers have become awareof this just before entering Samadhi. This is believed thatthis sound of AUM preceeds all the forms of universe andthe formal universe has emerged form it. This is the meaningwhich Saint John wanted to convey to us in his gospel. Evenfrom the point of view of Nuclear Physics there is nocontradiction because sound and electricity are both formsof energy and can interchange into each other. According toscience all forms have merged from energy, the scienceencounters it as electricity and the seekers encounter it assound at the border and this should depend upon the

methods we adopt. The experience of meditation need not bethe same as the metaphysical reality. The important thing isthat all forms emerge from energy and all energy emergefrom consciousness.

Uma is the personification of the power which retainsthe mantra AUM and there is no wonder a seeker shouldfind UMA standing between himself and the cosmicconsciousness (Brahma). In fact, Uma is the doorway openingtowards the ultimate Samadhi and Indra was found to be onthe path. So the story says Indra could have only one glimpseof this Yakhsa when the Yakhsa disappeared and heencountered this soundless sound instead. Also, one moreimplication is there. Indra is the lord of Thunder and AUM isthe song of silence and Uma stands in between out ofcompassion. This symbolism perhaps indicates that our mindwhich is too full of noise just now has to become silent, onlythen we can find our way to ultimate reality.

Now it will be not out of place here to narrate one morestory about Uma which every Hindu knows without knowingthe meaning of the story.

‘Uma was the wife of Shiva. Her father was an Aryan byrace but Shiva was not an Aryan. It is said he belonged to amixed race. Uma’s father had patronized a great yajna whichwas a form of prayer to please the deities. Shiva did notallow Uma to go there but she rushed to her father’s place.There she felt humiliated, jumped into the yajna-fire andwas consumed.’

This is a kind of parable. Uma is the power retainingAUM and Shiva is the Lord of welfare. The early Aryans usedthe mantra AUM in its purity, they used it only as a seedmantra and this practice used to lead them to the ultimatewelfare invariably. Later on the Aryans began to performyajna even for the worldly purposes. They invented newmantras which began with AUM but did not end with AUM.They polluted the purity of this mantra by adding othermeaningful phrases to it and to gain the worldly benefitsthere of. Shiva was not allowing Uma to consider thesemantras. In the course of time the Aryans forgot all purity ofmethod and of purpose and so this mantra lost all the powerto ultimate welfare. Symbolically, Uma was made to jumpinto the yajna fire and to become consumed. The mantrasremained but the power behind these mantras did not remain

Page 49: Paradise Never Lost

102 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 103

and these mantras could not reach Shiva. It seems that Oshoknew the meaning of the story and so he had forbidden theseekers to chant AUM as a method. He said that this wasthe existential sound and we should hear it in its purity onlywhen we entered into deep meditation. Using it as a methodcan be confusing because we are supposed to witness it ratherthan pollute the sound.

The Kathopanishad, too, has assigned exclusiveimportance to this mantra. There is a saying inKathopanishad, “This only word AUM can lead to therealization of Brahma, this only word AUM can lead to theultimate. Those who come to hear AUM alone in theirmeditation get all their ends fulfilled. All their prayers cometrue.”

The meaning of this Yakhsa story is obvious. Our selfand Brahma are far beyond the power of Nature and itsvarious aspects. Also, self and Brahma are far beyond theinner senses viz mind, intellect and ego. The implication ofthis story has been reiterated in Geeta again. We find a veryfamous shloka in Geeta which means –

“Our self cannot be pierced by weapons, cannot be burntinto a fire, cannot be moistened by water and cannot bedried up by air.”

There are definite reasons to believe that Upanishadshave definitely preceeded Geeta, however small the timeperiod may have elapsed between those scriptures. In fact, ifwe devote ourselves to the study of Geeta we can trace backof its shlokas to have come from the Great Upanishads.

There are five shlokas in Kenopanishad numbered 4, 5,6, 7 and 8 which are of special significance to the studentsof Islam. This is surprising and supports this belief that notonly all Aryan languages have had a common inheritage butalso all religious traditions have had a common background.It seems that the civilizations have been in touch with eachother even two thousands years ago or fourteen hundredyears ago or at all other times. I shall again like to renderthe shlokas 1:4 through 1:8 as the following:-

“Brahma is that which cannot be expressed throughspeech but is the effective cause of all speech; Brahma isthat which cannot be conceived through mind but is theeffective cause behind all the flux of mind; Brahma is thatwhich our eyes cannot see but which is the effective cause

behind all sight; Brahma is that which our ears cannot hearbut which is the effective cause behind all hearing; Brahmais that which our spirit cannot inspire but which is the spiritof all spirits and Brahma is which we cannot worship.”

There is one more question which can arise here, Is thisUpanishad in favour of a personal God? The answer isdefinitely negative. Upanishads are poetic in their description.This Upanishad too has personified many aspects of Naturesuch as Agni, Vayu, Indra and Uma but it has no implicationsto assert that these aspects of Nature are personal. Thisseems that this Upanishad has also personified mind,intellect and ego which cannot be persons. The Upanishadin the very beginning explains it in a detail that no one canconceive of Brahma neither as a person nor as a deity. Butlater on the Upanishad personifies him also as a Yakhsawhich is a kind of Angel. This is what we call poetry. TheUpanishad although describes him a Yakhsa but theUpanishad does not intend to say that Brahma can have aform. Mohammad also encountered the same difficulty.Whenever there is an opportunity Mohammad wants to makeit clear that none can conceive of Allah, Allah has no form,no father, no son, there is no one whom he can resemble.Yet there are occasions when he has to describe him as aperson. On the one hand Mohammad assigns ninety-ninenames for Allah, on the other hand he has to say immediatelythat Allah cannot have any name; his real name cannot begiven. Here in this Upanishad we find a similar situation.Those who think that the Allah of Koran is a personal Godknow nothing of Koran. Mohammad has to say manycontradictory things again and again. He says Allah is bothpresent and absent; Allah is both the observer and theobserved. If there is one thing very clear in Koran, it is thefact that Mohammad does not want to assign any form orfigure to Allah. The Allah of Koran is not a personal God andthe same is the case with the Upanishads too. Just likeUpanishads, Koran is also poetry and the understanding ofpoetry has to be different from the understanding of thosebranches of knowledge which deal with matters of fact asGeography or Physics.

What can we say about the Christian God? There arethree – God the Father, God the Holy Ghost and God theSon. Such a God cannot be perfectly personal because he

Page 50: Paradise Never Lost

104 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 105

has a split personality. But he cannot be said to be impersonaleither. Why? God the Holy Ghost and God the Son each havea personal form. The first of these two made the virgin Marypregnant and the second was the result of this pregnancyand such activities can be performed only by persons. Whatabout God the Father? Of course, he is a difficult case butthanks to existence that he is not the only one. The JewishGod of the Old Testament is a perfect example of a personalGod. He is the only God of Israel who can tell us all that isgoing to happen in the future. Sometimes he is even jealousand angry and never allows Jews to worship any other God.He sends to the earth even wars, famines, epidemics, floodsetc. The God of the Old Testament is perfectly personal.Sometimes he looks like a real father and sometimes he lookslike even another husband of the mother. As far as Hinduincarnations such as Rama and Krishna are concerned, evenHindus do not believe that they were really Gods, so we neednot take them seriously here. But the Christian God, Godthe father really seems to be personal just like the God ofthe Old Testament. This has been a real problem. It seemsthat Albert Camu and Nietzsche were not at ease with thisold man, so the first said that he had become ill and thesecond said that he even died. The sooner the better becausehe has lived more than enough and must have become verytired of us by now. Amen!

The Kathopanishad

Katha means a difficult one and Upanishad means ascripture leading to the ultimate reality. The Upanishadicculture was well-versed with death and resurrection. Thereare two kinds of birth described in Upanishads. The firstbirth is the birth of our body which we inherit from ourparents. The birth of the body is not our own birth and thedeath of the body is not our own death. The second birth isthe birth of self. A self-realized person is one who haswitnessed the mortality of the body and has become rebornas the self or the consciousness. Such a person is known asa Dwij (twice born). An enlightened master is one who canhelp towards this second birth. Yogyopavita was given byfully enlightened master only to a person who had becometwice born. A Brahman meant a person of cosmic

consciousness and so only a Brahman could bear witness tothis second birth.

Before we come to the Upanishad, we need to understandthe meaning of three words – A man of ego is a man likeDavid Hume who identifies himself with the body and themental processes. Upanishads describe such a person bythe term ‘Shudra.’ The Upanishads state, “Everyone is bornlike a Shudra but some of us attain to self-realization or toDwijhood”. A dwij is a man like Jesus who has died as anego and has been resurrected as a self. Bible calls this stateof being ‘son of God’. At the time of crucifiction Jesus goeseven higher. A Brahman is still higher, a Brahman is onewho has attained to cosmic consciousness. A Brahman wassupposed to be equivalent to the Angles like Michael andGabriel as far as consciousness was concerned. A Brahmanwas supposed to be equivalent to Patanjali, Kapil, Kanad,Vashishtha, Buddha, Osho etc. Every Acharya was supposedto be a Brahman not by birth but by enlightenment. Jesustoo has said, “I and my father are one. I am in the father andthe father in me”. It seems that Jesus was very close to cosmicconsciousness even before. For a Brahman all the existenceis the formal aspect of Brahma and Brahma is the onlysubstance that is there. Nanaka has said, “I can see thewhole existence emerging from the same light and so to meno one is lower and no one is higher”. This is the vision of aBrahman.

Two more words – Acharya and Yama – are to beunderstood. Achara means a karma which can make ussurvive through death, these karmas called ‘panchakarma’are performed even today at the time of a person’s deathalthough we have forgotten the secrets behind them. (Theword Achara is used for pickle also for the same reason thatit can save a particular eatable from destruction). Acharyais one who can teach us Acharas or karmas which can makeone transcend the bodily death. In this way, every Acharyais the lord of death and so in the days of this Upanishad thewords Acharya and Yama were synonymous to each otherfor this very reason. In those days every Acharya was calledYama. A word can have many meanings, Patanjali whohappened afterwards have used in a second sense, as thefirst organ of eightfold yoga. This word is used today in athird sense and this sense is ‘the god of death’ or ‘the god of

Page 51: Paradise Never Lost

106 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 107

judgment’. According to Patanjali also Yama means disciplineand discipline means Acharya. There is one more possibility;maybe, Yama had been another name for Patanjali himselfor for his disciples.

At the commencement of the Upanishad the fatherUddalak finds his son Nachiketa with rare devotion andsincerity of heart and so he says to his son Nachiketa, “Ideliver you unto Yama”. Ordinarily the meaning taken todayis, “I deliver you unto death”. But this is not the implicationof the Upanishad because Nachiketa intends to return backhome after his learning becomes complete. So Yama heremeans an Acharya or an enlightened master or most probablyPatanjali himself who taught Yama. Patanjali of course wasthe first Yamacharya. We all know that Patanjali was a masterno less renowned than Buddha or Osho, in fact, he wasequally capable.

Now the text of the Upanishad. Uddalak was father ofNachiketa and he performed a ‘yajna’ by the name ‘Vishajit’or yajna that can conquer the world. Uddalak as a matter ofcourse donated all his wealth to Brahmans as a part of thisyajna. He donated also his cows to the Brahmans but someof these cows were old and useless too. Although Nachiketawas a small child but he got scared what good this kind ofcharity should bring to his father. He felt an apprehensionlest the donation of such cows should lead his father to lowerstates of being. So he reminded his father, “To whom youwant to deliver me?”, The son is not a property so threetimes the father did not reply. At last he said he would deliverhim unto death. This is symbolic, the father promised tosend him to an Acharya who could teach him the keys todeath. In fact, this Upanishad bas been an Indian counterpartof the Tibetan book of the dead. Nachiketa reached themaster’s house. The master had gone out, so Nachiketawaited for the master for three days without accepting anyfoodstuff or drinks from the master’s wife. The child lookedas illuminous as a Brahman or as the god of fire and whenthe master came back his wife sent him to the child so thatthe child could agree to drink some water. The master saidthat he could see that the child was very near enlightenmentand no house should have allowed such a guest remaininghungry and thirsty for three days. It could prove such a sinwhich could destroy all the good luck coming to the house.

The master was very much impressed by the strong will ofthe child and asked the child to put any three demands beforehim in return. The master wanted to fulfill these demandsbecause Nachiketa had spent three nights hungry and thirstywaiting for the master.

As the first demand Nachiketa requested that his fathershould have no worries about him and his father shouldaccept him back home as a son when he returns back fromthe master’s house. As the second demand he wanted tolearn ‘Agni-Vidya’ or the Esoteric science which could lead adead person to the Heavenly abode. These two demands wereconsidered ordinary by the Acharya and were grantedimmediately. The third request made by Nachiketa is thecentral theme of this whole Upanishad because Nachiketaenquired about self-realization. As the third demandNachiketa asked Yama –

“There is a doubt prevailing among mankind as to whathappens to a person after death. Some of them believe thatthere is a kind of existence after death and some of us believethat there is no existence at all after death. As a third demandI want to learn this science of existence after death. Pleasegrant my this third request also.”

The Acharya looked at Nachiketa and this time hehesitated because Nachiketa was only a small child for thepresent and this discipline was very arduous. Most of themystics even after investing all their lives could not reachthe solution because only an enlightened person could knowthe answer. Nachiketa insisted again and finally the Acharyaagreed because he could see that there was an opening inNachiketa’s seventh centre already and although a child withno experience of the world, Nachiketa was not an ordinaryperson.

In fact, this Upanishad raises the question which is basicand fundamental to all religious traditions. What is the factof death? Is our existence just physical, are we all just fleshand blood, are we all just dust unto dust or is there somesubstance in us which is immortal and which transcendsthe death of the body? Is there something in us which usedto exist even before we came to inhabit this body and whichwill continue to exist even after the demise of the body?

The Upanishad is in the form of a dialogue betweenNachiketa and the Acharya and it incorporates great

Page 52: Paradise Never Lost

108 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 109

philosophy, psychology and outlook of the Hindus of thatperiod. Isha, Ken and Katha are three most importantUpanishads in as much as these are very much representativeof Vedantic outlook. Although words are important just tobegin with and enlightenment is an experience but the wordsbear witness to those mystics who happen to becomeenlightened in the future to come. These Upanishads arethe ancient most records of human wisdom. It is possible torecord the words of an enlightened person but it is notpossible to record the experience from which these wordscome. Each individual has to go through the same experienceagain and after our experience scriptures are found to bearwitness to the experience.

Yama says to Nachiketa, “Those who are ignorant cannotenvisage the other world. They go on wasting their time aftertrivialities even upto the last moment of their life collectingthings and riches. They indulge into a false consolation thatthere is no existence at all after the death of the body.Consequently, again and again they fall a trap into the cycleof death and rebirth.”

This is interesting that all the six systems of Hinduphilosophy, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism believe inrebirth. The religions born outside of India such as Judaism,Christianity and Islam do no deny rebirth but do not admitit too, they remain silent over this question. There are sayingsin Bible which are suggestive of rebirth and the reader canfind them for himself however.

Yama continues to reveal the mysteries of truth toNachiketa. We come across a very famous saying about thenature of truth in this Upanishad. Yama says to Nachiketa,“Self-realization is a very rare happening and it is almostimpossible to put it into words. That is why, the masses donot even get an opportunity to listen to the words of one whohas attained to the truth. Even if some of them happen tolisten to the invocation of an enlightened person they do notrealize the truth as their own experience. Wise is one whohas attained to the truth but a miracle is he who can expressthe truth experienced by him and a greater miracle is thedisciple who can attain to the truth under the guidance ofan enlightened master”. Again and again the mystics haveto insist upon this nature of truth which cannot be otherwise.Very few people can become enlightened before death; and

very few of the enlightened persons can express theirexperience. And even those who can speak rarely becomesuccessful as masters. A master is successful only when hisdisciples can become enlightened and it is very difficult tobecome such a master. That is why, a few mystics havesucceeded to create a tradition. We can take some recentillustrations to make our point clear. Raman Maharshi wasenlightened but he could not narrate his experience; J.Krishnamurty was enlightened and he could narrate hisexperience also but he could not become a successful master.Buddha and Osho were enlightened persons who could notonly narrate but could also create a real disciplehood. Thisshloka means that people like Raman Maharshi are wise,people like J. Krishnamurty are miraculous but people likeBuddha and Osho are greater miracles. It is not easy to attainto the truth, it is very difficult to express it but it is a miracleto lead others on the right path successfully. Only greatmasters like Patanjali, Buddha, Mahavira, Gorakhnath andOsho have been capable of this miracle. This statement ofKathopanishad has become a well-known quotation.

Acharya says again, “Nachiketa, the self is a timelessinvisible treasure hidden in the depth of the being of man. Itis a divine principle known only through great discipline andpurity and one who has experienced it transcends not onlymisery but also happiness which leads to restlessness.”

Like all other scriptures of Hindu philosophy thisUpanishad too states that truth is beyond dualities. Thisworld consists of dualities like man and woman, misery andhappiness, life and death, body and mind etc. The truthtranscends both the extremities of a duality, it does not belongto the either extreme. A enlightened person remainsuntouched not only by grief but also by happiness. He isjust blissful and his blissfulness is uncaused andspontaneous, it does not depend on the outside world. Blissis the very nature of self and is not dependent on outsidecircumstances with which both happiness and unhappinessare related. Also, the Upanishads assert that truth is notsomething outside of us, something related, somethingcaused but it happens spontaneously to our own being. Threeaspects are spontaneous to and inseparable from self andthese are Sat (Existence), Chit (Consciousness) and Anand(Bliss).

Page 53: Paradise Never Lost

110 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 111

Again, according to this shloka the science can neverreach the ultimate truth. The science always divides theexistence into two aspects – the observer and the observed.When we come to the truth of our own being such a divisionbecomes irrelevant and so self-realization cannot be ascientific truth. Science is applicable only to the objects whichexist in space-time and not to the self which transcends timeand space. That is the implication of the statement that selfis a timeless invisible treasure hidden in the being of a man.Kathopanishad has talked in detail about AUM. Upanishadssay whenever a seeker goes deep into the meditation, hecomes across the soundless sound of AUM which is a bridgebetween the formal and formless aspects of Brahma.Christians and Mohammadans have reported it as Amen.The Zen monks call it the sound of one hand clapping. Wehad come to this term in Ken Upanishad also where thestrength of this sound was personified as Uma, the betterhalf of Shiva, the Lord of the ultimate welfare. Kathopanishadsays –

“All the Vedas teach this sound AUM. All the seekers tryto attain to it and they observe the path of Brahmacharyajust to reach it.”

Brahmacharya literally means conduct like the Brahma.In my opinion this word literally means Nishkama Karma orDesireless Action. The Brahma has no desires; all thiscreation is just a play of ever-flowing energy. We too mustact like the Brahma, our actions should arise from ourawareness and not from our desires, this is Brahmacharya.My understanding is that there was no concept ofrenunciation in the Upanishadic period and Brahmacharyameant Nishkama Karma only. Later on when Buddhism andJainism became prevalent in India, they interpreted Kamato mean sex and Nishkama Karma to mean celibacy.Consequently, some people today interpret Brahmacharyato mean celibacy which the Western mind thinks to beimpossible. I, too, do not agree with the later interpretation.This meaning is not necessary because Brahmacharya onlymeans routine like the Brahma which is non-attached actionor desireless action. Brahmacharya or desireless actionmakes us more and more free from the worldly obsessionand can lead us to deeper and deeper meditation. A seekercan come across this sound of AUM only when he is deep in

meditation. This sound is said to be the ultimate sound ofcreation and one who has come to hear it becomes one withthe process of creation. Remaining at this source whatever aseeker can think or whatever prayer can arise in his mindcome immediately true in the physical world also. All thedesires and promises of such a person are fulfilled in theoutside world also. There is a meaning when a Christianmystic says, “I shall pray for you, Amen!”

Kathopanishad states –“This very word AUM is the Brahma, this very word AUM

is the ultimate. One who has attained to this word get all hisprayers fulfilled in the outside world too.”

Yama while describing self-realization says – “This selfor atman cannot be attained by listening to those who havereached, nor it can be attained by retaining scriptures inmemory, nor it can be attained by wandering from one masterto another. It is revealed to those only who are chosen. Oncechosen this self reveals itself to him spontaneously.”

This Upanishad is well-known for its assertion that noone can become self-realized by following any disciplinewhatsoever. Self-realization is always spontaneous and itcomes as a gift from the existence. The path of Upanishadsis the path of UPASANA which means living near the divine.Upasana is a form of prayer. It seems that people in thosetimes were simple and quiet and they did not depend on anymethods of enlightenment which would come to themeffortlessly. But who are the chosen people? The Upanishadstates –

“The truth cannot come to those who are attached; thetruth cannot come to those who are not pure in their thoughtand action; the truth cannot come to those who have nopeace of mind, the truth cannot come to those who nurtureego and the truth cannot come to those who are vexed withproblems. The truth comes only through intuition.”

The Upanishad opines that truth happens intuitively onlyto those who transcend all the troubled states of mind. Buthere people like Patanjali; Buddha and Osho may interfereand ask how we can attain to this peace of mind withoutwhich truth cannot be available? This question is relevantand the answer is that both the Devil and the Angles have tohelp so that Adam can grow; Doubt and Effort are as muchnecessary as the Faith in Existence. Both these aspects are

Page 54: Paradise Never Lost

112 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 113

complementary and not antagonistic as it is revealed in theend when the Paradise is regained.

After this the Upanishad raises a metaphysical question– what is the nature of this self? The Upanishad observes –“Our senses are the outermost. The conception throughsensory perception is beyond the senses. The mind whichcomprehends is beyond this conception. Our intellect isbeyond the mind and our consciousness is far far beyondthe intellect too.”

Unlike David Hume, the Upanishad says that ourconsciousness cannot be identified with the body or withthe flux of mind. When our mind happens to be at rest, allour mental processes cease to be, we realize ourconsciousness which is apart from the psychosomatics. DavidHume stopped at the periphery he could not reach the centreof our being which is the self and which transcends both thebody and the mind. In fact, in the very beginning of YogasutraPatanjali has defined yoga as the cessation of the processesof mind. When all the wavering disappears from the surfaceof a lake and the lake becomes still, this is the beginning ofyoga and this still lake is the lake of our consciousness.

The Upanishad states, “one must arise, one must practiceawareness, one must seek the enlightened persons and learnfrom them. Those who has reached say that the path towardsthe truth is very arduous like a sharpened edge of the razor”.At last the Upanishad says that there can be a path howsoeverarduous it may be.

The Upanishad is non-dualistic in its metaphysics. It isonly through the wavering mind that we see multiplicity inexistence, otherwise there is only one substance here. Thisone substance is the Brahma. But when we perceive itthrough our senses, mind and intellect, this substancemanifests itself into a multiplicity of things and living beings.This substance manifests itself in the form of matter,creatures, time, space and consciousness etc. As long as webelieve in the multiplicity of objects, we cannot jump out ofthe vicious cycle of death and rebirth.

The Upanishad asserts that the self transcends all thatis in time and space. Wherethere is atman, neither the sunshines, nor the moon nor the stars. That is to say even lightcannot reach there. The shining of fire or lightening cannotilluminate the atman. It is because of the atman that all

these things are illuminated but it is not because of thesethings that the self is illuminated. The self which transcendsall form cannot be known by perception, conception orcomprehension. It can be known through intuition only.

Finally Nachiketa becomes fully enlightened and all hisdoubts disappear. He comes home back realized and fulfilledand his father is immensely happy to understand that deathand the existence after death no more puzzles him. The fatherhad sent him only to know the secrets of death and theexistence afterwards and his purpose was fulfilled.

Now, we again look to the text of Kathopanishad.According to Upanishads there are three kinds of suffering –Physical (Adhibhautic), Karmic (Adhidaivic) and Spiritual(Adhyatmic). Nachiketa’s three questions pertain respectivelyto these three kinds of suffering. The first question relatesto his father and it is Adhibhautic or this worldly. The secondquestion is Adhidaivic, Nachiketa wants to learn the methodwhich can help a dead person to enter heaven. This methodhas been described as Agnividya, Nachiketa-fire andPanchakarma in the Upanishad and it pertains to the otherworld. Only the third question is spiritual because it relatesto the enlightenment. One more curiosity is relevant here.What is the non-dualism of Vedanta? Is it a principle differentfrom Spinoza’s Monism or the principle of one unique God?Yes, there is difference. As mentioned earlier, the Brahma ofUpanishads is not a personal God, it is more like a principleor like an ultimate law. Non-dualism literally means ‘thereare not two’. It is not Monism. There are situations when wecannot say either ‘It is one’ or ‘It is two’. This is non-dualism.We can explain it by some examples. If we focus the sunrays through a convex lense it can burn a piece of paperlying on the ground. We cannot say that the sun which isshining in the sky and the image which is on the ground areone but we cannot say these are two either. The wave in alake and the water wavering are not one but not two either.The Lamp and the light of the Lamp are not one but not twoeither. The air which is flowing and the touch of the air arenot one but are not two either. Such a relationship is termedas non-dualism in Vedanta. The Brahma and the Universeare not one but not two either. The souls of two persons arenot one but not distinct either. The creation and the creatorare not one but not two either. According to Vedanta this

Page 55: Paradise Never Lost

114 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 115

happening is like the dance and the dancer. That is why, inIndia we represent the ultimate truth as NATRAJ, the dancingBrahma. The Brahma is the dancer and this universe is hisdance and they are related to each other. This relationshipis the non-dualism of the Upanishads and we have tounderstand it only as such.

Prashnopanishad

Prashna menas enquiry and Upanishad means ascripture near the ultimate reality. In this UpanishadPippalad is considered to be a wise seer and six seekers go tomeet him with their querries. These six disciples have been– Sukesh, Satyakarma, Sauryayani, Ashvalayan, Bhargavaand Kabandhi.

The first question is asked by Kabandhi. How are all theliving creatures created? Pippalad replied that in thebeginning the ‘Lord of all’ creates a pair of ‘Prana’ and ‘Rayi’and from these two all the living beings come to existence.Now, Prana means ‘the spirit’ or ‘the élan vitla’ and Rayimeans the substance. The Sankhya parallel for Prana andRayi are ‘Purush’ and ‘Prakriti’ respectively and the parallelterms used in Ishvashya Upanishad are ‘Sambhuti’ and‘Asambhuti’ respectively. The Sankhya ‘Purush’ is an inactiveparticipant in the process of creation and Prakriti isinanimate. Purush is just a witness and in a way the Sankhyaphilosophy fails to explain how the creation should have beeninitiated. Purush is just a witness throughout, Prakriti isthe only agent which binds and liberates Purush. To me thisis not much conceivable because Prakriti has neither anylife nor any purpose. In Sankhya both the principles Purushaand Prakriti seem to be inactive and the process of creationremains rather unexplained. The word ‘Prana’ is a bettersubstitute for Purush because it is not an inactive principlelike Purush, it is vibrating with will throughout. Geeta hasused ‘Akhsar Brahma’ and ‘Khsar Brahma’ respectively forPrana and Rayi. Akhsar Brahma like Prana is indestructiblewhile Khsar Brahma like Rayi is perishable.

The Upanishad proceeds further to explain these twoterms rather poetically. It states that Prana is manifestedmore prominently in the Sun, the summer solstice, thefortnight of the increasing Moon and daytime while Rayi is

manifested more prominently in the Moon, the winter solstice,the fortnight of the waning Moon and the Night. It seems theUpanishad intends to imply that Prana is more prominentwhere there is action and Rayi is more prominent wherethere is inaction. Let it be so for one of the principles has tobe more active than the other comparatively. The Chinesehas described these principles as ‘the yin’ and ‘the yang’ andone is more active than the other. It is just like the male andthe female counterparts. Prana is described as the effectivecause and Rayi described as the material cause behind theexistence. There is found a chance remark here that thedigestive fire within us is a counterpart of the Sun outsideand it is stronger only as long as the sun shines. This is amatter of common observation and I see no reasons that thepresent day science should disagree to it. The Upanishadsays that substance is source of all creation becausesubstance creates the seed and the seed creates all livingthings. The word ‘Anna’ has been used here which literallymeans ‘Not Nothing’ or substance. ‘Anna’ consists of twosyllables ‘An’ and ‘Na’ both of which are negative, and soAnna means ‘Not Nothing’ or ‘Really something’ or substance.‘Na’ is the ‘Vinash’ and ‘Anna’ is the ‘Sambhuti’ or substance.

The second question is brought forth by Bhargava. Whichare the deities that sustain life? Which are the deities whichmake life evident and who of these deities is the mostimportant one? Pippalad proceeds to enumerate these deitiesas the following –

“These deities are five great elements (Sky, Earth, Air,Water, Fire); the five senses of action, the five senses ofperception and the four kinds of manas (cosmic mind, mind,intellect, ego). Everyone of these five great elements andeveryone of these fourteen elements of human subsistenceclaim each to be greater than the others.”

However, we must not forget that the UpanishadicMetaphysics is basically non-dualistic in its implication, ithas to be so. In fact, all the five aspects of nature and all thefourteen components of human subsistence represent onereality from different points of view. Each aspect of theBrahma is personified as a deity and this is done just for thesake of convenience and of beauty. There cannot be anyfurther essential implication because all the deities are heldto be one and the same Brahma. It has nothing to do with

Page 56: Paradise Never Lost

116 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 117

what they call Monism or Henotheism in the West. Let mesay that Maxmuller has no real understanding of the Vedicscriptures. Sometimes Upanishads are just spontaneous flowof poetry and poetry is not like cut and dead terms ofPhilosophy. A poetic work is to be understood in a poeticmanner.

In Kenopanishad Brahma is the cause and Prana is oneof its manifestations (shloka-8) but Pippalad highlights Pranato raise it almost to the level of the Brahma, although notmeaning that these two are synonymous. Why do I say thisbecause the Brahma includes both Prana and Rayi, theeffective and the material cause respectively; while Pranaleaves out Rayi, it only motivates Rayi without including itin itself. Pippalad comes forward with his assertion that thesupreme among all these deities is Prana. Prana is the vitality,the life energy, the libido or the spirit. All other organs liveonly as long as the spirit resides in them but this spirit itselfis uncaused and it is a-priori. He proceeds further to saythat this very Prana is the reality inside and the realityoutside. The whole Nature, Self, Brahma etc are inhabitedby the same spirit which manifests itself as Prana in humanbeings. His Prana seems to be indivisible principle like theBrahma; Prana is the universal spirit for Pippalad; it is theone and only active principle in existence; everything exceptRayi seems to be Prana. He further elaborates that Prana isthe purpose, the motive, the intention of all the creation andPrana is also the creator. Prana is the only effective causewhich is at work in existence, formal and formless both.Prana seems to be like the Potter and Rayi like the particlesof unbaked clay. In fact, in this Upanishad Prana is describedas the life force within a creature and as the universal spiritwithin the creation and it is the only effective cause and theonly active principle in existence whatsoever.

Ashvalayan is the third seeker to express his querries.He asks the third question which can be analyzed as thefollows.

(a) From where does this Prana originate?(b) How does this Prana enter our physical bodies?(c) How does it divide itself to spread all over the bdoy?(d) How does the Prana skip out of this body?(e) How does this Prana manifest itself in the outer

universe which extends to infinitude?

(f) How does it sustain the inner universe consisting ofour senses and our minds?

Pippalad praises Ashvalayan that he has expressed a realfaith in the Brahma and he is asking questions of the ultimateimplications. Pippald says he should answer these questionswhich come from a real seeker.

Prana has its origin in the Brahma which is the essentialcause of all that pervades. This Prana resides in the causalbody which is also known as the ‘Prana Body’ or the spirit.This body leads a living being from one birth to another andit is tithered to our physical body because of our desires orour clingings to the world of matter and form. This is thehuman bondage.

This Prana divides itself into five nomenclatures. ThePrana which corresponds to the lower organs of excretionand generation is known as APAN. But the prime part ofPrana corresponds to Mouth, Ear, Eye, Nose and Digestion,the name of this Prana which motivates the fire of digestionis ‘SAMAN’. The energy gained from the digestion of food isdistributed equally everywhere, and so this component ofPrana is designated as Saman which literally means equal.The fire of digestion in us is like the fire of a ‘yajna’ and ithas seven flames manifested into seven senses – two eyes,two ears, two nostrils and one mouth. We must not forgetPrana in us is an indivisible entity and all this classificationis only for the sake of good expression. ‘Vyan’ is the Pranawhich resides in our fibres (nadis). These nadis are locatedin the invisible causal body and these are said to be as manyas seventy two crores in number by the yogis. Sushumna isthe most important of these nadis and the Prana whichresides in Sushumna is said to be UDAN. The energy flowingdownwards along Shushumna leads the human beings tolower and upper forms of life respectively at the time ofrebirth. This depends on our virtues and on our vices, thegood and the bad deeds, committed during the present life.Thus, this one Prana in us is known by five nomenclatures –APAN, SAMAN, PRAN, VYAN and UDAN – depending uponthe functions it has to perform.

Prana is the vitality or élan vital as the Japanese call it.It is also ‘Libido’ or life energy as Freud calls it and thisUpanishad narrates it more poetically than philosophically.Yet, we can understand it from one more point of view. The

Page 57: Paradise Never Lost

118 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 119

science of yoga says that we have seven bodies viz. ThePhysical, the Astral, the Etheric, the Mental, the Atmic, theCosmic and the Nirvanic (Bodiless body). For the sake ofconvenience we can state that the physical body consists ofmatter while the next three viz. the Astral, the Etheric andthe Mental consist of energy. These three taken together areknown as Prana or causal body. During ordinary death onlythe physical body disintegrates and our Prana remains intactand leads us to the next birth. The Atmic, the Cosmic andthe Nirvanic bodies remain inactive during the process ofdeath and rebirth, these bodies consist neither of matternor of energy. The Atmic body becomes active after self-realization, the cosmic body becomes active after Brahma-realization and the Nirvanic body becomes active at the timeof Nirvana. When an enlightened person dies, all his firstfour bodes disintegrate, his rebirth becomes impossible. Thiswe call liberation. Enlightenment has a beginning but it doesnot come to an end. A person is said to be enlightened if heis self-realized, Brahma-realized or has attained the finalSamadhi Nirvana. As far as human existence is concerned,self-realization is the beginning of enlightenment whichculminates in Nirvana. I have seen yogis who can make theirPrana energy one with the energy of any other human beingor even with the energy of a material object. It can vibrate inharmony with their breathing and the method is very simplefor them. In fact, the same Prana vibrates in all of us, it is anon-dual principle like the Brahma. When we sit near anenlightened person like J. K. or Osho, very soon we fall inharmony with them. Prana is one and unique; it is the livingprinciple or the effective cause pervading all the existence.In fact, Sankhya philosophy has its origin in this Upanishad.Prana is the Purush of Sankhya and Rayi is the counterpartof Prakriti there and all the twenty-five substance of Sankhyahave their origin in this Upanishad, we have already comeacross twenty of them.

Pippalad proceeds further to carry on this metaphor tothe universe outside. He states that APAN dwells in Earth,SAMAN dwells in Sky, PRAN dwells in the Sun, VYAN dwellsin the Air and UDAN dwells in Agni. All existence comesfrom Agni or electrical energy and Agni represents CosmicAgitation. At the time of death all the other forms returnback to the prime PRANA which leads to a new birth

depending upon the will of the dying one. A seer or a yogiwho can control all the inner and outer manifestations ofPrana transcends death. He comes to realize that he doesnot die with the disintegration of the physical body. Such ayogi who can control his Prana can also transmit his Pranaenergy to any one of his worthy disciples who is devoted tohim and the lineage of disciplehood of such a great masterneed not disappear. Many disciples can receive the energy ofthe master. The mystics have called this phenomenon ‘TheTransmission of the Lamp’. Nanaka continued in this waythrough a tradition of ten masters who happened fromNanaka to Gobind Singh. The tradition of Buddha is stillliving in this manner; it still maintains the tradition ofGautam the Buddha. There are many other great traditionsfollowed by Yogis, Sufis, Vaishnavas etc. that still preservethe spirits of their masters who cannot return to the earthagain. The yogis are still connected with Patanjali, Vaishnavaswith Vishnu, Sufis with Khizra and Christians and Islamicmystics with the angels. A tradition servives only as long assuch a connection remains unsevered. That is why, theUpanishad states that the lineage (praja) of such a wise oneneed not disappear. By now it must have become clear tothe readers’ mind that this Upanishad preceeds both theschools of Sankhya and Yoga and both the tradition inherittheir metaphysics from this Upanishad due to Pippalad.

Now, Sauryayani comes forward with his fourth querry.This querry relates to the sleeping states of mind. Sauryayaniasks, “Which are the deities pertaining to the humanexistence that sleep during the state of sleep? Which are thedeities that keep on waking even during the state of sleep?Which one of the deities experiences the dreams? Which oneof the deities experiences pleasure during deep sleep? Finally,in whom do all these deities reside?”

Pippalad replies using a very beautiful simile. He says,“Look at the sun. When the sun is rising all its rays spreadall over and when the sun is setting all its rays return backto the source and become one again in the sun. Similarly,when a man sleeps all his senses of perception and actionreturn back to the ultimate deity which is Prana. Allperception, cognition, sensation, comprehension, action etc.come to a rest and we say that the person is sleeping. Pippaladproceeds further and compares this state of sleep to a ‘Yajna’.

Page 58: Paradise Never Lost

120 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 121

The five fires of Prana like the five flames of a yajna remainwaking even during the sleep. APAN is like the root fire, itkeeps alive the systems of excretion and reproduction evenduring the sleep. The process of sperm making or ovumformation still continues, the intensities and kidneys stillremain in function too. VYAN and PRAN are like two flamesraised from the root fire. These help involuntary functionslike heart-beat, blood-circulation etc. The incoming and theout-going breaths are like two offerings given to the root firewhich help the vitality grow or help the Prana strengthening.SAMAN is the form of Prana which distributes this vitalityeverywhere equally. UDAN is like the desired motive of theyajna which takes the sleeping one to the state of Sushuptior dreamless sleep which is as relaxing and revitalizing asSamadhi. Both in Sushupti and Samadhi we return back toour centre.

The Vedanta philosophy which is the philosophyunderlying the Upanishads, too, describes four states ofawareness. These states are Jagriti (wakefulness), Swapna(dreaming). In Jagriti our mind remains occupied mainly withthe outside objects, in Swapna our mind remains occupiedmainly with mental processes, but in Sushupti and Samadhiboth, all the objects of our consciousness disappear. Ourconsciousness becomes an empty mirror reflecting nothing.Sushupti is as blissful and so vigorous as Samadhi with onedifference that is Sushupti we are as unconscious as matterand in Samadhi we are as conscious as a divine being.Sushupti is the desired fruit of sleep and it rejuvenates usfor one more day of hustle and bustle. Modern psychologyhas established through the instruments that this state ofSushupti occurs only for a fleeting period of two to tenminutes every time. But by the psychologists the dreamstoo are considered to be indispensable for the normalfunctioning of the brain. If the dreams of a sleeping personare shattered again and again, the person can go even mad.Some modern psychologists believe that dreams are all themore important even than Sushupti and it seems to be truebecause if we look at our fellow beings they live in dreamsonly. Life and dremas are synonymous for most of us.

If we come to the present day terminology, Rayi literallymeans the mustard seed. Jesus, too, has used it in theparable of the mustard seed. According to Pippalad substance

(Rayi) consists of very small particles. It is the material causebehind the universe and is bound to be atomic in nature.Prana represents our conscious, subconscious andunconscious realms of mind. There is an indication in theUpanishad, as we have discussed already, that Vyan andUDAN not only pertain to the cosmic unconscious in us, butalso these aspects of Prana represent the outside universeas well. Like Freud, also Pippalad holds that APAN or sex-energy is the root fire in us. It seems that wise people havealways thought alike. As a matter of fact, Pippalad preceedsAbraham, Buddha and Moses all but his philosophy presentsno contradictions even before the modern scientific thought.

Pippalad proceeds to narrate one more metaphor whichis rather beautiful. As all the birds of celebrity return backto dwell in the same tree at the hour of sunset, similarly allthe senses of cognition and of action and all the five flamesof Prana reside in the same Absolute Self or the Brahma. Allthe five great manifestations (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Sky)together with their properties (Smell, Fluidity, Form,Touchability, Audibility) dwell in the same one Absolute Self.All the instruments of awareness such as mind, intellect,emotion, ego and spirit too reside in the same Absolute Self.The living being or PURUSH is the one who sees, touches,enjoys, thinks, conceives and this Purush also resides inthe same Absolute Self. Whosoever realizes this living beingwhich is shadowless, bodiless, colourless, purelyindestructible substance also comes to realize this AbsoluteSelf or Brahma in a way. Such a wise person who has realizedthe Brahma becomes omnipresent and omniscient. Such awise person enters the Absolute Self or the kingdom of Godforever. May it be so. Hence this question.

Satyakama is the disciple who raises the fifth question,“Upto what status a seeker is raised after death who hasrealized the soundless sound of AUM during his meditations?”

Pippalad replies that it depends on the depth ofmeditation. Pippalad has used two words in his answer whichare significant. One is ‘Abhidhyanam’ and the other is ‘Matra’.Abhidhyam means Dhyan, Patanjali also has used it as theseventh step of his yoga discipline, and Matra menas degree.(For example, we use a word tanmatra in Sankhya whichmeans ‘a very small degree of that’; smell is said to be thetanmatra of earth etc). In fact, meditation has three matras

Page 59: Paradise Never Lost

122 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 123

Vaikhari, Madhyama and Pashyanti. So Pippalad says thatit depends on our depth of meditation to know what willhappen to us after death. A seeker can begin to meditatewith the practice of AUM also. First of all, we produce thesound of AUM through our mouth or through our nostrilsand become one with this sound. It is better to produce thesound through the nostrils and become merged into itartificial means such as cassettes can also be added. So asound of AUM is produced, we hear this sound and becomeone with it. This is the Vaikhari matra of meditation. In thesecond stage we stop to produce this sound by objects andsit silently awaiting peacefully. One can attain to perfectsilence; this is the Madhyama matra of meditation. Someday it can happen that a seeker is sitting silently, doingnothing, just witnessing his thoughts or absence of thoughtsand suddenly the existential sound of AUM is heard. This isthe soundless sound or the sound of one hand clapping orthe Anahad Nad. This stage is said to be the Pashyanti matraof meditation. One who is just at the Vaikhari stage is againborn as a human being; one who is at the Madhyama stageof meditation is born as a deity and one who is at thePashyanti stage of meditation can become one with theAbsolute Self after his death and need not be reborn. So itdepends how deep our meditation has been. A seeker canattain to Vaikhari, Madhyama, Pashyanti or Para matras ofmeditation through other methods also. The use of themantra AUM is not indispensable to attain to the variousstates of being after death.

We can understand this happening from a different pointof view too. Yoga has talked about seven bodies. The firstbody is physical and it consists of matter and every humanbeing is aware of it. The second, third and fourth bodiesconsist of energy and only a meditator can remain aware ofchanges in them. These bodies are known as the etheric, theastral and the psychic respectively. These taken togetherare known as the Prana or the causal body. Self is neithermatter nor energy and so the Self transcends both Rayi andPrana. The first body which is physical is a manifestation ofRayi and the causal body is the manifestation of Prana. TheBrahma and the self transcend both of these. So at theVaikhari matra of meditation a person gradually becomesaware of the second (etheric) body. Through this awareness

the six perversions of Lust, Anger, Vanity, Greed, Prejudiceand Jealousy are gradually transformed to Reproduction,Compassion, Humility, Generousity, Detachment andSympathy respectively. At the second stage Madhyama ofmeditation a meditator gradually becomes aware of his astralbody. Through this awareness thoughts and dreams becomeless and less and finally both of these disappear; there areno involuntary thoughts or dreams whatsoever. At the thirdmatra Pashyanti of meditation a seeker gradually becomesaware of his psychic body. ESP and psychic powers becomespontaneous to such a seeker. The science of yoga, however,has advised not to indulge in such powers unnecessarily.Mohammad had seen Koran at the Pashyanti stage ofmeditation. At this third matra of meditation one can hearthe soundless sound of AUM also which is the sound of onehand clapping. This sound is heard at the border of the fourthbody after which there is no realm of the formal Brahma.Every method becomes perfect here, methods can lead usonly upto this sound of no collision. After this one enters thefourth matra Para of meditation and becomes self-realized.But no methods can lead upto Para which is a spontaneoushappening. Animals are not generally aware even of thephysical body. They live in a state which Freud has calledId. Human beings are not always aware of their energy bodiesand they live in a state of ego or vanity. So those who haveattained only to Vaikhari come back to human form, thosewho attained only upto Madhyama can attain to heaven butnever to liberation. Only after Pashyanti the universe of noforms begins. So AUM can also help but only upto the fourthbody which is psychic. Beyond that is self-realization andno one can predict it and no one can force it.

In fact, AUM is the purest from of energy beyond whichthere is only consciousness. So a person encounters AUMonly when he has crossed all these three matras of meditationand all these three energy bodies. Such a person is nearestto the centre and to the enlightenment. That is why, Pippaladis right to say that there are both the possibilities for a seeker.He stands on the borderline so he can return back to theworld of forms or alternatively take a jump into the centre.He may come back or he may disappear, the last moment ofhis death will decide it whether he comes back or not.However, one more remark is necessary here. Every self-

Page 60: Paradise Never Lost

124 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 125

realized person need not experience this sound of AUMbecause there are many routes unto the Ultimate. Neithermeditation is the only path nor every meditator need to bypassthis sound of AUM. But Pippalad is right on this point that aseeker who has experienced this sound of one hand clappingmost probably will jump out of the cycle of death and rebirth.

Now, we can take the original words of Pippalad. He says,“A person who has crossed the first matra of meditationreturns back soon to a human form. But his birth is veryhigh, faith and meditation become his very nature. Hebecomes as pure as the sayings of one Veda (Rigveda). Aseeker who has crossed the second matra of meditationbecomes as pure as the sayings of two Vedas (Rig, Yaju).Such a person becomes a Deity, is laid to the Moon in hiscausal body and after that he returns back to the Earth.There are many holy spirits which reside on the Moon butwhich can neither be seen through physical eyes nor can bescanned through scientific instruments either. The writerknows some meditators who are in constant touch with suchspirits through telepathy. A man who has crossed the thirdstage of meditation becomes as pure as the sayings of threeVedas (Rig, Yaju, Sam). It is as easy for such a person to giveup his bondage as it is for a snake to cast off its slough.Such a person can even realize the Absolute Being.

According to Mimansa an alternative interpretation alsois possible. When a seeker comes to realize the soundlesssound of AUM he understand that all the sounds haveemerged from AUM. In fact all the world of forms is realizedto have emerged from AUM which is the ultimate form ofenergy according to the seekers. For such a person Rigvedabecomes the first matra of AUM, Yajurveda becomes thesecond matra of AUM and Samveda becomes the third matraof AUM. Through hearing, contemplating and meditatingupon the sayings of these Vedas, a seeker can attain to thestages described above. Following one veda he crosses thefirst stage of meditation, following two Vedas together hecrosses the second stage of meditation and following all thethree Vedas simultaneously he crosses the third stage ofmeditation also.”

I agree with the first interpretation which is according tothe science of yoga because the second interpretation whichis according to Mimansa can help very few people grow.

However, we have to remember that these three stages ofmeditation are not the completion of meditation, there isalso the fourth which is Para. It is not necessary that a personwho has reached even the third stage of meditation shouldtranscend death, but one who has reached the fourth alwaystranscends it. Those who have attained to self-realizationstop wavering. Self-realization is Para and it becomes possibleonly after a person can remain aware in all his actions, outerand inner both. That is why, the path of meditation is saidto be arduous. But this is the only general path, althoughnot the only one. Even the path of meditation belongs togradual enlightenment. There are paths leading to suddenenlightenment too. Our point here is that upto the thirdstage of meditation, there is fear of death. Having crossed itperfectly there is no death at all. It seems, however, therecan be as many methods as there are seekers. This is theway of the white cloud, no footprints left behind. Some peoplemay suddenly attain to AUM like Pippalad and can go evenbeyond and know that Absolute Principle which transcendsall fear, change and death. Some people may never come tolisten to AUM, yet become enlightened and liberated. So itdepends on many things including also the methods adopted.

The sixth question comes from Sukesha. He wants toknow where the Purush or the Lord of the physical bodyresides, the Lord who is said to be the master of the sixteentalents.

Pippalad replies that the Lord of the physical body dwellsin the body itself and all these sixteen talents seem to dwellin the Lord. Pur means a city and Purush means one whodwells in this city. This body of ours is a kind of city and ourself dwells in it. According to Pippalad Purush first of allcreated Prana (spirit) and from Prana he created Shraddha(Faith). After that he created five great manifestations (Sky,Air, Fire, Water, Earth). Then he created four kinds of minds(will, intellect, mind, ego); five senses of perception and fivesenses of action. After that he created food, sperm, tapa,mantra, karma and the various words. According to Pippaladthe sixteen talents are – prana, faith, will, intellect, mind(emotion), ego, five senses of perception and five senses ofaction.

This description does not seem to be very much differentfrom the Sankhya metaphysics. Sankhya enumerates twenty-

Page 61: Paradise Never Lost

126 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 127

five substances –Five great manifestations (Sky, Air, Fire, Water, Earth);

Five Tanmatras (Audibility, Touch, Heat, Fluidity, Smell);Five senses of perception; (Five senses of action); Four kindsof mind (Mahat, Mind, Intellect, Ego) and Purush. In fact allthese have been included in metaphysics due to Pippaladexcept perhaps the five tanmatras which seem to be an afterthought.

Pippalad proceeds further and narrates the process ofdissolution which is the reverse of creation. He says that allthe manifestations and all the sixteen talents disappear intoPurush and become one with it at the time of greatdissolution. As all the rivers flow into the ocean and becomeone with the ocean so all the creation disappears into Purush(The Brahma). The Purush of this Upanishad is the same asconsciousness, Brahma or the Absolute Self. This is impliedalthough nowhere stated. In reference to an individual thisPurush is the individual self (Atman).

This Upanishad certainly preceeds the Sankhya-Sutraof Kapil and the Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali. In fact both Sankhyaand yoga owe much to Pippalad for the sake of expressionand terminology. As it is clear from the context the wordRayi seems to be synonymous to the Jain concept of ‘Bandh’and the word Prana includes the Sankhya term Mahat in it.In Sankhya Mahat is the first variation in Prakriti and inthis Upanishad Prana is the first variation of Prakriti. ButPrana is not synonymous to Mahat, because it includes theindividual consciousness also. We cannot substitute one wordfor the other, yet prana seems to be a better word than Mahator Purush used in Sankhya. This Upanishad does not usethe word Prakriti but all that ensues from Rayi is in factPrakriti.

In the end, all the disciples bow-down to Pippalad andfare him well gratefully and the Upanishad comes to aconclusion.

Mundakopanishad

‘Mund’ literally means Buddhi or Head and so Mundakmeans Bauddhik or Discussion or ‘of the head’. So thatMundak Upanishad means the Upanishad of discussions.In fact, as we go along we find three Mundaks or Discussions

narrated in it. These three discussions have taken placebetween Shaunak and Angira.

Shaunak himself was the founder of a big school oflearning. Once he came to Angira who was a great seer.

Shaunak asks Angira–“What is that knowing which all is known?”To this question Angira replies that there are two basic

disciplines worth knowing and these two disciplines are –Paravidya and Aparavidya. This answer is exactly the sameas it had been prescribed in the Ishavasya Upanishad. InIsha Upanishad the terms used are respectively Vidya andAvidya. The first is the discipline leading towards the ultimatetruth and the second is the discipline pertaining to thepractical knowledge. Faith is the key to the first disciplineand doubt is the key to the second discipline. Faith bringsus closer to the God and doubt brings us closer to the deviland both are the same.

Then Angira proceeds to explain what is Aparavidya andwhat is Paravidya. According to Angira the knowledge ofGrammar, Poetics, Medicine and even the knowledge of fourVedas all come under the category of Aparavidya. It seemsthat in those days all kinds of knowledge had been collectedin the form of the four Vedas. According to Angira only therealization of that substance which is changeless and timelesscan be said to be Paravidya and everything else belonged toAparavidya. This changeless principle is realized by a seekerto be beyond vision, birth, varna, form etc. It is devoid of allthat can be known through our five senses of cognition andour five senses of action. It is the eternal, the omnipresent,the infinite, very minute, the indestructible Brahma. It isobserved while we observe all the living and non-living things.This indestructible Brahma brings forth this universe as aspider begets a web, as the Earth begets medicinal plants oras the human organism begets heir. As the spider swallowsback its web, all this universe also disappears back into theBrahma. Brahma is the efficient, the material, the formal,the original and the essential cause of this creation. Itmultiples itself only through its own will. This creation canbe compared with a YAJNA also. First of all, it is said, thatAnna is born. We have to understand this word ‘anna’. It isa word just like ‘anyah’ or ‘anyatra’. Anna is the sum of twosyllables ‘an’ and ‘na’. ‘An’ as a prefix which means ‘Non’

Page 62: Paradise Never Lost

128 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 129

and ‘na’ means negativity and so Anna means non-negativityof substance. It is to be remembered that Anna does notmean only cereal which is one of the meanings; when wecome to foodstuff cereal is the only substantial food. WhenUpanishads state that ‘Anna is Brahma’ it only means thatBrahma is beyond negation or all this existence is Brahmaor all substance is Brahma. In fact, all that exists is said tobe Brahma, existence and Brahma are synonymous to eachother. Anna is synonymous to Sat or substance. Substanceis the word which Spinoza too has used. So ‘Anna is Brahma’means that Brahma is the only substance.

The Upanishad holds that first of all the substance (Anna)appears and from this substance we get Prana (Spirit), Mahat(Cosmic Mind), the universes and Karma (Action). From theKarma ensues rebirth because our karmas create a chain ofcause and effect which hardly can come to a logical end onlyin one birth. According to the Upanishad, this universe ofnames, of forms and of substance emerges from Brahmawhich is an omnipresent and omniscient principle havingan enlightened Will for creation. That is to say that thisuniverse of names and forms has an intelligent principlebehind it.

Angira proceeds further to explain that all ritual isAparavidya and only self-realization is Paravidya. The ritualssuch as yajna, pilgrimage, worship, charity etc can lead aperson utmost upto the heaven. The person enjoys there thefruits of all his good deeds and when this treasure of gooddeeds is exhausted, he falls back again to the earth. Heavenis not the ultimate achievement and this path is not thesignificant one. Those who are wise do not run after heavenbut try to become self-enlightened under the discipline ofone who knows his own being. Without self-realizationeveryone is destined to fall back again and again into thecycle of life and death. The Upanishad holds that it is becausein the stage of ignorance we identify ourselves with ‘theEmbodied Self’ and after self-realization we come to knowour being as ‘the Absolute Self’. The ‘Embodied Self’ isdescribed by the word ‘Jeevatma’ whereas ‘The Absolute Self’is denoted by the word ‘Paramatma’ in this Upanishad.

Whereas the scriptures like the Geeta have insisted uponfourteen manifestations while describing the humanexistence, this Upanishad gives importance to seven only.

Geeta talks about five senses of action, five senses of cognitionand four kinds of mind while this Upanishad gives importanceto only seven of them – five senses of cognition, speech andmind.

Now, we quote from the Upanishad itself –“From that divine Brahma seven kinds of Pranas or

vitalities are born. From these seven Pranas the seven sensesof Ear, Nose, Eye, Skin, Tongue, Speech and Mind arebegotten. There are seven kinds of desires which arisecorresponding to each of these seven senses and these sevendesires can be compared to the seven flames of a yajna. Also,there are seven kinds of contents corresponding to theseseven senses which can be compared to the seven kinds ofofferings given to these seven flames. These seven flamescreate the seven kinds of dimensions (mansions) in whichthese seven pranas dwell. During the sleep all these sevenkinds of senses are restored back into one ultimate principlewhich is the Brahma and which is rooted into us the mostdeeply.”

Can we find any parallel elsewhere to this expression?Yes, in its aphorism 2/4/5 the Brahma-Sutra or the VedantaSutra lays down that there are seven kinds of Pranas. Theyoga-sutra, too, assigns seven chakras and seven bodies andeach of these chakras has a world of its own. MundakUpanishad, too, asserts that with the coming forth of eachsense a complete world related to it is born. With the Eye aworld of sight comes into existence, with the Ear a world ofsound comes into existence etc. There is every reason tobelieve that the concepts of Vedanta-Sutra and Yoga-Sutramay have had their inspiration from the Mundakopanishad.Everywhere in the Indian tradition the number of senses arementioned to be seven or ten.

Next, Angira comes forward with one more metaphor. Hesays fire is begotten from the Brahma and this fire manifestsitself into the Sun and Moon. The Sun and the Moon begetthe clouds and the clouds shower rains. Rains beget variouskinds of plants, plants beget seeds and seeds beget creatures.The implication here is that sperm, too, is seed and the foodderived from the plants generates the sperm. This is a kindof metaphysics which many Upanishads have described andthere is nothing specific about it.

After this we come across one more metaphor for which

Page 63: Paradise Never Lost

130 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 131

this Upanishad has become well-known. This is the metaphorof the two birds. The Upanishad states –

“This our body is like a tree on which the two birdsJeevatma (The Embodied Self) and Paramatma (The AbsoluteSelf) rest simultaneously. In the state of ignorance we identifyourselves with the Embodied Self and in the state ofawakening we identify ourselves with the Absolute Self. Thefirst of these birds tastes both kinds of fruits, sweet andbitter depending upon the arousal of the past karmas whilethe second tastes nothing. It is just an un-involved witness.It remains aware but does not participate.”

We are reminded here that Jesus too has used thismetaphor in his sayings. He has said, “Two men shall lie ina bed, one will live and the other will die.” Also, he has said,“Two women shall sit grinding, one will live and the otherwill die”, etc. The sayings of this kind imply that there aretwo kinds of principles in us, one of which is temporal whilethe other is immortal. Of course, all those who have eyeshave come to see the same truth. Yet, it seems that MundakUpanishad has been the origin of all such statements.

The Upanishad now comes forward with a suggestion tous – “One must speak the truth, live a life of discipline andshould avoid perverted sexual indulgence.” It reminds us ofa Sutra from Kathopanishad too because the Sutra is verymuch similar in its implication. The Kathopanishad has said–

“Self-realization cannot happen to a person who doesnot bear a good moral character, who does not possess thepeace of mind, and who does not have any restrain over hissenses and his lower appetites. Self-realization, although,can happen only through INTUITION.”

There is a famous maxim also due to this Upanishad.This maxim is – only the truth can prevail (Satyameva Jayate).What is the implication? The word ‘Satya’ or truth has gottwo meanings, factuality and the ultimate reality. Here inthis sutra truth means the ultimate realty of self-realization.This sutra means that ignorance cannot prevail for ever, onlythe enlightenment can prevail for ever. Maybe ignorance hasno beginning but it certainly comes to an end. In theconclusion, only the Brahma-realization can prevail. Satyahere does not mean to abide by the facts, it meansenlightenment or becoming one with the ultimate reality. Itis good to call a spade a spade but it cannot have much to do

with self-realization, the only principle which can prevail forever. So Satya here does not mean being factual.

According to the Upanishad, abiding by the facts, keepingaway from falsehood and refraining from hypocrisy can onlybe a help towards enlightenment but it is not theenlightenment itself. Factuality is good but it is not everythingto be factual. In fact, there are no karma which can causethe enlightenment, neither there are any rituals nor anyausterities which can lead to it forcibly. According toUpanishads enlightenment is an intuitive happening but ithappen only to those who have a purity of heart. Jesus hassaid, “Only those shall enter the kingdom of God who arelike small children”. Also, the Upanishads are in agreementwith it. The only thing we have to understand is thatchildhood is not the kingdom of God.

Angira has preached that everyone gets what he or sheseeks and so a wise man should seek only the Brahma orthe Absolute Self; nothing else is worthwhile. Our desiresare responsible for falling back again and again into the cycleof life and death. But the Upanishads have not been in favourof renunciation. The Upanishadic faith can be named asUPASANA which literally means ‘to live in harmony withexistence’. The Hindus of this era insisted upon a life full ofaction and understanding, they did not insist uponrenunciation, discipline or techniques. This insistence uponmethods like meditation, bhakti etc. came in India with theprevalence of the schools of yoga, Buddhism and Jainism.Even the Bhakti tradition commenced as a reaction to yoga.The Upanishadic seers believed that only by going deep intodesires we could understand the futility of desires. When wecome to understand the futility of all desires. When we cometo understand the futility of all desires, all desires drop andthis state of desirelessness becomes a passage forenlightenment which is intuitive. The state of desirelessnesscreates a psychological vacuum in us and the existence neverpermits a vacuum, so enlightenment in the naturalconsequence. According to Upanishads only a whole-heartedindulgence in life can give us the understanding of life. Thisunderstanding of life leads some people to desirelessnessand this desirelessness can lead to enlightenment; not anykarma, not any ritual, not any austerities or any disciplecan result in enlightenment. The Upanishadic message

Page 64: Paradise Never Lost

132 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 133

invariably has been very brief, “Go deep into life andunderstand the nature of desires, this understanding leadssome people to ultimate truth and enlightenment happensalways as a spontaneous gift from the existence.”

According to the Upanishads Brahmacharya is theultimate discipline and a man of Brahmacharya can attainto the truth and the vice-versa. Brahmacharya literally means‘a routine like the Brahma’ and so it should imply ‘NishkamaKarma’ or ‘Karma without attachment’. We have to rememberthat for the Brahma creation is not a means but only aspontaneity. All creation is the consequence of overflowingenergy. So Brahmacharya means action which is an end initself, action which is spontaneous, and action which hasno purpose outside of itself. This action is overflowing energy,this action is overflowing existence and this action isoverflowing bliss. According to Upanishads, life has nopurpose other than living. The Brahma of Upanishads islike Nataraj, a dancer which is lost into the dance, a dancerwhich does not exist outside the dance, a dancer for whichthe dance has become the total action. Such an action isBrahmacharya. Brahma literally means the growing realityand Brahmacharya literally means to expand like the Brahmaor to overflow with energy. Naturally Brahmacharya is notcelibacy. A wise man should act out of bliss for the sake ofbliss; a wise man should act out of wisdom for the sake ofwisdom; a wise man should act out of spontaneity for thesake of spontaneity. He should act as the flower blossoms,as the air vibrates, as the river flows and as the Moon shines.So Brahmacharya means ‘Nishkama Karma’ or ‘Creation forthe sake of creation’. Children play for the sake of playingnot to win a medal, a cuckoo sings for the sake of singingnot to earn a little, and a peacock dances for the sake ofdancing and not to become the National Bird of India.Similarly the Brahma acts because action is his very nature,because it is out of bliss that the action follows. Wheneverwe associate a purpose to an action, the purpose becomeimportant and the action looses all its grandeur. Such anaction cannot have any beauty in it. So there should be nopurpose and there should be no motive to compel an action,only then it is Nishkama Karma, only then it is Brahmacharyaor the conduct like the Brahma. This Nishkama Karma isthe essential teaching of all the Upanishads and this is the

ultimate discipline associated with the attainment of truth.This seems that the Buddhist and the Jain philosophers

later on interpreted Kama as sex and Nishkama Karma ascelibacy or sexless act and so Brahmacharya was interpretedto mean celibacy. I should congratulate Freud and his schoolof psychoanalysis because the Buddhist and the Jain monkshave been very close to them in their interpretation. Freudtoo believed that our sex energy was the basic motive behindall our actions. But as far as Upanishads are concerned thisinterpretation is neither necessary nor true. Thisinterpretation, in fact, marks the beginning of hypocrisy inthe History of Indian Mysticism too. This implication isrelevant only to people who can sublimate their sexual desirethrough yogic practices and through austerities but all suchdiscipline came into existence afterwards. So whenever wecome across the word Brahmacharya in Upanishads it meansNishkama Karma only. Upanishads have always been infavour of a spontaneous life lived in harmony with theexistential order. Cosmic Harmony has been the keywordfor the Upanishadic seers, and this they have called the Rit.In the days of Upanishads no one was supposed to renouncethe world before the age of fifty and even after this age boththe husband and the wife used to got to the forest togethernot alone. Also, many disciples used to live with them tomake their renunciation comfortable, and the whole societywas supposed to support them economically.

Mandukya Upanishad

Mundak means a discussion and Mandukya means‘worthy of discussion’ or ‘pertaining to discussion’ or ‘thatwhich follows from a discussion’.

This Upanishad describes in detail the four states ofconsciousness; these states are Jagriti (wakefulness), Swapna(dreamfulness), Sushupti (contentless sleep) and Turiya(other than the three). The state of wakefulness is the firstquadrant of consciousness. It corresponds to the exteriorPrana or the cosmic spirit which pervades this universe. Ithas seven instruments of perception viz. eye, ear, nose,tongue, skin, speech and mind. These seven instrumentscreate seven mansions (lokas) of the universe. During thestate of wakefulness nineteen doors of awareness can be

Page 65: Paradise Never Lost

134 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 135

said to function. These doors consist of five senses ofcognition, five senses of action; five kinds of pranas (Apana,Samana, Pran, Vyan, Udan) and four kinds of minds (mahat,buddhi, manas, aham). During wakefulness our awarenesswitness the gross aspect of creation which is the objectiveoutside world. This aspect of consciousness is termedsVAISHVANAR.

The Second quadrant of consciousness in us is namedas Tejas or Hiranyagarbha. It corresponds to the dreamingstate of mind in us. During this state of mind also we usedthe same seven instruments of Perception and the samenineteen doors of awareness as already mentioned whilediscussing wakefulness. In Dreaming state of mind primarilyour consciousness is occupied with the subjective isolatedworld of individual experience. This state of consciousnesshas been described as Tejas or Hiranyagarbha by theUpanishad.

The third quadrant of consciousness is named as Pragyaor the original ignorance. Pragya is the sum of two syllablespra and agya; pra means the original and agya means theignorance. This state is the same which the Jain Philosophershave called Nigod. According to the Jain Philosophy thereare three states of consciousness – Nigod, Sansara andMokhsa. According to Mandukya Upanishad the states ofconsciousness are four viz. Vaishvanar, Hiranyagarbha,Pragya and Turiya. But in fact, Jains have only reiteratedthis Sutra of Mandukya because Nigod means Pragya, Sansarincludes Vaishvanar and Hiranyagarbh both and Mokhsa isexactly the same as Turiya. So Sansara is an experienceconsisting of both wakefulness and dreaming states of mindwhich is understandable. In this way, the Hindu and theJain descriptions become the same. One more point is to beunderstood here, Sansara includes our life on this Earth aswell as our life after death but not Mokhsa. So Sansaraincludes both the Lokas, this and the beyond. According toHindus, however, the experience of that world is Vaishvanarwhile the experience of that world is Hiranyagarbha primarily.Pragya proceeds the commencement of the experience ofSansara, it is the state in which Adam and Eve used to livewhile in the Garden of Eden; from the Garden of Eden theytransmigrated to the experience of Sansara. Turiya is thestate Jesus is supposed to attain after he would regain the

Paradise. So Christianity also has talked of the same threestates of consciousness viz. The Garden of Eden, the ParadiseLost and the Pradise Regained which refer respectively toNigod, Sansara and Kaivalya. In fact, this Paradise Regainedis the highest state of consciousness and this state has beendescribed also by names like Mokhsa, Kaivalya, Turiya,Samadhi, Enlightenment, Qayamat etc.

This third state Pragya corresponds in us to Sushupti orDreamless Sleep. Although it is the lowest state ofconsciousness but it is very refreshing and rejuvenating. Inthis state a man is said to have slept like a log (matter). Inthis state of mind too, there are no desires, no dreams andno duality whatsoever. Also in Pragya the Brahma and thecreature become one. Also, we feel a certain kind of well-being in this state too. Here, too there is a death and aresurrection. Modern Psychology finds that this state is verybrief and it lasts only from two to ten minutes every night. Itis due to this brief period only that we get a new lease of lifeeveryday and can work properly during our waking state ofmind. However, the Modern Psychology acknowledges onlythe first three states of consciousness which are Wakefulness,Dreaming and Dreamless Sleep respectively. It knows nothingof the fourth while the Paradise is Regained. This fourthstate of mind is not a matter of common experience. EvenJesus has not regained it for ever. We can understand thatevery Dick and Henry is not supposed to know it. Jesus israised to the Paradise but twice he returns back to the Earth.Only the third time his conquest becomes lasting. The thirdtime he becomes like the angels or even greater because hehas been so dear to God the Father.

However, the fourth state of consciousness is Kaivalyaor Liberation. The Upanishads state it is neither this northat. In this state of consciousness there are no contentspsychological or worldly. In this state of consciousness thereis no one who knows and there is no one who does not know.We can neither see, nor use, nor assume, nor describe thisstate of consciousness. Our eye or intellect or any other sensehas nothing to do with this state of consciousness. All thatwe call Perception or conception is irrelevant here. In thisstate of consciousness only Kaivalya or self-realizationremains. All the furniture of the Earth and the Heavendisappears together with all our mental processes. Here we

Page 66: Paradise Never Lost

136 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 137

come across the ultimate good and non-duality. This fourthstate of consciousness is the experience of Atman, of Brahmaor of Samadhi. This is the only experience worth having; wehave come home. Here, the beginning and the end, the alphaand the omega, the first and the last have become one. Thereis no time and no space. There is no observer and there isnothing observed.

This Upanishad uses the symbol AUM to describe thevarious states of consciousness. Here we come across a goodpiece of poetic imagery. The Upanishad states that the lettersA, U, M can be said to represent the first three states ofconsciousness viz. Vaishvanara, Hiranyagarbha and Pragyarespectively. These states are also known as Wakefulness,Dreaming and Sushupti respectively. This kind ofrepresentation is a matter of poetry and not a matter ofMetaphysics. According to the Upanishads the soundlesssound of AUM is the basic energy from which all the creationfollows. So we can say that the first matra of AUM createsWakefulness, the second matra of AUM creates Dreams andthe third matra of AUM creates Dreamless Sleep. The fourthstate Turiya transcends even this sound of AUM. This stateis pure consciousness and no energy. We can describe thisstate as being both, a state of zero energy and a state ofinfinite energy; a state in which effective energy is zero andthe potential energy is infinite. So more and more energy ismanifested as we move along the states of TURIYA,VAISHVANARA, HIRANYAGARBHA and PRAGYA respectively,the last being the state of matter and the first being thestate of the Absolute Self. It seems that the chanting of AUMis good to induce sleep but it has nothing to do with thefourth state of pure consciousness, nothing can lead to thisstate. This experience of Turiya is uncaused and comes onlyas a sudden gift from the existence. Moses seldom goes tothe Mountain, most of the times the Mountain comes to findMoses. Here we finish this sixth Upanishad.

Some of the other Upanishads are Aitareya, Taithiriya,Shvetashvatar, Vrihadaranyaka, Chhandogya etc. Besidesthese we also should better go through Brahmasutra(Vedantsutra) and Geeta to comprehend the Upanishadicphilosophy. Not only this, the total number of Upanishadsis more than one hundred. We cannot discuss all of thesehere. I intend to discuss these in my book ‘Discovery of Indian

thought’ later on. In fact, one need to write a separate andcomprehensive volume on the Upanishads alone, which isout of all question here.

I have briefly described the text and implication of thesesix Upanishads so that a reader may have an introductionidea of the vedic culture and of the influence it did cast onall the traditions which springed afterwards. Now, we cananalyze and summarize the Upanishadic thought whichbecame the source for all the future religions. To begin with,Upasana seems to be the most prevalent form of religion inthe days of the great Upanishads. Upasana meant ‘beingclose to the divine existence’ or ‘living in harmony with theeternal law’. The traditions such as Hinduism, Sankhya,Yoga, Bhakti, Jainism, Buddhism etc are nowhere mentionedin the Upanishads. According to Upanishads it is the lifewhich we want to understand and life pertains to all creaturesHuman or otherwise. This experience of life and thisunderstanding of life was supposed to lead to futility of alldesires and desirelessness was supposed to lead toenlightenment. It was customary to go on performing one’sduties without attachment even after enlightenment.Upanishads are non-dualistic in their metaphysics, bothpoetic and philosophical in their expression and with a senseof brevity and wisdom in their diction. Here we find abeauteous conspiracy between poetry and philosophy, logicand music, prose and song, optimism and mysticism etc.Most of the Upanishads do not mention even the name ofthe seers who have contributed. In the Upanishads we havea philosophy and an insight of the highest order possible.The Self and the Brahma are not two; the matter and themind are not two; the creator and the creation are not twoand even a sleeping devdutta cannot sleep for ever. Thecreator is lost in creation as a dancer is lost in dancing yethe remains a witness and an invariant also. It is the Brahmawhich is the effective and the material; the essential and theformal; the original and the universal cause of existence.Brahma is the purpose, the intention, the motive and thegoal of all that exists. All existence is only a play of overflowingenergy coming form the Brahma and returning to the samesource in the end. It is not a serious scheming but only aspontaneows gesture. It is not a chaos but a cosmos andthere is a hidden harmony everywhere. The eternal law is

Page 67: Paradise Never Lost

138 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 139

called Rit and all existence remains in harmony with it. Thewisdom lies in discerning this eternal law and in livingaccordingly. Upasana is the understanding that Brahma isthe only substance manifesting itself as an infinite infinitumand through the essential law of cause and effect which wecall the Rit or the Satya.

It is to be understood clearly that the Upanishads do notpreach the idea of a personal God or the idea of a God who isthe creator. God is said to exist only as a principle, asubstance or an essence. God is both the effective andmaterial cause of this existence and yet he remains anoutsider also. There is no hierarchy, nothing is lower andnothing is superior, Matter, Creatures, Mankind, Deities, Selfand Brahma all are just various aspects of the same realitywhich is non-dualistic and indivisible by its very nature.This very existence is the Brahma and this very world isNirvana. All that exists is Brahma and Brahma is the onlysubstance which exists. Ignorance is the World andEnlightenment is Nirvana, the World and the Nirvana areonly two points of view towards the same reality. Our visionchanges the whole creation.

There are, however, two kinds of doctrines found in theVedanta philosophy. One is known as Brahmaparinamvadand the other is known as Brahmavivartvad. The wordparinamvad literally means effectivism and it is a kind ofrealistic philosophy whereas the word vivartvad literallymeans illusionism and it is a kind of idealistic philosophy.Some Upanishads propagate that Brahma is the cause andthis universe is the effect and the cause and the effect areboth real and distinct. According to them this universe ofmatter and form, of space and time, of a multiplicity of livingand non-living beings has an actual emergence from theBrahma which is the material cause. The Brahma reallyundergoes change, variation or deformation to give birth tothis creation. For parinamavadis there is an absoluteexistence of this universe of names and forms. They explainit with an example: milk is the cause and curd is the effectbut the effect is not the same as the cause because the changeis real; we all know that the milk and the curd have differentproperties. This is the common view acknowledged by everyscientific mind. Kathopanishad has said that Brahma is likethe seed and this universe is like a tree and the change in

Brahma is real. It seems that this doctrine of real effectculminated later on in the Sankhya school of philosophy.

There is another school of Vedant which asserts that thechange or effect in the Brahma is just an illusion. Theyprescribe a story to explain themselves. Once upon a timethere was a beautiful palace of mirrors. It had mirrors andmirrors all around. One day, by mistake, a dog was left alonein it. The dog saw itself reflected a thousand form and wasconfused. Some Hindu scriptures assert that this universeis like the same palace of mirrors. This doctrine is known asVivartvad (reflectionism) and also as Mayavad (illusionism).The same Kathopanishad quoted above also states –

“Whosoever conceives here a multiplicity of substancecannot jump out of the cycle of death and rebirth.”

Some people think it suggests the doctrine of Vivartvad.In Upanishads we come across both these doctrinessimultaneously as if these were complementary to each other.

It seems that both these doctrines are true at the sametime. If we accept time and space to have an absoluteexistence, the effect becomes real and parinamvad becomesthe fact. If we accept like vedantis that time and space areunreal and appear only because we are in a state of spiritualsleep, Vivartvad becomes the conclusion. Vedantis hold thata sleeping Devdutta has been as much a Devdutta as anawakened Devdutta and everying in going to awake up oneday out of this dream of space and time and of name andform, and retrospectively all change is going to prove anillusion. We can take one more illustration. Every river isrushing towards to ocean, is merging into the ocean and isone with the ocean at the same time; it depends from wherewe observe it. So it is said that effectivism and illusionismbecome one and the same when we get out of our spiritualsleep. The beam in the water is really bent and yet reallystraight too. Amen!

Page 68: Paradise Never Lost

140 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 141

Vedanta, Sankhya and Geeta

There are six traditional systems of Hindu Philosophy.These systems are Mimansa, Vedanta, Sankhya, Yoga, Nyayaand Vaisheshika. Mimansa concerns itself with the ritualaspect of Vedas whereas Vedanta is the philosophical aspectof Vedas and so we can leave Mimansa. Upanishads,Brahmasutra and Geeta are the basic Vedant scriptures.Upanishads are contained in the four Vedas and are morethan one hundred in number. Brahma-Sutra or Vedanta-Sutra was written by Vedvyas to explain the Upanishadsand Geeta by the same writer is said to be the essence of allthe Upanishads. The six Upanishads we have gone throughare important and foremost and we have become familiar bynow with the basic philosophy of Vedanta. These Upanishadsare said to be among those which in their manner and contentare thought to be representative.

Gautam and Kanad are exponents of Nyaya andVaisheshika systems respectively. We need not discuss thesesystems here. If we understand Sankhya and Yoga, we candispense with Nyaya and Vaisheshika which do not differessentially from these two systems. It is good for a seeker toknow Sankhya and Yoga which have practical implicationbut he need not go into Nyaya and Vaisheshika as thesesystems are only theorical in their enquiry.

Strangely enough, in many Upanishads we have theterms Sankhya and Yoga mentioned. It seems that Kapil andPatanjali are as ancient as some of the Upanishads are. Thereis a possibility that these six schools of philosophy mighthave come to emerge simultaneously. Maybe those mysticswho agreed with Vedanta were included in the Upanishadsand those who did not agree began to establish other schoolsof Philosophy. Most probably some of the Upanishads werecomposed before the birth of Kapil and Patanjali while someothers were written later on. The composition of Vedas andthe propagation of the six systems of philosophy seems to bea very long and continuous process and today it is verydifficult to assign a chronological order to all of them. Yet wecan say certainly that the four Vedas are more ancient thanthe Sankhyasutra of Kapil, The Sankhyasutra is more ancient

than the Yogasutra of Patanjali and Sankhya-Yoga preceededNyaya Vaisheshika.

In Geeta, we find all the principles of Upanishads and soit seems to be beyond doubt that the Upanishads are moreancient than Geeta which is a part of the great epicMahabharata. This also seems to be the case that Sankhya-sutra and Yoga-sutra both have been more ancient than theGeeta. Everyone knows that the Sankhya system ofphilosophy commenced with the Sankhya-sutra by kapil andcontinues even till today; similarly the yoga system ofphilosophy began with the Yoga-Sutra by patanjali and hascontinued ever since then. So a probable chronological ordercan be taken as – Vedas, Sankhya-Sutra, Yoga-Surta,Brahmasutra and then Geeta. In fact, Geeta, attempts toreconcile the principles of Sankhya and Vedanta both andthis has created a strange situation at many places whichwe shall discuss later on. Upanishads, Brahma-sutra andGeeta are said to be the ‘departure-triad’ as these provide abridge between the Vedas and the six schools of theistphilosophies which consider the Vedas as self-evident.

The Sankhya philosophy

Some philosophers hold that Sankhya and Yoga are twoseparate disciplines while most of the scholars take them ascomplementary systems. Sankhya is said to be the theoreticalaspect and Yoga the practical aspect of the same discipline.The word Sankhya ensues from the word Sankhya whichhas two meanings – number and equal significance (SamyakKhyati). This name is appropriate because while theUpanishads accept only one substance which is the Brahma,Sankhya believes in two substances ‘Purush’ and ‘Prakrit’both of which are absolute and have equal significance.Purush is conscious and Prakriti is unconscious; Purush isthe effective cause and Prakriti is the material cause of allthat exists. Sankhya is dualistic in its nature, both Prakritiand Purush are absolute, independent and ultimatebeginningless substances. According to Sankhya all variationoccurs in Prakriti only while Purush remains an invariantor a witness throughout. The Purush of Sankhya does notparticipate in creation, it is just like a catalytic agent.According to Sankhya metaphysics, Purush is conscious but

Page 69: Paradise Never Lost

142 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 143

an inactive principle where as Prakriti is active but inanimate.The Sankhya philosophy has most probably originated fromthe Prashnopanishad but a few remarkable differences arecertainly there. Prana is both conscious and active, it is notlike the Purush of Sankhya. Rayi is unconscious like thePrakriti of Sankya but it is devoid of all initiative. The SankhyaPurush and the Rayi of Prashnopanishad take no initiativein the act of creation. In Prashnopanishad the initiative comesfrom Prana while in Sankhya all the variation, from beginningto the end, occurs in prakrit only. Moreover, Prana and Rayiare not independent substances but only two aspects of thesame substance Brahma, while in Sankhya the independentsubstances are two. Sankhya is a consequence ofBrahmaparinamvad too, but with a difference. All effectoccurs only in Prakriti, the effect is real and is distinct fromthe cause, but our self remains unaffected. So both ourbondage and our liberation remain irrelevant as far as Purushis concerned, the relevance belongs only to the Prakriti. Thisidea is different from Vedanta as a whole because the Brahmaof Vedanta has a will for creation. It is because of the Brahma,which is a conscious principle, that the creation has to follow.We have to remember the maxim ‘Eko Hum Bahusyami’.

So, according to Sankhya, Purush is the first principleand it is the only conscious and intelligent principle. Thewords : Self, Soul, Spirit and Mind are synonyms to it.Sankhya does not accept Brahma as a non-dual entity.Prakriti is the second absolute substance and it meansliterally ‘that which preceeds creation’. Prakriti is inanimate,material and unconscious substance. Ordinarily it meansthe same as Nature of Matter. So this philosophy divides theexistence into two basic substances-‘Purush and Prakriti’ or‘Mind and Matter’ or ‘Spirit and Nature’. Boh these elementsare ultimate and absolute in as much as neither can replacethe other and neither has its origin from the other. There isno cause and effect relationships between them. Each ofthem is without a beginning and without an end. Prakritineither originates in the beginning from the Purush nor itdissolves back into Purush at the time of dissolution. Thisdoctrine of Sankhya is in disagreement with Vedanta aboutthe origin of creation. Also, it is in disagreement with Bibleand Koran where Purush is the creator and Prakriti is thecreation. However, we must understand one more point here.

According to Sankhya, there is only one conscious principle.The word ‘Purush’ refers to both ‘the Universal Self’ and ‘theIndividual Self’. This depends on the context available whosemeaning is the relevant meaing.

Now, we can ask the question which one of the Vedantaand Sankhya is more scientific? How many ultimatesubstances are there? In the past the West believed in twoultimate substances viz Mind and Matter. But now the HighState Energy physics has reached a point where Matter hasdisappeared. Matter is nothing but a condensed state ofEnergy and Energy is nothing but minute Matter. Both cantransform into each other vide the formula E=mc2. Now, wecome to Mind. Our mind consist of thoughts, images,emotions, concepts, axioms, etc. I want to make a suggestionhere. Thought, too, is a form of energy and this energy wecan call the Psychic Energy. Let us understand it. If we denyall energy taken by a person in the form of food or liquor theperson cannot think. The person is bound to fall into acerebral comma and all his mental processes are bound todisappear. So, even thought is a kind of energy, the biologicalenergy is transformed into Psychic Energy. Hence there isno Matter and there is no Mind. There is only one substancewhich the Science calls energy and the religion calls theconsciousness. So there cannot be two substances.

Is energy the ultimate substance? There are manyreasons that the answer should be certainly negative. Firstof all, energy has many forms such as Light, Heat, Sound,Electricity, Magnetism, Thought etc. A substance which isultimate should transcend all change and so it cannot havemany forms. That is to say, if a substance E appears to beE

1,E

2,E

3, . . . etc at different occasions, it is neither E

1 nor E

2

nor E3 etc, we cannot identify it with any one of the forms

available. My suggestion is that if a substance appears inmany forms, it must transcend all these forms and must beformless in its spontaneity. Consciousness is the onlyformless substance and so energy is not the ultimatesubstance but consciousness is the ultimate substance.Again, we come to the law of conservation of energy. All theforms of energy can change one into another and so energycannot be the ultimate substance. As we make anadvancement upon the Atomic Physics, the law ofConservation of Energy does not hold. The recent problem

Page 70: Paradise Never Lost

144 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 145

today is that sometimes the energy becomes more andsometimes it becomes less. Sometimes the energy emergesfrom nowhere and sometimes it disappears into nowhere.So there must be some source of energy and this sourcemust be the ultimate substance. The Upanishads have calledthis ultimate substance ‘the Brahma’ which is a consciousprinciple and which is timeless and nonspatial too. In short,modern science has reached a stage where the substanceseems to be one and unpredictable. The substance seems tohave freedom ad consciousness both. This is the standpointfrom where the Upanishads have begun. There is a maximwhere science ends, the religion begins.

But to a common man Sankhya seems to be moreplausible than Vedanta, why? Because the dichotomy whichwe observe in existence seems to be very basic. We alwaysdivide the existence perceived into two categories— livingand non-living, animate and inanimate, Matter and Mind,Purush and Prakriti etc. It is not ordinarily conceivable thatthis dichotomy emerges from only one basic substance,energy or Brahma. Sankhya has more commonsense thanVedanta is supposed to have. That is why, it seems thatSankhya was propagated. It is easy to understand Sankhyabut it is very difficult to admit the non-duality of Vedanta.Everyone is not supposed to be a philosopher and so theneed of Sankhya was felt to be imperative. With the non-dualism of Veadanta a practical mind was in real turmoil.When we consider Vedanta two objections are reallysignificant. How can a man and a stone be the samesubstances? Even to turn a stone, a person is needed. Theinanimate Nature and living Beings does not seem to be thesame substance. Secondly, this does not seem to be plausiblethat all of us should share the same consciousness. Howcan I and my neighbour have the same consciousness? Thisis not understandable ordinarily. If the neighbour is pricked,he feels the pain but I do not feel it. It is good to go andreconcile with the neighbour first but his meat is not onlymy meat and his thorns are not my thorns. Sankhya acceptedboth these objections to be valid. It accepted that Purushand Prakriti were different realities. It also accepted thevalidity of Brahmaparinamvad. In the beginning there wasonly one absolute Self , but when it became embodied, itcould no more be considered to be absolute. A seed multiples

itself into numerous seeds, after this multiplication there isno necessity to consider them to be identical. This is theSankhya stand-point. It seems that Sankhya emerged as apractical criticism of Vedanta and remained popular becauseof practical considerations and its appeal to commonsense.It seems that the less a system of philosophy confuses, themore popular it should become.

Today even Science has philosophical. Matter hasdisappeared and energy is everything. Even the law ofconservation of energy cannot be held forever. Time and spaceare not absolute but relative to each other. The scientist whobegan with a sense of certainty is no more certain on anypoint now. A few comments about time and space are notout of context here. Vedanta has always asserted that theBrahma is an invariant and so time and space only illusionshaving no absolute implications. I remember ‘The timemachine’ of H.G. Wells. In a way, we have succeeded to makesuch time machines too. We have cinema, video and audiorecordings, televisions and super computers etc which defythe sense of change occurred. We can rewind and fast forwardthese devices to move in time. We have invented cloaningjust now and we can meet the same person even after hedies. We have conquered time and space in our own ways. Inthe past only the mystics claimed that man could know pastand future both and man could transcend the limitations ofspace also. Now it seems, also the scientists have joined withthe philosophers to do away with the barriers paused bytime and space.

Now, we take up the basic features of Sankhya. Prakritiis the original inanimate principle which exhibits itself asNature and Matter. It is responsible for creation anddecreation both as the case may be. Prakriti of Sankhya hasthree components: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas which representrespectively Virtue, Unsteadiness and Ignorance in us. Inthe beginning, the conscious substance Purush is not thereand these three components are in equilibrium. Just as thePurush comes to witness Prakriti, his very presence disturbsthis equilibrium and the process of creation is triggered. Inthe end too, these three components reach an equilibriumagain and the great dissolutions follows. Purush is just likea catalytic agent throughout, it does not participate in theprocess of creation, change or dissolution. The consciousness

Page 71: Paradise Never Lost

146 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 147

of Purush is just a witness throughout; the consciousness isan invariant, changeless, indestructible principle from thebeginning to the end. Only the Prakriti is responsible forboth bondage and liberation. According to Sankhya the wholeexistence is like a universal cinema and the Purush is likean inside audience watching it sitting still. The existencecan be compared to a three dimensional cinema happeningaround the Purush. According to the Sankhya belief a seekerhas just to become aware and has to give up his identificationwith the components of Prakriti working inside him and thiswitnessing will liberate him. Geeta has stated, “whoeverknows the Purash and the Prakriti in action with all its threecomponents, although in bondage at present, he cannot beborn again(13/23)”.

The standpoint that consciousness is an inactive principleis peculiar to Sankhya only. None of the philosophical schoolssuch as Vedanta, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity or Islamcan agree to this standpoint. Vedanta admits it unreservedlythat the Brahma himself is responsible for all the creation(Iam one and I want to become many). Only the modern Sciencemay suggest that energy is the only active principle and ourconsciousness is just a consequence of energy or the vice-versa. The Purush of Sankhya is seated surrounded by athree dimensional movie without even a remote control inhis hands. But the modern Psychology comes to supportSankhya. For most of the psychologists our psychosomaticsystem is just a flux of energy and our consciousness is justa by-product of our witnessing. For them consciousness isjust relative, it is not an absolute substance. There is no onewho can even hold the remote control in his hands, only theshow is going on.

It seems that even the Sankhya hypothesis about theCreation and Decreation is self-contradictory. Purush isconscious but inactive and Prakriti is active but unconscious,there cannot be a bondage between the two. How can Prakritiwhich has no will can bind Purush who is just a witness.Neither Purush is willing nor Prakriti is willing, so how canthe bondage begin? Purush is beginningless, Prakriti is alsobeginningless and so the creation cannot have a beginningbecause the Purush has been witnessing Prakriti since ever.Similarly, the Purush will never disappear, the Prakriti willnever disappear, the witnessing will never disappear and so

the three components of Prakriti can never attain to anequilibrium again. So according to Sankhya the creationcannot have a beginning and the creation cannot have anend. Even if some equilibrium is attained it can be onlymomentary, it is bound to be disturbed again. Thiscontradiction can be resolved only if we assume that Prakritiis both unconscious and inactive while Purush is bothconscious and having a will to create in the beginning. Thecreation has followed because of the will on the part of theconscious principle and it will come to an end when this willis withdrawn. This stand is very much similar to theproposition advanced by Pippalad in Prashnopanishad. Ofcourse, there is a difference too. Rayi is not an independentsubstance and it is not unconscious but less conscious thanPrana; Prana is not a witness but it is more conscious andmore wiling than Rayi; both Rayi and Prana aspect the samenon-dual substance Brahma. It seems that Sankhya hascommited an error while withdrawing all will from theconscious principle Purush. Both Purursh and Prakriti couldremain ultimate substances, only the Purush ought to havesome will for creation. We have to admit an initial till to thePurush who becomes desireless afterwards, only then thebondage and the creation can have a meaning.

There is a possibility that man was very simple andinnocent to begin with. It was very easy for him to attain tothe peace of mind and Enlightenment in the age of the greatUpanishads. Upanishads have asserted that only Upasanaand understanding of life could lead to spontaneousEnlightenment. Sankhya goes a step forward and tells usthat spontaneity is not enough ; one has to remain a witnessmoment to moment; continuous and undisturbed awarenessis needed to become awakened. Even Sankhya was only abeginning. The schools of Yoga, Buddhism and Jainismthought it necessary to devise many techniques whichcould help towards Enlightenment. Gradually, it seems thatmankind became more and more burdened andEnlightenment became more and more of a nightmare. Thesearch for techniques begin with Yogasutra of Patanjali andit comes to a full blooming in Vigyan-Bhairava-Tantra whichprescribes one hundred and twelve techniques forEnlightenment. The path which seemed spontaneous in thebeginning became arduous to include even austerity and

Page 72: Paradise Never Lost

148 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 149

renunciation. With the passage of time Devil went onbecoming more and more active and the God more and moretired. When Gautam Buddha and Mahavira entered thescene, Faith was substituted by effort and innocence bydoubt. In Sankhya only the Prakriti has been held responsiblefor bondage. My understanding is that with the passage oftime renunciation became more important and the spiritualpersons began to condemn women for bondage and thisprinciple even entered Sankhya; however it seems to be alater development. The Yogis, the Budhhist and the Jainmonks even thought it indispensable to run away from thehouseholds.

Sankhya states that there is a purpose in all this exerciseof creation and dissolution too. Although our cosciousnessis free even before creation and it becomes liberated againafter decreation, but there is a difference. It is held that thePurush who has been ignorant before the process of creationbecomes wiser after having the experience of the world. Itseems that Christianity has been influenced greatly by thisidea. The three stages viz. the Garden of Eden, the ParadiseLost, and the Paradise Regional as described in the Genesisonly reiterate the Sankhya ideology. Sankhya holds that wemust feel grateful to Nature for this supreme wisdom.Wordsworth has been right in his statement: ‘Nature neverdid betray the which loved her’.

Now, we come to depict the Sankhya cosmology as thefollow.

It is said that in the beginning there is an equilibriumbetween the three components (Gunas) of Prakriti. Thisequilibrium is disturbed when Purush and Prakriti come closeto each other (Sankhya does not explain why?) Mahat is thefirst element which is begotten, it can be translated as thecomic spirit. Mahat is identical neither to the Prana nor tothe Rayi of Prashnopanishad. Also, it is different from theAlayvigyan of the Buddhists. It is different from Prana orRayi because it is not from the beginning but is only aconsequence. Also, it differs from the Alaybigyan becausehere the conscious principle is not active. From this cosmicspirit ensues Mind, Intellect and Ego which taken togetherconstitute Antahkaran which literally means ‘the innerinstruments’. Also, from the same Mahat ensues FiveTanmatras and Five Great Manifestations. From the inner

instruments follow Five Senses of Perception and also theFive Senses of Action. This is the famous SankhyaMetaphysics containing twenty-five elements. We canenumerate them again as the below:-

(a) Purush (Consciousness)(b) Mahat (Cosmic Spirit)(c) Antahkaran (Mind, Intellect, Ego)(d) Five Tanmatras (Smell, Flow, Touch, Form, Sound)(e) Five Great Manifestations (Earth, Water, Air, Fire,

Sky)(f) Five Senses of Action (Hand, Feet, Speech, Genital,

Excretion)(g) Five Senses of Perception (Eye, Ear, Nose, Skin,

Tongue)Purush is the first element of Sankhya associated with

twenty-four elements which come from Prakriti. It is claimedthat in the end, too three components of Prakriti viz. Sattva(Virtue), Rajas (Ambition) and Tamas (Ignorance) reach anEquilibrium again and all the creation comes to a standstilland dissolves. The purpose behind all the creation is to makethe Purush enlightened, having borne all the consequences

Purush Witnessing Prakriti(Nature)

Mahat (Cosmic Spirit)

Antakharan(Ego, Mind, Intellect)

Five Tanmatras(Smell, Flow, Touch,Form, Sound)

Five GreatManifestations

(Earth, Eater, Air,Fire, Sky)

Fire sensesof Actions

Five sensesof Perception

Page 73: Paradise Never Lost

150 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 151

of his good and evil deeds. Purush is the experiencer, Prakritiis the school for experience and Enlightenment is the Degree.Is not it wonderful?

The Role of Bhagavad-Geeta

Bhagavad-Geeta interprets both Sankhya and Vendataand tries to find a reconciliation between them. In an attemptto find the harmony between the two, Geeta gives birth tothe concept of a God which is almost personal. For the firsttime in the history of Indian spiritualism we come acrossIshvarvad in Geeta. Geeta includes the basic concepts of allthe three theist schools of philosophy viz. Vedanta, Sankhyaand Yoga which happened to preceed it. It is a part of theepic Mahabharata, which is a Purana as far as the diction isconcerned. So Geeta is said to be a bridge between the fourVedas and the eighteen Puranas. With Puranas Bhaktivadcomes to the mainstream of Indian faith and it is not a wonderthat the Krishan of Geeta is almost a personal God to beworshipped and to be followed. He has been a symbol forlove and fear both among the Hindus after the propagationof Geeta.

Now it is quite the time to understand the differencebetween the two words – Philosophy and Darshan. HermanHesse has been right to point out that Darshan should betranslated as PHILOSIA not as Philosophy. Philosophy meanslove of knowledge but Philosia means love of seeing. WesternPhilosophy is based on reason while the Indian Philosohy isbased on the words of the Enlightened people who haveattained to the ultimate truth through experience. Philosophyis conceptual and axiomatic knowledge while Darshan isintuitive. It is said that every enlightened person has thesame experience but the expression cannot be the same, itdepends. Reason and axiomatic thinking is the source ofWestern Philosophy while the truth realized through self-transformation or through intuition is the basis of Darshan.Mohammad has called this intuition Elham and Vedas havecalled it impersonal. The Upanishads say, “The truthencountered by all seers is the same but those who know ittry to communicate it in numerous ways.” We have toremember here that the seers of Upanishads were allEnlightened Beings and Vedanta was their expression of

truth. Similarly Maharshi Kapil, the exponent of Sankhyatoo, was an Enlightened person and Sankhya has originatedas he tried to communicate his intuitive vision. The truthattained by intuition is absolute, ultimate, invariant, timeless,non-spatial and rather inexpressible. Everyone who tries toexpress it has to attempt it in his own way. Although theabsolute truth to be communicated is the same but everyseer has to give birth to a different school of Darshan. It islike pointing towards the same Moon using different fingers.The Moon here can only be indicated but cannot be shownby using words or by creating philosophies about it. Tounderstand me, the reader is advised to go through thechapter ‘What is Mysticism?’ beforehand. However, we willcome to know that Vedanta is more poetic while Sankhya ismore practical. Their concerns and their emphases aredifferent. What is a good style in poetry cannot be valid in alogical system and the vice-versa.

Geeta again was composed by another Enlightenedperson Vedvyasa who was a contemporary of Lord Krishna.This Vedvyasa himself was a mystic of the same order as theseers of Upanishads or Maharshi Kapil who had expoundedSankhya. However it seems that Upanishads and Sankhya-Sutra both have been more ancient than Bhagavadgeeta.Vedvyasa, however, attempted to explain that both Sankhyaand Vedanta were true doctrines, communicating the sameintuitive truth and a reconcillation between the two faithswas needed.

First of all we take the Sankhya Philosophy contained inGeeta.It begins as early as the second chapter which isdenominated as Sankhya-Yoga. There is a peculiar problembefore Krishna. Arjuna thinks that war is not the right option.Just for the sake of a kingdom and a little wealth he shouldnot kill his kith and kin. By indulgence in violence, Arjunafeared, he would spoil all his good destiny. This sin couldnot allow him to attain to salvation or to Heaven or to anoble rebirth after his own death. Arjuna thought it was theright course of action for him not to fight but to become amonk. Krishna did not agree with Arjuna and he wanted tomake his point prevail. To a man of commonsense Arjunaappears to be the right person and it needs the philosophicalgenius of a Vedvyas to prove it otherwise. Geeta comes forthout of the discussion which follows between Krishna and

Page 74: Paradise Never Lost

152 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 153

Arjuna. The main teachings of Geeta include the immortalityof the soul, action without the doer, action withoutattachment, the dichotomy between the consciousness andthe matter, the role of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas in theuniversal drama, Ishvarvad, action dedicated to God,Bhaktiyoga, Gyanyoga and the state of unwavering wisdom.

Krishna begins with Sankya, describes all the featuresof Vedanta and then finally he tries to make a reconciliationbetween the two doctrines. This attempt of reconciliationbetween Sankhya and Vedanta begets the idea of a personalgod which is introduced here for the first time ever in theIndian sriptures. Geeta is the first philosophical work in myopinion to offer something like a personal God and propagateBhaktiyoga. We find action without attachment in theUpanishads too, but before Geeta nowhere we find the ideaof a personal God and action dedicated to Him. It isunderstandable that Mahabharata is said to be the first ofthe eighteen Puranas. The idea of a personal God seems tobe an altogether new contribution of Geeta and this is thereason that Geeta became so much popular among themasses. The ‘Comic Form’ of Krishna is the most popularconcept among the Hindus and it has given to them a senseof pride and excellence.

We remember that Sankhya had proposed that ourconsciousness remains an unattached witness throughoutand it does not participate in the process of creation,propagation and dissolution. Prakriti is the only substancewhich is subject to all change and variation. Consciousnessis ever invariant, changeless and indestructible principle.This theory of Sankhya has been a great help for Krishnaand Krishna has illustrated it to Arjuna in great detail whilehe talks about the immortality of the soul; action withoutthe doer; action without detachment; the dichotomy betweenthe consciousness and matter; the role of Sattva, Rajas andTamas etc. All this has been the Sankhya part of Geeta.

The first principle Krishna insists upon is the immortalityof the soul. He has tried to persuade Arjuna that nobody isever killed. The Shlokas (2/13, 2/16, 2/20, 2/22, 2/27,2/23, 4/5) are most representative and so I want to renderthem here and I want to explain them in a manner whichmakes them understandable to all.

“As a person gives up the old garments and wears the

newones, Similarly a living creature gives up the old physiqueand attains to a new one” (2/22)

“Our consciousness is neither born nor it dies, neither ithappens again and again having happened once. It is beyondbirth, timeless and eternal. It cannot be assassinated byassassinating the physical body. No one is killed and thereis no one who can kill.” (2/20)

“Neither weapons can pierce our consciousness, nor firecan burn our consciousness, nor water can wet it, nor aircan dry it.” (2/23)

“Even while in this body the childhood is followed byyouth, the youth is followed by the old age. Similarly afterdeath too this body is followed by another body and anenlightened person has no doubt as to this course of changeand reincarnation.” (2/13)

“Death is sure to one who lives, similarly a new return oflife is sure to one who is dead. It is so inevitable that oneneed not feel grieved for a dying one.” (2/27)

“Both You and I have lived many many lives before thispresent one. I can know all of them but you cannot rememberthem.” (4/55)

“Neither that which is non-existent can ever come toexistence nor that which exists just now can ever pass outof existence. A seer ultimately comes to know both the statesof existence and no-existence.” (2/16)

Vedvyas does not imply that violence is always forgivable.As a matter of ultimate truth no one kills the consciousnessin us but every living being feels pain and pleasure. Thewriter of Geeta himself has written –

“ There is only one criterion for an act to be good ro bad.If it brings happiness to others it is Virtue and if it inflictspain upon others it is Vice. This is in nutshell, the wholeteaching imparted by the Eighteen Puranas.”

According to Geeta also most of the times violence is asin, only rarely it becomes a duty too. As a rule we mustbehave in a way that the happiness is multiplied and thesuffering is contained and Geeta does not inted to defy thisprinciple. We have to consider the total effect of a war beforewe can decide to go for it or to run away from it. The contextbetween Krishna and Arjuna is very peculiar in itsimplications and it is through the compulsion ofcircumstances only that Krishna allows violence. Sometimes

Page 75: Paradise Never Lost

154 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 155

escapism would bring even worse consequences, this is whatKrishna wanted to explain to Arjuna. Neither Krishna norArjuna are warmongers, the war has come to them as aninevitable course of Duty and it brings no good to run awayfrom the Duty.

Now, Krishna proceeds to explain that a man ofawareness need not confuse between consciousness andmatter, between Purush and Prakriti. It needs to be explained.Everyone cannot remain aware of his thoughts, of hisemotions and of his actions. Most of the times we are likelyto behave, in a robot manner, unconsciously and out of habitonly. The awareness can result only from meditations andgreat effort. To a very few it can be a matter of spontaneitybut generally it is achieved with arduous effort. We have toattain to witnessing so that every moment we may remainaware of the unconscious impulses working inside us of itself.Only such a remarked awareness can bring detachment. Theunconscious tendencies working inside us are like a river,we must learn how to stand still and not to let go ourselveswith the flow. Anger, Lust, Greed etc are all perversionsworking inside us because all the these arise as instinctsdue to our identification with matter. We must always remainaware how these unconscious tendencies arise, work andsubside in our beings. All that belongs to our unconsciousmind is animal inheritage. Although these are very deeprooted in our genetic code, we should not loose ourselvesunconsciously to these energies. By becoming aware we candeny all that is mechanical behavior and awareness is thekey for it. It is attachment to allow the unconscious forces inus to work and it is detachment not to allow them but tofollow only the right course of action. A detached action isan action not allowed under the spell of Nature but chosenconsciously. A common man identifies himself with the forcesof Nature working in his being unconsciously and Krishnapoints out this to be the cause of all misery. We should learnto perceive the Prakriti as Prakriti and consciousness asconsciousness and not to confuse between them. Nature islike a river flowing with a tremendous speed, ourconsciousness is like someone who has stepped into thisriver and witnessing is the strength of standing still and ofnot flowing with the river waters. It is like an animal to becomelost with the flow and it is human to remain something like

a witness. Only one who can stand still ever can discriminatebetween Purush and Prakriti and only such a person is saidto be a ‘Stithapragya’ or ‘one of unwavering wisdom’. Ouridentification with unconscious forces of Nature leads us toa kind of action which Geeta describes as the forbiddenaction. The Karma associated with perfect awareness or theKarma resulting in the presence of witnessing is said to bethe detached action or Nishkam Karma and it does not createany bondage. Nishkam Karma springs from the situation inwhich we act and the incentive lies with the persons whocreate such a situation which makes it imperative. Such aKarma does not arise from our weaknesses like Lust, Anger,Vanity, Greed, Prejudice and Jealousy. All unconscious forcesare due to Prakriti and all these forces lead to forbiddenKarma only if we are not fully aware. The desire to helpothers also is sometimes an unconscious force in us, thisdesire leads us to good action with attachment but not toNishkam Karma according to Geeta. Benevolence, Sympathy,Aesthetics, Charity, Bravery etc are sometimes found to begood unconscious forces working in us. These can lead us togood action but not to action without attachment becauseawareness is the key. Howsoever good an action may be,attachment always bears fruit – sweet or bitter or mixed;only witnessing creates no bondage. This is the essentialteaching of Sankhya that we should learn how to becomeaware of the unconscious forces which work within us andcreate an identification with Nature. For example, when angercomes, we say, “I am angry.” This is identification. Insteadwe should perceive the whole process, “the anger is arisingin me, it is there but I am not the anger”. If we can becomeaware as soon as the first ripple of anger comes up we canbecome the master of the situation. Then, we may decide touse it or not to use it, we become the chooser. All negativeforces subside and all positive forces multiply when weassociate awareness to them. Awareness is the key andthrough it comes witnessing. Identification with unconsciousforces of Nature is Sin, the effort to disidentify is Virtue andcomplete disidentification is Witnessing and the Karmafollowing from Witnessing is Nishkam Karma.

Now we take up some extracts from the original text:“One who can perceive the two absolute elements viz

Consciousness and Matter working distinctly in the Universe

Page 76: Paradise Never Lost

156 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 157

and one who can also perceive that the three aspects ofPrakriti— Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, he would be in agitationand all action is resulting from this agitation creates nobondage. Only a man of perfect awareness is able to do itand such a man remains unattached.” (3/28).

This needs to be explained because Geeta describescertain terms as definitions. What is ‘Karya’? Five greatmainifestations together with their five characteristics areknown as ‘Karya’. What is ‘Karan’? Five senses of cognition,five senses of action, and three kinds of minds taken togetherare said to be ‘karan’. Literally ‘Karya’ meansa effect and‘karan’ means instruments. ‘Karya’ and Karan’ taken togetherbecome twenty three elements of Sankhya and are said tobe Gunavibhag or manifestations of the three componentsof Prakriti. We must remind overselves that first of all Mahatcomes into being and then these twenty three elements comeinto existence because of disturbance in the state ofequilibrium between the components. Again, these threeGunas act and interact with ‘Karya’ and ‘Karan’ and theKarmas are manifested. Sankhya states both Gunavibhag(manifestation of Gunas)and Karmavibhag (manifestation ofKarmas) occur due to agitation in Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.

In short, I explain it again. Purush and Prakriti fall invicinity and Mahat or cosmic spirit is born. In Mahat thethree Gunas are found in equilibrium. Then this equilibriumbecomes disturbed because of the presence of Purush, wecall it agitation. Out of this agitation Karya (effects), Karan(instruments) and Karma (actions) all are begotten. This isthe Sankhya Metaphysics described in Geeta. Our Self hasnothing to do with this process. The Atman remains a witnessthroughout. Geeta holds that whosoever can remain awarethrough all these happenings understands that he has neverbeen a doer. We have always been in this existence. Effectshave been begotten and our self has been just a witness;Instruments have been begotten and our self has been justa witness; all Karmas have been happening due to agitationin Gunas and our self has been just a witness. One who canperceive likewise, finds that he is not a doer. His action isaction without a doer. In brief, Geeta holds the more andmore we become aware, we find that forces of Nature areworking in our being and nobody is a doer. This witnessing.In unawareness we identify ourselves with ego, mind and

intellect and we feel that we are the doers, in witnessing wefind that all is happening as a process of Naturalconsequences and we are not the doers.

It is obvious to everyone that the breath is coming andgoing, the blood is circulating, the thoughts are arising, thefood is being digested, the heart is beating and we are notthe doers. Geeta calls all these involuntary actions by thename of VI-KARMA and Geeta says obviously all Vikarma ishappening without a doer. The new thing which Geeta insistsis that all the Karmas like Vikarmas are happening withouta doer, we only need some awareness to perceive it. There isno difference between Karma and Vikaram as for as the doeris concerned but we are not fully aware, that is why we feelthat we are doing the Karmas but not the Vikarmas. Geetastates that all action is action without a doer. There isagitation amidst Gunas and all the Karmas result from thisagitation. We can put it into a different way. All Karmas arehappening because of the law of natural consequence andnobody need to be a doer. There is an unending chain ofmultiple cause and effect in Nature itself and theconsciousness has nothing to do with it.

Why do we feel ourselves to be doers? Geeta states thatwe feel it because we cannot remain aware and the witnessis lost again and again. Here one more remark is necessary.It seems that Geeta is true only in case of an Enlightenedperson and not in case of common people. The more andmore aware we become our energy moves more and moreinto witnessing and less and less into doing. When our energymoves perfectly into witnessing and no energy is allowed tomove into doing we cease to be doers and this is the state ofan Enlightened person. All energy moves into witnessing andno energy moves into doing. In case of an Enlightened persononly the law of natural consequences has to operate. That iswhy, Krishna says again and again that Karma happensonly because of Prakriti and our consciousness has nothingto do with it. But in case of an ordinary man, energy movesinto witnessing and all energy perhaps moves into doing. Soordinarily Geeta does not seem to be true. It seems that eitherwe can become a witness or we can become a doer and wecannot become both a doer and a witness at the same time.In my opinion, an Enlightened person is never a doer and aworldly man is never a witness. So Krishna is preaching

Page 77: Paradise Never Lost

158 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 159

again and again to Arjuna that he should become a witnessand leave everything to the Lord.

Here we can ask one more question to ourselves. Whatis the difference between the disciplines of Upanishads,Sankhya and Yoga? Upanishads prescribe Upasana.Enlightenment is just a matter of gift from the Existenceand we have to do nothing to become Enlightened. Not evenawareness or witnessing is needed. Enlightenment is justlike opening of a flower in the morning air, it is spontaneousand it cannot be otherwise. Sankhya takes one step towardseffortfulness. Sankhya opines that to become Enlightenedwe have to practice awareness because only by growing inawareness we can become witnesses. In unawareness it isnatural to identify oneself with matter and create bondageconsequently. In bondage no Enlightenment can happen.So according to Sankhya practicing awareness is theindispensable key. Yoga moves still further. It asks how tobecome aware? We have to create methods for it. It is notpossible to grow in awareness without practicing methods.So Yoga becomes a discipline of methods. Obviously, Sankhyais a midway between Vedanta and Yoga. Let me repeat it tomake is clear. In unawareness Purush becomes invariablyidentified with Prakriti and thinks himself to be a doer ormay be Purush becomes a doer factually. In awareness,Purush breaks this identification with Prakriti and ceases tobe a doer; the law of natural consequences is allowed tohave a freeplay. This is what we have called action withoutdoer. Yoga says we have to meditate only then we can becomeaware. Sankhya says that we have to begin with awarenessto break the bondage with Nature. Upanishads say nothingis needed, whomsoever the Existence chooses becomesEnlightened and there is no alternative possible. It seemsthat man went on moving from simple systems to complexdisciplines. Upasana is spontaneity, witnessing is an effortand meditation needs many methods to be devised. Tantraand Yoga actually worked very hard to devise these methods.The process which began with Yogasutra of Patanjali had tocontinue for thousands of years. Only Upanishds, Sankhya-Sutra and Yoga-Sutra seem to have preceeded Geeta but notthe rest of the traditions of austerity.

Now we take something from the original text regardingthe concept of action without doer.

“See that both Prakriti (matter) and Purush(consciousness) are beginningless and independentsubstances but all the three Gunas (aspects) and the agitationin these Gunas happen in Prakriti only (chapter – 13, Verse– 19)

“One who is aware of the Nature and of consciousnesswithin his being and is also aware of all the aspects of Natureat work, although in the body at present, he cannot be bornagain.” (13/23)

“All the ten effects or manifestations and all the thirteeninstruments of human existence and all the Karmas belongto Prakriti only. In ignorance only the living being is meantto be subjected to pain and pleasure.” (13/20)

“All this world is under the spell of three components ofnature namely Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. It cannot see theinvariant, changeless and indestructible conscious principlewhich we are.” (7/13)

Krishna wants to explain to Arjuna that we are not thedoers. He tries to explain it in many ways. He says that allthe Karmas are happening because the three components ofNature – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas have lost their equilibrium.These Gunas or components or aspects of Nature are agitated.But where is this agitation seen at work? What is the scopeand field of this agitation? Krishna says that all agitation istaking place either in relation to the effects or in relation tothe instruments. But all these ten effects (Five greatmanifestations and their five characteristics) and thirteeninstruments (Five senses of perception, five senses of action,mind, intellect and ego) are seen to be part of Nature bythose who know the truth and our consciousness is seen tobe beyond these. So all the Karmas are happening withinthe scope of Nature only being caused by the three aspectsof Nature there. Our consciousness is irrelevant as far as allthese Karmas are concerned. Our consciousness is just awitness. It is neither causing any Karma not bearing anyeffect of these Karma. So Arjuna, you have to realize thatyou are just the witness neither a doer nor a sufferer.

Page 78: Paradise Never Lost

160 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 161

“All the Gunas and all the Karmas are at work due toNature only and within Nature only. A soul misguided byego thinks itself to be a doer.” (3/27)

A few words about ego here. In the state of ignorance aperson identifies himself with body and mind. A personidentifies himself with sense, with mind and intellect, withthe flux of unconscious processes of thought, imagination,memory, dreaming etc and this is ego. According to Geeta,all ordinary people like David Hume are under the spell ofego devoid of the ultimate reality.

“Whosoever perceives that all the Karmas or actions lieonly within the scope of Nature; that there is no activity inour consciousness; he also perceives that our consciousnesscannot be a doer.” (13/29)

We can understand it from one more point of view. Allthe action, change, cause, effect etc lie within the scope oftime-space only. Our consciousness transcends time andspace and so our consciousness cannot cause any action tohappen. All the Karmas have their cause and effect withinthe scope of Nature and so our Self which transcends theNature cannot be a doer.

“I cannot become attached to karma, nor I have anyclinging to the fruits of Karma. Whosoever understands myreal being cannot create any bondage through Karma.” (4/14)

Krishna says that all his action is only action withoutattachment; all those who understand him can also actwithout attachment.

“The Karmas cannot create a bondage to someone whoremain united with the ultimate reality or to someone forwhom all doubts have disappeared or to someone who hasrealized himself as a Self.” (4/41)

“Neither the effect of any sin nor the effect of any virtuecan prevail over a being of cosmic consciousness. The visionof a worldly person is hindred by ignorance and this

obstruction is responsible for illusions.” (5/15)

A man of cosmic consciousness, ever while in the physicalbody, has his consciousness tithered only to the cosmic spiritor Mahat. In Mahat all the three Gunas–Sattva, Rajas andTamas are in equilibrium. There is no agitation of Gunas inMahat. Such a person can neither feel himself to be a doernor he can have a clinging to the consequences which follow.

“Because our consciousness has no beginning, becauseour consciousness has no attributes, because ourconsciousness is an invariant or unchangeable; althoughresiding in the body, neither it can be a doer nor it can beattached.” (13/31)

In other words, every Karma has a beginning and ourconsciousness is beginningless. Every Karma pertains tosome change in attributes and our consciousness has noattributes. Every Karma produces an effect and ourconsciousness is unchangeable. So our consciousness cannotbe a doer nor it can have any effect of the Karmas on it.However, there are certain practical considerations whichdemand our attention here. No one has a feeling that he isresponsible for blinking his eyes but everyone feelsresponsible for lifting up a stone. If we are not doers at allwhy this feeling of being responsible? Why there is ignoranceand rebirth? Why do we fall into the cycle of death and rebirthbecause of our Karmic energy? It seems that Sankhya, too,suffers from a contradiction just as Vedanta does. Vedantastates that all is one substance (Brahma) but it fails to explainwhether Realism (Parinamvad) or Idealism (Vivartvad) is thecase. Sankhya has accepted Realism (Satkaryavad) but failsto explain it as we shall find it later on. Sankhya has givenall the emphasis to the fact that the conscious principle doesnot participate in the universal drama whatsoever, it onlyremains a witness to it.

“The sky is all pervading, it is very minute, invariant andso there can be no contamination to it. Similarly althoughwhile residing in the body our consciousness is like sky andso it cannot be contaminated likewise.” (13/32)

Page 79: Paradise Never Lost

162 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 163

Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Sky, taken in order, one isfiner than the elements it proceeds. Space is the minutest ofall and consciousness is more minute even than the spaceand so it cannot be contaminated. Here we are reminded ofa coincidence that Mahavira uses the same word ‘Kaal’ forboth time and consciousness. Perhaps there is a suggestionthat time is more minute even than the space. Geeta itselfhas stated that we come to realize Self through knowing thetrue nature of time. It reminds us of the saying of Jesus, “Inthe Kingdom of God there shall be no time.”

“The consciousness resides equally in all the living beings.Whosoever perceives this indestructible principle indestructible body, only he perceives it rightly.” (13/27)

This verse means that only a self-realized person canhave the right stock of the situation. An ignorant personcannot have the right view of life. This seems to be true.

“This ultimate consciousness which resides in this bodyis a witness a knower, a provider, an experience and it ismore but the absolute Self or Being.” (13/22)

This verse, however, has accepted that we bear theconsequences of Karmas on us because the Sanskrit world‘Bhokta’ means one who bears the consequences. But eventhis verse does not state whether or to we are doers too.

Here we have to stop and think. Sankhyavad is anothername for Sakhsyavad or witnessism. The consciousnessaccording to Sankhya is an absolute, independent,changeless and indestructible witness. It does not participatein the processes of creation, action and dissolution. Accordingto Sankhya, Prakriti is also an absolute and ultimate principlehaving no will. Prakriti is without consciousness, it isinanimate and so it cannot have any will. Here arises theproblem. Purush is just a witness having no will and Prakritiis inanimate having no will. In such a situation neitherPurush can be an effective cause nor Prakriti can be aneffective cause. Of course, Prakriti is the material cause butin absence of an effective cause the process of creation cannotbegin. Upanishads seem to be right when they prescribe awill to the conscious principle. ‘I am one and I want to become

many’ because only a conscious principle can have a will.Sankhya fails to explain the process of creation because inthe beginning we are given two absolute and independentprinciples, none of them having any will for change. Is thispossible and is this ethical too? If Purush is just a witnessthroughout what is the propriety of Karmic energy, of virtueand sin, of Heaven and Hell and of a cycle of repeatedrebirths? Sankhya fails to explain all the phenomenal world.The Purush of Sankhya seems to be just a puppet in thehands of Prakriti and such a principle cannot be ultimate,absolute and independent. It seems that to emphasize themethod of witnessing Sankhya has made a drasticcompromise with the Upanishadic truth which is perfect. Infact, all the later traditions such as Yoga, Bhakti, Buddhism,Jainism, Christianity, Islam etc have done this. They haveall make compromises in view of some specific purposes. Wecan go even a step further to assert that whenever we accepttwo independent and ultimate principles such as Prana andRayi, Matter and Form, Prakriti and Purush, Nature andSpirit etc, both of these principles have to be active and eager,otherwise no relationship between them is possible. If Purushor the conscious principle is just a witness, no effect upon itis justified, no bondage is feasible, no Karmic-energy can becaused, no rebirth is possible and no liberation is possibletoo. It is self-contradictory. Also the Prakriti of Sankhya alonecannot be responsible for creation, howsoever active it maybe; the creation is not possible in absence of will on the partof an intelligent principle.

It seems that in the initial state of ignorance Purush hasa will, the will which contributes energy to the variousphenomena of Nature. The Manifestations and Instrumentsof Nature can be compared to ceiling fans, bulbs, computersetc and this energy coming from a conscious principle canact upon them like electric power. It seems that Mahat isnothing except the willful energy of Purush flowing towardsPrakriti and all else may follow from it. In the beginning wehave to assign this will to the conscious principle and even ifPurush is a witness, it is a willful witness. It can also be saidthat a willful witness is nonetheless a doer too. So, in thebeginning, the conscious principle must be a doer and aparticipant. It is another matter that at some particular stagehe may choose to withdraw himself from this universal

Page 80: Paradise Never Lost

164 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 165

drama. May be when his energy is withdrawn from Natureat work, the bondage existing already starts disappearingand the new bondage stops becoming. That is why, witnessingleads the spiritual seekers to liberation. The more and morewe move towards witnessing the more and more ourrelationship with Prakriti is withdrawn and liberationbecomes easier. We cannot be both a doer and a witness. Itseems that witnessing is in the end not in the beginning. AnEnlightened person is not a doer and when his witnessinghas become perfect, a moment comes when he cannot remainrelated to Prakriti. This is liberation. It can be true for Krishnathat he is not a doer, and all is happening due to pastmomentum when he used to be a doer. But this cannot betrue for an ignorant person who is still working towardsbondage and has a definite will. So Arjuna could notunderstand this concept of action without doer. It remainsto become just a message to humanity contributed by Krishnaalone.

Sankhya accepts Satkaryavad which is a form ofParinamvad. According to Sankhya this world is real andPrakriti has undergone a real effect. Who has caused thiseffect? Prakriti is inanimate and it cannot have a will and soPurush must have the necessary will. In such a case Purushbecomes a doer. The feeling of an ordinary person that hecan choose to act or not to act must be real. Everyone cannotbe like Hamlet who cannot decide to be or not to be andallow a fatal destiny to take over him. All of us cannot agreethat the Purush of Sankhya should behave like Hamletthroughout in this universal drama. A person can be assignedresponsibility only if he has been willful and not otherwise.Only in the case of willfulness bondage, Karmic-energy, thecycle of life and death can be held to be justified.

I remember a maxim from Sankhya-Sangrah which states– “The primary liberation happens with self-realization, thesecondary happens by disappearance of all the attachmentsand the final happens when all the consequences of our pastKarmas come to end.” If Purush has been just a witnessthroughout and never a doer liberation should beinstantaneous. Enlightenment and liberation should occurin the same moment but this never happens. Even anenlightened person has to continue living. The fact has been

that before Enlightenment, Self has been a doer and onlyafter Enlightenment the doer has ceased to exist. The resthas followed because of the past momentum of Karmas whichwe call Prarabdha. So what is true of Krishna and histeachings seems hardly to be a universal fact. That is why,we have to make arduous efforts towards liberation.

Next, Geeta has preached that Virtue belong to Sattva,Ambition belongs to Rajas, and Ignorance belongs to theTamas aspects of Nature. We should take something fromthe original text again.

“Satogun creates happiness, Rajogun creates activity andTamogun creates ignorance. By obstructing the vision of theconscious principle tamogun leads to useless fickleness ofsenses and of mind.” (14/9)

“Those who dwell in Virtue rise higher, those who dwellin ambition remain in the middle and those who fall to lowerappetites go lower.” (14/18)

“A wise man is one who does not become uneasy by therising of Satogun or Rajogun or Tamogun in his being andhe does not become desirous of them when these tend tosubside.” (14/22)

“A wise man is one who does not become disturbed bythe agitation of Gunas in his own being. He only remains adetached witness when these aspects of Nature arise andinteract. Those who remain detached do not create abondage.” (14/23)

Now we come to the concept of ‘Desireless Action’ orNishkama Karma as preached by Geeta. Only an enlightenedperson like Krishna is supposed to be beyond desires andonly such person can act without desires out of a sense ofpropriety or duty. What can an ordinary person learn fromGeeta? Here are a few tips for him. Every person mustexamine his own Karmas regularly. Are his Karmas beingmisguided by his won desires or is he doing the mostappropriate Karmas? Are his Karmas being misguided byperversions like lust, anger, prejudice, vanity, greed, jealousyetc? Are his Karmas being misguided by his ego? He should

Page 81: Paradise Never Lost

166 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 167

remain continuously aware and choose only the most rightcourse of action in a given situation. He should considerhimself just a vehicle for the existential forces and actlikewise. He should not act only to serve his own end but heshould act in such a way which would maximize happinessand minimize sorrow for all. He should work towards themaximum good for the maximum people.

Geeta states as one of the most important teachings thatinaction is not possible everyone has to act. Refraining fromaction is also a kind of action. Suppose two armies are facingeach other and one of them decides to retreat then thisretreating army is also responsible for evil consequences thatmay follow. Through inaction it has helped the dark shadowswhich would be cast on history. Alexander came to India,Chanakya was an enlightened person but he decided to resistthe Greek. This was the right understanding of concept ofNishkama Karma in that situation. Inaction would have beenproved a sin. Suppose a man renounces the world andbecomes a monk. His inaction will affect his family and hisfriends, his wife and his children and inaction will producethe same result as an evil deed is supposed to produce. Soinaction is an impossibility. The same happened with Hamlet,through inaction he invited only his death punishment. Geetasays we have always to choose between wrong and rightactions. A right actions is better than inaction, a desirelessaction is better than the right action and Vikarma is bettereven than desireless action. In fact, Vikarma is the mostperfect kind of Nishkama Karma.

Now we take some extracts from the text.

“One who perform his dutiful acts without clinging tothe results, he is a seeker and he is a yogi and not one whohas stopped triggering fire in his home for cooking nor onewho has renounced all the action.” (6/1)

“A yogi is one whose wisdom remains unwavering thoughboth thick and thin, through virture and vice. One shouldseek only such form of Yoga because this I say unto you thatYoga is the excellence in work.” (2/50)

It seems that the path of renunciation was not unknown

in the days of Geeta. It seems to be as ancient as the Rigvedaitself because the first Jain Teerthankar Adinath is supposedto have happened at the time of composition of Rigveda, hisname is mentioned in this first veda itself. But Geeta is notin favour of renunciation of Karmas which Krishna has calledinaction. It is claimed that the twenty second JainTeerthankar Neminath was a first cousin of Krishan butKrishna preferred Karmayoga rather than renunciation.

“As the ignorant people always keep themselves engrossedin work motivated by their own desires, so the wise peopleshould also act without desire for the welfare of the masses.”(3/25)

Generally we think that Nishkama Karma is only theright action not distorted by ego or by desires. In this versewe have a new orientation regarding Nishkama Karma thata man of no desire and of no ego may act to his utmostability for the sake of the welfare of the others. Generallysuch a Karma is called a Virture, but in the absence ofclinging to the reward for it, also this kind of Karma becomesthe same pure as Nishkama Karma.

Some people do ask whether it is possible to becomedesireless. The answer is in the affirmative. How? AnEnlightened person is so blissful, so fulfilled and so gratefultowards the Existence that all the desires becomemeaningless. Jesus one day said to his disciples, “Look atthese Lily flowers. Even the King Solomon was not so blissfulwhile at the height of his wisdom.” An Enlightened person islike this Lily flower fulfilled in his own being and his blissdoes not come form the outside. An Enlightened has knownhimself and is fulfilled through his own being and his blissuncaused, so naturally all the desires disappear. In fact,desires are only mistaken substitutes for enlightenment andexist only in the state of ignorance. However, we must notconfuse between the needs and the desires. Needs arenecessities of life and have nothing to do with ego trip whiledesires are out of ego trip only. Everyone needs bread for hishappiness to become complete but everyone need not becomethe President of India to be happy. Everyone has to decidefor himself what is a need for him and what is a desire forhim because people are different. Geeta, however,

Page 82: Paradise Never Lost

168 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 169

necessitates action even for persons for whom desires havebecome irrelevant. Everyone must act, even a person whohas gone beyond all desires.

Krishna has said, “There is nothing in this world whichis worth achieving and which I do not have already achieved.In fact, there is nothing in this world or in the other worldbeyond for which I should aspire and try. Yet, I am alwaysengrossed in action.” (3/22)

Krishna has said, “An enlightened person is one whoseall desires have dropped from his mind and who is fulfilledin his Self through his Self only.” (2/55)

As pointed out earlier Brahmacharya means actingwithout desires like Brahma invariably does. Creation is thespontaneous disposition of Brahma and Brahma has nopurpose to fulfil through creating. Creation is not a meanbut it is an end unto itself. It is the expression of overflowingenergy. A spring comes out breaking the stiffness of a rockbut there is no purpose in coming out. This is NishkamaKarma. All creation springs out of Brahma not for somespecific purpose but just like a play of overflowing energy. Itis a joy and a benediction just to be creative and so for a yogiNishkama Karma is its own reward, it has been blissful toact, it has been just like unburdening and overflowing energy.All great poets, musicians and artists know that creation isits own reward. Creation is for the sake of creating.Enlightened persons like Buddha, Mahaveera and Jesus toobehave like Brahma. They have worked a lot and for no goalof their own. It has been just a participation in the cosmicact of creation. This participation is Brahmacharya. To becreative not out of desires but out of bliss and overflowingenergy is Brahmacharya. Look at Chaitanya and Meera lostin dance, the dance is there but the dancer has disappeared.All energy has moved into the dance and this is an act ofBrahmacharya. Buddha and Mahavira had to becomeascetics to work hard for their Enlightenedment. But oncethey achieved it they returned back to society and becameabsorbed in helping others towards Enlightenment. This isthe desireless action. All the activities of enlightened personsmay seem to happen out of compassion, righteousness,

aesthetics, welfare of others, duty, execution of cosmic orderbut the essential reason has been overflowing energy. Amystic is too full of love, compassion and bliss that even hispresence becomes infections. He becomes a catalytic agentand many miracles may happen around him. The energywhich used to get wasted in running after desires is nowexpressed in Nishkama Karma because no energy can remainstatic. An enlightened person is one who is connected withan infinite source of energy and all this energy has to move.This movement is Nishkama Karma. That is why, Hindushave always said that creation is just a play, a leela. Also,Freud has moved a little in the direction of Nishkama Karmawhen he talked about sublimation. It is not without reasonthat Osho has named his auto biography ‘The Sound ofRunning Water.’ All his life he has lived from moment tomoment without any purpose. This is Nishkama Karma.

Now the next sholka:“ The fruits of one’s deeds fall in three categories – sweet,

bitter and mixed. Those who are still attached have to bearthese fruits, but the consequences cannot prevail over themwho have renounced all the attachment to the world.” (18/22)

There are two kinds of renunciation. One is to renounceall the Karmas pertaining to desires, that is to renounce allthe Karmas except those which are necessary to fulfil basicneeds only. This is the path which Shankaracharyaadvocated. Geeta does not advocate it. Instead, Geetaadvocated that renounce the ego and renounce the clingingfor the reward. Even a scientist can be a Nihkama Yogiaccording to Geeta but according to Shankaracharya a yogihas to be an ascetic. This idea is expressed in the followingverse –

“To renounce all Karmas motivated by worldly desires isknown as Sannyas. But the renunciation of the rewardswhich good Karmas should offer is the real renunciation.(18/2)

It simply means we should not act out of greed and fearbut out of a sense of propriety only and we should not ceaseto act for righteousness ever. To make Nishkama Karmaunderstandable we can say –

“One must never do the evil and one must never refrain

Page 83: Paradise Never Lost

170 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 171

from doing the good and one must never become eager forthe reward of his good actions.”

There is a proverb in India, “do the good and throw thereward into the well.” This is Nishkama Karma.

“Self-knowledge is better than the spiritual practices,spontaneous meditativeness is better than self-knowledge,renunciation of clinging to fruits of one’s action is betterthan meditation because this renunciation leads to perpetualstate of no mind.” (12/12)

There are eight steps in Yoga--Yama, Niyama, Asana,Pranayam, Pratyahar, Dharna, Dhyan and Samadhi. Out ofthese the first six steps from Yama to Dharna are said to beyogic practices (Abhyas). A self-realised person need notpractice the first six steps of Yoga because he has becometranscendental to them. He should begin straight withDhyana or meditation and practice Nishkama Karma, thiswill lead him to Samadhi which is the ultimate state of NoMind. This Sutra is very important because it upholds thatNishkama Karma is the key between Self-realization andLiberation. Only a person of Self-realization can attain tothe purity of Nishkam Karma because such a man has knownhimself and he cannot live at the centre of ego which is thefalse substitute for self-realization. May be Arjna was a self-realized person and Nishkam Karma would have beenrelevant to him. In short, this Sutra means that Yogicpractices can lead to Self-realization, Meditation after self-realization can lead to Desirelessness and Desirelessensscan lead to the Ultimate Samadhi.

Similarly, the religious rituals such as worship, fasting,pilgrimage, charity etc are not relevant to a self-realizedperson. In fact, no tradition can be relevant to him. Afterself-realization a person cannot think himself to be a Hindu,a Christian, a Muslim etc. Only meditation becomes relevantto him and as long as he lives in the world, all his Karmashould become Nishkam Karma. Through Meditation andNishkam Karma one day he is bound to attain to Samadhi.That is why, Meditation is the seventh step and Samadhi isthe eighth step in Patanjali Yoga. In fact, Nishkama Karmais a state between Meditation and Samadhi. Patanjali neither

recommends it nor denies it because his path is notessentially via positive.

Here it is not out of place to repeat the following SankhyaSutra—

“The initial liberation happens with self-realization, thesecondary liberation happens with desirelessness and thefinal liberation happens when all the Karmic energy isconsumed.”

Liberation follows Samadhi. Sometimes even a few birthsmay take place between Self-realization and Liberation, buttheir number generally remains less than seven. Meditation,Nishkam Karma, Desirelessness all seem to be appropriatedisciplines between Self-realization and Liberation. It seemsthat Arjuna had become transcendental to Self-realizationand Krishna was a being transcendental even to liberation.So ordinarily Geeta is not understood in the right perspective,the proper context remains missing.

“Man has only a right to act, the reward of the action isnot his right. It depends. So a wise man is he who neitherlongs for the reward nor drops the inclination to act.” (2/47)

We must act for righteousness without being obsessedabout the consequences because good deeds can never bringevil fruit. Also, we should not give up our committment tobring forth the maximum good for the maximum people andshould not abstain from proper action. As far as the rewardis concerned we must have faith in the intelligent principleof this existence that the consequences are not always inour hands.

Thus, we see that Geeta contains in its teachings all thesalient features of Sankhya but this does not mean that Geetaundermines Vedanta. Some scholars have opined that Geetais a treatise on Sankhya while other schools argue thatGeeta is a book on Vedanta essentially.

To reach any conclusion now we take the Non-dualismnarrated in Geeta.

So a few verses to follow.

Page 84: Paradise Never Lost

172 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 173

“An enlightened person who has become one with theultimate reality perceives the same substance in all creationand perceives all the creation in this substance. Because heperceives the same consciousness everywhere, he loveseverything and everyone equally.” (6/29)

The word used here for creation is the Sanskrit synonymfor ‘becoming’ which includes all the ten effects (Karya) andall the thirteen instruments (karan) and a wise man is saidto perceive the same consciousness everywhere andeverything within the same consciousness. Theconsciousness can be called Self or Brahma. According tothis Sutra Self and Brahma are the same reality. This Sutrastates that even the five great Manifestations of Earth, Water,Fire, Air and Sky are part of our own consciousness. Thissutra is certainly a statement of Non-dualism.

“A wise man perceives me everywhere and he perceiveseverything in me. I do not ever disappear for him and hedoes not ever disappear for me.” (6/30)

“One who attains to this state for Brahma-realizationdoes not become disillusioned again. He remains in this stateupto the end and attains to Brahma nor Nirvana.” (2/72)

“One who dedicates all his Karmas to Brahma andperforms his duties without being attached, he invites noKarmic energy and remains detached like the leaves of lotusflower in water.” (5/10)

“This creation is like a yajna. Brahma is the act of offering,Brahma is the substance being offered, Brahma is the fireand Brahma is one who is offering it. Brahma is thedestination to be achieved through Brahma-Karma andBrahma-Samadhi.” (4/24)

It seems that Brahma sutra was written to explain theUpanishads and Geeta was written after the Upanishadicage and also after the composition of Brahma sutra. We seethe same Upanishadic culture inherited here.

“There are some who realize their Self through meditation,

there are some who realize it through spontaneity and thereare others who realize it through Sankhya or through Yogaor through Nishkama Karma.” (13/24)

“Only the ignorant people argue that Sankhya andKarmayoga are different, the wise people do not say this.Even if one of these disciplines is followed well, it is observedthat the same truth is reached.” (5/4)

In an attempt to make a reconciliation between the Non-Dualism of Vedanta and Dualism of Sankhya, Geeta succeedsto describe Sankhya in its purity but it explains Vedanta insuch a way that Krishna begins to look like both theupanishadic Brahma and a Personal God too. For the firsttime in Indian scriptures we come across a doctrine with aconcept very much similar to the concept of a Personal God.This I would like to call Ishwarvad. So Geeta converts theBramhavad of the Upanishads into a kind of Ishwarvad ofthe Puranas. Geeta is a part of the epic Mahabharata andMahabharata is of course one of the Purunas. The substanceBrahma of the Upanishads becomes a person and anincarnation for the first time in the teachings of Geeta.

“You are the ultimate Brahma, you are the ultimateabode, you are the sacred, absolute, eternal, divine birthlessinfinite original God.” (10/12)

Krishna says –“There are no manifestations or creatures who can dwell

in my being, see the glory of my yoga. My being is the sourceof all Becomings, it sustains all these becomings yet ittranscends all of them.” (9/5)

‘Becoming’ includes all the five great manifestations ofEarth, Water, Fire, Air, Sky; all their five characterics and allthe thirteen instruments of human existence too. Krishnasays that he is the source of all these becoming and yet hetranscends all of them too. The Krishna of Geeta is not onlyPurush but he has become Purushottama and Adideva.Brahma is said to be the effective and material cause of allthe five great Manifestations and living creatures in theUpanishads but this shloka (9/5) besides many others,asserts, that the Being of Krishna is something even beyondBrahma itself.

“I am the Father of this creation and also its mother. It is

Page 85: Paradise Never Lost

174 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 175

I who rears up this creation and I am the Grandfather aswell. I am the soundless sound of AUM which is the onlysubstance worth knowing and also I am the three Vedas Rig,Sama and Yaju which originate from this sound.” (9/17)

“I am the ultimate destiny, providence, Lord, witness,abode, shelter, and welfare friend of this creation. All creationand dissolution happen within my being and I preserve theindestructible seed of the next creation too.” (9/7)

So the substance Brahma of the Upanishads has becomeGod the Father and God the Creator for the first time here.Of course, some Upanishads like Kena etc have alsopersonified Brahma and AUM etc but this has been only animperfect tendency there and not meant to be the case really.

“Whenever there is decline of Virtue and an upsurge ofVice, I create my own being.” (4/7)

“To protect the righteous and to eliminate the sinners,to make the ultimate law prevail again, it will be possible forme to come again and again in every age.” (4/8)

“There are four Varnas, I create them all according toaptitude and action. Although I create them all, yet I remaina changeless doer or an invariant witness throughout.” (4/13)

“I know all the creatures who lived in the past, I know allthe creatures living at present and I also know all thecreatures who shall be born in the future, but none of themis supposed to know me.” (7/26)

“It is possible to fall again into the cycle of life and deatheven after attaining to Brahma-realization but those whoattain to me can never have rebirth.” (8/16)

“The God (ISHWAR) resides in the heart of every livingbeing and He makes every creature ride the machine of thebody and makes it wander in ignorance. Such is the powerof His Maya.” (18/61)

As far as the device of personification is concerned, it isnot used in Geeta to begin with. Some Upanishads beforeGeeta also have personified the various aspects of Naturesuch as Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Moon, Sun, Jupiter etc. ButUpanishads have not personified the ultimate substanceBrahma to represent it as a person which Geeta calls Ishwar.Geeta for the first time, personifies the ultimate reality intothe embodiment of Krishna and also states that he is bornagain and again and he is an incarnation of God. This is a

point of intrinsic deviation in Hinduism which converts itfrom a superior religion into an inferior religion. GoswamiTulsidas completed this process of deviation by writing hispoetic work MANAS and today even a Hindu ordinarily doesnot understand what it means to be a Hindu. To understandHinduism one has to assimilate at least Upanishads,Sankhyasutra, Yogasutra and the six systems of Indianphilosophy in his being. Otherwise the essence of Hinduismis never known. Upanishads, Brahmasutra and Geeta aresaid to compose the triad of departure from Vedas to Puranasbut in fact this departure triad is the rear essence ofHinduism. One can avoid reading the Vedas and the Puranasbut must never fail to read Upanishads, Brahmasutra,Sanskhyasutra, Yogasutra, Geeta and the six theist systemof Indian philosophy because they represent real Hinduism.

However, this seems that Geeta is at the beginnings ofBhaktiyoga in Indian tradition. Geeta seems to be the firstor may be the only philosophical work which justifies Bhaktion philosophical grounds. Geeta not only represents Krishnaas the Person of God but also advocates that it is sufficientonly to surrender to him. It is not without reason that theKrishna of Geeta reminds us now and then of the Jesus ofNew Testament.

“Become one with my will, become a devotee to me,become a worshipper to me and bow down to me. Whosoevergives his soul to me attains to my infinite being.” (9/34)

“Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offerto the yajna fire, whatever you donate, whatever austeritiesyou bear, you should surrender all those to me.” (9/27)

Hindus have misused this Sutra very much. They haveforgotten that God resides in his glory only in the beings ofinnocent persons and man is the most advanced embodimentof Brahma. In India people die of hunger and of disease;children are not given the opportunity of education;orphanages have no money to make the both ends meet butit is not thought a religious duty to support them. Insteadthe religious minded people go to temples and denote therein secrecy millions and millions of rupees in the name of thedeities made of stone. This is just an abuse of money. Intemples like Tirupati, Nathadwara etc every day we comeacross people who have been very cruel towards their fellowhuman beings but seem to be very large hearted here. This

Page 86: Paradise Never Lost

176 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 177

is a misinterpretation of the religion but this has becomethe practice of the day. What kind of Brahmavad is this?

“Give up all other faiths and come for protection to me. Iwill redeem you of all your sins and liberate you from bondage.You need not feel anxious for that.” (18/66)

“A Brahma-realized blissful soul neither worries nordesires. Such a mystic perceives the same substance in everybeing and attains to my ultimate devotion.” (18/54)

The Christianity can be characterized only by one shloka18/66. It seems that in Geeta, Hindus created a platformcommon with the typical spirit of Christianity. After Geeta,Krishna became a God in person for the Hindus just as Jesushas been God-the Son for the Christians. Both have becomeembodiments of Personal God forever. There seems to betruth in the claim that the word Christ comes from Krishna.It is possible that the Sanskrit word Krishna had to travel toBengal to become Christo and it had to travel further toJarusalem to become Christ.

“Whsoever serves me through unwavering devotion orBhaktiyoga, he transcends all the three aspects of Prakritiand becomes capable of Cosmic Consciousness.” (14/26)

Thus, it must have become clear by now that Geeta beginswith Sankhyayoga and Nishkam Karamyoga, it explains themand brings about a harmony between them. In other wordsGeeta explains Nishkam Karma on the philosophical groundsprovided by Sankhya. Then, it tries to combine both thephilosophies of Vedanta and Sankhya strangely enough. Iwant to assert something which may look original to manypeople. Neither Sankhya nor Vedanta nor Nishkam Karmais the contribution of Geeta to the Indian tradition. It isobvious that all the three sutras Brahmasutra, Sankhyasutraand Yogasutra had come into being well before Geeta, Geetahas actually mentioned all these three books. Sankhyasutrawas writeen by Kapil, Yogasutra by Patanjali andBrahmasutra by Vedvyas. It is believed that Vedvyas wasthe author of Mahabharata and eighteen Puranas too. InIndian tradition two methods have been used to narrate thespiritual truths – the samas style and the Vyas style. InSamas style every thing is written very briefly and veryexactly, in fact everything is written in a Sutra form. All thethree books Brahmasutra, Sankhyasutra and Yogasutra haveused this style only. In contrast to it, Puranas explain truth

in great details. This diction is called the Vyas Paddhati. Vedmeans knowledge and Vyas means to explain in detail. SoVedyas seems to be the school of those Brahmins who usedto narrate the spriritual knowledge in detail and not in aSutra form. So my understanding is that Vedvyas was not asingle person but it was a school of Brahmins which believedin using Vyas Paddhati to express the knowledge or veda.All these three sutras were written before the Puranas andthen a need was felt to change the diction when it came tothe writings of Puranas. So it seems logical that Vedavyaswas not a person but a school of Brahmins which beganworking after the revelation of Upanishads, Sankhyasutraand Yogasutra. So we again come to our point that withGeeta and Puranas, a new kind of expression begins, whichwas unknown before and which proved very useful for theBhakti tradition. In fact, Geeta is the first philosophicalscripture which personifies the substance Brahma ofUpanishads into the person of Krishna. For the first time itbrings forth an idea which is very much similar to the ideaof a Personal God. This has been the original contribution ofGeeta and not the Nishkam Karma as generally people hold,because many Upanishads before Geeta have talked enoughabout Nishkam Karma. Now, the Jewish God is the mostperfect example of a personal God. But Krishna of Geeta,Jesus of Bible and Allah of Koran also sometimes seem tointend to compete with it. Only the Brahma of Upanishadshas been a pure substance, even a material as well as aneffective cause. Not only this, it is for the first time thatGeeta comes forward with a kind of Bhaktiyoga which is itsown invention. Of course this idea is much elaborated in thePuranas which were to succeed Geeta.

In fact, essentially we find many kinds of Yogas mentionedin Geeta – Karmayoga, Gyanyoga, Dhyanyoga, Sankhyayogaand Bhaktiyoga. Out of these Gyanyoga and Karmayoga havebeen always a part of Vedantic tradition, Dhyanyoga hasbeen adopted from Yogasutra of Patanjali, Sankhyayoga hasbeen taken from Sankhyasutra of Kapil, only the Bhaktiyogais a new cult here to be propagated. Only the Bhaktiyoga isa new cult here to be propagated. It seems to be an originalbeginning in Geeta. The Bhaktisutras devoted one each toNarad and Shadilya are most probably later writings becausetheir subject matter has been taken from the Puranas.

Page 87: Paradise Never Lost

178 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 179

There is no wonder Upanishads, Brahmasutra and Geetaare said to form ‘the departure triad.’ Geeta indeed is a bridgebetween Vedas and other philosophies including Puranas.As a matter of fact, we find no traces of philosophies likeNyaya, Vaisheshika, Buddhism, Jainism etc in Geeta. OnlyMimansa, Vedanta, Sankhya and Yoga have been mentionedin Geeta in their seed form. So it seems that Brahmasutra,Sankhyasutra and Yogasutra were all the three composedbefore Geeta and all the rest schools of philosophies haveevolved later on. Although Geeta itself is a philosophical workof the highest order, it inherits much form Upanishads,Sankhya and Yoga. It begins where philosophies haveconcluded but goes much further. Geeta can be held solelyresponsible for the beginning of a great tradition of Krishnadevotees in India. This is the tradition which has includedgreat mystics like Surdas, Chaitanya, Meera and the rest.We should indeed feel grateful to Vedvyas, the person whoauthored Geeta. Geeta is a part of the epic Mahabharata,and both Ramayana and Mahabharata are indispensablejewels embedded in the crown of Indian culture. Amen!

The Yogasutra of Patanjali

Mimansa prescribes a three fold path for a seeker Shravan(Listening), Manan (Contemplation) and Nididhyasan(Dharana). These three steps are included in Gyanayoga orunion through knowledge. Very few people like Ashtavakra,Janaka and J. krishnamurty have advocated the path ofGyanayoga because very few people can reach through it.Upanishads talk about both Karmayoga (Desireless Action)and Gyanyoga (union through Knwoledge). Karmayoga meansunion through action. Rama and Krishna are good examplesof Karmayogis. The faith of the Upanishadic period is termedas Upasana and it gives equal importance to Karma andGyana both. However, it is natural that the terms likeSankhya and Dhyana are to be found nowhere in theUpanishads. It seems that Sankhya originated as a criticismof Vedanta and it is almost as ancient as Vedanta itself.However, the Sankhya-Sutra by Kapil Muni is the firstauthentic work with the school of Sankhya. Sankhya insistson pure, detached witnessing and Sankhya can also betermed as ‘Sakhsivad’ or witnessism. There is no mention of

any methods of meditation in Sankhya. Kapil and J.K. aretypical to have expressed that it is enough to be a witness.

The term Dhyanyoga as a system of methods ofmeditation appears for the first time in the Yogasutra ofPatanjali. Patanjali seems to be the first authority onmedtiation. However, he was followed by Tantra, Buddha,Mahaveera, Gorakhnath, Osho etc, the great masters whocontributed considerably to the methods of medtiation.‘Vigyan-Bhairava-Tantra’ is a book of dialogue between Shivaand Parvati and this book includes one hundred and twelvekeys towards meditation and seems to be a significantadvancement upon the Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali.

Geeta has mentioned five kinds of Yogas-Gyanayoga,Karmayoga, Sankhyayoga, Dhyanyoga and Bhaktiyoga. Asmentioned earlier, Gyana and Karma come from theUpanishads, Sankhya form the Sutra of Kapil and Dhyanafrom Yogasutra of Patanjali. It seems that all these schoolsmust have preceeded Geeta. It is possible that Geeta is thefirst scripture to have introduced the concept of Bhakti. It isclaimed that the epic Ramayana due to Valmiki is moreancient than Mahakharata but Rama of Valmiki is not aGod and Valmiki has not been an Acharya of Bhakti likeTulsidas. Except Geeta two Bhakti-Sutras expounded byNarada and Shanditya are also important writings. But theirstyles and subject-matter indicate them to be writings laterthan the eighteen Puranas. Narada was not a historicalcharacter, he was a deity but Shandilya was a real person.Some Brahmins still claim to hail from Shandilya andShandilya is one of important lineages among the presentday Brahmins.

Today, when we use the term Yoga we may include Gyana,Karma, Shankhya and Dhyana traditions in it. Only Bhaktiis lift out. Now Yoga and Bhakti are mutually exclusive ofeach other and generally Hinduism consists of three paths-Karma, Bhakti and Yoga. According to Patanjali, Yoga meansa path of Meditation and Effort. Yogasutra just begins withthe discipline of mediation and describes it in brief only. Wedo not find many methods of meditation in Yogasutra. SoYogasutra is the beginning of the work which was later onenhanced by other yogis and tantrics. Vaigyan BhairavaTantra for example contain as many as one hundred andtwelve techniques of meditation. Those who want to devote

Page 88: Paradise Never Lost

180 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 181

pretty good time are advised also to go through the two seriesof discourse named ‘The Alpha and the Omega’ and another‘The Book of Secrets’. The discourses were delivered by Oshoin Pune. My task here is to interpret the original text ofPantanjali in brief only as they say that Brevity is the soul ofWisdom.

"Now the beginning of the Discipline of Yoga."(Chapter 1, Sutra 1)Yoga is certainly a rigorous discipline. Yama, Niyama,

Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara and Dharana are rigorousand arduous regular practices prescribed by Patanjali.Patanjali has defined each one of them as he proceeds further.Perhaps Yogasutra is the first spiritual scripture in the Indiantradition which preaches a system of discipline. The peopleof the Upanishadic age believed in Upasana and Upasana isnot a discipline but a spontaneity, a celebration and afestivity. Sankhyasutra followed the Upanishads and itbelieves in pure witnessing. Although witnessing needsconstant awareness, watchfulness and assiduity it is neithera system nor a discipline. The eightfold yoga due to Patanjalihas been certainly a discipline for the first time.

It seems that upanishadic people lived very close to Natureand life used to be simple and relaxed in those ancient days.Self-realisation was thought to be as easy and effortless assleep or blinking of the eyes and no need to devise anytechniques were ever felt. We cannot understand this todaybecause in a modern society even sleep needs drugs anddevices for its inducement. In those days things were justthe opposite. It was enough to understand life and the futilityof desire to become awakened. That is why, Upanishads havego only one message, “Live life in its totality and go deep intoit. The Upanishads although incomparable in their greatnessthrough all the history of mankind need not prescribe anymethods for enlightenment. Even have to remain awarecontinuously of our actions, thoughts and emotions and thisis the only technique Sankhya advocated.

So, it was left for Patanjali only to initiate a science ofEnlightenment and he was great enough to create it. He canbe placed among only the greatest masters like Buddha,Mahavira, Gorakh or Osho. At the same time perhaps hewas the greatest possible. Yoga is a discipline in another

way too. There has been a continuous chain of Yogis,enlightened persons of course, down from Patanjali to eventhe present day. Since the time of Patanjali Yogis have alwaysexisted in India. There has been an unbroken lineage in theform of master and disciple tradition. So Yoga has certainlybeen a living current and a perpetual discipline. The worddiscipline has a common root with the word disciple and soyoga has been a discipline.

Yoga is a discipline in a third way too. Most of the Yogisrenounce the world and live like ascetics. Even those who donot renounce follow a system of austere, strict and controlledlife-style. So yoga is not a simple matter, according to Patanjaliit is a system of self-discipline.

Yoga is the elimination of modifications of mind, thatis elimination of unconscious tendencies of intellect andof emotion (1/2)

This is a negative definition of Yoga. The positive definitioncan be stated as – “Yoga is the union with the ultimate reality.”In fact, the word means literally union. This definition ofYoga to begin with indicates that Yoga is a negative path, ora ‘nivrithi marga’ as the Hindus have put it. Yoga assertsthat we have to eliminate all those faculties in us whichprevent us from realization of the truth. That is why, Yoga isa path via negativa. Following Yoga too, we become one withthe ultimate reality and so yoga leads to the same result towhich the path of love also does. In fact, there is nocontradiction between the negative and the positivedefinitions of Yoga.

Chitta means intellect and heart, thought and emotion,and it is a continuous flux as David Hume discovered it.Vritti means drift or tendency or modification and so chittvrittimeans ever changing modifications of mind. Yoga is theelimination of these chittvrities which have becomeinvoluntary and which never come to gap even for a fractionof a second ordinarily. If we look at our being, Man can bedescribed as a series of four concentric circles. At theoutermost periphery we have Karma or action, at the lastbut one periphery we have thought, at the periphery next toit we have emotion and at the centre of the being is thewitness centre is innermost and can be considered a circleof radius zero and so our being can be symbolized throughfour concentric circles of action, thought, emotion and the

Page 89: Paradise Never Lost

182 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 183

witness. That is on introspection inside our being we comeacross respectively action, thought, emotion and witnessing.In Sanskrit, Manas is said to be the instrument for emotionand Buddhi is said to be the seat for intellect and Chitta isboth Manas and Buddhi or heart and intellect combined.

We cannot attain to witnessing because our mind,intellect and emotion are always in a continuous flow andare never at rest. One thought is going and the other is comingand there seems to be no gap between them. We always havean overlapping sequence of continuous thoughts in ourminds. In fact the word mind is not proper, it should bereplaced by minding, similarly as the word river should bereplaced by rivering. What we call mind is a perpetual and acontinuous ever changing process never static. It is a processnot a state. With this continuous process of minding we cannever remain in the present, we are always moving. Heraclitushas said we cannot step into the same river twice. Our mind,too, is like rivering, we cannot step even once in the samewater, the water is ever changing. Our mind is ever chatteringto us and with this chattering mind no one can come acrossthe present moment.

Now , it is understandable that reality should be alwayshere and now. The truth is existential and it is notpsychological and so it should always remain in the present.We are never in the present and the truth is always in thepresent so there cannot be any meeting between the two.Hence we have to eliminate the vritties of the mind, onlythen we can fall upon the existential truth.

Ordinarily, David Hume is right. Whenever we introspect,we find a continuous chain of thoughts, emotions, concepts,recollections, memories, images etc and no permanentsubstance like Self is to be realized. Is it possible to eliminatethe mask of thought and emotion which hinders theconsciousness? The science of Yoga asserts that this is verymuch possible. For example, a child has no knowledge oflanguage and so a child cannot think, no verbalization ispossible for a newly born human baby. Only a few imagescan float in the mind of an infant and his mind is almostwithout thought and verbalization. All verbalization seemsto be a matter of habit only. So Yoga claims that all the driftof mind is a matter of habit and with growing awareness wecan drop this habit. Both J. Krishnamurty and Osho have

been in agreement that mind can be dropped forever. In fact,our schooling and our education is mostly responsible forverbalization or continuous thinking. We have developed thishabit intentionally and so the reverse should be possible.That is why, Maharshi Raman used to say that meditationis de-learning and so the reverse should be possible. That iswhy, Maharshi Ramain used to say that meditation is de-learning. Jesus has used the phrase ‘Peace of Mind’ formeditation which should mean absence of mind or No Mindexactly.

However, this is clear from this Sutra that Yoga talks interms of removal, elimination, negation etc and so Yoga isgoing to be a path via negativa. Indians call it Nivritti Margwhich literally means path via elimination of modificationsof mind. Nivritti literally means elimination of vritties, ofthought and emotion.

One word of caution is indispensable here. We are notsupposed to resist our thinking because this can provedangerous. Only indirectly we can do something aboutthinking. That is why, methods are needed to attain to peaceof mind.

When there are no modifications of mind, the witnessattains to itself (Chapter – 1, Sutra – 3)

Our consciousness is like lake of water. Actions, thoughtsand emotions are like the ripples and the waves. Waves andripples are not distinct substance from water. It is the waterwhich is wavering and rippling and it is the consciousnesswhich is manifesting itself in various mental processes. Whenthe waves and the ripples disappear, the water of the lakebecomes still. When the process of minding stops we becomepure witnesses. Wavering consciousness is mind andcessation of mental processes is the witness. What is healthyto be wavering or to be still? Yoga says both are healthy butwavering should not occur involuntarily. A healthy personcan both shake his neck and stop it from shaking. But theneck of an old and unhealthy person goes on nodding byitself.

We all know that it is easy to drop all the actions andwithdraw our perception from the outside objects. We cansit with our eyes closed in a silent or a soundproof room.Thoughts and emotions shall still be coming and so themental processes form the only barrier. If thoughts and

Page 90: Paradise Never Lost

184 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 185

emotions also stop, we attain to contentless consciousnessor to purity of witness. This purity of witness is Kaivalya.The knower, the known and the process of knowing hasbecome one in this state. There is no time and there is nospace because space cannot exist without objects and timecannot exist without change. The consciousness remains inits spontaneity; this conscious, has no content; thisconsciousness is not tithered to any objects; thisconsciousness is nonspatial and non-temporal. This is self-realization or Satori or No Mind. The surface of the mirrorhas become empty, there is nothing being reflected and thequality of reflecting has turned to itself. The witness hasattained to its purity and this purity is its essential being.

Thought and emotion together is denominated as mind.This process of minding in which the consciousness hasbecome the modification of thought or of emotion seems tobe involuntary. Meditation is the elimination of minding or astate of No Mind. But the state of No Mind is not the state ofno consciousness according to Yoga. When there is No Mind,there is meditation. When there is No Mind, no perceptionof outside objects, no space, and no time, there is Kaivalyaor self-realization. No Mind can become a permanent stateof consciousness but space and time may not disappear forever. However, No Mind is Samadhi and all problemsdisappear in this state. Literally Samadhi means the state ofSamadhan or solution.

A Zen master was dying. His disciple asked him, “Whatis the answer?”

He opened his eyes for the last time and said, “But whatis the question?”

When all the questions disappear, we attain to Samadhi.Howsoever contradictory this may appear but no one hasever reached the truth through mind. Reason cannot lead tothe ultimate truth which is a matter of experience or a stateof being only.

In the absence of Kaivalya, the seer identifies itselfwith the modifications of Mind (1/4)

When the consciousness is not contentless, the witnessidentifies itself with the drift of mind, the stillness of thelake begins to express itself in the form of a wave. Someoneinsults me and I slap him, what has happened? First of all,some upsurge of energy occurred. I felt uneasy and agitated.

Then, I recognized it as the emotion of anger. A desire cameup, an intention followed and I slapped the person who hadinsulted me. If I would have not been identified with anger, Icould have watched the whole process without reacting. Butthe watcher is lost. I feel myself angry and I slap. There hasbeen hardly a gap between me and the anger.Instantaneously, I have become the anger and I have becomethe action of slapping. After the action I may have becomeaware and repented. Anger is the present moditfication ofmind and I become identified with it or one with it. What istrue of anger may be true of other drifts of mind as well. Thisis the meaning of this Sutra. The witness becomes theperception and the witness becomes the action. This isidentification and a spiritual person has to break thisunconscious identification. This is possible by becoming moreand more aware and by bringing our consciousness againand again into the present moment.

This Sutra can be used as a method of meditation also.Mahaveer has called it Samayika. Suppose we have to knowa flower, then we should become the flower itself. If our mindis still, there is no verbalization and we are in the present,as we look at the flower we become the flower itself. Ourbeing becomes one with the being of a flower. This isSamayika. Suppose our chattering mind is not there and welisten to a piece of music, then we become the music itself.That is why, mediators have been very great musicians. NoMind is the key, once the barrier of mind is gone, we becomewhat we perceive. J.K. has said it again and again that theobserver becomes the observed. This is the meaning of theSutra.

There are five kinds for modifications of mind,complicated and uncomplicated (1/5)

Generally, we do not analyze our mind stuff. While weintrospect we find memory, anticipation, hope, fear, emotion,concept, recollection, thought, image etc. All is flux and allis confusion. Freud was the first scientist in the West whotried a little to penetrate the involuntary process of mind.He has really tried to penetrate the subconscious and theunconscious territories of mind. But the approach ofpsychoanalysis has been usually pathological only. It hasnothing to do with the so called normal people. Only somegreat masters in the East have worked on normal psychology

Page 91: Paradise Never Lost

186 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 187

before Freud. These masters are Patanjali, Buddha,Mahaveera, Jesus etc. Osho used to say that Psychologyshould cover three aspects – Abnormal Psychology, NormalPsychology and the Psychology of the Enlightened. Muchwork has been going on pertaining to Abnormal Psychologyin the West. Some spiritual teachers like Patanjali, Buddha,Jesus etc. have tried to make a system out of NormalPsychology also but none has yet worked with the thirdPsychology so far because the Enlightened persons have beenfew and far between. Yet, Osho has contributed considerablyto this Psychology for the first time, of course in his ownway.

So, Patanjali proceeds further to analyze the workings ofso called Normal human mind. He beings with this Sutraand states that there are five modifications of mind, some ofthem seem to be complicated and others not complicated. Inthe next Sutra, he comes forward with these fivemodifications.

These Modifications are Right Knowledge,Indiscrimination, Verbal Delusion, Sleep and Memory (1/6)

In the Next Sutras Patanjali himself has defined thesemodifications.

Right knowledge consists of Perception, Inference andVerbal Authority (1/7)

Direct perception is said to be a source of AuthenticKnowledge. We have five senses of Perception and theKnowledge through them is said to be direct. ‘Pratyaksha’ isthe Sankrit word used in this sutra which literally means‘before the eyes’. But we have to include all the five sensesbecause eye is not the only sense of perception. Other sensesare Ear, Nose, Tongue and Skin. The knowledge derivedthrough all these five senses is said to be direct perceptionand this sutra accepts it as Right Knowledge. But we mustallow a word of precaution here. Such kind of knowledge isvalid only in the field of Practical knowledge or ‘avidya’ asthe Upanishads have put it. It cannot lead to the ultimateknowledge or Vidya. Upanishads and all other awakenedseers of India agree with Kant that through Perception andConception we can never know the ‘Thing in itself’ and soIntuition is the only valid form of knowledge when we cometo the ultimate reality or Vidya. Hindu have called this ‘Thing

In Itself’ Brahma or Self which is both the effective and thematerial cause of this existence.

This Sutra accepts Anuman or inference as the secondsource of valid knowledge. Inference is based on Perceptionfollowed by invariant association.

Perception : — It is raining outside.Invariant Association : — No rains can fall without clouds.Inference : — There are clouds outside.Without seeing the clouds we derive the conclusion. Such

kind of knowledge is said to be Inference. I see a newly bornbaby suddenly as I enter the hospital ward. There can be nobaby without delivery and so the hospital has recentlyenrolled a new case of delivery. This is inference. One moreexample from Mathematics,

x > y, x2 = y2 , x = 5 so y = -5 This is inference.Indian Darshan is different from Western Philosophy

because all the theist systems of Indian Philosophy acceptVerbal authority as a valid source of knowledge whereas theWestern systems deny it. The Western systems are all basedon logic only. Herman Hesse is right to observe that Darshanshould be translated as Philosia (love of seeing) and not asPhilosophy (love of knowledge). Verbal authority is thestatement of a Self-realized or an Enlightened person andIndian Philosophy accepts it as the most valid form ofknowledge. The six systems of Hindu Philosophy viz.Mimansa, Vedanta, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Sankhya and Yogaall accept the authority of the Vedas; The Buddhist acceptthe authority of Buddhas and Jains accept the authority oftheir Teerthankars as valid source of knowledge. Patanjali,too, accepts Verbal authority. He says in this sutra that validknowledge has three sources –

Direct Perception, Inference and Verbal Authority(Agama).

Viparyaya (Indiscrimination) is false knowledge notestablished in the given thing (Chapter 1, Sutra 8).

Where both the things are real and alike, the inability todiscriminate between them is Viparyaya or indiscrimination.We see a solution of lime in water and deduce it is milk. Wesee artificial jewellery and deduce this is real Gold. We see acuckoo and deduce it is crow. Indiscrimination is not sameas illusion. When we see a snake in the rope it is illusion butnot indiscrimination because rope is a real object while snake

Page 92: Paradise Never Lost

188 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 189

is not really there. Seeing a mirage in a desert is notindiscrimination as the water seen is not real. Both the thingsconfused should be real, then it is indiscrimination.

A knowledge following from words having no objectivereality is VIKALPA or Verbal Delusion. (Chapter 1, Sutra9)

A word is heard or read and we do not know the thing itrefer to but we imagine this object, such a knowledge is calledVikalpa or Verbal Delusion. For example, we read he Bibleor some other scripture and create an idea of God in ourminds, this is Verbal Delusion. Someone reads the drama‘Antony and Cleopatra and makes an image of Cleopatra inhis mind which resembles some film actress like ElizabethTaylor, then this is an example of Verbal Delusion. A personhas never seen a white peacock, he reads about white peacockand makes an image in his mind on the basis of his familiaritywith ordinary peacock, then this imagination is a VerbalDelusion. A person has not seen Daffodils, he reads the poem‘Daffodils’ and comes to create an image of it, then thisapproximation is Verbal Delusion. Thus, we see thatIndiscrimination and Verbal Delusion both belong to NormalPsychology. These are different from Illusion, Delusion,Hallucination and Disorientation which occur withpsychoses. Patanjali has nothing to do with the abnormalstates of mind, he is not concerned with them like Freud.

Sleep is a Modification of Mind which embraces Non-existent Images (Chapter-1, Sutra-10)

This Sutra describes ‘Sleep with Dream’ or the ‘DreamingState of Mind’. Dreams consist of non-existent images (AbhavPratyaya). Sleep is the modification of mind which is full ofsuch dreams. Hence this sutra. It seems that Patanjali doesnot think it proper to describe ‘Sushupti’ or dreamless sleepas a modification of mind. The dreamless state of mind consistof no images at all, all the processes of mind disappear in adreamless sleep and so it cannot be described as amodification of mind or as a Vritti. Sleep without dreams isalso contentless like Samadhi. In Samadhi we are aware andin dreamless sleep we are unaware. But both of these arewithout drifts of mind. So Patanjali is right not to includeSushupti or Dreamless Sleep in modification of mind. Wecan describe Sushupti as “Pratyaya abhava alambanaSushupti” but not as “Abhava pratyaya alambana”. Pratyaya

abhava alambana means dreamless sleep without any of theimages. Samadhi, too, is not included by Patanjali inmodifications of mind because Samadhi is NO MIND. In factSamadhi should be described as ‘pratyaya abhavaconsciousness.’ These Sutras, however, are relevant for thosewho know Sanskrit.

Memory is when perceived subjects come back tomind as impressions (Chapter-1, Sutra – 11)

Both memory and dream depend on impressions comingfrom past experiences. But in memory the impression belongsto and is in accordance with a subject really perceived assuch while in a dream impression may arise inconsistentlyand from a subject never as such perceived or imagined.Memory is both linguistic and conceptual while dreams mayconsist of images only. Memory is logical but dreams areillogical. Memory and imagination belong to waking state ofmind while the dreams come from the subconscious territoryof mind. Obviously, the language of the subconscious isdifferent from that of the conscious mind.

Chittvritis eliminated through practice anddetachment. (Chatper – 1, Sutra – 12).

Attachment or Ashrava creates Vritties of mind.Attachment is the source of energy which keeps Vritties alive.Habit is only a source of unconscious energy to keep theVritties vital. What are the reasons for attachment?Incomplete experience of life, unawareness, unfulfilled needs,unexpressed emotions, suppressed instincts, habitualpatterns of behaviou etc. are bound to create attachment. Inmy view, complete and wholesome experience of life isnecessary for Vairagya or detachment. Even after Vairagya(detachment) abhyas (practice) is needed to break thehabitual patterns which create the modifications of mind.Total action, too, facilitates the elimination of Vritties.

Man lives in a society where he has to suppress evensome of the basic instincts of life. Sex, anger, hatred, jealousy,tears, laughter are some of the basic human instincts atwhich the society does not always feel easy. Freud has saidthat all our civilization is founded upon sexual suppressionand he is right. No society, civilization or culture can arise ifthe sex energy is expressed in an unrestrained manner. What

Page 93: Paradise Never Lost

190 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 191

to do with such basic instincts and emotions? If we suppressthese instincts, the suppressed energy creates theunconscious mind with more and more ripples at workinvoluntarily below the conscious level. Suppression is verymuch responsible for the mess our minds have become. Wehave to take an example. Suppose I go to the office and myboss insult me. Anger comes up immediately as a response.It is a natural reaction which comes up from our animalinheritage. Every animal feels angry if we violate its space. Ifan animal ceases to be angry he cannot defend itself againstthreats to life. Every animal has to follow the instinct tocontinue living. No animal can afford to become a witness orto become a mediator; an instant reaction is inevitable tosave its life. So anger is natural in us. Because we have allevolved from animalhood, unconscious forces like instincts,emotions, needs etc. are natural in us. So we say that it isnatural that anger should have arisen. The best thing wouldhave been its total expression then and there and absolutefreedom from that energy. Every animal boss is wise enoughto permit it but a human boss can hardly do it. So I try toignore my anger and I smile, and I have to smile more as Ihonour people like Dale Carnegie too. The energy cannotremain static and so it moves into the unconscious mindand creates disturbances there until it is released fully. Thereis a very beautiful phenomenon regarding suppressionswhich every meditator come across, the energy of suppressionis released just if we have switched on a tape recorder. Wecan exactly re-live it if we stop disturbing the energy patterns.

Now, it is understandable that something is to be doneso that the energy is not suppressed. Awareness is the firsttechnique. If we can become aware just at the onset of angerand can watch thoroughly the unconscious working of thisenergy inside us, the energy changes its from and nosuppression takes place. If this is not possible at the momentbecause our attention has been distracted, we should sitsilently in a corner afterwards and remember this happeningagain and watch how the anger worked inside us. By andby, the energy is transformed and the anger is eliminated. Itdisappears from our unconscious mind too. The energyreturns back to its source and the suppression is unwound.It cannot produce any effect afterwards. This is true for allunconscious energies within us. Whenever we have the first

opportunity, we should go again into the suppressedexperience, meditate and undo the suppression. With growingawareness all unconscious forces cease to set onmechanically.

The second technique is to find some alternative way ofexpression. There is a certain kind of behaviour which thesociety permits and there is a certain kind which the societycannot. I cannot slap my boss but I can take a pillow andwrite his name on it with full designation and qualificationsand beat it to the full contentment of my heart or I can takea photograph and express my anger. This experiment I canrepeat most religiously whenever I feel angry towards theperson. Some people can write even poetry or draw a paintingto express themselves. Literature, Music and Fine Arts arevery good susbstitues to release forbidden responses. I canclose my fists as tight as possible and open them and canrepeat this process till the anger is gone. There is no wonderthat people who play games like Foot-ball, Hockey, Cricketetc have no problems with their aggressiveness. It is notwithout reason that housewives are very much fond of fullinglegs. In Japan they teach the children if someone insultsthem, the children should not be in a hurry to respond.Instead, they should immediately start running around thehouse and find the anger has disappear. After that if anyresponse is needed, that will be proper in magnitude andintention, If we start learning such techniques right fromthe childhood, our unconscious habit patterns are bound todisintegrate. There is no surprise that Japanese people arewonderful meditators. However, we must remember thatmeditation is the best remedy. They energy can move in actionor in transformation or in witnessing without suppression.If we witness the anger, the energy moves into witnessingand there is no suppression because witnessing, too, needsenergy. So witnessing is a substitute for the consequentunconscious reaction. If the energy is transformed intoanother action immediately, no suppression is allowed either.So we can choose and avoid suppression by doing whateveris possible in a particular situation.

The technique of awareness or witnessing applies to allunconscious perversions such as jealousy, hatred, scorn,sorrow etc. We cannot transform a need, howsoever awarewe may become. A need is a need. Hunger is a need, sleep is

Page 94: Paradise Never Lost

192 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 193

a need and sometimes sex is a need too. If we observe anunconscious energy generally it disappears. If it does notdisappear, then it is a need and we have to express it.

Inspite of our best precautions, suppressions are boundto happen in a society like ours. We live in a sick society withperverted people. To release these suppressions we shoulduse techniques of meditiation which include steps ofcatharsis. Cartharsis mean RECHAN OR NIRJARA. Osho hasprescribed medition like Dynamic, NO MIND and ‘The MysticRose’ for this purpose. We must go through them time andagain.

Suppressions do create Vritties and dreams in our minds.We are here and now doing something, some suppressedenergy springs up from the unconscious to the consciousmind and becomes a drift of mind. The unconscious and thesubconscious always interfere. The effort of the science ofYoga is to illuminate in us all that is dark and unconscious.The cosmic unconscious becomes the cosmic consciousnessin us on illumination and this we call Enlightenment.Enlightenment can be both sudden and gradual and itdepends.

Moreover, we have to discriminate between needs anddesires. We should not fight with needs but fulfil them.Everyone needs to have food, sleep, sex, clothes, housing,education, providence for the old age, medicine etc. Naturally,everyone has to earn a little money to fulfil his basic needs.All initiation is a mistake. Our body is a part of the Universeand as long as we live in the body we cannot renounce theworld. I have come across many monks while travelling. Theydo not have enough money even to eat occasionally. Even iftheir shoes are torn, it becomes a great management topurchase a new pair. How can these people attain to peaceof mind? We should always avoid the extremes and shouldadopt the right livelihood. We should go for a profession suchthat we earn to suffice our needs and devote some time forour meditations also. Those who renounce have to fightcontinually with basic needs like food and sex and all theirlife is wasted in this meaningless fight. They become moremiserable than even the ordinary people. Patanjali hasnowhere said that renunciation is a must. In his time, theseers used to live with their wives, children and manydisciples and they used to be very rich. The Kings and the

citizens used to patronize their Ashrams where their childrenused to share the living. Now that patronage has disappearedand no renunciation should happen. Renunciation is a surebut gradual recourse towards suicide. It was thought wiseto renounce only after the age of fifty after having enoughexperience of life.

Now, we come as to nature of desires. Everyone has topossess a little money and it is a need. But there are somewho want to collect all the money the world can offer. Theywant to become richer in comparison to others; it becomesan ego problem for them; then it is a desire and a greed.Everyone needs a comfortable house to live in as a matter ofneed. But there are some who want to have the best housein the city and make a distinction through it. There are somewho waste a lot of human resources raising building in whichseldom someone comes to live. This is a matter of desire. Itis a need to have a beloved but it is a desire to raise a TajMahal. Sex is a need but some people want to flirt all thewomen around until they have to pretend to be get aheadache, this is having desire. A desire is generally an egoproblem. It is a false substitute for self-knowledge andfulfillment through bliss. Most of us feel that life is uselessand we want to create some meaning in it through desires.Someone thinks that to prove himself worthy he has tobecome a multimillionare; someone thinks that to provehimself worthy he has to become a President; someone thinksto prove himself worthy he has to become a filmstar etc. Weall want to leave our footprints on the sand of time and wechoose some desire for this purpose. Then turmoil of mindis the natural consequence and we must remain preparedfor it. In fact, everyone feels a kind of emptiness in his beingand he wants to fill it through some desire. Desire is a falsesubstitute for wisdom that can follow self-realization only.Desires can become perverted also. Everyone needs to besecure but there are some who want to dominate and exploitothers to prove their own worth, then it is a perversion.Everyone needs to have some acquaintances and friends butthere are some people who want to be admired universally,then it is a perversion. Such people have a certain inferioritycomplex and they want to overcome it through others. Foodis a need, but for some people it becomes a prestige symbolto dine in a five-star hotel. Then it is a perversion of a

Page 95: Paradise Never Lost

194 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 195

biological need.If we go inside us we can easily discriminate what is a

need and what is a desire. Not one else can give us cataloguesto look in. Needs are to be fulfilled immediately and regularlybut desires are to be understood and dropped. Our ambitionsshould not become means to fufil our egoes because ego is afalse substitute for self-knowledge and no false substitutecan ever fulfil us. No one can embrace a shadow and no onecan fill a bottomless pit. A yogi and a worldly person arestriving for the same end; both are seeking the true meaningof life but a worldly person out of ignorance persues a wrongtrack. This track we may call richness, power, fame, romanceor whatsoever.

Everyone should make a list of preferences in life. Whatdo we expect from life? The list can differ in order but cannotbe very comprehensive: richness, romance, children, power,fame, good health, long life and what else? The only sincereadvice about desires is that we should go deep into one ofthem which is our aptitude. By going deep into a desire, wecan understand the intrinsic nature of all the desires. Thisis bound to happen, why? Even if we succeed, no desire canfulfil us. We cannot find a person more disappointed thanone who has succeeded in his ambition. A person, forexample, has tried to become a politician. One day he becomesthe Prime Minister of India, but suddenly he finds that hehas wasted all his life. The West has succeeded in Scienceand Technology and the West is talking only about anguishand boredom recently, this is not without a reason. Whenwe have achieved all that can be achieved in the externalworld, suddenly our frustration becomes total. What to donow? Everyone is seeking bliss, peace, love, freedom,immortality etc which come form Self-knowledge only. Desiresare only mistaken substitutes and desires can never lead tothese precious things of Beauty. Suddenly, we feel utterhopelessness in the end.

Gradually, we begin to see the point. We are always inthe middle of the queue. There are always some who arebelow us and some who are above us. No one can become atthe same time the richest, the wisest, the most gifted, themost beautiful, the healthiest, the most famous and the likein the world. Everyone has both plus and minus aspectsand so comparison with others can lead no where. The

moment we drop comparing ourselves with others, we cometo understand the futility of desires. So, desires are to beunderstood not to be suppressed. Everyone who has triedhis best one day understands that in the first place he cannever become number one in the world and secondlycomparison with others never leads to bliss. In fact, the desireto humiliate others is just a perversion and it never leads tohappiness normally. When we have become powerful alsowe understand that it is ugly to have a wish to dominateothers. When we become rich, we understand also that moneyalone cannot bring contentment. Fame is said to be the lastinfirmity of the noble mind, but every famous man findshimself sad and lonely. Suddenly he starts to see that theflowers of Lily have always been more glorious than even theKing Soloman himself. In fact, desires can never create ameaning in life, only transcendence can do it. But tounderstand this we have to go deep into at least one of thedesires and not to dismiss it. Our problem is that we arefinite and temporal and the reality around us is infinite andunfathomable and we do not know how to correlate with it.We live in a world where we feel ourselves to be strangersand we want to discover our place here. We need to dissolveinto the ultimate and become one with it, only then the blissfollows and also the meaningfulness. We are unhappybecause we feel irrelevant in relation to the existence. Weneed to come home and desires take us more and more astray.We have to understand desires to keep restrained the turmoilof mind.

Besides, we must learn to be total and whole hearted inall our actions because total action never leads to suppressionand our mind need not return back to the incompleteexperience again and again. Suppose we are attracted towardsa flower and suddenly a guest arrives and we do not see theflower totally. Now this flower will appear in our memory,our poems, our dreams etc. An incomplete experience alwayshaunts us. Meditation makes us more aware and awarenessleads to more and more total action. A person of perfectawareness need not repeat an experience. once in enough.We have to go through the same experience again and againbecause we have not been total through it. Incompletenessof experience creates clinging or attachment. Completenessof experience brings detachment. So we must learn to be

Page 96: Paradise Never Lost

196 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 197

total in our actions, even through ordinary actions like eating,making love, expressing anger, walking, seeing sights etc. Atotal action never creates drifts of mind. That is why, childrenlook so beautiful and relaxed. They can live the presentbecause they have been total in their actions without beingproud or ashamed of themselves. We can jump totally outsideof a temptation if we have been totally inside it. There is asaying in Japan, “When an archer becomes perfect he throwsaway the bow.” Children can even break away their toysbecause they have been total while playing with them. Totalityis the key. ‘Play while you play and read while you read’ hasalways been a good maxim.

To summarize, we must not suppress our instincts andneeds, only we should become more and more aware of them.We should not suppress our emotions but express them fullyas and when it is possible to express. A wise man alwaysthrows away the garbage and does not care what neighbourswill think about the untidiness of the house. We should makea list of our preferences in life and go deep into one of thedesires according to the best aptitude. We must go after itwhole heartedly and devotedly. One day an understandingmay dawn upon us that ignorance is the problem notexcellence in comparison to other human beings. Now, weshall like to begin with meditation, a thirst for the unknownis bound to arise in a mature person. In the beginning onlycathartic meditations such as Dynamic, NO MIND, The Mysticrose etc are advisable. Two years after having gone throughthem we can choose the silent meditations like Nadabrahma,Vipasana etc. With growing awareness we shall be able tosee the further course of action.

Vairagya happens only after we have understood thefutility of the worldly desires, needs are not to be foughtwith. Even after detachment much practice is needed to breakthe beaten tracks or the habit patterns. This is what RamanMaharshi has called deconditioning of the mind. Habit issaid to be the second nature. Great patience and arduouspractice are needed to overcome the habitual drifts of mind.This Sutra reminds us of a saying of Geeta –

“Remaining aware in ordinary activities like eating andwalking, remaining aware in dreams and sleep, remainingaware in all the activities and through all the states of mind,this difficult yoga comes to completion.”

Sutras (1/13, 1/14, 1/15, 1/16) define Practice andDetachment:

Effort to remain established in the state of NO MINDis practice. Practice becomes firmly grounded byperpetual and constant effort with great dedication.Remaining detached in all the subjects of perception isVairagya. Self-realization leads to detachment with thethree components of Prakriti viz. Sattva, Rajas andTamas.

As we discussed in Sankhya Metaphysics everythingemerges from the three components of Prakriti and all theuniverse is created through agitation and unequilibrium inthe three aspect of Nature which we all Sattva, Rajas andTamas. In the beginning these aspects are supposed to be inequilibrium and this equilibrium is disturbed because of theproximity of the conscious principle which has beendenominated as Purush or Self. Then, all the twenty-fourelements of Nature emerge. Self is the only substance notcreated by these three aspects of Nature, so one who realizesthis Self transcends all the attachment with the ingredientsof Nature viz Sattva, Rajas and Tamas and the universemanifested by them. Witnessing is the key towards thistranscendence.

If we combine the above four sutras together we get theaphormism (12/12) of Geeta which states, “Self-realisationis better than practice, Meditation should follow Self-realisation, Desirelessness is the consequence of Meditationand Desirelessness leads to absolute peace of mind orliberation.” Even a Self-realized person has to meditate, onlythen detachment can become his spontaneity, why? A beamalways looks bent inside the water, even if we have taken itout and known it to be straight. Yoga becomes complete onlywhen one can remain fully aware even in the state ofdreamless sleep or Sushupti. That is why, Jesus says to hisdisciples even until he leaves them – “ The time has comethat I should leave you. Do not fall asleep.” This was one ofhis methods. Sushupti becomes Samadhi if one becomesaware even in it.

Followed by reasoning, thought, bliss and ‘Am’ ness

Page 97: Paradise Never Lost

198 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 199

the Samprajnat Samadhi happens (1/17)

This is a Sutra about seedless Samadhi. Sampragyatmeans through right course of wisdom. In ignorance somepeople think that they can reach the ultimate principlethrough reason, logic or intellect. This is the stage ofreasoning. In the West philosophers tried to reach theultimate truth through reasoning for many centuries. AfterKant they understood that reason cannot lead to it. Everyperson begins with reasoning but soon he understands thatthe intellect cannot help. Even when this dependence onreasoning is gone, thought still remains as a matter ofunconscious habit. If we choose to meditate, thoughts becomeless and less frequent and we begin to see the gap betweentwo thoughts. One thought is gone and another has not yetcome and we feel blissful in between. Gradually, this gapbecomes more and more prolonged and bliss followsperpetually and involuntarily. Bliss is not to be confusedwith happiness. Whereas happiness depends on some outsideexcuse bliss is our very nature. It comes to us without anyreason at all. Bliss is the shadow of meditation and bliss isthe consequence of silence of mind. Tulsidas has called itthe nector from Rama and devotees have called it Prasad orgift from the existence. The more and more peace of mindleads to more and more intensity of blissfulness and thisbliss is independent of everything else. After bliss the self-realisation follows. That is the implication of the Sutra. Whenreasoning disappears, the thought remains as a shadow.When thought disappears bliss follows. When this blissbecomes overwhelming Self-realizaion happens. With Self-realization the ego disappears because we have knownourselves as consciousness and remain no more identifiedwith the body and the mind, with the psychosomatics. Atthis stage we feel that every living creature has a differentconsciousness or Self. Some religions like Jainism stop atthis stage. They do not try to express the beyond becausethe expression becomes mysticism. But Patanjali has beenright to point out that a kind of ignorance still prevails. Thisignorance he calls Asmita or Beingness or ‘Am’ ness. Idisappears with Self-realization and ‘Am’ ness disappearswith the Cosmic Consciousness which Yogasutra has namedthe Samprajnat Yoga or the Seedless Samadhi. So there are

the consequent stages – Reasoning, thought, bliss, 'Amness'and Samprajnat Samadhi or Cosmic consciousness in thelast. This Cosmic consciousness we call Enlightenment.

There is another kind of Samadhi attained beforepractice in which all the mental activity disappears butunmanifested impressions remain. (Chapter 1, Sutra-18)

Such a Samadhi is known as Asamprajnat or SeedfulSamadhi. Asamprajnat or Asampragyat literally means notthrough right course of wisdom. The right course ofmeditation has not been followed, but one attains to Self-realization spontaneously. All of a sudden, time and spacedisappears, all the furniture of the Heavens and Earthdisappears, all the thoughts, images and mental processesdisappear and it is there. This is the experience of Kaivalyain which the knower, the knowledge and the known becomeone. I have called only this experience as intuition and onlyvalid form of knowledge. But this state may not remainforever. Both possibilties are there, sometimes it may remainforever as the Upanishads claim and sometimes it may notremain forever. Mind may come back after such kind ofSamadhi because it is not preceeded by proper Abhyas oryogic practice. The reasons for Asamprajnat Samadhi maylie in the past lives of the seeker. The seeker now shouldbegin with practice or meditation under the guidance of anenlightened master who can lead him to the SamprajnatSamadhi. Zen Buddhism calls this experience Satori andHindus call it Self-realization. This experience can happenmany times before the state of NO MIND or thoughtlessnessbecomes a spontaneity. So according to Patanjali, SeedlessSamadhi can happen only through the discipline of Yoga,otherwise it is seedful and mind comes back again.

Those who have become disidentified with body butstill contain seeds of mindfulness in their causal bodyalso are reborn (1/19)

In Sutra (1/19) ‘Videha’ means Self-realised person whohas no identification with the physical body and Prakritimeans Avyakta or Mahat aspect of Nature. A Self-realizedperson who has attained to Asampragyat Yoga but not to

Page 98: Paradise Never Lost

200 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 201

Sampragyat Yoga may become one with the Mahat aspect ofNature after he leaves the physical body. If seeds ofSamskaras still prevail in mind, even such a person has tocome back. The word ‘Mahat’ means the same as Karmicenergy or Prarabdh or Avyakta. It also means Prana asdescribed in the Prashnopanishad. Sometimes such a personis not born immediately but may remain in the state of seedfulSamadhi even for centuries after leaving the physical body.The Sutra literally means, “Even those are born who havedis-identified themselves with the physical body and whobecome dissolved into the Mahat aspect of Nature after theirdeath”. Obviously the reason is the Karmic energy whichPatanjali calls seedfulness.

The term used in Geeta for such Yogis is ‘Yogabhrashta’.In verse (6/41) Geeta states that such a yogi may live almosteternally in a heavenly abode and then may be reborn tosacred and glorious parents when the right time comes. Inverse (6/42) Geeta states that such Yogis may be born evenimmediately if enlightened parents are available but such abirth is very rare among human beings . Verse (6/43) is stillmore important. It states that such a Yogabhrastha attainsspontaneously to Amprapyagya Samadhi in the next life andthen he tries to attain to the Seedless Samadhi as aconsequence of further effort. Nothing is lost spiritually bychange of physical bodies. It is a continuity; a rest and amovement.

Now, we take up the next sutra:

To some others the Yoga can happen also throughFaith, Sublimation, Awareness, Thoughtlessness andIntuition. (1/20)

In the beginning the seeker needs faith in the masterand in the method. When practiced with determination theenergy is awakened and it moves towards the higher chakras.He can feel this upward movement of energy actually. Thisupward movement of energy leads to more and moreawareness. The awareness leads to deep meditation,thoughtlessness and Samadhi. It is only through intuitionthat one becomes enlightened. Even the method can bedropped if Faith and Devotion are total. If one is surrendered

to the master, he need not meditate. Love and Faith makeus receptive and surrender means receptivity. His surrenderleads him to faith, sublimation, awareness, thoughtlessness,intuition or Enlightenment finally. Surrender to anyEnlightened being, a living master or otherwise can lead toEnlightenment. This is termed as transmission of the Lamp.So what is the implication of the Sutra in brief? Faith leadsto upward movement of energy or sublimation. Sublimationleads to awareness, awarelessness leads to thoughtlessnessand thoughtlessness leads to Intuition. Intuition happenswhen time and space have disappeared. This path can befollowed by Yogis and devotees both. A disciple who has faithin his master can also reach.

Success is immediate for the intensely determined.(1/21)

This Sutra has many implications. Enlightenment is nota matter of time but a matter of preparedness. If a personhas understood the world perfectly well, if he has reachedthe point where all the worldly desires have become futile,he can immediately fall back upon his centre even withoutmethod, practice and master. His experience of the worldbecomes emancipation. This has happened to many peoplelike Ashtavakra, Janaka etc. There are some persons forwhom ignorance becomes intolerable and the thirst for thetruth becomes the question of life and death, such personscan attain immediately to Enlightenment. This Sutra admitsof sudden methods of Enlightenment too. If one is preparedsuch a method can help, otherwise the mediator withholdshimself. In fact, time is needed to give up all the clingings tothe world. Methods of meditation make us more and moresensitive and aware, this sensitivity helps us to understandour desires and only gradually we become prepared to giveup all the clingings. Enlightenment is gradual only becausewe are not prepared to drop our desires immediately. Wecontinue to be ignorant only as long as we have investmentin ignorance. Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wiseand it takes time to understand that ignorance can neverlead to bliss. Meditation gives us a taste of the beyond and acomparison arises. All the worldly pleasures begin to lookinsignificant as we grow in meditation. It takes time to

Page 99: Paradise Never Lost

202 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 203

compare and choose between the worldly ambitions anddevotion to meditation. Finally, meditation wins and we stopsaving ourselves for our designs in the world andEnlightenment happens. So Enlightenment depends uponour readiness for it and it takes time before we allow it tohappen. Our worldly desires interfere with our total devotionof time and energy for meditation. One day we become readyand the guest arrives.

Practice depends on our will being mild, medium orintense (1/22)

Meditation happens when we really stop hindering it.Even if consciously we choose to meditate, from ourunconscious mind we go on creating barriers. We are alwaysafraid of being transformed to some unknown states ofconsciousness; everyone is not expected to have enoughcourage for it from the beginning. There is a beautiful storyabout Jacob in the Old Testament. God came to see Jacobbut Jacob strangely enough stood up against the God andbegan to wrestle with him. Their fight continued the wholenight. Neither God would give up nor Jacob would yield. Inthe morning Jacob fell flat on his back almost finished. TheGod had proved too much for him. This is the story of everyspiritual seeker. We want to meditate but at the same timewe want to save our ego also. For some people even spiritualseeking is an ego trip. Ego means identification with bodyand mind and it is the false centre in us. Meditation cannothappen unless we agree to dissolve this false centre. Thefalse has to go so that the real may come. If Jacob allowsGod, he cannot remain the master of the situation, so onhaving the very first sight of God Jacob is shaken to hisroots and he begins to fight to protect himself as an ego.This is the reason for fight but finally every seeker has tosurrender. How much time is taken depends on our anguishbeing mild, medium or extreme. Yoga can happen only whenwe are fully disillusioned with the world. When meditationbegins to happen, it begins to possess us and we have togive up all our preferences. T ime is needed not forEnlightenment but for becoming prepared to allow it.

Enlightenment can happen also through Love of God

(1/23)

Jesus has said, “I give you but one commandment, LoveGod with all your strength and with all your might”. Onewho loves God loves his creation too and for him Beauty andTruth both become one. Such a person can never do anythingwrong because his love and his aesthetic sense cannot allowit. Love can lead a person only to good actions and love is itsown reward. Such a person becomes a spontaneous Karma– Yogi. He becomes capable of being good to others withoutexpecting anything in return.

Geeta seems only to interpret this Sutra of Patanjali videverses 9/34, 9/27, 18/66, 18/54, 5/10, etc. Geeta states,“Become one with the mind of God, become devoted to God,become prayerful only to God and bow down only to God.Whosoever devotes himself totally to God, becomes one withGod’s being”. (9/34)

Also it states –“Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you

contribute to rituals, whatever you spare for donations andwhatever asceticism you follow, you should devote to me.”(9/27)

“Give up all other disciplines and follow me only. I willredeem you of all your sins and free you from all the bondage.You need not worry on that account.” (18/66)

“Whosoever can see me everywhere and in every beingattains to my ultimate compassion. Such a blissful personbecomes dissolved with my own being, he can neither haveany desires nor any anxieties because he becomes infinitelyfulfilled through me.” (18/54)

“One who devotes all his actions to me and performsthem with a sense of duty without any clingings to the worldyields no karmic energy. He lives in this world unattachedas a lotus flower lives in the water.” (5/10).

All these sayings may remind us very well of the teachingsof the Bible too. The Sutra (9/27) seems to be responsiblefor the teaching of thanksgiving to the God. Also the Sutra

Page 100: Paradise Never Lost

204 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 205

(18/66) carries the total intrinsic spirit of Christianity.

This Sutra of Patanjali has used two words ‘Ishwar’ whichmeans the Almighty and ‘pranidhan’ which means ‘to haveinvestment in’. So literally this sutra means, “One can attainto Yoga also through investment of his being in God.”

The verse (9/34) of Geeta seems to be just a repetition ofthis Sutra of Patanjali and we can consider this Sutra ofPatanjali as the commencement of Bhaktiyoga in the Indiantradition.

Ishwar is Supreme Self untouched by anguish, action,fruits of action and purpose of creation (1/24)

Sankhya is the Metaphysical aspect of Yoga. Accordingto Sankhya Purush is the ultimate substance but when itcomes in proximity to Nature, bondage is created. So Sankhyastates that the ‘Embodied Self’ is not the ‘Absolute Self’. TheSelf resides in all the living creatures, yet it remains anoutsider too. This ‘Absolute Self’ transcendental to Prakritiis Ishwar and as such he is supreme. When is touch withPrakriti the Embodied Self becomes subjected to anguish,attachment leading to karm, fruits of karma and falls intothe cycle of death and rebirth. The Absolute Self transcendsall the romance with Nature. It transcends the longing forcreation too which is just a spontaneous outcome. ThisAbsolute Self is called Ishwar here. He is the Almighty andthe Supreme Ruler. His presence is enough and effectivecause to run this universal drama. He remains untouched,changeless, invariant and indestructible. The creation followsbut it is not his karma. Prakriti is the only principle subjectedto cause and effect. Also, there is no purpose behind thecreation, all creation is over flowing energy. Anguish meansuphappiness caused by being in existence. God is bliss, Godis consciousness and God is the ultimate substance and sono anguish can ever touch him. All actions take place inNature and it is Nature alone which bears effect too and soIshwar transcends all karma and its effect. Sankhya isrealistic in its Metaphysics, it states that the effect is realjust like the cause it. But all effect is within the realm ofPrakriti and Purush remains transcendental to it. So the

transcendental reality according to Sankhya is PureConsciousness, Absolute Self or Ishwar himself.

Sankhya has no faith in Non-dualism. Both Yoga andSankhya consider Prakriti to be an ultimate principle likePurush. Consequently, human bondage is real, it is not onlyan illusion or Maya. Nor it is a matter of forgetfulness only.That is why, arduous effort is needed to shake off thebondage. As a seed is manifested into numerous seeds, soSelf is manifested into infinite number of Embodied Selves.The Absolute Self is one ultimate principle but this ‘EmbodiedSelf’ is not an ultimate principle. As Sankhya is realistic, itis closer to Buddhism and Jainism both than Vedant.However, we have to remember that ‘The Absolute Self’ orIshwar of Yoga is not a Personal God. It is not God the creator,just remaining present, it acts through non-action if ever.

'Absolute Self’ is the seed to Infinite Omniscience (1/25) or In Absolute Self lies infinite seeds of Omniscience.

What hinders our consciousness from Omniscience isour attachment to matter. The less and less attached webecome, the more and more we should know. When all theattachment to matter drops, we become absoluteconsciousness and the Omniscience follows. It is intrinsic tothe consciousness. Attachment to matter is like drugaddiction, it narrows down our consciousness. When webecome fed up with our addiction to Prakriti we begin todrop our attachments and this leads to Omniscience.

The Absolute Self has nothing to do with Prakriti and soit is like a seed containing Omniscience. Upanishads state itthe creation and it is like a tree. It is a device so that bysprouting of only one seed, we can get numerous seeds.Repeating this process, infinite seeds of omniscience arepossible. Every seed so begotten can become Omniscient likethe original one in the state of liberation when it foreshakesall addiction to Prakriti. In Sankhya, the original seed hasno will to multiply, but the Brahma of Upanishads has adefinite will too, “Eko Hum Bahushyami.”

God is the master of masters not intersected by time(Chaper – 1, Sutra – 26)

Page 101: Paradise Never Lost

206 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 207

Time is irrelevant is relation to the being of God. In facttime and space are both psychological and the Godtranscends all matter and all psychology, so that time andspace cannot intersect God. The God can be assigned neithera beginning, nor an end, nor a duration. In fact, all chronologyis irrelevant to God. Kant has been right to say that spaceand time both belong to the frame-work of mind, he hascalled them 'categories'. But philosophers cannotacknowledge a conscious principle which transcends bodyand mind both, because there is no way to prove it logically.The God has never been a conclusion reached logically. Hehas always been a matter of experience only. It is not rightto say that the God is infinite in space and time both. Infact, the existence of God transcends both space and time.This is the meaning of the statement of Patanjali that theGod has no intersection with time. But this concept is noteasy to understand and so the religions have to makecompromises. The Bible says, “He is the beginning and theend. He is the alpha and the omega” etc. But this statementis not complete because the God is a transcendental Beingtoo. So Patanjali is more careful when he says that time hasnothing to do with the being of God.

Patanjali says that God is the master of all the masterswho have happened in the past. What should this mean?God is the master of all masters because he is the timelesssource of all Enlightenment. Osho has said thatEnlightenment has a beginning but not an end. In otherwords, an Enlightened Being becomes one with the God whenthe process of Enlightenment comes to a conclusion andthis conclusion can never be reached while in a human form.The God is the ultimate formless form. Every master growsand grows in consciousness and the God remains stillunattained. All the chain of cause and effect has beginningin him and also the culmination and yet the God remainstranscendental too. He is wiser than the wisest, He is moreEnlightened than the most Enlightened Beings. In himwisdom, purity, absoluteness, omniscience and transdencecan know no bounds. After Nirvana every awakened souldisappears into him. All that has emerged shall return backto the source again. He is the source of all creation, all action,all dissolution and yet he is not a doer, his very presence is

enough effective cause. He is greater than even the gratestof the masterd. There is one more implication of this Sutra.Because the God is the source of all Enlightenment,Enlightened people have always been here and they willalways remain here and so there is hope for every seeker. Weneed not make a haste so that all our efforts are wasted. Wehave infinite time ahead and there is no reason to becomehopeless.

We represent Him by AUM or the Soundless Sound(1/27)

Hindus call this sound ‘AUM’ or the soundless soundand Christians call it Amen. The Zen term for this sound is,‘The Sound of one hand clapping.’ Generally, two objectsneed to strike only then the sound energy is produced. Thissound is existential not produced by collision of objects. Aseeker comes across it in his meditation just before he entersthe formless and timeless principle. This sound is the bridgebetween the formal and the formless, between energy andconsciousness. Hindus believe that ‘AUM” was the first formof energy and all the world was created out of this energy.The Vedic scriptures state that ‘AUM’ is the basic form ofenergy from which other energy-forms and all kinds of mattercame into being. That is why, we can represent the AbsoluteSelf by the symbol ‘AUM’ only because beyond it there is notime and no space, no matter and no energy.

The Bible too holds—“In the beginning was the word and the word was the

God. The same was in the beginning with God. All thingswere made by him; and without him was not anything madethat was made.” (John 1:1, 1:2, 1:3)

The chanting of ‘AUM’ may reveal its meaning (1/28)OrThe chanting of ‘AUM’ may reveal the meaning of the

ultimate substance.

Patanjali has given no meaning of ‘AUM’. He says it isjust a symbol for the absolute. In this Sutra he says that weneed to go deep into meditation by chanting AUM, only thenwe can come to know the meaning of this symbol. He has

Page 102: Paradise Never Lost

208 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 209

been very scientific because experience is the only validityfor that which is beyond language. In deep meditation, themediators have reported to listen to this sound, beyond whichthe world of matter and energy, of concept and form, of timeand space disappear. Only the consciousness remains in itspurity. It is better to go deep into meditation and hear thissound. It is a kind of seed mantra, such a mantra cannotlead to image or thought because it has no meaningfulassociation with it. Such a mantra may lead to the ultimatereality without any attributes assigned to it. That is the reasonthat Patanjali has recommended this mantra. In fact, therehave been mystics including Patanjali who believe thatchanting of this mantra may lead to the correspondingexistential sound itself.

However, Osho has disagreed with Patanjali and opinedthat AUM should not be used for a technique because thiscan be confusing too. We can become confused whether it isour own utterances, our memory or really the existentialsound has emerged. We may hear it only instantaneouslyand may go beyond, so no certainty can be claimed. So Oshosays we should go deep into meditation using othertechniques and let this sound occur by itself in its purity.Our chattering of this mantra can pollute the sound and ourreporting can be biased. Already Hindus report it as AUM,Christians and Mohammadans report it as Amen or Yamen.Only experience can be authentic.

There can be one more reason for recommendation ofthis technique for meditation. This technique like a Zen Koancan stop thinking because it is absolutely absurd to chant itrepeatedly. This is true for every seed mantra like AUM. It isnot a meaningful word like Rama or Krishna. One of theSankhya Sutra says, “Meditation is consciousness withoutcontent” and a seed mantra can be helpful to transcend mindas such.

The chanting of AUM may lead to the unique consciousprinciple and to overcoming of obstacles (Chapter – 1,Sutra – 29)

When we become centred at the sixth chakra or the thirdeye we come across this existential sound of AUM. Nanakahas call it ‘ajapa jap’ and Kabira has called it ‘Anahat Nad’.

Literally ‘ajapa jap’ means soundless chanting and ‘AnahatNad’ means the sound of no collision. Centred at the sixthchakra Nanaka has reported, “All existence has emergedform one energy, so nobody is lower and nobody is higher.”Patanjali states that the reverse too is possible. If we go onchanting this mantra, we can become centred at the thirdeye and may even succeed to open it. Once our third eye isopened we begin to see that all existence, is one energy.When our attention or awareness becomes centred at thethird eye, the drift of mind is not possible, and so all obstacleswhich hinder meditation are gone. While centred at the thirdeye it is very difficult to think or desire. If some desire arisesin our mind while our awareness is centred at the sixthchakra, the existential energy immediately moves to fulfilthis desire. This is another implication of the Sutra. Third-eye meditation is the mediation to enhance our will-power.

This technique can lead to one more consequence also.If we go on chanting in such a way that all our energy movesinto chanting, a gap is created in which the mind maydisappear. The energy which was moving to create themindstuff now moves into chanting only. If time and spacealso happen to disappear in the gap, we attain to self-realization. What are the obstactes to Sefl-realization? Theimages and the verbalization are the stream of obstacles.Chanting of the mantra can lead to thoughtlessness becauseall the mind energy can move into chanting. However, onething more is to be understood, thoughts can obstructEnlightenment but thoughtlessness is not Enlightenment.It is a happening and nothing can be done directly about it.We can only remove all the obstacles and remain establishedin the gap. We can open the lid and wait till the goose is out.Perhaps our mind-stuff is the lid and spacetime is the goose.So we can only wait. Thoughtlessness can only helpEnlightenment, it cannot create Enlightenment because itis the causeless cause and the effectless affect. Howeveraccording to Patanjali, this technique may lead to the uniqueconscious principle which is our own Self only, our mindstuffbeing the obstacle to be removed.

This Sutra uses the word ‘Pratyak Chetan’ which hastwo implications. Literally it means ‘towards the uniqueconscious principle’ but it is a name for the third eye also.This method can be used to open the third eye too. It is the

Page 103: Paradise Never Lost

210 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 211

same conclusion to which Kathopanishad vide sutras (1/2/15) and (1/2/16) indicates. Kathopanishad holds that aseeker practices the path of desireless action to attain to thesound of AUM and one who has attained to this sound ofAUM gets all his wishes fulfilled. However, in my opinionnothing should be done directly with the opening of the thirdeye before one’s ego drops because this faculty can be abusedotherwise.

Disease, Mental Laziness, Doubt, Lack of Enthusiasm,Lethargy, Clinging to Sensuality, False Perception, Non-Attained Practice and No-Permanence are the nine driftsof mind and the nine obstacles (1/30)

This Sutra enumerates nine obstacles to Self-realizationwhich are as the follows.

I. Lack of ease and relaxation in the body or the mindis disease. All our senses and our mental functions shouldwork properly. The word ‘Disease’ includes both physicalpsychological ailments.

II. Styan (Mental Laziness) is lack of progress in themethod. We should try a method at least for twenty one days.If it helps towards peace and happiness we should continueit, otherwise we should drop it. Every method cannot suit.

III. The lack of faith in oneself or the method is doubt.This, too is an obstacle because lukewarm efforts cannotdo. A water is still a water ever at the ninetyninth degree;only one hundred degree is the remedy.

IV. Irregularity in meditation and in way of living is dueto lack of enthusiasm. This defeats the very purpose ofseeking. Meditation is not something to be pursued by fitsand starts only. Of course we have to begin with a method,but we have to spread our awareness through all the statesof mind, only then one can attain. So it is an all timeEndeavour.

V. When our lower appetites become too demanding,we become lethargic towards meditation. Catharsis and Non-suppression is to be allowed. We must go for Gibberish andfollow cupid. We should not deny ourselves proper sleep,hunger, sex etc. This can only lead to Lethargy.

VI. If we are too much attached to the world and have notime to stand and stare, techniques alone cannot help much.

We cannot contain our meditation within one hour only, it isbound to affect all our daily routine. No one lightens thelamp to keep it under the cot, this is not simply possible. Wecannot serve two masters together – Desire and Meditation.We have to choose one, clinging to sensuality means clingingto desires. The best thing we can do is to allow completeexperience of the world before we begin to meditate. Oshohad three hundred thousand disciples already initiated beforehe left his body and he had been working upon them fortwenty-five years before departing. He was a very competentmaster, but most of his disciples kept themselves busy withserving both the Zorba and the Buddha aspects of life.Naturally they missed. Osho was a very wise masterunprecedented in the whole history of mankind but most ofthe disciples could not attain. It happened only because theworld had been too much with them. This is the meaning ofthis Sutra due to Patanjali. Perpetual clinging to sensualitywas their mistake. If someone really meditates greeddisappears, anger disappears, sexuality disappears, ambitiondisappears and the like. A seeker has to allow all thistransformation to happen. If we don’t want to allow it wehave to stop meditating. We have to choose between the two,this world and the beyond, and we cannot postpone ourdecision for the too long.

VII. If we do not understand what is good for us and whatis derogatory for us but assume to the contrary, it is FalsePerception. If we are not mature enough to understand thatlife is a suffering, the paths of glory lead only to suffering,then our perception of the world is inadequate. We are seeinga golden necklace instead of a poisonous snake. Such amisunderstanding of life cannot allow Yoga.

VIII. Inability to remain established in the gap is Non-attained practice. Without practice all Enlightenment isunexpected. We cannot expect it, we have done nothingworthwhile for it.

IX. Non-permanence occurs when the gap between thethoughts is momentary. By and by we have to become moreand more silent and less and less thinking. Our chatteringmind has to stop for longer intervals, only then the meditationcan lead to Enlightenment.

All these Sutras can be replaced by one suggestion only.

Page 104: Paradise Never Lost

212 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 213

We have to seek totality either in this world or in the otherworld. Totality in action and totality in silence is the key. Soremain total where you can be.

Grief, Mental Distress, Infirmless of Posture, IrregularInhaling and Irregular Exhaling accompany a waveringmind (Chapter-1, Sutra-31)

Patanjali states that there are five symptoms whichindicate that practice has not yet become spontaneous.Practice means the ability to remain established in the gap.Grief is the first feature. There are three kinds of grieves viz.Physcial (Adhibhautic), Incidental (Adhidaivik) and Anguish(Adhyatmik). To a meditator none of these should have arelevance; his peace and bliss should remain undisturbedthrough them but in absence of the attainment of rightpractice all these disturbances can prevail. Mental distressmeans perverted states of mind like ego, greed, jealousy,anger, prejudice, lust etc. All these should disappear withright practice. If our mind is not peaceful our body cannotremain unwavering either. The more anxious and tension-ridden we are in mind, the more restless our body feels. Ifwe cannot sit firmly in a posture, make too many unnecessarymovements, then this too indicates the lack of practice. It isgood to move once in a while if a mosquito bites or if anysuitable excuse arises but too frequent movements are asure indication that practice is lacking. Every Buddha neednot be a Gautam Buddha, but every Buddha has fullcommand over his body and no Buddha ever feels restless.We all know that states of mind like anxiety, hypertension,unhappiness, grief, distress etc. make our breathing irregular.With every state of mind the pattern of breathing becomesdifferent accordingly. That is why, Patanjali may say thatinvoluntary inhalation and involuntary exhalation duringproper Pranayams are the next symptoms of imperfectpractice. During Pranayam none of these should happen allof a sudden. Neither unconscious inhalation nor unconsciousexhalation should occur during the regular practice ofPranayams. During all other techniques of meditation toobreathing is supposed to remain regular and rhythmic.Irregular breathing is a sure indication that the mind is goingtoo much astray and we need to be more aware and

practicing.

To remove all these distraction of mind, one mustpractice that one tattva regularly. (Chaper-1, Sutra-32)

Tattva literally means thatness or beyondness. Accordingto yoga this beyondness is nothing but the Absolute Self.This Absolute Self is neither this nor that, it is beyond timeand space. As explained earlier this self is experienced onlythrough intuition. There are no actions, no perceptions, noconception, no energy, not time and no space in thatexperience. There is consciousness in its purity containingonly itself. So, how can we practice this Absolute Self? Wecan become less and less haunted by thoughts and emotions,but we cannot do anything directly about time and space.For this we have to devise methods. Yogasutra seems to beat the beginning of the Yoga traditions and Patanjali isperhaps the first master to initiate this tradition. Yogasutrais not a book of methods. For this purpose it is better to gothrough ‘Vigyan-Bhairava-Tantra.’ This book contains onehundred and twelve methods of meditation. Osho hasdelivered a series on discourses on it and these discourseshave been compiled in the series ‘The Book of secreets’ vol Ito V. Whenever an Enlightened master happens, many morenew techniques come through him and no book can beexhaustive for this reason.

Now, we take the first method, this is my own method.“Whatever comes before your eyes, living or non-living

conceive that I am this reality. Everything is a manifestationof my own being. I myself am this tree, this animal, thisman, this woman etc. All these are part of my ownconsciousness. It is I myself living as all the creatures andas all the objects of Nature. Conceive oneness, feel onenessand live oneness. No one is the other here, I myself am thisall reality. Look at your neighbour and think it is I who hasbecome the neighbour. Look at your beloved and assume itis I who has become this beloved. Look at your child andthink it is I who has become this child. Look at the tree andthink I am treeing in this tree. Look at the flower and thinkI am flowering in this flower. Whatever comes to yourperception, assume that it is I who has become this object.It is better to choose a new place where every person is a

Page 105: Paradise Never Lost

214 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 215

stranger. Continue this technique for several days andresume it whenever you can. This technique can lead evento Self realization. Jesus is right to say, “Love is God; Loveyour enemy; Love your neighbour as thyself.” If we are full ofhatred or jealousy or any other negative emotion, we can nottry this technique. Instead we have to try some catharticmethods to begin with.

Now the second method. This method is due to Sankhya.Every day we must spare at least one hour and sit in a silentroom. We must close our eyes and become witness to all ourmental processes. We should watch our thoughts andemotions with detachment. We should watch our thoughtsas we watch the strangers passing in the street, the cloudsfloating in the sky or the characters on the screen of a cinema.All this universe of sight, sound, thought is a drama and weare spectators and we are not interested in understanding iteither. By and by, the energy which moves in the mindstuffstarts moving in witnessing or awareness and thethoughtlessness follows. This silence of mind is meditationbut not Self-realization. We have to wait for it.

There is a third technique related to this Sutra. Thistechnique was used by Ramakrishna who was the master ofVivekananda. Take a picture or an idol of anyone your love,a photograph is still better. Put all your attention to it withlove and relaxation. Close you eyes and feel the image itcreates in your mind. Practice it till all other subjects areeliminated from the mind. This method can usually createtension in mind. I agree with Osho that it is not advisable.The first reason being the tension and the second being theelimination of this last object from the mind. Even if wesucceed to concentrate on one object, the final state ofremoving it becomes very difficult. However, the devoteeshave interpreted this Sutra of Patanjali only along thispattern. They have advised to concentrate on one image only.

There can be a fourth method too which is easier thanthe third. It is a very good method. We must close our eyesand put all our attention at the point between our eyebrows.Very soon our eyeballs stop moving and we find ourselvesconcentrated upon the third eye. We can continue it even forhours and there is no harm. This last method is better thanthe third.

There can be many more advanced methods for which

the reader is advised to go through Osho’s book, “Meditation:The First and Last Freedom.”

Practicing friendship towards the happy, compassiontowards the unhappy, gladness towards the good andindifference towards the evil may pacify the waveringmind (Chapter – 1, Sutra – 33)

What attitude is proper towards persons and objects?This sutra guides us about our attitudes. When we comeacross a person who is happy and fulfilled, two kinds ofreactions are possible. Some people become jealous, jealousyis a negative feeling and it only strengthens our ego which isthe greatest problem spiritually. If jealousy is there, it burnsall the bridges. It is the green-eyed monster which first mocksthe meat it feeds upon. Whenever jealousy arises we mustclose our eyes and meditate till jealousy disappears.Gradually it will cease to be an unconscious and involuntaryreaction. Jealousy is not a healthy reaction. When we comeacross a person who seems to be fulfilled and festive, it isnatural to feel friendly towards him. By feeling friendly ourego dissolves and we become participants in his happinessand the happiness multiplies day per day until it can becomeour spontaneity.

When we see someone unhappy it is mature to feelcompassionate. This person is also a part of our being. Ifone man becomes unhappy, the waves of sadness can spreadall around and so we must try to make him happy as earlyas possible. We must help him to come out of his unhappinessbecause all emotions are infectious, they spread a certainkind of milieu all around. Some persons may feel a certainkind of contentment when they see someone else in despair.This is a negative feeling and we have to meditate on it. Allnegativity is a sign of unawareness and meditator has toeliminate all unconscious habitual grooves in him. This isthe very purpose of meditation.

Whenever we find a good person it is proper to encouragehis goodness. We must express our gladness on seeing sucha person. If we honour goodness, we begin to be more andmore good ourselves. We must be thankful to the existencethat it has created such nice people who are really the saltof the Earth and who really make life worth living. Only a

Page 106: Paradise Never Lost

216 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 217

good person can be beautiful and it is natural to feel happyand secure in his company. Every good person creates in usa sense of security and worthiness and good people areprecious to us. Only a good person can stand with us throughthick and thin because every person cannot be sincere. Wecannot rely upon a person who is not good. It is a realachievement to find good friends in life and it is a pity not tohave friends. A man is known by the company he keeps.Constant company with good people makes us good incharacter while prolonged co-existence with evil people isbound to create evil in us too. Good begets good and Evilbegets evil. If we have to discover the right course in life andreach the right destination we must always permit only goodcompany. That is why, for devotees the greatest aspirationhas been Satsang or the company of those who have attainedTruth. Just being near a man of illumination is enough tocreate a longing for truth even in our own being. That iswhy, in India the company of an Enlightened master hasbeen considered a matter of greatest luck.

What to do when we have to deal with an evil person? Wecannot encourage evil and so we cannot allow gladness as areaction. We should remain indifferent and unrelated to sucha person. It is not good to become offended and angry withsuch a person. Why? Because the Indian mystic hold thatgoodness cannot exist without evil and beauty cannot existwithout ugliness. Whenever we deny negativity we dishonourthe possibility of positivity too. We have to allow both theaspects without being uneasy. It will be clear by one example.Suppose I am a man, it is natural to feel happy on seeingwomen. But I should not feel offended when I come acrossmen too. It is because of these men only that such beautifulwomen are there. The day men disappear from the Earthalso women will have to go. So it is proper to feel happy onseeing good people but it is not proper to become offendedwith people who are immature. However, it is perfectly properto remain indifferent and not to go gay which, too, becomesa kind of perversion only. Similarly, Yogasutra states that itis proper to like beauty but it is unwise to become disgustedat ugliness. It is proper to like small children but it is notwise to frown at the old age because children cannot existwithout being old. Mystics say that duality is the very natureof life. Only by accepting both the aspects, we can become

able to transcend the both and attain to the beyond which isthe One substance or the Absolute Self. One should remainindifferent towards but not opposed to negativity. Indifferenceis needled because it is not wise to become related tonegativity. If we become glad we become related and if webecome disgusted then too we become related. Better not torelate at all. We can transcend the good only throughappreciation and we can transcend the evil only throughindifference and a seeker need to become transcendentalevery way.

Also it can happen by throwing Prana out and restrainingit there (Chapter – 1, Sutra – 34)

To stop the mind from wavering breathing practices alsoare very useful. We used them also in Osho’s techniquessuch as Dynamic, Nadabrahma and Vipasana. One techniqueis prescribed here in this Sutra. This technique is known asRechak or Cathartic Pranayama. Pranayama literally meansa gap in the breathing routine.

If we throw all the breath out and hold it there as long aspossible, this is called the Rechak Pranayama or Vidharna.It helps suppressions to come out and thence silence of mindto happen. If we fill the breath inside as much as possibleand hold it there, this is called ‘Poorak Pranayama’. Ithammers at our first chakra and helps the upward movementof energy and the awakening of the Kundalini stream.Sometimes during the breathing the breath stopsspontaneously while inhaling or exhaling. Such a Pranayamais called a ‘Kumbhak’ Pranayam.

Even after Patanjali much work has been done by theYogis regarding Pranayama. These Yogis claim that in ourcausal body there are three main currents of Prana or thelife energy. First of these currents is called Idala, the secondis called Pingala and the third is called Sushumna. Pingala,according to them lies on the right side of the spinal column,Idala lies on the left side and Sushumna which is an emptychannel lies in the middle. Pingala and Idala according tothem are the currents working in every man and it is due tothese currents that we are performing all the functions ofordinary life. Sushumna is present in all of us as a possibilitybut it is active only in a Yogi.

Page 107: Paradise Never Lost

218 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 219

With the practice of Pranayama, Sushumna may startfunctioning in us and new faculties in us may begin tooperate. With the awakening of Sushumna we become awareof newer and newer existential dimensions.

Pranayama may bring more subjects and wavering inthe beginning; but in the last it prolongs the gap betweentwo thoughts (Chapter – 1, Sutra – 35).

In the beginning, when we start with any breathingtechniques such as the Dynamic, Nadabrahma orPranayama, more energy starts flowing into emotions. Moreenergy starts moving towards the periphery. This is good sothat the catharsis can happen. Deep breathing helpscatharsis and we become able to release all our repressions.We may start singing, dancing, shouting, jumping, laughing,etc as our suppressions are triggered off. This happens insecond and third stages of the Dynamic meditation also.Because in the first stage of the Dynamic we have used atechnique similar to the Bhastrika Pranayama, catharsis hasto follow in the second and the third stages consequently.Once this catharsis is complete the silence of mind comesspontaneously. Osho understood the workings of this Sutraas is obvious from the technique used in the DynamicMeditation.

So in the beginning more subjects come to ourconsciousness but in the end Pranayama strengthens ourpractice to remain prolonged in the gap between twothoughts. Pranayama also strengthens our perception andour Dharana alternatively. It depends upon the method weuse. Pranayama helps both concentration and silence,depending on the method used. We can go for an experimentto understand what Pranayama is. First we should practicea little Pranayama, allow some days for agitation of mindand then choose one of the senses such as tongue, ear, noseetc and concentrate on it. After a few days we feel new tastes,new sounds, new smells coming to us. It improves ourperception. Pranayama also means that we can spread ourlife energy farther and farther around so that ultimately thiswhole existence becomes one with our vitality or Prana.

Pranayama may ultimately help towards contentlessconsciousness or Samadhi too. It really strengthens Dharanaand also the interval between mind streams. That is the

meaning of this Sutra. However, any technique which leadsto agitation and catharsis induces silence finally. Pranayamaor Vidharna is only one of these techniques. The othertechniques for example being NO MIND, the Mystic Rose,Gibberish etc.

Also Concentration on a radiant light may lead beyondall sorrow. (Chapter – 1, Sutra – 36)

This Sutra has two implications. If we take this Sutra asconsequent to the preceeding two sutras viz. 1/34 and 1/35it leads to the first implication. This implication is, “Vidharnais that which leads beyond sorrow and then to light.” Whatshould this mean? It means that restraining of breath outsideor Rechak Pranayama leads beyond all sorrow and then itleads finally to Enlightenment. Agitation is the first state ofmind to follow, then our repressions are released. If thecatharsis is allowed in the toto gap between two thoughts isprolonged and ultimately it leads to the cessation of all miseryand thereby to Enlightenment. What we can do on our partis that we should allow catharsis without restraint and thensit silently and meditate. First the gap between the thoughtsis prolonged i.e. the practice is strengthened, and then finallythe Enlightenment may follow.

The tantrics have taken it as an independent Sutra. Thenthis Sutra means ‘Light leads to Elimination of Sorrow’ andwe get a new technique named the Gourishankar Meditation.In brief. It can be outlined as the follows.

“In the first stage we practice Pranayama or some deepbreathing technique. In the second stage we concentrate ona source of radiant light. These two stages can lead beyondsorrow because all the energy moves towards the third eye.In the third stage we allow our bodies to sway of itself keepinginto a comfortable sitting posture. In the final stage we liedown in a relaxed way and allow the energy to work.”

This method is very powerful and should not be practicedalone. The reader is however advised to go through Osho’sbook – 'Meditation : The First and Last Freedom' for details.

By meditation on one who has transcended allattachment (1/37)

Page 108: Paradise Never Lost

220 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 221

Thought is the only boundary which separates us fromother beings. Th Buddhist word ‘anatta’ means egolessnessand egolessness means silence of mind or disappearance ofthe mindstuff. This method can be practiced when we beginto remain established in the gap between two thoughts. Inthe state of anatta we become like one whom we remember,love, admire and respect because the boundary which createsthe separation is not always there. Again and Again, we mustbring to our memory the image of a person who has gonebeyond all the attachments and imperfections. Just thememory and we begin to become transformed in the samedirection. However, this technique can help only after westart feeling thoughtlessness, an empty space is needed. Thetechnique is useless for a person who is too full of the mindstuff.

Whom should we remember? The master is the bestchoice. If no master is there we should choose someEnlightened person whom we really love. Someone maymeditate on Krishna, someone on Jesus, Someone on Kabira,Someone on Nanaka whomsoever one likes. We become likethe person on whom we meditate. We must bring ourawareness again and again to some picture, some idol, orimage of such a persons. A photograph can serve still better.We can both perceive and conceive it. For example we canstick a photograph of Osho outside and create his imagebefore the inner eye too. So that whenever we open our eyeswe can see the photograph and then recreate the imageinside.

However, this is the beginning and not the end. Whenthe meditation will become complete we shall know it becausethe truth is self-evident. It is not a continuity but a quantumjump.

Samadhi can also happen by remaining AWARE inDreams and Dreamless Sleep (Chapter – 1, Sutra – 38)

The Sufis and early Christians and perhaps the Essenestoo, have used this Sutra.

“One who can remain aware during eating and walking,one who can remain aware during all activities and one whocan remain aware even during dreams and dreamless sleep

attains to this arduous Yoga.” (Geeta)It is almost impossible to become aware in sleep to begin

with. We have to start with Vipassana. We must sit silentlywith closed eyes in a chair or on the floor with our legscrossed. For one hour we have to witness our breath only. Itgoes inside and stops for a moment inside then it goes outand stops for a moment outside and then comes back. Wemust observe this whole process with awareness. We havenothing to altar with the breathing pattern. It is not abreathing technique but technique for awareness.

When this mediation has gone deep we must add walk toit. We should walk and remain aware. After this we shouldtry to remain aware of all our actions during other wakingstates of mind also such as eating, bathing, making love etc.When we have grown in awareness during the day, we shouldtry to remain aware upto the moment when the sleep takesus over. By and by, the awareness penetrates our dreamsand deep sleep too. When we begin to become aware of ourdreams the dreams are shattered. The day we become awarein our dreamless sleep too, it becomes Kaivalya or theexperience of Self-realization. We have come home.

There is one more tip too. The moment we find our eyesopened in the morning, we should sit silently and close oureyes again. We should try to remember to state of mind justbefore awaking. At first we remember nothing. After a fewdays, we begin to remember a few traces of the last sequenceof dreams. Gradually this may help us to remain aware duringthe dreams and sleep also. Jesus, too, used to give thistechnique to his disciples for awareness. He would say,“Remain aware, do not fall asleep.” There is a hint in theNew Testament also regarding the use of this technique.

By Meditation on a subject which appeals to one (1/39)

We can choose anything or any person as the subject tomeditate upon. Suppose we choose a rose-flower as thesubject. We should place a fully blossomed flower in a flowerstand. We should mediate on the flower without any languagecoming in between. There should remain nothing betweenthe flower and the consciousness. The eye may be kept bothopened or closed. But we should have in our mind only the

Page 109: Paradise Never Lost

222 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 223

flower and nothing else. Gradually, the drift of mind becomesless and less and the mind becomes more and more silent.One day we attain.

One can choose, as a subject, also a person whom oneloves or respects. An idol, picture or photograph also can beused. Even a false master can lead if our mediation is true.

By constant Mediation on a subject from the Atomicto the Infinite one can attain (1/40)

Thoughtlessness is the point, it does not matter whetherthe subject is small or large. We can become one with theatomic and we can become one with the universal once thereis no wavering of mind which obstructs this oneness.Thoughts are the only obstruction between the observer andthe observed. There is nothing more unreal than thoughtsbut thoughts do prevail and do hinder. Continuously in ourminds there is a flux of images, concepts, thoughts andwords. This we call verbalization and this separates us fromthe rest of existence. To put it in a simple manner, we arealways lost in a world of our own thoughts and never comeacross the absolute reality. The guest is always here nowand we are never here and never now. Either we are lost indreaming or day dreaming and this is a matter of continuoushabit. Although this looks impossible but we can drop thisverbalization by instant awareness of it. Our education andcivilization too have been very much responsible for this habitof verbalization. With effort and with repeated awareness itis possible to withhold this wavering of mind.

Whenever we see a thing, we must become the act ofseeing without allowing any commentary to run in our minds.For example when we watch a rose we should only watch it,we need not say to ourselves how pink, how big, how fresh,better than ever or any such thing whatsoever. A rose knowsno language and it only disturbs the harmony between ourconsciousness and the being of the rose. Except man nothinglives in words. The moment there are no thoughts betweenthe rose and us, the quality of perception has changed. Infact, the rose is one end and our consciousness is on theother end and the same stream of existence flows in between.We only conceive something to be a rose and someone to bea watcher, but this conception is not an existential reality, it

only belongs to our mind stuff. If we can remain withoutwords, the observer becomes the observed. For example, whenwe look at a woman, we must not say how beautiful, howyoung, how sweet or any such thing to us. A woman is anexistential entity beyond all the words and we have to allowher presence beyond all descriptions to reach ourconsciousness. We must become all eyes and the quality ofperception changes. Small children look like this, they donot create any boundaries, even their eyes do not move. Onehas to become a small child again. When the verbalization isno more, we become the subject of our perception, it may beatomic or infinite. This is the meaning of the Sutra.

Some tantrics have interpreted this Sutra in a differentmanner too. It seems that they have derived the ‘TratakMeditation’ from this Sutra only. By looking at any object,howsoever small or large it may be, without letting the eyelidsfall, all energy moves to the third eye and the thoughtdisappears. Our being becomes one with the being of theobject. I remember the story of an Englishman who met ayogi. While departing from him the Englishman asked howhe could contact him again. The Yogi gave him his ownphotograph and asked the Englishman to fix his eyes on thephotograph whenever he wanted the Yogi to visit him. Themethod worked. Yogananda has reported this episode in hisautobiography. Osho, too, recommended the same techniqueto remain in touch with him, his Mala bears his ownphotograph. This is a great device Osho has said.

The Yogi whose vritties have become dissipatedbecomes like a crystal and reflects either the knower orthe knowing or the knowable whatever it becomes onewith (Chapter – 1, Sutra – 41)

When the modifications of mind disappear; that is whenthe mind stops wavering; that is when there are no emotions,thoughts and actions, our consciousness becomes like acrystal. If it becomes one with the knower this in Self-realization. All the space and time disappears and Kaivalyais attained. By disappearance of the knower and the knownboth only the knowing remains. Hindu narration for thisexperience is Self-realisation and the Buddhist word is Satorior NO MIND. This is a pure happening and nothing can be

Page 110: Paradise Never Lost

224 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 225

done about it directly. While this crystal consciousnessbecomes one with the knowable object which exists in spaceand time outside the experience is thoughtless awareness orAnatta. It seems that the Buddhist philosophers whohappened after Buddha have used Anatta only in this sense.Buddha has used it to mean the state of Nirvana whichtranscends Being Non-being both. Both become irrelevantin Nirvana.

Word or Meaning or Interpretation being associatedthe Meditation is known as Mediation with reasoningpresent (1/42)

When we meditate we close our eyes, so all the objectsdisappear from our sight but most of the times we do notclose our ears. This Sutra describes three different stages ofmeditation. These stages are – with Word or with Meaning orwith Interpretation. Let me explain it with one example. Aperson is meditating near a school and the schoolbell beginsto ring. Sound is released from the source, it strikes the earmembrane of the meditator and he understands the soundbut no thought arises in his mind. Here perception is followedby conception without verbalization. This is the first kind ofmeditation. Now, suppose that the thought too arises in themind of the meditator -- ‘The school bell is ringing’. Then themeditator has given a meaning to the sound and this is thesecond kind of meditation. Of course, it is lower than thefirst. But the mind can waver still further. A logic arises inthe mind of the meditator. ‘So it is not a Sunday’ then this isInterpretation. This is the third kind of meditation--the lowestand the most superficial. If anyone of these states – word orMeaning or Interpretation is present, it is not pure meditationas yet. It is meditation with reasoning. We have not reachedthe seventh stage of Yoga which is pure meditation or Satori.Such a meditation as described here is designated by theword Samapatti. We have to understand this word. Apattimeans incidence and hence Samapatti means to become co-incidental with or to become identified with. This is a formof ‘Dharana’ which is the sixth stage of Yoga. Most of theSutra in this chapter narrate different modes of Dharanaonly. Many of the Yogis give significance only to three stages– Dharana, Dhyan and Samadhi. These stages taken together

are known as ‘Sanyam’ and such a yoga is known asRajayoga. The first five stages constitute Kriyayoga and thelast three constitute Rajayoga. Osho has called his yoga theDhyanyoga and it gives insistence mainly to Rajayogaretaining the essence of Kriyayoga too.

While there are no associations from memory, noforms come to mind, no meaning associated to the sound,it is Meditation without Reasoning (1/43)

This also is a form of Dharana, the name given is‘Nirvitarka Samapatti’ or meditation without reasoning. Wehave to take the above example again. The meditator ismeditating near a school and the school bell is ringing. Thesound released is energy. It strikes the ear membrane of themeditator. This is pure hearing and is involuntary. But atthis stage of meditation no comprehension follows. There isperception but no comprehension. The word bell does notcome to the mind, the form of the bell does not come to themind, the image of bell does not come to the mind, nomeaning comes to the mind such as the sound is mild,pleasant, unpleasant etc. That is at this stage neither wordnor from nor attribute comes to the mind. This is purelistening, yet we are within the framework of space and time.The meditation is not yet complete. Still the sound is thecontent of consciousness and we have not experienced thecontentless consciousness even as yet. So it is Dharana,remaining established in the gap is also Dharana, becauseperception is still there. Many of us may think that perceptionis not possible without comprehension but this Sutra statesthat this is possible. In fact, many times we see with unseeingeyes and many times we hear without listening. Listeningmeans to comprehend what we have heard. In a foreign landwe hear but we do not listen. We hear the birds but we donot listen to them. This is the difference between these twoSutras (1/42) and (1/43)

Dharana can be divided also into three othercategories --With Thought, Without Thought andComprehension of Finer Contents (1/44)

In the beginning there are only thoughts and thoughts,

Page 111: Paradise Never Lost

226 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 227

overlapping streams of thought, just a chaos. Gradually, aswe become more and more aware, the thoughts begin todisappear. We begin to see the gaps in between. One thoughthas gone, another has not yet come, there is an intermittentgap. With mediation we become aware of the gaps. Graduallythe gaps become prolonged and the thoughts become fewand far between. When the mediation becomes deeper anddeeper, thoughts disappear altogether. So Dharana can bewith thoughts and without thoughts too. Even after thethoughts disappear, the Sutra, states, the comprehensionof finer contents may still persist. We have to understandthe word ‘finer contents’. We have five sense of perceptionviz Eye, Ear, Mouth, Nose and Skin. Five contents pertainingto them are respectively--Form, Sound, Taste, Smell andTouch. These are the contents pertaining to the five sensesof perception. Even when these are eliminated, their memory,vibrations and energy patterns follow. These are the finercontents and are perceived by ‘tanmatras’ or inner sensesaccording to Sankhya Metaphysics. These inner sensesbelong to our causal body which consists of energy only. TheSutra states even when thoughts disappear, thecomprehension of the finer contents may still persist. Thispersistence is involuntary. But this comprehension stillobstructs pure meditation or Dhyana. Even now we havenot reached the seventh stage of Yoga.

Finer Contents remain till tithering to Prakritipersists. (1/45)

Awareness of finer contents is awareness of energy andawareness of energy persists till awareness of time and spaceis there. The ‘Mahat tattva’ of Sankhya becomes the same asthe spacetime of Einstein and this is the last barrierpreventing Enlightenment. This is the last tithering or thelast content of consciousness. With the disappearance ofMahat or spacetime we transcend Prakriti, only theconsciousness remains. There are three aspects of Prakriti-Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. While these are in equilibriumonly spacetime comes into being. When this equilibrium isdisturbed, all the universal Manifestations take place. TheseManifestations are – three kinds of minds (ego, mind, intellect)five tanmatras, five great manifestations, five characteristics,

five senses of perception and five senses of action. Mahat iscalled Avyakta or unmanifested and the rest twenty threeingredients are called the Vyakta or manifested aspects ofPrakriti. We can say that Vyakta means matter and Avyaktameans pure formless energy. First of all the matterdisappears, then energy and spacetime disappear and onlyafter this the experience of contentless consciousness follows.That is to say that thoughtless awareness of space-time isAnatta, this is not an ordinary state of being because all thethree kinds of minds have disappeared. But when Avyaktaor spacetime also disappears, this is Self-realisation. Alltithering to Prakriti is goine. This is the seventh stage ofYoga.

Even now this is Seedful Samadhi. (1/46)

When all the thoughts have disappeared, all the emotionshave disappeared, space and time have disappeared we areleft with contentless consciousness. According to Sankhyain such a state all awareness tithered to Prakriti is gone,only Purush is left alone. First the matter disappears, thenthought and energy disappear, finally space and timedisappear and what remains consequently is contentlessconsciousness. In this state both the knower and the knowndisappear, only the knowing remains. Jains have called this‘Kevalgyan’ or Kaivalya’. According to Hindus it is Selfrealization because the one substance experienced is Self.According to Yoga, this is the seventh stage of Dhyana.

According to Patanjali, this experience may not be thefinal experience because many times modifications of mindcome back with the coming back of spacetime. Even in thefinal stage spacetime does not disappear forever, only themodifications of mind disappear forever. When Vritties comeback, such an experience is known as Seedful Samadhi orAsamprajnat Samadhi.

Even this is not completion of Yoga. It is just like takinga high jump into the air and coming back to the surface ofEarth again. We leave the touch with the earth in themeanwhile but have not gone beyond the gravitation.Samadhi is like the escape velocity, there is no moregravitational attraction. This is the difference. What Zen callsSatori Osho has nomenclatured False Samadhi because again

Page 112: Paradise Never Lost

228 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 229

we are on the Earth. False Samadhi does not mean that theexperience in inauthentic, it only means the experience isnot final. As the seventh stage of Yoga it is valid because it isthe perfection of meditation, but as the eighth stage of Yogait is not valid. Much more remains to be attained. At oneplace Osho has admitted that even a man of first Satori canbe called a Buddha.

Perfection of Thoughtlessness leads to the Self-realization or Grace of God (1/47).

This Sutra had two implications. With the opening of theSeventh Chakra a very pure energy starts coming down, thisenergy is known as Prasad or Grace of God. Prayer is theonly means being available to such an energy.Thoughtlessness is a consequence of this grace energy,gradually the thoughts begin to disappear. This is the firstimplication. Thoughtlessness and grace of God comesimultaneously as the Seventh Chakra opens more and more.

Thoughtlessness may lead to Self-realization and this isthe second implication. Self-realization is a gift from theexistence because nothing can be done directly to attain it.It is a happening. We can become almost thoughtless througharduous efforts towards awareness but Self-realization isnot within our might. That is why, the Sutra says that Self-realization is grace of God. Zen has devised many suddenmethods which should lead upto Satori. Once we experiencethis, we do not again fall into the trap of ignorance. That iswhy, Zen has attached utmost importance to this experienceonly. In a way one becomes awakened after the experienceof Satori. Zen word for Self-realization is Satori and forSamadhi it is Nirvana. So Satori is the seventh stage of Yogaand Nirvana is the eighth. After the eighth nothing has to bedone, the discipline of Yoga has come to the completion.Dhyana is like the lightening and Samadhi is like theelectricity but the lightening is not permanent. Sothoughtlessness can lead to both Self-realization and thecoming down of the Grace Energy. This is the meaning ofthe Sutra.

The Experience is called, filled with the UltimateTruth. (1/48)

When we have attained to the Seventh stage of Yoga, wehave attained to a truth which is Self-evident. Doubts cannotpersist now. The opinion of others become irrelevant. Nowwe know the truth in our own right. Mansoor used to sayrightly, “Analahaque" I am the Truth. After this experienceone can say I know the truth is my own right.

Wisdom can follow only after Self-realizaiton. Before Self-realization we live at a false centre, the ego or the thought.Doubt is the natural state of mind. Everyone thinks perhapsthe other knows more and we are not sure where to placeourselves. We depend upon the opinion of others throughrichness, fame, recognition, results etc. We are identifiedwith the body and the other faculties of mind. We thinkourselves to be finite and mortal. We are always unfulfilledand live in comparison. Also the others are in the dark doingthe vice-versa. With this false centre and a confused mind,our view of the world cannot be truthful. We begin to knowthe real meaning of life only after Self-Enlightenment.

When we have known ourselves as consciousnesstranscendental to space and time both, for the first times wehave known something which is beyond doubt. Why? Becauseall doubt and illusion is matter of thought and thought canexist in space and time only. Thought too is a kind of energyand it pertains to Nature not to consciousness. Even if thewhole world disagrees with a self-realized person he knowswhat the truth is and can laugh at the whole world or canfeel compassionate for it. That is why, Jesus could say thosewho did not know were to be forgiven. In a way people werenot responsible but their state of ignorance was responsiblefor their sins. Jesus could understand the people aroundhim but the people could not understand him and it was nottheir fault either.

For the first time when we have known ourselves a newunderstanding dawns upon us. We want to understand thelife again in this new light received. Life may still lookbeautiful and attractive. With the new outlook we want toexamine the world again. We again examine the Nature andpeople around us and their relationship with us. Now noneof them is transient and mortal. Now none of them is dustunto dust. Now none of them is the flesh and the bone only.Now none of them is a helpless creature in human bondage.

Page 113: Paradise Never Lost

230 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 231

Now all existence is divine and beautiful. This is the newEarth and the new Heaven Jesus had promised to us. Butultimately all this is bound to lead to a state of desirelessness.Why?

Inside we are blissful and we are fulfilled for no reasonat all. Outside we are surrounded by ignorant and immaturepeople who cannot understand. Continuously such peopleare making the surroundings perverted, they are creating amadhouse around their own being and around everybodyelse. Also, desires cannot substitutes bliss. The most desirescan lead to pleasure and happiness. Bliss is oceanic andpleasure is like a drop in the ocean. An ignorant person hasnothing to compare with because pleasure is all he can knowbut to a Self-realized person the comparison is always there.Each moment he knows the difference. The fragrance of aflower is falling each moment into a mire. So we come toknow the futility of all the worldly longings. We want only totake care of needs and devote the remaining time tomeditation only. The bliss which the meditation can bring,no worldly kingdom can promise. That is why, Jesus used tosay my kingdom is within me, it has nothing to do with theoutside.

There is still one more aspect to it. We have lived formany-many lives in this world of form and change and themomentum is there. An electric fan is running. We go andput off the switch. The supply of power is stopped, still ittakes some time to stop. This we call the momentum or thekarmic energy. All the impressions or seeds are due to thiskarmic energy henceforth. A few more births are possiblebecause of the samskaras of the past life. That is why, theSamadhi is said to be seedful, the samskaras being the seeds.When the right season comes and the climate is eager theseseeds can sprout again. When even this karmic-energydisappears one needs a very strong will to come back. Thisshore is left behind as a matter of course. This is liberation.

Anyway, the Sutra is right to state that full of wisdom orprajna, our mind becomes after the experience of timelessconsciousness. We can call such a person a Bodhisattva oran awakened one too. Now the Gold has become more obviousinspite of the insignificant impurities present. It is anornamental Gold, of course not one hundred percent pure,but it is still useful.

The subjects of Perception, Inference and Intuitionare different now because a new meaning has arisen(Chapter 1, Sutra -49).

The concept of a New Earth and a New Heaven promisedby Jesus corresponds to this Sutra of Patanjali exactly. Maybethe Jewish and the Indian civilizations have always been intouch with each other. The Greeks had come in touch withIndia even before Jesus. The Greek traveller Magastheneshas given a detailed account about India of Mauryan periodjust after the era of Alexander the Great. My understandingis that never knowledge has remained divided into airtightcompartments. Patanjali has been scientific in his expressionand Jesus has been poetic but this can depend on the peoplearound. Koran and Bible saved great truths by creating fictionaround them. This was necessary to save them fromdisappearing altogether. The principles about which theEnlightened Indian masters have spoken in a philosophicalway, have been described as parables in these two books.But a sure correlation can be held to prevail.

Now this Sutra: Prajna or wisdom is the consequence ofintuition and before Self-realisation no intuition is possible.So after attaining to this stage of meditation, three forms ofknowledge given in this Sutra become available. Shrut meansknowledge through Perception, Anuman means knowledgethrough Inference and Prajna means knowledge throughIntuition. As far as practical knowledge is concerned, evenan Enlightened person has to use perception and inference.But now the existence he knows through them is a new anddifferent existence for him. Osho has said it again and againthe change in vision is change in creation too. This Sutrameans the same. All over Perception and Inference whichused to create bondage before creates no attachment now.The rod used to look bent inside the water. A Self-realizedperson is like one who has taken it out and now he knowsforever and forever that the rod is straight. Perception andInference cannot mislead him now. Kant has said we cannotknow the thing in itself but the Enlightened Person is likeone who has known it. However he may live in the world butthe ignorance cannot prevail over him. Now he is like a sandal

Page 114: Paradise Never Lost

232 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 233

tree, a dwelling for snakes, but unpolluted by the poison. Hecan use Perception and Inference for practical knowledgeyet he always remains centered. No one has been encentriconce the centre is known. We have seen the idols of Shivawith many snakes around it but all his being remains anincarnation of the ultimate good. This world is like snakesand the Self is like Shiva rooted always in the ultimate good.Now one becomes transcendental and the mundane cannotconfuse him again.

The Understanding following Self-realization preventsnew karmic energy or bondage. (1/50)

We have known ourselves and so we cannot exist as egosany more. Ego is the identification with the body and themind. Once we have known ourselves as consciousness, thisidentification has to go. Ego is a false assumption due toignorance only. It is because of ego that we think ourselvesto be doers and we create bondage. There is no karmicbondage for a Self-realized person. All that is wrong is donebecause of Ego and because of perversions of Lust, Anger,Vanity, Greed, Prejudice and Jealousy. After Self-realizationa man becomes a witness only and with this awareness hecannot do anything wrong. Whatever good he happens to doto others, he does it with a sense of duty, with anunderstanding that it is not wise to expect return from peoplewho are ignorant. Such a person looks all the attachment inthe consequences of his needful actions. When one acts withawareness knowing it perfectly well that he is not an Ego,new seeds of Karma cannot be begotten, now seeds need theclimate of ignorance which now is not there. Now, we existin the world because of the pre-existing seeds only whichhave been deep rooted in our unconscious mind due to thepast when we used to be ignorant. Gradually, the effect ofthese seeds also is eliminated and we move towards theultimate Samadhi.

The Pre-existing seeds having finished spruting, theSeedless Samadhi follows. (1/51)

In the state of unawareness perversions of Lust, Anger,Vanity, Greed, Prejudice and Jealousy prevail over us, these

all are unconscious forces due to our animal inheritence. Inignorance we live at the false centre of ego which means theidentification with the body and the mind. The bondage iscreated because of ego and perversions being there. AfterSelf-realization the reasons for this bondage are eradicated.A Self-realized person continues in the human from only aslong as the momentum of the past karmas prevail after whichhe is liberated. There is a Sankhya Sutra and again we shouldremember it -- “The primary liberation happens with Self-realization. The secondary liberation happens withdesirelessness and the final liberation happens when allkarmic bondage coming from our past lives has finishedhaving borne effects”. Now we have come home.

Osho has said that Enlightenment has a beginningbut not an End. Accordingly, he has talked about three stagesof enlightenment: Self-Samadhi, Cosmic Samadhi, andNirvana -- all of which are Seedless according to Patanjali.Samadhi is one, it only grows gradually. After Atma-Samadhinothing is to be done and so why to continue the gossip ofthe discipline of yoga. Just like that Mahaveera, Patanjalitoo has thought it to be unnecessary. After Samadhi Gosperalright but not the gossip.

All the Sutras upto now have been taken from thefirst chapter without selection. But there are four chaptersand almost two hundreds Sutras in all. It can becomeuninteresting to take all of them here. So from the nextchapters I shall have to make selections. Those who want togo in detail are advised to read ‘The Alpha and the Omega’volumes one to five compiled from Osho’s discourses. Thiswill be enough for them without seeking further resources. Ihave tried to avoid all that has not been my experience. Also,I have confined myself to the original text only.

There are eight constituents of Patanjali’s disciplineof Yoga. These are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama,Pratyahara, Dharana,Dhyana and Samadhi. Osho is rightto say that all of these are to be practised simultaneously.The deeper and deeper we attain to Meditation, the betterand better our performance should become. Now, we definethese terms in Patanjali’s own terminology from Yogasutraitself.

There are eight Constituents viz. Yama, Niyama, Asana,Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.

Page 115: Paradise Never Lost

234 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 235

(2/29) There are five Yamas viz. Nonviolence, Truth, Non-

stealing, Desireless Action and Non-possessiveness. (2/30)

The word Yama means restraint of passion. According toPatanjali, there are five Yamas enlisted above. Non-violenceis the first of them. No one should be hurt by our action,speech or thought. This is the beginning of Non-violence. Itis defined better in Ishavasya Upanishad, “We should perceiveeveryone in our own being and our own being in everyone”.According to Yoga the Absolute Self is the one conscioussubstance effective in all the living creatures. While we areidentified with our psychosomatics this is ego. At this stagewe think that every person is physical and everyone isdifferent from the other. With such an assumption in mind,our very presence has vibrations of violence towards others.A man of cosmic consciousness comes to realize that everyonehas the same consciousness everyone is an aspect of thesame being. Then the existence becomes an organic unityand the above Sutra of Ishavasya becomes the spontaneousdisposition. Only at this stage we do not feel to have apresence separate from the others. This being one with all isnon-violence. We have to be nonviolent not only throughaction, speech and thought but also through our presence.Osho also has expressed his agreement with the statementof the Upanishad.

However, Patanjali has used a term which is negative.My understanding is that non-violence is not enough. Ifeveryone has to choose between violence and non-violenceonly, the world will be a very insecure and indifferent place.Jesus has used a better word. Jesus has said, “Love yourneighbour as thyself; Love even your enemy because Love isGod”. Is it not a better way of living and is it not a wayconducive of better climate?

Truth (satya) is the second Yama. Truth here doesnot mean the ultimate truth because no one can speak it.Vide this Sutra speaking the truth means abiding by thefacts. One should narrate only what is factual and shouldnot invent lies about oneself and others. Telling lies can beconfusing. Also lies lead to hypocrisy and hypocrites cannever become enlightened. Jesus, too, has been very muchagainst hypocrisy. Jesus used to say the kingdom of God

was for those only who were authentic like small children.God does not like people who are unauthentic. In fact,Mahaveera and Buddha have attached typical importanceto Non-violence and Jesus has attached typical importanceto authenticity. Christians even believe in confessing theirsins before a priest. The point is not whether confessionbrings forgiveness to the confessors or not, the point is thatconfession is against hypocrisy. God does not like those whodo not have a clean conscience. So truth is the same Yamaas Non-hypocrisy but with broader implication.

The third Yama is Asteya or Non–stealing. It seemsthat in ancient India too stealing was very usual, otherwiseit is not even worth mentioning as a Yama. Today Non-stealingis forcible by law and it is not a matter of Yoga. Stealing is acrime. Stealing does not include trade or exchange ordonation, it means forcible depriving according to Patanjali.

The fourth Yama is Brahmacharya. As I haveexplained before too it does not mean celibacy. Brahma isthe divinity and charya means conduct. So, acting in themanner of the divine principle is Brahmacharya. How doesthe divine principle act? The creation occurs without anypurpose to be fulfilled through it and the creator remainsunaffected by the act of creation. The creation is an end initself and not a means. It is like the playing of small children.So Brahmacharya means Nishkama Karma or DesirelessAction. It seems that later on the meaning of Kama wasnarrowed down to sex only and so Nishkama Kama wastranslated as ‘sexless behaviour’ or celibacy but this is notthe real meaning of the word because celibacy is biologicallyimpossible. Buddha attained, Mahaveera attained, Patanjaliattained and even after their Enlightenment they lived a veryactive life helping others selflessly. This is Brahmacharya,the action without desires, just the expression of anoverflowing energy. On the contrary, Brahma literally meansthat which is expanding or that which is a creative principleand so Brahmacharya means a life of creativity. It has nothingto do with celibacy. One has to be creative like a poet, amusician, a dancer, an artist etc. We now have a goodknowledge of human physiology which cannot permit anycelibacy. So there has been a misinterpretation of the termwith hypocrisy entering the spiritual life in India.

The Fifth Yama is ‘Aparigraha’ or non-possessiveness.

Page 116: Paradise Never Lost

236 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 237

We must try to possess less and less and not more and more.Possessions should not become related to ego fulfillment.We have to remember that the world should not be too muchwith us. Particularly to a spiritual seeker, money is a goodservant but a worst possible master. This is the implicationaccording to Patanjali. Osho, however, used to say allpossessions belong to the Existence, we should use themwithout being possessive of them. This is anotherinterpretation of the Sutra.

Purification, Contentment, Asceticism, Self-Study andFaith in God are the five Niyamas. (2/32)

The word Niyama literally means a principle or a law.Buddha calls it Dhamma and Moses calls it commandment.So according to Patanjali also there are ten commandments,five Yamas and five Niyamas, taken together constitute them.

Now, we come to the first Niyama which ispurification. Cleanliness is said to be next only to Godliness.We must be clean in our body, mind, heart and spirit. Wemust be clean in our deeds and in our conscience. We mustearn only through a profession which is moral and lawful.We must not have a negative philosophy of life but our lifemust be devoted to Beauty, Love and Universal Harmony.We should allow little acts of kindness and of love to becomeour spontaneity.

Contentment is the second Niyama. We should notyearn for wealth if attained by immoral and unlawful means.Geeta states there are three perversions which invariablylead us to Hell. These are Greed, Lasciviousness or Lust andAnger. Jesus too has said, “ A camel can enter the eye of aneedle but a rich man can never enter the kingdom of God”.

It happened. Listening to the above Sutra again andagain, one day a camel really entered the eye of the needleand it reached the Kingdom of God. (We have to understandthis happening. The Kingdom of God transcends all spaceand time and so everyone has to pass through the eye of theneedle, only then one can enter it. In fact, this is the onlyentrance possible). But as the camel entered he really sawJesus there. He was standing to bear his witness. The sameJesus who was the son of a carpenter in Israel and whoused to borrow money from his mother and who never cared

to earn anything had become the Crown Prince in theKingdom and had grown immensely rich. So the camelwondered and wondered till one day when he could not resistand asked Jesus,” Now that you are very rich, on whatgrounds do you continue in the Kingdom of God? It is notmeant for rich people like you”.

The question was not out of place but what Jesus repliedseems to be really significant. Jesus said,” Of course I amvery rich but the wealth possesses me not, rather I maypossess it. This I say unto you dear Camel that wealth isjust a servant unto me and it masters me not. Any day, I canthrow it away as a tree throws away its leaves”. The Camelunderstood the point well before Osho happened on theEarth. Even if a person is rich but not attached to richness;a person is rich but he is humble, it is not a problem. Aperson, who is rich but understands it every moment thatricness is just a means not an end unto itself, can also seethe eye of a needle, he need not miss it.

On the contrary, if a person is contented but unhappy,this contentment is of no use. This happened to the whole ofIndia that people began to deceive themselves. In India peoplewho are poor and unhappy , unsuccessful and revengeful,jealous and destructive come across any day and may preachthat the contentment is the real thing. It is not good to bematerialistic. This Sutra, however, does not include suchpeople. Contentment must follow gratefully with the trueunderstanding of life, only then it is worthwhile.

Asceticism or Mortification or Tapa means remainingundisturbed through duality this life inevitably brings forth.Life is a duality as a matter of fact. Everyone has to passthrough the thick and the thin, through happiness andunhappiness, through good and bad times both. When thereare good times we become overwhelmed with joy and whenthere are bad times we become depressed with sorrow.Remaining a witness in both the states without loosing one’spoise is Tapa. Literally, the word ‘tapa’ means that whichcreates heat. India is a very hot country of the times and soheat is considered to be unwelcome here. But the life is fullof heat and it can spare none, this understanding is Tapa.How to remain a witness, one may ask. We must begin withgood times. When times are good, we must watch ourreactions and remain aware if some vanity is entering our

Page 117: Paradise Never Lost

238 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 239

mind. We must not create haughtiness through our goodtimes. If we have remained aware during the good times, wecan continue to remain aware in the bad times also. Thenthings may happen and may pass into non-happening andwe remain untouched knowing perfectly well that nothing ispermanent here. This is Tapa.

But like other concepts, this concept too ismisunderstood. Yogis burn a fire perpetually and sit in frontof it, this is not tapa. Also ,tapa is not suppression as almostevery Indian misinterpret it. In India, we respect only thosepersons who torture themselves. We respect only those whodeprive themselves of all the pleasures of life. We do notrespect people who are simple and natural. Hypocrisy andSelf-denial is respected. This is not Tapa and this can leadus utmost to perfect extinction.

Mimansa provides us with three Sutras--Hearing,Contemplating and Practising. Patanjali has included thesehere under the Niyamas of Self-study and Devotion to God.Self-study means to educate oneself and to introspect. Thereis a Sutra in the Kathopanishad, “ Arise, Beware and Learnfrom those who have been seeking. The path of the Truthlike is like the Razor’s Edge. We have to learn to walk on itfrom those who have attained”. There is a possibility thatPatanjali has inherited this Niyama from the Kathopanishaditself. We must continuously examine our choices,preferences, and decisions. We must examine our thoughtsand actions regularly and eliminate all that is unconsciousand unwise. It is very difficult to reach without the guidanceof a genuine master. Self-study also includes the search foran Enlightened master and to meditate in his guidance.Literally, Self-study means understanding one’s own beingand a master can help us immensely to understand our stateof ignorance. In fact, yoga should be practised only underthe guidance of a competent master.

Faith in God is a help too. Some people can believe inGod but some cannot. But we must have a faith invariablyin the universal order, Cosmic harmony and the poetic justice.We must believe that there is some kind of ultimate lawoperating in this universe. It is a cosmos not a chaos. Evenscientists believe in invariability of the Natural laws such asthe law of cause and effect, the law of natural consequences,the law of gravitation etc. Faith helps but even if there is no

faith in the beginning, we must start devoting ourselves tomethods of meditation. Our meditation will lead us to innertransformation and this transformation will lead us to faith.To Patanjali himself, God helps as a device but He is not theonly kind of device. It is good to have faith in God but it isnatural not to have it. So we must begin from where we are.We must wait for the Faith to arise in us rather than enteringinto the shoes of the hypocrites. Our meditation will lead usto the Faith in the master and the Faith in the master willlead us to Faith in God or Faith in Enlightenment, whatsoeverwe may call it.

Posture (Asana) is that which is firm and comfortable.(2/46)

Some people insist on the Lotus Posture and some onSiddhasana etc but no posture should be forced. Postureshould be such that we can sit comfortably for quite a longtime. Even sitting on chair can be a good posture for many.We must always keep in mind that Enlightenment happensonly in perfect relaxation and not in stress, physical orpsychological.

According to Osho there have been eighty-four yogicpostures in record and eighty-four persons have becomeEnlightened in each one of them. In deep meditation ourpsychosomatic energy should be left free to find the posturesuitable to our individual system. We must not force theposture from the outside. We may start meditation in astanding or sitting posture and allow the body to express itsenergy in a suitable manner. Buddha became Enlightenedin the Lotus posture while Mahaveera became Enlightenedin a very queer posture, the cow-milking posture. So itdepends from person to person. Patanjali asserts that thereare only two criteria associated with the suitability of theposture and these criteria are comfort and firmless. So itdepends from person to person which posture is to be chosen.

The Gap between inhalation and exhalation or vice-versa is a Pranayama. (2/49)

The breath is going in, it goes deep inside, then there isa gap. After it, it starts going out, when it is all out, again

Page 118: Paradise Never Lost

240 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 241

there is a gap. After this again the breath starts moving in,so hence and so forth. To stay in either of these gaps or tobecome aware of them is Pranayama. Prana is the vitalitywe get from the existence and breath is just a vehicle for it.

The Pranayama can take many forms. If we throwthe full breath out and prolong the gap created to themaximum, the Pranayama is known as Rechak or Vidharna.This form of Pranayama is good for catharsis as it triggersour unconscious mind and helps the throwing out of all oursuppressions. When we take the full breath inside andprolong the gap as long as possible, the Pranayama is saidto be ‘poorak’. It helps the awakening of the energy dormantat the first centre and its upper movement towards the uppercentres. It can help the hammering of the Kundalini too. Wemust practise Rechak and Poorak both alternately. In thebeginning only five to ten Pranayamas are advisable. We canadd to it one Pranayama daily. However, the number ofPranayamas in no case should exceed 80 at a time and 320during the whole day. Too many Pranayamas to begin withor a rapid increase in their number may lead to Insomaniaand to other disturbances of mind. Some people are seeneven to go crazy by overpractising Pranayama because it isnot a joke to practise them. We should use the left and allthe right nostrils alternately. When the breath is movinginside we should close the left nostril and when the breathis coming out we should close the right nostril and not vice-versa. We have to repeat this process till we have finishedour number for the sitting.

There is one more form of Pranayama called theKumbhak. When both the gaps inside and outside areprolonged, the Pranayama is known as the Kumbhak. Evenwhen we do not prolong the gap but become only aware ofthem, the Pranayama is known as the Kumbhak. ‘Vipasana’meditation also is related to breathing. We have to keep ourbreathing natural and remain aware. The breath is goinginside, we have to observe it going inside. Then, there is agap inside. We have to observe this gap too. Now, the breathstarts moving outside, we have to observe it as it movesoutside. Again it stops for a while outside, we have to observethe outside gap too and so on. We have to remain awareduring the whole course of breathing but we do not have toalter the breath any way. Vipasana can be said to be the

fourth kind of Pranayam. Most probably this method hasoriginated from Sutra [2/51] due to Patanjali.

There is still one more kind of Pranayama known as theBhastrika form. This form has been used in the first stage ofthe Dynamic Meditation and it is very good for throwing awaythe suppressions. One should stand up and throw the breathoutside as fast as possible and as vigorously as possiblethrough both nostrils simultaneously. The emphasis shouldbe given to the outgoing breathing. Inhalation will happen ofitself. We should do it for ten minutes only. The completemethod is to be practised as it is given in the book-‘Meditation'. The First and Last Freedom’. In fact Bhastrikais a form of the Rechak Pranayama only but in a very specialmanner and so it is a very powerful device for Catharsis.Osho has used it on the Dynamic Meditation knowingly.

So Pranayama can take various forms, but we mustpractise it only under competent guidance. Yoga is a purescience and one needs to have a scientific attitude towardsit. It has nothing to do with being an Indian or a Hindu. It isa Science like Physics and Chemistry. Yoga is neither Indiannor Oriental nor Western. In fact, Yoga is the science of innertransformation devoted to the whole of the humanity.

Every soul has a unique rhythm of breathing. A yogican induce his own rhythm into another person and thuscan influence his psychosomatics, too. Otherwise a yogi canchoose to fall into the rhythm of another person and canpenetrate deep intohis unconscious mind and know it.Breathing can be a means for energy transfer also. A yogican make even a stone to fall into his own breathing patternand make the stone receive his vibrations. By controllingthe breathing patterns we can regulate our states of mindtoo and every meditator has to learn it. In brief, Prana is oneexistential life energy which flows through everyone and thebreath is a medium for Prana. Pranayama means to agitatethis life energy and this energy can be used for awakening ofthe Kundalini and opening of the seven chakras. So breathingconstitutes an important aspect of Yoga techniques devisedto meet various ends. Hence the Sutra.

Pratyahara is Withdrawing the senses from theiroutside contents. (2/54)

Page 119: Paradise Never Lost

242 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 243

Our consciousness is tithered to the external subjectsthrough the senses. We see through our eyes, listen throughour ears and smell through our nostrils etc. If we withdrawfrom all our actions and also withdraw all our senses fromthe material of perception, our tithering to the External Worldis gone. We are left with the modifications of mind only whichare inside. This is the first step towards meditation. We callit Pratyahara or Withdrawal.

Dharana is holding the mind within a particularportion of space inner or outer. (3/1)

Literally, Dharana means retention or concentration. ThisSutra can have many interpretations. The interpretationaccording to Patanjali which is traditionally accepted is onlyone of the interpretations possible. According to Patanjali,we should choose a small idol or a small symbol such as across or a crystal or an illuminated small lamp for Dharana.If our love or devotion too has an association with the objectit will produce better results, otherwise any object which issizable and convenient can be taken. Suppose we choose asmall lamp with a low power green bulb for Dharana. Wemust illuminate this bulb in a perfectly dark room. Sittingin a firm and comfortable posture we must focus all ourattention on bulb without fighting with other distractions ofmind. Gradually our attention upon the bulb becomes moreand more prolonged and other distractions become less andless frequent. This holding our mind within a particularportion of space is Dharana. After a few minutes not morethan fifteen we should close our eyes and bring this objectagain and again to our memory. This also we can practiceupto next fifteen minutes. Now, we should lie down and watchour mind a long as possible. We can complete this meditationin one hour. Alternately, we can take a very small idol of adeity we love, we can take a very small photograph or a symbolsuch as cross or a crystal too. This interpretation of Sutra ismost general but this is not the only interpretation.

When we practise methods prescribed by Osho, byand by we become aware of the gaps between thoughts or toput it in another way, thoughts become less and less andgaps become more and more obvious. Remaining establishedin these gaps is also a form of Dharana or Abhyas. In Rechak

Pranayama we throw the full breath out and hold it as longas possible. This creates an interval of thoughtlessness.Remaining established in this interval is another form ofDharana. The Yogasutra has called it Vidharana or Dharanaof a special kind.

Now, the Science of Yoga talks about seven Chakras. Thefirst is the Sex centre, the third is Hara, the fourth is Heartand the sixth is the Third Eye. We can choose one of themfor awareness. To concentrate upon any one of themparticularly on the Third Eye is Dharana. We must close oureyes and concentrate upon the point between the twoeyebrows. When we find this point of attention our eyelidsstop moving left and right. We can continue this attentionas long as possible. This is also a form of Dharana. In thesecond stage, we can lie down, drop all the effort and watchour mind. After the awakening of Kundalini we have toconcentrate upon a particular Chakra to open it. This, too,is a form of Dharana.

Osho has used Dhrana in many of his methods in animplicit manner too. In Kundalini and Nadabrahma, Dharanais used in the third and the second stages repeatedly bylistening to the music only. In Gourishankar meditation wechoose a lamp as the object of Dharana. For Tratak we canuse the locket in the Rosary for Dharana too. So Dharanacan have numerous forms but awareness is to be keptconfined to a particular object or a particular portion of spaceonly.

The State of Consciousness when only one imagepersists continually is Dhyana. (3/2)

According to Patanjali we have to begin with retention ofand concentration upon one object only. If the object chosenis interesting enough Dharana becomes easy. For a long time,other thoughts, emotions, ideas, concepts, images, alsocontinue to float in our minds. Gradually, all other thoughtsand emotions are supposed to disappear from the mind. Ifthis becomes possible for a considerable span of time, wehave attained to Dhyana according to this Sutra. why? If allother thoughts disappear and only one object remainspersistent in mind as happened with Ramakrishna, somedayeven this one object is bound to disappear from the

Page 120: Paradise Never Lost

244 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 245

consciousness effortlessly because this state of mind cannotcontinue forever. We effortlessly attain to a state of contentlessconsciousness. The last barrier cannot persist eternallybecause this is against human psychology.

However, Osho has not given any such definition ofDhyana or Meditation. Osho has given the same definitionas mentioned in Sankhyasutra. This definition is ‘NirvishyaChetanam Dhyana’ or Meditation is contentlessconsciousness. In the end, both these definitions becomeone but methods to attain to meditation can be different. Ifwe follow Patanjali first we should concentrate on someparticular object perfectly outside. Then, we expect that allother thoughts should disappear from our minds gradually.In fact, this method is practical only for Tratak when we donot allow our eyes to blink. This becomes a powerful methodhere to open the Third Eye. But everybody cannot find Tratakto be suitable. In my opinion and also according to Osho wecannot expect this definition as the general definition ofMeditation. Why? Because most of the times this kind oftechnique only creates tension, insomnia and various kindsof other psychological problems. We cannot advise thisprocess of Meditation to everyone. People are already tension-ridden and they seek Yoga for relaxation not for moreuneasiness. Secondly, it is very difficult that all the imagesexcept one should disappear from the mind. This seems tobe an improbable possibility and in any case extremelyarduous.

I agree with Osho that there can be other versions ofDhyana also. For example, we can use witnessing asmeditation too. We can sit silently and close our eyes andbecome aware of our thoughts. There is no wonder that thispractice is called Zazen in Japan which literally meansDhyana. In fact, the Sanskrit word Dhyana become Chyanain China and than Zen in Japan. Zazen means sitting formeditation for a long time. So Zazen is also a form of Dhyana,perhaps it is more practical and promising. They say, 'sittingsilently' doing nothing 'the spring comes and the grass growsby itself'. There seems to be a valid logic for it. Thoughts areinvoluntary, the energy is moving to create thoughts as amatter of unawareness. This is the habitual state of mindand we call it verbalization. What happens when we becomeaware of these thoughts or we begin to witness them? The

same energy which used to move to create thoughts will moveis witnessing now.Gradually the thoughts should disappearon witnessing. The mind also needs energy to continueflowing, this energy we can divert into witnessing instead.Of course, this can take some time because verbalization isa deep rooted habit in us. But it seems to be plausible to all.

While discussing Sankya I had made one assertionwhich I want to repeat here again. Either we can remain adoer or a witness, we cannot be both simultaneously.Thoughts and emotions are mental activities; when onebegins to become witness to them, these are bound todisappear. The more and more witnessing arises, the lessand less thoughts can move and finally when witnessingbecomes perfect we should attain to a state of No Mind.When all the contents, inner and outer disappear, this isDhyana as defined by the Sankhya-Sutra which statesMeditation is contentless consciousness.

There is a state of Consciousness where all meaningsand forms disappear. When this becomes spontaneouswe attain to Samadhi. (3/2)

In the state of perfect meditation there are no thoughts,no emotions, no time and no space and this is a happening.There should be no contents at all, not even awareness ofspace and time for the meditation to become perfect. Thisstate I have called Kaivalya and Intuition too. Now, thoughtscan disappear forever but time and space cannot disappearforever when we can return to the human form. If the mindcomes back Patanjali has called it Asamprajanat Samadhibut this Sutra does not include it here. In fact, Osho hascalled it meditation only and it is not valid as Samadhi .Ifthe mind comes back, the verbalization also comes back andmeanings and forms still remain. When all the thoughtsdisappear forever, all the verbalization disappears forever,the mind does not come back with the return of space time.It is Samadhi and this thoughtlessness must be thereeffortlessly as a matter of spontaneity. This is the eight stageof Patanjali Yoga designated as Samprajnat Samadhi earlier.Now, we conclude the Yogasutra. Amen!

So far we have discussed three systems of theistHindu philosophy viz. Vedanta, Sankhya, and Yoga. Vedanta

Page 121: Paradise Never Lost

246 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 247

is the philosophical aspect of Vedas while Mimansa isbasically ritualistic and so we can leave Mimansa. Nyayaand Vaisheshika do not intrinsically differ from Sakhya andso we need not to discuss them here. In the next chapter weintend to have a view of Buddhist philosophy which althoughdoes not accept the authority of Vedas but believe inimmortality and liberal too and holds Buddha as the validsource of timeless truth and so forms a part of spiritualsystems nonetheless. In fact: there are only two disciplinesin Indian tradition as such. First is the Brahman traditionand second is the Shraman tradition. Brahman traditioninsists on Faith and not on techniques. Upanishads, Geetaand Sankhya belong to this group essentially. Just likeChristians and Islam, these form a good harmony with theAngelic belief. The path of a Prayer has had many forms inIndia such as Upasana, Nishkama Karma, Aradhana,Prarthana, Bhakti etc. On the contrary ‘Shraman Tradition’insists on meditation and arduous effort towardsEnlightenment. Although this path is described as the pathof the Beast in the Bible, it includes great disciplines likeYoga, Jainism and Buddhism as in obvious.

As we proceed further, we shall find that Jainismand Buddhism do not intrinsically differ from Yoga whileChristianity, Sufis and Islam do not intrinsically differ fromthe Upanishads. All that is different has been a matter ofexpression and emphasis only. Osho is right to observe thatthis earth has been one abode and the religion has been asmuch a Science as Physics or Biology or whatever.Spiritualism is concerned with the mankind as a whole andall of us share same problems. All of us live more or less thesame life and all of us want to comprehend it too. Spiritualismis the ultimate transformation and the ultimateunderstanding. The seed should come to flower and becomeoverfilled with the beauty and fragrance, this has been thepurpose of all the religious traditions. So, may it happen!

To conclude with, here is a poem which I composedand which I mean to be relevant.

I may walk along whatever wayWherever my steps may lead to meOn either side I write but loveOn cloud,On Leaf and every Tree.

For Love is enough DiversionFor Love is enough PassionFor Love is enough InsightFor Love is enough Intuition.The path of Love should leadInvariably to the Beloved oneWhom not much I have seenOught to be the real Heaven.Because I ask unto theeIs not my love real intense?Is not my love real sweet?How can then I forever miss?

All mysticism ought to be like a love affair. In fact,Philosophy consists of two syllables, Phil and Sophia. Philmeans love and Sophia means knowledge, so even Philosophymeans love of knowledge. We all have to love this Existenceand ourselves too. We all have to discover our place in thisworld and there are only two possible methods, one of Loveand the other of Enquiry. Love comes from the God andEnquiry comes from the Devil and they are participants inone conspiracy we call creation. Both of them are helpingthe humanity in their own manners eternally. Amen!

The Buddhist school of Mystery

It seems that somewhere between Patanjali and Buddhaa long era of Mythology entered Indian Spiritual Thought.Mahaveera and Buddha had to react against this Mythologyand Ritualism prevalent when they happened. It is a commonbelief that just after Upanishads, Sakhya-Sutra and Yoga-Sutra the period of epics and Puranas has followed. First ofall Valmiki came with his Ramayana and then Vedvyasacontributed the second great epic we call Mahabharata. Geetais a part of Mahabharata which marks the beginning of theage of Eighteen Puranas. Rama is considered to be theS eventh incarnation, Krishna is considered to be the Eighthand Buddha is considered to be the Ninth of the Hinduincarnations.

Also, there are some linguistic proofs availableregarding the Indian History before Gautama Buddha. InBuddha’s time three dialects were available in India viz.

Page 122: Paradise Never Lost

248 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 249

Prakrit, Apabhransa and Pali. Mahaveera had chosen Prakritin the Pali dialect. From the Philological point of view thesethree languages lie al

ost at the middle point between the two great epics andthe present day Hindi. Obviously these three dialects haveemerged from the Vedic Sanskrit and Dingal, Pingal, Hindietc too have emerged from them. The evolution of languagesis a long and continuous process and it takes time to evolve.The problem is that Indians did not write any History becausethey used to live in eternity. Indians never have had thetime-consciousness and so no Social Sciences could evolvein India. They have never attached any importance to Historyor even Economics, Political and Social thought as a matterof course. So there are no records available regarding thetimes preceding Gautama Buddha. But the West has keptsome records which are generally used by the historians.

We all know that Moses happened almost fourteencenturies before Jesus and Abram almost nineteen centuriesbefore Jesus. This word Abram is very interesting. It consistsof two syllables Ab and Ram. Ab is a prefix like Shri or Mrand so this word literally means Mr. Ram in Hebrew. Thesedays Abram is also spelt as Abraham or Ibrahim but theoriginal form mentioned in the Old Testament has beenAbram. This indicates that the great epic Ramayana waswritten well before Abraham, because we have to permitsometime to this story to reach from India to Jerusalem.Rama must have been very popular for quite some time inIndia before Abram was born in Israel and was named afterhim. It is just like we give some children the name Yisu orIsha in India. Hindus claim that Rama was a historical personwho happened some 35 centuries before Jesus. The Maharajaof Jaipur believes himself to be a descendent of Rama andthe family has recorded all the generation from Rama to thepresent day and their estimation too is the same. So Ramamight have happened some sixteen centuries before Abrambut the geologists do not yet approve of it, they have obtainedno proofs as yet. However, we have no concept of a PersonalGod in the days of Upanishads, Sankhya-Sutra and Yoga-Sutra. Brahma was not a person but the ultimate substance,conscious and eternal. He was considered both the efficientand the material cause of all that exists. Later on Puranasprevailed in India and in place of one substance a trinity

was formed Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. However, for quitea long time they used to be the three aspects of the sameentity. Later on somewhere the concept of ‘Personal God’entered the Hindu mythology and Vishnu became almostthis Personal God. Rama and Krishna were considered to bethe incarnation of this Personal God Vishnu. Of course,Hindus formed a trinity but they did not contradict theirconcept of Non-dualism. All those three were neither thesame nor different. This is the Non-duality of Hindu as Ihave explained before. The souls of two persons are neithertwo nor the same, the relationship between them is calledNon-duality. Some more time elapsed and each one of thesedecided to raise their own separate families too. Brahma gotmarried and his daughter Saraswati was considered to bethe Goddess of learning; Shiva got married, he had a wife bythe name of Parvati and also two sons Kartikeya andGanesha. The monkey God Hanuman was considered hisincarnation. Vishnu too got married and his wife Laxmi tookall the charge of exchequer and was called the Goddess ofWealth. Still all the three Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh weredepected as three faces of the same Idol Trinity and this didnot contradict the idea of Non-dualism ever.

I have already explained the concept of InvisibleTriangles in an earlier chapter titled ‘What is Mysticism?’.This concept has prevailed in Hindu Mythology also but notin Hindu Philosophy. We came to the first vertex of thistriangle. This is Brahma and He is most abstract. Hindussay that just after creation Brahma disappeared, He is not apart of formal existence as He transcends all the forms. Thehuman mind cannot conceive of Him. We cannot find anyIdol, any mantra or sound to represent Him. That is why,Hindus do not make any temples of Brahma; they cannotworship him because they cannot conceive of him.Interestingly, this correspond to the Mohammadan narrationof Allah and sometimes the Christian concept of God too.

The second vertex of this triangle Hindus have calledVishnu. Hindus say that Parashurama (the Rama with anaxe), Rama and Krishna have been mediums or incarnationsof him. ( we must remember that both Parashurama andRama had come together to celebrate the marriage ceremonyof Sita). Vishnu represents the ‘Personal God’ in the HinduMythology. Literally this word ‘Vishnu’ means ‘ the Mighty

Page 123: Paradise Never Lost

250 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 251

and the One’. Interestingly the Arabic word ‘Il Gabar’ alsomeans the same. If we translate from Sanskrit to Arabic,‘Vishnu’ shall have the translation ‘Il Gabar’; Il means oneand Mohammad became a prophet. ‘Il Gabar’ or ‘Gabar Il’was the power behind Mohammad and that is the reasonIslam is said to be Angelic in its source. So Rama, Krishnaand Gabar means mighty. Islam belives that the angel 'IlGabar' came to Mohammad and embraced him andMohammed had the same power behind them. This word ‘IlGabar’ became ‘Gabar Il’ and then Gabriel in Israel. Gabrielis the Biblical Angel who helped Jesus. So, maybe Rama,Krishna, Jesus and Mohammad were helped by the sameone Angel. Hindus have called their medium incarnation,Christians have called the son of God and Mohammadanshave called the Prophet. It seems that only the words aredifferent. This has been the second Vertex. There is apossibility that the ancestors of all these three traditionsused to live in the same place in the past and they noticedthe same power helping them. This power which was named‘Vishnu’ in Sanskrit was translated as ‘Il Gabar’ in Arabicand ‘Gabriel’ in Hebrew. All the three words have the samemeaning ‘Almighty’ as the English people call it.

The third vertex is Mahesh and Hindus depict it as the‘God of Welfare--Shiva’ with the Moon on his forehead. SaintJohn in his revelations has mentioned him as Michael whoshall help the second Christ. The Bible mentions only twoangels by name and these are Gabriel and Michael, God ofcourse is beyond. In Koran too, Michael is one of the ninety-nine name of Allah and he is supposed to be the Angel fromthe Moon. So Michael seems to form the third vertex.

All philologists agree that Hindus, Christians andMohammadans have descended from the same race of Aryansand their ancestors in the past used to live at the same place.There is every logic to believe that the basic features ofHinduism, Christianity and Islam might have originated atthe time when the ancestors used to live in the same place.This also seems the case that Brahma represents Satyam orthe pure truth; Mahesh represents Shivam or the ultimategood and Vishnu represents the Sundaram or beauty aspectof existence. No wonder that Bhakti, Christianity and Islamwhich are the paths of devotion have attached utmostimportance to Vishnu who is the symbol for ultimate Beauty.

For beauty is important on the path of devotion just as Truthis important for philosophers and the ultimate good isimportant for the social reformers or saints. So there seemsto be a basic reason for this original trinity, it is psychological.

The Three Sects of Hindu Religion.

To summarize again, the Hindus of the Upanishadic erabelieved that Brahma was the only ultimate reality. InUpanishads, Sankhya and Yoga no idea of a Personal Godwas entertained. But after this age, it seems that the Hindusalmost personified Brahma in the form of Bhagwan Vishnuand Bhagwan Vishnu came to be the ‘Formal Brahma’. Theyasserted that Rama and Krishna were incarnations ofBhagwan Vishnu and the Hindus began to worship all thethree of them. This was the beginning of the Bhakti traditionin Hindus. Hindus began to direct their prayers to BhagwanVishnu in the same manner as Christians pray to God orMohammadans pray to Allah which literally means theSupreme Being. This is the VAISHNAVA sect of Hindus andit is the first of such three sects.

Later on the hypothesis of the Original Trinity had toevolve further. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva all were thoughtto be without beginning and without end. Brahma wasconceived to be God the Creator, he creates and then afterthe creation he disappears. In other words, He representsthe Formless Brahma of the Upanishads. Vishnu wasconsidered as God the Executive. His task is to protect,sustain and make providence for creation. All the tenincarnations of Hindu are incarnations of Vishnu alone. InGeeta Vishnu has promised to appear again and again withinand without India, whenever the need would arise. Shivawas conceived to be God the dissolver. He will decomposethe whole existence in the end for the good of all existingsouls. Brahma will create the Universe again and again theywill work shift wise. All this is hypothesis, the meaning isnot literal but symbolic only. All the Puranas are allegoricand symbolic in thier style.

As it happened, Hindus created three sects within theirconcept of Brahmavada. Those who worshipped Vishnucreated the Vaishnav sect and only this sect reallypredominated with the passage of time. Those who

Page 124: Paradise Never Lost

252 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 253

worshipped Lord Shiva(Nataraj) created the Shaiva sect.Those who maintained their loyalty unto the last towardsthe mother Goddess Parvati created the ‘Shakta Sect’. Wemust remember that Mother Parvati who was also known asShakti was the Enlightened wife of Lord Shiva and they usedto live in the same house. According common Hindu beliefeven Vishnu and Shiva have been historical persons whohappened before the times of Rama but Brahma has neverlived upon the Earth. Shaktas believed that Parvati was thepersonification of Cosmic Energy which they call Shakti. Itseems that Tantra had originated initially among theworshippers of Shakti but later on it was initially among theworshippers of Shakti but later on it was adopted by thesects of Vaishnava and Shaiva also.

Here one more comment should not be out of place. Beforethe Shaktas began to worship Parvati and other Goddesslike Durga, Kali etc the Vaishnavas had not assigned anyimportance to the female counterparts of Bhagwan Vishnu,Rama and Krishna any way. The Vaishnavas continued tofollow only the path of Bhakti and Nishkama Karma as itwas described in Geeta. Also the Vaishnava sect did not relyon meditation as a rule. Shaktas wrote ‘Devi Bhagwat’ whichseems to be the first Hindu scripture to bestow glory uponthe eight holy mothers. Vaishnavas felt very inferior in thisrespect and so they decided to create fiction around theirgoddesses Laxmi, Seeta, and Radha and associated them asthe female counterparts to Vishnu, Rama and Krishnarespectively. Now it became customary to place also theseholy mothers beside the male deities in the Hindu temples.Now we cannot imagine Vishnu without Laxmi, Rama withoutSeeta and Krishna without Radha in the Hindu templeswithout bothering much about their privacy. No other religionexcept Hinduism thought it necessary to personify wealthand worship it but the Vaishnavs conceived Laxmi as the‘Goddess of Wealth’ and made her the wife of Vishnu whowas their Supreme God. It is difficult to claim that Laxmiand Radha ever have been historical characters but we cannotsay it certainly about Seeta. Neither in Mahabharata nor inBhagvata the writer have mentioned Radha who seems to bea later discovery. Interestingly the name is symbolical too.Literally, Krishna means that which attracts or centre ofattraction. Ordinarily, the energy flows in us from the centre

to the periphery. This flow we call outward or downwardand such energy we call Dhara. When the direction of energyis reverted it should be called Radha and so Radha is theenergy which moves from the periphery towards the centre.So literally, Krishna is the centre of Being and Radha is theenergy leading to this centre. So Hindus are supposed toflatter Radha who can manage their meeting with Krishna.This word Radha is also included in Aradhana which meansthe same, the energy flowing upwards or inwards. SimilarlyVishnu was considered to be ‘Ishvar’ and Laxmi is called‘Aishvarya’ or the energy leading to Bhagwan Vishnu. Allthis seems to be a matter of allegory only, neither Laxmi norRadha must have been real persons. Vaishnavas had to installthem so that they could compete with Shaktas having eightmother goddesses after Parvati. Of course, Parvati still iscalled ‘the Original Shakti’ by the Hindus and even Seetaand Laxmi used to worship her. The scriptures state thatDurga, Kali, Katyani etc. all the eight Devis emerged fromthe dead body of Parvati after her death. Only Radha seemsto be a real match to Parvati, she must have been toorebellious for any domination. In fact, nobody could supercedeRadha who was so great in her love for Krishna that shebelittled even the institution of marriage. Krishna had manywives and Radha never married Krishna but she becamemore respectable than any one of his wives. Later on,Christians too strengthened this trend considerably. TheMother of Jesus is worshipped as the Holy Mother. OnlyIslam has refrained from such personification but not exactlythe Sufis. However, we are talking about the three sects ofHinduism here.

The Schools of Tantra.

It seems that after Patanjali’s Yoga sutra the tantricsreally made unforgettable contribution to the field ofMeditation. The word ‘tantric’ here includes all the three kindsof tantrics belonging to the three sects of Vaishnava, Shaivaand Shakta. These tantric devised numerous methods whichcould lead to the Super conscious invariably. ‘Vigyan-Bhairava-Tantra’ is one of such books given by these tantricsbelonging to the above three sects. This book is written inthe form of dialogue between Shiva and Parvati and compiles

Page 125: Paradise Never Lost

254 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 255

the techniques for meditation. It is written in Sanakrit andit is a precious advancement upon Yoga Sutra of Patanjali.The Yoga Sutra is the first book devoted to Yoga, it is briefand includes only a few techniques for meditation. ButVigyan-Bhairava-Tantra is comprehensive and contains asmany as 112 methods of Meditation. This book isindispensable, complete and exhaustive in its way but it iswritten in a Sutra form and does not contain enough details.(So the reader is advised to go through Osho’s series ofdiscourses titled ‘The Book of Secrets Vol-I to V for thispurpose). In fact, if we take Sankhya Sutra, Yoga Sutra andthis book together nothing essential is left out in the field ofMeditation. Even the Buddhist and Jain Enlightened masterscould not add much to the techniques already prescribed inthis book. It contains almost each and every method ofmeditation devised by the Indian tradition.

However, when the Buddhist religion reached Japan andtransformed itself in the form of Zen there, many moremethods were invented. For Zen Buddhists even ordinaryactivities like eating, walking, swimming, fighting etc couldbe methods for meditation. Zen people were both soldiersand saints and they found very powerful methods eventhrough archery and sword-fighting. Zen has been veryinnovative in the field of meditation, they have used almostevery activity for the purpose of meditation. But we cannotundermine the contribution of Vaishnava, Shaiva and Shaktatantrics to the science of inner transformation which theyhave made so wilfully. But Tantra did not have only positiveaspects due to them. While Vedanta and Sankhya werebalanced in their views of life, Yoga and Tantra wereunbalanced. The Upanishadic Mystics were seers not seekers.Truth had come to them as a gift from existence and theywere grateful for this gift. As a consequence and thank givingthey were celebrating and composing poetic verses. They hadto practise no meditation and lived a life of spontaneity.Sankhya added only witnessing to Upasana and NishkamaKarma laid down by the Upanishads. Even Patanjali was aseer and he had attained without seeking. He was the firstone to create a discipline of seekers, that is why, Yoga sutrais an original but initial writing. Yogis had to leave the worldand to seek for Enlightenment and so they had to teachrepression. Tantrics, Jains and Buddhas also had to seek.

Siddhas mean Enlightened seekers belonging to the schoolsof Tantra or Jainism while Buddha mean those belonging toBuddhist tradition. Neither a Siddha nor a Buddha is a seerlike the Upanishadic mystics. Their path was the path ofeffort and so a natural and ordinary life could not help.

Anyway, Yogis began to teach repression as a part oftheir usual discipline. The Tantrics revolted against the Yogisand preached Supra-morality and over indulgence. Tantrapreached from Sex to Super consciousness and asserted thatto become enlightened it was inevitable to make love at leastto seven women from seven different castes. Naturally, onlythen the seven chakras of the Kundalini could open. Worstcame to worse, the Tantra resorted even to violence andsacrifices. The Sutra ‘Vaidiki Hinsa Hinsa na bhavati’corresponds only to this period and it means that sacrificeto satisfy Vedic deities is not violence. The Tantrics becamedrowned in their passion for meat, wine, sex, gambling andfish. These were called five makars or perversions by theothers who disagreed with them.

This was the time when Mahaveera and Buddha wereborn and they rebelled against the Tantrics. Even Vaishnavascould not tolerate the Shaiva and the Shakta tantrics, thisis to be understood. The Vaishnava Brahmans played verygood jokes with the Tantrics. They began to depict Shivaand Parvati as the phallic symbols in the temples prevalenteven to this day. Perhaps they wanted to remind that sexwas the only divine act for the Shakta tantrics. Not onlythis, Lord Ganesha who was the son of both Shiva and Parvatiwas depicted in Semi-human form. He got his head choppedoff by his own father and had to carry the trunk of a babyelephant for all the time to come. This too was a great joke.Lord Hanuman was considered as an incarnation of LordShiva and the Vaishnava Brahmans did not even spare him.He was assigned a full monkey form with even a tail hangingdown from his back. It seems that the Vaishnavas did notspare anyone from the Shiva family. This shows the scorntowards tantrics on the part of the Vaishnavas who bothworshipped and ridiculed at the same time. They worshippedbecause they could understand the Enlightenment of Shiva,Parvati, Ganesha and Hanuman and ridiculed to discouragethe Tantric practices. The Vaishnava Brahmans thought ittheir duty to reform the Shaiva and Shakta tantrics who

Page 126: Paradise Never Lost

256 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 257

indulged in violence and immorality. Even the idol ofHanuman was everyday imbued with red to remind of theblood-shed by the tantrics. Finally, the Shaivas and theShaktas disappeared from the mainstream of the Hindu lifebut the worships and the jokes still continue. Even Kabirahas said, “I would rather welcome even a Vaishnavauntouchable but would not see even the face of a ShaktaBrahman”. Obviously, the Shaiva and Shakta Tantricsinvoked great defamation well before the rise of Jain andBuddhist traditions in India.

But scorn was only one aspect of the coin. Attemptswere made towards reconciliation between the three sectsalso. A story was fabricated that Brahma was born from themouth of Vishnu and Shiva was born from his naval justbefore the creation could follow. It was preached that Brahma,Vishnu and Mahesh were not three but one entity. The onlyHindu Trinity temple was raised to suggest this idea butBrahmans opposed the idea because Brahma should not beconceived. So this temple remained only one of its kind. Ramawas made to worship both Shiva and Shakti. He worshippedShiva in temple of Rameshwaram and he worshipped Shaktifor nine days before he could defeat Ravana. There is noexaggeration in the statement that ever since the beginningHindus have been equally respectful towards Vishnu andShiva both. But a joke is a joke and it prevailed because itrevealed great wisdom too.

This was the background against which Buddha andMahaveera began to preach. Jainism and Buddhism emergedessentially as a rebellion against immorality, violence andsacrifices prevalent among some sects of Hindus of thatperiod. This too was a kind of renaissance. Mahaveera wasthe first to preach and he denied the very concept ofBrahmavad, Buddha came next and he denied even theconcept of Atman as a permanent substance. We canunderstand the reasons for their teachings, the backgroundwas responsible for it. Both Buddha and Mahaveera weretrying to eradicate the evils arising from ritual andsuperstition. Both of them had to preach the path ofmeditation without permitting any ritual and myth. This isa historical irony that later on even Buddhism becameperverted and sects like Vajrayana and Sahajyana werecreated within the Buddhist tradition. These sects like

tantrics again denied cultural morality. Even Sex was usedas a method of meditation by the Tantrics before Buddhaand by some Buddhist tradition again long after Buddha.Exactly, this was the time when Saint John had come toIndia. Buddhists had become perverted and immoral by thattime using even sex as a method for transcendence. Afterthis visit Saint John wrote his Revelations and depictedGautama Buddha as the First Beast. It seems that he becamedisgusted with the Buddhists and as a reaction he joined atradition of Yogis in which Gorakhnath was initiated lateron. However, the first Shankaracharya had to eradicate theleftist tradition from India which were prevalent in his time.It seems that History repeats itself and time moves roundand round in circles.

Now, I come to the concept of celibacy which createsgreat embarrassment when we discuss Indian Philosophy.Neither in Yoga Sutra nor in Vigyan-Bhairava-Tantra celibacyis mentioned anywhere. As I have pointed out earlier, it seemsthat before the prevalence of Jain and Buddhist traditionsin India Brahma was an expanding divine principle andBrahmacharya meant a routine like Brahma. SoBrahmacharya implied Nishkama Karma and a creative life.Neither Patanjali nor the Tantrics had condemned sex before.Anyway, Hindus used to renounce the world only after theage of fifty when no one has any craziness for sex.

If a person happens to visit the Indian temples, he findsVishnu with his wife Laxmi, Rama with his wife Seeta andKrishna with his beloved Radha. Ganesha is in the babyform sitting usually in the company of his worthy parents ofcourse unmarried yet. Only Hanuman is found alone butthis causes no concern at all because he is depicted in amonkey form and monkeys are not human beings, they haveabsolute freedom in everyway. Any moment he can take ajump and can go wherever he wants to go. But when a visitorfor the first time happens to visit a Jain or a Buddhist templehe becomes concerned because he finds Mahaveera orBuddha sitting there all alone. When the doors close andnight falls what will they do? When sickness and old agecomes who will take care of them? Everyone understands itsince the beginning of the human existence that celibacy isimpossible and that is why Brahmacharya cannot meancelibacy. This interpretation has advanced by the Buddhist

Page 127: Paradise Never Lost

258 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 259

and the Jain philosophers who narrowed down Kama to meansex only whereas Kama actually means all the worldlyaspirations and sex can be only a need.

In any case, the Hindus used to preach renunciationonly after the age of fifty which is not much of a problem.When a man has attained the age of fifty, women cease totake interest in him and so even celibacy is no problem.Except for a few exception, even in a forest, Hindu seers andseekers used to live with their wives and many disciples whowere just like their family members. It was only afterMahaveera and Buddha that celibacy and monkhoodsprouted as an organized institution. Thousands andthousands monks began to roam all over the Indiansubcontinent. Shankaracharya’s ten cults of Hindu monksonly multiplied, this number to a considerable extent tobecome a multitude. One can even consider it thecommencement of an organized irrationality in Indianspiritual life.

Buddha and His Teachings

Now we come to Gautama the Buddha who has thegreatest among these three Enlightened masters viz. Buddha,Mahaveera and Shankaracharya. It is not easy to understandhim because his renunciation seems to be unnatural, hiscelibacy seems to be unnatural, his anattavad seems to beout of place and his Shunyavad seems to be illogical again.We will have to discuss his preaching and his tradition too.

Before that here is a small poem of mine composed toexpress the common amazement:

An Indian seer raised the cryHis voice filled all of the skyAcross the Asia, China, Tibet, JapanBut the earth he came to deny.

Everyone was sure mesmorizedEveryone had his best to tryWe need new Heaven and EarthSince it is our place of Birth.

A man who has no faith in himNor Music nor even poetry

Nor beauty nor even thanks givingMust be but very strange seer!.

Some might have become Lotus flowersMost of them Mango and PapayaColour, Lustre, Fragrance and YouthBeauty is the earthly Truth.

His Oak tree can though never fallBecause it is humble and tallMoving always towards the skyOn the Earth the least of try!.

One can say here that all renunciation is a mistakebecause all renunciation is impossibility. As long as we arein the body, we are in the world. Body is the miniatureuniverse. What can we renounce? Can we renounce ourhunger, our thirst, our sickness, our tenderness for weatherand our advancing age etc? Just as we attempt to solve theseproblems we become a part of the world. A monk can onlytry to shift his burden on others, but this makes himdependent generally on people who earn a lot throughimmoral means. It makes him a participant into a negativekind of karmic energy also. It seems that dropping ourattachment to the world is the only possible renunciation,all other forms of renunciation seem to be just hypocritical.Freud is right to observe whatever aspect of life we denybecomes the most attractive one to us. Life is an opportunityto learn and all those who escape away from it may miss theright course of schooling. The only way to transcend life is tounderstand it. If we have all our teeth intact except one toothwhich just has been pulled out, our tongue moves again andagain only to that empty space and no where else. Allrenunciation of this sort may be called hypocritical and theBuddhist and the Jains promulgated it in India for the firsttime as an organized movement which became a markedtradition later on. My understanding is that even renunciationis likely to create a certain kind of bondage because givingliberates and taking binds. Hindus are right to say ‘alwayskeep your palms turned downwards’. Kabira has been verycategorized to say those who deceive others create a bondagebut those who allow others to deceive them are liberated.

Page 128: Paradise Never Lost

260 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 261

Life is very contradictory. Before Buddha and Mahaveerathe Hindu thought was straight forward and clear and thethings were less complicated. The Hindus used to believethat one should always refrain from doing the wrong; oneshould always be eager to do the right and should throw thereturn into the nearest well. We can detach ourselves alwaysfrom the consequences of our virtuous acts but we cannotavoid the punishments which should ensue the evil ones.One should always promote the good and should forget allhis acts of kindness and of love, it was the Hindu Philosophyof Nishkama Karma.

Now, we come to the concept of celibacy. A mancannot withhold his sexual outlets any more than a womancan stop her menstrual cycles. The first carries the spermand second carries the ovum and both are essentialcounterparts. It is impossible to fight one’s Biology. It is asstupid as fighting hunger or fighting sleep. In the childhoodthe hormones have not yet become active and with the oldage the hormones disappear. It is natural that the hormonesshould sprout and spring while there is youth and it shouldhave nothing to do with morality. Once the youth is gone,our biology is bound to change. Celibacy in the youth is theambition of a fool and the effort of an idiot. It is just like aself-willed blindness or choosing to break one’s own knees.Buddha renounced at the age of 34 and Mahaveera evenbefore. Every scientific mind comes to interfere with theauthenticity of such a renunciation. That is why, the Westernmind cannot hold them in a too high esteem. Naturally, themystics like Rama, Krishna, Mohammad, Nanaka, Kabiraetc look more reasonable to us in this regard. We cannotdeny the fact that this kind of institutional renunciation maylead the future generations also to misguidance andsuperstition. A child who has to respect hypocrisy right formthe beginning cannot have a scientific temper and becomeself-confident. That is why, the East could not keep its pacewith the remaining world. For last twenty-five centuries theEast has been supposed to respect hypocrisy whereas theWest has been very rational in its approach. Naturally, theEast could not grow in science and reason as the West coulddo.

Buddha is reported to say that there is nothing like apermanent Self. Even this belief seems to contradict itself.

We have to understand it. The Buddhist philosophers havenot stating the same as people like David Hume. David Humeconfused the Self with the mental activity but Buddha hadnot confused it with the mental activity at all. Buddha saidthat Self could witness the mental activity and so the Selfwas rather inchanging in relation to mental activity. ButBuddha said that evne self was not absolutely withoutchange. The Buddhist compares the human consciousnesswith the flame of a clay lamp. Every moment the oil whichburn is changing, every moment the wick is burning andchanging but the flame is also changing. The flame is nevera static phenomenon but it is always a continuum. But thereis a contradiction in it. Let us analyze the whole situation.Buddha said there is existence after death. There is to followeither Heaven or Hell or rebirth. There has been an infinitesequence of past lives through which our consciousness hadto pass. Not only this, it is also possible to revive the past lifememories. Now the question arises if there is no unchangingSelf or Substance who remembers these past lives. Whoremains an invariable witness to all this sequence of changingbodies. If a substance appears sometime as A

1,sometimes A

2

etc, that is if a substance assumes the changing formsA

1,A

2,A

3,…….A

n, A

n+1,………… it cannot be identical with anyone of

these forms but should be transcendental and a-priori to allthese forms. Hindus say that our consciousness haswitnessed all these forms and this witness is the Self. Withoutsuch a Self the memory of past lives cannot come. The Hindusargue that the train seems to be moving only because thereis a platform which is not moving and this unmoving platformis the Self. In response to this the Buddhists argue thatneither the train nor the platform is static, both are movingbut the train is moving faster than the platform. Both theuniversal manifestations and human consciousness arechanging but the first is changing faster than the later. Itseems to be a good logic only till we examine it thoroughly,otherwise it contains the fallacy of infinite regression. How?The universe is changing in relation to human consciousness,but the question arises in relation to what this humanconsciousness is changing? A change is possible only inrelation to some relatively unchanging witness; otherwisethe change cannot be conceived. If A

1 is changing in relation

to A2, A

2 is changing in relation to A

3; in general if A

n is

Page 129: Paradise Never Lost

262 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 263

changing in relation to An+1

for all n then we get sequence.A

1,A

2,A

3,....A

n, A

n+1,……. Which must converge to some limit

point which cannot change. Ultimately, we get a substancewhich is unchanging, otherwise the change cannot beconceived. Who conceives the change? In absence of apermanent substance all this change becomes meaningless.So the Buddhist logic is crooked one, it is called Vitanda.Vitanda is a logic which is deliberately crooked.

Ultimately, we have to conceive permanent substance.Hindus have called it Brahma, Spinoza designates it asSubstances and Sartre as Essence. The Existentialists havesaid that the Essence must preceed existence and so thisEssence becomes the permanent principle according to theExistentialists. Anyway, the Hindus seem to be right thatthe Self and Brahma form Non-dualism. In as much as,neither the wave is identical with the ocean, nor the wave isdistinct from the ocean. Neither we can say that there is onepermanent substance nor we can say there are two butanyway the human consciousness has to be an unchangingprinciple.

The same experience which the Hindus have called self-realization, the Buddhist have expressed as No-Selfrealization. So it seems that the concept of anattavad is alsoa matter of Vitandavad. The term has been used just tocontradict the prevalent Hindu belief but it leads nowhere.In short, there is an infinite sequence of rebirths, there is asubstance which undergoes all these births and can alsoremember them. Hindus call this substance to be the Selfand Buddhist have called it Anatta but this has to be apermanent, unchanging and conscious substance. It seemsthat the Buddhist resorted to this hypocrisy because theyneeded to contradict Hinduism which they wanted to reform.Mahaveera was the first to preach and he denied the conceptof Brahmavad, then Buddha began to preach and he had todeny the concept of Self also. But the reasons seem to bedifferent from being philosophical. Both of them had to denythe tradition which had become perverted ritual.

Now, we have to investigate who has been responsiblefor this concept of anattavad. The Buddhists say thatGautama Buddha never replied such metaphysical questions.He had a list of eleven questions which he would not replyand this list included the existence of Self and existence of

Brahma also. Buddha used to say that he is a physician andnot a philosopher. There were people in those days whoseonly profession was to argue and Buddha wanted to avoidthem. So he prepared a list of eleven questions and wouldannounce beforehand that no one was supposed to raisethere questions. My understanding is that no Buddhistmystic has been responsible for this concept of anattavad,infact, they have been very silent people. The Buddhistphilosophers have done it to contradict the prevalent theistphilosophical systems. It is the Buddhist philosopher whohas been searching through a dark room a Black cat whichis not there. This search has been Anattavad.

Now, we come to the Buddhist Shunyavad or the state ofNO MIND. Thoughtlessness cannot be the only criterion forEnlightenment. Everyone is without thoughts before onelearns language and every creature except man is thoughtlesstoo. All animals and infants are thoughtless but notEnlightened. Some people even claim that an empty mind isDevil’s workshop. Hindus and Jains have a differentdescription of Enlightenment which cannot be said to beuntrue either. It is not the state of NO MIND which isimportant but the realization which is important. They saythat to begin with one becomes self-realized, then one comesto remember the past lives ad finally one even comes to knowthe future, these are the various stages of Enlightenment.Hindus and Jains do not speak in terms of thoughtlessness.The cessation of all thoughts is not an achievement in itself,thoughtlessness itself is not Enlightenment.

Moreover, it is very unscientific to fight one’s own thinkingmind, this can lead even to madness. It is unpsychologicalto attach much importance to the thoughts. No one can everpractise to be thoughtlessness; it may come indirectly tosome. To some thoughtlessness may follow as a shadow ofEnlightenment. Similarly, desirelessness is not a cause ofEnlightenment but a consequence of it. If we illuminate alamp the darkness is gone but the vice-versa is not the case,we cannot remove the darkness by fighting with it. We haveto be positive in our attitudes, absolute negativity is againsthuman psychology. So it is not good to talk in negative termsalways.

In fact, there are many mansions to the Father’s Houseand there are many paths leading there. The way of a mystic

Page 130: Paradise Never Lost

264 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 265

is the way of a white cloud. The way of a mystic is the way ofa flying bird. No foot-marks are left behind. It seems thatbefore Buddha the Hindus did not insist on empty-mindedness but on the experience of Self-realization only.Negativity is not the question but realization is the question.Dropping out of thought and emotion is not the real question,but awakening from the ignorance is the real question.Buddha has refrained from using all the positive terms whichthe Upanishads have used and that is why his view of lifeseems to be negative which is not expected of an Enlightenedperson like him. Absolute negativity is not likely to lead toEnlightenment but to madness probably.

Buddha asserts that life is a suffering and desires arethe reasons for the suffering. Nirvana is the only state withoutsuffering and Nirvana means total extinction or non-existence. So which are the implications? All the existenceis meaningless. As long as one exists, there must be suffering.According to the Buddhists, it is suffering not essence whichpreceeds existence and comes to an end only with theexistence itself. With such a view of life no science, no politicalsystems, no economic reforms, no social well-being etc canhave any meaning. No constitutionalism, no Rule of Law, noJurisprudence, no Criminal and Civil Procedure Codes, noobservation of human rights, no democracy etc need to evolve.With such a view of life all life should be consideredmeaningless. But the last twenty-five centuries after GautamaBuddha have proved it otherwise; we can create somemeaning in life. Of course , the East could not create thismeaning because of a misconceived kind of philosophy butthe West has certainly managed it.

Even Science needs a great faith in life. If we get uptomorrow and find that the Sun has arisen in the West, thenwe get up the day after tomorrow and find that the Sun hasarisen in the North and so on and so forth; no science canbe possible. A scientist has a firm belief that science is capableof making the mankind happy, comfortable and painless,only then the scientist can have a zeal for his work. ButBuddha gives no importance to life or even to existence itselfand the science too cannot progress with such a negativeview of life. There is no wonder that the East has never takenmuch interest in Science and human well-being.

On the other hand, Jesus has given much importance

even to very small things of life. He cares even to turn waterinto wine and feed the hungry crowd with whatsoever fewpieces of bread he has got. He and his apostles wander allover the land of Israel and cure people of all kinds of diseasessuch as blindness, leprosy, paralysis, etc and believe it to betheir sacred duty. The Bible has attached importance to allthe aspects of life, that is why, the West could progress intechnology and medicine but the East did not care toaccomplish all this. The West had before it the ideal of Jesusand so the West looked forward to make all the miraclesdescribed in the Gospels come true through the discipline ofScience. Science has actually made feasible what the Bibleconsidered to be miracles. The East had before it the imageof ascetics like Mahaveera, Buddha, Shankaracharya etc andthe East always vibrated with their preaching and this hasmade all the difference which is obvious. What had Buddhapreached? He taught that suffering was the beginning andthe end; suffering was the alpha and the omega and sufferingwas the first fact of life and also the last as well. No wonderthe East remained still and freezed like the statue of GautamaBuddha and much water went on flowing down all the riversof the Earth. In fact, our pessimistic outlook towards lifehas been the only significant factor for our backwardness inthe fields of Science and Social Science both.

This is to be underlined that not only science but all thesocial, political and economic thoughts have evolved out ofan endeavour to make the mankind happier. The Eastcondemned all the desires and so the East withheld all theimpetus to progress too. But the West could move towardsconsiderable advancement only because the Bible hasnowhere condemned life. In the beginning till the medievalhistory the West too was primitive and backward. Even theinstitutions like slavery and traffic in human beings used toprevail there. But now the West has reached the state ofperfect Rule of Law. The East is still lagging behind in regardsof democratic values and human rights. In the East eitherthere is no democracy at all or there is pseudo-democracyinstead. All the fight in the world in this century has beenbetween the democratic and the undemocratic forces andthe East is not even yet really civilized. In respect of theexercise of human rights and sense of human dignity, theEast has still got many reservations.

Page 131: Paradise Never Lost

266 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 267

All the credit goes to the West for the recent progress wehave made. The humanity had begun with small city statesand monarchy whereas now we have well-definedconstitutions and rule of law. We have separation of powersand independent judiciary to enforce the constitution. In thepast might was the only right; now right also has becomemight. We have well-defined civil and criminal procedurecodes and a very judicious system of pleadings. The humanityhad begun with hunting and harvesting; the barter systemwas the only mode of marketing in the primitive societies.Now these has given way to very highly industrialized societieswith a system of refined economy and banking which is veryadvanced and ensure security. We have made remarkableprogress also in the fields of Medicine and Surgery and havesucceeded in eradicating almost each and every disease anddisorder. Now it has become very difficult to assert in theBuddhist manner that birth is suffering, disease is suffering,the old age is suffering and finally the death is suffering too.Man can live now comfortably and he can avoid allunnecessary pain with the advancement of Science. But allthis change has come through the West for one very simplereason that the West has always loved life and has honouredall legitimate and reasonable desires. It could not comethrough the East because the East has always condemneddesires and has preached contentment instead leading onlyto idleness. The consequences which have followed are veryalarming and it seems that condemnation of worldly life hasbeen unfortunate. We all know that the Buddhist outlook oflife has been much negative and the consequences have beendisastrous.

Let us now enlist all the things which make life worthliving. We need science and technology, a little music, a littlesense of aesthetics that is Art, Drama, Literature etc. Allthese things make life worth while and all these things springfrom desires. If desires are condemned all the faculties ofhuman knowledge, all the aspects of civilization and culture,all that is beautiful and worthwhile become condemnedconsequently. That is why, the Hindus could see thisnegativity and its consequences not before very long but theycould not help the dark shadows which this negativity wouldcast on the Indian History in particular and on the AsianHistory in general. In fact Chanakya was the last Indian

thinker who had a balanced view of life. After that thephilosophies of Mahaveera and Buddha prevailed all overthe Indian subcontinent with their negativity and Indiansbecame weak. We could not resist the outsider aggressorssuch as Shakas, Hunas, Kushanas etc who intruded Indiasuccessfully just after the fall of the strength brought forthby the early Mauryan Empire. However, India assimilatedthese people and these races became a part of the sameHindu culture. But India continued in its negativity and thegreat Indian teacher Shankaracharya only strengthened thisapproach through his Mayavada until Islam came to Indiaand India was enslaved. We should remember thatShankaracharya was almost a contemporary of Mohammad,he preached only escapism when the country neededprudence inevitably.

The Jain and Buddhist monks spread all over the countrypreaching that it was violence even to dig wells and makewater reservoirs; it was violence even to enforce law and order;it was violence even to defend one’s own country; it wasviolence even to carry out researches in Surgery andMedicine; and it was violence even to defend someone who isinnocent and victimized. According to them, all the emperorswho restrained the enemies, all the generals and soldierswho fought the intruders and all the police forces who keptthe law and order were bound to go straight to the Hell.Nothing could save them from falling into an inferno becauseof the violence they would incur. This was the philosophybeing taught everywhere between the reigns of Asoka andHarshavardhana but India still remained culturally protectedonly because of its quality of cultural harmony. Then thegreat Shankaracharya came with his supreme doctrine thatall the life was an illusion. It was expected of every man ofwisdom to renounce the world and get dissolved into theultimate reality which was Brahma. All this negativity hadto prevail from two centuries before Christ to the end of thetwelfth century A.D. This is a matter of investigation howmuch role we can assign to such philosophy when finallyIndia was subjugated by Islam which was a new force inthose days. The great and strong nation which was Indiafinally scattered like a pack of cards.

I want to make my point clear. When Alexander invadedIndia, India had been a strong nation. It was the strongest

Page 132: Paradise Never Lost

268 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 269

in the world. Alexander had fought only with a border stateKing Parvateshwar and his soldiers lost their hearts. Theybecame frightened and refused to move ahead. They declaredthat it was just suicidal to cross the Indus River which isnow in Pakistan. So Alexander returned back even withouttouching the boundaries of Pataliputra Empire. He couldnot dare to cross the boundaries of the central Empire. Afterhis death, his successor Selucus Nicator tried again and wasdefeated by Chandragupta Maurya even before he could crossthe Indus River. His spies told him that Chanakya wantedthe Mauryan armies to pursue the Greeks and kill themwhile retreating back. So Selucus immediately signed a treatywith Chandragupta Maurya, gave his excessively beautifuldaughter in marriage to him along with the four provinces ofAfghanistan. This treaty was very much humiliating forSelucus but he saved his army from being massacred throughit. Chanakya was a wise man and he helped the Empire togrow stronger and stronger. It was growing more and morein strength until Asoka decided to adopt the Buddhist religionand become Asoka the Great. Chanakya, of course, was awise man but unfortunately he was the last Brahman thinkerwho could prevail over the political scenario. In fact,Chanakya himself was a spiritual person of the same calibreas Mahaveera and Buddha but he was prudent in his view ofpractical life. Chandragupta could really build a very strongempire under the guidance of Chanakya. The empirecontinued to remain steel strong till the battle of Kalingafought by Asoka the great who was the grandsonofChandragupta Maurya. Ashoka swinged from extreme ofcruelty in his early rule to another extreme of repentanceafterwards. He unnecessarily attacked the peaceful republicof Kalinga inhabited by innocent Buddist people who wereby no means any nuisance to the strong Mauryan Empire.They could not stand to the calamity and were butcheredlike petty animals. The Empire proved too strong for them.This brought Asoka to his much talked about remorse. Headopted the Buddhist religion and this was a point ofsignificant turn in the Indian History. The Brahman religionlost its hold; the Buddhist and Jain monks succeeded toacquire all the state-patronage.

Asoka the great dissolved even his army, renounced allthe instruments of war and took a vow never to fight again.

It is a surprise that the Empire remained integrated, thereason seems to have been his past reputation ofruthlessness. After Asoka it became customary for all theIndian rulers to adopt either the Buddhist or the Jain religionand neglect all military science and strategic researches.Europe and Arab continued to invent new kinds of weaponaryand strategic instruments and India continued to condemnthe violence. Indians neglected all improvement, innovation,invention and discovery in the field of armaments. The otherworld was the only affair which kept the Indians busy. Eventhe three greatest emperors who happened after Asokarefused to patronize the Hindu religion. Kanishka adoptedthe Buddhist faith, Pulkesin Second adopted Jainism andHarshavardhana became a Buddhist too. There were thethree greatest emperors after Asoka who ruled India. Thisshows how much importance this nation had given to Jainand Buddhist faiths. Both these religions remainedpredominant at least for one thousand years whenShankaracharya was born. Shankaracharya succeeded toundermine both Buddhism and Jainism in India.

Just 78 years after Jesus the Shaka calendar commencedin India. It seems that after Asoka India had lost its resistanceagainst the outside invaders. First of all the Shaka race cameto India and India could not resist them. They settled inIndia and began here a new calendar of their own. Thisinfiltration has been continuing even since the fall of MauryanEmpire after Asoka. The Shaka race was followed by Hunasand Kushanas. Fortunately, all these races merged into themainstream and we can hardly distinguish them today fromthe Aryans. Although certain hints are still left but thesehints do not make much difference. For example, Kayasthasare not a part of the four Hindu Varna’s because they cameto India afterwards. There is a sub caste of Kayasthas by thename of Saxena which means ‘the army of Shakas orShaksena’. The Punjabi word for now is ‘Huna’ which theyspeak again and again. This shows that Hunas which cameafter Shakas got settled mostly in the provinces of Sindhand Punjab which are the border states close to the KhaibarPass through which all the infiltration has taken place. Thereis a caste among the Hindus, very brave and courageous,and this caste is known as Jat. This word Jat is a derivativeof ‘Jati’ which means a new tribe which has entered. This

Page 133: Paradise Never Lost

270 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 271

tribe is the last to come and is known as Kushana after theHindu-Kush Mountain. So a few hints have been left, butthis does not matter now because all these tribes have mergedinto the Aryan main stream of India. I do not want todiscriminate between my worthy countryman at all, the onlything which I need to assert is that by committing ourselvesto Non-violence we cannot expect the whole world to adoptnonviolence.

The Buddhist and Jain religions brought non-violenceto India and Shankaracharya brought Mayavad to thiscountry. It is surprising to note how much the Indians hadbecome detached from the world. Mahmood of Gazani invadedIndia twenty-five times between 1001 AD and 1025 AD. Hetravelled from the Khaibar Pass to the seashores of Gujarat,thousands of miles into India and thousands of miles back,and he repeated it twenty-five times but no one cared toorganize any resistance against him. The country was almostin a state of political and strategic comma. Can we compareit to the period of History when Alexander the Great hadinvaded India? Mahmood of Gazani was no match toAlexander the Great, but the Indian youth had stopped toenter the Army and the police by this time lest violence shouldlead them to the Hell. Chanakya himself was an Enlightenedperson but he was worldly wise too. Brahmans managed tokeep the reigns of this country till Asoka converted himselfto Buddhism. After that nonviolence and Mayavad prevailedas the only philosophies of life in India. As a consequence,India lost all its resistance. It is not a wonder that by thetime Mahmood of Gazani came to India, the nation hadbecome almost a corpse and nothing could stir it to life. Anation which condemns the worldly life takes no pains todefend itself. Life was just an illusion, this way or that way,who cared? Ultimately, this nation of great empires collapsedlike sand. In 1192 AD in the second battle of PanipatMahmood Gori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan who was thelast Hindu ruler of Delhi. For the next seven and halfcenturies until the year 1947 Delhi was ruled by people whocame from outside of India.

Indians had forgotten that those who escape from violencecannot abstain from it. They get wars imposed upon themand downfall becomes inevitable. Only a very strong nation,always ready to fight, can live in peace. Life is full of

contradiction, and aggressions is the best attitude for defence.When India was strong politically, the whole Indian societywas spiritual. When India became defeated only a fewindividuals could remain spiritual. A defeated society cannothave freedom and self-respect. It gets lost into darknessoutside and inside both. That is why, Hindus have to go inthe past to feel their glory. The glory does not belong to thepresent. It is not that I am against those who came fromoutside because they had good reasons to come but Indiansare responsible themselves for their miserable plight. Life islike the art of an acrobat, he has to keep a balance on therope and has to prevent himself from tilting more towardseither side. Otherwise, the acrobat is bound to fall and breakhis bones. The same happiness to India around the year1000 AD. For this mainly two reasons seem to be responsible,the negative outlook of the Indians and the rise of Islamamong the tribals of Arab. Islam was much life-asserting inits disposition.

Before Mahaveera, Buddha and Shankaracharyarenunciation was not an organized movement. Hinduspreached renunciation to be proper only after attaining theage of and seldom before. After these three great spiritualteachers, the monks have not been few and far between inIndia. The monks really constitute now a great army withdifferent battalions. This army which we can call the greatIndian spiritual Army is supposed to claim the Kingdom ofGod and no one else. All those who admit violence like Krishnaare bound to go to Hell. Even Krishna himself, with all hisbeautiful girlfriends, has been discerned in the Seventh Hell,lowest one, by some omnicient Jain Acharyas. The JainAcharyys have seen him there with their third eyes. So bewarelestone should loose the Paradise for the sake of this transientworld!

Even the Buddhist religion itself realized its underlyingweakness when it reached Japan in the form of Zen. TheZen masters for the first time included even fighting as apart of meditation. The Zen people are balanced in theirapproach for they combine in their personalities Saints andSoldiers both. For the first time in Japan the Buddhist religionbecame a part of life and not something outside of it. Ameditator is expected to behave like an active and sincerecitizen too. Zen believes that very world is Nirvana. Zen is

Page 134: Paradise Never Lost

272 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 273

different from the spirit of Buddhism which remainedprevalent while in India. So this has been the course of affairs.

The Renunciation of Gautama Buddha

The question should come to every intelligent mind whyBuddha had renounced. We have three parables in thisconnection. The first parable is in the form of propheciesmade by astrologers at the time of Buddha’s birth.

The Parable of Prophecy

Buddha was born under the sign of Cancer in the Zodiac.Only the fourth house and tenth house have planets in them.In the fourth we have the sign of Libra and only one planetMoon is situated there. All the rest of six planets are situatedin the tenth house under the sign of Aries. The fourth houseis the house of Mother and of Happiness. One planet Moonis situated there and all the rest six planets are aspecting it.All the seven planets are connected with this House. It is avery peculiar situation for the students of Astrology. All weknow is the fact that Buddha’s mother died while giving birthto him and all his teaching were pessimistic. He is at thepinnacle of those teachers who teach that all happiness isillusion and suffering is the only true fact of life.

The tenth house again is peculiarly inhabited. Six planetsare situated in it and the seventh planet Moon is fullyaspecting it. The tenth House denotes Kingdom, Power andAction. Because of this rare combination the astrologerspredicted either Siddhartha would become a very greatemperor having all the Earth under his wheels or he wouldbecome a celebrated monk worshipped everywhere. All weknow is that he turned out to be both an emperor and amonk at the same time. He was a monk with the glory of anEmperor and he was an Emperor with the sacredness of aholy monk. His religious Kingdom surpassed even theboundaries of India and he converted the whole of Asia.

Besides these congregations Mars is aspecting the firstand the fifth houses which indicates that both Buddha andhis son Rahul had great warriors before they renounced.They were the men of greatest courage possible. The Saturnis aspecting the Seventh and the Twelfth houses also whichled Buddha to renunciation. We all know that the Seventh

House denotes the married life and the twelfth house denotesloss of riches. Saturn had a negative affect on them becauseSaturn denotes separation. Anyway, vide the horoscope ornot, Buddha’s renunciation is an amazing historical fact.Saturn situated in the tenth house separated him from hisKingdom too. All this must have taken place in the greatperiod of Saturn. If the great period of Mars would havepreceded the great period of Saturn he would have becomean Emperor instead of a monk. On the prima facie both thepossibilities seemed to be there, but the great period of Saturndid precede the great period of Mars and Buddha renounced.The prediction was not wrong because we can take it as aparable too. Buddha is the only person in all the history ofmankind who was both a monk and an emperor having anenormous religious empire.

The Parable of Birth.

The second parable concerns the time of Buddha’s birth.His mother is standing under a tree. Gautama Buddha leavesthe womb and stands up on his feet and walks four stepsahead. He takes the first step ahead and declares ‘Life issuffering’. He takes the second step ahead and declares ‘Wesuffer because of our desires’. He takes the third step anddeclares ‘there is a state beyond suffering’. Then he takesthe final step and declares ‘there is a path leading to cessationof suffering’. Suddenly, he realizes that he is only an infantjust now. So he lies down on the ground on his back andstarts crying loudly with tears flowing down his cheeks. Thisstory cannot be merely factual but is an indication of allBuddha’s life. It is symbolic because perhaps Hindus believethat it was too early for Buddha to renounce and too early tojudge the life as a whole. The Hindus, we all know, approveof renunciation only after the age of fifty.

The Parable of Disillusionment.

The third parable describes the evening before Buddhaleft the palace. The story states the prince was visiting hiskingdom riding in his chariot accompanied by the charioteer.That evening for the first time he came across a sick person.Then he saw an old man for the first time. Next he saw acorpse being carried for cremation. Lastly he saw a monk

Page 135: Paradise Never Lost

274 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 275

wearing ochre clothes. The story says that all these peoplehe saw for the first time. He became disillusioned and thevery next morning he renounced his palace to search thetruth.

Obviously, this story is only a parable; it is indicative.Buddha was a man of great intelligence and enquiry. He hadrenounced after the age of 35. It is impossible that he hadnot come across such incidents before. Of course, he mighthave considered the implications for the first time. For thefirst time he encountered them the way one should encounter.It is impossible that he himself should have never becomesick even till the age of 35. It is impossible that he shouldhave never seen an old relative before; even his father musthave been past youth by that time. It is impossible that heremained unaware of the fact of death, even his own motherhad died. All of us see a sick or an old person but we do notjudge them. It needs the sensitivity of Gautam to bedisillusioned. Jesus is right to say, “People have eyes butthey do not see, people have ears but they do not listen”.This parable means exactly the same. Most of us areinsensitive towards the facts of life. We see them but we donot learn from them. That evening for the first time Gautamaconsidered them and understood what to do. So, this storyis true because it is a parable which indicates in a significantmanner.

Inspite of these three parables the question still remainswhat circumstances led Buddha to renounce. There arecertain clues per chance that Buddha did not have veryamicable family surroundings. His own cousin Devdutta wasjealous of him and was continuously trying to kill him andBuddha did not want to pay him back in the same coinbecause he respected Devdutta’s mother Gautami very much.Even after Buddha had renounced, this is a historical factthat Devdutta tried to kill him again. Also, there are cluesthat his father and his wife could never understand him. Allthis was there as a background. Although, we can understandthat the monk he saw was not an ordinary monk but hiswould be master Adar Kalam himself. Buddha saw him andunderstood immediately that he must have attained the truth.My understanding is that Buddha and Mahaveera both hadto renounce because they were not common men. Theirprincehood stood as definite barrier to their spiritual growth.

It is possible for an ordinary man to remain in the houseand seek the truth remaining there as was usual for theBrahmans in those days. We all know that uneasy lies thehead that has to wear a crown. Mahaveera and Buddha couldnot keep both the boats tied together because the boats weresailing in opposite directions. Politics and Spiritualism arediametrically apposite to each other because politics needsextrovert energy while all spiritualism should make a personintrovert. So they decided to leave the politics and seek thetrue meaning of life. Their yoke was not easy and so theyhad to throw it away. It is not without reason that nonviolenceand youthful renunciation came to India through people whowere not Brahmans but princes. For the Brahmans, life musthave been simple and balanced but it must have been aburden and all time occupation for the rulers and theadministrators. Brahmans were wise because they did notchoose politics and they did not choose business and coulddevote themselves to spiritualism even without renouncingtheir domestics. Those who have gone to one extreme willshift to another extreme just like the pendulum of a clock.Life is like that. So Buddha could not seek the truth andremain in the palace at the same time.

Every coin has got two sides and there are argumentseven in favour of renunciation. Buddha said the world waslike a house in flames, only one needs the eyes to see it. Ifone can just see the facts, one has to take the jumpimmediately. The life is short and the path is long and thosewho are wise cannot waste their time after trivialities. Nothingis worthwhile except Nirvana and no one can predict what isgoing on to happen the next moment. This moment is theonly right moment. We should never postpone because evena single postponement can prove a matter of many births.This is the first argument advanced in favour of renunciation.The second argument is the fact that the people around usare not centered but perverted. Even animals are naturaland spontaneous but Man is eccentric. Indian seers haveobserved that there are six kinds of perversions from whichthe mankind suffers. These perversions are Lust, AngerVanity, Greed, Prejudice and Jealousy. The whole society isa madhouse and it is very difficult to attain to the ‘Peace ofMind ‘amidst this madding crowd. Of course, giving up theworld brings physical problems to the seeker but remaining

Page 136: Paradise Never Lost

276 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 277

in the society makes the peace of mind almost impossible.The people around us push and pull from all the sides andtry their best to make one as crazy as they are themselves.No coming home is possible if we are bound to continue insuch a society. There is a Sufi story. A young man is runningtoo hard and too fast and there is another guy followingclosely behind him.

The Sufi asks, “You look like the son of Mariam, am Icorrect?”

The guy says, “Yes, I am the same person”.The Sufi enquires, “Are you one who cured many persons

of their disabilities? Are you one can who cured them ofleprosy, blindness, paralysis etc? Are you one who revivedeven the dead?”

The Young man says, “Of course I am that person”. TheSufi asks, “Then what makes you so frightened and run likeHell?”

Jesus says, “A fool is after me. It is possible even to makethe Earth and Heaven move, but it is impossible to make afool understand. Soon he will be reaching here. Come andfollow me”.

What is true of Socrates, Jesus or Monsoor is in a waythe truth in general. Every wise and sincere man in societystands on a cross but on most of the occasions this cross isinvisible. Every wise man has to suffer for the sins committedby others who are immature and stupid. Hence the need forrenunciation arises. Even the most advanced societies havebeen against spiritual growth. Spiritual persons have beenrare and few and we have not succeeded even till today tocreate a society which can make one whole and healthy.This is the second argument.

Also there is a third argument. The renunciation helpsto go deeper in meditation. A single person can never go asdeep into the mysteries of existence as a school of mysticscan go collectively. Those who have devised methods toremember their past lives, those who have devised themethods to open the third eye, those who have devised keysto prolong the life etc have all lived in Monasteries. The YogaSchool of Patanjali, the School of Buddhist and Jain Mysticsand the Schools of Tantra, all those who have devised thenew keys lived in organized institutions. A single personcannot go very deep and return back for communication. All

the keys are lost when seekers live alone. Recently, we hadRamakrishna with us. It became very difficult to save hisbody. We need monasteries to meet such situations. A singleperson who goes very deep looses contact with his physicalbody and cannot come back to share his experience. That iswhy, in India the emperors used to provide state patronageto the schools of mystics. Mysticism is also a kind of Science,maybe, the most inner and the most important one.

Now, the fourth argument. There are certain methodssuch as the rising of Kundalini which make a man reluctanttowards sex. Such a person looses all craziness for sex andlooses the passion for a married life. An ashram becomesthe best place to live for him. That is why, Hindus haverecommended only Bhakti and Karma yoga for worldly peopleand meditation only for the yogis. Meditation is not always apath via positiva. Even Osho did not advise his disciples tomarry because he wanted them finally to transcend sex. Forsuch seekers marriage becomes a contradiction. This is thefourth argument in favour of renunciation.

The fifth argument lies in our social structure. Ourmarriage system and the caste system are not judicious.The marriage is accomplished between two unknown personsand only a miracle can make them harmonious. Once aperson gets entangled into marriage Sannyas is the onlyrespectable way out of it. Indians have never respected aperson who comes from a lower caste, howsoever wise hemight have been. But once a person wise he might havebeen. But once a person enters into Sannyas no one cancares for his past background which becomes unknown.Sannyasins have been beyond the caste system. Sometimessuch a person has to take sannyas so that he can help othersand preach them.

There can be many more arguments, but arguments areonly arguments. Renunciation is a happening whenever ithappens and to whomsoever it happens. Sometimes itbecomes difficult for a wise man to find even a few personswho can understand him and who can cooperate with him.The loftier a peak is, the more isolated it becomes. Sometimesa wise man finds himself all alone and so he decides to giveup his surroundings and become the part of a larger world,this is renunciation. If a person cannot relate to hissurroundings and finds himself wasting his time, he has to

Page 137: Paradise Never Lost

278 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 279

seek people who are like-minded. This is renunciation. For asannyasin this whole world is his family, he renouncesbecause his surroundings have become too narrow and toosuffocating for him. When the milk gets stirred, the creamcomes floating to the surface and cannot mix up again. Thisis what we call renunciation. So every wise man should beunderstood by thoroughly analyzing the context in which hehas happened. It is important to attain and once a personhas attained, it is of little significance which way he hastravelled. Renunciation is not escapism. Escapism is areaction against the past while renunciation is a journeyinto the unknown mysteries of beyond.

The Four Noble Truths of Gautam Buddha.

The teachings of Gautam Buddha include mainly the fournoble truths, the eightfold path, the twelvefold chain of causeand effect, non-existence of Self and the principle of everchanging reality. Also his teachings include the Law of Karma,the absolute laws in the field of human psychology and theDoctrine of Nirvana. He also preached life after death, rebirthbut not the existence of Personal God or any God whatsoever.The four noble truths or Aryasattyas are the following:

a) Life is Suffering.b) There is Ccause of Suffering.c) There is Cessation of Suffering.d) There is a path which leads to the Cessation of

Suffering.

Life is Suffering

Buddha has said that birth is painful, decay is painful,disease is painful, meeting with the unpleasant is painful,separation from the pleasant is painful and all craving withremains unsatisfied is painful. In brief, all the five aggregates(panchaskandhas) are the instruments for suffering. Theseaggregates are- Body, Feeling, Perception, Will and Reason.The evanescence of all things of human life is a source ofmelancholy to which we are subjected. Buddha has said thatthe water which is there in the seven great oceans is lessthan which has flown from the eyes of the living beings.

Now, we have to examine the fact of suffering. We candivide our sufferings into three kinds-physical, psychological,

and spiritual. The first skandha or aggregate is the body.Neither birth, nor disease, nor the old age, nor death issupposed inevitably to bring suffering in present times.Thanks to the medical science that we have overcome almostall these problems. But the things must have been very muchdifferent twenty-five centuries ago. There was no remedy evenfor an aching tooth in Buddha’s times. It would go on hurtingand hurting for years until it could fall out. Everyone of uscomes across animals who become disabled in road accidentsand have to suffer ever afterwards. The same was the fate ofmankind too in those days of the past. There was no surgery,no anaesthesia, no pain killers, no sleep inducents, nothingof the sort to help. Everyone had to bear all the pain andthere was no way to avoid it. Naturally, everyone had to passthrough experiences which were worse than the physicaldeath. The sources of suffering were too many such aspoverty, unemployment, hunger, weather, disease, accident,fight, blows, injuries, wounds, fractures, disabilities,blindness, deafness, paralysis, leprosy etc and the cures werealmost negligible. Life was really a misery in absence ofMedicine, Surgery, Science and Technology. We cannot evenimagine the hardships which prevailed in those days. Buddhawas only too right in his insistence on suffering and that iswhy, it was none a point of dispute in his time. It was truebeyond doubt.

Now a days, there are reasons to disagree withBuddha in this regard, because we have found means tooverrule Nature. Medical Science has reduced our physicalsuffering to a great extent. Also, the techology has providedus with numerous devices of pleasures, enjoyment, recreationand joy. Both the youth and the old age have their charmsnow. The earth has become a cosmic village. Differentweathers, climates, geographies, and travelling have becomerich sources of learning and enjoyment. Man has becomeprosperous, mighty, comfortable and confident. Nature isno more only a suffering. Now it has got to offer pleasureand pain both. But this was not the milieu in Buddha’s time,however inconvincing and pessimistic his teachings mayseem today. But this is true only about the physical well-being and the conquest over Nature. There are other aspectstoo which will be discussed later on.

However, the approach towards physical suffering is

Page 138: Paradise Never Lost

280 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 281

different when we compare Buddha with Jesus. Jesus in hisGospels has narrated to heal people of all kinds of diseasessuch as Leprosy, Paralysis, Blindness and the like. We cannotconceive of Buddha doing this, he looks very much detachedfrom this way of the world. Jesus even weeps at the death ofhis friend Lazarus till he revives him back to life. A similarincident is reported to have occurred in the presence ofBuddha also. One day a widow comes to Buddha with thecorpse of her only son and asks Buddha to shower hiscompassion upon the dead child. Buddha says it is possiblefor him to revive the child, the woman only needs to fetch ahandful of rice from a house where death has never visited.The woman wanders from house to house but finally sheunderstands the inevitable fact of death and requests Buddhato initiate her into the order of the Buddhist Sangha. Jesuscondescends to make us heal and hearty, he respects evenour worldly existence but Buddha seems to insist onunderstanding and transcendence only. Which approach hasbeen better? I do not want to suggest that the approach ofBuddha has been better than the approach of Jesus likeevery one else, in fact, I think it otherwise. The attitudes ofBuddha and Jesus have since then dominated the East andthe West respectively and the East could not progress inScience and Technology. Every old man from the East alwaysbrings home too enormous a fish of Mysticism whichinvariably consumes his worldly life. I am in favour of theWest and reason is simple to explain. There are only twopossibilities, just for the sake of explanation, either we haveonly one life or there is an infinite sequence of rebirths. Ifthe first alternative holds, Science and Medicine become moreimportant for human well-being. Even if the secondalternative is true we have enough time ahead to growspiritually and there is no need at all to neglect this world. Itis better to live a hundred lives without pain than to liveonly the half of them in suffering and discomfort before theliberation is attained. The liberation has to follow one dayand so why to spoil the whole drama this world is, it isbeautiful to relish it befoer one manages to disappear behindthe curtain. Each of us can wait for few more births, but wecannot afford to neglect Science and worldly wisdom. Evenfor an Enlightened person both Science and Spiritualismshould be complementary and complimented. So to me Jesus

seems more reasonable and practical than Buddha. BothVIDYA and AVIDYA should command our attention.

So we return to the fact of suffering again. Suffering isnot only physical and psychological and spiritual too.Suffering comes not only in the form of painfulness but itcomes also in the forms of misery, anguish, and ignorance.Buddha calls these the aggregates of Perception, Feeling,Reasoning and Will. What is perception? We see other livingcreatures in suffering every day. We see someone or elsepassing through the plights of poverty, famine, flood,epidemics, accidents, crimes, death, war etc and we becomesacred and feel insecure also for ourselves and our futuregenerations to come. Now-a-days with advancement inInformation Technology we have to witness sufferingwidespread. The whole of the animal and the bird universesseem to suffer continuously before our minds. Buddha comesacross a sick man, an old man, a dead body and a monk andthe next morning he leaves his palace. This is Perception.Even if we are secure just now the possibility of insecurityhaunts us each moment of our lives. This is perception andis a kind of psychological suffering. Moreover, the modernman has invented altogether new methods to make himselfanxious. Our many recent generations have been living underthe threat of an atomic total destruction and no immunitycan be promised. The ecological imbalances, the widening ofthe ozone layer opening, apprehended shortage of essentialslike water, oxygen etc have only enhanced our psychologicalfeeling of uneasiness even in the recent times.

Next we come to feeling or emotion. Man is animperfect being and he has many imperfections such as Lust,Anger, Vanity, Greed, Prejudice, Jealousy etc. Yet everyonehas to live in relationships and man has to create a society.Sartre is right to observe that the other is Hell, and the ironyof the situation is that we cannot live alone either. Althoughthe advancement of technology has eradicated almost all ourphysical problems but this has made us more sensitive tooand now we suffer all the more in human relationships. OurLiterature, music, drama etc all depict this tension andconflict residing in our beings. Whatever social, economicand political systems we may evolve, none can be completelydevoid of violence, inequality, and injustice inherently. As amatter of consequence the world becomes a place where we

Page 139: Paradise Never Lost

282 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 283

sit together and hear each other groan. Because man himselfis imperfect all the systems and institutions devired by himare bound to be imperfect too. There is no way out of thepsychological misery which our dependence on others bringsto us. This misery Buddha has called due to the skandha ofEmotion or Feeling.

Reason makes us a thinking being and we all feel aburden of mystery hanging heavy on our hearts. No animalsthink and no birds think, they continue to live in a state ofperpetual relaxation but man is perpetually brooding andtrying to comprehend. Every person feels himself like a birdin a cage. We have to live a life about which we know nothingand we find ourselves surrounded by a universe whichappears to be unknown. The problems of space, time andinfinity seem hardly to have a solution. Yet man has an inbornspirit of enquiry and curiosity which only creates an inevitableanguish in him. Existentialism is one of the latestphilosophical stands but all the existentialists are vexed withproblems of anguish, boredom and meaninglessness. Lifeseems to be meaningless and accidental on this planet Earth.With prosperity, scientific advancement and leasure themeaninglessness of life has became only too obvious andknocking. A poor man is always busy to make the both endsmeet but a rich and idle man suddenly falls into a bottomlesspit of meaninglessness. The West attached much importanceto conceptual thinking and for centuries altogether the Westbelieved that it could reach the absolute truth through reasonbut it failed miserably. All philosophical exercise has led onlyto Agnosticism, the conclusion that we cannot know. Reasonmakes us aware only of our ignorance and this helplessnessonly adds to the state of suffering. Also, it should becomeconceivable by every intelligent person. IF THERE ISENQUIRY, THERE MUST BE A SOLUTION TOO. Becausethe existence is not sadistic. But how to realize the truthbecomes the point. The absence of truth combined with thespirit of enquiry is anguish. Reason can lead to anguish andnowhere else. So Buddha is right-Reason is suffering.

What is will? Man is finite and he opens his eyes upon auniverse which is infinite and inconceivable. Man wants tohave his way through this unpredictable and stubbornuniverse and this intention we call human will. This will isbound to create a feeling of happiness sooner or later. With

all the advancement of Science, man is still as helpless asever. Every parent knows that he is helpless and everyboasting lover knows it too. Even a child demands more thanwe are capable of giving. Not only the mundane and theordinary but even the wisest and the rulers are helpless here.Alexander the Great was returning from India to Greece. Hepromised his physicians all the empire if only they couldsave his life for a few months to come. He wanted to revealsome secrets to his mother who was in Greece at that timebefore he would became silent forever. But none of thephysician could manage it and he died of Malaria. Alexanderwas a world conqueror but he died with a feeling of utterhelplessness in his heart. Everyone here has to meet hiswaterloo one day. All our will leads us ultimately to a senseof being defeated. That is why, Geeta says we have right toact but we have no right to consequences which followexistentially. Neither Hitler nor Mussolini nor the nuclearscientists could envisage the final scene of the Second WorldWar. The future always remain unpredictable, it is alwaysbeyond the scope of human speculations. J.Krishnamurtyagain and again insists on choiceless awareness. We musttry to grow more and more in awareness but must not imposeour choice, it should come out of awareness only. Ourobsession for the results always leads to despair. Even thosewho begin with immense will and effort towards the searchof the ultimate truth have to become just a witness in theend. The grass grows by itself.

Buddha made every possible effort to attain to the truth.He went to every teacher he could know and practised allpossible disciplines prescribed. Even his masters becameembarrassed by his sincerity of purpose, but all was in avain. Ultimately Buddha himself understood the points andall his efforts dropped. In the state of that utter helplessnesshe achieved the truth. What had happened? All that we callour Will creates a certain future ahead and by investing intothe future so created we miss the present momentcontinuously. Buddha had known already the futility of theexternal world and by perpetual and arduous effort for sixyears, he also realized the futility of all the effort to transcendit. So this world was gone and the other world was gone too.No hope was left for him anywhere. So all the futuredisappeared, Buddha became relaxed in his being and fell

Page 140: Paradise Never Lost

284 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 285

into the timelessness. This timelessness is the truth. Whenboth past and future disappear, the present also disappearsbecause the present is just a bridge between the two. Webecome one with the truth which is not in time and not inspace, we become available to this timelessness. So Buddhaused to say that Nirvana was the last nightmare, it was thelast desire and the last excuse to go astray. In fact, as theGeeta has asserted, Will is the only barrier and Will is theprimary source of all suffering. But we need to understandthe futility of our Will, only then it can disappear.

The Cause of Suffering

The cause of suffering is physical form. Buddha insiststhat our coming to the world is not just coincidental. Thereis a long chain of cause and effect behind it. This principlehe calls Pratitya-Samutpada which means given this; thisshould follow. It is a principle of dependent origin. In brief,desires are the cause that we are in the world. Because weare attached to the physical objects and other living creatureswe are here and we are suffering consequently. It is a theoryof causation consisting of twelve factors relating to threelives- the past, the present and the future. This principle isknown as the doctrine of DVADAS NIDAN or as the principleof twelve causations. These twelve factors are enumeratedas the follows.

Those due to the past lives1. AVIDYA (IGNORANCE)2. Sanskaras (tendencies)Those due to present life:3. Vigyana (mindstuff)4. Namarupa (ego, individuality)5. Shadayatana (the six universes of senses)6. Sparsh (contact)7. Vedana (experience or knowing)8. Trishna (desire or carrying)9. Upadana (clinging)10. Bhava (becoming)Those of future life:11. Jati (rebirth)12. Jaramaran (decay and death)Avidya is the same term which has been described in

the Upanishads too with a similar implication there. Byunderstanding the essential nature of life and the futility ofall desires we can go beyond ignorance. Awareness andmeditation are essential for understanding the futility of ourdesires. Buddha’s path is the path of continuous awarenessor wakefulness, Buddha has used the word ‘Samyak-smriti’to mean this only. With great effort we learn to live in thepresent moment, this we describe as awareness. If we gointo our desires with the perfect awareness we canunderstand them. Only by understanding our desires, wecan transcend ignorance which is the root cause of all thesuffering. Awareness, witnessing, meditativeness,thoughtlessness, living in the present moment, mindfulnessare all synonyms on the path of Buddha. Regarding thenature of ignorance Buddha is in agreement with theUpanishads but unlike the Upanishad he does not believe inthe grace of God to help transcending this ignorance. Heprescribes method, effort and meditation. According toBuddha, meditation is the only means towards cessation ofthis cycle of cause and effect. As long as we live in theunawareness or in a state of semi-wakefulness this cycle ofcausation move on involuntarily of its own accord. Throughawareness only we can break this wheel of twelve factors.

Ignorance if not transcended, in a state of unawareness,creates Sanskaras which are unconscious foceswithin us.According to Buddha, all the perversions like Lust, Anger,Greed, Vanity, Prejudice and Jealousy are all unconsciousand involuntary drifts our minds. If we meditate upon themand remain continuously watchful of them, the dead patternscannot prevail. For example, we take Anger. In the beginningwe can perceive it just as an energy coming up, then itbecomes an emotion, after that a thought and lastly an action.Generally one becomes aware of his anger only when theaction is over. Through meditation we can become so sensitivethat we can watch it from of an unconscious energy; if sothe anger cannot prevail over us. We become the master andwe can choose to use it or discard it. The same is true of allthe unconscious tendencies or the Sanskaras. All these weinherit from our animal past and awareness is the key totranscend them. These Sanskaras arise from subconsciousand the unconscious realms of our minds if we say usingthe modern psychological terms. If we watch the animal

Page 141: Paradise Never Lost

286 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 287

world, anger, fear etc. are instinctive and inevitable of thesurvival of the creatures. No animal can afford to witnessthem and become aware of them. An animal has to actinstantaneously, only then it can save its life. So there islogic when Buddha too, like the Upanishads asserts thatour ignorance has no beginning but it can have an end.According to the people like Buddha and Osho meditationhas been the first and last freedom.

Sanskaras are the beaten tracks which beget the mindstuff or Vigyanas. Thus the stream of memory, apprehension,hope, dream, imagination, conception, thought etc. are allmanifestations of Vigyanas, according to Buddha. The mindstuff separates us from the rest of the world, we become onewith it and the gap is lost. We all feel a gap between bodyand consciousness but we do not feel this gap with our mindstuff generally. We become the mind stuff itself just as DavidHume has put it.

Vigyanas create the false identities in us which Buddhacalls the Namarupa or ego. It creates a false individualityand a false centre in us. All of us feel we are body and mindand we do not feel the witnessing consciousness. This isforgetfulness or unawareness according to Buddha. Thewitness should not be lost but we should remain centeredupon it. The more of witness is there, the less of mind stuffis arising and the vice-versa.

Namarupa is followed by the six provinces of the senses.According to Buddha these senses are Eye, Nose, Ear,Tongue, Skin, and Mind. Sada means six and Ayatana meansprovince or world. Each sense creates its own world ofexperience. That is why, we feel intense compassion forsomeone who is blind or deaf or dumb. He seems to havelost some part of life. These six senses make our contactwith the external world possible, because of the sense wecan interact with the external world and this interaction withthe external world brings forth Vedana or knowing. Weindulge into the world and have a certain experience andthis experience we call Vedana. Our past experience createslonging for repetition; this longing is known as Trishna ordesire. Literally, the word Trishna means thirst or yearning.Desire creates clinging to the object which creates experienceand this clinging Buddha calls Upadana. For example, wetaste a mango and find it sweet, this experience is Vedana.

Then, we want to eat it again and again, this insistence isdesire (Trishna). Also, we miss it when the weather is gone,this is clinging or Upadana. Some people may even createpoetry, songs or dreams about mangoes then this clingingbecomes too obvious to us. Even a yogi has Vedana, this isbut in the nature of things but he does not create desire andclinging because he knows better. This is what Osho hascalled living in the present.

Clinging is responsible for Bhava or becoming. Bhava isfollowed by Jati or rebirth and Jati is followed again by decayand death or Jaramaran. So logically through awareness wecan transcend clinging or upadana which is the psychologicalattachment to the objects of Nature and in this manner wecan jump out of the wheel of death and rebirth. If we cancreate bliss through meditation, there cannot be any clingingbecause there can be no emptiness in our being. If we feelfulfilled spiritually there cannot be any clinging and if thereis no clinging, there can be no Bhava and there can be noJati. Bhava again creates our causal bodies and Jati againgives us physical forms and we again fall into the wheel ofSansara or life-death.

As far as the theorical elaborations are concerned,we find little difference between Buddha and the Hinduthought before him. But Buddha believes that both the energymethods and awareness techniques are indispensable. Hegave many methods to his disciples, Vipasana being the mostuniversal among them. For one hours at least each seekerhas to sit down in a silent place in a comfortable posturewith his eyes closed. He should become aware of the outgoingbreath. When all the breath has gone out, again a gap iscreated outside. Now the seeker should remain aware of thisbreath. The breath is going inside, he should remain watchingit. When the belly becomes full, the incoming breath stopsfor a while, the seeker should remain watching this gap too.After a gap the breath starts going out, the seeker shouldnow remain aware of this gap too. So on and so forth. Nothingis to be done with the breath but only with awareness. AfterVipasana we should learn to associate this awareness withother activities too. We are walking and we should remainaware of our walking; we are eating and we should remainaware of our eating; we are taking bath and we should remainaware of whole course etc. We must go through every activity

Page 142: Paradise Never Lost

288 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 289

as if we are going through it for the first time. Gradually, weshould practise this awareness while in action, emotion,thought, dream etc. Buddha has called this awarenessSamyak Smriti or right wakefulness. With awareness all lifeshould become a love-affair, and we should go through everyexperience as we go through love at first sight. The sameintensity, the same attention should accompany all that wedo. This is meditation and it is the only medicine which leadsbeyond suffering. Krishna has termed it total action andBuddha has termed it Samyaksmriti. Only the words aredifferent but the meaning is the same. But Buddha insistson techniques and this should make all the difference. Theawareness will result in the cessation of the above chain ofcausations which Buddha called Pratityasamutpada. Thesetwelve factors will disappear in the same orders as describedabove.

There has to be a simple logic of unawareness too.Why do we all live like robots and machines? We inherit itfrom our past animal lives. With an animal all the instinctsare unconscious and involuntary. Sex or Lust is involuntaryso that the species may survive. Anger is involuntary andfear too is involuntary lest the animal should lose its life.The animal is part of Nature but a human being has totranscend the Nature. Gradually, he has to make everytendency in him conscious. He has to illuminate all that ishidden in the subconscious and unconscious. This is howhe can break the bondage and attain to Niravana. Man isonly the bridge between the Beast and the Angel and no onecan make a bridge his home. According to Buddha, arduousefforts and methods are needed for this pilgrimage.

The tate Beyond Suffering.

Buddha is not a pessimist. He insists on darknessbecause he knows beyond that there is light too. He insistson suffering because he knows that beyond it there is lighttoo. He insists on suffering because he knows that immensepeace and bliss is possible. He does not offer falseconsolations, false illusions, false compromises because heknows that real is possible and nothing is there like the real.A real flower is a real flower and a genuine fragrance is agenuine fragrance and nothing can substitute it. Because it

is possible to attain to the third noble truth, Buddha makesus aware of the first two. He makes us conscious of ourthirst because he knows the way which leads to the springof eternal water. This is not pessimism. Only he wants tospread the news about the treasure which is hidden within.But to find that treasure we have to remove all the garbagewhich hinders the way to it. So Buddha says that sufferingis not our destiny, suffering is not our ultimate fate andsuffering is not the indispensable lot. Here he differs fromthe existentialists who believe there is no way out.

By destroying the cause also the effect is ruled out. Bydestroying Avidya(ignorance) we can destroy all the twelvefactors we should follow and we can jump out of wheel ofJati-Jara-Maran. Buddha from his enlightenment realizedthat there was a state where all the suffering would come toan end. This state of no suffering he calls Nirvana. Buddhaused to say that it was possible to attain Nirvana but it isnot possible to describe it. Buddha’s remained silent all hislife and never responded to the question, “What is Nirvana?”He only said that in this state there is absolute extinction ofall suffering and ignorance. For one who attains to Nirvanathere is no rebirth, no decay and no death. All the fiveaggregates(Skandhas) no more prevail over him. Upanishadshave used both positive and negative terms regarding thespiritual experience. Some Upanishads have described it asNeti-Neti (Neither this nor that) while some others have usedsome positive terms like Sat(existence), Chit(consciousness),Anand (bliss)also. Buddha never preferred positive terms.He described it only as a state beyond suffering. There aregood reasons even in favour of this approach too. We cannotassert without negating. Whenever we say that something isA, we also say it is not “the compliment of A”. All ourstatements about the truth also creates boundaries aroundthe truth and truth is absolute. That is why, Buddhapreferred silence. There were eleven terms which he wouldnot describe. That which cannot be said must not be said.Even we should not say this is inexpressible. This is theattitude of Buddha and this is scientific too. Secondly, ifBuddha would have said there was peace or bliss in thestate of Nirvana, this statement itself would have created adesire to attain to Nirvana and he did not want Nirvana tobecome the last nightmare as he used to put it. Absolute

Page 143: Paradise Never Lost

290 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 291

relaxation is necessary and all conception of Nirvana and alllonging for Nirvana is a hindrance. So Buddha said thatthere will be no suffering. Also he said “There are thingswhich I cannot say to you but which I can show it to you”.There are things which can be said and there are thingswhich can only be experienced. This was his attitude. Heremained silent not because he could not attain but becausenothing could be said about the Ultimate Truth. Whatever issaid can only mislead and so it is better to remain silent.

The path Towards the Cessation of Suffering.

Buddha calls his path the middle path because on theone hand it is different path from Mahaveera and on theother hand it is different from the path of the Hindu Tantra.Neither we have to torture our self exceedingly nor we haveto become lost in the pleasures of the flesh. We have to createa situation in which we can become aware. Although Oshohas prescribed no renunciation or outward discipline to hisdisciples but Buddha had initiated them into an order ofmonks. Buddha’s discipline is known as Eightfold Path andit is comparable with the Eightfold Yoga of Patanjali. Thispath is comprehensive way of living and it consists of Eightorgans which are to be practised simultaneously and notone by one because they are complimentary factors of thesame discipline. These organs can be put as the follows:

1. Right Knowledge2. Right Will3. Right Speech4. Right Conduct5. Right Mode of Livelihood6. Right Effort7. Right Awareness8. Right AttainmentThe seventh step is Dhyana and the eight step is Samadhi

as prescribed correspondingly by Patanjali Yoga. The rest ofthe steps mentioned by Patanjali under the heads Yama andNiyama.

It is through meditation only that one can realizeBuddha’s Eightfold Path, no factor can impose forcibly fromthe outside. First we have to practice awareness or wakingstate of mind or Jagriti. The waking state of mind consists of

Action, Thought and Emotion. When we have succeeded toremain fully aware in the waking state of mind, our awarenesspenetrates into our dreams or into the state of Swapna. Whenwe become aware in our dreams the dreams disappeargradually. So the thoughts should disappear during the dayand dreams should vanish during the night. When this canbecome spontaneous, one day our awareness penetrates intoeven the dreamless sleep or Sushupti. Awareness or Sushuptiis Enlightenment. When we can remain spontaneously awarein the dreamless sleep also, the right attainment or Samadhifollows. The perpetual state of Dhyana or Samyak Smriti iscalled Samadhi.

We have to bear this essential fact in mind that meditationis the underlying current which illumines all the eight organsof the path described above. Every seeker has to adopt a fewtechniques to begin with and then his awareness shouldspread through all the states of mind: Wakefulness, Dreams,and Dreamless Sleep. Dreamless Sleep with awareness iscalled Turiya or the state other than three. Turiya is Samadhi.When the seeker becomes perfectly aware then all the eightingredients of the path can be followed spontaneously,otherwise it is impossible to follow them.

We can also use the terms given by the ModernPsychology. Jagriti means Conscious mind, Dream meansSubconscious mind, Sushupti means Unconscious mind andTuriya means the Super-conscious mind. We have to practicewitnessing through all these states of mind for the RightAttainment. All the eight ingredients described above arenatural consequences of meditation and we cannot force themupon seeker. These ingredients become mastered onlythrough awareness and not through suppression. Onlymeditation can lead us to Right Knowledge, Right Will, RightSpeech, Right Conduct, Right Effort etc. It seems that thelater Buddhist philosophers, who were unenlightened people,forgot to associate with the practice of the path and no onecan follow it without the transcendence only meditation canbring.

After all this discussion, we can understand this easilythat Buddha’s teachings of Dhamma are in continuity withthe teachings imparted by Upanishads, Sankhya and Yoga.All these three have had impact on the Buddhist traditionwhich does not differ from them intrinsically. Like the

Page 144: Paradise Never Lost

292 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 293

Upanishads, Buddha also state that ignorance is the rootcause of all our problems and enlightenment or Samadhi isthe only remedy possible. Of course, Buddha has used theword Nirvana for enlightenment but Nirvana is not a newword coined by Buddha. In fact, we have all the three wordsAtman, Brahma and Nirvana used in Upanishads and Geeta.Even one of the Upanishads has been nomenclature by thetitle “The Nirvana Upanishads”.

Whereas Upanishads, Sankhya and Yoga have tried tooffer statements even about the ultimate truth, Buddha haspreferred to remain silent about the ultimate experience ofEnlightenment. His approach has been different. Buddhadoes not call his Enlightenment Self-realization, Brahma-Samadhi etc; he calls it Nirvana and remains silent over thedetails. On the contrary, Patanjali has attempted to describeEnlightenment in most exact manner. The Buddhist principleof dependent origination or Pratityasamutpada is not apartfrom the Sankhya Metaphysics. Sankhya states that Prakritiand Purush came together and their proximity is followedby the formation of five senses of knowledge(ear, eye, nose,tongue, skin) and three kinds of minds (emotion, intellect,ego) etc. It is easy to derive the Buddhist principle ofdependent origination from the above description of Sankhyameta physics. In fact, Buddha has made only an advancementupon the Sankhya Metaphysics. Also, the Buddhist EightfoldPath is on lines parallel with the Eightfold Yoga of Patanjali;in as much as the last two ingredients Right Awareness andRight Attainment are the same as Dhyana and Samadhi ofthe Patanjali Yoga. All other six ingredients described byBuddha are included in Yama and Niyama of Patanjali Yoga.

There is no wonder that Hindus felt Buddha to be justa part of their own tradition, howsoever revolutionary hemight have been. Hindus even accepted him as their ninthincarnation. The last is yet to come and perhaps Buddhawill prove to be bridge between the eighth and the tenthbecause Buddha has only complimented not contradictedthe Hindu tradition. Shankaracharya later on uprooted theBuddhists from India and tried to preach Vedanta but it isno wonder that the wise people recognized him as a Buddhistin disguise. In fact, Buddha’s teachings do not differ fromthe principles included in Vedas, Sankhya and Yogaphilosophies. Here it will not be out of place to remember

Osho and his assertion that all the enlightened persons havehad the same experience and have attempted to elucidatethe same truth, the difference is only a difference of apparentexpression. Otherwise, the essence is the same.

Buddha and Nature of Substance

It seems quite plausible that although Buddha preachedNo-self(anatta) and Nirvana, he never cared to develop anytheory about substance, any principle of Metaphysics andany philosophy regarding the phenomenal world. The word‘anatta’ literally means No-self but self traditionally has gottwo meanings–Atman and ego. Buddha used the word anattato mean no-self or no-ego. Buddha used ‘Atta’ or ‘asmita’ inthe same sense as Hindus before him used the words ego orNamarupa. It seems that the Buddhist thinkers whohappened after Gautama Buddha are responsible for thedenial of Atman. Buddha himself did not like to philosophize,he is reported to have said, “This world is on fire, for thosewho are burning actually in fire, it is the time to come out,we need only to make them aware of the fire”. He used to saythat he was a healer not a philosopher. There are obviousreasons to believe that Buddha himself had not left any clearaccount of the world of becoming but essentially the Buddhistphilosophers had represented the universe as continuousflow which is Nisatta (nonentity) and Nijjiva (lifeless). It is awell-known fact that Buddha avoided all metaphysicaldiscussions, in fact he had formed eleven questions whichhe would not reply.

The Upanishads held that all which is within the framework of space-time is subject to change but the ultimatereality transcends space and time and it is absolute andunchangeable. All change is meaningful only if there is acentre existence which itself is changeless and all the changecan be attributed to occur in reference to this unchangeablecentre only. The Upanishadia view is that this centre inrelation to an individual is realized as an Atman and inrelation to the cosmos it is experienced as the Brahma andthese are not two.

But the Buddhist view of existence has been different.All that is in existence is subject to a continuous changerelative to one another and the existence has no invariable

Page 145: Paradise Never Lost

294 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 295

centre. There is no substance which can be said to be thecentre of the cyclone, the centre is non-existent. All thatexists is subject to change and that which is not subject tochange does not exist. In other words, there is no being (atta)but only the becoming (bhava). According to the Buddhistphilosophers ceaseless change is the only unchangingprinciple.

As I have established in the beginning of this chapteranattavad is self-contradictory and hence it is invalid too.Buddhists have really walked half the way towards negativitywhile the communists have travelled all the way to negativity.There is a danger that all the nations like China which haveBuddhist faith prevailing may fall victim to communism. Itis not just by chance that the communist thinkers like RahulSanskrityayan admire the Buddhist philosophy too.

We can put it into another way also. Hindus believewhen we pass through the Bardo of ordinary death ourphysical bodies disintegrate but we find our consciousnessstill confined within casual bodies, each individual having adifferent one, and these casual bodies lead each of us toHeaven or Hell or the next births. The Buddhists too, are inagreement this far. In fact, they have worked a lot on theBardo between the previous death and the next birth. Everyone should go through ‘The Tibettan Book of the Dead’ inthis respect. The Hindus further argue when also this casualbody disintegrates one’s consciousness is liberated and ittranscends all time and all space. On the other hand, theBuddhists opine when the casual body too disintegrates, nosubstance is left behind, the consequence is non-entity. Thereis no consciousness transcendental to the casual body whichitself is subject to tremendous change. The Buddhistemancipation or acquittal is non-existence. As long as weexist there is the fact of suffering and when the sufferingdisappears our consciousness too disappears. So for theBuddhists experience and sufferings are synonyms. Myassertion is that the later Buddhist philosophers could notunderstand Buddha properly on this point; because we finda contradiction in the Buddhist thought here. Buddhistsbelieve that Buddha attained to the Supreme Nirvana at thetime of his physical death. Yet the disciples of Buddhabelieved that Buddha promised to help all the seekers on hispath even after he would leave the physical body. They still

go on worshipping him. This is not understandable, howcan one help having become a non-entity? Not only this,there is a congregation of 500 Buddhist seekers who believethat once in a year they can communicate with the Being ofGautama Buddha himself. It is the commitment of Buddhawhich he goes on fulfilling even now.

It seems that it is not possible to describe the state ofNirvana and disciples of Buddha could not understand thishappening. May be Nirvana is experience when both entityand non-entity, existence and non-existence, substance andextinction become irrelevant. Moreover, again we have toremember that Buddha had no investment in words but onlyin silence. Buddha’s all emphasis used to centre uponmeditation and not upon argument. Many words aresynonyms to meditation in the Indian tradition such asDhyana, witnessing mindfulness, awareness, wakefulnessetc; but Buddha preferred the word Samyak-Smriti whichliterally means “Bodh” or awareness. According GautamaBuddha, a Buddha is the person who has attained to theperfection of Bodh or awareness. So awareness is the keywordon the path of Buddha and only through awareness notthrough reason we can come to experience the state ofNirvana. Buddha did not want to describe this state becauseall the words could mislead. Consequently, the Buddhistphilosophers have confused the humanity a lot in regards ofNirvana.

Maybe because of his negative terminology, non-acceptance of worldly life, disobedience and rebellion againstthe past etc, the holy Bible has referred to Buddha as theTree of Knowledge or the Devil or the First Beast. Buddhaattained to enlightenment under a tree with the name“Bodhivrikhsa” which literally means the tree of knowledge.It seems that Osho has been called the Second Beast. Thereis no condemnation in it; it only says that Saint Johnconsiders faith to be higher than effort. Saint John came toIndia almost 500 years after Gautama Buddha and it isobvious that he did not like the tradition in the form he sawit at that time in India. Perhaps the Buddhist had turned toVamachara or to sexual perversions in the name of Tantraat that time. The Buddhists have had many Tantric traditionssuch as Sahajyana and Vajrayana which did not respectmorality in sexual matters. This seems to be one of the

Page 146: Paradise Never Lost

296 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 297

reasons he described his path beastly as opposed to theangelic traditions. The second reason is that Buddha believedthat man could transform himself from a Beast to an Angelwithout the need of any faith in God. That is why, Buddhahas been described as “most godless although most godlike”.

In his revelations Saint john has also foreseen the comingof the False Prophet and the Second Christ too. This givesthe humanity a new lease of life and of hope. May it be so.Amen!

Jesus and His New Testament

It happened, when Jesus was still only a small child often years the god came to see him and to talk to him. so theyconversed with each other as the follows:

God- I am the only Jealous God of JewsThe God of Abraham, the God of MosesThe only God of Israel EverLife is no more a bed of rosesJesus- Because you to come to see me, SirShould I open but one Champaign?God- Sometime else let it be soJust now I am on a different campaignI come to send wars, famines, epidemics, droughtJust now it cannot suit me dear.Jesus- Sir, first to be delivered a planty of AkharotFor children to eat during the Drought.God- Why do people sin again and again?Jesus- Who wants to miss every train?God- So from sins should they never refrain?Jesus- Till Corollaries excel the philosophy main.God- Then I have to appear again and againWars, epidemics and no more rainUntil they forever from sins refrainFor I am the only Jealous GodJesus- Sir, here is Jesus and his sword.The God became really scared because he did not want

to fight his only small son and so he disappeared from hispresence. He straightforward reached the Paradise, raised anew apartment and disguised himself behind a new apparel.Jesus decided to persue the Jewish God upto the Heavenwith his sword still drawn In his hands. Just as he enteredthe front gate, he saw somebody clad in blak clothes sittingin front of a new apartment. He was covering his foreheadand his eyes under a Felt hat.

Jesus- Where is the only Jealous God of IsraelHe does not allow us even a smile.God- I don’t know him I am Devil himself.Jesus- For thousand years he locked behind Self.

Page 147: Paradise Never Lost

298 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 299

He pushed the guy at point of his sword into a room andlocked the door which was like the door of a Self for nextthousand of years to come. The young Jesus thought that itwas necessary so that the prophesy might come true becausehe already knew what Saint John was going to predict. TheJewish God who could see all the things to come, had alreadyraised a very comfortable well furnished, attached, air-conditioned apartment with a long window having blind glass.He could see everyone outside but no one could see himbehind this window. So the God did not mind the event atall. Instead, he liked his new situation very much; he felthimself comfortable there like an Indian Prime Minister. Therewere too many people on the Earth to bother him even at hisadvanced age. He decided to become a willing partner to theconspiracy. In fact, Jesus had really helped him like a worthynot envisage a better solution of his problem of beingbothered. So the God, in a good humour immediately wentto the bathroom and took a very comprehensive bath withthe soap Glory. Then he came back to the main room andspread himself luxuriously on a couch with his eyes closed.Since time immemorial he had not got such relaxation andso he slumbered.

But just then, incidently Nietzsche entered theParadise Gates. He had come walking on his feet all the longway to present his credentials to the God himself. By chance,one of the window pan was lying open, so Nietzsche managedto look through it. For quite some time afterwards the Godneither moved nor he made a single gesture. He kept onlying still on the couch in a very strange manner. So Nietzschethought the God had died before he could manage to reachthe Paradise. Just then he happened to see Jesus who wasloitering in the front corridors with a naked sword drawn inhis right hand.

He immediately approached Jesus and reported-“Hey,do you know He has died?” Jesus thought Nietzsche wastalking about the Devil whom he had pushed inside a roomand had locked it. Jesus became immediately happy.

Jesus admitted, “ I have done it myself and I have doneit all alone and it is such a great news. Isn’t it so.?”

Nietzsche disliked Jesus very much now.“In a way”, Nietzsche thought, “Jesus has spoiled all my

chances to become a Prophet in my own right. Now I cannot

claim that I have seen the God and I have talked with himand the God has proclaimed me his prophet.”

So Nietzsche said plainly to Jesus that he did not likehim and rushed to farthest corner of the Paradise. SalamaanRussedi could not understand the ontoward situation but itis not his fault because the situation had become all themore complicated after this. The God overheard theconversation which was taking place between Jesus andNietzsche and he was very much glad. He could see a newdevice in it. He shut the window pan so that no one couldsee him now but he himself could choose to slip out from thebig window any moment it would be necessary. He couldhelp everyone he wanted to help and he could threateneveryone he wanted to threaten and people would find himno where, not even in the Heaven. Some of them might evenspread humour that God had died already. He could stillcontinue to be the supreme ruler and the “One AlmightyGod” without being any more. This situation suited himextremely well. He could be both present and absent. Hedecided that now it was not necessary for him to choosebetween to be or not to be. He planned to continue this gameas long as he thought it fit and so felt thankful towards boththe guys who had been so nice to him.

Nietzsche was at an absolute loss. The God had diedand he could not like Jesus any more; how could he continueto be a good Christian? He could not like Mother Marry nowbecause she could not teach Jesus good manners. What kindof Holy Mother she had been, thought Nietzsche. Jesus toowas puzzled himself because only two persons had beenpresent at the spot when the Devil had breathed his last.The Paradise stood regained forever and forever. Such a bighappening and the God was nowhere to be seen, Jesus hadalready searched every nook and corner of the Paradise buthe could not see the God. No Angel was believing Jesus,they smiled as if it was a joke. He himself could not continuevery long in the heaven because so many churches on theearth were calling him back. Jesus knew that Nietzsche wouldnever bear the witness to this great event because he wasfeeling very jealous of him. Jesus could see it just on theface of Nietzsche. They had been, by chance, not even oneangel present at the spot, either of the God or of the Devil,who would narrate the episode to the God who was bound to

Page 148: Paradise Never Lost

300 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 301

come back sooner or later. Who should convey it to God thatJesus had done it and done it all alone? There is everyprobability that the God might conclude that the death wasa natural one otherwise no one could defeat the Devil ever.How should this deadlock be broken?

But the God has always been great, the God of Noah, theGod of Moses, the God of Jesus, the God of Mohammad, heGod of Israel, the god of Gentile, the God of Indians, the onlygreat God no more jealous because later on the God hadunderstood that he was the only God possible ever and thatall jealousy irrelevant. See the glory of God, the glory didensue. Just when all these incidents occur, there was to befound one more witness in the Paradise. This witness withhis own eyes had seen all that had happened and with hisown ears had heard all that had been spoken. No one killsand no one is killed as the wise Indians have put it. I myselfhave been this witness. All this happened partly 23 yearsbefore crucifixion of the Lord in Jerusalem and partly manycenturies afterwards but nothing before that let me swear.Because of time –duration no one could feel the gap, neitherJesus nor Nietzsche included. No one keeps time in heavenbut those who live on the earth should better know aboutthe time that elapsed. As soon as Lord Jesus and poorNietzsche both disappeared from the proximity of god’s newapartment, the god opened one of the window pans and sawme standing behind the apartment idly. He gestured me tocome near and talked to me also. He was the same all timeLord, let me swear, the God of Noah, the god of Abram, theGod of Moses, the God of Jews, who converse with me. Hewas the eternally living God, I can promise, because I hadseen him many times before too. He asked me to keep thesecret till 1400 years after the time of Mohammad and thento disclose it to the whole of mankind. The God told me thathe wanted Mohammad to have a chance before this revolutioncould be make. The God wanted to talk to Mohammad whenthe prophet should be reaching the Paradise at the hourwhich was destined for him. Let me say, it happened exactlyin the same manner. When the Mohammad reached Paradise,just like Nietzsche he opened the front gates with a big bang-bang. He searched every nook and corner and the only livinggod was no where to be seen. Then, as a matter of co-incidence, he reached behind the new apartment just in the

front of the long window and stood there a while, God wasthe first to see through the blind window glasses andunfetched one of the window pans. Mohammad could havea glimpse of Him now and could hear his voice before hedescended to the Earth again with his credentials. God theAlmighty act in this manner because he wanted Mohammadto spread the news in this particular context only. TheProphet taught, “the God is both present and absent; theGod is both observer and observed; the God is beauty hiddenbehind a mask on his face.”

So Mohammad taught exactly in the same manner asthe god had instructed him. All that the god had told mecame true exactly in the manner described and it came trueat the right hour prescribed.

It seems that the God wanted to enjoy the situation forcomplete 2000 years to follow. Now the time has come thatI should release the truth. So I am writing this book mosthumbly in the manner and at the hour the god had madeimperative upon me. Nevertheless, the god did not want meto become a Prophet and so this book is not a book ofprophesy, rather it narrates all that happened in the past.Its narrate only the scenes allowed by the only one great godwho refused to make me a prophet- No one has ever beenlike him and no one shall ever be like him. Let none of usdisappear from his sight and let him never his appear fromour being. Let it be ever so! What had been the meaningbehind this game I wondered. Perhaps the god wanted tomake it clear to me that even the greatest of us were justchildren before the god. The father and the some decided tohave a game between them and it was not for me to discloseit before the right time should come.

So, in the meanwhile, I was supposed to look after theTree of Knowledge as the usual part of my duty. When Iwent to see it once, the tree became a wonderful man with abeautiful block turban, a long shining beard, and coloredglasses and behind him the masses. I saw an angel from theEast standing close to me and I asked this angel who hewas. The Angel told me “He will be greater than many, moreprecious than the entire penny, the Heaven and the Earthshould hold together if any. He will be a miracle with nocomparison, pound rise but not penny foolish and you willmeet him on the earth just before he leaves. He will say

Page 149: Paradise Never Lost

302 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 303

Nivedano, I am a death and resurrection too. People will shoutOsho, Osho what to do, should we beat drum now?

Then, I was another mighty angel approaching me fromthe East with a letter from the God. This letter containedonly two stanzas which I could not comprehend at that time.

The first was-If ever I meet you on the wayThen even a sword raise you mayWith the sword you can have a fightNot to offend me but to delightThe wise man radiates bewitching smileBroader than ever daylight!The second stanza contained-Where is the Bow and the White HorseBehind it the Angelic forceWars invisible but victories sureNot a Don Quixote to ensureHe may endure yet once more!

Then the God had written, “Do you understand themeaning? A bridegroom comes with his bride elsewhere andhe comes too soon. Let a thousand flowers bloom when aMystery school gives him room. Amen!”

The letter, I could see clearly, was signed by the sovereignGod himself and was duly marked with his own seal, bearingdispatch numbers, of course, from the recently raised newoffice where he dwells. I thought perhaps the meaning wouldbecome clear in the future destined for the happenings. So,I bowed down to the angel and thanked him.

No one should be allowed to temper with the sanctity ofthis book which God the Almighty bestowed upon me, sothat to be revealed exactly in the same manner as prescribedand at the same hour as made necessary. Nothing should beadded to this narration and nothing should be extracted fromit for the sake of God who knows all our intentions. Amen!

In fact, while the form of Christianity hailed from theJewish tradition, its vitality and spirit came from the Indianmystics. This was the only contradiction which Jesus andhis early disciples could not resolve. Many people believethat Jesus had his first Satori at the age of ten, then thedisappeared for Hemis Gumpa in Ladakh where he lived upto

the age of thirty. At the age of thirty again he had the secondSatori, after which he retured to Jarusalem for his ministry.The Jews could not understand Jesus who did not seem tobelong to their tradition intrinsically. He spoke a very differentkind of language with very different kind of implications.There are many teaching in the New Testament which donot seem to be consequent to the old one. There is anunbridgeable gap between Jesus and the twenty-fourprophets who had announced him. My task in this chapterwill be appraisal of the Bible to discover whether or not theIndian tradition has served as a background to Christianity.For this purpose, I shall be taking mainly the text of threechapters viz.. The Genesis, the Gospel according to St. Johnand the Revelations.

Before we begin with the Bible and the Gospels one pieceof gossip in worthwhile. This gossip relates to the unknownyears of the life of Jesus. During the last hundred years orso many Western scholars have attempted to learn theoriental dialects like Pali, Prakrit, and Apabhransa. All thesethree dialects have emerged from Sanskrit and people usedto speak them commonly in India during the times of Buddhaand Mahaveera. Bhddha used to deliver his sermons in Paliand the disciples of Buddha too followed him in the matterof dialects. Consequently, no one can read the originalBuddhist texts without learning Pali. Some Western scholarswho wanted to study Buddhism had to learn these threedialects. But, a strange consequence followed. In HemisGumpa these scholars came across some hand-writtenmanuscripts in Pali which described the life of Jesus betweenten and thirty and also his past life as Bhikku Vimalkirti. Ofcourse, they were amazed and they amazed the whole worldin the coming years with their writings in Europeanlanguages. It is a matter of fact that Christianity has littleknowledge where Jesus had been between the age of tenand thirty. Only two incidents are narrated which belongedto his childhood. The first incident pertains to thecircumstances of his birth and to the description of the threewise men who had come from the East to proclaim the child.The hand-written manuscripts have recorded that these threewise men were three Buddhist Monks who had gone to seethe newly born Jesus from the Monastry of Hemis Gumpa.The second incident mentioned in the Bible pertains to the

Page 150: Paradise Never Lost

304 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 305

time when Jesus was only seven years old. Except for thesetwo incidents nothing is known about Jesus before hebecomes thirty. At the age of thirty he suddenly appears inJarusalem, John the Baptist announces him to be the longawaited Christ and his ministry begins. Unfortunately, withinthree years he happens to be crucified. Both the Bible andthe Koran have clues that he did not die on the cross butwas resurrected on the third day. It is mentioned in the NewTestament itself that all his disciples met him and dinedwith him after his resurrection and even Thomas believedhim. It is recorded that he talked to all his eleven apostlesand converted St. Paul to Christianity himself. Soon,afterwards he disappeared from Jarusalem again and thereis no information in the Bible where he should have gone.The Bible says he ascended to the Heaven. But, when thesescholars were skipping through the Buddhist handwrittenmanuscripts of Hemis Gumpa, they came to know a newstory again. After his resurrection again Jesus came toLadakh and Kashmir were he lived to become an old man ofhundred and two years.

At least three books deserve to be mentioned here. TheFirst book “Life of Saint Jesus” was written by Russiantraveller Nicholas Notovich who happened to visit HemisGumpa in the year 1887 A.D. The writer holds that Jesusduring his stay in India lived at least in three places. Hespent most of the time in Hemis Gumpa but dwelled atPahalgam and Ish-muquam also. Pahalgam Literally meansthe village of the sheperd and only Jesus in known as goodsheperd. Ishamuquam literally means the place of rest ofJesus. The second book titled “The Serpent of Paradise” waswritten by Miguel Serrano. Miguel Serrano again came acrossthe same manuscripts independently having known nothingabout the former book. The third book has the title, “Jesuslived In india”. The writer Holger Kersten claims that he hasgone through a handwritten manuscript describing the pastlife of Jesus Christ. The writer holds that in his immediatepast life, Jesus was a celebrated disciple of Buddha and hisname was Bhikhu Vimal Kirti. To ascertain all these factsevery one is advised to go through these three books and tovisit Hemis Gumpa in person. All I want to suggest here isthat we cannot dismiss the possibility that Jesus had livedin India between the ages of ten and thirty and again after

his crucifixion. In this chapter, however, I am concerned onlywith those sayings of the Bible which remind us of the IndianMysticism. Whether the Indian tradition has really influencedChristianity, we want to investigate in this chapter.

THE GENESIS

It is believed that Genesis was written some twelvecenturies before Jesus Christ. Hindus consider their traditionto be even more ancient and there may be good reasons forthe validity of this belief. However, as we go through Genesiswe can trace many principles which are similar to and whichseem to be connected with the Indian tradition. It seemsthat even before Jesus Christ the Jews had been in touchwith the Indian philosophical system. The writer of the book‘Jesus lived in India’ has pointed out that even Moses hadcome to Kashmir searching the lost twelfth tribe of the Jewswhich he thought had reached and settled in Kashmir. It isa historical fact that in the year 1250 B.C. Moses freed theIsraelites enslaved by the king of Egypt. He had freed all thetwelve tribes of the Jews, one of which lost the right trackand eventually reached Kashmir and settled down there.Later on Moses himself came to Kashmir wandering in searchof this lost tribe of the Jews. In fact, there is a tomb inKashmir and it is said that this tomb accommodates thedead body of Moses. Some people believe that Moses spenthis last years in Kashmir and had died there too. The Jewishword for Kashmir is Kashir which literally means equivalentto Syria and is reported to be as beautiful as Heaven itself.Now, we come to some sayings of Genesis.

“ So God created Man in his own image, in the imageof God. He created him; male and female created hethem”(Genesis 1: 27)

Genesis preaches the idea of a Personal God whoresembles man. Upanishads, Sankhya and Yoga have neverprescribed a personal God, neither the Buddhist and Jainphilosophies which evolved in India long after. AlsoMohammad has insisted again and again in Koran that wecannot conceive of God as being formal. But Genesis in adefinite manner asserts that God preceeds all the process ofcreation. He is the effective cause of creation but not thematerial cause and He looks like a human being. He is not

Page 151: Paradise Never Lost

306 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 307

like the Upanishadic Brahma who is neither male nor femalebut even linguistically has a third gender. In fact, Sanskritis the only language which has got there genders. Whereshould this idea have come from? Here I have a suggestionwhich is relevant. The Puramas of Hindus particularly theVishnu Purana gives a similar theory about creation. Here,it is interesting to note that the word Purana literally meansan ancient scripture. Most of the Hindus believe all theirEighteen Puranas were written by the seer Vedvyasa whowas a contemporary of Krishna and was born some threethousand years before Jesus Chirst. According to VishnuPurana, Vishnu was a personal God who looked like a manand preceeded all the creation. All the creation has emergedfrom Vishnu. First of all, Brahma and Shiva ensued fromhis being and Brahma created the whole universe. Brahma,Vishnu and Mahesh or Shiva are said to form the originaltrinity and this trinity preceeded the act of creation. All Indianphilosphicals schools except the Puranas have disdained theidea of creation. Puranas are not considered philosophicalin India. According to Upanishads, Sankhya, Yoga, Buddhismand Jainism, the creation has no beginning or end. In Geeta,for the first time, we come across certain clues about creationand dissolution and it is interesting to note that Krishna isconsidered to be an incarnation of Vishnu which literallymeans Almighty. Krishna is by no means a being inferior toVishnu. In fact, the book ‘Vishnu-Shahasra-Nama’ whichcontains one thousand names of Vishnu also includes allthe names of Krishna. This suggests that Vishnu-Puranawas written after Geeta. Rama and Buddha too are consideredincarnations of Vishnu but the this book does not contain asingle name relating to their personalities. This may suggestthat Ramayana was written after both Geeta and VishnuPurana. All the Hindu scriptures prior to Geeta consider theexistence to be without beginning and end. Geeta for thefirst time has talked about creation and dissolution andPersonal God too. Interestingly, both Geeta and VishnuPurana are in conformity with the book of Genesis writtenby Moses. It seems that Genesis and Puranas adhere to thepath of devotion and concepts like Personal God, Creationand Dissolution are intrinsic to this path only.

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the

ground; and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lifeand man became a living soul”. (Genesis 2:7)

Once we accept the fact of creation at least two ultimatecauses are needed- the material cause and the effective cause.According to the Genesis, Matter is the material cause andGod is the effective cause. Our bodies have come from thematter and life has come from God. The tradition whichuphold two ultimate principles are said to be dualistic intheir Metaphysics. The Dualistic traditions in India are mainlySankhya, Yoga, Nyaya and Vaishshika. Jains and Buddhistalso believe that our consciousness is different from matteralthough these traditions are not exactly dualistic.Upanishads are non-dualistic and Buddhist philosophersdeny the possibility of any permanent substance whatsoever.The description of Genesis reminds us particularly of PrashnaUpanishad and of Sankhya Philosophy too. PrashnaUpanishada is the only Upanishad which takes a step towardsdualism remaining essentially non-dualistic. It asserts thatalthough Brahma is the only ultimate substance buteverywhere it is found to have two aspects: Rayi (Substance)and Prana (Spirit or Breath). Sankhya develops this conceptfurther and hold that the ultimate substances are two-Prakriti(Matter) and Purush (Consciousness); Prakriti being thematerial cause and Purush being the effective cause. TheSankhya concepts of Prakriti is very much similar to thematter of Genesis and the Sankhya concept of Purush canbe said to have much in common with the Biblical idea oflife. Like Sankhya and Genesis, Jain philosophers too believethat the world is real. Sankhya states that the process ofcreation begins due to the presence of Purush who is not anactive participant in creation. Prakriti is there and Purushis there and because of their closeness the creation emerges.According to Jains, the ignorance has no beginning andbecause of ignorance the attachment with Pudgal (KarmicStuff) has no beginning too. Although the living beings duringthe course of world have invariably two aspects- the materialand the spiritual but no one has created them. The worldhas no beginning and the world has no end either. Sankhyaand Jain descriptions seem to be similar only with oneimportant difference. Whrereas the Jain philosophers assertthat the souls are infinite, some of the Sankhya philosophersdo not deny that ultimately consciousness is one. Genesis

Page 152: Paradise Never Lost

308 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 309

seems to be in harmony with the prashna Upanishad andSankhya particularly. But, like the Genesis all the traditionsof Sankhya, Nyaya and Jainism hold that this world is real.

“And out of ground made the Lord God to grow everytree that is pleasant to sight and good for food; the treeof life also in the midst of ground, and the tree ofknowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9)

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,thou shall not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatestthereof thou shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17)

Genesis on the one hand differs from Vedanta but on theother hand it differs from Sankhya also. Prakriti is notindependent and ultimate substance in Genesis, it dependson God’s will. Out of void the Lord God creates this world, soin a way this world originates like a thought in God’s mind.But once created it becomes real. This is a stand which canneither be said idealism nor realism; in fact, it is the sourceof both. Sankhya is purely real but Genesis is not so. Thisquestion of Realism versus Idealism become morecomplicated as we look at Vedanta and Buddhism forcomparision. These systems we have already discussed.

This saying (2:9) implies that essentially Man is vegetarianby nature and is supposed to eat only the fruits from trees.Adam and Eve lived only on the fruits which grew plentifullyin the Garden of Eden. Now-a-days the biologists too agreethat man is vegetarian by nature. We have very long intestineswhich are necessary only to digest the vegetarian food. Theanimals who live on meat have very small intestines. It isobvious from the Genesis that Nature created man to eatonly the vegetarian food but later on man became pervertedand began to consume meat. However, we cannot deny thefact that he might have done this only under the compulsionof circumstances but it is not his nature. Genesis seems tohave the implication that god wanted Adam and Eve to liveon vegetarian diet only.

There were numerous trees in the Garden of Eden buttwo of them seem to have been special. Let us consider, why?The first was the tree of Eternal Life and as I understand itonly angel were supposed to eat from it. By eating from itone would transcend death and become Enlightened. AnEnlightened person who had eaten from this tree could notbecome a human being. Even the Devil did not suggest Adam

and Eve to eat straight forward from this tree because inthat case they could never experience the pains and pleasuresof human existence and their experience would have beenultimate but incomplete. To begin with Adam and Eve werein a prehuman existence, they were not like the rest ofmankind. Although, this status had been unique but tounderstand them we have to understand animals, birds andsmall children. If we observe very small children they do notknow what is good and what is bad. They live in a state ofblissful ignorance or in a Fool’s Paradise. Very small childreneven kill insects, eat nasty things, beat even their own parentsbut we do not find them disgusting because they are notaware of good and evil. They follow their instincts only. Thisstate in Jain philosophy is called Nigoda which is prior tosansara or the worldly life. The world was not with them andthe world had not begun for them.

The second was the “Tree of Knowledge” and was deniedto them for this was the tree for Mankind to eat from. Goddid not want Adam and Eve to become a part of mankind yetsimply because the human existence invariably has its ownproblems. God did not want that Adam and Eve should inviteunnecessry problems and disaffection from him but the Devilwanted it because he thought the time had come for it. Inshort, the Tree of Eternal Life was meant for the angels andthe Tree of Knowledge was meant for human beings, Adamand Eve lived in a perpetual state of prehuman existenceand so both these trees were denied to them by the God. TheDevil was good master, he wanted them first to becomehuman and lead the Zorba aspect of life and then to becomeEnlightened and so the Devil introduced to them “The Treeof Knowledge” but not “The Tree of Eternal Life” to beginwith. The Devil wanted them to loose the Fool’s Paradiseand regain the Paradise like the wise human beings andthen eat from the “Tree of Eternal Life”. It happened exactlythe same way. The moment Adam and Eve ate from the Treeof Knowledge, they transcended Nigoda and entered Sansarawhich is the human world. They expelled themselves fromthe Garden of Eden, thought themselves wiser than the Godand decided to inhabit the earth. Before eating from the Treeof Knowledge they were contented with the body along, nowthey become mind also. This was the beginning of a life fullof cares whereas before this they were free of them all. The

Page 153: Paradise Never Lost

310 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 311

God has warned Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree ofKnowledge lest they should loose their pre-human existenceand fall to the Earth. Sometimes this process of trans-migration becomes painful too. All children who leave theirhomes for the first time encounter this experience. Modernpsychologists hold when an infant comes to the first breathof life, the experience, is like a trauma to him. Adam andEve in their Fool’s Paradise were as relaxed as a child is inits mother’s womb but they had to come out. In fact, the“Tree of Knowledge” symbolizes the borderline betweenchildhood and maturity whereas the Tree of Life symbolizesthe borderline between human ignorance and enlightenment.All of us cross the first borderline but a few of us cross thesecond too. To cross the first we disobey God the Father butto cross the second we have to disobey even the Devil whohas been our guide and friend throughout. Once we crossthe second we regain the Paradise or the vice-versa, in fact,both the happenings are simultaneous.

“The Adam said, this is now bone of my bone, andflesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, because shewas taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23)

When a father symbolizes security and providence forthe son, he looks like a God to the son but when he asks theson to leave the house with his wife the same father lookslike Devil. Yet every son wants to grow up and to marry andto live in freedom. Why? We have to co-relate this saying:Adam began to feel bored in Heaven and requested the Godto create a companion for him. It is said that when Adam feltasleep God took a rib out of Adam’s body and created Evefrom this rib. The statement means that man and womanare very close to each other, they are complementary aspectsof the same entity, they are one flesh and bone and cannotafford to live alone. Greeks have said that for a man, womanis the better half and the vice-versa. In fact, they are part ofone complete whole. Without each other neither they feelwhole and hearty nor they can create. For the propagationof the species they have to become one again. Also, in theIndian tradition a woman is known as Addhangini whichliterally mans “The half of the body”. Man is thought to beincomplete without his woman counterpart. Indians respectthe ultimate reality was Ardhanareeshwar which has theright half of a man and the left half of a woman. In all the

Hindu rituals like Yagya, pilgrimage, charity etc. theparticipation of wife along with her husband is thought tobe inevitable. When Rama was performing the Ashwamedhayagya he was asked by his master Vashistha to remarry.Rama refused to remarry, but he had to agree to have astatue of Sita cast in gold by his left side. Even then,incidently, he could not become a conqueror and was defeatedby his own sons. His Yagya could not bear proper fruits.Even a man of the status of Rama was not excused. Thisshows the Hindu way of thinking which is not any differentfrom the spirit of Genesis too. Just like the teaching ofGenesis in Indian traditions too a single man or a singlewoman is thought to be refraining from righteousness. It isthought to be social, moral and religious duty to marry andto pro-create. Everywhere men and women leave their parentsto cohabitate, because naturally it is the way of all flesh.Man and woman taken together make complete being.

And the woman said to the serpent: We may eat ofthe fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of thetree which is in the midst of the garden, God has saidyou shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest youdie. ( Genesis 3:2, 3:3)

Our mind is the serpent and our mind is the Devil. Thereis a popular saying “Empty Mind is the Devil’s workshop”.When children grow up, at a particular stage of growth, Doubtcomes naturally. At about seven years of age, every childstarts disbelieving its parents and begins to say no toeverything. This stage comes much earlier than the stage ofsexual urge. At about seven years of age every child beginsto see the world with his own eyes. Why did the serpentapproach Eve before it approaches Adam? It is because girlsbecome mature earlier and girls are less arrogant too. It isvery difficult to make a boy follow, his natural tendency is toresist all instructions. Anyway, the serpent approached Jesusalso and provoked him to examine the truth of his prayers.The serpent said if Jesus was the son of God he should beable to turn stones into bread and water into wine. But,Jesus understood immediately that he could not serve thetwo masters Faith and Doubt and his way was the way ofFaith. Also, this story indicates that the serpent symbolizesDoubt and Doubt is the original sin not sexuality.

All the animals, the birds and small children are below

Page 154: Paradise Never Lost

312 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 313

reason and so they live in a kind of Paradise. This is a pre-human state of mind and both Adam and Eve belonged tothis state of mind. Angels are beyond reason or mind, theyhave transcended mind. So Angels too can live in the Paradisebecause Faith is necessary to belong to the Paradise. Childrenhave Faith and angels too have Faith but grown up peoplelive in Doubt. The mankind begins to trust mind and so itcomes out of the Paradise. In fact, Doubt shatters theParadise.

But Doubt is useful too. Doubt creates all science andtechnology; all social, economic and political systems; alllaw and order in society. The Tree of Knowledge is the tree ofenquiry, of science and also of worldly wisdom. So, it shouldbe clear that doubt is the original sin and not sex as somepeople have misinterpreted. Of course, disobedience has tofollow doubt and expels us from the Paradise. Even animalsand birds indulge in sex, they too have to propagate theirspecies but they are not expelled from the Paradise becausethey do not disobey the god. It is because of doubt and isdisbelief that Adam and Eve find themselves disharmoniouswith the God and choose to see the world with their owneyes.

The story has much psychological implication. Whateveris forbidden becomes more attractive. Moses seems to knowthis rule just like Freud does. There were almost uncountablenumber of trees in the Garden of Eden and only two of themwere denied and it should not have been any problem. Butthis created a doubt in the minds of Adam and Eve aboutthe intentions of God. Not only the God had denied the treeto them also he alarmed them that they would die the momentthey touched the tree. Everyday the birds would come, siton the tree and eat the fruit, the animals would come to sitin the shadow and eat the leaves and none of them died.Naturally, a moment comes when they began to think whatthe matter should have been. So, finally they decided to defythe God. There seems to be a conspiracy here on the part ofthe God himself. The omniscient God and that too the mostcalculative God of the Jews must have known theconsequences already.

There must have been one more reason. Animals did notlook like the God, birds did not look like the God. Only Adam,Eve and the Devil looked like the God. Devil came to them

and told them that God was jealous of Adam and Eve becauseonly they could become like him by eating fruit of the Tree ofKnowledge. So naturally, they believed the Devil. Menunderstand pride better and women understand jealousybetter because every little girl feels jealous of boys who havegot something which she lacks. So Devil approached Evefirst who could understand what jealousy was. She decidedto disobey the God and eat the forbidden fruit. Soon, thelittle girl discovered that the fruit was good and she was notdying, instead she was feeling better than before. She gavethe fruit also to Adam who too ate it forgetting what the Godhad told him. All parents tell lies to their children but soonthe children discover the lies as lies. A Stage comes whenthey loose all faith not only in their parents but in everygrown up person. This is the Paradise Lost. Now enquirybecomes the only approach towards existence and enquiryis the path of the Devil.

A parable can have many implications. Somepsychologists have given one more interpretation to it.According to them the serpent and the forbidden fruit areboth phallic symbols ; the serpent represents the male sexualorgan while the forbidden fruit represents a feminine breast.When children grow up; they began to discover the bodies ofeach other. This interpretation is not out of place but I donot agree with the suggestion that sex is the original sin.There are reasons why should we disagree to this hypothesis.Sexual orgasm is not possible before the age of sixteen. Beforethe age sex is not an urge but a curiosity only, so enquiry isthe original sin not sex. At around sixteen only both boysand girls can have orgasm and begin to long for privacy butenquiry begins even at an earlier stage which comes aroundseven years and so enquiry is the original sin again. Evenanimals and birds have sex but they are not expelled fromthe Paradise rather they always continue to live in a Fool’sParadise. Hence, sex cannot be the original sin. In fact, thegod symbolizes Love and Faith in us while the Devilsymbolizes Doubt and Struggle intrinsic to human nature.Both doubt and faith are indispensable. We are reminded ofthe fact that Isha Upanishads calls them Avidya and Vidyarespectively. Doubt has its problems but doubt has itsrewards too and that is why, the Devil recommends the Fruitof Knowledge to Eve and Adam.

Page 155: Paradise Never Lost

314 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 315

In the sweat of the thy face shall thou eat bread tillthou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou takenfor dust thou art and unto dust shall thou return. (Genesis3:19).

Existentialists have been right— absolute freedom leadsultimately to death. We cannot choose security and freedomboth at the same time. Adam and Eve were secure beforethey exercised their freedom to disobey God and eat fromthe Tree of Knowledge. This is the point of deviation whereman become different from rest of animal world. Man choosesto be free irrespective of the consequences freedom shouldbring forth. This is how the whole human civilization has tocome to develop, man chooses to transcend Nature and doesnot remain contended with the limitations of Nature. So Adamand Eve likewise opted in favour of freedom and freedomshould incur its own responsibility, freedom should causethe inherent insecurity. The Tree of Knowledge symbolizesscience and technology too. God the father understood thatnow with growing intelligence Adam and Eve will engage innew adventures everyday. They will like to cultivate the Landand harvest the crop in the time to come. Now the earth willbe more suitable to them. In a way, the story of Genesis isalso the story of evolution of mankind from the rest of theanimals. God the father understood that soon the freedomof Adam and Eve will become his own freedom too. Soonthey will like to grow into enormous population. So he decidedto arrange another place for them where they could be creativeand growing into wisdom. The God was scared also. Nowthey both will have to leave him and face many difficulties.Now they will have to work hard to make both the ends meet.Like all the creatures on earth they will have to die and fallunto dust because no one can live on earth forever. This hasto be understood, God himself is helpless here. The Heavenis beyond the scope of time and space and so Adam and Evecould be immortal there but every place except Heaven iswithin the framework of time and space. Change is the ruleon the earth as changelessness is the attribute of Heaven.So no one can Eve on earth and be immortal. A child has togrow to youth, youth has to give way to old age and old ageshould culminate into death and disappearance. Even theGod could do nothing about it. It is not without reason thatthe Hindi word ‘kala’ means time and death both. Moreover,

no animal on the earth can anticipate its death but everyhuman being can anticipate it and become sad with thegrowing years. Why a human being invariably becomes sadat the thought of his death? Because man is learning newthings everyday; man is experimenting and creating everyday.Suddenly the death comes and puts an end to all his futuregrowth. Life seems too short to a human being because alwaysmuch remains to be discovered. Consequently death is asad gloomy fact regarding mankind. All others live in aperpetual state of no curiosity and so no other animal createsany future. To summarize, mankind tries to fight with Nature,it tries to conquer the Nature and shape a desired future foritself. Although this is disobedience on the part of mankindtowards the God but it has its rewards too. Of course, it mayinvite problems which even the God cannot undo butultimately it makes us also comparable to God himself. Asthe Upanishads have put it both Avidya and Vidya, Doubtand Faith are indispensable to lead us to the ultimate good.

“And the Lord God said, behold the man has becomeas one of us to know good and evil and now lest he putforth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and eatand live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forthfrom the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which hewas taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at theeast of the Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming swordwhich turned every way to keep the way of the tree oflife”. (Genesis 3:22, 3:23, 3:24)

It said that Rama became Enlightened at a very earlyage and he wanted to renounce the world withoutexperiencing it. His master the seer Vashishtha who was anold mystic was wiser than even Rama. He interfered andordered Rama to enter the world and do not to renounce itotherwise Rama would have to come again and would notbecome liberated. We have to understand the reason becausethis situation has something in common with the situationin which we find Adam and God here.

The Jain seers have done excellent work regarding thedescription of various stages of spiritual growth. They haveenumerated 14 such stages which they call the stages ofqualitative growth. The first stage is Mithyatva which literally

Page 156: Paradise Never Lost

316 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 317

means the stage of false perception or false understanding.At this stage a person is unable to avoid the evil and followthe good. He is like an animal but with the potential ofunmanifestated wisdom which an animal lacks. His seed isyet intact, it has not been broken and it cannot sprout. Beforeeating the fruit of Knowledge Adam and Eve stood at thisfirst stage of growth but they were potentially different fromthe other beasts of the Garden because they could grow.When they disobeyed the God and tasted the fruit ofKnowledge, they showed a readiness to cross the first stageof qualitative growth. They reached the second stageGranthibhed where they could discriminate between the eviland the good. God became sacred lest they should eat thefruit from the tree of Eternal Life also and become like angels.why? It is because he understood that they could go evenbeyond the angels and become liberated. But this could notbe possible without experiencing life in all its aspectsparticularly without the knowledge of the life on Earth, theangels could never know what misery the life could bringand so they never cared for liberation. Without the knowledgeof the world non-attachment is not perfect and withoutperfect non-attachment liberation cannot follow. So Goddecided that at first they should fall to the Earth, experiencethe worldly life, come back and then eat the fruit of EternalLife. Only then liberation or extinction could be possible.Otherwise they would stick to the stage of an Angel eternally.This is the 13th stage of growth where a person becomesomniscient but sticks still to a form. He does not becomeinformal which is the 14th stage of growth and the last one.So it was out of compassion the God expelled Adam and Eveto inhabit the Earth. This is interesting that Rama too wasforced by his master to enter the world and Rama did attainto 14th stage of qualitative growth. Rama was liberated andhe was the only Hindu Incarnation who could attain toliberation. Even Krishna and Buddha could not do it. TheIndian traditions believe that both Krishna and Buddha aresupposed to take one more birth on the Earth which meansthey are still at the 13th stage of qualitative growth. Of course,this going to be good for the humanity but also this is goingto indicate that their non-attachment was not perfect. Theystill had some compassion to help others, which too is akind of ignorance. The Jain seers have called it Teerthankar

bandh or master-bondage. However, the thirteenth stage ofgrowth is known as cosmic consciousness too and here onebecomes like God himself. The Hindu Gods Vishnu, Shivaetc are still at the thirteenth stage of growth having a form.But a human being can go even higher whrere he becomesextinct.

Not only this, God decided also to guard the tree of EternalLife. For this purpose, he created a flaming sword whichturned every way and also he employed cherubims there.We have to understand these two words. The flaming swordis the fear of loosing oneself. Every spriritual seeker has topass through it before he can become twice born or Self-realised. Resurrection or second birth is for those only whoare ready to pass through this fear. Only those can beresurrected who transcend this fear. The sword is made ofthe same fire which Moses had encountered at the MountSinai. The fire was set on a tree there, it looked like ordinaryfire but it did not burn. Moses could transcend the fear somuch so that he could have a glimpse only. This descriptionimplies that nobody can eat the fruit of Eternal Life withouttranscending this fear. Also, one has to pass through thestage of CHERUBIM which is in between. Such angels areSelf-realized like Moses, Jesus and Mohammad but they arenot omniscient. It is obvious that the God wanted themankind to go even higher. Only then they could becomethe spiritual beings of the of the highest order or they couldbecome one with the God as the Hindus say it. So it is notout of jealousy but out of compassion that God drives bothAdam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. All the cherubimsand Angels in the Jewish and Christian Mythology have wingsbecause they are still on the way. Wings are depicted toindicate that even they have some destination to reach. Onlythe God is the ultimate reality and He is both present andabsent. Only the God is one fulfilled in his own being. Thereis a possibility that “The Tree of Knowledge” is the Bodhi-vriksha of Buddhist religion and ‘The Tree of Eternal Life’ isthe Brahma of Hindus and Genesis has been written afterBuddha. “Enoch walked with God and he was not; forGod took him” (Genesis 5:24)

“Noah was a just man and prerfect in his generationsand Noah walked with God”(Genesis 6:9)

In the Jewish tradition three stages of Enlightenment

Page 157: Paradise Never Lost

318 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 319

have been given- The limpse of God, Walking with the Godand Disappearance into God. Enoch and Noah are the ancientmost seers described in the Holy Bible. Enoch had the highestform of Enlightement. He was not only walked with the God;he disappeared in the God’s being too. It seems that Oshorightly said that all the mystics have had the same experiencebut their expressions have been different. Hinduism, JudaismChristianity, Sufis etc are not different as religions but theyuse different terms, myths and symbols for expression. Thedifference is not substantial but superficial only. Eachtradition has its own symbology and own manner to narrate.According to Hindus the attainment of Enoch and Noah canbe described as Seedless Samadhi. Enoch attained to Nirvanaalso. The Upanishads have said that the whole existence isnon-duality and after liberation the individual self becomeone with the Cosmic Self or Brahma. Buddha said that afterNirvana there is no being or there is disappearance. Anyway,one can conclude that moses understood the concepts ofEnlightenment, Liberation and Nirvana which had beenprevalent in Indian thought since time eternal. Maybe thosewho think that Moses came to Kashmir and we have histomb in Kashmir have some validity regarding their belief.This state of disappearance and being taken by God isdescribed by Indian Yogis as Samadhi, Liberation, Nirvanaetc. So it seems logical to believe that Moses was a wise manhimself. He is reported to have a glimpse at mount Sinai butit seems that he considered Enoch and Noah greater thanhimself.

“Whoso Sheddeth man’s blood; by man shall his bloodbe shed; for in the image of god made he man”(Genesis9:6).

This is an important Sutra from Moses. We have to takeinto account because it has many implications. Moses saysthat man has been created in the image of God. We arereminded of the Upanishads which state that Atman is theBrahma or Man and God are not substantially different. Thisis a common saying in India that self is the God or Atman isParamatman. Anyway, there can be no difference of opinionregarding the assertions that man is the ultimately superiorcreature and his life is most precious. Man is an end untohimself and he cannot be used for alien means. No one hasa right to kill innocent person, this is absolutely against the

divine order. According to Moses murder is such a heinouscrime that the punishment can be nothing sort of the deathsentence.

This reminds us of many things. In the first place, itreminds us of the “Law of Karma, which is basic to all thesystems of Indian Philosophy. Hindus have talked aboutmany births because in one lifetime we cannot dissipate allour Karmic energy. ‘Whatever we sow, so shall we reap’ isthe law of Karma. Secondly, it reminds us of the “Law ofCause and Effect “in Physical Sciences. It reminds us ofNewton’s Laws of Motion. Newton’s second law can be statedas “The effective force is always equal to the external forceapplied”. Newton’s third law states that “Every action hasan equal and opposite reaction”. Moses has purported thesame, the cause and the effect should be equal.

The Hindus and Jains have always held thatconsequences of Karma are inevitable. In Hindu Puranaseven the original Trinity— Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh arenot immune of the Karmas accomplished by them. Againand again even the almighty Bhagwan Vishnu is cursed bysome seer and he has to bear the fruits of his deeds. TheLaw of Karma, according to the Hindus, governs all theexistence and none can transcend it. Even the Indian Godhimself is not beyond the Law of Karma. The Law of Karmais ultimate and it is as inevitable and binding as the law ofcause and effect in Physical Sciences.

Forgiveness is not possible according to Hindus, Jainsand Buddhists. Likewise the Jewish God has no idea offorgiveness too. (But there is one way to escape and this wayis repentance but repentance is also Karma which is alsopositive). Forgiveness has entered religion only with Jesusand Mohammad and repentance is the key to forgiveness.As we find in the Old Testament, the God of Jews is not theGod who intends to forgive, only the God of Jesus and theGod of Mohammad are too eager to forgive.

Also Hindus, have not denied the importance ofrepentance. In Hindu Puranas repentance is very effective.Prayer and repentance are like positive Karmas or virtueswhich do help. Both the view seem to be right. The Law ofKarma must ordinarily hold like the Law of Cause and Effectbut we cannot forget that human consciousness is not matterand repentance can be radical too. Jesus has said again and

Page 158: Paradise Never Lost

320 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 321

again repent for the Day of Judgment is near. We mustremember that if there is any God, he ought to be reformativebut not a sadist. The purpose of all ethical order is fulfilledthrough complete reformation. That is why, the capitalpunishment is not undisputed in the modern civilized world.

The Gospel According to Saint John

In the beginning was the Word, and the word was withGod, and the word was God. All things were made by him;and without him was not anything made that wasmade.[John 1:1, 1:2, 1:3].

The word referred here by Saint John is known as thesoundless sound of AUM in the Indian tradition. Accordingto the Upanishads AUM represents Brahma which is boththe effective and the material cause of all creation. TheKathopanishad in its verses (1/2/15) and (1/2/16) has statedas the following-

“The substance which all the Vedas admit, the substancewhich all the mystics narrate, to attain which substanceNishkama Karma is accomplished, in brief, can be said to bethis soundless sound of AUM. AUM is the Brahma, AUM isthe ultimate substance and one who can attain to this soundof AUM gets all his Will materialized”

In Geeta (9:17) Krishna says to Arjuna-“I am the father of this creation, I am the mother the foster

mother, and the grandfather of this creation. I am the sacredsound of AUM and also the Vedas which ensue from it”

The Yogasutra of Patanjali states-“We represent the ultimate substance by AUM or the

soundless sound. The chanting of AUM may reveal the meaningof the ultimate substance. The chanting of AUM may lead tothe unique conscious principle and to the overcoming of all theobstacles” (Yogasutra 1/27, 1/28, 1/29)

However, to understand clearly the implications of thesesayings one is advised to go again through Yogasutra (1:27,1:28, 1:29) of this book.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men. Thelight shineth in darkness and the dardkness comprehends

it not. (John 1: 4, 1:15)This reminds us of Sankhya Metaphysics. Life consists

of two principles viz. Matter and Consciousness. The Sankhyawords for these principles are Prakriti and Purushrespectively. As discussed earlier in Yogasutra, we all knowthat just at the border of Samadhi, we come across thesoundless sound of AUM which Zen calls the sound of onehand clapping. It is encountered at the borderline betweenmatter and consciousness or between thought andconsciousness because it is the most minute form of matter.In fact, according to all the religions AUM or Amen is thebasic form of energy from which all the universe emerges.Beyond it lies only formless consciousness, Self is the onlyprinciple which transcends it. According to Sankhya, Purushremains throughout a witness only and all life springs fromthe unequilibrium among the three ingredients, of Prakritiwhich are Satva, Rajas and Tamas. The Purush of Sankhyahas no will to create life, only because of its proximity toPrakriti all the creatures are begotten. Even after creationPurush remains the ultimate, independent and invariantsubstance even unto the last. Of course, consciousnessbelongs to Purush only but life is generated through agitationamong the ingredients of Prakriti and this sound of one handclapping is the most basic manifestation of this agitation, soit is logical to say that life belongs to this cosmic energy ofAUM essentially. But matter is not the only substance oflife, consciousness too is inevitable and this consciousnessis called here Light of Men. It is more intrinsic to life if notsynonymous to it because consciousness is the principlewhich makes us experience life. Our consciousness isresponsible for all our feelings of pleasure and pain. Althoughall forms and instruments come from matter, we cannotconceive of life without consciousness. However, when matterand consciousness come together, bondage is created andthis beginningless bondage is called ignorance or darknesshere. Because of ignorance, every living creature forgets hisvery being which is consciousness. One becomes identifiedwith psychosomatics and because of this identification livingcreatures cannot comprehend themselves as the ultimate,absolute, independent conscious principle. The darknessceases to comprehend the light.

We are reminded here when matter and consciousness

Page 159: Paradise Never Lost

322 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 323

come together Mahat or Cosmic Prana is the firstmanifestation to spring off. Mahat can also be described inparticular context as spacetime or Avyakta. AUM is only oneof the experiences when we transcend gross aspects of Natureand come across Mahat. After Mahat the three kinds of mindsviz. emotion, intellect and ego are born and then five sensesof perception and five senses of action follow. This is how,life emerges from the basic form of energy which is the soundof AUM or the word as nomenclatured here. On the universalscenario, Mahat begets the five characteristics of Smell, Flow,Touch, Form and Sound which in turn beget the five greatmanifestations of Earth, Water Air, Fire and Sky respectively.Clearly, this statement is in harmony with the SankhyaMetaphysics because it is asserted that life begins with andis rooted in ignorance.

That was the true light, which lighten everyman thatcometh into the world, He was in the world and the worldand the world was made by him, and the world know himnot. (John 1:9, 1:10)

This reminds us of Upanishads and Geeta both. God isthe true light which illumines every person who comes tothe world. It is the same opinion which the Upanishads haveexpressed that Brahma is both the effective and the materialcause of universe. This statement implies that humanconsciousness in the same as the consciousness of God,Atman is Brahma.

Geeta states-“God resides equally in a the living creatures. One who

can see the immortal principle residing in the mortal body isthe only true seer” (Geeta 13/27)

“He is the witness, he is the counsel, he is the providenceand he is the bearer. The ultimate conscious principle whichresides in the body is none but God himself” (Geeta 13/22)

The Ishavasyopanishad states-“All that pervades in this universe is inhabited by God

himself and we should enjoy the world with a spirit ofdetachment.” (1/1)

In the second maxim it is stated that Jesus came to theworld as a formal God; God has been both the material andthe effective cause of this world but even than the wroldcould not recognize him as such.

Again, it reminds us of the theory of Incarnation of Geeta.

Krishna has said-“This world being misguided by the three ingredients of

Nature which do not comprehend me as the ultimate andinvariant principle”. (Geeta 7/13)

“Whenever there is a decline of virue and rise of evil, Icreate myself to appear on this earth. This I do Arjuna, toredeem the righteous and to punish the wrong doers and topromote religiousness in this world”. (Geeta 4/7 and 4/8)

And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us andwe beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten ofthe father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness ofhim, and cried, saying, this was he of whom I spoke, hethat cometh after me is preferred before me : for he wasbefore me. (John 1:14, 1:15)

The first part of the passage ‘And the word was madeflesh and dwelt among us’ corresponds to the SankhyaMetaphysics. The Word or the sound of Amen is an aspect ofMahat or the cosmic Prana which begets all the forms. Asdescribed earlier, it begets the three kinds of minds (mindego, intellect), five senses of perception and five senses ofaction. Even the form of Jesus has to come through thisprocess because as long as he dwells with us he has to beone of us. Jesus is said to be ‘the only begotten of the father,full of grace and truth.’ Every man is begotten of the Fatherbut in ignorance he finds himself to be a part of the physicalworld only, he thinks himself to be temporal and perishabletill he knows nothing of timelessness. In such ignorance, aman cannot conceive himself as a son of God. Among thepeople whom Jesus was preaching in Judea, in the days ofKing Herod, he was the only one who was Enlightened andthat is why he used to say that he was the only son of Godaround there. He was not talking about the seers ofUpanidads Patanjali, Krishna, Buddha etc because the Jewswere not concerned about them in that context. Also, hewas not talking about Enoch, Noah, Jacob, Moses etc whowere not his contemporaries. He was talking about aparticular section of population only, who used to live inIsrael in his own time. All that he wanted to convey was thatno one else except him was Enlightened around there. ButJesus was misunderstood and John the Baptist wasmisunderstood too. Gurdieff used to say that every human

Page 160: Paradise Never Lost

324 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 325

being does not have a soul, one has to create it with arduouseffort and discipline. Certainly, it is a wise saying becauseunless we become Self-realized there is no meaning in thestatement that we too have got a soul. To know the self is tocreate the Self and to be it ever afterwards. Jesus was usingthe same idiom as was usual with Gurdieff too. Jesus is saidto be full of grace and truth because he was the only onethere connected with the omniscient and holy Angels. Hewas the only medium for God in those times. Perhaps Gabrielis the formal God for the Christians and Jesus was the onlymedium for Gabriel. Perhaps John the Bapatist himself wasa wise man but he was not chosen to be a medium.

It is well-known that all the twenty-four prophets whocame between Moses and Jesus announced that the greaterwas yet to come and they were not worthy even to untie hissandals. Although John the Baptist was a mystic himself,he said that he was not the Messiah but Jesus was theMessiah. He was not the saviour only Jesus was the saviour.He said Jesus would be considered greater than him becauseJesus was before him. This statement has to be understood.Everyone knows that Jesus was younger than John theBaptist and in time Jesus had come after him. John theBaptist was already an old man when he first saw Jesus.What should this statement imply? It implies that ourconsciousness is a timeless principle. Once a person becomesEnlightened he knows that time is irrelevant to wisdom. Johnthe Baptist meant to say that Jesus was younger but wiserthan him. When Abram was not Jesus was. Ourconsciousness, in fact, has no beginning and no end andwhat is true of Jesus is the truth of every otherEnlighlightened person too.

Here we are reminded of Patanjali who has stated —“God is the master of all the masters who have happened

in the past because he is not intersected by time.” (Yogasutra1:26)

Krishna has said to Arjuna—“Our consciousness is never born and it never dies, nor it

happens again and again having happened once. In fact it isbirthless, timeless, eternal, ancient most and it does notdisappear with the disappearance of physical form.” (Geeta

2/20)

“Both Consciousness and Matter are without beginning;all the three ingredients of Nature and all the six perversionsare relevant to Matter only.” (Geeta 13/19)

“Our consciousness is the invariant God itself because ittranscends all beginning and it transcends all the threeingredients of Nature.” (Geeta 13/31)

“I know and I can perceive all the living creatures from thepast, present and future but none of them can perceive me.”(Geeta 7/26).

And of his fullness have all we received, and grace forgrace. For the law was given by Moses, but Grance and Truthcame by Jesus Christ (John 1:16, 1:17)

An egoless person becomes a medium for God himselffor ego is the only barrier. Grace is the energy of God showereseach moment upon an egoless person and this energy canbe experienced by all those who come near such a person.Zen people call it the transmission of the lamp. This is calledSatsang in India, this word literally means ‘being near aperson who has attained to the truth’. Christians too have atrinity which they call God the Father, God the Holy Ghostand God the Son. Everyone of them is a full-fledged God inhis own right. In fact, the Christians consider them threeaspects of the same ultimate reality.

Here, we are reminded of the Ishavashyopanishad –“That formless Brahma is infinite and this formal Brahma

is infinite too, it is possible to have infinite from infinite, andwhat is left behind is also infinite.” (Ishavashya)

According to this Sutra, both the Father and the Son aretoo full of grace which is infinite, and the more it is showeredupon others, the more full it becomes.

Also, the same Ishavashyopanishad states –“All this world is full with the grace of God, but only those

can receive it who are ready to give up their egos, thisexperience is so blissful that one need not feel greedy for others’wealth.” (1/1)

Page 161: Paradise Never Lost

326 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 327

Krishna has said in Geeta –“Whosoever can see me everywhere and see all this

existence in my being, I do not disappear form him and hedoes not disappear from my grace.” (Geeta 6/30)

The Swhetashwatar Upanishad has to say –“We should divide the space occupied by the point of a

hair into hundred parts and then conceive of the one hundredthportion of one part, our consciousness occupies only this muchspace but our energy spreads upto infinite infinitum.” (5/9)

This means that everyone can become one with God andeveryone can become too full.

There are two kinds of disciplines, outer and inner. Moseswas a man like Patanjali who gave us the following tencommandments –

1. Worship no God but one God.2. Do not bow down to any idol or worship it.3. Do not swear in God’s name for evil purposes.4. Sunday should be a holiday.5. Respect your parents.6. Do not commit murder.7. Do not commit adultery.8. Do not steal.9. Do not accuse anyone falsely.10. Do not desire other’s possessions.

Likewise Yogasutra says –

“There are five Yamas viz. Non-violence, Truth, Non-stealing, Self-restraint in sexual matters, Non-possessivenessand also there are five Niyamas viz Purification, Contentment,Asceticism, Self-study and Faith in God.” (2/31 ; 2/32)

But masters like Osho, Jesus, Krishna did not believe inouter disciplines, they had the opinion that all the disciplineshould come from within, that is from our growing awarenessonly. Osho said that meditation was the first and the lastfreedom because only meditation could lead to Enlighten-ment and liberation. Jesus had said, “I give you but onecommandment, love God with all your strength and with allyour might.”

It is claimed here that the law was given by Moses on the

form of ten commandments but Grace and Truth came byJesus Christ. While Moses was a man of discipline Jesustaught repentance, confession and forgiveness. That is why,Jesus is remembered for bringing down Grace to humanity.He camme so that all our sins could be forgiven throughhim. Christians believe that God sent his son to the Earthso that the humanity could be redeemed of its sins. Againand again Jesus has said that we should follow him, so thatwe would be saved through him, his compassion was great.

This reminds us of Krishna. Krishna has said to Arjuna–“You should give up all other disciplines and have Faith in

me. I will redeem you of all yours sins and lead you toliberation. You need not worry for the future.” (Geeta 18/66)

“One who attains to non-dual love for me and does notwaver from it even unto the last, attains to the ultimate truthand liberation.” (Geeta 2/72).

No one hath seen God at any time ; the only begottenson which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declaredhim. (John 1:18)

No one has seen God at any time. We all live in a world ofspace time. All our knowledge ordinarily comes through oursense and our mind, this we call knowledge throughPerception and Conception. God is not any entity which wecan encounter through perception or conception. He is notspatial and temporal and so no one can see Him as such. Allthose who have known God have known Him throughintuition only.

There is a saying in Kenopanishad –“No one can see the Brahma through eyes for it is because

of Brahma that the eyes can see ; no one can conceive of theBrahma through mind for it is because of Him that the mindcan conceive.” (Ken 1/5, 1/6)

The same Upanishad states again —-“It you assume that you have realized Brahma fully, you

might have realized only a part of Him, because even after therealization of one’s own Self and realization of the Brahmawhich resides in all the deities this claim remains unfulfilled.”(Ken 2/1)

Page 162: Paradise Never Lost

328 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 329

The only begotten son which is in the bosom of the Father,he hath declared him. How? Self-realization is the onlyintuitive proof for the existence of God and this proof is self-evident and beyond doubt. It we conceive of the God to be anocean, self-realization is like touching this ocean at a shore.Only after such experience one can go beyond doubt. That isto say, that a master or a messiah or a prophet is the onlyvisible evidence that the God should exist. The master (Guru)is the only form of God which can be perceived through thesenses and the mind.

There is a famous saying in India —-“Master is Brahma, master is Vishnu and master is the

great deity Shiva because master is the only form oftranscendental Brahma visible to the eyes, and so we mustpay our unreserved respect to the master.” (Traditional)

This saying people repeat everyday in India as a shlokaof prayer.

Krishna has said to Arjuna –“The light which resides in the Sun to illumine the whole

of the world and the light which resides in the Moon and thelight which resides in every source of radiance, all come frommy own being.” (Geeta 15/12)

Arjuna has said to Krishna –“You are the ultimate Brahma, you are the ultimate abode,

you are the sacred eternal conscious principle and you arethe divine birthless infinite original God.” (Geeta 10/12)

And they asked him what then? Are thou Elias?And he saith I am not. Are thou that Prophet?[John 1: 21]

When a person like Jesus is born, all those who areinterested in Mysticism begin to investigate about him. Justafter his birth, three wise men had come to see him from theBuddhist Monastery of Hemis Gumpa in Ladakh. There is ahearsay that Jesus had been taken to this Monastery at theage of ten and he spent his next twenty years there. Johnthe Baptist saw him for the first time when he was thirtyand he could see that Jesus was connected with the energyof God. John announced that Jesus was the long awaitedChrist. This news was spreaded all over the province of Judeawhen some priests known as Pharisees became interested

in him. They came to John the Baptist to examine the claimthat Jesus was the Christ. They asked John the Baptist whohe was. Was he the incarnation of Elias who had happenedin the ancient times? This statement certainly refers to theacceptance of the fact of rebirth in the Bible. It is believedthat rebirth was a clearly accepted fact by the New Testamenteven up to the middle ages. Because of some historicalreasons such references were eliminated from the text of theBible. Only this saying has been overlooked and has remainedthere. John the Baptist replied that he was not Elias but thevoice of Esaias or Isaiah. Then they asked him whether hewas the long awaited Messiah or the Prophet? Jews wereaccepting them both to happen in future since the days ofMoses. He replied that he was neither the Messiah nor theProphet but Jesus was the Messiah. His task was to spreadthe news only and help those who has been waiting for theMessiah.

And John bare record saying, I saw the spiritdescending from heaven like a dove, and it abode uponhim. [John 1: 32]

John could see that the Grace Energy was descendingon Jesus and was ever remaining on him. He couldunderstand that Jesus was a medium for Grace Energy.Jesus was connected with the ultimate energy through hisfourth body which is receptive in case of a man. Hindus callthis energy Prasad and only an egoless and desireless personcan receive it; all future orientation and desires becomebarrier to it. A person who is full of grace and acts accordingto the God’s wishes only is said to be a Nishkam Karmayogiin India and John the Baptist could see that Jesus was sucha person beyond all detachments. Such a person can alsoconnect others with this energy and this initiation isnomenclatured as Baptism here. Christians have describedGod as having three aspects – God the Father who is theinfinite source of Grace, God the Holy Ghost which meansthe Grace itself and God the Son who is a medium for thisGrace. An ordinary person can only see the son of God whomakes this energy descend on Earth but a mystics like Johnthe Baptist can also see this energy descending and he hassymbolized it as a dove.

Page 163: Paradise Never Lost

330 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 331

It reminds us of the Hindu doctrine of Non-dualism. Wecan explain it with the help of an example. We have the Sunwhich shines in the sky and also we have sunrays whichbeing focused through a convex lense make a miniature Sunand can even burn a piece of paper. Neither we can say thatthe sun above and the sunrays on the Earth are one entitynor we can say these are two. This relationship is describedas Non-dualism by Hindus. The God, the Grace of God andthe medium upon whom this Grace descends are not distinctfrom a particular point of view. That is why, the Christianshold them to form a trinity representing God. They are there,yet they represent the same entity. This has come to theJewish tradition being influenced by the Hindu philosophyof Non-dualism. We cannot discern this kind of belief in theteachings of the prophets who happened before Jesus andthat is why Jesus is considered to be the greatest amongthem. For example, John the Baptist was an Enlightenedperson himself and he used to initiate people by Baptismwith water but he was not a medium as Jesus was and thatis why he used to say that one comes after me would bepreferred before me.

Is God the son the same as God the Father?

The Ishavasyopanishad has said-“The Brahma moves and the Brahma does not move;

the Brahma is far and the Brahma is near; The Brahma isthe innermost of all that exists and the Brahmatranscends all this existence too.” [Isha ½]

So the Son is in the Father and the Father is beyond too.Geeta states –“God is like the space which resides in everything that

exists but which remains unattached to all that should exist.”[Geeta 13/32]

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that whichis born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said untothee, ye must be born again. [John 3:6, 3:7]

It is said in India, “Everyone is born as a Shudra butsome of them realize the ultimate truth and becomeBrahmans.” As long we identify ourselves with outer andinner instruments we remain Shudras. According to Sankhya

the five senses of perception and the five senses of actionare said to be the outer instruments and the three kinds ofminds viz emotion, intellect and ego are said to be the innerinstruments and identification with them is beginninglessignorance. Jesus has called it flesh. The first birth is thebirth of the body and this birth is given by our parents. Inignorance everyone of us is a Shudra which literally means‘a petty one’ or everyone is a Kayastha which literally meas‘one attached to the physical body.’ When one becomes self-realized he is born as consciousness and this birth is hissecond birth. Such a person is known as ‘a dwij’ or ‘a twiceborn.’ A self-realized person does not consider himself to bebody, mind or ego. He knows himself as a conscious principlewhich is beyond space and time. This self-realization isdesignated by Jesus ‘as having eternal life or simply’ as‘having life.’ Such a person knows that he will never perishbecause consciousness is neither born nor it ever dies. ABrahman is still higher. One who has realized himself ashaving cosmic consciousness is called a Brahman. Such aperson experiences that his own Self is the same as the centreof the whole cosmos. They say in India, only by becomingone with the Brahma one can become a Brahman. Jesushas said it time and again, “I am in the Father and the Fatheris in me.” This is just like the Hindu theory of Brahmavad orof Nondualism. The Jews could not understand the meaningof such statements and this was one of the reasons thatJesus was crucified. According to the terminology used byJesus to identify oneself with the psychosomatics is beingborn as flesh and to know oneself as consciousness is beingborn again as a spirit. Everyone has to be born again toattain to the truth which Jesus calls the Kingdom of God.Krishna has said __

“As long as a person lives in the body he comes acrossthe various states of childhood, youth and old age. Similarly awise man is not illusioned by death, he knows that ourconsciousness transcends the state of death too. [Geeta 2/13]

“God the Almight resides equally without discriminationin all the creatures who live; One who can see the eternalspirit residing in temporal flesh is the only one who sees” [Geeta13/27]

Page 164: Paradise Never Lost

332 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 333

The Kathopanishad states –“A man of an immature vision cannot see the eternal

principle and he considers wealth to be everything. Such aperson cannot see the transcendental world and again andagain he falls a victim to physical death” [1/2 /6]

The Shvetashvatar Upanishad holds –

“One ultimate and absolute God resides in every creature.This God is omnipresent and is the inner self of every livingbeing. He is the Lord of all Karma; he is the ultimate abode;he is the witness, the consciousness and also the only formlessreality too”. [6/11]

For God so loved the world, that he gave his onlybegotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shouldnot perish but have everlasting life [John 3:16]

There are only two paths leading to spiritual growth—Faith and Meditation or Devotion and Yoga. Jesus representsThe path of Faith. The Christians created a myth aroundthe being of Jesus Christ depicting him as the only son ofGod who descended to the Earth in a human form. God senthim so that people could have faith. Although God the fatherand the holy angels are considered greater beings than Jesusbut it is very difficult to conceive of and believe in them.Faith is the key and faith is the alchemy; it hardly mattersin whom one can have faith. Jesus himself says again andagain, “Thy faith has healed thee”. Jesus has a unique placein the angelic tradition because his Gospels succeeded tocreate faith in multitudes of mankind down the ages. Eventhose who could hardly believe in a formless God or inunearthly angels could seek salvation through Jesus. Geetahas done a similar task in India around the glory of Krishna.The word has become Christo in Bengali language and Christin Hebrew and there seems to be a logic that Jesus is calledChrist too. Again and again, when we go through the NewTestament we are reminded of the sayings of Geeta. Thereare numerous reference in Geeta similar to this maxim heretaken from the Bible.

Krishna has said —-“It is possible to return back from all the realms from this

Earth to the Seventh Heaven but those who attain to me neednot be born again” [Geeta 8/16]

“One who can see me everywhere and one who can seethe whole existence in me, I do not perish from him and hedoes not perish from my Grace” [Geeta 6/30]

“Giving up all other disciplines, one must come to my Faithonly. I will redeem you from all your sins and you need notworry for them” [Geeta 18/66]

“One who can attain to devotion for me becomes one withthe ultimate self and can see this self residing equally in everycreative, Such a fulfilled devotee neither becomes anxious norhe has to desire” [Geeta 18/54]

Shankaracharya has said –

“In this world again and again one has to take birth anddie; again and again one has to fall into mother’s womb. Inthis world where salvation seems to be almost impossible,the transcendence can happen only through faith in Krishna.”[Bhajagovindam]

The Kathopanishad has stated –“Brahma is an invisible, intricate, innermost principle

residing in the cave of the emptiness of human heart and thisBrahma is eternal. This Brahma can be attained either throughspiritual practices and yoga or through faith. One who canhave faith transcends all vanity and all grief through this faith”[1/2/12]

As we have to create many methods on the path of Yoga,similarly we have to create many myths and concoct manyparables on the paths of devotion too. Hindu Puranas havecreated myths. The Bible has created myths and Koran toohas created myths. The Mythology does not appeal to ascientific mind and so the insistence on mythology becomesless and less as we proceed more and more from the remotepast to the present day. All the Eighteen Puranas of Hindushave employed mythology and symbolism as method, theBible uses both myths and parables while in Koran parablesand metaphors are the frequent devices used. After Puranas

Page 165: Paradise Never Lost

334 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 335

in recent context Hindus evolved their six systems ofphilosophy which are purely logical in their expression andare completely devoid of mythology and symbolism. However,Sankhyasutra and Yogasutra, although are very ancientwritings, but the masters on the path of meditation havealways refrained from creating mythology and using symbolsand metaphors.

For every one that doeth evil hateth light, neithercometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that hisdeeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought inGod. [John 3:20, 3:21]

Every wrong-doer becomes a hypocrite lest people shouldknow him and condemn him. Every good person wants tolay his heart open because he has nothing to hide. All goodactions come from the God and they lead us towards theultimate good. What Geeta calls Nishkama Karmas are heredesignated as actions wrought in God. Jesus has been verymuch against hypocrisy and in the whole history of mankindwe cannot find another mystic so much opposed to hypocrisyas Jesus has been. The reason seems to be simple; allhypocrisy leads ultimately to vice whereas all transparencyleads to virtue inevitably.

These sayings remind us of the description of threeingredients of Nature in Geeta. We all remember the SankhyaMetaphysics that Nature has three ingredients viz. Sattva,Rajas and Tamas and all the creation follows fromdisturbance of equilibrium among them. Sattva representslight, virtue and transcendence; Rajas represents activity,ambition and restlessness whereas Tamas representsdarkness, ignorance and vice. Now, we come to the originalstatements of Geeta also as regards correlation.

Krishna has said—“Sattva begets gratification, Rajas begets action and by

obstructing knowledge Tamas leads to useless efforts” [Geeta14/9]

“Those dwelling in Sattva become transcendental; those

dwelling in Rajas remain in the middle and those dwelling inTamas, by engaging themselves in vice, invariably fall down.”[Geeta 14/18]

“Sattva creates light, Rajas creates activity and Tamascreates prejudice. A wise man is one who does not becomeantagonistic when these appear and does not wait for themwhen these disappear from his mind” [Geeta 14/22]

“A wise man is one who remains a witness when all thesethree ingredients arise in his being and do not waver withthem. He knows that of course the ingredients have to act andconsequently he remains unattached without being disturbed”[Geeta 14/23]

Jesus answered and said unto her, whosever drinkethof this water shall thirst again; But whosoever drinkethof the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; butthe water that I shall give him shall in him a well ofwater sprining up into everlasting life. [John 4:13, 4:14]

Jesus is talking in terms of parables. He was thirsty whenhe saw a Samaritan woman who was drawing drinking waterfrom Jacob’s well. Jesus asked for some water to drink andthe woman was hesitating because the Jews of those dayswould not accept eatables from the Samaritans whom theyconsidered to be disbelievers. The woman was feeling uneasyalso because in those days it was not customary for men totalk to woman who did not belong to their folks. Jesus saidthe water she would give could be just an ordinary waterbecause again and again he would have to drink it as itcould not quench the thirst for too long. Jesus said, he wouldgive her the divine water of Grace in return and she wouldnever feel thirsty again. It seems that the woman was not anordinary woman. She was egoless and receptive and Jesuscould initiate her into his fold. Jesus wanted to connect herwith the grace of God so that her bliss might becomeeverlasting; he wanted to baptize her with the Holy Spirit asthe early Christians would narrate it. This bliss wouldincrease more and more everyday and would lead her tosalvation. The water he wanted to give to her would not beordinary but it would be the water derived from God himself.

Page 166: Paradise Never Lost

336 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 337

In India, this happening is known as the transmission ofthe lamp. The energy of a master may jump on a disciplewho is receptive and the disciple may become a part of themaster’s being. This is the real meaning of initiation and ofa master disciple relationship. It seems that the woman wascapable of receiving from the master. Even a master of thehighest order cannot say this to too many disciples. Here weare reminded of a well-known statement advanced in PrashnaUpanishad.

The Prashnopanishad has said –“The disciplehood of a master who knows the mystery of

vital spirit (and has attained to the eternal principle) nevercomes to end. His lineage continues for ever” [Prashnopanihad3/11].

What Prashnopanishad nomenclatures as Prana, Jesushas called the same entity being Holy Spirit. It should becomeclear by now that the three elements Nirguna Brahma, Pranaand Saguna Brahma of Upanishad have become God theFather, Holy Ghost and God the Son respectively in the NewTestament.

Krishna has said –“One who is like-minded, one who is devoted, one who

asks for me only, one who has reverence for me alone andone who can yield to me exclusively, becomes the same asmy own Being” [Geeta 9/34]

“Even those Enlightened Beings who have attained toCosmic Consciousness may sometimes return back to Earth,but one who has attained to me can never be born again”[Geeta 8/16]

God is a spirit; and they that worship him mustworship him in spirit and in truth [John 4:24]

The God represents Spirit and Truth only and God is aspirit without form. An angel is a spirit with form but withouta physical body and an Enlightened person is a spirit with aphysical body. So God is a spirit without form, an angel is aGod without a physical body and an Enlightened person likejesus is a God with a physical body. In India, every Brahman

was considered to be God living upon this Earth. How everthe angelic tradition including Moses, Jesus and Mohammadhas insisted upon the fact that we cannot conceive of Godwho is above all. We cannot make any image or picture oridol of him. That is why, the Jewish, the Christian and theIslamic tradition have been against Idolatry. Jesus said thathe was the only begotten son of God but even this statementof Jesus was considered to be a blasphemy and he wascrucified consequently. According to the Hindus the God isboth formal and formless, the formal God is known as SagunaBrahma and the formless God is known as Nirguna Brahmain India. The Angelic insistence that we cannot conceive ofGod is only one half of the truth according to the Hindus.However, such a view is not unknown for the Indians.

The idea that God is a spirit without form or God is aholy spirit corresponds to the Metaphysics advanced byPrashnopanishad and Sankhya. The Christian concept ofHoly spirit is the same entity as the Prana ofPrashnopanishad and Mahat of Sankhya. All these threesubstances are formless, omnipresent and effective causebehind all creation. Yoga calls it Avyakta or formless Brahmabut it is the same substance as Mahat of Sankhya. The viewthat no one can conceive God is nothing unknown to theHindu tradition. Of Course, Hindus call this God to beNirguna Brahma. Similar views have been emphasized inShvetashvatar and Ken Upanishads very categorically.

The Shvetashvatar Upanishad has stated –“We cannot hold the God either form the head or from an

oblique position or from the middle; there cannot be any imageof him who is great in his glory.”

[Shvetashvatar 4/19]

The Ken Upanishad has held –“Brahma is that which the speech cannot describe because

all speech originated due to him; Brahma is that which themind cannot conceive because all mind originated due to him;Brahma is that which the eye cannot see because all visionoriginated due to him; Brahma is that which the ear cannothear because all hearing originated due to him and Brahma isthat which the spirit cannot inspire because all inspirationoriginated due to him. In fact, Brahma is that which transcends

Page 167: Paradise Never Lost

338 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 339

all the senses and the mind and Brahma is not that whichyou worship.” [Kenopanishad 1:4 through 1:8]

They that worship him must worship him in spirit andin truth only. Because we cannot create any image or idol orsymbol to represent him. He is pure formless spirit and he ispure wordless truth. Such a worship becomes a state of mindonly and it is through bliss and thanks—giving that thisworship can be accomplished.

Chanakya has said – “The God resides neither in woodnor in clay nor in idol. The God resides in spirit only and soonly devotion is important” [Chanakya Neeti — 8/12]

Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then comethharvest? Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and lookon the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And hethat reapeth receiveth wages; and gathereth fruit unto lifeeternal : that both he that soweth and he that reapeth mayrejoice together. [John 4:35, 4:36]

In these sayings one can see the acceptance of two basicprinciples of Indian Philosophy. The first principle is thedoctrine of rebirth and the second principle is the principleof continuous change. According to the law of Karma, everyaction begets proportionate results. We cannot bear theconsequences of all our actions in one life-time and so weare born time and again. Even Buddha, in his doctrine oftwelve-causations has explained this fact. At the same time,Buddhist philosophers have held that also the doer ischanging continuously himself. Buddhist thinkers hold thatas we sow so shall we reap but who reaps is not the sameperson who has sown, the doer himself has changed.Heraclitus has said that none can step into the same rivertwice. Likewise some Buddhist thinkers have advanced thatno one can meet the same person twice. So according to thedoctrine of dependent origination a person is born again andagain but in each life he is a changed person. Jesus herehas acknowledged and combined both these opinionstogether.

Jesus says that we need not wait, the fields are whitealready to harvest. What should this mean? Theconsequences of our actions surpass even the fact of death,

there remains a continuity even afterwards. We are neverimmune, not for a single moment, from the cycle of causeand effect. In fact, this very cycle is called Sansara or thewheel of creation. The sweet fruits of our good karmas are apart of the karmic wind and hold us even after death. Thereis a continuity and we need not wait. The results of all ourspiritual practices, meditations, prayers, virtues, goodactions, generosities. kindness etc appear in a continuityand are never lost by change of form.

And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruitunto life eternal. It happens more often than not that a personmakes efforts in some previous life but he attains in someother life, his efforts are never wasted. It is very difficult tobecome awakened in one lifetime, we have to make effortsthrough several lives and then suddenly in some life we cometo fulfillment. There has been ever a continuity, althoughthe memory has not been prevailing in the conscious mind.Spiritualism is a matter of continuous growth and perpetualevolution of consciousness through many of the lives andthen follows the quantum leap which we call Enlightenmentor Eternal life. But all our efforts and virtues have contributedto it continuously and nothing has been wasted. In our being,both the persons are there, one who has begun this processin some past life and one who has become Enlightened now,and both these persons are blessed through Enlightenment.That is why, Jesus had said, “That both he that soweth andhe that reapeth may rejoice together.”

Here we have to assert one more aspect of the truth. Inthe next birth, the person is the same and yet he is not thesame, because he has changed. The body has changed, themind has changed, the energy has changed yet the personis governed by a continuous chain of cause and effect. Jesushas accepted both the facts that there is rebirth till salvationand also that the person reborn is a changed person.Moreover, we differ only in our psychosomatics; but thequality of consciousness does not vary form birth to birth;we share the same consciousness. The light of the lamp isthe same, only the shape, size and substance vary. This seemsto be one of the reasons why people like Moses, Jesus,Mohammad etc did not think it necessary to raise the issueof rebirth.

Here we are reminded also of that context of Geeta where

Page 168: Paradise Never Lost

340 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 341

Krishna has described Yogabhrastas. Yogabhrastas areseekers who could not complete their aim of being unitedwith the God in their previous life.

Krishna says –“Among thousands of human being rarely someone makes

efforts towards Enlightenment and even among those seekersrarely someone attains in one lifetime.” [Geeta 7:3]

“A person attains to the same state of mind in the nextbirth which as prevailed throughout in the previous life andwhich has also prevailed at the moment of leaving the previousbody.” [Geeta 8:6]

“Even a seeker who has not attained is either lifted up toHeaven to dwell there almost for an eternity or he is reborn inthe house of sacred and glorious people when the time is ripe.”[Geeta 6:41]

“Sometimes a seeker is born immediately to the house ofYogis after the previous death without ascending to Heaven.But this kind of birth is more rare an achievement.” [Geeta6:42]

“In his next birth the seeker spontaneously attains to thesame stage of advancement which he had reached in hisprevious life and afterwards he tries again for Enlightenment.”[Geeta 6:43]

So it seems that here Jesus has combined both the viewsexpressed by Geeta and by the Buddhist philosophers inthese sayings.

Marvel not at this : for the hour is coming, in the which allthat are in the graves shall hear his voice. And shall comeforth; that they have done good, unto the resurrection of life;and that they have done evil, unto the resurrection ofdamnation. [John 5:28; 5:29]

Jesus and Mohammad have created the same parableusing the metaphor of grave. We have only to understandthe meaning of a few symbols employed here. Every ordinary

person is a tomb or a grave; the physique itself is our graveand we are all dead beings as long as we identify ourselveswith the dead stuff and not with the living consciousness inus. Resurrection implies the second birth or self-realisation.A person who has been resurrected is called a ‘Dwija’ ortwice born in India; the syllable ‘Dwi’ means twice and ‘ja’means born. What should happen after resurrection? Thereare only two possibilities. If we have already dissipated allthe negative karmic energy we attain to a formless eternallife. We transcend the cycle of birth and death and areliberated. This phenomenon has been called salvation byJesus. The second possibility arises when still we are leftwith some negative karmic energy. After having selfrealisationagain we return to mind, the beam again becomes bent inthe water, the mind stuff being the water. In such acircumstance, a few more births have to follow till all thisnegative energy is dissipated. Jesus says blessed are thosewho attain to salvation after resurrection but condemnedare those who again fall to spiritual sleep, why? Because ofexistence of negative karma energy such a seeker generallyhas to pass through unhappy experiences in the next lives.Because he is still tithered to the borderline, he cannot feelfulfilled even after transcendence of ignorance. All his nextbirths are endowed with spontaneous self-realisation butnot with Samadhi. Once we have had a glimpse of Samadhi,nothing less than Samadhi seems to be worthwhile and itbecomes very difficult to wait for it. Here again we arereminded of a famous Sankhya maxim –

“The initial liberation happens with self-realization, thesecond liberation happens when all the desires are gone andthe third liberation happens when all the karmic energy isdissipated”

Krishan has said –“There are three kinds of consequences brought forth by

our actions – bitter, sweet and mixed. All these consequencescan prevail only over those who are attached but not over thosewho are unattached in their beings” [Geeta 18/22]

“There are three doors to Hell which of certain narrow downhuman consciousness and these doors are Lust, Anger andGreed and so one has to beware of them” [Geeta 16/21]

Page 169: Paradise Never Lost

342 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 343

“As a person gives up the old apparel and puts on a newone, in the life manner, the self gives up an old form andassumes a new one” [Geeta 2/22]

I can of mine own self do nothing : As I hear I judge :and my judgment is just ; because I seek not mine ownwill, but the will of the Father which has sent me. [John5:30]

Jesus is very much life Krishna and there seems to beprofound justification for the claim that the word Christ hasoriginated from the original form Krishna. Jesus stated herethat his action is ‘action without doer’ or Nishkama karma.When ego ceases to be the motive and devotion to Godbecomes the purpose, such a Karma becomes NishkamaKarma. Jesus holds here that he is like a perfect mirrorhaving no prejudices or perversions or ego of his own. Hereflects absolutely well all that happens to come before him.This is the very exact implication of Desireless Action asdescribed in Geeta too.

Krishna has said –“To protect the Good and to eradicate the Evil and to uphold

the absolute law, I will be possible again and again in everyage to come” [Geeta 4/8]

“Neither I get attached to action nor I have any longing forthe consequences. One who can perceive me like this canoverride the perpetual cycle of cause and effect.” [Geeta 4/14]

“In all the three realms of Heaven, Earth and Hell there isnothing which I can desire (because my fulfillment is total).Whatever is worth having, already I have it, yet I do not refrainfrom proper action (which is my duty). [Geeta 3/22]

“As an ignorant person acts passionately guided byunfulfilled desires, in the same manner, an Enlightened persontoo must act, being motivated by the welfare of others” [Geeta3/25]

“According to their past actions and aptitudes, I create allthe four Varnas. Although all this creation comes through me,I remain the same invariant non-doer, who fulfils the will ofexistence only.” [Geeta 4/13]

He was a burning and a shining light; and ye werewilling to rejoice in his light. [John 5:35]

Jesus says that God is the original source of light andJesus himself is enlightened from the same light. Asdiscussed earlier, God is a spirit without form. He is said tobe omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and no one issupposed to conceive of Him. The problem arises how onecan represent Him. It is not possible to make a materialimage or picture or idol of Him and so one has to representHim as a form of energy. All the religions have chosen fromtwo forms of energy, either the sound or the light. Hindusrepresent him as AUM, Christians as Amen andMohammadans as Yamen but it remains the same form ofenergy which Zen calls the sound of one hand clapping. Lightalso has been used to represent the God. Moses said that heencountered the God in the form of a flame set on a bushbut it did not burn the bush; of course, Moses had to go upto the Mount Sinai to see it. The same Moses reported thatthe God put a flaming sword which turned every way of theTree of Life in the Garden of Eden. The Koran also promisesthat on the day of Great Judgment the dead shall arise fromtheir graves and shall be able to see a glimpse of the Lordwho will appear on the form of a light. This is interestingthat even this description has its parallel in the Indiantraditions also.

The Kath and Shvetashvatar Upanishads state –“The Brahma cannot he seen in the light of the Sun or the

Moon or the stars or lightening or fire. But to the contrary it isbecause of His Light that all these objects shine and it isbecause of His illumination that everything is revealed” [Kath2/3/15; Shveta 6/14]

Krishna has said –“It may be Light or Activity or Ignorance, a wise man is

one who does not become anguished when these upsurge anddoes not yearn for them when these subside” [Geeta 14/22]

He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood,dwelleth in me, and I in him [John 6:56]

Page 170: Paradise Never Lost

344 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 345

The Indian tradition has given utmost importance to themaster and disciple relationship. The disciple has to seek amaster who is really Enlightened; he has to take iniationfrom the master and to live near him all his life. This iscalled Satsang in India. Gradually, their beings meet andmerge into each other and the disciple is transformed to thestatus of the master. The master is said to be the touchstone.He can convert the iron into the gold just with his touch.But every disciple is not seen to reach. For example Gautamthe Buddha was a master of the highest enlightenmentpossible and he had only five hundred disciples till the timeof his death. All these disciples used to live with him day inand day out but not all could become awakened. A very deep,profound and non-dual relationship is needed to exist, justthe way Jesus has put it here. A skin deep intimacy cannotdo, they have to become the same flesh and blood. This canhappen only if the disciple can open his heart to the masterand trust is needed for it. Ego can be the only possible barrieron the part of the disciple and hypocrisy on the part of themaster. Unless people can have faith in the master, he cannothelp. Nothing is possible without totality on the part of thedisciple. Again, we are reminded of Geeta here.

Krishna has said –“You should become like-minded with me, you should

become devoted to me, you should pray to me and you shouldfeel respect for me. Once you happen to surrender your self tome you can attain to the same consciousness as mine.” [Geeta9/34]

“Whatever you act, whatever you eat, whatever you offerto the Yajna fire, whatever you donate, whatever disciplinesyou practice, assign all these to my Being” [Geeta 9/27]

“One who gives up all attachment and performs all hisduties for the sake of God, he remains untouched byconsequent sins like the petals of a lotus flower in water.”[Geeta 5/10]

Chanakya has said –“As Fish, Tortoise and Sparrow rear up their offsprings,

also a master rears up his disciples through seeing, attending

and touching them.” [Chanakya Neeti–4/3]And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this

world, that they which see not might see; and that theywhich see might be made blind. [John 9:39]

Many people claim to have attained to the ultimate truthbut rarely someone happens to know it. The reverse alsocan be possible. Most of the mystics who have the truthrevealed to them prefer to remain silent over the experience.How to judge the authentic from the hypocrite and how tomake them to do the right thing? Only a man of the caliberof Jesus is supposed to do it because Enlightenment is onething and expression is another. Every master is essentiallya mystics but every mystic cannot be a master. It is veryarduous to know the truth but it is almost impossible to finda way with the words. There are people who have eyes butwho cannot see the truth, there are people who have earsbut who cannot listen because truth is not a matter of thisworld rather it is interitive. We are reminded of a well-knownsaying of Kathopanishad here –

“There are many who do not get the opportunity to hearthe words of an Enlightened person. Also, there are many whocome across a real master but who cannot attain to the truththemselves. In fact, it needs great ability to know the truth butit is almost a miracle to convey it. Moreover a person who canattain being guided by a seer is a miracle himself” [Katha 1/2/7]

Now, this saying of Jesus has a definite trace in Geetatoo –

“A seeker gets awakened into a realm where all theignorant worldly people see Night and such a seer finds onlydarkness in this world where ordinarily people seek light.”[Geeta 2/69]

“ Rarely someone devoted himself to the search of theultimate truth and even among those who have made a realeffort for it, rarely someone can attain.” [Geeta 7/3]

There is one more saying in the Kathopanishad which isvery much relevant there –

“In the realm of Enlightenment neither the Sun shines, northe Moon, nor the stars, nor the lightening and nor this ordinaryfire. For by knowing the ultimate substance all is revealed

Page 171: Paradise Never Lost

346 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 347

because everything is illuminated by that one ultimateillumination we call Brahma.” [Katha 2/3/15]

Mundak Upanishad has to say –“Presently even in ignorance some people assume

themselves to be wise. Such people fall to even deeper statesof vice like those blind people being led by other blind ones.”[Munadak 1/2/8]

I and my father are one. The Father is in me and I inhim. [John 10:30, 10:38]

This is the well-known Vedantic assertion that Atman isthe Brahma, but Jesus has put it in a most beautiful manner.Because Non-dualism is where neither the entities can besaid to be identical nor different. Here we are reminded bythe story of the fish-incarnation as told in the Puranas. Manuwho has been the forefather of all the human race accordingto Hindu Mythology see a very meager fish in an ocean. Outof compassion, he raises this fish into his own palm andmanages to bring it to his palace. Immediately, he orders fora golden container full of water and with a sense of immensepride places this small fish into it. Overnight the fish outgrowsand he has to shift it to a pond. The fish again grows biggerthan the pond and he has to shift it to a lake nearby. Thefish again grows bigger the very next morning and so Manuhas to shift it to a river. One morning during the walk hefinds that the fish has becomes broader even than the riverand so he takes it back to the ocean. Very soon the fishbecomes too huge even for the ocean and Manu has toapologize. This story represents the Upanishadic sutra thatAtman and Brahma are the same and the same is true ofJesus and God. According to the Upanishads the creatorgets lost into the creation as the dancer gets lost into thedance, we cannot separate them. Brahma is both the effectiveand the material cause. This doctrine had been absolutelyunknown to the angelic tradition before Jesus entered thescenario. Even Mohammad who happened after Jesus hadto remain prudent for his pains. It has been due to thismetaphysical contradiction that Jesus was crucified just like.Mansoor was assassinated. In fact, only the traditions evolvedin India have been in agreement with Jesus. Now, this onenssis always a matter of experience and not a matter of

philosophizing. But none of the mystics born before Jesus,however great they might have been could gather the courageto admit this truth. Neither Enoch nor Noah nor Jacob norMoses were so authentic. It had been left for Jesus alone tonarrate this experience. It is like an existential love affairwhere the beloved and the lover get lost into each other;neither of them remains but the existence of love. That iswhy, Jesus seemed to be so much different from his traditionthat the jews of his time could not understand it. They couldnot accept him as the long awaited Messiah. He seemed tobe so much disconnected from the lineage, that even Johnthe Baptist who had announced him, had to send his peopleto make him beware of his claims. Jesus seemed to belongso much so to the Indian tradition that later on his discipleschose to use the word Christ for him. Obviously, the wordChrist comes from the root Krishna. In fact, the statementsof Jesus invariably remind us of the teachings given by theUpanishads and the Geeta.

The Ishavasya Upanishad has said –“All this universe in whatsoever existence is the abode of

one absolute reality which we call Isha or God and so wemust experience it with a spirit of Non-attachment.” [Isha 1/1]

The same Isha Upanishad has to bring forth the followingmaxim too—

“When we realize that all the manifestations and creatureshave emerged from our own self only; we transcend allattachment and grief because we can see the same selfeverywhere.”

The Kathopanishad has said –“Brahma experienced as AUM is the only reality, it is the

only ultimate substance. One who has attained to this Brahmagets all his desires fulfilled.” [Katha 1/2/16]

The Shvetashvatar Upanishad has to say –“Only one God resides as the innermost soul of all the

creatures. This God is omnipresent living in all the beings asthe only conscious principle. This God is the Lord of all action,this God is the source of all life, this God is the witness, thisgod is the consciousness and this God in the only non-dual

Page 172: Paradise Never Lost

348 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 349

absolute substance without attributes.” [Shveta 6/11]

Now, we come to Bhagwat-Geeta having many statementssimilar to this saying.

“Because the consciousness has no beginning, becausethe consciousness belongs to no attributes, because theconsciousness is invariable although residing in the physicalbody, it must transcend all the sequence of cause and effect.”[Geeta 13/31]

“This absolute God resides equally in all the livingcreatures. One who can see this imperishable consciousnessin the perishable body is the only one who can se.” [Geeta13/27]

This ultimate consciousness which resides in the humanbody is said to be the absolute God himself. It is the witness,the knower, the effective cause and it is the experiencer. Thisconsciousness itself is said to be the great God.” [Geeta 13/22].

“A yogi can see his own Self residing in all the becomingsand he can see all the becomings emerging from his Self. Sucha man of vision transcends all the variations arising from timeand space.” [Geeta 6/29]

“One who can see my own consciousness everywhere andone who can see all living creatures in my consciousness, Inever disappear from him and he never disappears from me.”[Geeta 6/30]

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and thelife; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yetshall he live: And whosoever liveth and beliveth in meshall never die. [John 11:25, 11:26]

The identification with body-mind is called ego.Enlightenment is the death of Ego. As psychosomatics wedie and as consciousness we are reborn. This self orconsciousness is transcendental to space time. Jesus hascalled the experience of realization as resurrection or eternallife or life simply. The death is the death of Ego and the life

is the realization of our being as an eternal principle. Forthe first time we become disidentified with our senses andmind, with time and space and with the experience of thephenomenal world of change. There can be two paths leadingto self realization; one of them is Meditation and the other isFaith. Jesus has prescribed Faith. Even a dead or ignorantperson can attain to life eternal through Faith in Jesus.Wherever Jesus uses the word dead it implies theidentification with Ego and wherever he uses the word life itimplies self-realization.

This reminds us again of Geeta.

Krishna says to Arjuna—“Become like-minded with me, become devoted to me, ask

only from me and remain respectful to me. By devoting one’sSelf to my Being, one attains to the same consciousness asmine.” [Geeta 9/27]

“Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offerto the sacred fire, whatever you give in charity, whateverausterities you choose to go through, devote them all to myBeing” [Geeta 9/27]

“Give up all the disciplines and rest in the devotion of me.I shall redeem you of all your sins and you need not worry forthat sake” [Geeta 18/66]

“One who has attained to my ultimate devotion and cansee all the living creatures in my Being; such a devotee becomesone with my cosmic consciousness; attains to the ultimate blissand transcends all cares and desires this mundane worldshould being.” [Geeta 18/54]

Patanjali has said in Yogasutra –“God is the master of all the masters who have happened

in the past and who has never occurred in time himself. Soalso through devotion to God one can attain to Enlightenment.”[Yogasutra 1/23, 1/26]

He that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth thislife in the world shall keep it unto life eternal. [John 12:25]

Page 173: Paradise Never Lost

350 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 351

Life is a continuous evolution from the ordinary to thedivine. Ordinarily, the world is too much with us and wehave hardly any time to stand and stare and in a state ofsuch case it is impossible to seek what we call Beauty orTruth. A certain degree of anguish or boredom or detachmentis need to move beyond. As long as the worldly desires areour only concern we only vegetate and our journey towardsthe beyond cannot begin. From the desires one has to growinto love and form the love one has to grow into prayer whichis unconditional and unbound love. Desires are like the seeds,Prayer is like the flowering and bliss is like the fragrancewhich fulfills our being. The seed needs to get soiled and ithas to break only then it can sprout. One day the fragrancebecomes a pure essence. When this overflowing fragrancerises upto the sky, the bliss has to reciprocate. One who isready to offer one’s unconditional love towards the wholeexistence becomes capable of receiving the uninterruptedbliss from above. The Heaven has to open ad shower it uponhim till the Earth and the Sky become one existence. So thisis the path via positiva, the path of poetry, beauty, song anddance. Jesus has been talking of this path of love when abird has to open its wings and has to fly unto eternity.

But this saying may remind us of Gautam the Buddhatoo. Buddha has said that life is a misery and all worldlydesires lead to ultimate frustration. Of course, there iscessation of misery and a path leading to this cessation buta little gap from the desires is needed even to begin with. Soeither we have to understand the futility of all desires, wehave to gather courage to create a vacuum in us and remainin it or we have to grow into a longing for the Moon. Beingsatisfied with the ordinary cannot help.

Geeta has stated –“All this world while under the spell of the three aspects

of Nature and clingings to the emotions cannot know theultimate substance which transcends change and variation.”[Geeta 7/13]

“When a wise man gives up all his worldly desires andbegins to live a life of non-attachment, a life of non-clinging, alife of non-ego, then he attains to the ultimate peace.” [Geeta2/71]

This ultimate peace is termed as eternal life by Jesus.This verse is intrinsically the same as the above saying ofJesus.

“When a wise man gives up all the worldly desiresbelonging to the mind and becomes fulfilled in his own Beingthrough his Being, he attains to the highest state of unwaveringenlightenment.” [Geeta 2/55]

“One who can remain unmoved through despair and onewho can remain unclinging through happiness that is one whodoes not escape from the difficulties and does not long for therepetition of happiness; one who transcends all attachment,fear and anger attains to unwavering wisdom.” Geeta 2/56]

I am come a light into the world, that whosoeverbelieveth on me should not abide in darkness. [John12:46]

I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comethunto the father but by me. [John 14 : 6]

Jesus has said nobody lightens a lamp and puts it undera cot; rather one has to reach the house top and shout fromthere. One has to spread the news for those who can hear.When an unlighted lamp comes near a lighted lamp, theflame from the light may take a jump and become transmittedtoo. That is the whole meaning of master and disciplerelationship. Jesus says he is like the light sent forth intothe world, so that also those who are in darkness my receivethe grace of God. Gradually, through love and devotion forthe son their own beings may also become illuminated. Ofcourse, in the beginning every disciple has to see things inthe light of his master until he becomes a light himself. Jesuswas an instrument through which the heavenly grace coulddescend to the Earth but he could make his disciples a sourceof light themselves gradually.

Here again we are reminded of Krishna. Krishna has saidto Arjuna –

Page 174: Paradise Never Lost

352 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 353

“I am the father of this existence, the mother, theprovidence, and also the Father of the Father. I am everythingworth knowing such as the soundless sound of AUM and thethree Vedas viz. Rig, Sama and Yaju emerging from thistimeless sound.” [Geeta 9/17]

“I am the movement, the fulfilment, the Lord, the witness,the abode, the resort and the well-being of this existence. I amthe source of all becoming, I am the consequence of the greatdissolution and I carry the understructable seeds of the nextcreation too.” [Geeta 9/18]

“One who can unite one’s own being with myconsciousness becomes the same Being as me.” [Geeta 9/34]

The statements of Krishna and Jesus are so much similarthat the teachings of Jesus really justify the title Christ forhim. In the Revelations Jesus has allowed the same wingsand flights to his words. He has said –

“I am the Beginning and the End. I am the first and thelast. I am the Alpha and the Omega. When Abraham was notI was.” [Revelations]

This saying reminds us of Geeta 9/17, Geeta 9/18 etcwhere Krishna calls himself the Father of the Father.

“I am the bright morning star”. [Revelations]By bright morning star Jesus implies a being of

unwavering wisdom. This statement reminds of Geeta 2/55,Geeta 2/56 and Geeta 2/71 etc. The polar star is the brightmorning star which does not variate from its place.

In my father’s house are many mansions, if it werenot so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place foryou, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, thatwhere I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go youknow and the way ye know. [John 14:2, 14:3, 14:4]

What the Hindu have called Self-realization orEnlightenment Jesus calls it the Kingdom of God. Accordingto the Hindus, an Enlightened person, after leaving hisphysical body, is either liberated or he attains to seedfulSamadhi and returns back when the time is ripe. This, toois a kind of timebound liberation. Jesus is using the word

‘my father’s house’ for this seedful Samadhi. He means tosay that he will enter the state of seedfull Samadhi afterleaving his body and come back when his time comes. TheFather’s house has got many mansions, how? One man’sEnlightenment does not prevent others from attaining to it.On the reverse, it helps many others to become Enlightenedin their own right. Also Jesus knows that ultimately everyonehas to become Enlightened. On the path of love there are nodisciplines, methods or techniques. Love towards the masteris the only way. This love gradually leads to Faith, Trust,Devotion, Bliss and Enlightenment. But for a true disciplethe master is the only gate through which he can enter theKingdom of God. So, sometimes the master has to promise asecond coming to help his disciples. These sayings are apromise on the part of Jesus that he will come again. On thepath of devotion the master is the only hope for the disciple.Even Adi Shankaracharya had to say finally –

“One has to be born again and again; one has to die againand again; one has to fall into the mother’s womb time andagain. In fact, it is almost impossible to get out of the wheel oflife and death without your help. O Lord Krishna, havecompassion on us! [Bhajgovindam]

Krishna has to assure Arjuna –“Give up all other disciplines and come to devotion for me.

Of certain, I will redeem you of all your sins and liberate you.You need not worry for thy sake.” [Geeta 18/66]

“And whatsoever you may ask in my name, that will I do,that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye ask anythingin my name, I will do it.” [John 14:13, 14:14]

These sayings of Jesus indicate that even the twelveapostles are not ordinary people. Jesus has assured themthat all their prayers will be heard. Whatever they will ask inthe name of Jesus Christ shall be given to them. Jesus saysthat this should glorify the father in the son. This statementindicates that the happening will be existential and will notbe exerting upon Jesus himself. Certainly, we find a clue forthis saying in the Indian tradition also. Krishna has saidthat he is the sacred sound AUM which is the source ofultimate truth. What is true of Krishna must be true of every

Page 175: Paradise Never Lost

354 The Paradise Never Lost The Paradise Never Lost 355

Enlightened master also. There is a Sutra in Kathopanishadwhich tells us whosoever can hear the sound of AUM in deepmeditation get all his thoughts materialized. Combining thesetwo saying we get the desired method. A disciple mustmeditate on his master, when the meditation becomes deepand the sound of AUM is encountered, he must ask his masterwhat he needs and this will happen in the phenomenal worldoutside.

Krishna has said –“I am the father of this creation. I am the mother, the

providence and the father of the father also. I am the sacredsound of AUM to be known and all the three Vedas viz Rig,Sama and Yaju ensue from this sound only.” [Geeta 9/17].

Kathopanishad provides—“This soundless sound of AUM is the Brahma, this

soundless sound of AUM is the ultimate reality. One who ishis deep meditation can hear this sound, gets all his desirescome true.” [Katha 1/2/16]

So here is a key.

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, andordained you. That ye shall go and bring forth fruit; and thatyour fruit should remain. [John 15:16]

As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he shouldgive eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. [John17:2]

No disciple can be greater than his master. The mastercan understand the disciple but no disciple can understandthe master through and through, because the master hadbeen far ahead of him. Howsoever strange it may sound butit is the master who chooses the disciple and not the vice-versa. Jesus, too, had to gather his people and make theminto an order.

The first part of the saying John [15:16] reminds us ofthe Kathopanishad.

The Kathopanishad states –

“The self or the truth cannot be attained by listening toothers, nor it can be attained by retaining the scriptures intomemory nor it can be attained through the words spoken bythe seers. Whomsoever the Self chooses only he can attainbecause the Self reveals itself to the person chosen.” [Katha1/2/23]

Also, the order created by an Enlightened person likeJesus is a living order and so the Gospel has to spread uptoevery corner of the Earth and the tradition has to survive.There is a maxim from the Prashnopanishad which explainsthe second part of the saying [John 15:16] and the next saying[John17:2] very well. This saying from the Prashnopanishadis very popular among the Indian scholars and it states –

“The disciplehood created by an Enlightened Master whoknows the secret of Prana which is the élan vital can nevercome to an end and has to continue forever.” [Prashna 3/11]

It seems that there prevails a sure correlation betweenthe ancient Indian schools of Mysticism and Christianity.While the outer from of Christianity hails from Judaism, itssubstance belongs also to the traditions created by thenumberless ancient Indian seers. In fact, the Paradise hasnever been lost. Sometimes it has been dominated by theangels of the God and sometimes by the angels of the Deviltoo. But as we have understood it, the God and the Devilhave been the two aspects of the same Ultimate Reality. TheGod has been great in every way. Even so, Amen!