The Symbolism of the Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita is much more than a moral treatise, which it apparently appears as. Behind the literary veil, the Bhagavad Gita presents a profound discussion on sum total of all science, harmony and mathematics of universal creation. The Bhagavad Gita - “The Song of the Lord”, was not named as the “Commands from the Lord”. By definition the work of art is not authoritative. Rather it is an expression of the laws of nature. It is a “song” of the Lord. It depends on the reader to listen to the song and implement the wisdom relating to it at a level appropriate for him. 

At the outset it is important to be reminded ourselves that the Bhagavad Gita - “The Song of the God”, is a symbolic tale. The two central characters are Krishna and Arjuna. Krishna symbolises the intelligence, the Buddhi, the dharma, the inspiration. He is the link to the ultimate Wisdom - the Ideal.

Krishna is the link to the Nous for the Greeks, Isis for the ancient Egypt, Buddhi for the Vedic school, Ideal for Plato, and Virtues for Aristotle. Arjuna is Hebrew Abraham, dragging himself in infinite pain up Mount Moriah with the torch of Faith illuminating his heart, triumphant over his human grief. The most important aspect of Krishna is that he is not a personna in human sense. He is above human needs and propensities of emotions, desires, ambitions, anger, body and soul. He is the mirror of “Vishnu” in the material world. At the same time he is not Vishnu. He is a man-God, or “Manas Putra” - the way Vedic tradition likes to name. He is symbolically analogous to the serpent of the garden of Eden - a harbinger of wisdom, enabling man to raise to the next level of evolution - a stage where man is more aware of what is right and what is wrong. In the myth of the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, Vishnu stands for the sustainer. He stands for a womb of creation, nourishment, intelligence, inspiration, the right environment, which makes the will (Brahma) to grow up to the form of creation (Mahesh). Vishnu is the analogous to Isis in ancient Egypt. Brahma is Osiris, and Mahesh is Horus. Krishna is the manifestation of the abstract idea of the ideal of Vishnu, in the material world. He symbolically acts the role of the charioteer to Arjuna. Hence he guides Arjuna to the right path. He is the eyes of Arjuna in his battle. Note that Krishna does not do the fight for himself. He is the inspiration, the link between man (Arjuna) and The Ideal (Vishnu). Krishna is the teacher of the wisdom. Wisdom is Vishnu himself. Arjuna is the disciple. Krishna is the philospher - the link between man and the Ideal.

Arjuna stands for Nietzsche’s Superman, and kierkergaard’s Christian. Arjuna is “Krishna” in potential. He is the disciple of the Dharma. He is the leader who manifests the inspiration of Krishna to the material world, into form. He stands for the common man, who is fighting the battle of his life. The battle between Kauravas (lower self) and Pandavas (higher self). Arjuna’s doubts are our doubts, his problems and dilemmas are ours, and the questions which he puts to Krishna are the same universal and eternal questions that men and women of all ages, and from every part of the world, have been asking themselves since time immemorial. 

One very important premise on which the Bhagavad Gita is based is the idea of the battle between Kauravas and Pandavas. Since time immemorial most of the greatest of the ancient civilizations have been teaching that man has two natures : the sense and the mind. The former is material and the latter is divine. Plato speaks of our lost wings and of the useless beatings of the stumps which have lost the prodigy of flight. The immortal soul, when free of the body, has wings that hold it aloft, in heaven. Yet the wings are lost when the soul is tied with the body, but since the soul has glimpsed the immutable forms, it strives to join them again. The eternal striving of the lower self (Kaurava) to be united with the higher self (Pandava), battling the human propensities grounded in the material world of senses has been symbolised by the battle of Kurukshetra, to win over Hastinapura - “The city of elephants”. Elephant symbolizes Wisdom. Hastinapura has been translated to the “City of Wisdom”. 

Just to clarify the lower self (Kauravas) is not something that has to be despised and subdued. The lower self is just the transient, material, emotional part of being human. It is more connected to the animal nature of man. It is the physical existence of the man. This part of man acts as a vehicle for man to climb the stairs of the evolution. The lower self are the limbs of man, helping him to climb up to the Idea - the Nous. The lower self has to be guided by the “Krishna”, to win over the existential battle of mankind - “The battle of Kurukshetra”. The higher self is already present in the lower self, in potential. All that is good, and close to the ideal, which is represented by Pandavas is the potential already present in man. Same is true for the Kauravas. All the lower propensities are also potential in man. By nature, man is in potential - both the God and the demon. It requires the education of the Krishna to realize man his real potential - the potential of being the God. Krishna plays the role of the “Partha Sarathy” - the charioteer of the Arjuna - the disciple, guiding him to the realization of the real potential of being human. 

One very subtle but profound premise of the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita is about the way to achieve victory over the lower self. It is neither in the form of suppression (using will to stop oneself to act as per lower instincts), not in the form of repression (removing the stimulus itself from the awareness, which can entice man to fall for his lower instincts). The former method is too superficial and stress-full. That reduces man to be a guard of himself, who is forcibly trying eternally to lock up the evil monster inside. The latter method is about creating a pseudo surrounding by avoiding the realities of life. This way might guard the conscious self from lower propensities. But the sub-conscious mind will have its own ramifications. The effect of the repressed impulse on the person is not even necessarily smaller than if it were conscious; the main difference is that it is not acted upon overtly but in disguise. so the person acting is spared the knowledge of what he is doing. Krishna formulates a third method in which the life-furthering fores in a person fight against the destructive and evil impulses. The more aware a person is of the latter the more is he able to reat. Not only his will and his reason take part, but those emotional forces in him which are challenged by his destructiveness. This relieves a man of being his own watchdog and of using his will power constantly for self-control. In this method, the emphasis is not on one’s feeling of badness and remorse but on the presence and use of productive forces within man. Thus, as a result of the productive conflict between good and evil, the evil itself becomes a sources of virtue. It is not about repression of man’s evilness but the productive use of man’s inherent primary potentialities. Virtue is proportional to the degree of productiveness a person has achieved. This productiveness is being termed “karma” or the “right action” by Krishna. Action is treated as a means to self realization by Krishna. 

The figure of Krishna holding the four horses (symbolising our senses going hey where) tight, and leading the chariot of Arjuna to the right direction symbolises not an authoritative vigilance of the guard who has to shut in the evil prisoner; rather, the vigilance of the rational being who has to recognize and to create the conditions for his productiveness and to do away with those factors which block him and thus create the evil which. Bhagavad Gita is based on the premise that man is a potential God, and not a potential evil. The evilness in man do arise due to presence of barriers which stop the real self getting manifested. And Krishna through his song tries to put forward the idea of productive usage of man’s inherent potentials through productive activities, both internal and external, to be able to realize his Godliness. 

This battle of Kurukshetra, the fight of man to reach the ideal, is what our philosopher forbears intended to convey when they wrote Bhagavad Gita. On that problem, every genius has planted the seed of his talent. It is the problem and for man: there is no other. It was the inspiration for the mysterious hierophants of the Nile and their hermetic tablets. It was contemplated by Plato when he wrote his Dialogues. It was in the heart of the first being who questioned the Infinite about his own essence. 

One very interesting thing about Bhagavad Gita is its settings. Here we have the Lord singing to his disciple amidst a ferocious battle. Weapons flashes in sunlight, clutched by tensed Kaurava warriors. Animals snort andneigh; the mystical conch-shells sound; life trembles, and death smiles expectantly. Amidst all this noise, confusion and destruction all around, we are shown an afraid and confused Arjuna, who has surrendered to Krishna, and is listening with all intent and discipleship to the song of the Lord! It demonstrates Arjuna’s virtue of being centered to the axis and his attention on the dim melody of the divine song, not letting the distractions of the battle move him out of his center. He is not stunned by the noise. All that matters to him is to seek the eternal Silence within him in order to hear the Voice which sounds above the din of battle. To have that silence is to have everything. 

Bhagavad Gita is one of the most profound treatise on ethics ever formulated by the ancients. With all its literary adornments this book goes to bring forth the optimism, the faith, the feeling of certainty that the day of final reunion will come after the long journey across the dark seas, where no one should remain but as stranger returning to his homeland. It reminds man to exercise his reason, faculties and virtues of being human, to transcend his inherent Kaurava propensities, which although appear sensuous and attractive, but are transient and illusion of the world of maya. The treatise is like a mine of wisdom. Written succinctly, it is like an eternal fountain of wisdom. It offers man in every level to find for himself, the nourishment for his soul. For a common man still grounded on material realm, it offers the apparent story which he can follow with interest, with hidden symbolism. For a philosopher this treatise challenges his mind to interpret the symbolism to go deeper into the laws of nature. This is the most beautiful aspect of the Bhagad Gita. It has something every every one, based on individual needs. This nature of the treatise, itself inspires. Can we be someone who has something to give to all - irrespective of the level from which one is coming from? Can we be able to stick to the art, note and meter of the “song” amidst the bustle of the every day material life? Can we focused in the path of dharma? The book comes up with such challenging questions, which inspires man to realise who he inherently is - The God - The Ideal.

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Saving the self

I feel that the most important task in one’s life is to realize one’s own self, develop it, and keep growing gradually to be a person what one has found out to be ideal – for himself. Life is an ongoing journey to carve out the best in oneself; the best that one feels is his own best, for which he is proud of, and being who, enables him to use and realize his own potential.
This has been beautifully expressed by Plotinus[204-270 AD] -  a neo Platonic philosopher, as follows, in his book Enneads –

“Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other dark, until a lovely face has grown out of his work.
So do you also: Cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is overcast, labor to make all one glow in beauty and never cease chiseling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the God like splendor of virtue, until you see the perfect goodness strongly established in the stainless shrine.”

I have tried to symbolically express that process of chiseling one’s perfect self through the series of my poems - http://criativ-mind.blogspot.in/search/label/SIMONI%20SERIES
This series constitutes of 15 poems on a fictitious renaissance sculptor Michel Simoni. He goes on carving out a statue in marble, most of his life. Eventually in his spontaneous activity of perfecting the statue he falls in love with it. The statue symbolizes Simoni’s real self. With all wisdom, scholastic pursuits, life’s experiences, contemplation, and actions, Simoni tries to discover his real self, and then goes on perfecting that real self – in this case the statue – which he names – “The lady with the most beautiful eyes.” As the statue comes to completion, he has almost lived his entire life, and dies out. But before dying he sees to it that he has perfected his real self (the statue) to such a high level of beauty, that the Gods even fall in love with his statue – symbolizing attainment of godliness. There are times when Apollo himself descends from the Mount Olympus, being lovelorn with the statue (the real self of Simoni).

As it is important to discover, sustain and grow one’s own real self, it is also important to save it from harm. As the immune system of the body is needed to save it from the onslaught of the infections from countless pathogens all around, the self has also to be actively saved from harm. The pathogens that kill the self are life circumstances, criticism from others, fear, hatred - both being hated by others, and one hating the other, diabolic activities, pessimistic attitudes, etc which goes to diminish one’s own self. These entities contributes in diminishing one’s own self. And the self has to be actively guarded from those. Buddha had put this idea very succinctly. He suggests that the goal of mankind is to free itself from greed, hatred and delusion. These are the veils which hides the real self of man.

There is this beautiful story told about Buddha. When he was spending years in meditation and contemplation, in forest, there used to pass a rich trader by him, daily. He was a wealthy and very successful man. He used to blame Buddha saying that he is totally un-productive, and is wasting his life sitting idly under the tree, without doing anything productive. Going by today’s standards too, that seems logical. Buddha continued to meditate and did not get perturbed. This trader continued to do so for a very long time. Each day he used to come, and rebuke Buddha. But Buddha did not change. Years passed by. As the trader started growing old, it was one day, when something happened to him, and this day, instead of seeing Buddha in the eyes of hatred and shouting at him with contempt, he fell down on this feet. He pleaded Buddha to forgive him, because he realized that he had hurt Buddha throughout his life. Buddha opened his eyes, and with a smile said, “You did not hurt me. Whatever you had to give, I never took.”

 I feel that is the key! People give what they have. If a person is grounded in hatred, narrowness, selfishness, and in the spree just to take and hoard, he will be able to radiate only that. There is nothing else he can give, as he has nothing more than that. If one takes these poisons, he will be killing his own self. It is important not to take these, and actively save oneself from the company of such entities. The idea is not only about saving oneself from such people. But also saving oneself from such ideas, thoughts, events, actions, and attitudes. Having said that I do not mean that one should not take constructive feedback to improve oneself. One has to do so, through contemplation, active listening, reading, experimenting, trying out stuffs, and living life fully, and self analyzing oneself. But one has to exercise discrimination on what he is taking in. It is same as food. If one takes poisonous food, one harms his own body. Similarly, if one takes in a harmful thought, remark, opinion, one harm his real self. One has to develop his strength and finesse in hearing such remarks, being in such circumstances, interacting with such people, but at the same time, not taking what diminishes his real self. To repeat, this does not mean such entities are bad. It only means they are foreign to one’s real self, and they help in no way to chisel one’s own sculpture to the awesome beauty, so that even Apollo can fall in love for.

This exercise is not easy. One has to understand this is not about entering into a cocoon, and increasing one’s separateness from others. Rather it is contrary to that. One has to actively understand and relate to others with supreme concern, responsibility, care, objectivity, faith, respect and love. One has to be productively oriented being able to discern aspects which are ostensibly and apparently not visible. As aptly Antoine de Saint Exupery had mused in his book - The Little Prince -

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye"

To be able to grasp that what is invisible to the eye, one has to exercise his reason, mental faculties, imagination, love, compassion, sense of reverence, etc. One has to understand that to be able to discern what is invisible one has to be truly human. As the faculties I have listed above is what makes us uniquely human. One has to understand that imagination is different, infact opposite to fantasy. Imagination is the faculty to see what is not visible, but is present. Fantasy is about dreaming what is not present. It is an illusion. Imagination is the truth - beyond illusion which is apparent.

Another aspect about saving one's own self, is also to nourish the self of the other, i.e. to have a sense of respect, space and affirmation of the uniqueness of the other. What is considered poison for one's own self, might be what nourishes the other self, and that is perfectly valid. That is the beauty of this life – people are different. It would be so boring if one sees just the images of his own self, all over!! Certainly one would hate to be in such a monotonous world. So, it is not about hating the entities who are not like one's own self. Rather it is loving them, and giving them their nourishment to survive and flourish. But at the same time, one has to actively save one’s own self. Remember, Buddha did not go and kill that trader. He gave that trader his space and freedom to behave the way he pleased – sometimes rebuking him, sometimes pleading for forgiveness. It is irrelevant what was the action the trader chose. But whatever he chose, he was free to do. A proper space and respect was given to him to behave and react the way what he found correct and in-line to his own real self.

One has to at the same time keep in mind one more very important aspect of all these prevalent differences and uniqueness. There is an invisible thread of unity which is prevalent embracing all of mankind. Beyond the apparent diversity there is that unity which connects us. All of the mankind is faced with the same existential dilemmas. All has the same seed of love and light deep in their heart. It is only the artificial veils, separations, and guards that are created by man, society, and circumstances which hide that real self of man, which is soaked in love, since its conception.

So, part of realizing one’s real self, is affirming other’s self at the same time. It is very important. Human solidarity is the necessary condition for the unfolding of any one individual.  One has to go beyond seeming separations, and appreciate the flow of unity hidden.

PS - I want to apologies if  the style of my writing appears didactic. It has never been my aim to preach others. I know I am a disciple, and never a teacher. I cannot teach, as I am myself in the journey to know. My articles are expressions of my insights. I keep myself in the place of the reader, and try to write what I want to say to myself. It none of my prerogative to teach others, and change others. I am aware that all my insights might be absolutely rubbish for others. But at this point I take these insights as very precious - for myself - just for me. I share my insights to others just in a hope, if it helps others. If it does not, please ignore them.

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Winter Solstice and the Psychology of Death

Hunter and Gatherer to Agriculturist – A quantum jump in human evolution

Agriculture was developed atleast 10,000 years ago. As civilizations slowly moved out of the usual mode of hunting and gathering, to agriculture, there was a cultural threshold mankind was crossing – from a primitive race, which was struggling to survive, to a culturally advanced race which was thriving to create memetic innovations. In 1960, Robert Braidwood, a University of Chicago archaeologist, depicted agriculture’s advent as, “culmination of an ever increasing cultural differentiation and specialization of human communities.” The deep seated basic instinct in man – the urge to impress, started getting shape as society evolved to higher levels of complexity. The evolution of agriculture went hand in hand with the increasing differentiation of the community. Man started to live not for bread alone – but also for status, art, entertainment, communication, social interaction. All these enabled mankind to play bigger games, uniting into bigger communities of diverse men, creating a never before fraternity in the society.

This new formed fraternity and an continuous increase in its scale has been appropriately articulated by Charles Darwin as follows –

As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races.

This gradual evolution of the human civilization to bigger and bigger groups played a very important role in the development of culture, traditions, symbolisms, and religious practices. The advent of agriculture was the radical innovation which was giving this unique character to the human civilizations, giving it a character which is more close to the culturally evolved modern man.

Winter Solstice

Festivals in ancient societies occurred in accordance with agricultural practices. Winter time was a period of leisure, crops having already been harvested, and some livestock slaughtered so there were fewer mouths to feed. After the harvest, alcohol was made from dried grains left to ferment. This combination of leisure, fresh meat, harvested crops and alcohol, made winter time the perfect occasion for exuberant parties

The longest night of the year is honored by many traditions as a sacred and rich time. In the past, it's been a night to gather around the fire, or set out candles to call back the Sun. The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradual lengthening of nights and shortening of days. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the winter solstice usually occurs on December 21 to 23 each year in the Northern Hemisphere, and June 20 to 23 in the Southern Hemisphere.

Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied from culture to culture, but most cultures have held a recognition of rebirth, involving holidays, festivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations around that time.

Symbolism

Death of Darkness

In Latin, solstice means sun set still and Winter Solstice is the great stillness before the Sun's strength builds, and days grow longer. It can be a time to rest and reflect. It's the fruitful dark out of which new life can eventually emerge. In ancient times and for some today, the darkness itself is the spiritual cradle into which the Sun is reborn. Everything lies dormant in the silent night, a sacred time of rest before the awakening, and the slow build toward longer days.

The longest night is a fruitful time for setting intentions, to be birthed with the newborn Sun. What you conceive now can grow with the Sun, and gain momentum in Spring. You might start a tradition of setting Winter Solstice intentions, and in one year, see how many have come into being. Put them in a special tin or box that has meaning for you. The dark before the dawn, just like new Moons, can be a powerful moment of magic, drawing in what you'd like to see happen in the new year.

Hence this time of the year is associated with the death of the evil and darkness, and ushering of the light of enlightenment and goodness. To celebrate this aspect various civilizations have different festivities during this time. Requiems for the dead were held and Manzai and Shishimai were performed throughout the night, awaiting the sunrise.

Re-birth

The cosmic event of the end of the longest night, and the emergence of the Sun, ushering an gradual increase of the day henceforward, has been adopted symbolically by almost all the ancient civilizations as heralding of a new life, after death. This aspect has been celebrated in many forms in different cultures.

Various forms of faith

Judaism

This time of year is associated with light -- string lights, sparklers and of course, candles. Hanukkah in the Jewish tradition is the Festival of Lights, with 8 days of ritual illumination of the menorah. There's the advent wreath of the Christian faith and the all-night bonfire for the burning of the Yule log, a tradition with roots in Northern European pre-Christian times. The lights are reminders of the inner light, and hope for the return of sunny days.

Christians

In the 4^th century Rome and 11^th century England, Christmas or Christ's Mass is one of the most popular Christian celebrations as well as one of the most globally recognized mid-winter celebrations in the Northern hemisphere. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, called the "Son of God," the second entity of the Holy Trinity, as well as "Savior of the World." The birth is observed on December 25, which was the Roman winter solstice upon establishment of the Julian Calendar.

Zorastrian

Since the days are getting longer and the nights shorter, this day marks the victory of Sun over the darkness. The occasion was celebrated in the ancient Persian Deygan Festival dedicated to Ahura Mazda, and Mithra on the first day of the month Dey.

Hindu

In Punjab, the winter solstice is celebrated as Lohri. Lohri is of Punjabi folk religion origin. It finds no mention in the Hindu Puranas but has over time been twinned with the Hindu festival of Makar Sankranti which is celebrated a day after Lohri and is known as Maghi. For this reason, Lohri is not actually celebrated on the winter solstice but at the end of the month, Paush

Viking age

Yule or Yuletide ("Yule-time") is a winter festival that was initially celebrated by the historical Germanic people as a pagan religious festival, though it was later absorbed into, and equated with, the Christian festival of Christmas. The festival was originally celebrated from late December to early January on a date determined by the lunar Germanic calendar. The festival was placed on December 25 when the Christian calendar (Julian calendar) was adopted. Scholars have connected the celebration to the Wild Hunt.

Ancient Greece

Winter solstice celebrations often include two activities related to the failing sun: producing light and enjoying the cover the darkness provides. Thus, it is common for winter solstice celebrations to include candle lighting, bonfire creation, and drunken debauchery.

While it may be mostly Pagans and Wiccans who celebrate the Yule holiday, nearly all cultures and faiths have some sort of winter solstice celebration or festival. Because of the theme of endless birth, life, death, and rebirth, the time of the solstice is often associated with deity and other legendary figures. No matter which path you follow, chances are good that one of your gods or goddesses has a winter solstice connection.

The Psychology of death

The fear of death

Humans, alone among animals, are capable of fearing death. It is a frightening territory of complete psychic extinction – the absence of memory, personality, knowledge, skills – which follows death. This constant fear of death has been beautifully expressed in the following lines of Milan Kundera –

“It takes so little, so infinitely little, for a person to cross the border beyond which everything loses meaning: love, convictions, faith, history. Human life - and herein lies its secret - takes place in the immediate proximity of that border, even in direct contact with it; it is not miles away, but a fraction of an inch”

Overcoming the fear of death

Treating this subject of overcoming fear of death from a psychological angle, Prof. Nicholas Humphrey nicely puts the following theory in his book – Soul Dust. He says that man had evolutionary taken up the following three strategies to overcome this fear of death –

1.       Discount the future – and live for the present

2.       Disindividuate – and identify yourself with culture entities that will survive you.

3.       Deny the finality of bodily death – and believe the individual self to be immortal.

Betrand Russel as he entered old age, wrote:

The best way to overcome [the fear of death]...is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river - small at first, narrowly contained within its bank, and rushing passionately past boulders and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the water flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue.

This gradual shift from an individual consciousness to a universal consciousness has been articulated in various ancient philosophies starting from African Ubuntu philosophy to the Hindu Upanishads. The same them is reverberated in the words of Pythagoras, and later by Plato and neo-Platonists. Plotinus very succinctly expresses the same as follows –

“I am striving to elevate what is divine in me to what is divine in the Universe.”

Plotinus is seen to contemplate on similar idea in his book Enneads –

“What then is our course, what the manner of our flight asks Plotinus and answers: This is not a journey for the feet; the feet bring us only from land to land; nor need you think of coach or ship to carry you away; all this order of things you must set aside and refuse to see; you must close the eyes and call instead upon another vision which is it be waked within you, a vision, the birthright of all, which few turn to use.”

It is pretty interesting to see how the fear of death and the complete extinction of the self has been beautifully transmuted by the philosophies of most of the ancients to an increased ardor to live. This meme has enabled civilizations to enter into positive and productive enterprises to further the evolution of mankind to higher frontiers.

Upanishads put the concept of eternal life in an interesting way. It says the fact that the individual consciousness has for its essential reality the Universal Self implies the possibility that every human being can rend the veil of separateness and gain recognition of his true nature and oneness with all beings.

David Galin, a psychiatrist with a special interest in Buddhism, has explained:

“The Buddhist tradition holds that Ordinary Man’s inborn erroneous view of self as an enduring entity is the cause of his suffering because he tries to hold on to that which is in constant flux and has no existence outside of shifting contexts. Therefore a new corrective experience of self is needed. Buddhism takes great interest in how people experience their self, rather than just their abstract concept of it, because Buddhist practices are designed to lead to new (correct) experience. It takes arduous training to modify or overcome the natural state of experiencing the self as persisting and unchanging.”

Mind over Matter

In an effort to reconcile the mortality of physical state of man, most of the ancient civilizations have given much of focus on the non-form. Since conceptualizing an invisible aspect of that non-form becomes strenuous through shallow logical reasoning, there is an effort to go beyond the unidirectional logic and rational, and stick on something beyond – an active faith, through contemplation.

In ancient Greek thought, theory meant not hypothesis but contemplation, the act not of a speculator but of a spectator. It is not the result of investigation as that of the process of investigating, the beholding itself. Theory provides the necessary basis of effective realization. The Greek usage brings out that no realization can be attempted without an adequate theoretical preparation.

Meditation is considered not an argument. It is just holding oneself steadily in front of the truth. Here the process of abstraction, isolating the self from the objective is employed. Concentration is the condition of prayer. The Upanishads asks us to return to a field or a forest where the world and its noise are out of sight and far away, where the sun and the sky, the earth and the water all speak the same language, reminding the seeker that he is here to develop like the things that grow all around him. The truth can be taught only up to a point. It has to be assimilated by personal effort, by self-discipline. It is said that the highest stage is attained when the five senses, mind and intellect are at rest.

This aspect of resting the five sense, is put by Confucius as follows –

“Cultivate unity. You do your hearing, not with your ears, but with your mind. Not with your mind, but with your very soul. But let the hearing stop with ears. Let the working of the mind stop with itself. Then the soul will be negative existence, passively responsive to externals. In such a negative existence, only Tao can abide. And that negative state is fasting of the heart.”

Kabir puts it more succinctly –

“When I was there, He not. When He was, I not.”

Conclusion

We are heirs of a richer heritage than most of us are aware of. If we cut ourselves away from rich treasury of wisdom about man’s aspirations on this earth which is available to us from our own past, or if we are satisfied with our own inadequate tradition and fail to seek for ourselves the gifts of other traditions, we will gravely misconceive the spirit of religion.

This winter solstice with all its symbolism from various ancient schools of wisdom yet again ponders on the aspect of death and re-birth, of perishing away and rejuvenating again. This brings into a perspective of an eternal cycle of birth, nourishment, destruction and then re-birth.

The winter season naturally makes us go inward to stillness and contemplation, reserving our vital energy, cutting ourselves from the distraction (cold) of the outside world (Maya). This spirit of the season has been celebrated through thousands of rituals since ages.
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