Spirituality in the Time of Crisis
WE ARE IN THE MIDST of a crisis. Can spiritual practices help us at this time? Of course, they can. In fact, these are the times that spirituality is meant for. Let us not forget that the Bhagavadgita was taught to Arjuna, not on a mountaintop or in an ashram. It was in the midst of a great crisis, on the battlefield, where a terrible civil war was imminent. In the midst of that, Sri Krishna taught the highest philosophy and devotion to Arjuna. So, spirituality is certainly of great help and relevance in these times.
We hear the voices of so many people on how much suffering there is across society in the form of fear, depression, and anxiety. How do we overcome this? How can spiritual practice help us at this time? There are four great ways in Vedanta, which are of great help and protection to us at this time of crisis.
Lord Buddha speaks of the nature of suffering as a person who is hit by an arrow. Imagine the pain and shock of being hit by an arrow. And immediately after that, this unfortunate person is hit by a second arrow. The first arrow is what the world throws at us—coronavirus, pain, suffering, disease, disruption in life, and the like. And the second arrow is, our internal reaction to what is happening. Depression, anxiety, uncertainty about the future—all these are our internal reactions. This is the second arrow. The Buddha says that what spiritual practice can do is to take care of the second arrow in order to alleviate and remove the suffering caused by the second arrow, our internal reaction. For the first arrow, of course, we have to take all practical measures. And it will mitigate the consequence of the first arrow that affects society, family, and personal life. But the real suffering is the reaction that we have inside.
Path of Knowledge
There are four practices, which help us overcome internal suffering. The first one, of course, is the path of knowledge; the path of Jnana of Advaita Vedanta, that is, an enquiry into the Self.
Notice how, to our awareness, the normal life was going on: you are going to work, taking care of the family, and engaging in the expectations, worries, joys, and sorrows of day-to-day life. And then suddenly everything changed during Covid times! I am reminded of a beautiful poem by William Butler Yeats, which he wrote during Easter in 1916 in the middle of the First World ‘War, where he says:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is borne.
So this tremendous change came suddenly! Within a few days everything was turned topsy-turvy. Now I invite you to notice that this happened in our own awareness. The same awareness, which was aware of normal life, is now aware of this tremendous change in life. Is this awareness, which is not the body and the mind, itself affected? The body and the mind appear in this awareness that we are. This awareness, which we really are—is it affected by the virus?
The virus affects the body and the functioning of the prana (vital air). Depression and anxiety come and go in the mind. Are we aware of a mind that was free of depression? Yes. Are we aware of the mind in which there is depression and anxiety? Yes. So, that which comes and goes is not inextricably tied to ‘I’—the awareness which I call ‘this consciousness’.
If consciousness is not bound to this anxiety, then consciousness is free of ‘this anxiety’. It is free of ‘this depression’. When there was no depression, the consciousness was illumining that state of mind. When there is depression or anxiety, notice that the same consciousness is illumining the depressed and cloudy mind also. And again, when the depression and anxiety will go away, as they will in a few days or few weeks, even then, the same consciousness will continue to illumine that mind.
‘I am that consciousness. I am not the mind’ This is very obvious. And this consciousness, according to Advaita Vedanta, is the one shining the minds of all beings, men and women; old and young; healthy and sick. The sun shines unaffected by the clouds of various hues passing over it. In the same way, the same consciousness shines unaffected in all beings.
The Ashtavakra Gita says:
मय्यनन्तमहाम्भोधौ विश्वपोत इतस्ततः ।
भ्रमति स्वान्तवातेन न ममास्त्यसहिष्णुता ॥
In me, the boundless ocean, the ark of the universe moves hither and thither impelled by the wind of its own inherent nature. I am not impatient. (7.1)
Notice that I am the ocean and this whole world with all lives is like a little boat in me. It is not that I am like a little spark in a vast and uncaring universe. Rather the whole universe appears in my consciousness. Now think of this consciousness as an unlimited ocean and this world as a little boat, floating in this ocean according to its own logic. The next verse says:
मय्यनन्तमहाम्भोधौ जगद्वीचिः स्वभावतः ।
उदेतु वास्तमायातु न मे वृद्धिर्न च क्षतिः ॥
In me, the limitless ocean, let the wave of the world rise or vanish by itself. I neither increase nor decrease thereby. (7.2)
I am the infinite ocean of consciousness and in me, this world arises as a wave. Let the wave arise! Let it subside! I neither gain nor lose anything. Notice that the wave is actually a part, an appearance in the ocean, whereas the boat is something different from the ocean. Here we have gone to a deeper level, where we realise this world of appearance, which is appearing in our consciousness but actually, is not separate from it. Think of it at three levels:
(i) The world appears to be awareness or consciousness.
(ii) At a deeper level, the world appears in you, the consciousness.
(iii) The world is nothing but you, the consciousness.
In ‘I’ the consciousness, the world appears and this appearance is not separate from me being the ocean of consciousness. When the wave arises, is the ocean increased thereby? No. Nothing is added to it. When the waveform subsides back into the ocean, is the ocean decreased or diminished thereby? No. The same water remains. Similarly, let birth come; let death come; let health or sickness come; let riches come, or poverty come. I am neither increased by their presence nor decreased or diminished by their absence. Further, it is said:
मय्यनन्तमहाम्भोधौ विश्वं नाम विकल्पना ।
अतिशान्तो निराकार एतदेवाहमास्थितः ॥
In me, the boundless ocean is the imagination of the universe. I am quite tranquil and formless. In this alone do I abide. (7.3)
In me, the infinite ocean of awareness, the world is not even a wave, it is just an imagination, an appearance. The wave comes and floats along and then subsides into the ocean. Imagine an ocean which is absolutely calm. There is no wave at all. In the same way, there is a vast limitless ocean of awareness. That is what we actually are. This consciousness in itself is formless, though forms appear and disappear in it, and is forever at peace, beyond the possibility of disturbance. This is how ‘I’ persist from eternity to eternity.
Time and space are both appearances in the absolute consciousness. This is the tremendous vision of Advaita. The beauty is, Advaita says, it is true right now. It is always true.
Advaita Vedanta is not an intellectual game or a clever philosophy that we indulge in once a week when everything else is fine. If it is so, when things are disturbed and we are under stress and anxiety, we will have no time for it. No. Not at all. That is the time for Advaita. When do you go to a fire? Do you go to a fire thinking, ‘Let me first become warm; then I will go near a fire’? No. It is only when you are cold that you really need the fire. In the same way, we need Advaita when we are suffering. When we are under stress, fear, and anxiety, then Advaita comes to our rescue. We have heard the old story about one who thought of swimming in the ocean after the waves subside, which will never happen.
I remember an incident that happened 15 years ago in Gangotri in the Himalayas at the height of 10,000 feet from sea-level. There we met an old Punjabi Sadhu, who would teach Ashtavakra Samhita to the monks, including some of us, from evening 4.00 to 4.30. One day he looked down at us who were sitting at his feet and then said, reflectively:
‘O Swamis! These verses of the Ashtavakra, are weapons.
’You are armed with a sword; the enemy comes and gives you a couple of slaps and you come back weeping. What is the fun in that?’
Truly, we are armed with this knowledge, this great insight into our real Self. The enemies of fear, anxiety, terror, and depression—they beat us up and we weep helplessly. No. We are not helpless. We are heavily armed against these enemies. So the ideas in these verses from the Ashtavakra Samhita are our armour. God is the greatest armour; the greatest shield against the suffering inflicted by the world.
Sri Gaudapada wrote the famous commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad called Mandukya Karika. Now there is an interesting little detail that we often fail to notice. The Mandukya Upanishad, as we all know, is about the three states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, and becoming aware that these three appear from and disappear into one consciousness. This one consciousness is independent of and is underlying the three states. And that one consciousness is figuratively called Turiya, the fourth. This is the basic idea of the Mandukya Upanishad.
Further, Gaudapada says that there are actually only two states—dreaming and sleeping. Gaudapada calls deep sleep to be actual sleep, and both waking and dreaming as the dream state! According to him, both waking and dreaming are to be called a dream. Then what is real waking? Real waking is becoming aware of the fact that ‘I am turiya, the fourth—that pure consciousness, which is the underlying shining Reality’.
Why does Gaudapada call both waking and dreaming as dreams? He says that even the waking state, if we examine it, is dreamlike in which something is appearing to consciousness and we are involved in it. And that is common to both waking and dreaming. In the waking state, we see things; we hear, smell, taste, and touch things. It comes from an external world in contact with the sense organs. And consciousness gets involved in this. In dreaming, the mind generates by itself all kinds of thoughts and imaginations, and again the consciousness is involved.
In both cases, consciousness is engaged with appearances. Both are called dream by Gaudapada because that which is unreal or false, appears to the consciousness. That is the very definition of a dream. In deep sleep, the appearances cease and there is only a blankness. So, for Gaudapada, the waking state is as much a dream as the dream state. It is difficult to catch this idea because we are so solidly convinced that the waking state is out there and real; and the dreams are in our mind and unreal.
Gaudapada logically points out that our so-called waking life too is dreamlike. It is not different from our experience of dreams. When we are experiencing it, it seems very real. Then it fades away into memory. When we compare dreams and memories of waking, they seem very similar to us. But the consciousness to which they are appearing—that Consciousness alone is the Reality.
These appearances are dreamlike. But that to which these appearances appear is the real you. You are the Consciousness; you are the Reality. So this is the first great practice. This noticing, this discernment or enquiry leads us to the realisation that the infinite ocean of Consciousness is not affected by even the greatest changes in external life or personal life or even in the internal mental life. Then one feels ‘I am the infinite pure consciousness’.
People may say it is theoretical, but it is the most practical. It gives peace, strength, and joy immediately. All the fog of confusion or anxiety is blown away immediately.
Path of Devotion
Swami Turiyananda once said: ‘ “I am Brahman” —Vivekananda could say that. It does not come so easily to us. So I say, “Nahum-Tuhum; not I, but Thou my lord”.’ This is the way of devotion. There is a great power in it. We cannot deny it. In this world, suddenly see how this tiny little invisible thing (virus) has changed our lives across nations and continents, despite all our power, riches, and technology. It dramatically changed our lives almost overnight! Similarly, devotion to God is another invisible thing, even more powerful, which can rescue and protect us.
‘I am Brahman’ and ‘I am this little sentient being who worships Brahman, who worships God’—which one should I take? Aren’t they contradictory? Aren’t these two different paths? They are actually not contradictory but even if they were, so what? One can hold on to both. One can hold on to one or either or both of them. Swamiji said to an American woman: ‘Madam, always have two sides. Always keep these two sides, knowledge and devotion’ After all, why should it be contradictory? These are the two ways of getting at the same Reality.
One is the way of knowledge which says ‘I am Brahman? which realises, which notices, that I am that unaffected infinite Consciousness. The other is the path of devotion with a notion ‘I am this being’—this body, mind, and awareness— all bundled up together. And I recognise this vast presence, this existence, the consciousness which is now God to me—the creator, preserver, and destroyer of this universe.
There is this tremendous power called God. There is this power, according to whose will everything in this world goes on. As Sri Ramakrishna would say, not even a leaf can shake or tremble without the will or knowledge of God. And this power called God is benevolent, though we may not understand it. It is protective, One great way of overcoming anxiety, depression, and fear is to appeal to this power; to pray, love, and surrender to God.
One of the most beautiful sutras in the Narada Bhakti Sutra, which I like very much, goes like this: “Sarvada sarvabhavena niscintitaih bhagavaneva bhajaniyah; devotees, being free from all cares and worries, should always worship the Lord alone with all their hearts.”(79) So, at all times, in all ways, free from anxiety and depression, worship the Lord alone. Anxiety means cinta. This word in Sanskrit and Hindi and many Indian languages, stands for worry and anxiety. ‘There is an old verse that says: ‘Chita’ (funeral fire) is almost equal to ‘Chinta’(worry). There is only a difference of ‘bindu’ (a point on the top indicating anuswara in Sanskrit). The worry burns one while living; while the funeral fire burns the dead body.
Here anxiety is compared to the funeral pyre, which burns up dead bodies. But anxiety is worse than that funeral fire. Why? The funeral fire burns only the dead bodies, while anxiety burns the living human beings.
In order to feel the divine presence of God, we are told to think of God all the time. It is very difficult. Most of the time we think of worldly matters and not about God. So, one way is to begin by limiting our thoughts. The mind cannot think without time, space, and object. So it must use time, space, and object to think about God. Whichever way that appeals to us—as Shiva, Kali, Durga, Rama, Krishna, Ramakrishna, Jesus, Allah, or Father in heaven—whichever is our tradition, we can think about God in those ways.
Apart from this theological approach to God, the Lord is immanent in all beings. So in the father and the mother, in the husband, wife, and child, in your colleagues, in the people around you—the Lord is present in all of them. In fact, it is the Lord alone who appears in various forms. This is not imagination, but the ultimate truth. When we think about people as mere bodies of flesh and blood, it is imagination. This is our error. It is the divinity alone that appears as a person in the body of flesh and blood. This is the second great practice that we can do.
Path of Meditation
The third way to control the mind and relieve anxiety is through meditation that we learn from Patanjali, the great master of meditation. The mind is difficult to control. We want to think of God, but all sorts of other thoughts keep crowding our mind. So it seems very difficult to continuously think about God.
Patanjali tells us the secret of controlling the mind. The secret is this: the nature of the mind is such that it can think of only one thing at a time. At every instant, there is one vritti, one wave or movement of the mind—one thought in the form of feeling, perception, idea, or memory. Now for deep meditation, for prayer, and for being centred in God, all that we need to do is to take care of that one instant and one thought. And then, the next instant and the thought corresponding to that. It is a very powerful key to our psyche. You don’t have to worry about the world. You don’t have to worry about what is going on in the family, or anywhere else at all the time. At this moment, only one thing calls your attention. And just take care of that one thing at a time. Whatever vritti is arising at a time, point that towards God.
Some of you know the serenity prayer:
This is a very beautiful prayer, which removes tension, anxiety, or depression.
At every moment, one thought appears. Let us also think: which thought is more important, is more pleasant, more ennobling, more sublime than the thought of God. For those of you, who are initiated into a mantra, think about the mantra. Compared to the repetition of the mantra, which other thought can possibly be more important? Something may be urgent that you may have to do it. But otherwise, what good does this feeling of helplessness and anxiety about the future do?
Patiently bear the things that we cannot change, and then use the power of thought to think about God, to repeat the mantra. If we sincerely think about it, we realise that no thought in the world is more important than the thought of God. But the mind tricks us to engage continuously with the world and fruitlessly so. Increasing our unhappiness, we spread that unhappiness around. Rather, moment-to-moment, when that one vritti arises, direct it to God. Next moment another thought arises. Make sure it is also about God. It could be the mantra; it could be a prayer; it could be a bhajan; it could be reading about the Lord or the saints who are enlightened beings; whatever that keeps the mind engaged with God.
Sarva bhavena also means in all ways. It need not always be meditation. It need not always be prayer. It need not always be singing about the Lord. One may try a combination of these things, as it appeals to you. But keep the mind, the vritti, as it arises moment-to-moment, engaged with the Lord. Then, there will be no space for anxiety. We hear Sri Ramakrishna’s beautiful story about a person who was dyeing cloth in different colours. You bring some clothes to him; he will put them in a bucket. He will ask ‘which colour do you want?’ ‘Red’. He puts it in a bucket and the cloth will come out red. ‘Which colour do you want?’ ‘Blue’. And he puts it in the bucket and the cloth comes out blue. So whichever colour you dip the cloth of the mind in, the mind takes that colour. After some time, the mind begins to repeat the name of the Lord automatically and finds joy in it. One thing at a time. This is the great lesson we learn from Patanjali Yoga.
Path of Service to Others
And the fourth great practice that we can do to overcome fear and anxiety is to be concerned about the welfare of others. I really liked this saying of Swami Ranganathanandaji, the 13th president of the Ramakrishna Order. He would say: ‘What is spirituality? When I close my eyes I find peace within. When I open my eyes my attitude is, what can I do for you?’ If you can honestly hold on to this attitude, that is inwards God and peace or aham brahmasmi—whichever way you like, and when we are engaged with the world, our only motive should be—‘How can I be of service to the family, to the community, and to the colleagues at work?’ If one has that attitude, definitely one will get peace; one will get joy. Anxiety, fear, and depression will never come near us if we develop this loving attitude of selfless service.
Hence, these are the four great practices to overcome fear, anxiety, or depression:
1. Aham Brahmmasmi.
2. ‘My lord, not I but Thou?
3. One thing at a time focus.
4. The welfare of others over mine.
These four great practices will definitely ennoble us and make our minds full of light and joy.