Seven candles of unity to spread eternal light

All prophets were sent down to earth for a single purpose। They were made manifest so that the world of man could become the world of God... so that the nether realm becomes the Kingdom, darkness becomes light, satanic wickedness becomes all the virtues of heaven, and unity, fellowship and love be won for the entire human race. Prophets were sent so that organic unity reappears and the bases of discord be destroyed and life everlasting and grace everlasting become the humanity's harvest. Look around you. You will find that unity, mutual attraction, and gathering together engender life. But disunity and disharmony spell death. When you observe and consider all phenomena, you will see that every created thing has come into being through the mingling of many elements. Once this collectivity of elements is dissolved, and harmony of components is disturbed, life is wiped out. In cycles gone by, though harmony was established, owing to the absence of means, the unity of all mankind could not have been achieved. Continents remained widely divided. Even among the peoples of one continent association and interchange of thought were not possible. Since then means of communication have multiplied. We can travel to any land, associate and exchange views with its peoples, and become familiar, through publications, with the conditions, religious beliefs and thoughts of all men. Similarly, all members of the human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages, have become increasingly interdependent. Self-sufficiency is no longer possible or even expected, as political, commercial and industrial ties unite all peoples and nations. The bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and education, are being strengthened every day. Hence the unity of all mankind can be achieved. Verily this is one of the wonders of this wondrous age. The age of discovery and light unfolds a fresh marvel every day. Eventually it will be seen how bright its candles will burn, spreading light everywhere, dispelling darkness and ignorance. Behold how its light is now dawning upon the world's darkened horizon. The first candle is unity in the political realm, the early glimmerings of which can now be discerned. The second candle is unity of thought in world undertakings, the consummation of which will ere long be witnessed. The third candle is unity in freedom which will surely come to pass. The fourth candle is unity in religion which is the cornerstone of the foundation itself, and which, by the power of God, will be revealed in all its splendour. The fifth candle is the unity of the nations — a unity which in this century will be securely established, causing all the peoples of the world to regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland. The sixth candle is unity of races, making of all that dwell on earth peoples and kindreds of one race. The seventh candle is the unity of language, the choice of a universal tongue in which all peoples will be instructed and converse. Each and every one of these will inevitably come to pass, inasmuch as the power of the Kingdom of God will aid and assist in their realisation. Courtesy: Office of Public Information, National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of India.

Abdu'l-Baha

Tackling the enemy within

Osho narrates a Sufi parable: A man was very worried because every night someone would enter his garden and destroy all the plants। He did everything that could be done to protect it। He posted guards all along the boundary, but never was anybody seen entering the garden at night. Yet, every morning, the garden would be trashed. The man did everything he could but nothing helped. He then went to a Sufi master, in the hope that the master would be able to see things he and the guards could not. The master closed his eyes and said, "Do one thing. Fix the alarm on your clock for two o'clock in the night." The man said, "How is this going to help? My guards are continuously watching and patrolling around the house." The master said, "There is no need to argue. Just do what I say. Fix the alarm for two o'clock. Then come the next day and tell me what happened." The man was unconvinced but he tried it. Two o'clock, when the alarm went off, he was awake. He was standing in his own garden, wreaking havoc on his plants. He was a somnambulist—a sleepwalker! In some way or the other, we all are somnambulists. We sow our seeds of misdeeds in the deep night of unconsciousness, and then we wonder why our lives are so miserable. We love others and soon we see that we are doing something else in the name of love. It isn't difficult to see if we use a little intelligence and a little awareness. Osho says: You love somebody, and then you start possessing him. Tares are entering your relationship. You love, and then you become jealous. Now weeds are growing. You love, and for trivial things you get angry. You love meaningless, petty things. Thus hate arises. Now the wheat is getting mixed with tares. When you love you feel happy. Every love starts with deep happiness, a celebration, and every love ends in deep sadness. The other day I was reading The Hollow Men, a poem by T S Eliot. The poem ends with these lines: "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper." Well, this is how everything ends. Your love, your meditation, your virtue. Not with a bang, but a whimper. But it need not be this way. If we wake up, we become alert. We need to shake ourselves up. Osho gives us a method of mindfulness: Remain a watcher, remain a witness. Remember that. Remind yourself continuously. Sadness has come. It has happened to you; it is not you. The moment you remember this, suddenly you will see a distance arising between you and the sadness. It does not affect you any longer. When you lose awareness, it affects you; when you gain awareness, there is a distance. The more your awareness rises, the more the distance increases. A moment comes when you are so far away from your sadness that it is as if it's not there at all. The same has to be done with happiness also. It will be difficult, because one wants to cling to happiness. But if you want to cling to happiness, you are sowing the seeds of unhappiness. That's how this parable is of tremendous significance. The master himself-in his sleep, in his unawareness-came to the field, the wheat field and sowed the seeds of weeds. In deep sleep! He was a somnambulist. In the morning he started asking, "Who has done this?" You have been doing things to yourself. In the morning, when you wake up, you ask, "Who has done this?" And you start searching for the enemy. The enemy is within, the enemy is just your unconsciousness.

SWAMI CHAITANYA KEERTI

Inclusive nature of Buddhist philosophy

When you understand the spirit of Buddhism correctly, you can follow and practise it while living in this workaday world। In Buddhism, true renunciation doesn’t mean running away from worldly affairs, leaving your family or taking to ochre clothes. The chief disciple of Buddha, Sariputa, said that you might live in a forest fully devoted to ascetic practices but if your mind is full of impure thoughts and defilements, then you are not practising Buddhism. On the other hand, an ordinary person who is not observing ascetic disciplines but has his mind pure, is practising Buddhism in its true spirit. A few people may like to lead a lonely life in a quiet place to practise Buddhism, for their own reasons. But it is certainly more praiseworthy and courageous to practise Buddhism living amongst your own people, helping them and to have empathy, mutual love and concern for all. There is nothing wrong if a man spends some time away from the hurly and burly of life as a part of spiritual and intellectual training to come out stronger; such a person would be of greater help to fellow human beings. But if a man lives all his life in solitude without caring for family and community this is not in keeping with Buddha’s teaching which is based on compassion and service. What then was the objective of Buddha establishing Sangha and monasteries for monks? This was done for those who were willing to devote their entire lives not for their own spiritual and intellectual development but also to serve others. In the course of time, Buddhist monasteries became not only spiritual centres but also centres of learning and service. An incident in Buddha’s life shows how much importance he gave to family life. A young man, Sigala, used to worship six cardinal points of heaven: east, west, north, south, nadir and zenith — as instructed by his religious head. When he met the Buddha to embrace his religious doctrine, Buddha told the young man that in his religious discipline the six directions were: east — parents, west — wife and children, south — teachers, north — friends, relatives and neighbours. At the bottom were others and at the top, seers. These six family and social groups are treated as sacred in Buddhism and one could worship them only by performing one’s duties towards them. Buddhism accords highest place to parents, like other religions. In Hinduism, parents are referred to as Brahma. Second in the order comes Guru, or teacher. Every pupil is expected to respect and obey his teacher. Third is the sacred relationship between wife and husband. Both husband and wife need to respect each other and express their love and regard by caring and sharing. The Buddha didn’t forget to mention that a husband could gift clothes and jewellery to his wife — as a way of demonstrating the fact that he cared for her physical well-being, too. It is clear that in order to practise Buddhism you are not expected to become a monk or retire to a forest or cave. You can practise it even while living with and caring for family and discharging your duties towards family members. Similarly, the caring and sharing is extended to entire society in which you live. It is through compassion that you evolve, and thereby raise your consciousness.

Bhartendu Sood

Confidence key to success

Situations such as job interviews, making presentations and reports, public speaking and the like require confidence as well as the pre requisite skill or knowledge. You may be well equipped to deliver a speech after hours of practice with the script but if your confidence deserts you, then no amount of preparation will suffice. Confidence springs from conviction and is not to be confused with impertinence or condescension. Confidence will allow you to maneuver even negative situations to your favour. Practising the following exercise will help you conquer your fears and boost your confidence. Step I: Sit in a relaxed manner with a straight spine, eyes closed and observe your breath. Inhale and exhale normally. Step II: Visualise a situation in the past when you felt flustered or lacked confidence. As an illustration, let's consider a job interview; visualise the interviewer asking you questions and then see yourself giving self assured knowledgeable responses. Visualise the interviewer appreciating and being impressed by your answers and demeanour. Be confident in your visualisation and see the positive outcome. Do not try and think about negative consequences arising out of your fears. Step III: Make a body movement. This could be a clenched fist or clasped hands or any other movement which you would feel comfortable replicating in the real life situation. Stay in the new pose for five minutes as you continue to visualise yourself dealing and interacting with the person on the other side. Step IV: Slowly open your eyes and look at the new pose which you made while visualising. Keep looking at the new pose for 20 seconds and close your eyes again. Open your eyes after five minutes and see the same pose again. Next time, whenever you find yourself in the situation which you had visualised, make the same gesture which you had adopted during the visualisation. You will feel more assured and deal with the situation confidently, without any fear of failure.

Developing self-control

Excesses, of any kind, are detrimental to our well being। Food, drink, pleasure and self indulgence can become obsessive and a person unwittingly falls into a habit of reaching out for them even though he/she knows that giving into the temptation will adversely affect his/her health and life। In such cases, a person subconsciously diverts his mind from thinking about the temptation and its possible consequences.

Constant reinforcement trains the mind to ignore such thoughts which may require the person to confront his temptation and weakness in giving into it. Soliloquy, especially in front of a mirror can help us resist temptation and develop self control. In fact even words are not required; merely confronting your reflection in the mirror and making eye contact is enough to communicate to yourself.

Make eye contact with your reflection while standing in front of mirror and ask yourself probing questions. "Why should I be craving for this?" Look in your eyes and search for an answer. The answer you are seeking will stare back at you even before you finish formulating the question. You will be astonished to see that if you do not really feel that your desire is justified then it will be difficult to make eye contact with your reflection.

If you still feel an overriding temptation and are not ready to accept the answer which your eyes have given you, then request yourself not to give in. Plead with yourself while maintaining eye contact with your reflection. Make sure it's an earnest appeal, your expressions and body language should reflect the genuineness of your plea.

Lastly, if that does not help, then stare back at your reflection with anger. Your face should reflect your anger and displeasure, almost as if you were expressing it to another person. Slowly you will find yourself being compelled to resist the temptation.