Yogi , Guitar and Soccer
Had no school this weekend . Hurrah . Had the whole weekend all to myself for the first time in more than a year. Decided not to tell any of my friends that I dont have school this weekend, so escaped their calls Saturday .Moreover had no CPU at home so no internet , thanks to the robber(see earlier posts). So decided why not have a no-technology weekend no cellphone calls, no internet and no TV. Didnt pick up any calls over the weekend. All in all had the best weekend in over a couple of years. Read a book ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Yogananda Paramahansa, played guitar and soccer.
‘Autobiography of Yogi’ has been long due on my list of books. I rememeber one of my old flames suggesting it to me, and I mocked her on what would an atheist like me do with a book like this? Then one of the days in a bar in my drunken state, one of the chicks asked me if I read this book. I was so piqued that I told her that the only Indian book I have ever read is the Kamasutra, and went so far as to suggest that it was one of my ancestors who wrote it 
. Needless to say the only position I was in was a BAD one. Then one of my good friends suggested it to me saying that there is a lot of stuff in it and some of the chicks dig it. Now it all made some sense to me 
.
So I finally decided that this weekend is the weekend. The story started off in a very lovey-dovey-and-ah-so-happy-family and oh-I-am-such-a-rebel and I was like please dont do the David-Copperfield type of crap(ala Salinger in Catcher in the Rye). Still decided to slug it out as it was raining outside and my skating plans were not materialising anytime soon. Amazingly, the story took off with his meeting various saints and His description of how they were able to perform all the cool stuff that they were doing and story of each saint had some kind of philosophy in it. The story then goes into His search for a guru, which takes him to various places and how He finds His guru. The story now focuses on His studies with His Guru, Sri Yukteshwar and his studies at school , the accounts of both I found to be very uninteresting.
The story goes well where He is not talking about Himself but about other saints. The stories of Babaji, the immortal Yogi-Christ of India and His teaching of the long lost Kriya Yoga to his famous disciple Lahiri Mahasya are amazing. The back-bone of the whole book seems to be the Kriya-Yoga which Yogananda Paramahansa took to the masses both in the east and west. His mastery of Bible and various religious Indian texts, his ability to draw parallels between the two religions, and scientific explanations of the various phenomenon kept me hooked onto the book. But the best part of the book is His explanation of the science of Kriya Yoga .
His fascination of the West has perplexed me throughout the book and some of His accounts didnt exactly seem credible. I skipped the last 10 chapters of the book as I figured out (all by myself) that there is nothing more He has to say which I want to listen to.
What this book did do for me was
1. Renewed interest in Hinduism and Yoga. For me Hinduism was the gazallion Gods and superstitions, the utterly materialistic priests and the fanatics .This book has completely changed my blasphemic attitude towards Hinduism.
2. Gave a scientific explanation of the lives of saints and Yogis.
3. Somehow showed me that Hinduism is more atheist and scientific than I am (sad but true)
With this renewed interest and a week before my classes begin , I plan to read ‘Idiots Guide to Hinduism’ to know more about Hinduism.
My Inner voice says ‘Shame on you Rock you were a born Hindu and have lived in that country for better part of your life and now you have to read Idiots Guide. I guess it is for people like you ’
The full book can be read on the net at
http://www.thenazareneway.com/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi/
if you are interested, there are a couple of good books on hinduism, which i would recommend -
hinduism by nirad chaudhari
a survey of hinduism by klaus kostermeier
but if you really want my advice, then you should skip either of these, and go straight to sri aurobindo’s “essays on the gita”. the gita is a VERY important text in hinduism (as you probably know) and sri aurobindo’s writings on it are simply wonderful. why choose the gita as opposed to, say the vedas or the upanishads? simple. the gita came after the vedas and upanishads. and its brilliance lies in the way in which it synthesized the philosophy that preceded it, and showed a new way forward. this, especially, is the reason why you want to read sri aurobindo’s take on the gita, because he explains this progression and synthesis of thought very well, so that if you can understand what he has to say about the gita, then you will have a good appreciation of the essence of what came before it. and that puts you way ahead of the curve.
Comment by Anonymous — July 17, 2005 @ 8:57 am
Hi,
Thanks for all the good books . I will definitely have a look at Nirad Chaudhar’s Hinduism and a survey of hinduism by klaus kostermeier . But what has made strong inroads into my physche is the Zen Buddhism , cos of its very atheist nature and a very unconventional approach.
My spiritual journey continues to rock
Rock
Comment by Administrator — July 17, 2005 @ 9:31 pm
well, i would say that the notion of god as something to search for within oneself lies at the core of hindu philosophy. indeed, this is what the gita repeatedly emphasizes. in that sense, i sometimes find the theist/atheist terminology highly misleading. hinduism is clearly not theistic in the sense that the monotheistic religions are. it is true that an anthropomorphic god often lies at the center of various hindu sub-cults (viz. shakti, vaishnava, shaiva, etc.) but the beautiful thing about hinduism is that one can make of it much more than an assembly of millions of godheads, and come out theistic and atheistic at the same time. ultimately, the hinduism of the gita is, like most streams of buddhism, a prescription for living life in a particular way. what i like about buddhism is that unlike its ancestor (for it was the buddha’s dissatisfaction with hindu practice of the time that led him to discover a “new way”), it has not devolved into idol worship, and empty ritualism (at least not to the extent that hinduism has, but remember that hinduism has had a much longer history, and therefore has had much more time to be shaped by the political and sociological exigencies of those years). the difficult thing about buddhism, in my opinion, is that without the concept of a soul, or aatman, or purushottama, it is an extremely difficult path to tread. what i mean by this is that being a closet intellectual, it is difficult for me to committ to the idea of “nothingness” as the basis for practice. it is, however, true that when i first started to poke about “this whole spirituality thingy”, i was attracted to buddhism as well (thanks to alan watts, especially), because of its relatively clean and unsullied reputation. over the course of time, i realized, however, that whereas buddhist metaphysics may be quite different from hindu metaphysics, in terms of the state of mind that both spiritual paths encourage the seeker to cultivate, there are lots of similarities. as a last word, let me say that, in my humble opinion, spirituality is basically a method of calming one’s nervous system. one way to make sense of the call to transcend dualities (that both hinduism and buddhism emphasize with great vigor) in a physiological sense would be to argue that dualities are basically contrapuntal nervous energies, and the truly enlightened one is he (or she) who has managed to yoke his/her nervous system to balance out these energies. anyway, great to contribute to this thread. wish you all the best in your quest.
Comment by Anonymous — July 18, 2005 @ 12:59 am
Wow I am talking to some person. I definitely agree to your definition of spiritualism. Its calming of the nervous system and seeing the whole world as one rather than as separate entities. IMHO, I am suprised and pained that Hinduism has digressed itself into a religion, as opposed to being a spiritual guide. I guess Buddha also had similiar thoughts and he took the best of Hindu religion and went along a separate path. I learned that Buddhism is not a religion, its a spiritual guide and the followers of any religion can follow it.
Even the spirit of nothingness is something that He seems to have borrowed from Gita wherein Krishna tells Arjuna that “abandonment of the fruits of labor” is the best form of worship. IMHO, I believe that Buddha extends this saying there is nothing for you but still do your stuff. It just leaves a person to follow what Krishna said to Arjuna. By doing so , Buddha is not letting anyone think about labors of fruit. He did the same with the concept of ego propounded by religions. He says dont try to kill it cos it doesnt exist. IMHO , he negated the concept of Atma so as not for the egoists to consider themselves to be at a higher level and fall back to Gods or Godmen , the equivalent of a bigger atma , paramatma and stuff like that.
Thanks for letting my cobwebs fly away and making me think . Please feel free to express your opinions.
Comment by Administrator — July 18, 2005 @ 7:51 pm
thanks for the kind words. i am very much a learner myself. since you are interested in zen, here is a wonderful website that you should visit :
http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/zenindex.html
Comment by Anonymous — July 19, 2005 @ 4:38 am