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[8 years old discussion with then FB friends]
Call me old fashioned, but a handful of real Brahmanas, when they decide to focus on things other than God, can achieve the unthinkable. By Brahmanas, I do not mean people born in a certain family and caste.
The start has to be from the villages.
– Rajarshi Nandy
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अग्रतः चतुरो वेदाः पृष्ठतः सशरं धनुः ।
इदं ब्राह्मं इदं क्षात्रं शापादपि शरादपि ।।
“A person having four vedas (knowledge) in front (to guide him), a bow and arrow (power) at his back (to back him) has a combination of “Brahmyam” and Kshatram” and hence he is capable of defeating the enemy either by “Shapa” (Power of Knowledge) or “Shara” (Knowledge of Power) Thus, the aim is to impart “Power of Knowledge” and “Knowledge of Power “ in the youth.”
A handful of real Brahmanas, penetrating in villages and rise of brand new Hindu political force from scratch, backed by real people!
Why political force?
Our body’s each individual cell works, keeping two purposes in mind, 1) for sustenance of own individual body’s survival 2) larger organization, organism identified as ‘Human”s survival. Each cell is imbibed by ‘Brahman’ spirit, on top their individual skill, be it Vaishya cell of lever or Kshtriya cell of immune system or Brahman cell of brain or labor cell of bones and muscles. Regardless of their individual working, they participate in greater national cause.
Ignore above analogy if it is too vague. Understand, it is necessity that Sons of maa Bharati understand importance of National governance and participate in politics.
Why a hindu political force??
Brahman spirit, that this status is talking about, is epitome of true culture of our land. When such brahmans gather for a purpose other than God, they emerge as strongest functionality to reduce political mess in any age. In history, such functionality is described by ” *Hindu* political force” on this land called ‘Bharat’, because such Brahman spirit had *Hindu* or *Vedic* or *Sanatana* dharma as their base.
Rajarshi Nandy <<Rajarshi Nandy ji : Please share your vision of true Brahman spirit and how can it emerge from any ordinary citizen.>>
This is the difficult part. That is why first one has to start doing sadhana. A true Brahmana is one who has experienced Divinity. Now that is of course a very difficult job and may take many lifetimes of sincere efforts. So instead of creating an exacting cut-off, that only he/she who has experienced Divinity [BTW, experiencing Divinity is a very lose term and covers a whole lot of ground] is a Brahmana, I suggest that anyone who is a sincere seeker of God and and *makes efforts* for the same, along the paths shown by our ancient Rishis, is a Brahaman. For no one understands what is Sanatana Dharma more than the Rishis of yore. Merely lip service that I seek the Supreme is not enough. One must work towards it as well. This is what in Sanskrit known as a sadhaka. For an sincere and authentic seeker of God, transformative changes start in his/her thinking process, attitudes, inter-action with the world. Eventually a good objectivity, detachment, compassion sets in. Anyone who exhibits these qualities is a Brhamana. These qualities help an individual to get rightly guided by Nature and realize what his/her dharma really is. When the correct realization of dharma happens, THEN Nature helps to protect and fulfill the individual’s dharma. This is the real essence of the Sanskrit saying, “Dharmo Rakshati Rakshatah”.
When such a group of individuals set upon a task, that task will most likely be accomplished for Nature will help them in everyway to fulfill their destiny. The idea is not quantity, the idea is quality. Even 10 such people is a force to reckon with. Therefore the first step, is sadhana along the lines which our ancient Rishis have shown over and over again. WIthout sadhana, one cannot digest the core of Sanatana Dharma.
Therefore my recommendation is:
1) Sadhana – at least an hour daily with at least 1/10 of the time spend in meditation. If fire rituals involved, once a week is also fine, but meditation is a must.
2) Reading any one among the Bhagawat Gita with ShankarA Bhashya, or Brahma Sutra Bhashya by Aadi Shankara/Ramanuja/Madhavacharya, or Dyaneshwari.
3) Contemplation of the scripture being studied, for mere reading is a parrot’s job.
4) Follow this regime for six months. See the irrevocable transformation process that starts in you.
[Caveat: The idea bout point 2 is not that one must become a master of the scripture or get tied-up in technicalities. Take even 10 sutras from the Brahma Sutra, but contemplate on them deeply and see how you can relate to it. Dry scholarship is of not much help. Living, breathing relation to the words of Rishis, such that they will grasp the mind of the sadhaka is the real aim. If nothing else, just read Chapter 10 of the Gita and contemplate. ]
If someone follows this for 6 months, he/she will never be able to leave sadhana. THEN using the force of sadhana one can achieve the unthinkable. This is the real secret power of Sanatana Dharma.
Rajarshi Nandy <<After reading it for around an hour, i sit in silence for around half an hour to just contemplate what i have just read, my thoughts and also plan my day ahead( regarding the kind of actions i want to do during the day).
Now, regarding Sadhana, i have noone to guide me as to the path to be followed, reading vedanta and also trying to practise meditation myself, i realized that my body and mind is not as yet prepared for it. >>
First, almost no one, 99 percent people are not born prepared. They have to work on themselves and prepare. It is never a one day process, but neither is it impossible. Of all nations in the world, and Indian should never say this. We have produced so many fantastic spiritual giants, that we should have no doubts that it is possible.
Guidance comes along the path, if you trust Nature.
The essence of RajaYoga is concentration. The higher your ability to hold a single thought in your mind for large periods of time without any distractions, the higher is your chances of success in the path of RajaYoga.
In the path of JnanaYoga – which is most difficult – you must indulge in constant self-introspection. Install a watchdog inside your mind and inspect the motivation for every action that you perform. Read spiritual scriptures and reflect on them. See how far you are driven by conditioning to react to situations, and then slowly work on removing the mental conditioning. For example, there are always people whom we like or whom we dislike. Those we dislike, we will tend to have a predisposition towards disagreeing with them even when they maybe saying the right thing. ETC. This is conditioning. Similarly there are various other minute sub-conscious factors which decide the way we react to given situations. When you can find them out, being ruthlessly honest to yourself, and then remove them, THAT is walking the path of Jnana. As one keeps improving, objectivity and detachment will set in. This path by itself, IMO, is quite difficult for most people in this age.
Then is the path of Bhakti where you believe in some Deity or God or Nature or something, and try to act with the inherent belief that whatever, good or bad happens to you, is but a gift of that Supreme being. You trust that implicitly and slowly work on improving your devotion to it. As devotion increases, purity in mind comes. Purity is nothing but higher level of focus/concentration – the ability to hold one idea while excluding everything else.
Then KarmaYoga, which is again quite difficult for most people because it does not mean just working, but working without any attachments. If your results bring you failure, even then you won’t be perturbed but do what is to be done. This can be successfully done when a person has acquired some detachment, some objectivity, some purity by following any of the three paths mentioned above.
Now, if you have time at hand, why not try the following:
Take any mantra of any deity that you like. Say Shiva. Everyday, around the same time, sit in an asana (use any piece of cloth, but the same one daily), with your back-straight and chant 10 malas of Om Namah Shivaya. One mala is 108 times. This won’t take you more than 20 mins. While you chant mentally, try to keep your mind focused on the words of the mantra. The mind has a tendency to jump from one thing to another. In order to stop it from doing so, peg it to a post so that it cannot run around. That post is the mantra. Try this for 40 days. Try to make sure, as far as possible, that you sit in the same place everyday in the same asana, at the same time (plus/minus 5 mins).
Make sure that you do it in a relatively empty stomach, that is do not do it right after having a full meal. Along with reading the thoughts of Swami Vivekananda, this is a good spiritual practice. After 40 days, observe how you feel about the whole thing. You will get to know yourself if it is having any effect on you.
