Hindu Teachings
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Hindu
Teachings
H
"The Name and the named are identical; for He Himself appears as Name.
The letter (aksara) is indeed God's own Name. when the Name one repeats becomes alive,
it is as when a seed is sown the tree grows out of it.
If the Name that appeals most to any particular person is constantly repeated;
one arrives at the realization that all names are His names, all forms are His forms."
Sri Anandamayi Ma in Matri Vani
Letter # 28 Blindness
Why do we at times blind ourselves to the truth about ourselves? Why
do we misinterpret an incident or an observation about ourselves and
others? We appear to be held hostage to entrenched thoughts and
reactive emotions that confuse us. Other people often have a better
idea of who we are than we do ourselves. Is looking in from the
outside more accurate than looking out from the inside? Our journey
through life can be described as one long voyage of self-discovery.
Incidents that occurred in childhood suddenly become clear with age
and we rewrite our history in the light of these revelations. I see
difficult people from my past at a new angle and can, given the
opportunity, exonerate them, as they were as much a victim of
circumstance. To understand is, in many instances, to forgive. Not
always but that is another story distinct for every individual with their
unique destiny.
Blindness can be a natural condition physically and likewise we can
be congenitally blind mentally and emotionally. Sometimes we simply
do not see what we were staring at. We could not give it context. It
could be a natural vacancy in our mental processes due to
malnutrition or a warped upbringing. Everyone has their own
language and though the words appear to be the same, the valency or
weight can be different. An obvious example is the difference in
understanding that can occur between say a person who returns home
after being a tortured prisoner of war. Their family may with empathy
and imagination try to understand but the common words used cannot
convey the full extent of the experience. It is the same with spiritual
knowledge, as it may employ words known to all but the actual
content cannot be fully comprehended until we experience it for
ourselves and then it becomes startlingly apparent. Truth be told,
though I have read and studied Sri Ramana Maharshi’s writings for
decades and know intuitively that he is right, I really do not recognize
its full implications and apply it to my own life. It is still too elusive.
Words are not enough.
Each religion has its own vocabulary influenced by history,
environment, social circumstances… The list is long. How then do we
penetrate the words or convictions to reach the kernel of what is
meant? Especially using our own individual equipment, our reasoning
power, our emotional tendencies, our physical health, which
influences in varying degrees our perception. Our quest for the truth
about life in general and ourselves is hampered by deficiencies. We
are like a blind person groping in a dense dark room looking for a
light switch. What do we do? We can stand still frozen with
frightening insecurity or we can with our limited capacity attempt to
reach, we presume, that light switch which will clarify our
predicament. Just as our hearing and bodily awareness becomes
sharper, we spread out our hands and feel with our fingers for the
switch, so too in spiritual practice out of necessity we reach out with
other means we previously believed we never had but were only lying
dormant. According to the masters, we have within us all the
necessary tools.
So, before we begin to reach out for that switch, we need to
understand our limitations and recognise before we can be
‘enlightened’ that we are unable to comprehend the pervasiveness of
our own ignorance. We think we know but do we really? We are full
of assumptions generated by faulty understanding of culture, family,
circumstance, religion. We never see the full picture and live on the
crumbs that come our way. With a haphazard conglomeration of bits
and pieces we organise a composite picture within, which becomes
our lodestar.
Luckily, we all possess an instrument inherent in human beings which
we can for expediency’s sake call a conscience. The human being
who lacks to a greater or lesser degree this apparatus is regarded as
shadowy and in extreme cases, evil. They can commit the most
horrific acts because there is no active valve which can discriminate
and stop such horrors. Hannah Arendt in her seminal book The
Banality of Evil, about the trial of Adolph Eichmann, the efficient
Nazi bureaucrat who saw the extermination of the Jews as just a
question of logistics, incisively penetrated the veneer of civilisation
and the lies to demonstrate that a human being could blind themselves
to wanton behaviour with catastrophic effect.
Before we congratulate ourselves that we are not Eichmann, we
should remind ourselves that in our own small fashion we too can be
blind to the ramifications of our behaviour. The results may be
minimal but the principle is the same. If we keep on mindlessly
building up a negative reaction to a person or circumstance,
eventually that reflex takes on a life of its own. As mentioned in a
previous Letter, it should not surprise us when reading a report about
a murderer who shot someone that they claimed at the critical moment
they did not know what happened. The finger automatically pulled the
trigger and they were not to blame. Maybe, but the build up to that
moment, the attrition of repeated negative thoughts and emotions
pulled to pieces any resistance to the patent wrongdoing. The cause of
guilt lies in their history.
That is why when we enter the spiritual path it is the small steps
which are crucial. They may seem tedious at times and irrelevant but
the gradual build-up of positive thoughts and emotions strengthens a
sense of purpose and knowledge of what is right and wrong. It is then
we have a choice, whereas before we were blind to the influences on
us and as a result acted more like automatons than conscious
individuals.
Before we can take giant steps, we must, we absolutely must, limit
ourselves to what is possible within our means. Once we accept that
we are incomplete and blind, we can begin that infinitesimal process
and turn the tide of our lives, not by delusions of self-importance but
by recognition that we need help and that there is a path forward
beyond our impaired vision.
Apparently, we serendipitously seem to stumble on truths or
revelations. What we did not know, in retrospect, is that it was an
intrinsic part of our journey. It is said that knowledge comes to us
when we are ready.1 The miracle is that Life does collude to aid us if
we are true to ourselves. We are not alone though it may appear so.
We are all part of an intricate, intelligent web. There is in us a true
north mechanism and if we instinctively follow its trajectory, it safely
guides us. Our true north can be submerged, but not obliterated.
It would be a misconception to assume that the spiritual path becomes
easier with practise and time. Certainly, our mind with practise
becomes more disciplined and flexible and our nervous system and
the physical body feels more relaxed but it would be wrong to
suppose that it culminates in a once and for all final liberation. That is
a delusion. While we still inhabit a physical body which is our device
to learn wisdom, there is no end to our learning. We do so unto our
final breath. It is simply that each new level of understanding we
reach is more subtle and with it, brings new challenges. Even with
blessings of teachers our task begins again anew each morning. 2 It is
not for nothing that the Katha Upanishad states that “Arise! Awake!
Having attained to the Great Ones understand (The Path). Sharp as a
razor's edge is that Path hard to cross and difficult to tread: so, say the
Seers.” 3
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1. The Final Barrier by Reshad Feild
2. By blessings are meant receiving the grace of teachers, both visible and invisible, visits to an ashram, temple, mosque or church, the gods, insights from books, videos and so-called chance meetings with someone which sparks a spontaneous revelation.
3. Yoga of the Katha Upanishad by Krishna Prem.
