Reverends,
Maharajis, Matajis, dignified officers, and high ranking representatives
of the government of India, thank you for your blessing.
Thank
you so much for having patience with a good student like me. When we
made our acquaintance yesterday, you were very happy with me as a good
student of Indian philosophy. So I showed up again, as requested, out
of the kindness of the organizers. Today I am making another exam report
to you, my gurus. I hope you will find it acceptable.
As
you know when you teach us students you want feedback on whether the
students have understood your teachings or not, and you always make
an exam so that you can measure the progress of the students. So here
you are; here's my progress report. Please give me a good grade. Anyhow,
today I'm reporting to you about ahimsa.
There
are three dimensions to ahimsa. The first, and the most obvious, is
the physical dimension. The second is the mental dimension, where emotions
are included. The third is the spiritual dimension. So Ahimsa, in my
humble opinion, is not only non-killing and non-harming of sentient
beings or our fellow human beings, but also protecting their lives.
Not only just being negative or inactive, like passive, like, "Okay,
I don't kill, I don't scold, don't cause harm physically but protect."
And about these things the Indian people know very well what to do.
So I'm not going too far in this.
So,
we go to the mental level. Second is the emotional aspect, our mental
aspect. Suppose we cause harm to anyone, including ourselves, emotionally
or mentally; that, according to my very humble understanding, is also
ahimsa. So, ahimsa means we try not to hurt anyone emotionally, deliberately;
of course, we cannot avoid it when we do not understand what the other
people's feelings are, and then that is excusable. Whenever we can,
we try to avoid. This probably goes a very long way; actually the whole
precept of Hinduism consists of five or ten precepts, including not-stealing,
not-telling of lies, no sexual abuse, no-intoxication and all that.
I think it all boils down to the word "ahimsa". For example, taking
intoxicating substances, and then hurting other people's feelings and
causing them sorrow, worries and anxieties, that is also himsa.
Suppose
we take another's spouse without consent of the other spouse I don't
know, I don't interfer in other people's private lives; but without
consent, we would cause sorrow, troubles and pain to the other spouse,
and in turn, also cause a lot of mental distress, emotional upset to
the children and to whomever are concerned in that family. So, I guess
that's also called himsa. That's why Indian philosophy always emphasizes
ahimsa. This is the mental and emotional aspect.
As
to the spiritual aspect, suppose if we do not understand the teachings
of a great sage from ancient times, and we try to interpret them in
a wrong way to suit our own purpose, our personal gain, may it be political,
may it be financial, may it be fame and glory, whatever. That is also
himsa, because we cause people to regress in their spiritual practice.
We cause people to degrade themselves and lessen their glory in the
eyes of the Lord, lessen their own Godly quality. That is the greatest
himsa in my very, very humble opinion. Please tell me if I'm wrong.
(Applause) Thank you.
There
is a great teacher in India, I've forgotten his name, who tells one
joke like this. One time he told his students to tell him how high the
wall in front of them was. So everyone quickly wrote on a paper a report
to him, saying, "It's about two meters and a half." Everyone said 'about'
or 'approximately' and the teacher said, "You have all answered wrong.
The correct answer is 'I don't know'." That's true. When we don't know,
we say we don't know. When we know, we say we know, and that is knowing.
So,
whatever I learn from great Indian sages of the ancient or the modern
times, whatever I understand, I tell the people that is the thing I
understand and know, and you can take it or leave it. And if I don't
understand the other thing, I say, "I have to study more, and when I
understand, I will come back to you." This is very cautious, because
I don't want to cause himsa in the spiritual aspect. I think this is
more detrimental than emotional himsa or physical himsa. Isn't that
right sirs and madams? Yes? Thank you.
I
'm done with the first part. The second part is that life is joyful.
Every religion emphasizes that heaven is here and now on Earth. Right
now, if we know it, if we get in touch with God inside, we're joyful
all the time. Heaven is here. That's correct; that's true. But that
true joy is, if we are connected with God. That's what the Indian sages
always tell us, "Go inside. Meditate inside."
You
can meditate on a mantra, you can meditate on God's name, you can kiss
the stones, perhaps, or kiss the plants, whatever, so that you can get
in touch with God. Whatever your way is fine. Hes doesn't say you have
to do things in a particular way. But through my search, through my
spiritual thirst for wisdom -- I went all over the place, learned with
many teachers -- I found that the methods imparted by the Indian sages
of olden times and the modern time are the best.
The
ones that emphasize the inner light and sound, they're the quickest.
If you meditate on all the mantras or have another concentration, you
will see the light and hear sound, too. But if you meet a master who
can impart it to you directly, quickly open the door, you'll see it
right away. You don't have to make so much effort. From then on, you
continue all the time. That's what I was fortunate enough to have imparted
to me. I'm just reporting to you. You know already, anyhow.
So,
after that we have choice. We have choice all the time, but righteous
choice, noble choice; choice, but not hurting other people, choice but
not at the expense of other people; the choice of being faithful to
your wife and husband, and knowing truly that the spouse is God, and
hurting others is truly hurting yourself; because you have the choice
of knowing God, and you know that you have to behave like God. That's
what my teacher taught me. That's how I experienced it through my own
humble journey in search of the true wisdom.
Men
and women are different than animals. The animals they just eat, sleep,
and have sex. They don't have any knowledge about morality, obligation.
They might have love between mates, some of them do, and very faithful.
But many animals are not like men and women; they don't have the higher
consciousness of God. We're all God, like our reverend, minister and
other distinguished speakers before us. We all have God inside, we're
all God, even stones and all that. But different beings are bestowed
with different levels of consciousness, and human beings are the highest
in this consciousness. So human beings behave like God; animals do not.
We are human, so we have a distinguished difference -- we have love.
Sex
with love is different than sex just for enjoyment, in my humble opinion,
because God is joy, God is love. But God is not hurting others. Suppose
we take the spouse of other people and have sex for physical enjoyment.
That is okay with God. God does not judge us, but how about the other
one? We hurt her, we hurt him, and we don't like that. As God we want
to represent the highest, the noblest idea of divinity, and that's why
we choose to live righteously. We live the life of ahimsa. We choose
it, because we know that we are God, not that God will judge you. You
can do what you want, of course; you can have fifty wives, fifty husbands,
God will never say anything. But is that the way we want to represent
God? I don't think so.
Love
on the higher level is for all humanity. You can love fifty women, you
can love five hundred, you can love fifteen million galaxies of inhabitants,
but it's different than personal love. There are two levels, personal
and impersonal. On the personal, we have to take care of our family,
love our spouse and children, and discharge our duty the best we can.
That's personal. On the impersonal, we have to serve human beings with
a very, very undiscriminating and unconditional love.
That's
what the sages of India, for thousands of years, since the beginning
of creation, have been teaching us, and have been showing as an example.
The sages are the embodiment of love and unconditional sacrifice. They
would not teach us ever to harm other sentient beings in the spirit
of ahimsa. That is the three dimensional level of ahimsa. On the other
hand, of course, God gives us free will.
So,
there is another point that I have just noted from the other speakers
before. They all tell us to live righteously -- all of these speakers,
the distinguished ones here. So why should we do that? If God doesn't
judge us, if God is undiscriminating, you can do what you want, that's
true. This is the only life, perhaps, that you know; why worry about
moral obligation, about loving responsibility, about being faithful,
about being loving, kind? Just enjoy!
Enjoyment
is fine, but enjoy in a noble way, not in the animal way. That's what
the sages tell us. We can do anything we want and degrade ourselves
to the animal level; that's our absolute right. But is that the way
we want to live? I don't think the sages of India taught us, ever, this
way. Am I right? (Audience nod in agreement) Thank you.
There's
another point about why we have to keep ourselves noble and pure. Because
people can see us -- the seers, the sages and the pure in heart can
see our aura. If we do something right, we are God-realized, we are
God-loving and one with God, our aura is golden, is brilliant. If we
do something wrong -- we hurt other people emotionally, physically,
mentally or spiritually -- our aura is dark. People can see us, so we
cannot cheat. That's why we have to keep ourselves beautiful. Yeah,
like me. (Laughter and applause)
I
don't know what my aura looks like so I tried to make it golden with
the Indian embroidery. I don't have a very good habit of wearing this,
but I try hard. That's why I came late; please forgive me. I had to
walk like a fair lady...
So,
as much as we put on make-up, we put on ties and beautiful dresses to
represent God to the world, outside, we must also put on make-up, a
beautiful dress of purity, Godliness and holy love, inside, so that
we can represent the true God within us.
Thank
you very much for your patience. (Applause) End of the report. Please
give me a '10'.
