Promises To Yourself

Monday, November 8, 2010, written by Sonali

One of my Vidyapith teachers sent this to me, and I really liked it. I thought I’d share it with you all — its nice to see that someone has so eloquently voiced the way I try to live.

Promises To Yourself
Promise yourself…
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your
peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to
every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is
something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and
make your optimism come true.
To think only the best, to work only for the
best, and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success
of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and
press on to the greater achievements of the
future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a
smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of
yourself that you have no time to criticize
others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for
anger, too strong for fear; and too happy to
permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this
fact to the world, not in loud words, but in
great deeds.
To live in the faith that the whole world is on
your side so long as you are true to the best
that is in you.
(Published as “The Optimist Creed” almost a hundred years ago by Christian D. Larson, the words complement and provide inspiration to those reaching out for spiritual realms.)
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Are all religions essentially the same?

Monday, November 8, 2010, written by Sonali

I recently received this Vivekananda Quote of the Day, and it got me thinking; I was raised with the idea that all religions are essentially the same — that they are all different rivers that lead us to the same ocean, that one reaches the same goal whether he sincerely worships Krishna, or Christ, or Allah. My involvement in the Interfaith Council has put me in the position of having to explain these beliefs to others who didn’t necessarily agree with that viewpoint, and it has really made me think:

ARE all religions the same, in essence? Or are there fundamental differences that really can’t be resolved? Given my background, I’m always tempted to find ways to explain away what seem like fundamental differences; however, I wonder if that is the best approach…

In any case, here is the quote that spurred this post:

The idea of an objective God is not untrue–in fact, every idea of God, and hence every religion, is true, as each is but a different stage in the journey, the aim of which is the perfect conception of the Vedas. Hence, too, Hindus not only tolerate but accept every religion, praying in the mosques of the Muslims, worshiping before the fire of the Zoroastrians, and kneeling before the cross of the Christians, knowing that all the religions, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the infinite, each determined by the conditions of its birth and association, and each of them marking a stage of progress. We gather all these flowers and bind them with the twine of love, making a wonderful bouquet of worship.

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Can pujas and karma yoga coexist?

Tuesday, November 2, 2010, written by Saketh

I subscribe to the ideal in karma yoga of being detached from the fruits of one’s actions. This is wonderful, as it lets us live a scientific life — after all, the principle of detachment in karma yoga is precisely the method that any good scientist follows. Scientists paralyzed by a fear of having their hypotheses disproven don’t get much done. Similarly, worrying about failing an exam isn’t as conducive to studying as is a detached appreciation of the possibility of failure. Karma yoga turns every action into an experiment from which we obtain useful results, positive or negative, and lets us live and learn. It is simply — but powerfully! — the assertion of the scientific method upon our daily lives.

Such learning requires that we take full responsibility for our actions, and this is where I find a contradiction with pujas. In performing a puja, if one asks for divine help or prays for success in an endeavor, one ascribes a component of the resultant success or failure to divine grace, and thereby fails to take full responsibility for one’s actions. Our poor understanding of the exact mechanism through which divine beings assist their devotees erodes our faith that such help will actually arrive — rare are the souls who truly believe they will receive such help and whom the divine never disappoints. So I find it hard to ask divine beings for assistance when doing so absolves me of some responsibility for the results of my actions.

In particular, I find that the Ganesha puja, with its avowed aim to propitiate Lord Ganesha to remove obstacles from our future, is contradictory to karma yoga. This is the same for any sort of prospective puja, such as the Saraswati Puja, which seeks to create auspicious conditions for action. Such pujas leave room for absolving oneself of some responsibility for one’s actions, which I find is less effective when it comes to learning from what we do. On the other hand, retrospective pujas, where we shower gratitude upon the divine for its hand in our success or failure, allows us to remain humble, which is a critical factor in viewing the world objectively. Such pujas let us take full responsibility but little credit — the optimal mix for a scientific way, karma yogic of life.

Note that a puja is not itself prospective or retrospective, but the way in which it is performed is. I find that the verses in the Ganesha, Saraswati, and Satyanarayana pujas, with their requests for auspicious conditions and hopes for specific outcomes, embody the prospective attitude. But pujas in which we only express our gratitude for the outcomes of our actions to the divine are excellent because they are effective for maintaining humility — for this reason, I enjoy the offering sections of the aforementioned pujas. It is just such things as calling Ganesha as bhaktavanchhitadayakaya (he who grants his devotee’s desires) in his 108 names during the puja which alarm me as contradictory to karma yoga.

I don’t think the prospective attitude is bad, merely that it contradicts the principles of karma yoga which I value. In keeping with this, I do not plan to attend pujas which I perceive as prospective, so that I can try to be as purely retrospective as possible in invoking the divine, on my own. But when there are pujas or bhajan sessions or some other spiritual get-together in which the emphasis is on gratitude and praising the divine, then I see no contradiction and will be happy to attend!

What do you think?

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