Kailash-15

Dear Friends

In the course of various readings on Kailash, we come to know that as much as Hinduism places it as the Ultimate abode of Lord Shiva, it is equally important spiritually for Buddhist and Jain folllowers. I used the name 'Chakrasamwara' as one of the names of Lord in Tibetean Buddhist worship. The Internet describes that He is a union of the male and female aspects of the Lord with multiple limbs and is a destroyer of all evil forces. Transferring the description to our own learnings of Hindu mythology, we realise that the combination of Shiva and Shakti is the cause of destruction of all evil forces, ungainly thoughts and unwanted egoistic pursuits. We realise that there is great commonality between the two faiths and both extol the virtues of silence, meditation and non-injury. 

If I speak something that hurts you, I have injured you. If I speak something ill about you to someone  else, unknowingly I have injured you. If I try to create a situation that will ultimately result in some disadvantage or loss for you, I have injured you. So non-injury really means that whatever I do, speak, think or perform, should not result in being resoponsible for my fellow-beings' suffering. This can be best practiced by becoming conscious at all times and remembering that my thoughts, acts and reactions are meant for the common good of my fellow beings. Such a mindset will at least ensure that if anything adverse does come about, it is an unconscious or unknowing act and not with an intent to injure others.

When we were in school, we remember that during 'free' periods, when the subject teacher hadn't come to the class, we used to make a huge ruckus in class. At that point, some other teacher enters class and shouts.... 'silence'. Immediately, the whole class went quiet for about 20-30 seconds. Then the teacher asks.....'whose class was this?' Suddenly everyone jumps up and tries to be the first to say 'miss x or miss y.....whatever'. The momentary silence is broken. If we relive that experience for a moment, we understand that silence is our inner nature, it is always present. We create noise and disturbance, with our constant inner-chatter and compulsive thinking process and consequently remain unhappy. A constant vigilant watch on the mind and it's habit pattern will slowly help us to remain silent in our within, and use our thinking faculties only when confronted with a need to find a solution or react to a given situation in life. That way we can remain in the 'present' and not hallucinate about the future or brood over the past.

We have heard the word 'meditation' many times, but those who are unfamiliar with it tend to feel scared about it or think that is something to be done in old-age after retirement from day-to-day working. Actually meditation starts from understanding, what is breathing. We all breathe; without that we cannot live. If we pay attention to how we are breathing at any moment, we'll realise that when we are calm and serene, our breathing is very normal.  The moment there's any sorrow, joy, excitement, depression or any such change in the emotional condition, our breathing becomes erratic or heavy. If we pay attention to our breathing at these times and focus on breathing normally, suddenly the power of that moment's emotion to overpower us diminishes. Meditation can be practiced by initially concentrating on maintaining this normal breathing pattern. Once the mind learns the habit of focussing on the present, we can gradually travel 'inwards' to know ourselves in our within. 

Let us pray to Lord Viswanatha (who is the lord of the world / 'vishwa') to help us gain access to these knowledge and grow into our happiness and bliss which is our right.

Prem & Om