Reincarnation – U.G. Krishnamurthi and Theosophists

I am trying to compile the opinions of different well known people, traditions and movements on Reincarnation and post it  in this blog. I have already posted the views of J Krishnamurthi and Ramana Maharishi on reincarnation. Now it is the turn of the maverick, U.G. Krishnamurthi also called UG.

U.G. Krishnamurthi used to often tell this funny story of how he lost all belief in reincarnation. In his Theosophical days where the belief in reincarnation was rife and according to UG’s funny description the way people used to introduce themselves was - “I was Queen Victoria in my past life. What were you”. UG soon discovered that all the well known historical personalities had been claimed by the members of the Theosophical Soceity. Theosophists were claiming to be reincarnations of historical personages like Alexander, Ashoka, Cleopatra, King Henry, Victoria, Newton, Francis Bacon, Shakesphere, well known Buddhist and Hindu masters, and other writers and poets.  Since UG was left with little choice he could never get any worthy person to claim he was reincarnated from, hence out of frustration he dismissed the idea of reincarnation. Colonel Olcott the co-founder of the theosophical society used to claim that he was the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka in his past birth. UG used to make fun of this fact as to whether this was an evolution or devolution.

C.W. Leadbeater had written a book on the ‘Lives of Alcyone’ (The initiation name of J Krishnamurti). Based on his clairvoyant investigations Leadbeater had written about the many past lives of J Krishnamurti in this book. This book is in three parts and overall it describes the 48 previous lives of Alcyone. Leadbeater goes to the great extent of describing the different cultures in which Alcyone lived in his past lives. There was a great amount of scholarship which went into this book. UG used to wonder how Leadbeater could know such things about the different cultures egyptian, assyrian, european, roman, greek, hindu, buddhist, jain and many many more that he described in that book. Finally he found his answer when he started working with Jinarajadasa and was appointed as a caretaker of Leadbeater’s personal library where UG spent three months rearranging the books. During this time U.G. understood that Leadbeater was a voracious reader of books and UG concluded that ‘He has read all the ancient histories of practically every civilization in the world. No wonder he could fit Krishnamurti’s past lives into these histories.’

 There were also many people who came to know about this aspect of Leadbeater and raised objections. One of the chief critics of Leadbeater was B.P. Wadia, a theosophist and founder of the Indian Institute of world culture in Bangalore. B.P. Wadia found that leadbeater’s knowledge of persian and zorastrian history came from and was limited to a couple of books and he misrepresented many aspects of the culture. Wadia knew better as he was a Parsi and well read in the history of his religion and Persian history and culture.

The Theosophists went on an overdrive in convincing the world about Reincarnation. Notwithstanding all these issues Theosophists created and collected a huge body of knowledge on eastern religions. They created a bridge between eastern mysticism and western occultism. They were responsible for the renewed interest in the western and eastern world towards the eastern religions – Hinduism and Buddhism. And one of the fruits of their efforts is the new age movement.  Theosophists have influenced many well known political and religious personalities from Jawaharlal Nehru to Rudolph stiener to George Gurdjieff. People in the holy business still talk in the terminology created by  the theosophists like the Rays of creation, Monad, Astral bodies, Hidden masters, Lemuria, Atlantis and so on.

UG denied the existence of reincarnation and here are a few excerpts from UG on the subject of reincarnation:

Q: The theory of reincarnation also denies death, but in a different way. They speak of an eternal atma or soul which outlives the physical death …

U.G.: Whatever answers are given regarding death, you are not satisfied with them, and so you must invent theories about reincarnation. What is it that will reincarnate? Even while you are alive, what is there? Is there anything beyond the totality of the knowledge which existed inside you now? So, is there death at all, and if there is, can it be experienced?

U.G.: That is the tradition of India I am talking about — change, not the tradition you talk about, which is no change. Your whole life is a denial of the reality of change. You only wish to continue, somehow, then revive, only to continue. That is not the great tradition of India I am talking of. You think you are asking a profound question when you ask, “What is death?” You presume to ask Gowdapada’s question before you have asked the more fundamental question, “Am I born?” Instead of tackling this basic question on your own, you quote and write commentaries upon Gowdapada, then take the easy way out, and simply equate what I am saying with what he said. That is your cop out.

In any event, all you can do is to speculate about death and reincarnation. Only dead people ask about death. Those who are really living would never ask such a question. That memory in you–which is dead–wants to know if it will continue even after what it imagines to be death. That is why it is asking such silly questions. Death is finality; you are dead only once. When once the questions and ideas you have have died, then you will never ask about death again.

Q: We have been familiar with this theory of birth and death — karma, action, reaction or something that we bring along with us like a bank balance, add something to it, then spend something, and then carry it forward to the next birth or whatever it is. How far do you subscribe to this theory, or are you opposed to it?

U.G.: I am not opposed to the theory of karma or reincarnation. But I am questioning the very foundation of that belief. There is reincarnation for those who believe in it, and there is no reincarnation for those who do not believe in it. But is there any such thing as reincarnation as a law of nature, like gravity and other laws of nature? My answer is, no.

It doesn’t matter whether you believe or not in reincarnation. If one is interested in finding out for himself and by himself, to resolve this problem of reincarnation, and get an answer for this oft-repeated question, “Is there such a thing as reincarnation?” you have to ask this fundamental question, “What is there now that you think will reincarnate?” “Is there anything there? Is there any such thing as soul? Is there any such thing as the ‘I’? Is there any such thing as the psyche? Whatever you see there, whatever you experience there, is created only by the knowledge you have of that self. If you are lucky enough to be freed from the totality of knowledge, the knowledge of the self, reincarnation, and all kinds of things, then is it possible for you to experience any center, any ‘I’, any self, any soul? So, to me the ‘I’ is nothing but a first person singular pronoun, and I do not see any center or self there. So the whole idea of reincarnation is built only on the foundation of our beliefs.

Q: What is it that makes one a great person in due course of time and another stationary, stagnant in his mental processes? Do you attribute this to some kind of inherent gift?

U.G.: We have always been curious and interested in finding out why a child is born with deformities. And reincarnation was a very interesting theory evolved by the human mind at one time to explain away such situations and give us comfort in facing the situation that we have such people in our midst. But now it is possible for us, in the light of what they are doing in terms of genetic research and microbiology, to correct the deformities created by nature. Why should we want to attribute this misfortune to something terrible that we did in our previous life? That kind of belief comes in very handy to us. We have in our midst today a tremendous suffering, a tremendous amount of poverty, starvation, and degradation. It is very comforting for us to believe that that suffering is there because the people who suffer did something terrible in their past life. That is no answer to give. That makes us take shelter in the belief and not do anything to solve the problem there. The belief is neither spiritual nor human. In the name of doing something human to our fellow beings, we have perpetrated inhuman deeds. The belief in reincarnation will only help us to look the other side and not to deal with the problem which is demanding answers from every thinking man in the world today.

 Excerpt from the books ‘Mind is a Myth’ and ‘Thought is your Enemy’

You can read all the books of UG from this site: http://www.well.com/user/jct/

Ramana Maharishi on Reincarnation

Excerpt from “Be as You are – The Teachings of Ramana Maharishi” Compiled by David Godman  

 Most religions have constructed elaborate theories which purport to explain what happens to the individual soul after the death of the body. Some claim that the soul goes to heaven or hell while others claim that it is reincarnated in a new body. Sri Ramana taught that all such theories are based on the false assumption that the individual self or soul is real; once this illusion is seen through, the whole superstructure of after-life theories collapses. From the standpoint of the Self, there is no birth or death, no heaven or hell, and no reincarnation. As a concession to those who were unable to assimilate the implications of this truth, Sri Ramana would sometimes admit that reincarnation existed. In replying to such people he would say that if one imagined that the individual self was real, then that imaginary self would persist after death and that eventually it would identify with a new body and a new life. The whole process, he said, is sustained by the tendency of the mind to identify itself with a body. Once the limiting illusion of mind is transcended, identification with the body ceases, and all theories about death and reincarnation are found to be inapplicable.

Q: Is reincarnation true?

A: Reincarnation exists only so long as there is ignorance. There is really no reincarnation at all, either now or before. Nor will there be any hereafter. This is the truth.

Q: Can a yogi know his past lives?

A: Do you know the present life that you wish to know the past? Find the present, then the rest will follow. Even with our present limited knowledge, you suffer so much. Why should you burden yourself with more knowledge? Is it to suffer more? When seen through the sight of the supreme space of Self, the illusion of taking birth in this mirage-like false world is found to be nothing but the egotistical ignorance of identifying a body as`I’. Among those whose minds are possessed with forgetfulness of Self, those who are born will die and those who die will be born again. But know that those whose minds are dead, having known the glorious supreme reality, will remain only there in that elevated state of reality, devoid of both birth and death. Forgetting Self, mistaking the body for Self, taking innumerable births, and at last knowing Self and being Self is just like waking from a dream of wandering all over the world.

Q: How long does it take a man to be reborn after death? Is it immediately after death or some time after?

A: You do not know what you were before birth, yet you want to know what you will be after death. Do you know what you are now? Birth and rebirth pertain to the body. You are identifying the Self with the body. It is a wrong identification. You believe that the body has been born and will die, and confound the phenomena relating to the body with the Self. Know your real being and these questions will not arise. Birth and rebirth are mentioned only to make you investigate the question and find out that there are neither births nor rebirths. They relate to the body and not to the Self. Know the Self and don’t be perturbed by doubts.

Q: Do not one’s actions affect the person in later births?

A: Are you born now ? Why do you think of other births? The fact is that there is neither birth nor death. Let him who is born think of death and palliatives for it.

Q: What happens to a person after death?

A: Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself. Do not worry about the future. The state before creation and the process of creation are dealt with in the scriptures in order that you may know the present. Because you say you are born, therefore they say, yes, and add that God created you. But do you see God or anything else in your sleep? If God is real, why does he not shine forth in your sleep also? You always are, you are the same now as you were in sleep. You are not different from that one in sleep. But why should there be differences in the feelings or experiences of the two states? Did you ask, while asleep, questions regarding your birth? Did you then ask `Where do I go after death?’ Why think of all these questions now in the waking state? Let what is born think of its birth and the remedy, its cause and ultimate results.

Q: What becomes of the jiva [individua ] after death?

A: The question is not appropriate for a jiva now living. A dead jiva may ask me, if he wishes to. In the meantime let the embodied jiva solve its present problem and find who he is. Then there will be an end of such doubts.

Q: Is the Buddhist view, that there is no continuous entity answering to the ideas of the individual soul, correct or not? Is this consistent with the Hindu notion of a reincarnating ego? Is the soul a continuous entity which reincarnates again and again, according to the Hindu doctrine, or is it a mere mass of mental tendencies – samskaras?

A: The real Self is continuous and unaffected. The reincarnating ego belongs to the lower plane, namely, thought. It is transcended by Self-realization. Reincarnations are due to a spurious offshoot. Therefore they are denied by the Buddhists. The present state of ignorance is due to the identification of consciousness [chit] with the insentient [jada] body.

Q: Do not we go to heaven [svarga] as the result of our actions?

A: That is as true as the present existence. But if we enquire who we are and discover the Self, what need is there to think of heaven?

Q: Should I not try to escape rebirth?

A: Yes. Find out who is born and who now has the trouble of existence. When you are asleep do you think of rebirths or even the present existence? So find out from where the present problem arises and in that place you will find the solution. You will discover that there is no birth, no present trouble or unhappiness. The Self is all and all is bliss. Even now we are free from rebirth so why fret over the misery of it?

Q: Is there rebirth?

A: Do you know what birth is?

Q: Oh yes, I know that I exist now, but I want to know if I’ll exist in the future.

A: Past! . . . Present! … Future! . . .

Q: Yes, today is the result of yesterday, the past, and tomorrow, the future, will be the result of today, the present. Am I right?

A: There is neither past nor future. There is only the present. Yesterday was the present to you when you experienced it, and tomorrow will be also the present when you experience it. Therefore, experience takes place only in the present, and beyond experience nothing exists.

Q: Are then past and future mere imagination?

A: Yes, even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental. Space is similarly mental. Therefore birth and rebirth, which take place in time and space, cannot be other than imagination.

Q: What is the cause of tanha, the thirst for life and the thirst for rebirth?

A: Real rebirth is dying from the ego into the spirit. This is the significance of the crucifixion of Jesus. Whenever identification with the body exists, a body is always available, whether this or any other one, till the body-sense disappears by merging into the source – the spirit, or Self. The stone which is projected upwards remains in constant motion till it returns to its source, the earth, and rests. Headache continues to give trouble, till the preheadache state is regained. Thirst for life is inherent in the very nature of life, which is absolute existence – sat. Although indestructible by nature, by false identification with its destructible instrument, the body, consciousness imbibes a false apprehension of its destructibility. Because of that false identification it tries to perpetuate the body, and that results in a succession of births. But however long these bodies may last, they eventually come to an end and yield to the Self, which alone eternally exists.

Q: Yes, `Give up thy life if thou wouldst live’, says the Voice of the Silence of H.P. Blavatsky.

A: Give up the false identification and remember, the body cannot exist without the Self, whereas the Self can exist without the body. In fact it is always without it.

Q: A doubt has just now arisen in a friend of mine’s mind. She has just heard that a human being may take an animal birth in some other life, which is contrary to what Theosophy has taught her.

A: Let him who takes birth ask this question. Find out first who it is that is born, and whether there is actual birth and death. You will find that birth pertains to the ego, which is an illusion of the mind.

Q: Is it possible for a man to be reborn as a lower animal?

A: Yes. It is possible, as illustrated by Jada Bharata – the scriptural anecdote of a royal sage having been reborn as a deer.

Q: Is the individual capable of spiritual progress in an animal body?

A: Not impossible, though it is exceedingly rare. It is not true that birth as a man is necessarily the highest, and that one must attain realization only from being a man. Even an animal can attain Self -realization.

Q: Theosophy speaks of fifty to 10,000 year intervals between death and rebirth. Why is this so?

A: There is no relation between the standard of measurements of one state of consciousness and another. All such measurements are hypothetical. It is true that some individuals take more time and some less. But it must be distinctly understood that it is no soul which comes and goes, but only the thinking mind of the individual, which makes it appear to do so. On whatever plane the mind happens to act, it creates a body for itself; in the physical world a physical body and in the dream world a dream body which becomes wet with dream rain and sick with dream disease. After the death of the physical body, the mind remains inactive for some time, as in dreamless sleep when it remains worldless and therefore bodiless. But soon it becomes active again in a new world and a new body – the astral – till it assumes another body in what is called a `rebirth’. But the jnani, the Self-realized man, whose mind has already ceased to act, remains unaffected by death. The mind of the jnani has ceased to exist; it has dropped never to rise again to cause births and deaths. The chain of illusions has snapped for ever for him. It should now be clear that there is neither real birth, nor real death. It is the mind which creates and maintains the illusion of reality in this process, till it is destroyed by Self -realization.

Q: Does not death dissolve the individuality of a person, so that there can be no rebirth, just as the rivers discharged into the ocean lose their individualities?

A: But when the waters evaporate and return as rain on the hills, they once more flow in the form of rivers and fall into the ocean. So also the individualities during sleep lose their separateness and yet return as individuals according to their samskaras or past tendencies. It is the same after death – the individuality of the person with samskaras is not lost.

Q: How can that be?

A: See how a tree whose branches have been cut grows again. So long as the roots of the tree remain unimpaired, the tree will continue to grow. Similarly, the samskaras which have merely sunk in the Heart on death, but have not perished for that reason, occasion rebirth at the right time. That is how jivas [individuals] are reborn.

Q: How could the innumerable jivas and the wide universe which they produce sprout up from such subtle samskaras sunk in the Heart?

A: Just as the big banyan tree sprouts from a tiny seed, so do the jivas and the whole universe with name and form sprout up from the subtle samskaras.

Q: How does the jiva transfer from one body to another?

A: When one begins to die, hard breathing sets in; that means that one has become unconscious of the dying body. The mind at once takes hold of another body, and it swings to and fro between the two, until attachment is fully transferred to the new body. Meanwhile there are occasional violent breaths, and that means that the mind swings back to the dying body. The transitional state of the mind is somewhat like a dream. Q: How long is the interval between one’s death and reincarnation? A: It may be long or short. But a jnani does not undergo any such changes; he merges into the universal being. Some say that those who after death pass into the path of light are not reborn, whereas those who after death take the path of darkness are reborn after they have enjoyed the fruits of karma in their subtle bodies.

Some say that if one’s merits and demerits are equal, they are directly reborn here. Merits outweighing demerits, the subtle bodies go to heaven and are then reborn here; demerits outweighing merits, they go to hells and are afterwards reborn here. A Yogabrashta [one who has slipped from the path of yoga] is said to fare in the same manner. All these are described in the sastras. But in fact, there is neither birth nor death. One remains only as what one really is. This is the only truth.

Q: I find this very confusing. Are both births and rebirths ultimately unreal?

A: If there is birth there must be not only one rebirth but a whole succession of births. Why and how did you get this birth? For the same reason and in the same manner you must have succeeding births. But if you ask who has the birth and whether birth and death are for you or for somebody distinct from you, then you realize the truth and the truth burns up all karmas and frees you from all births. The books graphically describe how all sanchita karma [karma accumulated from previous births], which would take countless lives to exhaust, is burnt up by one little spark of jnana, just as a mountain of gunpowder will be blown up by a single spark of fire. It is the ego that is the cause of all the world and of the countless sciences whose researches are so great as to baffle description, and if the ego is dissolved by enquiry all this immediately crumbles and the reality or Self alone remains.

Q: Do you mean to say that I was never even born?

A: Yes, you are now thinking that you are the body and therefore confuse yourself with its birth and death. But you are not the body and you have no birth and death.

Q: So you do not uphold the theory of rebirth?

A: No. On the other hand I want to remove your confusion that you will be reborn. It is you who think that you will be reborn. See for whom the question arises. Unless the questioner is found, such questions can never finally be answered.

The Pale Blue Dot – Carl Sagan

Excerpt from the speech of Carl Sagan in 1990 on the ‘Pale Blue Dot’, a photograph of the earth taken by Voyager 1 from abour four billion kilometers away from earth. Extremely moving speech on the earth and its people. Astronomy is truly a humbling experience.

That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

See and listen to this moving video on the pale blue dot recorded in Carl Sagan’s own voice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M

Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader- The beggining of the end of printed books

Having been in the publishing and IT industry for many years, I am very keen on this new eBook technology and I am quite happy about the Kindle eBook reader of Amazon. Amazon launched its Kindle eBook reader at $400 this month. Is it the end of printed books, magazines and Newspapers. I think eBooks will bring the end of the printed books although it will take some decades. In about five years from now most people exposed to the knowledge and IT industry will be using eBooks rather than printed books and it would take a few more years for the people on the other side of the digital divide to get used to the eBook. This I think is my safe and calculated prophesy. Amazon is going to market Kindle like how apple has marketed iPod. But since this is a new medium of reading it comes at a price. I am sure the prices are going to drop soon and I think thats when I will buy the eBook reader. For now I will be content with the Printed books and my laptop. The amazon eBook reader is limited by the propreitary way in which it handles the file types and also it is hardwired to the amazon.com site where we would need to order books from Amazon.

The underlying technology behind the eBook reader is simple. The most important challenges are the usability features. We already have eBook softwares on laptops, desktops and PDAs. But they dont give the feel of reading books. Lets hope Amazon and other players address these challenges.

With Amazon creating the demand for eBooks in the market through their branding, more and more players will follow. Competition is always good for the consumers. I am just waiting for the Japanese and Chinese to come up with an eBook reader at a throwaway price and which also supports standard file formats like Doc, PDF, txt, rtf etc. Amazon is banking on cashing in on selling paid content from their website. There is even a fee for converting PDFs and other file formats into their propreitary format. But I think when the usage of the electronic readers become pervalent there will be many new players who would pitch in and help remove all these restrictions.

We also have other products and from Sony we have the sony reader which apart from the eBook features also plays MP3 files.  Sony reader is cheaper by $100 and it doesnt have internet connectivity like the Kindle. People are also expecting Apple to join soon  and release their eBook integrated with their pod. So finally we will have a single device with is a Book, a computer, music system, TV, phone and it will be portable and mobile. With the printed book dwindling and the power of internet and digitization, this is going to affect the publishing industry in a big way. Having worked in the largest publishing group in the world I can understand and appreciate some of the changes that will happen. I can also understand the way publishing industry would have to change in order to accomodate for the technological changes. The whole process of copy proofing and typesetting will be redefined. We would save on a lot of paper. If newspapers and magazines are digitized that would save a lot of trees. Even publicity for new books would be highly internet centric and search engine rankings will become all the more important. It would become just very easy for people to author and publish their works in the internet blogosphere. Its going to happen soon and I am excited and I hope to clear up most parts of my Bookshelf and help my wife to use the space to keep her favourite things. 

Here are some interesting links:

Amazon Kindle : http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device/dp/B000FI73MA/ref=tag_dpp_lp_edpp_ttl_ex 

About Sony Reader – http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/itpd/reader/

Sony Versus Amazon – http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/11/amazon-kindle-v.html

Future of Indian Science – Vedic Mathematics, Missiles and aeroplanes

The former central government in India spearheaded by the BJP  was in favour of introducing what is called as Vedic Mathematics in the school curriculum. Vedic mathematics is neither Vedic nor Mathematics. It is just a set of few simple formulas (about sixteen) for doing some arithmetic calculations. These formulas were discovered by a former Shankaracharya of Puri Mutt. He reinterpreted some sutras in the vedas and agamas and found  about sixteen postulates which help in doing some arithmetic calculations and also there are some advanced calculations in trigonometry, calculus and differential equations that can be done using these postulates. But that is all about Vedic mathematics. Being a keen student of mathematics, I could understand these sixteen postulates in a matter of a week and also could do some arithmetic tricks using these postulates. Basically some of them help in doing arithmetic calculations faster. But in this age of fast processors who needs these. I feel the only utility of this so called ‘Vedic Mathematics’ is that it can create the joy of numbers in children. And it stops at that.

Unlike Mathematics as a science which consists of a methodical exposition of algebra, geometry and arithmetic, Vedic mathematics has no such framework and it is a disjointed set of few postulates. Indians invented zero, but that was long long ago almost going into antiquity. I don’t think there is any connection or living tradition between those people like aryabhatta, bhaskaracharya and the modern day Indians. We as a nation can take pride that ancient indian mathematicians had discovered the pythagorus theorem much before pythagorus. We can pat ourselves on our backs on the fact that the indians knew trigonometry, calculus and differential equations much before the Greeks. But of what use will this be. It can to a little extent boost our national self-esteem. We should begin to recognize and accept the fact that what we follow is the mathematics and science that have been handed over from a long history of mathematicians and scientists. When we read the history of science, we see a clear tradition from aristotle to euclid to fracis bacon to newton to einstien; who all worked within the framework of the scientific method. There is nothing of this unbroken chain of scientific tradition in India. We can do ourselves good if we join the bandwagon of the tradition of the scientific method.

This is the same in the Arabic and Persian countries. They had a boom-time of innovations in the fields of astronomy and chemistry more than a millennium ago and they still live in the glory of those ages.  

It is not that Indians are not scientifically inclined. I had read somewhere that India as a country has the fourth or fifth  largest scientific community in the world ie after USA, UK, Germany and some other country. Considering the size of our growing population we can be the largest in any field if it comes to numbers. But again it is the quality that counts not the quantity. We do have strong role models in scientists such as C.V.Raman, Subramanium Chandrashekar, J.C. Bose, Meghnad Saha, Srinivas Ramanujam and many others who have contruibuted in a big way to scientific knowledge.

We should not be ruled over by these medieval forces who claim that Indians had discovered aeroplanes, missiles and test tube babies. We can appreciate the imagination of the writers of these mythological texts but there is no factual proof and method for developing these things in indian tradtions. In the west many scientific discoveries have followed from wild imaginations and fantasy - like the submarine from Jules verne’s ‘twenty thousand leagues under the sea’ and the Da Vinci’s helicopter. The scientists and technologists in the west turned these fictitious objects into reality.  But in India we have no such tradition.

The hope for the scientific community in India is the definitive change in the Indian mindset in the last fifty years but we need to be wary and careful of these medieval and superstitious forces out to capture the academic world in India. It is also a myth that ancient Indian tradition has been predominantly other worldly, content and satisfied only in mental abstractions. The constant series of Invasions turned india into a land of inaction. Because of the political and social turmoil the indian intelligentsia were more focussed on survival than on ingenuity and innovation. It is also a myth that Indian philosophy is highly introverted and have focused on subjective elements of the human mind. The most ancient philoosphy of Sankya has a precise materialistic classification of the world. The scientific method was not new here but it was just not pursued for various political and social reasons and hence we find the disconnect.

But will all of this change now that we are a strong nation with a powerful armed force. We have a lot of social problems with India shining on one side and the India stinking on the other. There are new challenges with globalization assimilating the best talents of the country into doing substandard jobs for multinational corporations. There are not many interested in science and research as there is not much funds for scientific research. For the future of Indian Science lets hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.   

Pranic Healing Guru – Choa Kok Sui is no more

I came to know that master Choa kok sui, the founder of Pranic healing movement died in March of this year. He was pretty young and was about 53 years old. The last time I saw Master Choa Kok sui was a couple of years ago in the St John’s Auditorium in Bangalore, where he was conducting a public function of mass healing. He was visibly overweight and looked unhealthy. I came to know that he suffered from many ailments and last year he had a bout of pneumonia and died because of that in March 07. I sometimes wonder why a person who claimed to heal so many illnesses through his psychic powers couldn’t get himself healed. Of course his followers have a ready explanation that he took the karma or the ailments of his students and died for it. A friend of mine who is his avid follower told me that Choa Kok Sui out of compassion realised that he is better off helping more people in his disembodied state than while he was alive in his body and hence he left his body.

Master Choa Kok sui started his healing career somewhere in the late eighties and he visited bangalore in the early Nineties when he introduced Pranic healing in India. He had readily borrowed from many sources in the yoga and occult traditions to create his own patented system of healing. That’s when I came to know about him and also met him in person in Atheetha Ashram of Swami Sahajananda. Choa Kok Sui was very approachable and not quite popular during this time. He later became a cult figure. 

Swami Sahajananda was a disciple of Chinmayananda and was into naturopathy and yoga healing. He had walked all over india on foot and collected funds and did a lot of rural development activities in Atheetha Ashram in thally. Choa Kok Sui was invited to the ashram and he later became a patron of that ashram. Swami Sahajananda was influenced by many people from varied backgrounds like Gandhi, E.F.Schumacher, Albert Schweitzer, Arnold Ehret, Herbert Shelton, Osho and Chinmayanada and his teachings were a mixture of the teachings of all these people. He believed in fasting and he did fast for long durations ranging from a week to three weeks. He was also interested in yoga and ayurveda and experimented with a lot of these things. I liked Sahajanada for his social work, simplicity and humility. He was also invited to Philiphines by Master Chao kok sui in 1993. That was his first tour abroad and Sahajanada died a few months later on his return to India. He was diagnosed of cancer and he died at a very young age of 48. I was shocked to hear the news of his death because I had heard many lectures from Sahajanda about health and healing and how yoga, natural hygiene and fasting can improve ones health and prolong life.

Influenced by Sahajananda, I used to follow all the rules of food, hygiene and yoga. I even used to lecture about these things to my classmates in college. But this incident really left me thinking and also changed my views and I decided not to have firm and rigid views about anything and also not fall a prey for fads. I do believe and have found the benefits of moderation in diet and also the benefits of exercises like Yoga, walking and aerobic exercises. I am quite healthy by most standards and have never been to a doctor for years.  I feel health and longevity depends on three things genetics, lifestyle and environmental factors. Genetics do play an important role in longevity. Some people are hard wired to lead a long and healthy life in-spite of their extreme indulgence and leading an epicurean life. There are some people who are quite moderate and frugal in their habits and they die young. So it is still a mystery and no one knows the secrets of longevity including the scientists, medical men and other soothsayers who claim to have insights into these things.

During this time even the self help Guru Deepak Chopra was in Bangalore. Chopra was still selling TM and not started on his own and he was not that popular. I found an article in the national newspaper which was quite funny, Chopra claimed that as a result of his practice of TM Chopra has stopped ageing. This was a ridiculous statement and now we all know that Deepak is ageing just like all others. Just compare his old and new photographs. One thing I understood during this time was that these people in the holy and healing business will go to any lengths to sell their products. Most of their testimonials and case histories are false and they only project what was good and suppress any bad evidence. 

I know some people in Bangalore who are into pranic healing and they  worship their Guru Choa Kok Sui almost as a God. They used to call him grandmaster Choa Kok Sui. There are certain characteristics I see in some of these people. They are all quite paranoid and obsessed with what they call ‘Bad Vibrations’. They are all the time judging people and have a ‘holier than thou’ attitude. They are also very secretive about their meditation and healing techniques like the Twin heart Meditation, Arhatic Yoga, Meditation on the Soul and Kundalini Meditation. You would have to go through their courses where they teach all these techniques for a heavy price. They claim that all these techniques were developed by the Grand Master Himself including all those funny new vocabulary on colour prana and cleansing and energizing techniques. However they don’t realize that Choa Kok Sui has borrowed from many known sources like Bihar School of Yoga, Alice Bailey and Theosophical Society.  What he was teaching was not something new and it was quite old and infact very popular in the early part of the nineteenth century and popularized by such authors like the American yogi Ramachakra alias William Walker Atkinson.

Choa Kok Sui towards the end of his life had become a megalomaniac. He even claimed that his photograph has healing properties and now after his death his followers have begun to worship his photograph. He created a fictitious lineage to which he claimed that he belonged to and associated it with the Mahayana Buddhist master Padmasambhava or Mei Lung as he is called in Chinese. He even went about sending court notices to other energy  healing teachers like Mantak Chia of Thailand and an Indian Author. He claimed that these authors committed the grave sin of plagiarising him. He could not use his loving kindness meditation to forgive these people of trespasses and after all these were not some great scientific and technological discoveries that they plagiarised but some rehash of age old yogic techniques.

One of the typical qualities of groups like Pranic healing, Siddha samadhi Yoga and Ravishankar’s art of living is the claim for the unique qualities of the wares they sell. In art of living we have the sudharshan Kriya which is a rehash of energizing breathing techniques and they associate all kinds of mystical qualities to this exercise. The same with the pranic healing foundation, in their websites they have outlandish claims of miracles. There is one instance on the pranic healing website where one of the practitioner of this system has mentioned about a miracle on how his CD player did not stop playing the meditation CD by Choa Kok Suion Om even after hours of the expected duration in the CD thereby defying the laws of electronics. (http://www.pranichealing.org/testimonials/t_journey.htm#cd).

It cant get more absurd than this.

Richard Dawkins – Rationalists, Paranormal and Dogmatism

“Those people who leap from personal bafflement at a natural phenomenon straight to a hasty invocation of the supernatural are no better than the fools who see a conjuror bending a spoon and leap to the conclusion that it is ‘paranormal’.”                     Richard Dawkins in ‘God Delusion’

“I’d say my view is very close to Darwin.  Richard Dawkins’ view, oddly enough, isn’t very Darwinian, it’s ‘neo-Darwinian’. What makes it different is the denial that there can be any kind of memory or spontaneous creativity in species. I think the scientific community has a diversity of opinions regarding telepathy. Many scientists are open-minded to the idea, partly because they’ve had these experiences themselves.  But, there are a group of scientists and non-scientists who are adamantly opposed to the idea, not because they’ve studied the evidence, but because they haven’t”                            Biologist Rupert Sheldrake

Richard Dawkins is one of the leading rationalists in the world today. An evolutionary biologist he has gone about debunking religions especially the god centered monotheistic religions. Dawkins brings about a much needed balance in the world where there is an increase in religious sectarianism and religion based terrorism. I have liked his writings and have read his works right from ‘The Selfish Gene’ to the recent ‘God Delusion’. My favorite book of Dawkins is ‘Unweaving the Rainbow’, where he is at his poetic best and he tries to prove that science and rational enquiry are no less wondrous than poetic and mystical raptures. 

Dawkins gets his rock solid intellectual position from Darwin’s theory of evolution, which explains that complex life forms and natural processes are evolved from simple ones. And prior to that life itself evolved from non-life. This leaves no scope for any intelligent design  and the theory by the same name propagated by the Christian fundamentalists in America. In the ‘God Delusion’, Dawkins attacks the different arguments in favour of God from Thomas Aquinas’s proof, to the ontological and the a priori argument, the argument of God through beauty, from personal experience, from scriptures and all the other well known theories used by religious apologists. He also attacks the agnostics and the poverty of agnosticism and extols that agnostics need to be decisive and make their stand clear.  This leaves no room for any other divergent views and we are left to accept the almighty views of Richard Dawkins or else risk ourselves to be labeled as  heretics from the church of science. He does a good job dismissing the religious fundamentalists and we are left gaping in admiration when he takes them head on and dismisses them. Dawkin’s position is that there is nothing which religion can explain which science cannot.

In the process of adhering to his firm rationalistic stand, a view which does not allow belief in any phenomenon without empirical evidence, Dawkins overlooks many aspects of the  paranormal phenomenon like telepathy, premonition, clairvoyance and synchronicity. I am not here talking about outlandish miracles like bending spoons or materializing objects but some simple psychic phenomenon like you think of a long lost friend and suddenly you get a phone call from that person.  The only plausible explanation for these phenomenons according to Dawkins is that they are all accidents for which many meanings have been extraneously associated. Being a staunch materialist he dismisses all paranormal activities as bunk. This is an extremely rigid stand for a professed rationalist to take. A skeptic if he is true to his name should be a fence sitter who is willing to change his views based on the evidence that becomes available. A skeptic worth his salt can’t afford to be dogmatic. Dawkins sometimes stoops to the level of his opponents, the obnoxious religious fundamentalists, whenever he professes his rigid stance towards anything not yet known to science. This is the very anti-thesis of scientific temper which he claims to further in his readers and audiences. Most scientific theories have come about by challenging existing scientific assumptions and axioms. A scientist just cannot afford to be dogmatic.  

I think it is a fair question to ask what is Dawkin’s experience in the area of psychic and paranormal research  and how can he be so dogmatic about it.  Dawkins escapes from any explanation or proof for the existence or non-existence of psychic phenomenon by claiming that the burden of proof is on the claimants or the believers of these phenomenon. It is a fair premise for Dawkins to take because it is too burdensome to debunk so many different beliefs of different people on different gods like yahweh, allah, brahma, zeus and the great juju up the mountains. Russel’s teapot and the flying sphagetti monster takes care of all of these gods. But what about the psychic phenomenon. 

For starters Dawkins can experiment on the mental processes and how states of thinking affect the external circumstances and the environment. I am sure empirical proofs for such phenomenon can be got but one needs to create an elaborate method of obtaining objective data in an area which is dismissed as a completely subjective experience. Any person with an iota of sensitivity cannot just dismiss the mysteries of the mind. The practices of Yoga, Tantra and other mind manipulation techniques are to a great extent atheistic but they do not dismiss these phenomenon which can be reproduced by certain practices. There are many outlandish and hyperbolic claims of miracles in these traditions but the students of science can study the simple psychic phenomenon  using some to the methods available within these systems. Being a dogmatic materialist it is quite possible that Dawkins would dismiss these phenomenon and dismiss all the methods and insights through which these phenomenon is explained in traditions like yoga, tantra, buddhism and other related schools of thoughts. But would that make his position correct. Although the burden of proof is on the claimants, a scientist and rationalist cannot just dismiss paranormal phenomenon without any effort to research and disprove them. Most of these so called research or debunking of the psychics is done by ex-magicians and professed rationalists who try to simulate the so called miracles using their magical tricks like sleight of hand and other physical process. Houdini, PC Sorcar and many others have become popular in debunking the miracles. But about  paranormal phenomenon like telepathy, premonition, clairvoyance and synchronicity the debunking is gross and borders on exhibitionism and entertainment rather than sound application of the scientific method. There are many debunkers of sorcerers out there but are they really honest, don’t they have a chip on their shoulders to prove their own pre-determined convictions.  

Scientific researchers propose hypotheses as explanations of phenomena, and design experiments to test these hypotheses. These steps must be repeatable in order to predict dependably any future results. Has there been any research done in a free and fair way through the scientific method on what is known as parapsychology. Personally, I have experienced many many such phenomenon. But for want of empirical evidence and research I would not bring it up against the arguments of Richard Dawkins and the so called rationalists. I also appreciate the scientific method and I am wondering whether there are any scientists out there who have done any exhaustive and unbiased research in these areas. As a lay man and a non-scientist,  I am in no position and have neither the resources and inclination nor the education for conducting such research in laboratories.  Hence I feel the burden of proof rests on the people who profess to have definitive views in this area. However I feel there might be many who are interested in this line of research and but for lack of proper funding and resistance from the scientific community they might have shied away from this field.  It is not politico-scientifically correct in this age if someone mentions that they are researching the paranormal. They will be dubbed as new age religious junkies. I am an atheist as far as so many different gods are concerned including the god of dogmatism but I certainly do not have rigid positions about psychic phenomenon as my personal experience says otherwise. I might be accused of suffering from delusion, solilopsism and even be excommunicated by the hallowed church of science as a heretic but the reality of these experiences do not correspond to the explanation of the so called rationalists and materialists.

I am searching for the proof on the paranormal from those who are working in the areas of research on the Mind. I am not sure if there is any subject by that name even.  We have neurobiologists and brain scientists like Vilayathur Ramachandran of the ‘Phantoms in the brain’ fame. They have mapped brain functions to some psychological states  and deduce that God and the mystical experience are present in the limbic system of the brain. We are made to believe that we don’t need to go any where further to look into and when Ramachandran and his colleagues map all thoughts and emotions to specific brain cells we will know everything that needs to be known about the mind.  With respect to brain research , the difference between the areas that they know and the areas that is still unknown is very vast.   Especially on the topic of ‘connectivity’ between ‘brains’ or ‘minds’ they might not even be looking into it. In their enthusiasm people like Ramachandran and Dawkins have come to premature conclusions and have started preaching their views as gospel truth.

J Krishnamurti on Reincarnation – Katha Upanishad

I found a talk on reincarnation by J Krishnamurthi. In this talk JK admits that reincarnation is a fact and also recounts the story of Nachiketa from the Katha Upanishad.

Question: Would you please make a definite statement about the non-existence of reincarnation since increasing `scientific evidence’ is now being accumulated to prove reincarnation is a fact. I am concerned because I see large numbers of people beginning to use this evidence to further strengthen a belief they already have, which enables them to escape problems of living and dying. Is it not your responsibility to be clear, direct and unequivocable on this matter instead of hedging round the issue?

Jiddu Krishnamuthi

We will be very definite. The idea of reincarnation existed long before Christianity. It is prevalent almost throughout India and probably in the whole Asiatic world. Firstly: what is it that incarnates; not only incarnates now, but reincarnates again and again? Secondly: the idea of there being scientific evidence that reincarnation is true, is causing people to escape their problems and that causes the questioner concern. Is he really concerned that people are escaping? They escape through football or going to church. Put aside all this concern about what other people do. We are concerned with the fact, with the truth of reincarnation; and you want a definite answer from the speaker.

What is it that incarnates, is reborn? What is it that is living at this moment, sitting here? What is it that is taking place now to that which is in incarnation? And when one goes from here, what is it that is actually taking place in our daily life, which is the living movement of incarnation – one’s struggles, one`s appetites, greeds, envies, attachments – all that? Is it that which is going to reincarnate in the next life?

Now those who believe in reincarnation, believe they will be reborn with all that they have now – modified perhaps – and so carry on, life after life. Belief is never alive. But suppose that belief is tremendously alive, then what you are now matters much more than what you will be in a future life. in the Asiatic world there is the word `karma’ which means action in life now, in this period, with all its misery, confusion, anger, jealousy, hatred, violence, which may be modified, but will go on to the next life.

So there is evidence of remembrance of things past, of a past life. That remembrance is the accumulated `me’, the ego, the personality. That bundle, modified, chastened, polished a little bit, goes on to the next life. So it is not a question of whether there is reincarnation (I am very definite on this matter, please) but that there is incarnation now; what is far more important than reincarnation, is the ending of this mess, this conflict, now. Then something totally different goes on. Being unhappy, miserable, sorrow-ridden, one says: “I hope the next life will be better”. That hope for the next life is the postponement of facing the fact now.

The speaker has talked a great deal to those who believe in and have lectured and written about reincarnation, endlessly. It is part of their game. I say,”All right, Sirs, you believe in it all. If you believe, what you do now matters”. But they are not interested in what they do now, they are interested in the future. They do not say: “I believe and I will alter my life so completely that there is no future”. Do not at the end of this say that I am evading this particular question; it is you who are evading it.I have said that the present life is all-important; if you have understood and gone into it, with all the turmoil of it, the complexity of it – end it, do not carry on with it. Then you enter into a totally different world. I think that is clear, is it not? I am not hedging.

You may ask me: “Do you believe in reincarnation?” Right? I do not believe in anything. This is not an evasion I have no belief and it does not mean that I am an atheist, or that I am ungodly. Go into it, see what it means. It means that the mind is free from all the entanglements of belief. In the literature of ancient India there is a story about death and incarnation. For a Brahmin it is one of the ancient customs and laws, that after collecting worldly wealth he must at the end of five years give up everything and begin again. A certain Brahmin had a son and the son says to him, “You are giving all this away to various people, to whom are you going to give me away; to whom are you sending me?” The father said, “Go away, I am not interested”. But the boy comes back several times and the father gets angry and says, “I am going to send you to Death” – and being a Brahmin he must keep his word. So he sends him to Death. On his way to Death the boy goes to various teachers and finds that some say there is reincarnation, others say there is not. He goes on searching and eventually he comes to the house of Death. When he arrives, Death is absent. (A marvellous implication, if you go into it.) Death is absent. The boy waits for three days. On the fourth day, Death appears and apologizes. He apologizes because the boy was a Brahmin; he says, “I am sorry to have kept you waiting and in my regret I will offer you three wishes. You can be the greatest king, have the greatest wealth, or you can be immortal”. The boy says, “I have been to many teachers and they all say different things. What do you say about death and what happens afterwards?” Death says: “I wish I had pupils like you; not concerned about anything except that”. So he begins to tell him about truth, about the state of life in which there is no time

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, OJAI, CALIFORNIA – 13TH MAY 1980 ‘REINCARNATION’

Eighty Four Postures of Hatha Yoga

It is believed that Hatha yoga was created by the God Shiva and he initially taught 84,000 postures. But there are no records of these 84,000 postures in any of the scriptures. These 84,000 postures are supposed to correspond to the 84,000 life forms which  human beings have to pass through to attain final enlightenment. However there is a wide spread belief that out of the 84,000 postures there are 84 which were distilled by Shiva. These 84 exercises covers and exercises all aspects of the human being. Of course you would need to have a lot of time everyday to practise all of them. Maybe about 2 -3 hours.

The two main sources of Hatha yoga are Swatmarama’s Hatha yoga pradipika and Gheranda Samhita. The hatha yoga pradipika mentions about 13 postures, apart from that it describes the Shat Karmas the six purification exercises, about 8 varieties of pranayama, bandhas and mudras. It is still unclear where and when this ‘84 posture’ legend came about. In modern times there have been many hatha yogis like Swami Syamananda, Shri Yogendra of the yoga institure of Santa cruz in mumbai, Dhirendra Brahmachari, Krishnamacahrya and his lineage, Sivanada and his lineage and many others who have interpreted the 84 postures in their own way. Bishnu Gosh the brother of paramahamsa yogananda and the Guru of the popular yoga teacher Bikram Choudhari also popularised the 84 postures of Hatha Yoga. Following is a list of the 84 postures in the order in which it is performed from the lineage of Bishnu Gosh. He used to teach a pure form of Hatha yoga and was not into much of innovation for which teachers like B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois and others are  famous for. Bikram Chowdhari picked up 26 postures out of there 84 and created his own patented system with other paraphernalia like the hot room and so on. Bikram Choudhri also teaches this 84 posture series in his teacher training. Following are the 84 postures in the classical hatha yoga tradtion. I am giving only the sanskrit names of these postures. In future I will post more details on each of these postures, provided I have time from my busy schedule.

1 Virabhadrasana
2 Suryanamaskara
3 Parshvachandrasana
4 Ardhachandrasana
5 Padhahastasana
6 Trikonasana
7 Dandayamanavibhaktipadajanusirasana
8 Utkatasana
9 Garudasana
10 Dandayamanajanusirasana
11 Dandayamanadhanurasana
12 Tuladandasana
13 Vibhaktipadahasthatuladandasana
14 Dandamaya Bhibhaktipada paschimotasana
15 Tadasana
16 Padangustasana
17 Vamanasana
18 Khagasana
19 Bakasana
20 Angusthasana
21 Pranasana
22 Sukhasana
23 Samasana
24 Sidhasana
25 Bhadrasana
26 Swasthikasana
27 Ardhapadmasana
28 Padmasana
29 Uthithapadmasana
30 Baddhapadmasana
31 Tulangulasana
32 Garbhasana
33 Matsyasana
34 Makarasana
35 Parvathasana
36 Kukutasana
37 Shavasana
38 Pavanmukthasana
39 Bhujangasana
40 Shalabhasana
41 Purnashalabhasana
42 Dhanurasana
43 Suptavajrasana
44 Ardhakurmasana
45 Ushtrasana
46 Sashakasana
47 Janusirasana
48 Paschimotasana
49 Vibhaktipadapaschimotasana
50 Mandukasana
51 Uthithapaschimotasana
52 Purnavibhaktipadajanusirasana
53 ekapadarajakapottasana
54 Dandayamana purnajanusirasana
55 Natarajasana
56 Akaranadhanurasana
57 Chatushkonasana
58 Gomukhasana
59 Ardhamatsyendrasana
60 Ekapadagokilasana
61 Eka pada sirasana
62 Dvipada sirasana
63 Uthithakurmasana
64 Kurmasana
65 Yoganidrasana
66 Omkarasana
67 Samkatasana
68 Purnabhujangasana
69 Purnadhanurasana
70 Purnaustrasana
71 Urdhvadhanurasana
72 Eka Pada viparitha dandasana
73 Mayurasana
74 Badha Mayurasana
75 Ekapadamayurasana
76 ekahasthamayurasana
77 Halasana
78 Sarvangasana
79 Urdhvasarvangasana
80 Sirasashana
81 Urdhvashirasasana
82 Vyagrasana
83 Vyagravrickshasana
84 Hastasana