Author: D. Murali
Publication: The Hindu
Date: April 30, 2006
URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/iw/2006/04/30/stories/2006043002901500.htm
A spiritual master may be the last person
you would turn to for tips on money making. Think again.
It may seem inappropriate to talk about wealth,
immediately after learning about meditation. But that's what His Holiness
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar does in Wisdom for the New Millennium, from Jaico (www.jaico
books.com). The penultimate chapter of his book is titled `What is meditation?'
and the last, `Six types of wealth and four pillars of knowledge.'
A spiritual master such as Shankar may be
the last person you would turn to for tips on money making. Yet, it helps
to pay heed to the Indian guru who is avidly listened to all over the world.
For instance, as the founder of the Art of Living (www. artofliving.org),
he was in Jaffna earlier this month "to heal the trauma of the victims
of the ongoing ethnic conflict in the region."
The ultimate knowledge of who you are is very
simple. It is the simplest, he writes. "Potentially it is available,
but dynamically, practically, it is not available." Reason? Hearing about
truth merely creates a concept; to experience it, you need practices that
act like signposts, advises the author.
He gives a contemporary analogy: "Simply
describing the destination of where one is going is not sufficient. You have
to be given a road map and directions, where to turn and which exit to take.
Otherwise you could be on the freeway all the time not knowing where you have
to exit. This could make the journey continuous and never ending. Directions
are essential."
Four pillars
The final chapter discusses `Direction', such
as the four pillars. The first is viveka. Though `grossly translated as discrimination'
this is more: it is "the understanding or observation that everything
is changing." Changes, not only the prices of shares that keep ticking
on the screen, but also in your thoughts and emotions. For instance, "You
cannot maintain the same degree of sadness every day all the time... You can
never be unhappy for the same reason continuously."
How does it help to know that everything changes?
"The moment you see that things are changing, simultaneously you start
seeing that the one who is observing the change is not changing." The
reference point of change is non-change, explains the Shankar. An insight
that can reduce 99 per cent of misery, he says!
The second pillar is vairagya, `dispassion.'
Which is not the same as apathy, or being unenthusiastic, depressed, or not
being interested in anything. "Dispassion is a lack of feverishness,"
be it in what you desire, hope or aspire for.
Shama to samadhana
Then comes the third pillar, which includes
the six wealths, viz. shama, dama, uparati, titiksha, shraddha and samadhana.
The first wealth, `shama,' means tranquillity of the mind. "When the
mind wants to do too many things, it gets completely scattered." With
shama, you can focus your mind and be more alert, counsels Shankar.
Dama is about having a say over your senses;
essential, because many times you don't want to do something, yet you do!
With dama, your senses don't drag you; instead, "you will say `yes' or
`no' to the senses."
The third wealth, titiksha is `endurance or
forbearance.' When difficult things come, forbearance allows you to go on
without getting completely shaken and shattered, guidesShankar. Opposites
such as health-sickness, losses-gains... come and go; armed with titiksha,
however, you aren't deterred by whatever happens. "Often, whatever is
unpleasant can become pleasant later on. These are the changes that go on
in life... The ability to not get carried away by the events, the judgments,
is titiksha."
The fourth wealth, uparati, means rejoicing
in your own nature. How? By not doing things because someone else says or
does something, by not labouring hard to win approval, or keeping up with
the Joneses. "Being in the present moment, being in the joy that you
are, the ability to rejoice in anything that you do, that is uparati."
Faith or shraddha is the fifth wealth. "Faith
is needed when you have found the limit of your knowing... Your willingness
to know the unknown is shraddha." It would be fanaticism to think there
is nothing beyond. Absence of faith is doubt - in yourself, others, or the
whole. "Ninety nine per cent of people doubt the whole, because they
do not believe that there is a whole that is functioning."
The sixth wealth, samadhana, is being at ease,
being content. "Being at ease with everything, the whole existence...
a great wealth by itself."
These six wealths together form the third
pillar, he says, before moving on to the fourth pillar, mumukshatva - "the
desire for the highest, a desire for total freedom, for enlightenment."
Revelatory read.
