Do spirits exist? Is there a world out there we are unaware of because we just don't want to know it?
There was an incident recently in some one's house where there seemed to be a spirit hovering around the house, though interestingly not disturbing the inmates. A few learned men came by and refused to enter the house because they insisted there were spirits inside.
The saga ended pretty fast when one of the learned men came over and decided to "capture" the spirit and send it packing.
It was an interesting story and hard to believe but when it happens so close to home, you are really left with little choice to go against this reality.
Spirits are typically the souls of those people who die earlier than the expected date. Hence someone who commits suicide typically ends up as a spirit and hangs around till the actual time of death when they move further up the heavenly chain namely Yamaloka where Chitragupta brings out their deeds during their life times and decides their fate at Yamaloka - so try to be good.
Subsequently they are taken to Devaloka where they shall continue performing puja and go through penance to reach Lord Shiva and Vishnu and hope for the day they will head to Vaikuntam or Kailasa. While this is not so easy in Kaliyuga, lets see what happens to spirits.
Good and bad spirits have always dominated our imagination. Well is it imagination? Its more fact than imagination. Spirits if left alone hang around on Neem or tamarind trees. Else they are found near water bodies like lakes and rivers and the sea coast. They love darkness and cannot handle light. They love water but cannot handle fire. Hence the superstition - Do not go out in the night near any water body.
What would they do? Spirits tend to come and settle on you, when you venture out in these places by night. When a spirit rests on you, you don't get to see it, but feel as if a whole ten ton stone has been placed on you. It affects you physically and psychologically. Spirits who come can go just as fast. Hence the truth in the story of Vikram and Vetal.
Spirits react to smell or odour. They love the smell of jasmine and roses, the smell of food and incense. This is the reason for the superstition - women shouldn't go to bed with flowers in their head because it attracts spirits.
Spirits are attracted to various odours, so should some real smart guy want to hypnotise a spirits, its through smell. The attraction levels towards smell is so high that a spirit can succumb to any task assigned once they are intoxicated by the odour. Hence the world of black magic came in.
How do they look? Well spirits have a mind, largely appear translucent and do not have feet. The most beautiful spirits appear with lovely eyes, open hair, and look like a bride who is just five days into her marriage. Spirits are basically good and harmless. They do have a weird sense of humour and are playful. Maybe they would just jump on your back and slap you when you venture out at night! There are situations where you can see them and your friend can just hear them. They have a weird laugh and sound really strange during communication (am not referring to plan chit). Spirits understand languages.
So when do they turn evil? When a bad guy offers blood(chickens) instead of flowers and food to eat. Yes, gory as it may sound, spirits are by nature gentle beings, but its a human who diverts a spirit's mind and makes it do weird/evil things. Spirits can do good things too like predict immediate future and give you hints for something you lost.
Spirits come to homes where regular worship is not done. When spirits enter the house, there is a strong breeze before they come in with shreaks. Spirits can stay endlessly in your house until they are finally made to go away. Once out of the house, spirits wait for instructions from the bad guys who sent them there for around two days before they move on.
Last but not the least, spirits suck out the essence of any food offered. Meaning when you place a cube of sugar and invite a spirit over, it takes out the essence of the sugar cube. Should you attempt tasting the cube later it will be insipid and not sweet as expected. Strange but true!
25 comments:
Well, a rather interesting article indeed!!! but i beg to differ,a lot has been said about spirits and ghosts or whatever you call them. Even with the most advanced technology , we have not yet figured out what these so called supernatural beings are, and how do they behave. It is true that people who die before the destined period(as mentioned by lord Brahma) roam around aimlessly untill the day of moksha. It is said that spirits can be photographed by infrared cameras. IT is true that they are translucent, but it is highly debatable whether they can possess a human being or not. Apart from that, ancient sages have predicted that certain spirits have immense power compared to others. Hmmm!! a lot to speak about, but no time.
Hi Aswin
Moksha is a strange word. Not having a rebirth doesnt necessarily promise moksha. You end up in other worlds like Yamaloka where it is decided whether you come back to Bhuloka (earth as we see it) or carry on where ever. Garuda purana defines the activities at Yamaloka and this purana should only be read on the 10th day of someone's death in the family.
Should you carry on to the other worlds and not have rebirth, you probably end up in Devaloka or the likes and try hard enough to go higher to what we call heaven - Kailasa or Vaikuntam.
Aswin, technology is a fairly new concept and is not currently capable of figuring out a lot of things. therefore it would be fairly stupid to believe things dont exist because technology cant prove it.
Its about understanding, and openness to change and not a battle of opinions. You need to be ready to want to know, then knowledge will come. Dont judge knowledge before you get to know it in entirety... its dangerous.
Our scriptures have defined certain things... if you are telling me that modern technology is superior to ancient scriptures you have blocked half the world out already.
regds
Kavitha
You are right Kavitha, technlogy cannot explain all things, in fact it sometimes misleads humans into believing something that is just virtual. I am not against our shastras, in fact Iam proud to belong to a country which consisted of great sages like Agasthya, Valmiki; great physicians like sushrutha , and charka, mathamaticians like Aryabhatta and Bhaskara. It is actually proved that indians performed surgeries which cannot be performed by modern technology. Our ancestors relied on spirituality and the sixth sense rather than on material technology. BUt at the same time, i have to mention that the terms Yamaloka, and Swargha are actually fictious terms, when you go by Vedas. If you go deep into our religion that is Sanathana Dharma, you will realise that the terms and forms of hindu gods were actually symbolica, but not fictional. We never know, because we have not died yet, but as far as siddhars are concerned, a soul gains moksha when the paramatman(the soul bereft of sins and punyas) is realised. If a spirit does not realise paramatman, it is bond to wander around (It can neither reach the netherworld nor the physical world) so that itself is punishment.
It's good to see Aswin after long time... As an introduction I would like to offer the following comments...
Once someone comes up above apparent time, (or, rather, in reality one is pushed up above it, as water, one of the ‘Panchbhoota’, ‘naturally’ pushes up light objects that are immersed in it, because of their inherent characteristic properties - as an example in ‘Nature’), and understands that the real time is zero for the real being, whose image the self also is, i.e., when one gets linked to the unmanifest, one could realize that all the so-called material forms, in fact, are only different energy forms that appear to have acquired different forms. As a ready-made example, light from Sun, reflected even by plain mirrors/ shiny surfaces, appear of the same circular shape and much smaller size than the real (as in the case of all smaller scalar models), as teh huge Sun appears to us from earth… In the words of the ancients the phenomenon was called overcoming of ‘Maya’ or illusion…
Astronomers also tell us that when one sees light from a distant huge though apparently 'twinkling little star', it reaches us in many light-years depending on the distance of the star from the earth. In fact, when one apparently sees the star, in the meanwhile that particular star might even have ceased to exist long ago at some given instant! Thus the star, one apparently sees today, could as well be considered as its image or as it looked before its death, or a thing of the past, i.e., one is viewing its ‘bhoot’ or ‘ghost’!
The sunlight that the earth’s atmosphere permits entry, besides the seven colours of the spectrum that generally are believed to be helpful, at least in appearance as reflected by different objects in 'Nature', contains ultra violet rays also, which might prove harmful to some people, who are located in certain regions. Thus also applying to energy, in conformity with the saying that is generally applied to food only, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” Good and bad spirits thus are relative terms...
As per ‘Hindu’ belief, man being a model of the universe, (or an ‘image of God as per Christian belief), i.e., believably the Formless Creator that is unborn and unending or Bhootnath, i.e., only a form of Super energy, or ‘light of the thousand suns’, and so on. One could thus appreciate the apparent ‘drama’ in human life in the ‘present’ as it is believably being witnessed by the Creator through innumerable apparent ‘physical senses’ of its evolved most creation, man, the ‘lucky spirit that had acquired human form’ in the past after passing through different ‘inferior’ animal forms, but with characteristics that were categorised either as positive (good) or negative (bad) related with different characters…
Wise among the ancient ‘Hindus’ appear to have come to realize that the apparent imperfection in human life was on account of ‘Maya’ that is illusion or the truth of its past being seen by the one and only ‘perfect’ being, a ‘spirit’ or super energy…
They expressed it in the words, such as, “Jagat Mithya…" or 'Maya,'etc, which then was interpreted in different ways to confuse its own 'images' or different 'spirits' in order to maintain hierarchy among the creations or the innumerable other ‘spirits’ to keep the grand variety intact till the other inferior spirits also reached perfection or attained ‘moksha’…
They appear to have realized the existence also of spirits without forms, such as that of the supreme soul/ supreme knowledge, but with lower status in hierarchy in terms of lower potential energy and utilizable knowledge, who once had attained human form. That is to say that all other spirits were inferior and waited for their turn to acquire animal form. However, some of those ‘defective’ souls attempted acquiring human form directly by sharing with an existing relatively weaker spirit inside an existing human form. This was understood as ‘illegal’ possession of the body by other soul or a number of other souls even, which got reflected by abnormal behaviour of the body. And, like there are physicians, in different branches of the medical system, there apparently were sorcerers who were (or apparently are) reputed to cure such persons by getting vacated the encroachments (like certain 'anti social' elements or souls with forms forcefully occupy someone else's house) only if they were selfless and also more ‘elevated’ than those selfish souls or demons…
I thought I should give a personal example on ‘realization’…
It was over two decades ago that I happened by chance (or by God’s design) to come out of my house when I came across a 3-4 year old ‘smart’ daughter of a young couple, our neighbour, who happened to be taking clothes for ironing to the washer-man while I was on some different errand. On seeing me, perhaps to show her intelligence, she said, “Sha se shalgam,” that is, ‘sha’ stands for a vegetable, named Shalgam in Hindi. Without speaking it aloud, I spontaneously rhyming it, I said to myself, “Ba se Balgam,” that is, letter ‘Ba’ stands for Balgam in Hindustani, i.e., phlegm in English…
We walked together some distance and I was shocked as I hadn’t expected it, she immediately uttered, “Ba se to buttakh hota hai!” That is, the letter ‘Ba’ stands for ‘battakh’ in Hindi, i.e., a duck!
Now, that incident at that time made me wonder, whether my soul was relatively more elevated so as to plant thoughts in her mind (at that particular instant only, maybe) or, whether she was a more elevated soul than mine to read my thought!
Now, I realize that it could be the job of a mischievous soul, a gardener-like individual who transplants a sapling from one location to another!
Illusion is just a state of mind.
Human beings live mostly in dreamland and think about lot of things they want to do or achieve in life. In reality it is fantasising. People become so involved in fantasising that they come to think it as a fact that has just hapenned to them.
Just a small example.
You seriously think about pepsi and suddenly come across an advrt (billboard) of Coke, you come to think as if you saw a Pepsi advrt (billboard).
Mind over rules even your vision and thus we have so many stories like spirits/GODs/Magics from our ancestors. These stories keep growing and never end.
Just my 2 paise.
To a ‘seeker’, it is a question of finding the cause apparent of universe vis-à-vis the purpose of human/ Creator’s life. The ‘scientist’ appears to be similarly bothered, but presently only about the origin of the universe. The former takes help of the ‘scriptures’ or words recorded by the ancients - that unfortunately for the ‘modern’ man apparently need ‘reading between the lines’ - whereas, the latter works upon the premise that the ancients were followers of ‘blind faith’, and thus no ‘scientific’ reasoning has gone behind their recorded thoughts…The funny part however is that the apparent fantasies of the ancients in the ‘past’ apparently become truths of the relative ‘future’!
The human brain apparently functions as an analogous computer. Just one word/ figure apparently could lead one write pages after pages to express ‘one’s feelings generated in the heart’, which ultimately might not make any sense to some readers while some who have similar leanings/ training might get similarly moved and add infinite other words to the original (indicating ‘natural’ division of human society into opposite groups on smallest of small issues even - as if by a Grand design and that zero could be equal to infinity and thus the logic of the digital computer is not applicable to human life)! Thus, the saying, “Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder!”
Observations such as above perhaps led the ancient man to question himself: Who am I? And the ultimate reply: “Shivoham!” That is "I am God!" Which finally appears to have been logically determined as 'image of God' or 'model of universe'...
Hi Sri,
Welcome! Regarding spirits, well how many of us want to believe they exist and how many of us want it proven.
Now believing is one thing, proving will scare most of us away. Not that it cant be proven, but are people willing to sit through a session where a spirit is brought over.
That will lead to fear and not understanding. We are so scared of the unfamiliar, that we simply dont want to know it exists even if someone comes by and says they can take care of it for us.
Are we ok, living with this kind of ignorance. There is something supernatural out there, but the fear of it just makes us hold back.
Are we truly happy with our current lives? The world of God is beautiful yes, it also has a world of spirits in it and that for all practical purposes should not be scary.
Hence the post, to tell people that spirits are not the bad guys, its humans who make them bad by forcing them to do bad things. So why blame the spirit?
A spirit when left alone does no harm, and these are its characterestics... believe it or not.
regds
Kavitha
Mot of use agree that there are indeed some supernatural power there, many of us fear the supernatural powers solely for the reason because these beings are unpredictable and unnatural. It is my humble opinion that we need not go deepr into the subject as it is equivalent to opening a pandora's box. From time immemorial, these supernatural powers have influenced man in one way or the other, even today in India, we hear of Mohini's and Rattha Katteri's(tamil words for evil women spirits that terrorize and drink human blood).Even advanced countries like USA, Spain and Italy believe supernatural or inhuman beings like Blood beasts, werewolves etc. Therefore i would conclude saying that it is best for us to acknowledge their existence, leave them alone and not research on them. If you dont agree with me, just turn the pages of history and you will find a lot of persons who have suffered or even died while conducting research. Anyway if anybody wants to do research on spirits they have to spend sleepless nights in deserted buildings or worse graveyards, Well iam sure that there will be very few takers.
...interesting and so we leave the spirits alone. fair enough.
will spirituality get us peace and money and happiness, if not then we leave spiritualism alone.
will worship get us anything tangible.. not sure, of course it depends on what we call tangible, and if we dont get it... leave worship alone.
will we be able to control our minds and not end up falling for temptation.. well if one does not get enough money, a good spouse, a happy family and enough attention then lets leave self control behind and succumb to temptation for now.
We think we can do without spiritualism and leave it to the age of 60 to get started on that road. Money is doing the talking right now. what makes us think that our minds are going to be ready to accept these deep concepts at 60?
If we cant get over our fears now, we will never get over it at 60. because then, we are way too scared of ourselves and our lives because we did nothing substancially worth speaking of...
God bless us then.
regds
Kavitha.
Interesting words "If we cant get over our fears now, we will never get over it at 60. very true indeed, you sound like my dad. But what i meant to say was that one should concentrate on good things alone, remember the old saying, "What you always think deeply, you become it". It might be also to the fact that i was afraid of spirits from childhood(and even now). I dont know whether i can get rid of this fear now, but you certainly made a valid point which made me think deeply.
Hi Kavitha, Aswin...
As a human being, doesn’t one, i.e., in reality a spirit with form, during one’s ‘life’ on earth come across and deal with ‘good’ as well as - what one might believe as -‘bad’ individuals?
One enjoys the company of ‘good’ people while one tries to avoid ‘bad’ people.
Even when we walk down the street, apparently we try to read faces. We do not ask directions from people who appear ‘bad’ to us (because of some 'bad' experiences in the past)!
Many a times, you might have thus continued to believe some particularly person as ‘bad’, but circumstances might have brought you face to face with that person and after spending some time with him/ her and forming a better personal view point you might have wondered why you had all along thought it otherwise!
Even if we leave the ones without forms, there are billions of spirits in human or animal form all over the world. Even if you wish to deal with each and every one of those, you can’t, for time doesn’t permit you. What you get to see during one lifetime is limited and according to your personal circumstances and inclination related with places and particular time.
Can you explain to me why almost everyone, almost as a rule, is scared of a snake? But, still you find some who live with those day in and day out! And, can one think of Shiva and be afraid of His snakes? Do you get the hint in the 'Hindu' beliefs of fearlessness?
Only the ‘unborn’, duly protected in its mother’s womb, can perhaps ‘naturally’ remain fearless. One who is born and separated from its mother after birth would, however, continue to experience the ‘fear of the unknown’ while one undergoes, over one’s life-time, either of the three actions - virtually blindly without knowing their outcomes - categorized as tamasic, rajasic and satvic by the ancient Hindus. Thus it was advised to perform actions after duly considering the pros and cons thereof based on overall knowledge, as lack of knowledge was considered to be the main cause of ‘wrong’ acts and also remaining attached with ‘Ma Durga’ the Mother of all Mothers, through prayer was advised…
The truth of the advice in Puranas or the scriptures can only be confirmed based on the present day experiences, for according to the realization of the ancients the ‘truths of the untruths’ also remain unrelated with time just as the unborn and unending believably remains unaffected by it…
Hi Joshi uncle, Aswin
Most fears come out of preconditioning be it spirits or snakes or anything for that matter.
We need to unlearn this preconditioning that is so deep in us to be fearless. Unlearning is even more difficult than learning.
Now lets take people, we come in various combinations, hence you might get along well with one person while i wont. someone appears nice to you while i cant stand that person. and so it goes on. people have both the good and the bad in them, depends on what you trigger when and where you burn your fingers.
hence, instead of being judgemental about it, its simpler to neither feel happy nor sad about it. that is probably taking the middle path.
one of the primary things people should learn to control are their fears and expectations. that would solve half the world's problems.
regds
Kavitha.
The apparently relatively more advanced ancient ‘Hindus by thought’ related human behaviour with particular member of our Solar system that governed each at any given time. The ‘grahas’ or ‘planets’ (that include our Sun also) and therefore individuals believably are friendly or inimical depending upon whether the interacting individuals both are governed by hot/ cold planets or opposite ones depending on the colours associated with the concerned planets. For instance, a cold vessel draws energy from the hot one when they are kept in close vicinity. In human terms it could be said that interaction between individuals of opposite nature result in loss of temper in one! And, it is known that ‘like minded people’ have better understanding or friendship. Thus the saying, “Birds of the same feathers flock together”…
Venomous snakes are feared by almost every one because of the general knowledge that poison kills, and nobody wants to die as believably a soul takes human form after perhaps billions of years having to pass through 84 lakh different forms. However, we also know that all snakes are not poisonous, but many a times people die mainly because of panic caused due to lack of knowledge whether a particular one that bit was a deadly one or not. That’s why it was concluded that it is extreme fear or panic that is generally responsible for death and not the poison per se. There are examples in History, viz., that of Mirabai who didn’t die even when she consumed poison, and Chanakya created ‘visha-kanya’ or ‘poisonous girls’ who were given poison in small dose over a long period. And, as per the mythology, we are aware of Shi-va having the capacity to hold ‘vi-sha’, that is poison, in His throat, to be thereafter known popularly as Neelkantha or the one with blue throat also (Krishna the ‘king-pin’ in Dwaperyuga, associated with life giving sound energy through the musical instrument, flute, is called both ‘Neelamber’ or the one who wears blue clothes and also Peetamber, i.e the one with yellow coloured clothes. The two colours are attached to the neutral Green (associated with Earth or Shiva with yellow associated with Moon the superior most or Guru and Blue with Kartikeya as ‘peacock’ is indicated as his vehicle, which also happens to be an enemy of snakes!) on either side of it in the visible spectrum.
Vish-nu the ‘Naadbindu’ or the ‘Supreme soul’ also came to be known as such, i.e., ‘Vish’ plus ‘anu’ or the ‘atom of poison’ as it believably holds the whole physical universe at the end of a Kaliyuga, which although also believably is the original beginning point or the source of ‘life’, as we know it, or innumerable ‘spirits’ without forms in the beginning, with loud sound or ‘Naad’ that acquired forms subsequently and also from time to time…
Kavitha,
Don't know how to respond. But i would say that the current model we as human beings are following is flawed.
I believe that our great grand fathers 1000's of years ago have created the concept of GOD, good & bad etc and showed us how to live a decent life. Over the years all these concepts were twisted to suit their own nefarious designs and now we are a confused lot.
It is a never ending topic. I loved the article, please keep writing.
--sri
The basic concept was very clear at some stage of time. ‘Hindus’ realized man as a model of the universe and the apparent physical world/ universe as illusory while ‘Christians’ expressed the same thought by describing man as ‘an image of God’… Visualize it with your own image in a plain mirror or better still in a ‘magical mirror’ to imagine how just one individual might appear different to herself…
The ‘Truth’ is thus known at any time as it does not change. Man’s structure hasn’t changed as the Solar system is virtually permanent and its essences are believably used in the formation of human structure. What undergoes change is ‘Time’ or, rather, ‘apparent time’ that came into existence due to relative movements of earth-moon and sun after the appearance of the solar system, which is estimated by Astronomers in the ‘present’ to be about 4.6 billion years ago…
The Yogis stated based on realization that human behavioural efficiency decreases from 100% at the beginning of Satyuga to 0% at the end of the Kaliyuga over 4.32 million years. And, that during one day in the life of the formless creator 1000 such cycles (I believe it to be 1080) of actions are performed such that His day works out equal to 4.32 billion years (about 4.6 billion years according to me after correcting cycles to 1080, i.e., 360x3 to cover the three aspects over the entire space).
Thus it is a matter of mental attitude of the individual which one can't change because of the grand design. To me it might be crystal clear, but any numbers of words would be insufficient to convince the whole class or the populace. One however wouldn't dare ask questions, from an expert physician, say, why he should take three capsules of a particular drug every three hours during a specified period of time. He/ she would take it because it is beyond him/ her to learn that subject. But, on the subject of 'spirituality' everyone raises questions because everyone has the same God or supreme knowledge within him/ her too as the 'engine driver' who applies the brakes in the train of thoughts only when it has reached the scheduled 'Terminal'!
I would add that as I have indicated earlier also let us consider a teacher of a particular subject. He teaches a class of students according to a syllabus and prescribed text books. Irrespective of the location of the school/ college when, and if, he were to take a test he would find some students getting marks zero or near zero% and some near or equal to 100% with average ranging anywhere between zero and hundred percent depending on various factors, such as whether it is a Municipality school/ a Public school, and so on… Let someone explain why it invariably happens so, for if it was dependent on the teacher all should have received the same percentage! Thus realizing this phenomenon to be dependent on the Creator as a part of His Grand design, the ‘Munis’ appear to have decided to keep quiet because it was obvious that each individual’s behaviour was following some pre-determined path. However, other sages from time to time have apparently been attempting to express the truth of the untruth, each in his own way as a sort of a class taken by different teachers that form an apparent hierarchy.
Talking of 'apparent time', perhaps one could think of the oldest instruments to measure or extend time that was called an hour-glass. It contains two vessel-like compartments.
Each has a horizontal base that tapers towards the common meeting point that has a small hole in it. Sufficient quantity of sand is placed within one of the vessels at the time of its manufacture such that when the hour-glass is inverted, dry sand in one starts pouring into the other and takes one hour to empty itself because of the restriction provided by the hole that in fact helps delay arrival of total sand particles in to the other chamber. The vessel is inverted again when one chamber got emptied and hours were recorded and the process repeated again and again...
One would observe that the sand particles form an ‘inverted cone’ when the hour-glass is inverted, which ends up in a ‘right cone’ when the whole sand gets transferred to the bottom one…
Maybe the above could be used to visualize the souls’ return journey to the origin and vice versa. And also how the point in the middle acts like a neutral point between the two cones which appear and disappear with the inversions of the hour-glass…
Where do we see the application of the hour-glass in human forms?
With the given background of 'illusion', perhaps our eye is the best example of it, besides similar small openings in other sense organs... It has an iris, the circular diaphragm forming the coloured portion of the eye and containing the pupil in its centre. The eye-lid helps in covering the eye to shut off the vision of the ‘present day’ outside world while allowing the devotee to attempt seeing within her the believable other world/ universe. And, of course, when one lies down to sleep, or deliberately cuts off vision, in wakeful condition, to enable one to concentrate deeply on something important related to the ‘remote past’ that is recorded in the ‘other chamber’, i.e., brain, (or believably by Hindus, in the ‘Ashta Chakras’ – largest chunk of information being recorded in the ‘Mooladhar Chakra’ that is related with planet Mars), but unable to recall immediately…
Continuing with the thought on communication to the Class or the entire populace,
there is a saying, “Guru Brahma/ Guru Vishnu/ Guru Devo Mahesh/ Guru sakshat Param Brahma/ Tasmai Shri Guruve Namah.” The general interpretation is that the teacher is formless God as also His various believable physical forms! And, it is a fact that man is always learning ‘something new’ from various sources during one’s life on earth thus there are innumerable teachers. However, in Gita, Krishna advises one, to the effect, to approach Him directly as He alone is the Supreme Knowledge personified while all others physical forms are inferior to Him. Thus indicating hierarchy among teachers too…
Recalling my school days, I remember that I used to feel sorry for the teachers, for the students they taught moved over to a higher Class while they remained unmoved – stationary in the same Class and teaching the same subject to a fresh lot! As a school student I used to get a feeling as if every teacher was failing in the same Class, a little like a few students who failed, maybe continuously for some years, and continued to read the same subjects!
Some of the students who had studied in the Alma Mater would come and meet the teachers year after year on the ‘Old Boys’ Reunion Day.’ However, I couldn’t gather courage to attend any such reunion because I felt it generated a feeling of ‘inferiority complex’ in the ‘low paid’ old teachers (since then of course their material position has improved a lot)… I recall meeting one such popular teacher during our time in a doctor’s clinic one day long after I had graduated in Engineering. I wished him and asked if he could recognize me. The modest teacher said, “You have recognized me, that itself is sufficient for me!” The statement increased my regard for that teacher much more than before. Perhaps one finds such reflections of ‘Krishna’ rarely in the Kaliyuga…
With the above as background, I feel Krishna’s task as a cowboy, trying to control the rogues among the cattle, similar to that of the teachers trying to push the poor students to higher Classes. And, as Kaliyuga draws close towards its end, it must be getting tougher and tougher as perhaps a large percentage remains that of only the spirits that were serving to delay the passage of the selfless, whose percentage obviously must now be small, with Krishna following all those to their conclusive end…Even a sixteen year old today apparently copying the West says, "I don't believe in God"...
Are there any indications available about the Agencies that delay movement of spirits with forms towards the goal of achieving ‘perfection’?
The Hindu mythological story on ‘samudramanthan’ or ‘Churning of the sea’ indicates ‘halahal’ or ‘deadly poison’ as the first agency that had delayed the ‘churning process’, or the souls-with-forms’ progress in the direction of achieving 'perfection' or the infinite that the apparent universe is. For, it would have taken some time for earth that is Shiva, along with His friendly bhootas, to assimilate it…
Similarly, in the second stage it was ‘mani-manikya’ etc., that is, money that obviously would have needed time to circulate in each and every corner of the world, and also in generation of 'evils' that are naturally associated with it...
In the third stage delay due to distraction would have been caused by ‘Apsaras’ or beautiful females in selfless as well as selfish men (and hence the ban on young women to enter the sanctum sanctorum of, say, Sabrimala temple carried over from time immemorial lest they distract the attention of young males who were supposedly on rigorous rituals for a relatively long period associated with the visit to the deity, and not directly the formless deity Himself – the idol being a medium only!)
In the fourth stage, delay would have been caused in identifying the truly selfless persons by an elimination process, hence the reference to demon Rahu getting the nectar despite all checks and therefore need for Lord Vishnu to chop off his head - a bit too late though…
As in a normal detective story, the stories clearly indicate the mischievous nature of the Creator by revealing that the ‘demon’ was identified at the nick of time by the Sun and the Moon! Even it is indicated that the ‘churning’ was conducted by the devtas and the rakshashas under the supervision of Brihaspati the Guru of the devtas, with the mention of Sun and Moon, it becomes clear that Brihaspati refers to the planet Jupiter and therefore devtas and rakshashas refer to Solar system members (and humans only demonstrate the functioning of solar system as models only – for the benefit of the Creator). And, hence the chopping off of the head of demon Rahu resulting in separation of Ketu, i.e., his lower body from his head and their continued existence as such indicates these two to refer to energies – Ultra violet and Infra Red that too find entry into Earth’s atmosphere besides the seven other colours of the visible spectrum in which hot colours are called devtas whereas cold colours are referred as rakshashas or those who create delay in individual hot members reaching 'perfection' or rather in creating the apparent hierarchy and thus the apparent beautiful world or Shiva of the"Satyam Shivam Sunderam" fame :-)
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