SHIVOKTI 5

People want to assimilate various entities of the physical world, psychic world and spiritual world. This desire for assimilation is sometimes conscious, sometimes unconscious.

When they want to assimilate in the spiritual realm, in the very process of assimilation they lose their individual selves by merging in the very same Entity which they wanted to assimilate. We can compare it to a river running swiftly towards the ocean, anxious to gain something from the vastness of that ocean. Ultimately the river attains the ocean as its own, and in this very process of attainment, all its wants and desires reach their final fulfilment. On merging, the river becomes the ocean itself.

When the mind wants to assimilate something of the intellectual world, it remains engrossed in an unusual state. Though not completely forgetful of the practical world, people in this state remain somewhat oblivious to it. This is the reason great scholars become somewhat removed from practicality: their existential awareness soars into the realm of intellectuality. Though they are not completely forgetful of hard realities, they tend to ignore them – they prefer to remain in oblivion. They may or may not be able to forget, but they want to forget. And in their conscious endeavour to remain oblivious to reality, they do somehow succeed in forgetting it temporarily.

Bhule tháká
Se to nay bholá
Vismrtir marme basi’
Rakte mor diyecho ye dolá.

[Remaining in oblivion
Is not to forget completely.
Sitting in the heart of oblivion,
You have stirred my blood.]

It often happens that whatever one assimilates, one considers to be one’s own achievement, and the ego becomes inflated like a croaking frog. Just as a frog considers itself to be bigger than others – just as the frog, in its vanity, to demonstrate its size, tries to inflate itself more and more until it bursts – so those who have assimilated only a little of the psychic world become puffed up with vanity and thereby invite their own ruin.

When the tendency towards acquisition in the physical world is extremely strong, people’s tendency to assimilate spiritual or intellectual things is usually noticeably weaker. In that condition, their thirst for the material world becomes very intense. “‘We will distribute the wealth of the world equally among all people’ or ‘Let all work according to their capacity and receive according to their necessity’ – I will support this principle.” Philosophies such as this ultimately encourage hostility between people: they disturb not only the collective peace, but also individual peace. Separated by the iron walls of suspicion, people cannot trust each other. The present-day materialism has brought humanity to this predicament. Its consequences are dreadful.

The irrational thirst for acquisition of material things is termed “greed”; whereas the endeavour to assimilate things in the spiritual world is harmless and blameless. And the attempt to assimilate something in the psychic world, if it is directed towards the welfare of humanity, is also harmless. Otherwise, it pollutes the minds of people and makes them intolerant: it leads to conflicts between dogmas and theories and degrades people to the level of animality.

In the past, the world has witnessed many struggles between dogmas, which have caused much bloodshed; this was a regular occurrence in the Medieval Age. And in the present day also, we witness clashes between one theory and another, which cause no less bloodshed; rather the bloodshed is greater than before. The degree of intolerance has increased immeasurably. People have lost faith in their fellow human beings; one state has lost faith in other states. In all spheres of life these days, people think one thing, say another thing, and do something entirely different. That is, hypocrisy is now at its peak.

Now the question is: What is the motivation behind this? It is the tendency to assimilate ideas without the spirit of welfare – and, still more than this, the tendency to acquire the objects of material enjoyment in ever-increasing quantities.

So whether in the material world or in the intellectual world, the predominant tendency that makes today’s people, both individually and collectively, rush headlong without control, is the instinct of greed. The propensity of greed, if not controlled by rationality, or benevolent intellect, or spiritual practices, will lead to premature death. Nothing can save human beings from this. This instinct of greed has brought the present humanity to such a state that people no longer consider anything as sinful. Rather, they consider the “sin psychology” as a mental weakness, and the worst of sins are being glorified as the height of intellect, not only indirectly, but also openly.

The omniscient Shiva observed the rampant expansion of materialism and its dangerous consequences and clearly stated, Lobhah pápasya hetubhútah [“Greed is the root cause of all sins”].

SHIVOKTI 6

Habitual exhibitionism is one of the mental diseases of humanity. The root cause of this disease is the psychology of inflating one’s personality so that others are confounded, stupefied and overawed – they become speechless and gape with wonder at that inflated personality. Leave aside the person who has some merit, some capacity – even those without the least wealth, from whom you cannot expect a single penny even if you do seven hundred sit-ups and push-ups before them – even such people seek to exhibit themselves like fools or pandits. They never even care to know whether anyone has detected them or not, or whether others are actually laughing at them behind their backs: they remain totally obsessed with themselves. They even tend to forget that the Operative Principle, which is responsible for all actions, big or small, benevolent or malevolent, is absolutely dependent on the witness-ship of the Cognitive Principle. Those who have meagre intelligence may not be able to grasp this philosophical idea, but those who claim to have some intelligence, although they understand it, want to forget it. And behind this, the same psychology predominates – the psychology of exhibitionism, the psychology of self-display.

There is a story for children about a certain king who had an iron safe where he kept his gold coins. These coins, because of long disuse, became mouldy. One day the king spread the gold coins in the sun to dry, and a frog picked up one of the smallest pieces. At this its belly puffed up and its throat swelled up, and it began to announce in its characteristic rasping voice,

Rájár ghare ye dhan áche
Ámár ghareo se dhan áche

[Why shouldn’t I sing – I’m as rich as a king!]

At this, everyone came and asked the frog, “Well, sir, what wealth do you actually have?” Then the frog spun that little coin around at least seven hundred times, saying, “Am I less than the king?” This is an example of the psychology of exhibitionism.

No object can exist without its subjective counterpart. Those who forget this philosophical truth, and consider only the objective aspect, suffer from the worst mental disease. Drkdarshanashaktyorekátmatevásmitá [“When people at the height of their foolishness forget the distinction between the subjective and objective counterparts, or confuse one with the other and say completely nonsensical things, that mental defect is known as asmitá”]. As asmitá is devoid of any discrimination, people with this mental defect lose their power of discrimination. First, they think that since they are so great, there is no need for them to learn anything from others. As a result of this, their further progress comes to a halt. Secondly, the arrogant attitude of this asmitá banishes from their minds the humble psychology of the learner. They lose interest in learning anything useful; so not only in the world of knowledge, but also in the world of practicality, they become misfits in life because of their mountainous accumulated ignorance.

It is not that arrogance of this sort simply obstructs their progress. The human mind, like the human body, is dynamic. No one has come to remain here; everyone is moving – for movement is a must. Now, the mind whose further progress is blocked will also have to move this way or that; so when one must move, but the path of progress is blocked, one is compelled to move along the path of degradation. Thus the arrogance born of this asmitá will lead people towards their downfall. This arrogance, which makes them want to display themselves, forgetting all other things, is termed ahaḿkára [vanity]. The predominant vrtti behind it is aham [ego]: “I am everything, there is nothing beyond and outside me.”

Shiva has cautioned people to remain scrupulously aloof from this dangerous disease of vanity by saying, Ahaḿkárah patanasya múlam [“Pride goeth before a fall”].

SHIVOKTI 7

That which brings about a relative change of place is called an action. This change of place occurs in the physical world and its impact is felt a great deal; but it occurs more often, and its impact is felt still more strongly, in the mental world. There is no change of place in the spiritual sphere; the spiritual momentum is felt so intensely that the continued awareness of a blissful entity saturates one’s entire existence, and fills one’s life with sweetness.

Action in the spiritual sphere is a real yága (yaj + ghaiṋ), that is, action which involves a constant effort. “I don’t care about any material or worldly bondage; I will keep moving towards success, crushing the pebbles of obstacles and hindrances beneath my feet. I won’t admit any mental confusion; I will move like a meteor towards supreme fulfilment, crushing and rending asunder all negative thoughts in me. If an obstacle becomes as high as the mighty Himalayas, I will laughingly shatter that also; and the small hillocks I will stride easily across. And in the spiritual sphere, I will jump over the philosophical defects in the form of dogmas that are scattered here and there like holes in the ground, and become one with the Supreme Divinity.”

The fight against obstacles in the material world is jad́a sádhaná, or the fight for material progress. The fight against obstacles in the intellectual world is bháva sádhaná, the fight for intellectual progress. And in the fight against the obstacles in the spiritual realm, sádhaná and the goal of sádhaná become one. That is why jiṋániis, intelligent people, say, “Bhakti [devotion] is both the means and the end.”

When people do sádhaná in the spiritual sphere, that sádhaná is called abhidhyána in the special sense and parishrama [well-directed effort] in the general sense. When people do sádhaná in the intellectual sphere, that is called dhárańá in the special sense and parishrama in the general sense. When people do jad́a sádhaná in the material sphere, it is called shrama in the special sense and parishrama in the general sense. Abhidhyána, dhárańá, shrama and parishrama are the factors that make existence meaningful. The combined name of all these factors is “yoga”, which, in a nutshell, is the technique of work.

During the days of Shiva, prapattiváda⁽¹⁾ was not known to the people. Prapattiváda is akin to Sufism and the inner essence of the Viśńu Cult. Here I do not propose to deal with Prapattiváda in detail. But shrama, dhárańá and abhidhyána have the greatest value as the means for the highest expression of human activity.

If someone gazes at a tree and thinks that a ripe mango will automatically drop into his mouth, and the skin will automatically peel off, and the seed will also automatically eject itself from his mouth, his desire may be fulfilled; but judged in the perspective of eternity this fulfilment will be possible only in the theoretical world, not in the practical world. In the practical world, one will have to take the trouble to climb the tree, pick the fruit, peel off the skin, and remove the seed as he eats the mango.

“I will certainly achieve intellectual development” – if, thus thinking, I remain sitting for eternity, maybe in some distant future that intellectual development will take place. But if, instead of doing that, I follow a practical path of intellectual development, will that not be wiser?

“Parama Puruśa is my most beloved. He is the darling of my eyes. I want to realize Him, I want to attain Him with all my being.” If we remain sitting idly thinking thus, Parama Puruśa will remain far away. But if we run towards Him with all our spiritual longing and drench Him with our devotion in a systematic way, can supreme fulfilment be far off?

So we see that shrama and parishrama in the material world, dhárańá and parishrama in the intellectual world and abhidhyána and parishrama in the spiritual world, are essential for all-round fulfilment. This parishrama is the first and the last step towards the mundane success, psychic achievement, psycho-spiritual attainment and spiritual fulfilment of human beings; indeed, aversion to this parishrama is the greatest impediment to success, great or small, in human life. That is why Shiva said in clear language, Parishramena viná káryasiddhirbhavati durlabhá [“Without parishrama, success in any field of activity is impossible”].

SHIVOKTI 8

Why do people tell lies? There are two reasons, (1) personal interest (lying out of fear is included in personal interest) and (2) ingrained habit.

This universe is embedded in satya. Animals neither tell lies nor cherish untruth in their minds, plants do not cherish falsehood in their minds either. Human children do not tell lies or entertain falsehoods unless taught otherwise. Even those whom we declare to be undeveloped people do not speak or think falsehoods. Only so-called advanced people tell lies, out of personal interest or ingrained habit. But those who are committed to dharma are definitely lovers of satya, like the so-called undeveloped people. And they are much more than that also.

That which is a fact, which has really taken place, we call rta. The spirit of rta can be found in the plant world. Even among simple, undeveloped people one can easily find the idea of rta as the motivating force for society. But the followers of dharma improve upon rta and utilize it in a reformed way for the welfare of the world.

When rta leads to harm, or when it carries the possibility of falsehood, in that case people improve upon rta and make it a fit instrument for promoting welfare. Rta when it leads to welfare is called satya.

Based on the strong foundation of satya stands the multi-dimensional growth and expression of dharma. Dharma cannot remain with those who do not follow satya, who do not follow rta, or who give indulgence to falsehood out of personal interest or ingrained habit. A person who tells lies out of personal interest is certainly inferior to birds and animals – even inferior to plants. And it should be understood that a person who is a habitual liar today must have deliberately practised this habit of lying for quite some time, and that his or her old practice has now become a habit.

To give up one’s bad habit, one will have to struggle. To bring about an improvement in one’s habits, prolonged efforts are necessary. It is said that in the physical world falsehood is the noumenal cause of all phenomenal crimes. So however much one might display one’s love for dharma, however much one might be obsessed with ritualistic paraphernalia, however much one might travel to various places of pilgrimage, if one is not sufficiently wedded to satya, dharma will never remain with that person; hence, Shiva’s clear observation is, Dharmah sah na yatra na satyamasti [“Where there is no satya, there is no dharma”].

SHIVOKTI 9

Whether people live up to the dictates of satya or not, the atmosphere of this universe is suffused with the very spirit of satya. Every plant and every animal is a representation of satya.

One can discern the actual age of a palm tree by reading the marks on the trunk. The tree never lies about its age for some employment advantage. In the veins of the banyan leaves the same lines are permanently visible; they never change those lines to evade taxes. Wolves never change their voices to gain an advantage in catching goats. They are all embodiments of satya; falsehood is unknown to them.

I was saying just a while ago that people resort to falsehood either out of self-interest or due to their ingrained habit. Animals and plants do not tarnish the fair name of satya and resort to falsehood either out of petty self-interest or for any greater interest. So judged from a psychological viewpoint, this proves that humans are more selfish and mean-minded than non-humans. No doubt, bricks, wood, sand, stone, etc., have no opportunity to become habitual liars, nor do plants and animals have that opportunity (however, if humans have trained them in the art of lying, that is different). In fact, even human beings have no natural opportunity to become habitual liars. Intelligent but mean-minded people create that sort of opportunity through their malevolent efforts.

It is said, Pratikúlavedaniiyam duhkham [“The mental experience of coming in contact with antipathetic waves is duhkham, pain”]. A habitual liar, with his or her mental vibrations adjusted to the waves of falsehood, has to adapt to the environment of the world, where satya is the guiding principle. Sand and wood, bricks and stones, plants and animals, and even the greater part of humanity, are wedded to satya. The vibrations of their saḿskáras conform to those of satya. While, on the contrary, a liar’s mental vibrations conform to falsehood.

Placed in an uncongenial environment, people experience an unpleasant feeling. So a liar is bound to feel miserable in a world sustained by satya. Shiva has therefore warned the people of the world by saying, Mithyávádii sadá duhkhii [“Liars are always wretched creatures”].

SHIVOKTI 10

All created beings have a natural tendency to move along a straight path. But out of cowardice, selfishness or sinful propensities, humans and other creatures may resort to a crooked path, not only in the material world, but also in the mental world. That is, cowardliness, selfishness and sinful tendencies bring about curvatures in the world of thoughts. These curvatures breed mutual suspicion. Even innocent people are taught to think wrongly.

Sometimes people grow suspicious of innocent people and mistreat them. Those who still have some amount of benevolent intellect feel pained and ashamed when they realize that they should not have suspected those innocent people. But those who are devoid of benevolent intellect do not feel at all ashamed of their conduct. Rather they think and also say publicly that it is better to suspect others first, and then gradually remove those suspicions later. This is the main characteristic of a sinner’s psychology.

Individuals or groups or communities guided by this sinner’s psychology, become involved in various inhuman activities out of unjustified suspicion. Ultimately there comes a time when they no longer repent. Those doctrines and philosophies which teach people to suspect their fellow citizens, which teach people to treat their fellow humans as enemies, have done enormous harm to the world in the past, and if not restrained and controlled, will do so in the future also.

The situation may come to such a pass that detectives may be employed against every person. Again, another set of detective personnel may be employed to watch whether each detective is functioning properly or not. Thus a vicious atmosphere of intelligence and counter-intelligence will be rampant in the society. And the dangerous consequence is this – that all human treasures having been poisoned, human existence itself will become meaningless. People will grow cynical, or will be forced to leave their country or their society to escape this venomous atmosphere.

The matter does not end here. The wickedness, the deceit, that pollutes human society first moves along a crooked path like its masters, and finally ends up by annihilating its masters themselves. The wicked persons at the helm of affairs, who are now out to liquidate others, will one day themselves be liquidated and erased from history by their own followers. Sinful persons, by following the crooked path, contaminate the atmosphere of the universe, but ultimately that sinful conduct, in a similar crooked way, will recoil like a boomerang on the sinners themselves.

Those who deprive others of justice, who stifle others’ voices and try to immortalize themselves by their own loud proclamations, are themselves usually deprived of justice in the end. And their loud cries which had risen to the skies, are smothered in the underworld. Shiva the Omniscient was aware of these hard realities. So He warned the devoted and dharmic people, Pápasya kut́iilá gatih [“The ways of sin are always crooked”].

Footnotes

(1) Prapattiváda is the doctrine of complete surrender to the Supreme. –Trans.