The Indonesia chapter recently arranged a talk in Bandung by one of the Swami from Art of Living .
The swami as I was told was a software engineer and had relinquished his material world to teach ordinary souls like us the fine art of living! Huh!
How can a person who has relinquished the mundane world go about teaching others the Art of Living?
Makes no sense at all. One has to be into thick of everything to really enjoy life one day at a time . Nevertheless, one of my close friends pulled me to the Talk.
Luckily, we were late and hence escaped part of the discourse. However, for the little I attended, it was more amusing for me then of potential change in my art of living. Here I share some of the points.
Swami told us about the importance of balance in life with everything. Infact, he goes about chanting a shloka from Bhagvat Geeta. And minutes later, he says, he has traveled across India by road lecturing in the last 30 days for 80,000 kms. Huh! Swami ji, where is the balance ? Does one need to rush around to lecture, as we ordinary souls life quality will worse, if your discourse was not heard. Please, stop this humbug and do not stress yourself with such painful journeys for us mortals. Please bring the art of living into you and enjoy each bit with balance and proportion.
Second, here is a swami, who is a celebatire ( Single like me) and never seen the complexities of the other half of this world. Women constitute the better half of this world and the Swami can never know anything about this world, till he actually gets married. How then he qualifies to speak on Art of Living, when he does not know half the world around him. Unless he goes through the pain and pleasures of family life, he can only give lip service to art of living. I am also single, but then I am not going about preaching people the Art of Living.
I actually wanted to tell the organizing committee from Jakarta chapter to get the swami married with a lovely lady in Jakarta, before he returns to India. And then let him come and lecture again after 3 years. And we will also allow his wife to also lecture on his art of living. Let the Truth flow after that.
Swami, then talks about Awareness for destressing yourself and this is one subject which is my forte. It is a subject, which has been very strongly debated both by masters like Jiddu Krishnamurthy and Osho Rajneesh. And Swami got stumped on awareness. I would strongly recommend that all the Teachers and Gurus of Art of Living should first thoroughly read Jiddu and listen to Osho, if they actually want people to learn the art of living. Both these masters have vividly defined Qualitative Enhancement of Expericing Life viz call it The Real Art of Living.
Again, meditation is something which deals with consciousness and supraconsciousness. The mind runs amok, as soon as one starts meditating. Unless the mind is trained first to enjoy the experience, it will always settle with thought streams which are congesting the mind. The mind focuses on sweet thoughts only when it is guided and the supra-consciousness also joins to create a wholesome experience. But this power of sweet thoughts has to be cultivated and no meditation center has ever been able to direct the thought stream to an Orgasmic state via meditation.
Swami did speak a few good things like working 100% on each execution. This is a small sentence, but it is a very big problem in Asia. Most of us, work only 50 to 60% for the execution of any job and the sum total is slip shod execution. Look at any report made by any managers and one finds lack of clarity, lack of conclusion, lack of plan, lack of resources, lack of critical steps and so on. Only the very basic part of any job is executed and the balance 50% then comes back to us and troubles us in one form or the other. Same applies for issues related to daily life. We never want to close the subject with all issues related to it addressed from the inception. We believe that somehow things will happen on their own and it never happens or happens for the worse.
I asked Swami on the significance of Materialism in life and he was quite good with his answer that there has to be a balance between material and spiritual life to have enhanced experience of life. However, while practicing, he himself has relinquished the material life. So, where is the balance then. If Swami was still working as a software engineer and enjoying material wealth and then talking about spiritualism, I can well appreciate. But vice versa is incomprehensible.
Overall, it sounded that the program is not about " Art of Living " but more to do with de stressing exercises and meditation techniques. This is a certainly misleading name. Because Art of Living would be a very wholesome subject, inclusive of all aspects of life which touch homosapiens. The Branding is good, but the product delivery is questionable.
Infact, I was quite impressed by the gentleman, who was the co-ordinator and the follower of swami . This old man was full of liveliness, smile and one could see glow on his face and surely he has gone through the cycle of family life and enjoys life to every moment. So, technically the deliverable of art of living is not so bad. But the delivered is much to be discussed. The closing dinner was nice with some yummy dal and aloo simla mirch ( Capsicum). That was the only best thing about the full event.
I grew up under the foot hills of Himalayas and amongst the sage and saints of Rishikesh. Right from my childhood, I kept debating with these swamis and more I grew , more I was disillusioned with the swamis. I recall a couple of times when I visited Sai Baba ashram in Bangalore and Puttipuri and each time I found Sai Baba to be a below average human being, but went in to create one of the largest followership in the world and huge wealth for himself . Same is with most other swamis. I was part of Hare Krishna, Jiddu Krishnamurthy, Osho Rajneesh, Beetles Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and a long list of such masters and still these people had strong philosophy in their talks against the swamis, which give discourses without much of matter . But finally, I am the Guru. Aham Brahmasmi!
Lastly, I asked swami, what was the Ultimate Happiness of a Person : And he promptly replied : " I don`t Know" And that was really amusing for me. A man who is teaching the world, the art of living does not have a clue on what is the ultimate happiness of a person. When the very first fundamental for art of living would be to deliver happiness to its subject.
Swami and all those reading this blog :
HAPPINESS IS THE PRODUCT OF QUALITY OF YOUR THOUGHTS. THE SWEETER THE THOUGHTS, HAPPIER THE PERSON. NEGATIVE THE THOUGHTS, WORSE IS THE PERSON.
Hence ultimate happiness is when one is able to shield himself away from the negative stream of thoughts and creates a perpetual positive thought stream that delivers ultimate happiness. Which also means in time of conflicts, one gathers enough energy from his positive thoughts to force the conflicts to melt away.
Overall, I have not attended the full coarse, so I cannot really write about the experience , but generally speaking most of what is spoken is already known to all of us. Only that we refused to accept and start practicing. If a swami says it , we believe that is word of God and may be is more meaningful now.
Art of living is a very wide subject and generally will depend upon your major interest in life. For me, art of living was to enjoy life to the fullest, which also meant, optimum food, drinks, entertainment, reading, movies, blogging, cooking, traveling, writing , joking, loving, caring , sharing, working etc etc.
I am lucky that I can afford to take a break every 6 months, when I book myself up into a 5 star resort for couple of days and simple dwell into nothing and allow all the negative thoughts to be pushed away then restart all over again. Don't I look Happy !
Optimizing everything in life is the first step to art of living. Eat, Pray, Love .....are the following steps.
The swami as I was told was a software engineer and had relinquished his material world to teach ordinary souls like us the fine art of living! Huh!
How can a person who has relinquished the mundane world go about teaching others the Art of Living?
Makes no sense at all. One has to be into thick of everything to really enjoy life one day at a time . Nevertheless, one of my close friends pulled me to the Talk.
Luckily, we were late and hence escaped part of the discourse. However, for the little I attended, it was more amusing for me then of potential change in my art of living. Here I share some of the points.
Swami told us about the importance of balance in life with everything. Infact, he goes about chanting a shloka from Bhagvat Geeta. And minutes later, he says, he has traveled across India by road lecturing in the last 30 days for 80,000 kms. Huh! Swami ji, where is the balance ? Does one need to rush around to lecture, as we ordinary souls life quality will worse, if your discourse was not heard. Please, stop this humbug and do not stress yourself with such painful journeys for us mortals. Please bring the art of living into you and enjoy each bit with balance and proportion.
Second, here is a swami, who is a celebatire ( Single like me) and never seen the complexities of the other half of this world. Women constitute the better half of this world and the Swami can never know anything about this world, till he actually gets married. How then he qualifies to speak on Art of Living, when he does not know half the world around him. Unless he goes through the pain and pleasures of family life, he can only give lip service to art of living. I am also single, but then I am not going about preaching people the Art of Living.
I actually wanted to tell the organizing committee from Jakarta chapter to get the swami married with a lovely lady in Jakarta, before he returns to India. And then let him come and lecture again after 3 years. And we will also allow his wife to also lecture on his art of living. Let the Truth flow after that.
Swami, then talks about Awareness for destressing yourself and this is one subject which is my forte. It is a subject, which has been very strongly debated both by masters like Jiddu Krishnamurthy and Osho Rajneesh. And Swami got stumped on awareness. I would strongly recommend that all the Teachers and Gurus of Art of Living should first thoroughly read Jiddu and listen to Osho, if they actually want people to learn the art of living. Both these masters have vividly defined Qualitative Enhancement of Expericing Life viz call it The Real Art of Living.
Again, meditation is something which deals with consciousness and supraconsciousness. The mind runs amok, as soon as one starts meditating. Unless the mind is trained first to enjoy the experience, it will always settle with thought streams which are congesting the mind. The mind focuses on sweet thoughts only when it is guided and the supra-consciousness also joins to create a wholesome experience. But this power of sweet thoughts has to be cultivated and no meditation center has ever been able to direct the thought stream to an Orgasmic state via meditation.
Swami did speak a few good things like working 100% on each execution. This is a small sentence, but it is a very big problem in Asia. Most of us, work only 50 to 60% for the execution of any job and the sum total is slip shod execution. Look at any report made by any managers and one finds lack of clarity, lack of conclusion, lack of plan, lack of resources, lack of critical steps and so on. Only the very basic part of any job is executed and the balance 50% then comes back to us and troubles us in one form or the other. Same applies for issues related to daily life. We never want to close the subject with all issues related to it addressed from the inception. We believe that somehow things will happen on their own and it never happens or happens for the worse.
I asked Swami on the significance of Materialism in life and he was quite good with his answer that there has to be a balance between material and spiritual life to have enhanced experience of life. However, while practicing, he himself has relinquished the material life. So, where is the balance then. If Swami was still working as a software engineer and enjoying material wealth and then talking about spiritualism, I can well appreciate. But vice versa is incomprehensible.
Overall, it sounded that the program is not about " Art of Living " but more to do with de stressing exercises and meditation techniques. This is a certainly misleading name. Because Art of Living would be a very wholesome subject, inclusive of all aspects of life which touch homosapiens. The Branding is good, but the product delivery is questionable.
Infact, I was quite impressed by the gentleman, who was the co-ordinator and the follower of swami . This old man was full of liveliness, smile and one could see glow on his face and surely he has gone through the cycle of family life and enjoys life to every moment. So, technically the deliverable of art of living is not so bad. But the delivered is much to be discussed. The closing dinner was nice with some yummy dal and aloo simla mirch ( Capsicum). That was the only best thing about the full event.
I grew up under the foot hills of Himalayas and amongst the sage and saints of Rishikesh. Right from my childhood, I kept debating with these swamis and more I grew , more I was disillusioned with the swamis. I recall a couple of times when I visited Sai Baba ashram in Bangalore and Puttipuri and each time I found Sai Baba to be a below average human being, but went in to create one of the largest followership in the world and huge wealth for himself . Same is with most other swamis. I was part of Hare Krishna, Jiddu Krishnamurthy, Osho Rajneesh, Beetles Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and a long list of such masters and still these people had strong philosophy in their talks against the swamis, which give discourses without much of matter . But finally, I am the Guru. Aham Brahmasmi!
Lastly, I asked swami, what was the Ultimate Happiness of a Person : And he promptly replied : " I don`t Know" And that was really amusing for me. A man who is teaching the world, the art of living does not have a clue on what is the ultimate happiness of a person. When the very first fundamental for art of living would be to deliver happiness to its subject.
Swami and all those reading this blog :
HAPPINESS IS THE PRODUCT OF QUALITY OF YOUR THOUGHTS. THE SWEETER THE THOUGHTS, HAPPIER THE PERSON. NEGATIVE THE THOUGHTS, WORSE IS THE PERSON.
Hence ultimate happiness is when one is able to shield himself away from the negative stream of thoughts and creates a perpetual positive thought stream that delivers ultimate happiness. Which also means in time of conflicts, one gathers enough energy from his positive thoughts to force the conflicts to melt away.
Overall, I have not attended the full coarse, so I cannot really write about the experience , but generally speaking most of what is spoken is already known to all of us. Only that we refused to accept and start practicing. If a swami says it , we believe that is word of God and may be is more meaningful now.
Art of living is a very wide subject and generally will depend upon your major interest in life. For me, art of living was to enjoy life to the fullest, which also meant, optimum food, drinks, entertainment, reading, movies, blogging, cooking, traveling, writing , joking, loving, caring , sharing, working etc etc.
I am lucky that I can afford to take a break every 6 months, when I book myself up into a 5 star resort for couple of days and simple dwell into nothing and allow all the negative thoughts to be pushed away then restart all over again. Don't I look Happy !
Optimizing everything in life is the first step to art of living. Eat, Pray, Love .....are the following steps.
Dear Atul,
ReplyDeleteI read your blog only today and could not help posting a reply. From your blog, I thought you are prejudiced with Art of Living and "Swami"s. It really help you to bring balance in your life. Bringing balance is not just sitting and meditating. It is to cope up with the busier life today (working long hours, travelling 80,000 kms in short time). At the same time you retreat and go deep into meditation which will give you the strength and energy in day to day life. This is balancing. As vivekananda said, "living in this complex world is more difficult than walking on a razors edge. so be aware and awake".
Next thing you menitioned is swamiji's eligibility of talking about worldly issues since he is not married. Seers and Monks have much higher awareness level than many of us. They achieve this with their sadhna (practice). They do not marry, not because it is a pre-requisite of spirituality. Just because they are so contented with themselves. One can attain liberation irrespective whether he is married or not. Celebacy is a natural thing for spiritual gurus, they do not go for it.
I am not suprised when the Swamiji told you that he does not know what is the ultimate happiness of a person. No body, except yourself, can make you happy. He was indirectly telling you this.
Also think about the positive thinking. This world consist of both positive and negative. One cannot always think about positive only. It is just pushing the dirt under the carpet. Some day it is bound to surface. Art of living helps you to understand this.
From your post I understand that you read and listen to most of the spiritual gurus and practices, like Jiddu, Osho, AOL etc...It is all good. At Art of living, Guruji always say, to honour and respect all the practices, BUT follow once practice. This will help you to advance in your spiritual growth.
Please do not take it as an offence. I was trying to express some of my views.
Love and regards,
Gopakumar
Dear Gopa
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. Though I would beg to differ with you on most of your points. But let it not be in a public forum . As and when you are free, we can have a detailed discussion on this.
Balance is Optimization and not one extreme of sitting and meditating in one place , nor travelling 80,000 kms in one month.
Celibacy is fine for a person to be a monk. However, this does not then qualify him to preach the fine Art of Living. Like you rightly quoted Swami Vivekananda on the complexity of facing life more then walking on razors edge. The monks only withdraw altogether from the complexity ,so how can a monk ever be able to guide someone through the complexity, when he himself has never experienced one?
Happiness : Unfortunately, the indirect telling is not understood by us mortal souls as " I don't know statement"
Ofcourse, it is only ourselves who will find our happiness. It can never be spoon fed.
Positive Thinking : It is not about pushing the dirt under the carpet. There is no carpet at all. One sweeps the floor and throws the dirt out. As long as there is a boundary, there is a limit, but once you remove the center, there is no boundary. It is like sunshine, which spreads and spreads.
Lastly, I highly appreciate your views and there is no offence . Any service given to the mankind, where people feel motivated and happy by any means is already a good service. Art of Living has already done this. It is another matter that I might differ in the philosophy and I have begged to differ with many a Gurus in my life.
Thanks again for taking time and reading the blog.