Do We Think Alike?

                              POEMS  AND POETS

            32. Do We Think Alike?

Science is spreading a uniform view of the Universe. International commerce is promoting a uniform lifestyle. Education is advancing set ideas and pet theories as the mainstream standard. In most countries of the third world, westernisation is taken to be modernisation. But, still, do we all think alike, or react in the same manner, when we watch a movie or read a poem or a novel? However much we may conform in matters of external conduct, there is an inner core which is individual.

Organised religion teaches its doctrines formally to its adherents. There is the Sunday school for Christians, for instance. The Bible is common, but each denomination teaches it in its own way. When it comes to practice, Roman Catholicism is the most ritual-based, with its Mass, 7 Sacraments, Confession, its Saints and Novenas, etc! In some respects it runs parallel to our Hinduism, especially with its chantings in Latin! But Hinduism is not formally taught, and it is not organised, with a central authority or a hierarchy.Hindu children only absorb what the elders practice. It is only later that they may learn things formally.This is also mainly due to external pressure.Hindus now face intense propaganda by other religions directly; indirectly, the English language media in India merely echoes a predominantly Western view on everything. So thoughtful Hindus have to understand where they stand. G.K.Chesterton said in his 'HERETICS':

"Truths turn into dogmas the instant they are disputed. Thus every man who utters a doubt defines a religion. And the scepticism of our time does not really destroy the beliefs, rather it creates them; gives them their limits and their plain and defiant shape."

                                                                            From: Heretics (1905)
                                                                             Concluding Remarks.

So, the Hindu who merely followed his dharma is now required to proclaim his faith- matam!

One of the things hotly debated is rebirth,called by the West,reincarnation.Along with 'Karma' it is a basic tenet of Hindu theory and practice. It has been held that this concept is not there in the Bible, and is therefore un-Christian. However, recent scholarship has tried to establish that the ancient Church authorities ( Origen, for eg) believed it, and it was only at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 AD that this doctrine was declared a heresy.

Historically, we find many leading personalities from different walks of life expressing  belief in rebirth. We may count among them: Benjamin Franklin, Jack London, Leo Tolstoy, Napoleon, Emerson, Thoreau,

Schweitzer, Nietzsche, Carl Jung, Socrates, Pythagoras, Voltaire. Even Jesus Christ is recorded in the Gnostic Gospels as having expressed this. We may read some remarks made by some remarkable people.

Mark Twain:

 "I have been born more times than anybody except Krishna."

Henry Ford:

" I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was 26. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives."

Goethe:

"As long as you are not aware of the continued history of Die & Be again, you are merely a vague guest on a dark earth."

Jalaluddin Rumi

" I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?"

Arthur Schopenhauer:

"Were  an Asiatic to ask me for a definition of Europe, I should be forced to answer him: It is that part of the world which is haunted by the incredible delusion that man was created out of nothing, and that his present birth is his first entrance into life."

There are lot of surveys and research studies . It is said that about 20% of the people of the West now believe in reincarnation. But the result of some studies can be hilarious, as when people claim that they had been famous personalities of the past! Edgar Cayce, an authentic psychic of the last century gave past-life readings for many people, some of them going back to the times of Christ, and ancient Egypt and Rome. One well known case of recent times was that of the famous Hollywood star Glenn Ford. Under hypnotic regression, he recalled five past births. One of them was as a cavalryman under Louis XIV of France. Though Ford knew only a few French words, when he recalled his French birth,he spoke fluent French. When the recording was made available to UCLA, they found that not only was the French fluent, but it was actually a dialect spoken in the 17th Century!

Poets have their own approach. Here is one.

Paul Hamilton Hayne

PRE-EXISTENCE

While sauntering through the crowded street,

Some half-remembered face I meet,

Albeit upon no mortal shore

That face, me thinks, has smiled before.

Lost in a gay and festal throng,

I tremble at some tender song,-

Set to an air whose golden bars

I must have heard in other stars.

In sacred aisles I pause to share

The blessings of a priestly prayer,-

When the whole scene which greets mine eyes

In some strange mode I recognize

As one whose every mystic part

I feel prefigured in my heart.

At sunset, as I calmly stand,

A stranger on an alien strand,

Familiar as my childhood's home

Seems the long stretch of wave and foam

One sails toward me o'er the bay,

And what he comes to do and say

I can foretell. A prescient lore

Springs from some life outlived of yore.

O swift,instinctive,startling gleams

Of deep soul-knowledge! not as dreams

Foe aye ye vaguely dawn and die,

But oft with lightning certainty

Pierce through the dark, oblivious brain,

To make old thoughts and memories plain,

Thoughts which perchance must travel back

Across the wild,bewildering track

Of countless aeons; memories far,

High-reaching yon pallid star,

Unknown, scarce seen, whose flickering grace

Faints on the outmost  rings of space!

Such moments have to be experienced!

Hindus have an image of Prosperity (Lakshmi or Sri) and its opposite as two sisters, prosperity being the younger one.It is said that the elder one is steadfast while the younger is fickle! In the olden days money used to be in coins and circular in shape. So it was said that she would not stick to a place, but was ever ready to roll away! But today, money is mostly paper. We may hold it tight in lockers or accounts, but the Finance Minister will quietly knock away say a 10% annually by way of inflation! Physical assets are illiquid, and financial assets face depreciation! One really wonders how the Rich Dads of the world manage to remain so!

Imagine my surprise when I came upon an English poem, containing this very thought!

John Hay

GOOD AND BAD LUCK

Good Luck is the gayest of all girls;

     Long in one place she will not stay:

Back from your brow she strokes the curls,

     Kisses you quick and flies away.

But Madame Bad Luck soberly comes

     And stays- no fancy has she for flitting;

Snatches of true love-songs she hums,

     And sits by your bed, and brings her knitting.

Should we get depressed by such thoughts? Once a Fakir came to emperor Akbar's place. The orders were that a Fakir should be allowed to go to the emperor any time. So  he went to the royal chambers. Akbar was found praying, so the Fakir waited. After a while, he got up and tried to leave. Akbar stopped him, asking why he was leaving and saying no one coming to the Emperor should return empty handed. The Fakir told him: Your Majesty! I came here to ask for something. But I found you begging for everything from God! Why should I beg from another beggar? So I am going!"

So, we know what is the Source! Theology is an endless maze. Lakshmi may be fickle with human beings,but she never leaves Narayana, her Lord. So if we catch the Lord, she will also automatically come! We really mostly do not know what to ask for! It is said: success is having what you want,  happiness is wanting what you have! So, Sages and Incarnations advise us: Seek ye first the kingdom of God, all these things will be given to you! Yogakshemam vahamyaham- I supply what you need, and protect what you have- says Krishna in the Gita. So we now know the secret of attracting Prosperity!