Know yourself Part -I I

In my previous post I had discussed that how less we are aware about ourselves. If you see consciously then you will realise that our knowledge about ourselves is not more than 10 percent of what actually we are, at least what we perceive through our five senses. In such a situation how come is it possible that our perception regarding others will be of any value? So is it not worth to know ourselves before we make any idea about others or even God?

Did you ever think that you came into existence only after the sperm of your father met with the egg cell of your mother and a single cell was born. From that single cell you became what you are today. This single cell contained all information about you, how you will look, your complexion, your intelligence, your every physical and non physical form and not only that it contains informations of your past lives also. Is it not surprising that there can be not more than seven person in the world who may have any resemblance with your face but it will certainly resemble with someone of your fore fathers. How come these information travel from generation to generation.

Our body is nature’s biggest surprise. The objective of this article is not to describe the anatomy of human being, for that we have ample of literature available. Firstly we will look why I called it miracle. As I said above that evolution of our body starts with a single cell and during its stay in the womb it acquires its shape and all the necessary parts and when it comes into the world it is a complete miniature of what you will be alike in the days to come. You may ask, what is miraculous in it, in almost all living being the process is the same. But can you tell what is your contribution in the process? You simply provide food and nourishment. This food is processed in hundreds of chemical factories present inside the body and all necessary elements are produced which are responsible for the body. Miracle is this that whatever you eat veg are non veg you body makes blood out of it which can’t be manufactured in any factory out of body. And even more miraculous is that when you are in a foetus state the only connection with your body is your mother’s placenta but even then you get the nourishment as well as oxygen for your survival. Modern medical science has been able to analyse the blood in so many ways and they have categorised it in various groups but it is still a surprise that the blood group has a definite pattern in a person and his past and future generations.

Likewise every structure of our body is a miracle for example your ears. Do you know that there are various sounds in the atmosphere some are too strong and some are too feeble but your ears are are capable to filter out the sound which can be harmful for you. So our physical body is full of miracles which we can easily understand if look over the thing with consciousness but we take everything as granted. That is why I said in the beginning that we are hardly aware of more than ten percent of what our body is. And this too is about the physical structure and when we look into the non physical entity of ourselves it is even less than one percent. My endeavour is to explore the non physical form raised out of experience as well as some per existing references.

One may say that there are big number of books on this subject and all this is repetition but the word water can’t quench your thirst you need water in reality and all my effort is to arise your thirst that you search the water not the word ‘water’.

Contd…………..

Know Yourself

One day I posted on Facebook that, “how many of you have seen your back from your naked eye? Few make joke of it, few including women ignored the post as ‘naked’ word was used in it, few said they have not seen but have you seen? My intention was to raise a curiosity out of fact that how less we know about our body which we think as ‘I’.

Isn’t it surprising that we know less than two percent about our body which is projected as ‘I’? We have seen our hands, chest, stomach, our genitals and our legs and that too from upper level which consists of the skin only. Even the face which is our sole recognition in the society is known to us as a mirror image only because we can’t see our face from our naked eye.

Isn’t it even more surprising that we have been able to reach on moon, Mars or the bottom of the sea but we have not reached in our body as deeper as needed. The modern science believes only on the facts which can be proved in the laboratory and that is why it has been denying the presence of psyche but now they have accepted not only its presence but it’s effects on human health and behaviour. Now a big number of scientists are involved in studying the relation between feelings on human health and behaviour.

In Bhartiya spiritual as well as non spiritual literature lot of emphasis has been given to feelings and psyche as they control the physical health and mental health of human being. In Bharat we have “Yogshastra” by Maharishi Patanjali which is a complete treatise on physical, mental, psychological and spiritual health of human life. In western countries “Yoga” has been misunderstood with yoga poses only which is just a part of Yoga to keep the body healthy and ready to receive the messages being emanating from the cosmos.

Bhartiya ancient literature whether it is spiritual, religious or social believed, since time immemorial, that the whole cosmos is made up of sound or waves. Now science also accepts that when atom is broken further there remains electron,proton and neutrons which are nothing but waves. For science we have right word in Hindi and that is “Vigyan”. ‘Vigya’ means that which has been known and ‘gyan’ means the knowledge. It means science means the knowledge which has been gained either through experiments or through logic. It means knowledge is there only we have to know or reinvent. So science is reinvention of ever present knowledge.

In the same way we need to know about our body which is a means for the self (jeev) for its journey from birth to death. Death is not end of life instead it is stepping out from the means through which journey was being done. For example while we travel from a train, bus, aeroplane or by any other mode of conveyance when our destination comes we simply step out of it without thinking even once that oh! how cozy and beautiful it was. But in journey we take every care that the means is quite well to take us to our destination without any hindrance. So is the case with our body. So, instead of wasting our time in looking at others we should try to know ourselves to make the journey cozy and comfortable.

Note: I will be putting my view point in a series to come. I know that nothing is absolute in the cosmos so what I will say is just my experience and it can be quite different from yours so please be kind enough to share your experience. I will be grateful from the core of my heart for your valuable thoughts.

Om : The Sound of Cosmos

        A lot has been written about Om, its origin, its importance, its religious importance, its spiritual value. But there is a big question that is it a ‘word’ or can we call it a word?

        Few western thinkers have described Om as a Symbol in Hindu religion. But its frequent occurrence in Buddhist and Jain literature proves them wrong. We have similar words in other religion or language for example Ameen in Urdu or Omni in English but they cannot be said as synonym for Om.

        Om is a sound which is consist of A,U,M. According to Hindu mythology, before the Cosmos came in to existence there were sound waves only. It is also called Pranav because the sound of Om comes from ‘Prana’ (vital vibration), which feels the Universe. There are traces that those sounds are still present. These basic sounds are A,U and M.

        In Indian mythology there are so many trios and Hindus equate them with A,U and M. For example there are Brahma (The creator), Vishnu (The Administrator) and Mahesh (The destroyer). Bhur (the physical world), Bhuvah (the mental world) and Svah (the celestial, the spiritual world). Three worlds of earth, atmosphere and heaven; thought speech and action; the three qualities (gunas) of the matter (googness, passion and darkness); and the three sacred Vedic scriptures (Rigveda, Yajurveda and Samveda). Thus, Om mystically embodies the essence of entire universe. The Aitreya Brahman of Rigveda in Section 5.32, for example suggest the three phonetic components of Om (a+u+m) correspond to the three stages of cosmic creation.

        The syllable is discussed in a number of the Upnishads (speculative philosophical texts) and it forms the entire subject matter of one, the Mandukya  Upnishad.      

        As we know that before the discovery of Neutrons, Protons and Electron the Atom was considered the unit of matter. But the discovery of Neutron, Electron and Proton has turned the table upside down. Now the matter is also a manifestation of energy.

        This energy is in the form of sound waves. If we sit silently in a          place where worldly sounds are least we come across with a feeble humming sound which is somewhat like Om. It is not exactly the Om but it is almost like it.

        Encyclopaedia Britannica says, “The syllable Om is composed of the three sounds, a-u-m (in Sanskrit, the Vowel a and u coalesce to become O)”. Thus a-u becomes O and with m it became Om.

        Indian mystics have tried to search the answer for the question that why Om is so important. According to Vedas, there are seven kingdoms or spheres or planes of existence or human body each more spiritually advanced than the previous one. Many tantric Buddhist teachings have also referred to these seven kingdoms. The first being physical which we all know. The second is Etheric body and the third – which is beyond this second, is Astral body. The fourth – which is beyond this, is the Mental of Psychic body; and the fifth – which is beyond this again – is the Spiritual body. The sixth is beyond the fifth, and it is called the cosmic body. Then the Seventh and the last is the Nirvan Sharir, the bodiless body. The soul effort of humankind is to know all the bodies. If a man or women realizes the sixth one then only there is possibility of God-Realization. He becomes one with that which is. The declaration of ‘Aham Brahmasmi’- I am the God – is of this plane. But there is one more step where “Aham” and “Brahm” also vanishes, where ‘I’ and ‘thou’ are totally non-existent, where there is total and absolute void. This state was unexplainable. No word was able to explain the ‘Nirvana Sharir’ or bodiless body. To indicate this seventh state we needed something absurd which has no meaning yet meaningful. Then the Om was discovered. Om has no meaning but still it denotes ‘the ultimate’.

        It is the primordial fundamental sound symbolic of the Universal Absolute.