Sentient Times Dec/Jan 06

Sacred Link

The Time is Now

By Pandit Rajmani Tigunair, Ph.D.

“I invite you, my friends, to light the lamp of the sacred link and breathe fresh life into your innate awareness that freedom from fear is the cornerstone of peace and that peace is the ground for happiness. Together, let us take this flame from door to door, from heart to heart, from nation to nation, and from culture to culture. Now is the time.”

In January 2001, our planet witnessed the largest con-centration of humanity in the shortest period of time in its long history. It happened on the outskirts of Allahabad, a small town in North India. A crowd of 70 million flooded the site known as Sangam, the space surrounding the confluence of India’s two sacred rivers—the Ganga and the Yamuna. The force behind this congregation was the Kumbha Mela, an astrological event believed to be so auspicious and powerful that a dip in the river at this exact time and at this precise place will wash away the sins of many lifetimes. Righteous deeds performed at this moment will also bear limitless fruits.

January 12 brought the first exciting event of the Kumbha Mela when thousands of saints made a formal procession to the Sangam. According to a protocol established long ago, it started from the ancient monasteries in the heart of the city. The highest-ranking holy men sat on thrones mounted on motorized chariots or on the backs of elephants. Those lower in the hierarchy followed in cars, on horses, or on foot. Millions lined the procession route, showering the saints with garlands and flowers.

Accompanied by a hundred or so friends and students from the States, I stood at the main entrance to the mela ground—a vantage point assigned to us by the Kumbha Mela Authority—where we welcomed the procession with government officers, Mela administrators, politicians, and other dignitaries. Watching all this, a sense of pride filled my heart: India is truly the land of sages, I thought. How lucky the people of India are to be guided by these great souls. At the dawn of the 21st century, when cultural diversity is disappearing from the world, here in India, thanks to these masters, people are still connected to their roots. It is because of these learned ones and because of events like this that modern pop culture has not succeeded in damaging the sanctity of the Ganga.

When we returned to our headquarters in the evening, however, people who had witnessed this event shared their feelings and reactions with each other. They bombarded me with questions. People in India are so religious, God-fearing, and spiritual, they said. They adore their spiritual leaders. They honor their traditions. Yet, there is so much corruption and communal violence in India. How could it be? Millions can gather for one common cause, and yet most people seem indifferent to the suffering they see around them. Tens of thousands of lepers, cripples, and starving beggars sit along the road while holy men and their followers go about their business without even noticing these destitute people. I answered my American friends and students as compassionately and diplomatically as possible. But deep down I knew that many of my answers were more clever than absolutely truthful.

For the next several days my soul continued to nag me—“Don’t you see how correct your friends are in their observations? Don’t you hear the loud and clear answers contained in the questions themselves? Are you any different, Rajmani, from those who go on denying the truth that society is stuck, and that someone needs to put its spirit on fire to awaken it? What’s the point in having these mega-gatherings …?”

At times I was inspired to acknowledge the bitter truth, to speak out loud, and dedicate my life to serve humanity in its truest sense; at other times, I felt totally powerless. I was so overcome by this fact that during my lectures, I could not keep my mouth quiet about my feelings. The audience at large felt the pain my words carried and they honored my tears. In the same audience, however, there were those of Indian origin who reacted differently. They felt that I was slighting Indian tradition in favor of Western culture. They interpreted my acknowledgement of social ills as discriminatory. This was one more eye-opening experience.

The climax of the Kumbha Mela experience was January 26, 2001, when I had the honor of greeting, welcoming, and introducing His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, to my Western friends as well as to 40,000 pilgrims from all parts of India, including thousands of saints and holy men from a number of traditions. As I began my address, I found myself once again compelled to seek answers to the questions that my heart had put before my mind. To give a frame to the goals and objectives of that congregation, I used myself as an example. “I was born in a tiny little village just a few miles away from this very place,” I said. “There, I grew up in a Brahmin family steeped in Hindu orthodoxy. I completed my Sanskrit studies in the pure traditional fashion. I joined Allahabad University, prized for its Western style of education, and in my adulthood I met my master, Swami Rama, whose spiritual home is in Tibet. My destiny took me to the United States where I teach spirituality to people of all creeds and nationalities. At home, my children learn and practice the Vedic tradition, but for their education, they attend a Catholic school. Since the Himalayan Institute has branches and affiliate centers all over the world, my family and I are residents of the world.

“Today, at the dawn of the 21st century, I see millions of people like me living in cross-cultural environments. In this situation, I ask His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and so many of you gathered here, to tell me—when someone asks me who I am, how should I answer? Am I Hindu or Christian? Am I an Indian or American? In this age and time, when globalization in every aspect of life is sweeping across the planet, can we live peacefully without infusing our minds and hearts with a deeper understanding of each other? Today we must discover the unifying force that grants a respectful place to the differences that we may cherish in our personal lives. But we also need to comprehend and honor the spirit of humanity, of which we are all an integral part. Therefore, at this auspicious moment, I ask all the great souls gathered here to show us the sacred bond, the sacred link that holds our minds and hearts together, that holds the members of families together, that holds different cultures and societies together, that holds different nations together. On behalf of the children born in today’s global family, I ask you to share with me how we may strengthen our bond with our true self and with our loved ones, how we can breathe freshness and sacredness into our relationships with others and ourselves. Discovering this sacred bond and honoring it in our daily life is at the core of spirituality, for this alone will keep us connected to our roots—the collective consciousness of the human race. And it is respect for this sacred bond that will help us stop our age-old habit of humiliating the very spirit of humanity.”

I was gathering sparks from the Kumbha Mela, from the sheer presence of His Holiness, and from the words he uttered while holding the hands of the two leaders of other religions who sat on either side of him, “Whether God exists or does not exist, leave it to us,” he said. “Your job is to learn how to live peacefully …”

The Time is Now

When I returned to the States, I began to sleep and breathe the concept of sacred link, and in the fall of that same year, I started a hectic lecture tour called “Discovering the Sacred Link.” At the beginning, I had no idea how this 90-city tour would unfold—how would people react and where would it lead? During my first two presentations, one at the Carter Center in Atlanta and the other at the National Press Club in Washington DC, the audience heard what I said, but they wanted to debate the issues—love, compassion, mutual respect, and peace. Often, I was put on the spot. People asked, “Why are you so convinced that cultivating a greater understanding and mutual respect is more important now than ever before? How do you convince people that the sacred link you are talking about will bring greater peace in their personal lives and greater stability in worldly affairs?” No one questioned the need for peace, but they wanted to know if it was really a matter of urgency.

Then circumstances changed. On September 11, as I was preparing to leave for my lecture in New York City, my neighbor pounded on my door shouting, “Turn on the TV! The World Trade Center is on fire!” When I resumed my tour a few days later, people came to my lectures with a totally different mindset. When I finished my lecture and invited questions, they simply sat with their gaze fixed on me. No one said a word. They had recognized that peace is not a matter for debate but an urgent necessity. Horrifying as it was, the September 11 tragedy paved the way for people to understand that peace is the ground for happiness.

When our self-identity is threatened we become frightened, defensive, and aggressive. Driven by our primal urge for self-preservation, we isolate ourselves from our adversaries and are inevitably sucked into a sense of “us vs. them,” resulting in a never-ending sense of separation and isolation. This sense of alienation perpetuates anger, hatred, and the desire for vengeance. And once this distorted feeling of “us vs. them” spreads its roots into the collective consciousness of ethnic and religious groups, anti-war movements and politically motivated peace summits bear little or no fruit. To ensure that peace becomes a living reality, first we have to open our own hearts, access the sacred space within ourselves, and discover the inner repose that dwells deep in us. In other words, we have to transform ourselves first. In doing so, we recognize the sacred link that binds us all. This eliminates the basic cause of our unrest. Inner transformation is a prerequisite for effective social action. We must light our own lamp and infuse its light with sacredness. Only then can we conceive a lasting peace in the external world.

Expounding on this concept, I remember ending one of my lectures with the words, “I invite you, my friends, to light the lamp of the sacred link and breathe fresh life into your innate awareness that freedom from fear is the cornerstone of peace and that peace is the ground for happiness. Together, let us take this flame from door to door, from heart to heart, from nation to nation, and from culture to culture. Now is the time.”

Hearing this, someone raised her hand and said, “What is the ground for your statement that now is the time? Are you referring to some prophecy? Is something bad going to happen if we do not embrace the sacred link?”

“Freedom characterizes this land,” I replied. “Here we have freedom to speak the truth without any fear. We can worship the god of our preference in a manner that we believe is correct, and in doing so we have no fear of being persecuted. We also have no fear of being singled out if we do not worship God. We have been enjoying this freedom for more than two centuries. The backbone of this society is tolerance—religious tolerance, racial tolerance, philosophical, and ideological tolerance. Embracing diversity is the gift that America has, and it has always prized this gift with honor and dignity. Putting this gift into action is to honor the sacred link, the spirit of humanity, and by doing so we preserve this gift and pass it on to future generations, thus fulfilling a moral duty that we commonly share. This is not a prophecy but rather, a logical prediction that if we as individuals do not make an active effort to fulfill this moral duty, then by 2040, this “land of freedom” and “land of opportunity” may not be much different from any other country suffering from social ills and religious and ethnic violence. If the “us vs. them” attitude is not taken care of now, then our passivity will stain the great gift of which we are the custodians. That is why I said ‘Now is the time.’”

Freedom From Fear is the Cornerstone of Peace

Sacred Link is the sacred bond that holds our hearts and minds together, that holds the members of families together, that holds different cultures and societies together, that holds different nations together. Honoring it instills our minds and hearts with the innate wisdom that we are an integral part of one living entity, that the endless diversity that we see in the world springs from one common pool. When we are aware of the Sacred Link, this common pool remains healthy and continues supplying nourishment to life in all its diversity. It reminds us that everyone in the world is part of humanity. Our health and happiness and the health and happiness of others goes hand in hand. When we, either as individuals or as a society, separate ourselves from the rest of humanity, various forms of sickness and social unrest inevitably follow.

At a less lofty and more practical level, when we discover the Sacred Link within us we come to know that freedom from fear is the cornerstone of peace, and that peace—both in our inner world and in the world around us—is the keystone of true health and happiness. Peace is our natural state of mind and our greatest wealth. This precious wealth is at the core of our being. We lose sight of it when inner unrest grips our mind, forcing us to act in a confused manner in the external world. Sacred Link reveals to us that alienation is the cause of inner unrest and that this alienation arises when we experience ourselves as isolated beings competing for survival in a world that by and large is run by fear. We know that this isolation is an illusion, a function of a confused and fearful mind, that in reality we are inextricably connected with each other and with the nurturing matrix of the natural world. The illusion that we are isolated beings cripples us.

When we honor the Sacred Link we live joyfully here and now; we do not let life go in vain. To be born as a human is the greatest gift there is, and to die without knowing what this great gift is all about is the greatest loss. We are blessed with a beautiful body—a body fitted with a highly evolved nervous system, senses, and brain. And yet we allow the power of commercialism to set a standard for beauty, to set the direction of our pleasures. We are blessed with a sensitive heart and yet we fail to sense and honor the feelings of our loved ones. We are blessed with a mind equipped for linear thinking, logical calculation, and rational predictions, and yet we suffer from indecisiveness and anxiety. Within this body and mind lies the infinite potential for becoming whatever we wish, and yet we often find ourselves powerless and suffer from feelings of despondency and worthlessness. Lacking access to our own heart, we know little or nothing about our inner and eternal friend and thus we become a victim of loneliness. We go on reading passages that proclaim, “God created humans in His own image,” and yet we fail to see how our own beauty and grandeur mirrors that of our creator. We read, “Be still and know that I am God,” and yet, instead of turning our attention inward, we fight over God’s houses. We are blessed with infinite insight, and yet lacking access to it, we waste our life gathering others’ opinions. We are blessed with an indomitable will and yet we seek inspiration from the outside world.

If we wish to experience the fullness of life we must gain access to our core being and discover the sacred bond—the Sacred Link—between that core self and the endless layers of reality within and without. This will enable you to see and bask in a beauty beyond the fleeting standards imposed by the fashion industry. It will transport you to a world of joy far more profound than the pleasures proffered by the entertainment industry. Discovering the Sacred Link within yourself will enable you to hear the pulsation of endless hearts in your soul and vice versa; it will take you to a new level of sensitivity to your own feelings and the feelings of others. This discovery will charge your mind with decisiveness and your speech and actions with purpose and meaning.

The world is vast and there are a vast number of pressing issues. Desires are limitless; so are the ways of fulfilling them. Our appetite for possessions has caused us, both as individuals and as a society, to strain all of our faculties. For centuries we have proceeded to methodically complicate our lives, and hoping to transcend all of these complications in just a few steps is unrealistic. But we have to begin some-where, and the steps leading to the ultimate goal have to be compatible with our stride. This is why I am proposing the following five-point plan:

Attain freedom from fear. Ours is a society run by fear. Think about how much energy we pour into securing the relationships with our spouse and children; how much energy we spend on securing our streets, schools, jobs, and investments. And how preoccupied we are with “homeland security” and with protecting ourselves from foreign “enemies.” Fear haunts us at home and abroad. We have constructed myriad firewalls to secure our interests, possessions, and rights—and yet we are haunted by the fear of losing what we have and by the fear of not getting what we want.

The virtues of love and affection, compassion, and selflessness pulsating in our hearts compels us to be open, kind, and generous, but the fear of being exploited forces us to close our heart’s door and live in isolation. Our minds are filled with endless thoughts, but the seat of our soul—the heart—is empty. We may be surrounded by friends, family, and objects of all sorts to occupy our minds, but deep down we suffer from loneliness. How many of us are free from inner unrest, and how many of us realize that fear is the main force behind this turbulence? Before we can begin to find peace within or without, we must gain freedom from fear. This demon—fear—must be vanquished. As long as this demon is allowed to run loose, living joyfully is just a fantasy.

Enhance your knowledge of ancient traditions. As industrialization sweeps across the globe we are becoming more and more disconnected from nature. There is a direct correlation between moving away from nature and the decline of our strength, stamina, vitality, and virility. Therefore we must make a conscious effort to draw on the wisdom of the great thinkers and adepts from all cultures and traditions and learn from them the art of communicating with nature. Learning how to remain connected within the nurturing matrix of the natural world and ensuring that we maintain a healthy balance in every aspect of our lives—body, mind, and consciousness on one hand, and family, community, country, and the entire web of life on the other—is an absolute necessity.

Create a bridge between East and West. The current trend of commerce gives no room for the East and West to operate independently. And yet people in both hemispheres are stuck with the mindset, “East is East and West is West.” The result is that so far we have not been able to bridge the gap between. Driven by economic forces, globalization has brought nations and communities together, but human hearts are still far apart. The spirit of the human race is urging us to come together, but the “us vs. them” mindset refuses to hear and heed this timely and priceless warning.

Today we must learn the art of narrowing the East-West divide. People in both hemispheres have to open their hearts to each other, embrace the best from each culture, and prepare in the present to secure a healthy and peaceful future. In the past few centuries the West has invested enormous energy in dominating and subduing the physical world. From the steam engine to the Worldwide Web, the West has given a new shape to the world. This mind-boggling success, however, has yet to find a meaningful direction. Without a clear understanding of the purpose behind this success, the desire for dominance could lead humanity to abrupt destruction. This is where Eastern philosophy can compli-ment the West.

For millennia the most brilliant people in the East devoted themselves to discovering the inner dimensions of life and gave the world a lasting gift—the philosophy of non-dualism, the understanding that everything and everyone in the world ensues from one single reality, that in truth, we are one. The breath of one single reality animates us all. We are the limbs and organs of one living being. This lofty understanding of the inner dimensions of life must find a meaningful application in the external world. Until it does, the East will fail to lift itself out of poverty and end the oppression of women, corruption, and other social ills. This is where the utilitarian philosophy of the West can compliment the East. To climb the next ladder of civilization, therefore, we have to extract the best of the East and the best of the West, the best of spirituality and the best of science, and use it to make ourselves healthier, happier, kinder and more loving.

Discover the underlying unity that holds all diversities in place. Cultural diversity enriches the life of a society or a nation. The evolution of a society and the prosperity of a nation largely depends on how skillfully it attracts “outsiders” and how wisely it absorbs them and the cultural diversity they bring. Ancient India and Egypt are living examples of how embracing cultural diversity contributes to the longevity of a civilization and how rejecting this influx results in the decline of a civilization. Intolerance of diversity causes religious and social unrest. That in turn generates political upheaval.

Changes brought by invasions and other forms of political maneuvering not only cost lives, they also destroy civilizations—priceless wealth that numerous diverse groups together have gathered, cross-bred, and continually refined for generations. Losing such a wealth on account of a simple and yet potent subhuman impulse—intolerance—is an irreparable loss.

Cultivating tolerance, therefore, is crucial to preserving our inheritance and passing it on to the successive generations. It comes easily when we see the underlying unity that holds all the diversities in place. The vision of unity takes away the fear of losing our identity. This vision spontaneously opens our hearts to diversity, for we then know that diversity makes us richer and more complete.

Infuse your work with a healing vision. Ultimately, honoring the Sacred Link will bring about a healing revolution, one that aims at mending our distraught minds, broken hearts, and estranged families. It is about healing our communities and societies; it is about toning down and eventually eliminating communal and religious conflicts. It is about healing our rivers and mountains, clouds, and wind. It is about healing our planet and all forms of life living on it.

The healing revolution is possible when our thoughts, speech, and actions are infused with a healing vision: love all and hate none; embrace all and exclude none. To receive and sustain a healing vision we must not give any room to guilt and self-condemnation, and we must give up our biases, prejudices, and pre-conditionings. At the end of the day, look back and see whether you entertained a thought, spoke a word, or involved yourself in an action that was against your conscience. If you did, then be determined not to repeat it, for the pain from killing your conscience eventually shuts your heart, clouds your mind, and blocks your healing vision. Then you are cut off from your source of true nourishment and begin to starve. Only after you overcome this inner starvation can you think of bringing a healing revolution to the world.

Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D. the spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute, has been lecturing and teaching worldwide for more than a quarter of a century. He is the author of eleven books and a regular contributor to Yoga International magazine. Contact him at Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy of the USA, 952 Bethany Turnpike, Honesdale, PA 18431-9706; (800) 822-4547, info@himalayaninstitute.org; www.himalayaninstitute.org. This text first appeared in Living Joyfully, a quarterly publication of the Himalayan Institute.