Reading 172, from the Internet

A fundamentalist is someone who believes he speaks more closely to God than others and

ultimately believes he speaks for God. He cannot compromise or even

negotiate with those who disagree with him because, since he speaks

for God, anyone who disagrees must be wrong (and by extension,

evil).

My notes:

Terrorists are plaguing my nation and the world. We need to understand that our non-violence is taken by them as weakness. Only last night they wrote to the Jaipur police how Hindu deities are ridiculous and how moderate Muslims are fools. We need to cleanse the world of this vermin. If you know a person who might be a fundamentalist, hunt him out and let the cops know of her or him. ACT NOW. You may be able to save lives.

Reading 171, from Srimad Bhagavata

An act which is a sin for a man of moral elevation or in a particular station of life need not be so for a fallen man, or for one belonging to a different order of life…To have attachment to his possessions and family an live with his wife is normal for a householder and he incurs no sin by it. But it is a sin for a monk…The lesson to be drawn from this indeterminate and non-rigid nature of Dharma and Adharma is that man should, little by little and to the extent possible, retire from the pursuit of desires and ritualistic works, and take o renunciation. To the extent he renounces, to that extent he is free.

Srimad Bhagavata

Arise, awake and annihilate the ENEMY

We pray for those who have died in the Jaipur-blasts in the last few hours. Our temples are being attacked and outside forces of fundamentalism are tearing our nation apart. Let us rise in anger, let us pray to God for strength to annihilate the enemy. Amen.

Remember Krishna asks us to fight. If any of you know the ENEMY, ferret him out. India is dying while you turn the other cheek.

Om Shantih.

Reading 170, from Macbeth

FIRST WITCH. Hail!

SECOND WITCH. Hail!

THIRD WITCH. Hail!

FIRST WITCH. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.

SECOND WITCH. Not so happy, yet much happier.

THIRD WITCH. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.

So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!

FIRST WITCH. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!

MACBETH. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.

By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis;

But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,

A prosperous gentleman; and to be King

Stands not within the prospect of belief,

No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence

You owe this strange intelligence, or why

Upon this blasted heath you stop our way

With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.

Witches vanish.

BANQUO. The earth hath bubbles as the water has,

And these are of them. Whither are they vanish’d?

MACBETH. Into the air, and what seem’d corporal melted

As breath into the wind. Would they had stay’d!

BANQUO. Were such things here as we do speak about?

Or have we eaten on the insane root

That takes the reason prisoner?

MACBETH. Your children shall be kings.

BANQUO. You shall be King.

MACBETH. And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?

Macbeth

My notes:

Shakespeare afficiandos are familiar with these famous lines. They warn the seeker of the grave dangers that befall those who trust in the certainty of the future. The true sign of spiritual maturity is the ability to cope with utter uncertainty. Macbeth’s decline began when he started believing the fantasies spun for him by the witches.

By the way, Shakespeare is a great guru. Better trust Shakespeare than most humans.

Reading 169, from John Heywood

Of little meddling comes great rest.

John Heywood

My notes:

Need we say more on this!

Sorry, was out

Had gone to rural and deeply interior India for professional reasons. Will post from tomorrow. In the meantime, good night to you all.

Reading 168, from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

When all desires that dwell in his heart (mind) are gone, then he, having been mortal, becomes immortal, and attains Brahman in this very body.

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.4.

Reading 167, from the Mahabharata

He indeed is called wise whose actions are not affected by climactic changes — heat and cold — fear, lust, and change of fortune —prosperity and poverty.

Mahabharata, 5.33.17, 19

My notes:

Now this is something to think on: our minds and the extent to which climate controls our response. Yoga is the only way to shield us from going crazy when our planet ultimately goes topsy turvy. It is interesting to note that the ancient Sanskrit seer had so much insight into the human psyche. Freud et al framed theories which are often touted as universal truths whereas one doubts whether my mind at 43 degrees Celsius has the same functionality as a guy who walks down under maple trees at 15 degrees Celsius.

Reading 166, from Ashtavakra Samhita

Aho aham namp mahyan vinaso yasya nasti me

Brahmadi-stamba -paryantam jagan-nas’pi tisthatah.

Wonderful am I ! Adoration to myself [in the absolute sense] who knows no decay and survives even the destruction of the world, from Brahma down to a clump of grass.

The Ashtavakra  Samhita

My notes:

Even for a moment do not think of the ‘I’ here as the you the individual reading this. Neither let conceptions of Narcissism befuddle your mind. This is Advaita Vedanta — unqualified monism.

Reading 165, from The Howl, though long, read it…very rewarding!

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly

connection to the starry dynamo in the machin-

ery of night…

…who lit cigarettes in boxcars boxcars boxcars racketing

through snow toward lonesome farms in grand-

father night,

who studied Plotinus Poe St. John of the Cross telep-

athy and bop kabbalah because the cosmos in-

stinctively vibrated at their feet in Kansas,

who loned it through the streets of Idaho seeking vis-

ionary indian angels who were visionary indian

angels,

who thought they were only mad when Baltimore

gleamed in supernatural ecstasy,

who jumped in limousines with the Chinaman of Okla-

homa on the impulse of winter midnight street

light smalltown rain,

who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston

seeking jazz or sex or soup, and followed the

brilliant Spaniard to converse about America

and Eternity, a hopeless task, and so took ship

to Africa, …

…What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open

their skulls and ate up their brains and imagi-

nation?

Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unob

tainable dollars! Children screaming under the

stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men

weeping in the parks!

Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the

loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy

judger of men!

Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the

crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of

sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment!

Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stun-

ned governments!

Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose

blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers

are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a canni-

bal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking

tomb!

Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows!

Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long

streets like endless Jehovahs! Moloch whose fac-

tories dream and croak in the fog! Moloch whose

smokestacks and antennae crown the cities…

…Dreams! adorations! illuminations! religions! the whole

boatload of sensitive bullshit!

Breakthroughs! over the river! flips and crucifixions!

gone down the flood! Highs! Epiphanies! De-

spairs! Ten years’ animal screams and suicides!

Minds! New loves! Mad generation! down on

the rocks of Time!

Real holy laughter in the river! They saw it all! the

wild eyes! the holy yells! They bade farewell!

They jumped off the roof! to solitude! waving!

carrying flowers! Down to the river! into the

street!

The Howl

Ginsberg

My notes:

Suffice to note that Moloch is a demon and is mentioned in Paradise Lost.