Book conversations: Between the Serpent and the Rope

For those of us who are spiritual aspirants, it is common practice to familiarize ourselves with the various spiritual folds and tenets, especially in the early exploratory phase.  

This, in essence, is the subject matter of this book.  Mukunda Rao records his own experiences from his peregrinations of famous spiritually important places of South India.  

Rao moves from Kalady (birthplace of Adi Shankaracharya), to Arunachalam (Ramana Maharshi's place), to Auroville in Pondicherry (home of the Aurobindo movement), to Puttaparthi (the Satya Sai Baba stronghold), to Mata Amritanandamayi's ashram, to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Art of Living campus, to Adyar (Jiddu Krishnumurti's main place of work in India), to finally finish with U G Krishnamurti's timeless, dogma-less, disciple-less and ashram-less concept of spirituality.

In so doing, Rao combines the details of his stay at and encounter with the people of these places, the rise and fall of the prominent religious/spiritual figureheads of some of these places, and his own take on the philosophies expounded by each of these gurus.  The result is a book that is at once a travelogue, a series of biographies, and an elucidation of the different spiritual theories of South India. 

Intriguingly, Rao comments on the failure/modification/misinterpretation/inadequacy of some of these philosophies, and the blind hero-worship that persists even after the founder-philosopher is no more.  Thus the idea behind the movement assumes gigantic proportions, and subsumes and supersedes even the founder-philosopher (for example - and this is my own take - the two Abrahamic religions; Christianity and Islam). 

In many ways, the preceding chapters are a build up to U G Krishnamurti's simple yet radical and difficult-to-grasp take on enlightenment; or Natural State, as he called it.  The added advantage Rao has is that he has met and interacted with the great man himself.

For the sake of completion, Rao (though I understand that he did not visit these places) could have included the accounts of Swami Nityananda's palaver and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev's simple yet profound spiritual messages.  

To me, this work also goes to show the richness and variety of spiritual thoughts and practices that exist in this great land of ours for a spiritual aspirant explore and select from - and we are only talking South India here.

Eminently readable!

Also read my review of Rao's other book on Akka Mahadevi, along with my interview of the author.




Image source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51uixCEmUsL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Book conversations: The First and Last Freedom

There are many philosophical tenets, but perhaps none as unique as Jiddu Krishnamurti's.  It is just simple, and radical.  It is radically simple.  This is typified by his response as recorded by Aldous Huxley - who does the foreword in this book - when asked about what is to be done about the vexing issues of existence: do nothing.  On the face of it, it seems a stupefying response.  But what Krishnamurti actually means is to not do anything in terms of rituals, religiosity, dogmatic belief, and yes, even following a guru.  

Instead, he advocates looking at yourself.  As in the physical, and more importantly the mental self.  That is, as he puts it, if you know the one that can be known, then perhaps the unknown would reveal itself to you.  That is to say, it is futile to hanker after god-realisation and give up on phenomenal existence in favour of an ascetic lifestyle.  He even suggests that staying with and adhering to a guru's advice - something that many faiths insist upon as a prerequisite to spiritual life - as being redundant in the pursuit of equanimity.  Quite simply because the guru cannot do it for you; you have to bring about the internal changes yourself.  

By internal changes, he suggests that each one of us observe and understand the workings of the mind in its totality: its good moments, its ugly leanings, its prejudices, its emotional upheavals; the works.  It helps if you are totally honest with your every feeling, thought and inclination, and not repress anything.  Because, as he says, forcing the active mind to become still, or stopping your thoughts will not cut it.  On the other hand, a state of 'alert passivity or 'choiceless awareness', wherein you are quietly observing the mind and its changes in a pliable manner, is what is going to create a state in which god/truth/love manifests itself.  

The book is divided into two main parts.  In the first part he provides his insight on issues such as belief, action, fear, simplicity, awareness, desire and function of the mind.  In the second part, he answers question asked him by the curious members of the public.  In all, these chapters together provide a amazing overview of Krishnamurti's philosophy. 

If you have pored over life's never ending adversities, if you want to know how our internal state affects the society around us, if you want to find out how awareness is god-realisation, and how the future is nothing but the past, then read this revealing account by one of the most unique thinkers of our age.  

And yes, putting Krishnamurti's advice into practice can be immediately undertaken, as you do not need to seek anything or anybody, you do not need to go on a pilgrimage, and you do not need to indulge in a ritual of any kind.    


Image source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41P1yyCiu7L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg