Garden of One

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

I recently attended the Global Dharma Conference in Raritan, NJ, and wrote

the missive below about some of my moments there.

Sri Ramji has graciously allowed me to post it here.

 

 

Permit me to add a quote from V. Krishnamurthy's recent post...

A Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari (DPDS - 03)

 

"My dear child, you are caught up in the web of the world, a

> mind and a mAya-cloud -- all this is My making. Did I not make

> Krishna say to you: mama mAyA duratyayA ? (My mAyA is

> intranscendable). I have also told you there that it is 'daivI'

> (made by the Power of God). If you had made it all, then you

> could have overcome them. But it was all made by Me in the

> fullness of Power.

> "You jIvas have only little fragments of that Power. So if you

> cannot eradicate the world, the mind and the mAya that I have

> made, you don't have to cry over it. It is not in your Power. It

> has to take place only by My Grace. Come nearer to Me through

> Devotion ! I shall do the eradication in proper doses for you.

> "That somebody is able to control his mind and is able to walk

> on the path of jnAna - that again is My own Grace. It is I who

> have granted that privilege to him. What appears as many and

> different must be seen as one. To crave for that view is what is

> called 'advaita-vAsanA'. One gets it only by My Grace".

***************************************************

 

 

GARDEN OF ONE

 

"All flowers are from the same garden of God"

Shri Harkishan Singh Jassal

 

I lurk in the hotel lobby. I feel sort of out of place on the physical

level. Everyone around me, or it seems like everyone, is chatting, hugging,

seeming to know one another, or easily getting to know one another, having

one thing in common of great importance, their mother. Mother India. But

there are some souls embodied in physical bodies of Americans and some other

Asian flavors added to the mix. I am at the Sheraton Hotel for the Global

Dharma Conference, organized by a dedicated and devoted group of young Hindu

students to promote Dharmic unity and understanding.

 

I take the elevator to the ninth floor, where I will find my room. The rooms

are really beautiful. The hotel is top notch. Yet I do not feel at ease or

as if I am on vacation or anything like that. Not at all. I am very aware of

the physical difference between me and the majority of attendees and

presenters alike. Well, I might as well unpack. I pull my things out of my

suitcase and pretty much throw them into the closet and the drawers. The

conference does not start until tomorrow. It is too early to go to bed. I

rarely watch TV anymore. I am restless and go back down to the lobby to get

myself more oriented.

 

Down in the lobby, folks are milling about, that low roar that occurs in a

room when a group of people congregates together talking, sounding in my

ears. My eyes see hugging and laughing and namaste. I feel alone, no one to

touch or hug here for me. The smell of luggage and the dust of the heat

outside is in the room. It is the last weekend of July, 2003, and the air is

permeated with summer. I am in the state of New Jersey and a good deal of

the conference will be held in the Raritan Expo Center. I look at the people

around me. I wonder what they think when they look at me standing there

amongst them. Namaste, I think to myself with a smile.

 

The next morning, as I write a few thoughts, sitting at the table in the

main room of the Expo Center as the conference is about to begin, the woman,

Indian, next to me, asks me, "Did you come here by yourself?" Reading over

my shoulder are you? "Yes," I tell her. Overcoming my shyness, I grab onto

something we all have in common...a name. I tell her my name and ask her

what she is named and how to spell it and what it means. Her name is Deepa

and it means light. The age group is diverse. Even though this was organized

and conceptualized by young Hindu groups, there are young and old alike.

Once the session starts and we go into the room , Deepa disappears and I do

not see her again.

 

 

Why are you here?

 

I am shopping in between a session. OK, so I feed my ego and buy some

clothes. After all, I am contributing to the cause of the vendors who came

out to brighten the environment for us. I am holding a sari blouse, knitted

gold, something I have not seen at the other store I sometimes shop at home.

I want this. There is gold in most of the few saris I have and blouses are

not cheap, so I have even fewer of those. Could I sew one for myself? Yes,

if I took the time. If I took the time. Right now, I will take the gold

knitted blouse.

 

There is a woman next to me looking at the same small pile of knitted

blouses. I have the only gold one in my hands. She turns to me and asks,

almost skeptical, "Why do you want a gold one?" I mention the gold in my

saris. She looks disappointed. But she turns away and picks up on a black

one, saying that is a good color too. We chat a little as we look. She then

mentions to me that if I change my mind about the gold blouse, she will take

it. Now I get it...she wants it too. I promise to keep her in mind, but I

will admit that I keep the blouse in my hand.

 

Later, as I walk towards the cafeteria section to eat, I spot her sitting

alone at one of the tables in the main room. She calls out to me, "Did you

get the gold one?" I smile and pat my sack, the one they give you at

registration which is emblazoned with the logo of the conference, and walk

over to her and sit down. We exchange names. Her name is Mala, which means

prayer. I knew that! I even know what a mala is and buy one later that

evening. Time to learn japa.

 

Suddenly she looks closely at me, leans forward, and, straight to the point,

says, "Why are you here? I come mostly for my husband." She waves her hand

towards a small group of men who are speaking together, then turns back to

me. "But you, why are you here? What brings you to this conference, to

Hinduism?"

 

I squirm a little as I search for an answer that will explain and satisfy. I

start out with my usual spiel explanation of how God grabbed me by the

scruff of my puppy dog neck and put me through Surrender 101, you know, the

beginner's course. She is not convinced. "This is a long way from 101. How

did you get to a Dharma conference? You came here all by yourself. You know

no one." I tell her a few more things, experiences I don't usually share,

but I figure she is from Louisiana and I will never see her again, so why

not? For now, she is satisfied and hungry.

 

She takes me under her wing for dinner and we sit together. Her husband sits

down and starts questioning me too. Similar questions, as in why are you

here, oh blonde haired blue-eyed one? "To learn," I say profoundly, as I

hesitate. Mainly, I am here because I feel I will grow spiritually. Then, it

comes out although I had not really thought much about this since I did not

yet know how it would connect, but I tell him that I am interested in the

death penalty issues in America and I want to see if I can learn from a

Dharmic standpoint how to approach some of what I write. I am not sure why,

but I withdrew an application to the Trial Lawyers College session for 2003

run by Gerry Spence to come to this conference because I was so certain in

my heart that this was where I should be. I explain how the American heart

mostly understood revenge as punishment and overwhelmingly approves the

death penalty in our country. As an unexpected plus for my dharma, there is

a session tomorrow on the subject of the criminal justice system and Dharma.

He and his wife and friends leave to go back for a meeting. I am alone

again, naturally.

 

I am Blessed

 

"Dharma is not a mandate of God. It is a manifestation of Ishwara."

Swamjii Dayananda Saraswati

 

Swamiji Dayananda Saraswati is the keynote speaker at the conference and a

dominant force and presence throughout. I fall into his hands on Saturday

morning. Another one of those coincidences that seem to follow me around

anymore. It is 7am. Lucky for me, it happens that the Sheraton is the hotel

where the small sessions are held, so once I drag myself out of bed and get

ready, all I have to do is get on the elevator and press 1. There is a

choice of yoga, sanskrit chanting and meditation. I wander into a room where

everyone is sitting on the floor. I figure it must be the meditation room.

Maybe I cannot sleep anymore, but I can relax. I take off my sandals and

drop them by the wall along with my pack. I begin to sit down. Suddenly, I

take a good look around. Everyone has shorts/sweats on and mats or towels.

"Uh oh," I think to myself. This is the yoga class, I am sure of it. I am

not dressed for yoga! Not only that, I am not in any kind of condition for

yoga.

 

I jump up and bolt for the door. There are two young girls standing there

who look at me in surprise. I look at them, smile and explain that I did not

realize that it was a yoga class. "Where is the meditation class, do you

know?" I ask. They look at each other, smiling in obvious amusement. They

point down the hallway, and so I go. First, though, I have to go back into

the yoga room and try to retrieve my sandals and pack quietly. I get to the

door of the room which is my new destination. I have no idea what it is

going to be about, but people are sitting in chairs and so am I. I walk

into the room and take a seat near the front, so I can see and so I can

hear. Suddenly, everyone is standing, so I join them. The man they are

standing for walks by wearing the traditional orange color of a swami. He

speaks for close to an hour. At the time, I do not realize who he is. By the

end of the session, I am his.

 

It is Sunday, the last day of the conference. I drag myself out of bed

again. Swamiji is speaking again today. It is the end of his second 7am

morning sadhana. Both times he takes us through a short period of meditation

at the end. Anyway, as I sit there and return to the light of day, I see

that members of the group are going to the front to offer Namskar and to

seek his blessings. His is still sitting and there is someone kneeling next

to him and he is talking to them. I am conflicted between my desire to also

seek his blessings and my unfamiliarity and slight discomfort with what to

do. At the same time, I feel it would be disrespectful of me to just leave.

As I wait in the line, one after the other, devotees prostrate before him as

he continues his conversation with the person next to him. I begin to

realize that this process is not for the Swamiji but for us who are

ordinary.

Suddenly, I am standing in front of him. I do not have the nerve to

prostrate to him under these conditions. I am not sure what to do- I

certainly cannot just turn and walk away. I hear the words come from me,

"With your permission?" He stops his conversation abruptly and turns to look

at me. "What?" Now they are both looking at me. I gulp inside but get the

words out, this time a little louder..."With your permission." His entire

demeanor changes and he nods his head solemnly. I kneel down, bow my head to

him, my hands in namaskar, and touch my hands and forehead to the floor,

hoping for all the world that his blessings will flow.

 

I begin to get back up and instinctively bow my head to him again and place

my hands in namaste, in prayer. As I look back up and begin to rise, he is

facing me directly, looking at me, his hands, like mine are together in

Namaste to me, and I hear him say "OM." That is all I hear, that is all I

see. That is enough for me. I am moved-I am blessed! Feeling very self

conscious, but renewed emotionally, I quickly turn around, find my sandals,

and leave the room. I do not look back.

 

I wander out to the hallway. Straight to my room upstairs, on my knees,

again, alone now, and tears begin to flow freely. But I don't feel so alone

anymore. Even though I know in my heart of hearts that he and I are of the

same Oneness, I have sat and listened to him for two days now and I have

watched him and there is a part of me that is in awe. There has been so much

turmoil in my life, especially in the past few months and I have felt sad

and somewhat disconnected. I am blessed. Is it all in my mind? Is it an

illusion? Who cares? I am blessed.

 

Garden of One

 

"God is merely an image - the symbol of love."

Shri Gurudev Chitrabhanu

 

I do not want to have to pay for the room for Sunday, so I stuff all my

stuff into the suitcases and bags. I will worry about the mess later. But I

carefully set aside what I will need for the rest of the day. I want to get

over to the Expo center as the early morning session will include speakers

from a variety of paths. I check out, go to my car and shove everything in.

The bus is waiting to go, so I get on and I am on my way for the last of my

Dharma days.

 

And another lesson or two in Dharma. Ah, Dharma. So, what is Dharma anyway?

What have I learned? When I first registered for the seminar, we were asked

to fill out a brief questionnaire. One of the questions was, multiple

choice...Do you think Dharma in everyday life is 1. Very relevant 2.

Moderately relevant. 3. Not relevant. I check off Number one. To the young

man who handed me the paper, I would like to amend my answer, please. Dharma

IS everyday life. It is the everyday, even the mundane manifestation of

Divine in each of us. In how we act towards one another, with amity, or with

adharma. While the choice is ours, the effect is karma.

 

It is not Hindu dogma, limited to those who wish to call their path Hindu or

Buddhist. It is the universal, eternal truth, applying to every flower in

the Garden of One. This was never more evident in the conference than the

day that the stage was graced by Jain, Hindu, Theosophist, Buddhist, Jewish

Rabbi, Pagan, Native American Indian, Sikh, Zoroastrian and the United

Nations. Each spoke of dharma in the language of these paths.

 

No written scriptures, but oral traditions instead, the native American

presence on the stage is in the form of S.D. Youngwolf, Cherokee storyteller

and artist. " Walk a good road. Live in a sacred way. Walk in beauty. Before

you pray for yourself, pray for others. We are living in paradise. It is

within us. It is all around us. The world is a circle...we are All

connected." Oh, yes, Sri Youngwolfji, We Are All Connected, seamlessly at

the Heart. Not by dogma but by dharma, of action and experience.

I get to hear Swamiji Dayananda speak again. " Dharma is not a mandate of

God. It is a manifestation of Ishwara...Nothing is secular; everything is

sacred... There is no need to promote peace-learn how not to disturb it.

What is needed is understanding-mutual respect, mutual reverence. We don't

need preachers-we need teachers."

 

One of the many sages who graced the stage was Gurudev Chitrabhanu, a

teacher of the Jain path. His energy, like that of Swamiji Dayananda,

emanates from him, into the room. While the organizers of this conference

may be the youth of India, many of the speakers are the maturity and wisdom

of age. The session is too short to really experience his presence-he is

only here for this session on this day. So in the short time allotted to

him, he speaks of ahimsa, or nonviolence in thought, word, and action.

Dharma is to get in touch with your Self and find It, he states. Where?

Everywhere. "What is your nature? Your nature is Dharma. What you want you

give, and it will come back to you."

 

How can you talk about Dharma, the recognition, appreciation and homage of

the Divine in all, without talking about ahimsa, a word I heard again and

again throughout the conference? For if you recognize the Divinity which

surrounds us and IS everywhere in everything, then you must see yourself

everywhere in everything. But, you must feel it. You can write beautiful

words and say beautiful words, but if the Bhakti does not emanate from and

return to your Heart, you are an empty vessel of divine rhetoric.

 

Sri Chitrabhanu helps guide us with his written

words, which can be found on his website,

 

AMITY is the first criterion of love. God is merely an image - the symbol of

love. Personified love is called God. Lover energy is God in action. To

realize God, you have to give love, you have to be love. Without love, God

is not present. The presence of love is the presence of God. Without Amity,

goodwill, there is no love. With any trace of fear, hate, resentment,

possessiveness, indifference or self-centeredness, love is polluted.

 

COMPASSION Not only for those who are hurt, but also for the cruel who are

causing the pain who are hurt but also for the cruel who are causing the

pain must we have compassion. The word SIN means "missing the mark." Nothing

so misses the mark as violence, which is as true for the violent word as for

the violent deed. We must care for those whose "missing-the-mark" is obvious

to us. Befriend them rather than putting them down. Otherwise, we shall be

missing the mark ourselves.

 

www.jainmeditation.org/pages/transcript.html#Anchor-APPRECIATION-49575

 

Lex talonis, be gone from us

 

This caring for the cruel is one of the hardest to summon in our hearts. I

know this from my own experience. Although I had little opinion on it when I

was younger, as I got older, and started paying taxes and absorbing some of

the horrible things people do to each other, I began to harden in my

attitudes. Until I woke up, I began to think that we should just kill the

killer rather than pay for their stay in prison. In my conversations with

others, I have also found this to be the case. This and the concept of

revenge for their wrongdoing. That it is what drives many people became

apparent when I attended the session on crime and the justice system.

 

Prior to the arrival of our speaker, the renowned Dr. Kiran Bedi, the

moderator asked the group to divide itself into two sections, those who

thought that the justice system should mete out punishment as it main

objective for those who have committed crimes, and those who thought that

the criminal justice system should attempt to rehabilitate those who have

"strayed from the mark." I was curious to see how this group composed mainly

of Indian Hindus was going to perceive this issue. I was disappointed to see

that half or more of the room staunchly aligned itself with the principles

of punishment. When someone raised the issue of the death penalty, the

atmosphere became even more charged with indignation.

It seems that part of my personal dharma is to address the death penalty.

Although my interest in it originally stemmed from the undisputable fact

that it is applied in a racist and discriminatory manner in my country, I

soon came to realize that people did not care about this little defect in

the system- black and white people, educated and uneducated, liberals and

conservatives. What seemed to drive them more was the concept of lex

talonis, a fancy way of saying "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

 

Correction grounded in punishment and anger is not grounded in amity, nor

does it observe the virtue of ahimsa inherent in understanding of dharma. So

do we lock them away and sneer at them for the scum that they are? Yes, said

a good number of the group. Or, do we honor the Divine in All, and strive to

find ways to reach them so that they can reach their own Divine Self, with

the hope of salvation? Do we keep them confined for the protection of

others, or do we murder them, thus releasing their tortured souls back into

the void? Yes, said some. Fortunately for my faith in the need for ahimsa,

our learned speaker, Dr. Kiran Bedi, an Indian woman who is the Civilian

Police Advisor in the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations, spoke of

hope and rehabilitation.

 

She knows of whence she speaks. After spending many years as a police

officer on the beat, she took this position. She has implemented many

reforms in the prison system of India, which includes prayer and meditation

for the prisoners. She is able to report that the recidivism rate is

substantially reduced. So there is hope. Where there is love, there is hope.

Where there is amity, there is love. On the subject of the death penalty, Do

we kill our brothers and sisters, or do we reach out the helping hand to

them? The decision of how to handle the cruel murderer flows from the

perspective of the holder of the opinion. If your Heart is closed, then you

will see only revenge and punishment as your goal. If your Heart is open,

truly open, you will strive to seek rehabilitation of those who have gone

"astray." At a minimum, you will respect the basic principle of ahimsa such

that you recognize that tacit approval of killing the killer is becoming the

killer yourself.

 

 

Swamiji Made Me Do It

 

All of the remaining sessions are at the Expo center. It is getting to be

time to think about driving home. It is afternoon. Suddenly, the thought

jumps into my brain. My car keys. My car keys are lost. No, I say inside. I

shove my hands into both pockets. No. Then I begin to check in my sack. They

are not there either. Oh, no. This cannot be. Why me? Why me? Why me? (Just

kidding)

 

I try to keep calm as I realize that my keys are nowhere to be found. Here I

am in NJ. All of my keys are on this key chain, including my office key and

house key. It is a Sunday. If I have to get a locksmith, I am told that they

will charge more for having to come out on a Sunday. I am not ready to call

a locksmith.

 

Round and round I go, checking where I had been sitting, checking the ladies

room, the parking lot, my pockets (about 20 more times), my sack, two more

times and I even take everything out to make sure. I think they might be in

the car. Maybe I threw them in there and them threw something on top of

them, and walked away. I have done that before. I get the shuttle back and

forth several times, to check here and there and everywhere. Oh, Swamiji,

what did you do to me? But it must be a blessing...must be. I just have not

figured it out yet. Oh, Swamiji, what DID you do to me?

 

It has been two hours now. I know that Chinmaya has a booth set up for

books. I really don't want to go there and tell another Swamiji

(Siddhananda...yes, it was on his Langhorne Kedar Mission doorstep that I

landed some months ago. Bless you , Swamiji, for putting up with me) about

this. After all, I had another disaster with my car at the Mission the day

of Mahashivratri. Another story from another day :-) I really do not want to

do this. But I have thought it out now. Sparing the details, I will need

help with my issues if I have to call out the locksmith. I swallow my pride,

a big gulp, and go to Swamiji. Of course, he handles it with the balance and

perspective of a Swamiji. "You will find your keys," he tells me, as he nods

sagely.

Now that I have been going around for two hours, I am hot, sweaty, tired and

pretty sure they are lost. I figure there is a reason for it and it is for

my higher good. Still, it is hot and I am tired. Oh, and I am hungry too.

Well, at least I will have company to eat with. They are not going to get

rid of me that easy! So, I go with a small group from Chinmaya, as a woman

named Raj chuckles out loud. She cannot stop herself. She grabs my arm and

squeezes it with kindness. She was there on Mahashivratri and assures me

that she laughs with me, then and today. Gotta laugh, not much else left to

do. Eat, that is what I will do. One more meal of Indian food before I go

back home to my own concoctions.

 

Oh, the humiliation of it all. Once again, at a major event, I disturb the

bliss and peace with my karmic, I mean my car calamities. Such patience, the

small contingency assures me that I will find my keys and then leaves for

their respective homes. I get a second helping. Why not? I may be here for

another few hours. I might as well eat while I still can. The conference

will be over soon and the food will be put away, so I better get it while I

can.

 

I have been thorough in my SOS. So, at this point, the woman at the Sheraton

desk knows, the lost and founds at the Expo, security at the Expo, a few

people on the shuttle buses as I talk to the drivers and wonder if I left my

keys on the ride over that morning, so many light years away now. I assure

myself again. There is a reason for this; it is for my higher good. If I

have lost the keys, I will deal with it. I settle down to acceptance of this

fact. Time for another round of visits to my friends before I call the

locksmith. By the way, I want it known that I am not the only one who lost

keys today. It seems that all the other losers were finders much more

quickly.

 

I search again for the lesson in my dilemma. "That's it!" I think to myself.

"I am doing tapas for all of the food I have eaten in the last few days!!!"

I have walked around and around so many times my feet hurt, and surely I

must have walked off a few ounces. It is my third time to this office. I

pull on the door, hoping it will be open, as the gentleman there had left

earlier and had locked it. It opens...as it opens I spot my keys on his

desk. It is very hard to miss the dayglo pink Digimon. As my heart leaps, my

body almost jumps into the air with it. A huge smile crosses my face as I

rush in and do a quick skip into the air, while at the same time, the words

rush from me. "Where did you find them?" He smiles back at me and tells me

that someone just found them in the main room where the plenary sessions had

been held. Ah, there is a reason and a lesson in the blessing. As a result

of my, um, trials and tribulations, I have connected with a number of people

who I met only today. I have also connected more closely with some who I

have known before I came here, and some who I have met in the last few days.

There's my blessing. A lesson in the flame of love that burns in every one

of us, lighting our souls with the Eternal Fire, every day, even in the

smallest of ways.

 

Keepers of the Flame

 

We are like candle lights shining on each other

warming the air around us and wherever

the wind of change placed our flame

we would not do anything different.

For those whom life has broken

who hear the unspoken truth

always from the Heart,

no choice but to love

however silently.

 

Shri Harshaji

(Harsh K. Luthar, Ph.D.)

 

 

The Flame of Love that unites our souls. That is what it is all about. In

action in everyday life. People working together to help each other. In my

case, in my little lesson in dharma in action on an everyday level- Hindu

security guards with bindis proudly worn from the Expo security team, the

African American woman who drove one of the shuttle buses, who exclaimed

"God Bless" when I got on her shuttle triumphant and waved my pink trophy in

the air with a smile and who later gave me a big hug, the young Indian boy

who took my scarf and tied a knot in it, promising me that I would find my

keys, and telling me that I must remember to untie the knot once the keys

were found. "Don't forget to untie the knot," he warned me. Do you think he

would tell me what he had done? Of course not. He just smiled and told me

that he was confident I would find my keys.

 

The American woman at the Sheraton's desk who went out to my car to inspect

it to see how easy it would be to break into. Her stepfather had been

locking himself out of his cars and she was an expert on what cars were easy

and which ones were hard. When I told her I had a Chrysler minivan from

1996, she frowned. The prognosis was not good. The students from the Hindu

University who tried to help me figure it out. My friends from the Langhorne

Chinmaya Mission who kept me company and reassured me and consoled me and le

nt me some money just in case Swamiji was wrong and I had to call out the

locksmith, who would surely only accept cash. Swamiji, you were right. OM

Namah Shivaya.

 

Joe in the sales office of the expo who went out of his way to get and

photocopy the locksmith info and who let me use his phone so ET could call

home and say she would be, um, late. Before he could react or I could

contain myself, I grabbed his hand and kissed it, then grabbed my keys like

they would open the gates of Heaven. Just feeling very thankful, I was. The

American Edison police officer who went looking and asking around for me (he

told me so) if anyone had found a pink digiman key chain. And who also

offered to take me home if that became necessary since he lived in Trenton.

 

Yes, Swamiji Dayananda , mutual respect, mutual reverence, working together,

reaching out to each other with the hand that helps. So that was the lesson

in your blessing? Thank you, God, for everything. Each One of you, different

skin colors, different religions or paths, different backrounds, different

genders, different countries, all flowers in the Garden of One. Each of you

who acted in the spirit of amity, helping me in ways that went far beyond

what I hoped for or requested, smiling with me when my little problem was

solved. We Are All Connected, One to the other, One. Know that the flame

that lights your soul is the same flame that lights my soul. Our collective

soul. May It burn brightly with the Flame of Love. Namaste. OM, shaantiH,

shaantiH, shaantiH.

 

EternaLove,

Joyce