Rising Higher

This was written in the Spring earlier this year, on a trip to India and originally posted on 18th March 2010. I had emailed it to The Hindustan Times for some feature they have in the paper, but have no idea if they ever used it. The formatting was defective and it did not post properly, so it had to be edited- finally got round to doing it, and ended up adding to the content. Hence, I'm sure it will need a lot of culling that I will need to fix later. Posting it as is, for now.

Rising Higher.

Everywhere- wherever one looks around, there is a multitude of high-rise buildings going up. Recently the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai, was in the news and touted as the tallest building in the world.

Mukesh Ambani's vertical palace in South Mumbai has been the subject of much debate and admiration, depending on which point of view is being presented. Skyscraper residences are the new mundane, happening all around and amidst us. Skyscrapers no longer denote luxury, especially with India's growing population and the burgeoning middle class with a greater spending power- skyscrapers have become the convenient choice. Now, it may be how high you live that counts towards a measure of your success.

We are losing ourselves in the concrete jungles of the big cities that grow thicker and denser, 'developing' at an alarming pace. These urban growths are sprouting up rapidly and spreading out, bleeding into the peripheries of towns where there is any kind of industry. With jobs for the masses, the needs for services increase, accelerating more job growth. In the name of Industrialisation and free markets, The Disease of the West- Disconnect, has come to India. Welcome to the new world.

More and more of us are living higher and higher above ground- yes, but are we any closer to our higher inner self, any closer at all to who we really are, where we come from, where we are going, what are the morals that guide us? Let alone being any closer to knowing God?

While humanity has made leaps and bounds in technological progress, there is still disease, hunger, famine, poverty, and sadly, war. War among nations, war amongst classes, defined by social standing, by wealth or the lack of it, by sexual orientation, or by the oldest dividing factor known to man- by religion. All this is a result of becoming more and more automated in the way we are living. As there is more to desire, our greed increases. More and more, our hunger for advancement, to climb socially, succeed materially, progress higher and higher.

In this race to the 'top', we are hurtling towards a moral bankruptcy. Forgetting our spiritual roots, losing sight of the inner most self that guides us to choose between good and evil. The 'things' crowd out our conscience and we cannot distinguish easily from right and wrong. There is no time to give that aspect of our being any time or thought. Hence the soul is starved, because there is only thoughtless living, we are not conscious of our higher, inner self. That inner space is where the silence dwells, which nurtures our core, our essence as human beings. The Faith that holds us up when we falter, sits there in the silence of peace. Where we can just Be. Here we find the food for our soul.

Today, we read scores of books but the many manuals just make their writers rich. The excessive choice, the confusion of so many voices, pointing to so many different paths, are all contributing to our spiritual bankruptcy. What is the point of searching, when we have not articulated internally what it is we need. So how do we know where to find it, or indeed what to even look for. Most of us, don't. That is why there are so many books and gurus with new ones flooding the marketplace everyday. Therefore the reason to slow down and look within. 

The higher Self which we need to be plugged into, is lost in the consumer overload of everything designer, or this exclusive or that couture and the latest of the latest fad. Somewhere in all of this excess, we lose the connection with ourselves.

It is this higher Self that we are born with and that gets slowly eroded with life's experiences, spiritual neglect and in our rush to follow the lead of greed. Yet, it is this higher Self where dreams are made. It elevates us to the realities and the possibilities that surround us. Yet in our climb to the top, we overlook the importance of this partnership with our truly higher Self, as we live out the mundane, day in and day out, often using the excuse of being trapped with day to day living. In the name of routine, we neglect the real us. Inherently one without the other is incomplete, not fully functional, nor capable of our best performance. Our higher Self, the true self worth, gets buried deeper and deeper inside ourselves. Many of us lose sight of it altogether, as it is crowded out of the realm of our sublime existence by temptations and distractions that feed our carnal desires. These illusions tend to overtake our lives.

As we look skywards it is easy to forget that even the tallest amongst us, stands on the firm ground. It is the dirt of the earth that still feeds our body, which houses our soul, our real self- for what is a body without a soul? So what is our higher self, if not rooted and grounded in our real self.

As we strive higher worldly wise, it is this inner higher self we need by our sides; to strive to perfect contentment. For it is contentment alone that is enduring, it braces our falls from the transitory highs and lows of happiness and sorrow.

The higher we go, the harder we could fall, that is the law of physics. However, if we go higher within and with our higher selves rooted on firm ground,we stand unshakable. Untouched by the perceived high of our egos. We have to rise higher, higher than ourselves, nurturing our higher selves that make us compassionate beings and Gods true children.

Copyright Veenu Banga, 02/26/2010

Veenu: Hold the magic, Sweet Spring...deliberate, hesitatate..release it so slowly, so that all may sing your glory that much the longer! 

February/March 2010

At this time of year..

My friend Latha posted a very valid and loaded question on my Facebook page this morning. We must be soul sisters or something but I had been thinking of how this time of year major religions of the world come together to celebrate, reflect...you know the drill.

So this one is for you, Latha.

What Koran stuff, Lata? Do you mean the NYC controversy?

So strange and such a co-incidence, Latha- as I was doing the dishes this morning, I was thinking about the discriminatory attitudes of some people and how individuals get either lumped together by color or by all the different religions in the world.

It started off as I was watching an episode of "The Choir", (BBC) where this black woman has experienced some offensive behaviour by a few teenagers, as she has recently moved to the community. There is also the local boxer with a very 'limited vision' for South Oxley, to quote Gareth (the chap who brings the choir together) and who put it so well.

Anyway, so I remembered being told recently by a muslim friend, that the largest Orlando mosque stands on land donated by a Jewish person. Yesterday was the Jewish New Year and tomorrow is Ramadan, culminating in 40 days of fasting. While Jews and Muslims along with the Christians are all children of the book, Hindus are not. However, invariably, our holidays fall close to each other. Ganapti festival is around this time. Also, in March/ April, close to Lent we have the Navratras. How much more are we similar as people, than we are different as defined by our faiths?

While Hinduism is very tolerant and never advocates conversion and Christianity is full of examples of selfless service, people of all faiths have their crooks and vagabonds and murderers and rapists and pedophiles. But the media markets and propagates what suits the agenda of their patrons. So we have muslim terrorists and hindu yogis and Christian orphanages and schools, and Jewish moneylenders (banks now I suppose and businesses) because Shylock now lives in rural communities in India where bonded labour still exists, but I digress. So back to the basics of how perception is propagated as factual truths or traits.

A recent and well researched book out on Winston Churchill makes a good point. It was a real shocker when I read its review:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/churchills-secret-war-by-madhusree-mukerjee-2068698.html

because I am a fan of Churchill's wit and oratory. Also, through one of my lists I was sent another review/ official press release of the book which was such an eyeopener.

As individuals we must and only can focus on other people as individuals first, because as people, we are closest to them as individuals, to know them first for who they are is more comprehendible that to try to relate in any other way. To make sense of our faith and get into their religious dogmas, all of which are centuries old, is such a waste of a lifetime, which is not even a blimp on a blimp in this vast and timeless universe.

Ah, Latha, I miss not doing this over lunch, my friend. Wouldn't it be more satisfying and fulfilling to break bread together! *hugs*