| Straightforwardness |
| Saturday, 28 March 2009 22:13 | |||
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Telesatsang 12th October 2008. Topic: “Straightforwardness”
Devi: Swamiji, our humble pranams at your lotus feet, pranams to Nutan Swamiji and Ma Ji too.
Swamiji: Yes, asirvaad.
Devi: Today we have 35 participants who are divided into four groups. We have three questions on straightforwardness. The first question is “What is aarjava? Is there any difference between truth and aarjava?”
Swamiji: See, there is a very important text called Ashtvakra Samhita. It is a gospel where sage Ashtavakra speaks to King Janaka. King Janaka is a legendary knower of truth. He was also a king and an emperor. So Janaka Maharaja asked the sage Ashtavakra:
kathaM GYaanamavaapnoti kathaM muktirbhavishhyati . vairaagyaM cha kathaM praaptaM etad.h bruuhi mama prabho .. 1\-1..
Tell me what is spiritual knowledge? How is it that one can get moksha (liberation)? How can dispassion be cultivated? These were the primary questions raised by King Janaka. Now in answer, Ashtavakra Maharshi says that
muktiM ichchhasi chettaata vishhayaan.h vishhavattyaja . kshamaarjavadayaatoshhasatyaM piiyuushhavad.h bhaja .. 1\-2..
If you want to have liberation, you have to consider five qualities or virtues as nectar. One is patience (tolerance). The next is aarjava (straightforwardness). The third is daya (compassion). The fourth is contentment (cheerfulness). And the fifth he calls satya (truthfulness).
So obviously there is a difference between straightforwardness and truthfulness, otherwise both of them will not have been listed separately. So the two are different. What is truth or truthfulness? Truth means that which remains constantly ever and ever. That is called the truth. And truth can be only one. It is truth that we refer to god religiously, as the supreme reality in philosophy and as the self in spirituality. So the word truth or supreme truth refers to a single entity which is the self in everyone; which is the god who is creator, preserver and destroyer of the world (existence); and who is also the ultimate or supreme reality of philosophy. This is truth.
Aarjava is a quality that we have to cultivate, practise and strengthen. What is meant by aarjava (straightforwardness)? Have no stealth or distortion in your dealings; either in your thoughts, your words or in your actions, be straightforward. Suppose I ask you a question: Are you given to speaking lies or are you truthful? You have to answer me in a straightforward manner whether you are truthful or you speak lies or not. The answer can be only one. You can say “Swamiji, I am truthful and I want to be truthful but there are occasions when I have spoken or am tending to speak lies. If this is the fact, you will have to disclose it in a straightforward manner.
Imagine there is a very able, efficient nice person whom all people like but he has got a doubtful parentage. Either the mother has married a second time or run away from the husbands or some kind of an illegality, etc. Now this man feels “for me to disclose about my mother” it inhibits him. So whenever the question is asked, he gives a distorted answer. That is not straightforwardness. He will have to rise to a position; “ I stand on my own qualities; if my qualities make me worthy, I will be worthy despite my father and mother”. Because in truth a person is not blamed for the wrongs of the father or the mother. Suppose there is the child of a prostitute, what can the child do? Either he has to die or he has to live. When he lives, the fact cannot be altered at all. My mother is a prostitute but I am not a prostitute. He will openly have to face the fact and be straightforward about it. Am I clear or not? Now this institute of being the son of a prostitute is being extreme, but even then I would like to say a child is not to be blamed for whatever his parentage is. A straightforward answer.
There are people who have money and riches but they are stingy. One day one Mr. Gopalakrishnan of Madras he sat with me. He was a Brahmin belonging to Kailanoor. So during the course of the discussion I was asking ‘Is everything all right?’. Then he was telling “Swamiji, I have money but my mind generally does not like to give it off to everybody. That stinginess and unwillingness to part with my resources is a defect I suffer from.” Now it is straightforwardness that made him say so. So whenever we discuss the qualities, the character, or the behaviour of a person, apart from what is seen as a failure, he cannot have a second or hidden personality in him. So this is called straightforwardness.
Suppose you see good food, you would like to eat a little. Even if it is not given, you will try to steal it and eat. There is such a feeling in me. I have to confess that it is there. And by openly speaking about whatever qualities you have that is bad, that is one way of eliminating them. So this straightforwardness can be applied to many other fact. At the same time staightforwardness does not mean that unwantedly you should speak everything about you and your family, it is not necessary. This is one quality.
There are other qualities also. One quality is prudence. You must be practically wise. Say only such things which are necessary and which are useful and which are benevolent. Things which are unnecessary you should not say. “Do you have any bad thoughts?” Then the answer is ”Sometimes I have bad thoughts Swamiji. Not that I am completely free. Sometimes bad thoughts come and I do not know what to do about them. Will you tell me what I shall do?” Then I will ask you what is the type of bad thoughts that you have; you should be able to tell me this is the type of bad thoughts. All this comes under straightforwardness. Is it clear? Is it not sufficient? But it is a very…very important quality.
Most people are not straightforward. That is their problem. Not to be straightforward means to have a veil in your mind and intelligence and heart, like a curtain. And as long as the curtain is there, the mind will not reveal the supreme truth. It will never be brilliant and joyful.
Devi: The second question is “Straightforwardness is consistency in thoughts, words and deeds. In most situations we can follow it. However, there will be situations where we cannot practise this out of concern for causing injury to the other person. What should we do?”
Swamiji: See, a person, Krishna by name, he has got as wife, Lakshmi by name. And Lakshmi had one or two instances of characteral violation. She has confessed it to Krishna and Krishna knows it well. It is not necessary that Krishna goes on tom-toming saying that “You know I have a Lakshmi by name. She has fallen in character twice, she has told me. In spite of it I have excused her and I am keeping her.” This uncalled for information need not be disclosed whenever it is necessary. So straightforwardness is one thing. To which extent you are required to exhibit and where, etc. will be a matter of discretion. So whenever necessary, straightforwardness should be heeded.
And another straightforwardness is that you should not cause unnecessary disturbance to the others. So to disclose only such information which is necessary as part of your interactional social intercourse. Unnecessary information or troublesome information need not be given. So there some discretion is necessary and you will have to decide what you disclose, when you disclose, to whom you will disclose.
You can say, when there is a piece of information sought from you in an open crowd. When you are asked; you can say I can answer this question but not in an open group, but privately. I have got an answer, but to disclose the answer will be troublesome. Allow me not to disclose the answer. This much you can say in straightforwardness. Does it make any sense to you?
Devi: The second question states that if we have caused hurt to anybody, how can we remedy the situation?
Swamiji: The first question is “To whom have you caused hurt?” If you have caused hurt, you can go and ask him. “I have caused you hurt, I am very sorry. Please excuse me. I will like to know if you want me to do anything in particular, by way of a redress?” This is something you can ask. There is nothing wrong. (Devi laughs.) I will tell you why. If you have caused somebody hurt, you are obliged to let me know so that you will be relieved. Openly you can talk. What is the harm? Why are you laughing? That is the way one should do. I have done it in my life.
Then I will tell you another interesting instance. It may not be applicable to you. There is one general manager who later on went to become a railway board manager in India. His name is Krishnan Chander, a Punjabi gentleman. When he was a divisional superintendent in the olden times, he had a few assistants. One assistant was given to malpractice. Having come to know of it, he started ignoring him. So the person came, felt very bad. He came to the boss and asked him “I would like to see you”. Then Krishnan Chander said he should not come and see me. Why should he come to see me? Because he is a corrupt person, I do not like to look at the corrupt people. Then finally he said “I am corrupt but that is why I want to come and tell you. Please allow me one minute. So he came, perhaps prostrated before him and also confessed that I have done some corruption and it was the persuasion of my wife. And I am very sorry. I have come to know that I will not do anything more. You have been ignoring me. Please don’t ignore. I cannot stand your ignoring. Then Krishnan Chander entered into a conversation and asked him “What have you done?”. I have done …this….this… Do you have the money with you? Are you prepared to bring the money? Yes. So bring the money here. The money was brought. He had almost 80% to 90% of the money he had taken in the form of bribes. Then Krishnan Chander telephoned his Calcutta general manager’s office and spoke to the financial controller, chief accounts officer saying that bribe money taken by an officer having been brought back, is there any way of crediting it into the railways? They said it was for the first time they are hearing this. I will give you a reply after half an hour. He made a lot of enquiry into this and said there is no way of taking this money into the railway accounts. Then Krishnan Chander said ”Go to the railway station and purchase first class tickets to the farthest railway station using all the money”. He bought the tickets. Krishnan Chander then tore them off. Now this is a graphic illustration.
Whenever we have caused some damage or hurt to anybody whatsoever in this case it is to the nation, to the railway; this is one way he thought it could be redressed. Because it was money corruption, corruption has got two elements. One is the mind becomes corrupt, so the corruptional tendency has to be removed. Another is the cost of corruption to the railway. So that railway lost that money, may be it has lost much more. Then he continued to do something else which if I explained you may not understand. He was engaged specially on a mission and he gave a lot of profit which in other way the railway would have lost. All these things are taking place in the world. Don’t think that the world is always a bad world; it is equally good. So here was a person who was prepared to say that I have done corruption. I want to drop it. I want to improve. And he did improve. And one way of giving money back to the railway department was to purchase first class ticket to the farthest station and then tear them off. So the money has come, no passenger has traveled. So everytime when you have hurt somebody, you should certainly go and say “I have hurt you, I am very sorry. Please excuse me.” And when I said it, you were laughing. What is the reason? Can you not say that? Otherwise you are not straightforward. It is not enough if you say I have hurt somebody. Have you hurt? Yes. Is it a fact? Yes. If it is a fact and you know it, why don’t you disclose it? Especially to the person to whom it is due?
Devi: The third question: “Is sometimes the organizational goal more important than our own personal practice of aarjava?
Swamiji: It is very very difficult to answer unless you tell me the specific instances. See, the organizations may have a certain goal and the personal aarjava will not allow a full participation in that goal. Such instances are there. Then you will have to go into what is the nature of the organizational goal and whether I should stand by the aarjava and do I have the freedom to do it? Very recently something happened. An officer working in the gulf countries wrote to me saying that he has forged some documents. I said why did you forge the documents? He said forgery is in our company. And in this particular case they had to take an insurance for some vehicles. The managing director was out of station. So the general manager asked one of the private secretaries to copy the signature of the managing director. And this signature went to the insurance bank for giving the loan. The bank people said there was some mischief. So this is a person who has not got involved in the forgery but he was supposed to process the papers. So he went to the bank and said the signature does not tally, shall I verify? He said yes you may verify, feeling confident that they will not verify it. So they verified and found that it was a forged signature. Now when it came to the point of forgery, all the people said, including the managing director, why did you not call me and inform me when you came to know of it? He said forgery is a practice in that company. They are filing suits forging documents. Now the question is he vouchsafed for the veracity of the signature and ultimately he was asked to resign and go away. So I told him, what is it that you are saying? You are asserting that the signature is genuine when the signature is not genuine. Swamiji it is the system. How can I… the general manager has got it done; I am not the general manager, I am working under him. So I finally said o.k. I understand your obligations to your boss. Now leave the company, you have to leave. And get into a company where such forgery practices are not there. So he has left the company and joined another company for a much lesser salary and he has been interviewed, etc. So the organizational goal is such that it completely violates your personal principle or discipline. You should understand whether the virtue you have to uphold is of a criminal nature. If it is of a criminal nature you have to be careful. In this case you can be put into prison though he is not the actual signing authority. The person who has signed is different. That person was never asked to go away. So what is the organizational goal? To which extent it clashes? Does it involve any criminal consequence or criminal character? All these factors will have to be taken into account and then only I can give an answer. The best will be you escape that situation and get into a better organization.
I know of an instance which my gurudev who narrated it years back. There was a huge theft taking place in a government defense factory. They were moving crateful of material unrecorded and selling it. And they came to an officer saying that I will give you a share of this. Please sign this and stand by our side. This officer said I will not sign and I will not stand by your side. But the maximum I will do is I will not disclose this information, he said. I will not disclose this information and tom-tom it that things are being stolen in an organized manner like this. I cannot be a party to it but I will not disclose. This is what he said. So the matters are a little complicated unless you tell me specifically what is to be done and where is the violation, my advice can be only be of a general character. But are the points clear?
See, I don’t know. You are a mother. There are many parents who would not have very clean background. Every body gets married at the age of 25 or 30. Maybe they were a little loose as friends. Some three or four days back, a youngster came to the ashram with his cousin brother. And he was telling me I would like to stay in the ashram for 2 or 3 days. Can I? Yes you may. I feel that I am a sinful person he said. And can such a sinful person come and stay in the ashram? And what is to be done for a sinful person? I said when you know that you are a sinful person, what are the items of sin that you have committed? Don’t do them again. The first point is do not repeat your sinful action. The second point is, then he asked me, what is the recompense for sinfulness. See there are so many religious exercises and rituals, but the best will be repentance. If you repent for your sinfulness, I think that is more than sufficient. Then I asked “What are the types of sin that you have committed? Have you stolen? Yes I have stolen. How much have you stolen? I cannot say. When did you steal? When I was in the college in the hostel. What will be the total value of your theft? He said about five thousand rupees. Can you return this five thousand rupees to the people concerned? Yes I can. As an initial step if I give you one thousand rupees, I shall give you, will you go and return to at least a few of them? He said no I don’t want the money. I said I am giving you to return the money. You take. No I cannot say all of a sudden. This is a few years back. I have taken from the purses of the room-mates. Whose purse was it? That I don’t know. I have taken money along with others. So the conversation ended at that point. Then he wants to come and stay in the ashram. Finally I said you may come. I really don’t know whether his stealing tendency has stopped or he will be stealing from here itself. But my mind is such that if a person comes and tells me that I want to improve, I cannot go and sit in judgement over him. This is my straightforwardness. Maybe my straightforwardness will cost me something. What is there? May be some articles from the ashram may be taken by him. That is o.k. My virtues are in my heart and they cannot be stolen be stolen. In fact I want many people to steal my virtues. Let all of them steal and make me bankrupt. So if he has the straightforwardness to say that he is sinful and he wants to get rid of it, I must have the faithfullness to say co-operate with him and help him. Do all these things give you any information and enlightenment? He said shall I bring my mother? If his mother comes along, that will be the best. His father is a graduate school teacher, his mother also is a teacher. I must spend more time with them to understand.
So our discussion on straightforwardness has been useful to you? Ask the others.
Devi: Yes very useful Swamiji. Everybody here is saying yes. Thank you Swamiji. Our pranaams to you.
Swamiji: Asirvaad. My love and blessings to all of you. I will pass the microphone to Ma.
Ma Gurupriya: Hello. It has been very nice. Through telesatsang we have been able to get really connected to you. You have been able to hear Swamiji’s voice for some time. This is very encouraging. Here today we have two devotees from Malaysia listening to the telesatsang. They are Dr. Sarawathy, her husband Raviji and one Sulochanaji from Seremban. My love to all of you. I will chant slokas. (Ma chants the slokas Swamin namaste and explains the meaning.) I will pass the microphone to Nutan Swamiji.
Nutan Swamiji: Hello. Just now I went through the questions. They are new and are quite tough also. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
Devi: Thank you Swamiji. Our pranaams to all of you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- End. Audio recording by Rema and Sotheeswari; 12 October 2008. Transcribed by Swaminathan; transcript emailed to Ashram 15th October 2008. -------------------- Appendix (Hand-out sheet given to participants for group discussion before the telesatsang):
SIRD, Malaysia.
Tele-satsang: Sunday 12 October 2008.
Topic: Straightforwardness
In Vicharasetu January 2004, with reference to Chapter 13 of the Bhagavadgeeta, on the virtue aarjava (straightforwardness), Poojya Swamiji says “This one trait will look after everything else. There is a tendency on the part of elders to instill in the young and growing minds, knowingly or unknowingly, a measure of stealth or hiding tendency. They even feel that such a trait is necessary, as a note of decorum. As a result, this undesirable note gets strengthened with every event or interaction in life. Thus people find themselves inextricably enmeshed in hypocrisy, stealth and even deceit. In reality, the root cause for all this is lack of aarjava.”
Discussion questions:
We have one hour for discussion and it may not be possible to discuss in detail every question. Take a few minutes to go through the questions then share one important point with the rest of the group. (Group leader should ensure that everyone gets time to share their thoughts.)
Question for Swamiji: After discussion, list any question/s you wish to put forward to Swamiji.
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| Last Updated on Friday, 01 May 2009 11:43 |
