Realizing God: Experiments on the TreadMill

Here's how I practice the "Understand-Appreciate-Enjoy"
model that I proposed in my first mail. Daily when I cool
down on my way back to home from the morning jog and during
my afternoon walk near my workplace, I try my best to
enjoy the surroundings - the lush green grass, the fall
colors, the buildings and the open sky. These, I do
simultaneously as I recite "Aditya Hrudayam" thrice in
my mind, being aware of the meaning, solely in
gratitude and appreciation of the Sun God in the
morning and talk diverse topics with my friend(s) in
the afternoon. These are the specific 2 times when I
deliberately apply the UAE model. At all other times
too, I try my best to try to identify situations where
I can apply the model, without purpose. Needless to
say, I do the same when there is a purpose too.

Though the procedures and principles described here are
Hindu oriented, other religions would also have similar
things I guess. After all, religion is just a tool to
reach God. I visited quite a few prominent catholic
churches (cathedrals) in USA, still have the statue of
mother Mary holding bleeding Jesus in her lap on my
entertainment center and the cross holding Lord Jesus
hanging to the living room wall. I said Christian
prayers and sung Christian carols for 12 years in
school and most of them did not seem way different.
Just that they were more direct, down-to-earth, and
easily understandable. Anyway, the intention here is
not to promote any religion or religion at all.
Presented here is just one way - my way of applying the
UAE model and realizing God.

When I jog on the treadmill, I close my eyes for most
of the time (yes, I practiced it) and recite all the
Sanskrit slokas in my mind that my grandfather taught
me when I was 4-7 being aware of the meaning, solely in
gratitude and appreciation of the God. The key again is
NOT, being a hindu or being religious, but being
grateful, understanding and appreciating God. The 25
mins on the treadmill goes off in a wink this way,
without experiencing the pain of the jog. But
sometimes, when my mind gets caught up very badly in
problems that refuse to leave, I jog without reciting
the slokas and after 12 or 13 mins, I start to feel
tired and feel like taking rest for a while or giving
up for the day.

That's probably same with life too. To forget the pain
in life, our mind needs to be withdrawn from it, into
devotion, into love with the creator and His creation.
A very important thing to notice here is that devotion
is devoid of intention or "sankalpam" that's done at
the beginning of Hindu pujas. It is devotion that helps
us to stay detached from the pain. If we bring even a
single material thought into this devotion, it never
stops there - it becomes a "train of thoughts" and
spreads like a drop of poison in a bowl of milk. I
experienced this too, during my treadmill experiments.

But I do feel totally frustrated sometimes, looking for
absolute help. That's when my puja with sankalpam that
I do after taking bath comes in handy. That's when I
tell my problems to God, that also, exactly during the
sankalpam (like the "Aim / objective" section in our
science lab reports). Also, I make it a point to
remember in mind the meaning of as many words as I can,
that I utter during the puja - particularly the 108
names of the God of the day (Siva on Monday, Vinayaka
on Tuesday, etc.) in the ashtotharam. Most of them
describe the God and help in understanding and
appreciating Him. When I don't know the meaning, I just
picture the God in mind.

Why are there millions of personifications of God in
Hindu religion? I heard somewhere that it is because
the visionaries of Hinduism feared that the devotees
might get bored worshipping only one God all the time.
Remember the law of diminishing marginal utility, that I
mentioned in my first mail? It seems to apply here too.
Having different Gods with different qualities makes us
pray differently every day and worship the different
qualities. This vision is definitely working with me at
least.

I'm pretty sure all religions have something similar to
sing to the Glory of the God, understanding and
appreciating Him. Like I said, religion is just a tool
to understand and appreciate the God and his creation,
not the God in itself. Just like there are some mighty
people who can do things without the help of tools,
there are people who can realize God without the help
of religion - they are called atheists. But everyone
realizes God sometime or the other. Will tell you why
in just a bit.

Though religion prescribes this puja with sankalpam to
propitiate God to fulfill our wishes, believe me, God
in the form we imagine helps none. Not once did a
miracle happen in my life to fulfill my wish, in spite
of doing this puja in the prescribed manner for several
years. So, why then does religion prescribe such a
useless ritual that takes away about 30 mins of
precious time in the morning? This is the reason that I
can think of. Just like all the -ve qualities like
jealousy, hatred, anger, arrogance, and lust harm the
self more than others, +ve qualities like will
(intention or "sankalpam"), trust (blind faith in
something), modesty (by doing shodasha upacharas 16
services to God), appreciation (the 108 names we
recite) give immense power to the self.

In effect, we are praying to our own inner senses to
help us. That's why God is within us. "Aham brahmasmi"
- means "I AM the God", as the Vedas say. I heard Lord
Jesus also says the same: "There is no difference
between me and my father." Whenever we see the
qualities described by the 108 or 1000 names of the God
we recite, we are being God. When we are helping the
needy, we are being "Deenabandhu", when we are making
money, we are being "Srikaraha", when we show great
intellect, we are being "mahamanaha", which are
essentially the names of the God.

When we recite these names again and again, those
qualities get imbibed in us and come to our help and
others' help when needed. Isn't it a great, powerful
technique? That's why, whenever I get a chance, I try
to promote group recitals of the Vishnu Sahasranama,
Lalitha Sahasranama, etc., along with the shodasha-
upachara puja, and will gladly help you in this, if
interested. Another project I propose is to form
groups, particularly of kids to discuss and chant 5 to
10 names of the God / Goddess every day / week.

Another "maya" or illusion of God's creation is this
"ego". If ego hears the "I am God" sentence, it
misunderstands it more than understanding it. So,
unless we totally get rid of this "ego", we can never
realize that we are the God. Every person who realizes
his strengths actually is realizing God. That's why I
think atheists also realize God, but without the help
of religion. After all, we can do things without tools,
right? But we all know how tools help us in doing
things. Imagine cutting a pineapple without a knife.
God himself says in the Gita that whichever way a
person wants to realize Him, He will be realized in the
same way by that person, without bias or favour.
(Yeyethamam prapadyante, tvam..).

There is absolutely nothing supernatural in this world.
Even if God in the form we imagine comes down, he has
to obey the laws of nature. We already saw that in the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The puranas and Vedas may
have used several figuratives and analogies to the
supernatural in describing God, but their intent and
meaning is as clear as a crystal to the divine mind.
You are the God. All the good qualities in God will be
yours, if you think only about them and nothing else.
And that's the way Vedas are: cryptic. Probably, so
that demons will not be able to figure them out. I did
quite a bit of study of Vedic Mathematics and I can
tell you, it IS very cryptic. Until I did at least 5-6
iterations with this mortal mind, I couldn't make out
the true meaning of the sutra.

One of the ways to see through the cryptology and reach
divinity is to know (as 'veda' literally translates).
How do we know? It is by questioning, reasoning, and
analyzing. I'll give you an example of how I do this.
One of the many names of the Supreme is 'kukshi-stha-
akhila-bhuvanaya', meaning the one who holds the entire
universe in his belly (kukshi). How do we interpret
this cryptic name? How does this apply to the God
within us? When will anyone hold something in his
belly? When he digests it. So, any person who
understands every thing in the universe, as if he
digested it (like when we digest what is told in
classrooms) can be called by this name.

Once we understand something, like say a computer or a
baby, we can control it. The greater we understand, the
greater we can control. If we understood it to the
extent of digesting it, we can fully control it. That's
why God is called Narayana, the controller. That's why
we should try to understand as much as we can. Do you
see how all these names are related to one another and
how we can realize them in ourselves?

If what I say is really true (which, btw, I myself am
not sure), why isn't this info available in the public
domain? Why are such powerful and useful techniques
hidden from the common man? Precisely, because they are
powerful and useful. It could be disastrous if evil
minds gain access to such information. Mythology gives
many examples of such misuse - Bhasmasura, for
instance.

So, we should also ensure that we continue guarding
this kind of info from evil minds - only evil minds,
not others. We should not hoard this information or use
it for competitive edge. History already showed us the
repercussions of limiting this knowledge to select few
families. That's why I thought it fit to e-mail this to
like-minded people and am willing to help you in anyway
that's possible to me in these matters. Please feel
free to let me know if you need any help in initiating
group recitals or group pujas.

At the end of a puja, however long and perfect it was,
it is common to say, "pooja vidhim najaanami;
kshyamyatam prabho" (I don't know the correct way to
worship; please forgive me Lord) again and again. Even
traditional, expert priests say that. It may be true
that I'm showing more of my ignorance than my knowledge
in this mail. Like I said before, this is intended to
be a combined study, so please feel free to let me know
of any mistakes that you find in what I wrote.

Hoping to find more Bhakti Yogis this new year!
January 2003