One blessing we have is that we have a tradition and discipline of multiple approaches to wellness.

In some parts of the world, when we are not well, there is only one way to get back to health, the standard, official way.

Other approaches are banned or atleast frowned upon by the establishment.

Not so in India.

We talk of mani, mantra, aushadha.

Whatever helps, take it. Good end is important and not a single approach.

Especially the educated are going the western way. We can only sympathise with them.

We only hope they will not bring legislation of the kind that they have in other countries.

What matters is what works for us, not what someone says should work for us. This means options, workable options, and many options.

One way to celebrate it is to have national holiday that day.

Are there not other ways?

Can we not have discussions on what he did, how he did, and where we can emulate him?

Can we not have reflection sessions on his thought and action?

Can we not use it as a day to be grateful for?

Just making it a day off from work seems a joke on the great man.

Notifications come from Companies and Banks from time to time.

They are in standard jargon.

Even the writers may not know what they are writing.

Certainly the ordinary readers cannot make out.

Perhaps law or tradition requires things to be put in certain words.
Why not add a supplement that gives the substance of the notification in the commoner's words? Especially in respect of what he SHOULD know and what he SHOULD do.

Part II**

PART TWO

SO FAR WE SAW WHAT TO AVOID
AND NOW FOR WHAT TO ADOPT

LOVE ,CARE, SHARE, AND SERVE

You would have heard the story
Of a team of journalists
Visiting heaven and hell.
They found there was plenty
In both heaven and hell
But in heaven they enjoyed that plenty
And in hell they did not.
And they soon found why.
There was a rule in both hell and heaven
that everyone will have
his/her elbow unbent
So the hand is one straight, rigid piece.
In hell they rued this handicap,
Did nothing about it
And kept starving and being miserable.
In heaven they accepted this handicap,
And chose to be smart –
They started feeding EACH OTHER
And that made all the difference!
They could all avail of the plenty.

One way to bring heaven on earth is
That I take care of you
and you take care of me.
When I take care of myself,
I have only one to help me.
When I take care of others,
I have so many to take care of me.
The traditional principle and practice of
Parasparam – taking care of one another,
Is superb power.

We ARE exercising this power
But in a very, very limited fashion.
The potential is just infinite.

One way, probably the only way
To take care of myself is for me
To take care of you, you and you
And you, you and you taking care of me.

Isa Upanishad

One should strengthen and protect oneself
By the power of renunciation of selfishness,
And selfless service to others.
---

Bhagavad Gita

I have made my home in all living souls.
Therefore you should worship all living beings
With gifts needed by living beings,
With respect to their inherent divinity,
With love and with a holistic vision
Of the giver's oneness
With the person receiving the gift.
----

Zenda Avesta

Make yourself pure, O righteous one.
Any one in the world here below
Can win purity for himself, namely,
When he cleanses himself
With good thoughts, good words and good deeds.
---

Dhammapada

Speak the truth;
Do not yield to anger;
Give even though you have but a little to give.
-----

The Holy Bible

And now I give you a new commandment.

Love one another.
As I have loved you,
so must you love one another.
You have heard that it was said,
love your friends,
And hate your enemies.
But now I tell you,
Love your enemies.

Albert Schweitzer

In helpfulness to others,
Every man can find on his own doorstep
Adventures for the soul –
our surest source of pure peace
And living satisfaction.
---

Bhartrihari

The small minds always think
Of differentiating things as 'mine' and 'of others'.
For the broadminded,
The whole world is their family.
---

Brother Lawrence

We ought not to be weary
Of doing little things
For the love of God,
Who regards not the greatness of the work,
But the love with which it is performed.
---

David Simon

We are collectively here
To remember ourselves as spiritual beings,
Empowered to learn, serve, and celebrate.
As members of a community of souls,
We have a responsibility to remind each other
That our essential nature is not as flesh and blood machines
But as embodied spirits,
Temporarily condensed as individuals.
---

Elizabeth Bibesco

Blessed are those
Who give without remembering
And take without forgetting.
---

Emily Dickinson

If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
---

Erich Fromm

Love is an activity, not a passive effect;
It is "standing in", not a "falling for" …
Love is primarily giving, not receiving,
---

John Wesley

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.
---

Kabir

When you are ushered into the world
You cry and others rejoice;
Live your life in such a way that
When you die, you will laugh and others will weep.
---

Kahlil Gibran

I love you, my brother, whoever you are –
Whether you worship in your church,
Kneel at your temple, or pray in your mosque.
You and I are all children of one faith,
For the diverse paths of religion
Are fingers of the loving hand
of one Supreme Being,
A hand extended to all,
Offering completeness of spirit to all,
Eager to receive all.
---

Mother Teresa

We cannot do great things on this earth.
We can only do small things with great love.
---

Martin Luther King Jr

We must learn to live together as brothers
Or perish together as fools.
---

Nisargadatta Maharaj

My stand is clear:
Produce to distribute, feed before you eat,
Think of others
before you think of yourself.
Only a selfless society based on sharing
Can be stable and happy.
This is the only practical solution.
If you do not want it, then – fight.
---

Ras Khan

Reading the Shastras
you become a pandit,
Reciting the Qur'an, a maulvi,
But if you have not known Love in that,
What is the use?
---

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Who are we to show compassion to others?
The Lord is the only one
who can be compassionate.
We can only serve and worship.
---

St. Francis of Assissi

Lord, make me
an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, let me sow pardon;
Where there is doubt, let me sow faith;
Where there is despair – hope;
Where there is darkness – Light;
Where there is sadness, let me sow joy.
---

Swami Vivekananda

The secret of religion lies
Not in theories but in practice.
To be good and to do good –
That is the whole of religion.

We must have these four sorts of ideas.
We must have friendship for all;
We must be merciful towards
Those that are in misery;
When people are happy,
we ought to be happy;
And to the wicked, we must be indifferent.
---

Teresa of Avil

God has no hands or feet or voice
Except ours and through these he works.
---

Thomas Merton

What do I mean
by loving ourselves properly?
I mean, first of all, desiring to live,
Accepting life as a very great gift
and a great good,
Not because of what it gives us,
But because of what it enables us
to give others.
---

William Penn

I expect to pass through life but once.
If, therefore, there be any kindness
I can show or any good thing I can do
To any fellow being, let me do it now,
For I shall not pass this way again.
---

THIS WAY TO HEAVEN

Rigveda 1.141.8

Never retaliate against any man,
e ven if he curses or harms you.
May you invoke the blessings of God
On him by your prayers.

Dhammapada

Let no one deceive another;
Let no one despise another;
Let no one out of anger or resentment
Wish to harm another.

Bodhisattwa's prayer

May there never be any evil to anyone from me.
May all who attribute some offence to me
or who laugh at me
or all who do harm to me
attain Enlightenment.
May I be a help to the helpless,
a guide to the traveler,
a boatman for those
who want to go to the other side.
May I be a lamp to those who want it,
a bed for those who require it,
a servant of all.
I pray for the well-being of the universe,
may all beings see me with the eyes of a friend.
May I see all beings with the eyes of a friend.

The Talmud

Four classes of men
Will never see God's face:
The scoffer, the liar,
t he slanderer and the hypocrite.

The Holy Bible

If someone has done you wrong,
Do not repay him with a wrong,
t ry to do
w hat everyone considers to be good.

But I say unto you which hear,
Love your enemies,
Do good to them which hate you.
Bless them that curse you,
a nd pray for them
w hich despitefully use you.

And as you would
That men should do to you,
d o ye also to them likewise.

Whatever a man soweth
That shall he also reap.

The Holy Koran :Prophet Mohammed

Wrong not and
y e shall not be wronged.

Keep yourselves far from envy
b ecause it eateth up
a nd taketh away good actions
l ike as fire eateth up and burneth wood.

The Holy Adi Granth

Impurity of the heart is greed,
i mpurity of the tongue is falsehood,
i mpurity of the eyes is gazing on another's wealth,
i mpurity of the ear is listening to slanders.

Adi Sankaracharya

Give up the curse of lust and wrath.
Give up delusion and greed.
Remember what you really are.
Fools are they that are blind
t o the glory of God.

Chief Seattle
(Native North American Chief Seattle)

All things are bound together,
a ll things connect.
Man has not woven the Web of Life;
He is but one thread.
Whatever he does to the Web,
h e does to himself.

Cardinal Newman:

It is almost a definition of a gentleman
t o say he is one who never inflicts pain.

Dalai Lama

We live very close together.
So our prime purpose in this life
is to help others.
And if you can't help them,
a t least don't hurt them.

Herman Melville:

We cannot live by ourselves alone.
Our lives are connected
By a thousand invisible threads,
a nd along these sympathetic fibers,
o ur actions run as causes
a nd return to us as results

Kavi Baddena:

There is nothing great
i n helping those who help you.
One should help those who have hurt us,
w ithout pointing a finger at them.

Krishnananda

Do not hurt anyone.
What we throw out comes back to us
i n multiples.
When we hurt others,
w e hurt ourselves more,

M. Scott Peck:

We are creating our heritage
at this very moment.
The conditions that
we will experience on the earth
i n our future incarnations
a re the conditions
that we are now creating.
If you do not embrace
the concept of reincarnation,
t hen simply think about the impact
t hat your present decisions will have
on your children and future generations.
Do you want to leave the planet
i n a better or worse condition for them?

Ma Saradadevi

Man finds faults in others
a fter bringing down his own mind
to that level.
Does anything ever happen to another
if you enumerate his faults?
It only injures you…
To see the faults of others!
One should never do it.
I never do so.
Forgiveness is tapasya

Mother Teresa:

If you judge people,
you have no time to love them.

Paul Brunton

The man who thinks he may live
as freely as his unconsidered desires prompt him
and yet not carry the burden
of an eventual reckoning
is binding his life to a hollow dream.
Whoever sins against his fellows or against himself
pronounces his own sentence thereby.

Robert Ingersol

There are in nature
neither rewards nor punishments;
There are only consequences.

S.N.Goenka

Our difficulty, our ignorance is
that we remain unheedful
while planting seeds.

Soli N.Tavaria

God and nature judge us
from our pure motive state
and hence karma is neither action
nor the fruits of action
b ut the fruit of pure motive.

Sage TGN

Causing any harm or hurt
to other living beings
w ould draw to you
the curses of the victims which,
when imprinted on your life,
would disrupt and drain it
as surely as the shadow following you,
wherever you go

Understand the science underlying misery.
When you cause any harm or hurt
to another living being,
a wave of suffering emanates from the victim
to imprint on your life energy (or soul)
since you are the perpetrator.
Thereafter, your misery-imprint can be
cleared only by your own suffering.
The immutable law of action and result
would bring the punitive misery.
This is as certain as the truth
That your shadow is ever lurking
under your feet, says Tiruvalluvar..

Sai Baba of Sirdi

Do not give tit for tat
for each is answerable
for his own actions..

Swami Chinmayananda

Man is not punished FOR his sins
but he is punished BY his sins.

Swami Vivekananda

Every reaction in the form of hatred or evil
is so much loss to the mind,
and every evil thought or deed of hatred
or any thought of reaction,
if it is controlled will be laid in our favour…
(and) that piece of energy will be
converted into the higher powers.

Tiruvalluvar

All the misery afflicts only those
that have caused the misery.
And those who seek to avoid misery
would not cause any misery.

The best punishment for those
who do evil to you is
to awaken their sensitiveness
by returning good for evil.

Hatred is the cancerous disease
that constitutes an offending evil
in all living things.

This is part one of a manuscript that is available for any one who wishes to publish it in the form of a handy book for distribution, free or at cost. Please write to the author.

TOWARDS HEAVEN ON EARTH

By
N. H. ATTHREYA

Dedicated
To my sisters and brothers
Who may be unconsciously hurting themselves
And who would certainly not like to;
And more importantly, would like to capitalize
On this blessing of being born human

INTRODUCTION

One way to have heaven on earth
is NOT to have hell on earth.

One way not-to-have-hell-on-earth
is to keep off hating, harming, hurting others
by thought, word or deed.

One way to keep off hating, harming and hurting
is to become conscious of the implications
of so doing
and more so
how so doing affects us
if not in the short run, in the long run.

From time immemorial, sages and saints
have pointed out these implications.

Thanks to healthy traditions,
many of us have registered this message

Perhaps not to the extent it need be.
Perhaps.

This explains why a daily prayer
incorporates this message.

MA VIDVISHA VAHAI:
This Sanskrit saying is the final portion of
an indian traditional daily invocation
starting with
Sahana vavatu.
and ending with
"Ma vidvisha vahai"

"Don't hurt/harm ANYONE
by thought, word or deed".
That will be the prosaic English version.

In this invocation, there are
a few guideposts for together flourishing.

It is in the form of
Let us do this, let us do this,
let us do this.

What are these 'do-this's?

Let us learn together,
Let us nourish ourselves together,
Let us strengthen ourselves TOGETHER.

In Sanskrit, it will read:
Sahanavavatu
Sahanaubhunaktu
Saharveeryam karavavahai
Tejasvinavadeetamastu

Only the last item, namely,
Ma vidvisha vahai, says:
Let us NOT do this.

Perhaps to provide a special emphasis.

The emphasis is needed
because it addresses
a crucial reality,
a vital aspect of life and living.
as possibly implied by the poet –
"the moving finger writes,
and having writ, moves on,
not all the piety nor wit,
shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
nor all thy tears wash out a word of it."

The message ma vidvisha vahai –
Hurt anyone not -
seems central to one's own well being
and to the well being of all of us.

The denial and violation of this eternal truth
will hurt us as much as it hurts others.
and this hurt is avoidable
by us the home sapiens.
hence the plea and prayer:
HURT THEE NOT
HURT THYSELF NOT.

To deny and desolate this truth
is tempting but treacherous.
This is the finding of
masters and mystics of all climes and times.
so they counsel: Keep off.

As a proverb puts it,
let us not experiment with poison
to see whether it really kills!

In this little book,
we are sharing the insights and guidelines,
provided by some of them –
some of them because what is available
will fill volumes -
in three parts –
Part one, WHAT TO AVOID
part two, WHAT TO ADOPT
and part three, WHAT IS THE LOGIC?

Part one, namely, What To Avoid
is good enough.
This practice itself is a big favour
done to ourselves.
I wish and pray this plea –
Ma vidvisha vahai, HURT NOT ANY ONE –
becomes the living mantra of even one society.

Whatever else we do is a bonus
and this bonus we find in part two.

In part three,
we are giving the logic behind
what is commended in part one and part two.

We suggest you go one step further.
We suggest that you make this YOUR OWN book –
a sort of family book.

One way to do it is to fill the blank pages
with the riches of heritage
in the languages you have grown with.

For example, if your mother tongue
happens to be Tamizh (Tamil)
you may add the following from poet Subramanya Bharathi:

Pagaivanukkarulvai – nannenjay
Pagaivanukkarulvai

Vaazhvai ninaitabin taazvai ninaipathu
Vaazhvukku nannamo – nannenjay
Thaazvu pirarkennir thanazhivaan enra
Saasthiram kelaayo – nannenjay

(Bless my 'enemies'–
those who feel inimical to me - O dear heart;
bless them in particular.

Having thought of good life
can you think of its degradation – O dear heart?
haven't you heard of the scientific fact
that as you think ill of another
you're destructing YOURSELF – O dear heart?)

If your mother tongue happens to be
Bangla, (Bengalee),
you may add the following
from Ma Saradadevi

Tobe ekti kotha boli – jodi santi chau ma
Karou dosh dekho na, dosh dekbe nijer
Jogot ke apnarkore nite sekho
Keu por noy, ma, jogot tomar.

(But I say one thing –
if you want peace, my child,
see not anybody's faults.
See your own faults.
Learn to make the world your own.
No one is a stranger, my child,
the world is yours.)

We suggest too that we share this message
with our children, when they are children,
so that they will get into the HABIT
of avoiding hurting others
and adopting helping others
And thereby helping themselves no end.
By doing it early enough in their life,
they will have the highest mileage ever.
If we don't help them, who will?
If we don't help them when they are young,
when can we?