Spiritual Living 1

Spiritual Living 1

What We’re About

Welcome to Spiritual Living in a Crazy, Screwy, Nutty World.

What we are going to do is redefine every aspect of what “spiritual,” “living” and “crazy, screwy, nutty World” is. “In a” stays.

We are going to talk about the basis of everything. Why you are here, what your life purpose is, what a mistake is, how to decide what to do and what you want in life.

We are going to give you a whole bunch of secrets, 15 or 20 secrets. “Secrets” means “things you don’t know about.” They will be scattered throughout the book and it is your job to find them and to value them and to appreciate them. That means, every time you read something in this book you did not know, that’s one of your secrets. Keep count, if you want. Or don’t. It’s up to you.

Everything You Need To KnowIt’s not much; just an example of ideal life on which to base your life.

We’re going to start with an overview. It’s a Story. It’ll show you how certain Laws of Nature behave. Or misbehave. Depending.

It’s a great story—I’d love to see a Hollywood Special-Effects version. For now, close your eyes & listen. Wait. It’s a book, you can’t do that. So try this: close your eyes and read. (Yeah, that’s the ticket.)

The Ramayana comes from India, and is either Indian mythology or non-mythology, — or it may be the processes the human body uses to grow, which the Ramayan in Human Physiology, Discovery of the Eternal Reality of the Ramayan in the Structure and Function of Human Physiology, By Tony Nader, MD, Ph.D proposes. Whatever your beliefs or thoughts is ok. For now just enjoy it as a fun adventure story.

This story shows how certain laws of nature act and respond. People have superpowers —called “sidhis” and pronounced “cities.” There’s all kinds of valor, of characters doing the right thing simply because it is right—remember that? Some guys, of course, are bad, evil, mean, and rotten. Well, it’s a story

Now sit back, put on your reading glasses, dim the lights, it’s storytime:

Once, long, long ago, in a different time of the world (a different Yuga) there lived a demon, a wonderful woman, and a hero.

It’s the story of how Vishnu was born as Rama, a prince. How he wins the hand of Sita, how he kills the demon Ravana who has taken over the world, and how Vishnu/Rama restores heaven on earth and peace everywhere, with no sickness or poverty or commercials on TV: It’s absolutely marvelous and is just the kind of thing we could use today.

So what happens in the beginning is that Ravana (who plays the bad guy) gets a boon that he can’t be killed by devas (small “g” gods, impulses of Nature like wind, water, sun, moon, etc.), celestial beings, Gandharvans—dozens of almost every type of being in creation, except he doesn't mention humans because he thinks we’re like ants and insignificant.

With the boon in hand, Ravana starts wreaking havoc everywhere, kicks all of the devas out of heaven so all the laws of nature can’t do their jobs anymore. No more rain to water the crops, no summer breeze to cool down the heat; you get the idea. So chaos reigns.

All of these small gods are unhappy, sad, depressed, upset, annoyed, otherwise put out, so they go to see Vishnu, who is a big “G” God and who says, “Since Ravana forgot to mention humans when he made his wish list, I will be born as a man and kill this churlish fellow.”

At that time, there’s a king on earth name Dasaratha who has three wives

but no kids. He does a spiritual performance (yagya) to encourage pregnancy, with the nectar of that performance going to his three wives with an extra portion going to his first wife, who gives birth to Rama. Kaikeyi, the second wife, gives birth to Bharata, while Dasaratha’s third wive gives birth to Lakshmana and Shatrughna. The four brothers become great friends, with Laksmana and Rama virtually inseparable, as are Bharata and Shatrughna.

Nothing happens for a long time; they are growing, enjoying life in the palace. Everyone loves all of the four boys, especially Rama, the first-born and heir-apparent.

After Ravana kicks all the small “g” gods, all those laws of nature, out of heaven: his people (called Rakshasas) roam everywhere reeking havok. Of course, the righteous – who are trying to restore balance with their teaching, actions and spiritual practice – can’t because all the rakshasas (demons) are heckling them, spilling drinks and blood on the sacrifices, tickling them with feathers and annoying them– so the sages and pundits can’t finish their meditations, prayers, or yagya/ceremonies.

When Rama is 15 or 16, the great sage Vishwamitra visits the palace. He asks the King Dasaratha if Rama can come out and play, and protect his sacrifice. “But he’s just a boy! My boy,” says Dasaratha.

The advisors all tell Dasaratha Vishwamitra is here for Rama, it’s a great blessing, Vishwamitra wouldn’t let anything happen to Rama, and besides, it’s the right thing to do. So Dasaratha agrees to let Rama go.

The first day out, walking back to where his hermitage is, Vishwamitra starts giving Rama and Lakshmana all these superpowers. The ability to walk forever without getting tired or needing rest, the ability to go without food or drink indefinitely without getting thirsty or hungry. The ability to pick winning lottery numbers (not really). Cool stuff.

They run into a demon that Vishwamitra has Rama disburse or dispense with, and when Rama does, Vishwamitra gives Rama fabulous weapons as a reward - such as a quiver that never runs out of arrows and arrows that are incredibly powerful missiles that fly in circles, render their target paralyzed, split huge trees— amazing stuff.

Every step of the way Vishwamitra is encouraging and giving great gifts to Rama and Lakshmana.

When they get to Vishwamitra’s hermitage (ashrama), Vishwamitra starts a long, several day yagya/ceremony/sacrifice. For it to work--it’s like a spell--once he begins he can’t stop. He starts to do it, and two demons show up and start razzing with noisemakers and making funny faces. But just as they begin, Rama shoots one of them, killng him instantly. An arrow to the chest of the other sends him flying 400 miles away. Powerful missiles! The hit-in-the-chest-guy is named Maricha, remember that, it’s on the test– ‘cause he makes a guest appearance later in another episode!

Vishwamitra finishes his sacrifice, ecstatic he was able to complete it. Wanting to reward Rama (Vishwamitra is such a noble sage), instead of taking Rama straight back to the palace in Ayodya, he takes him to a neighboring kingdom. There King Janaka is holding a contest to see who will win the hand of his beautiful daughter Sita.

More in the next post