IQ EQ SQ

S-D-B-S-R=?

One of the Indian habits that I admire and love is this—unlike in the west you can drop into a friend’s house in India without an appointment. I happened to do just that last week only to find myself in a strormy situation. My friend and his family were about to leave for a satsang—a meeting of ‘spiritual’ people as he described it. He knew my reservations on such meetings and had some exposure to my writings but after deep thought he asked me to join him.

S-D-B-S-R=?

‘After all I am the Guru there’ he told me

The chantings over, the speeches began and I was getting bored when all of a sudden my friend announced that I was to speak on ‘Science and Spirituality’! There was a flutter in the audience as my friend introduced me with references to my work as a trainer in Lateral thinking and my authorship of 4 books . I was left with no option but to walk to the stage .I heard my friend saying that the audience had better brace itself to a hard hitting speech.

Here is a gist of my speech.

Dear satsangis

I am not spiritual in the traditional sense. Nor am I a scientist by profession .It is just that I have gone through a phase of deep pursuit of spirituality and have done with it for now .I have also been deeply involved in the study of the progress of human thinking especially scientific thinking. I am fascinated by the universe as much as any God loving person but I take a totally different view.

Over the years based on my life experience as well as observation of people around me I have arrived at a mathematical equation to explore true spirituality as I understand the term.

THE EQUATION IS THIS

S-D-B-S-R=?

The terms are

S=SPRITUALITY

D=unchallenged DOGMA

B=unexamined BELIEFS

S=SUPERSTITIONS

R=mindless repetition of RITUALS

In other words what remains of your spirituality after you have removed D,B,S, and R is to my mind true SPIRITUALITY.

To me it seems most obvious that in a world where we see so much suffering—800 million people in India alone go to bed on a hungry stomach, 600 million Indians do not have access to a toilet, tens of thousands of kids die of starvation in our country daily -- there cannot be any OTHER meaning to spirituality. Need I say more?

‘I can recount an instance involving Mother Theresa .She addressed an audience somewhere in north India and at the end of her talk requested the audience to give something for the poor . A hat was passed around and some cash was collected. Mother took out of the hat a cheque of RS 500 and asked who had dropped it. A nervous voice replied --Mother I gave that cheque . Sorry but that is all I could give’

Mother smiled and told him that she had not called out his name just to castigate him. Looking at the man’s shirt pocket Mother asked him how many cigarettes he smoked every day.

‘One packet ,Mother’ the man stammered

‘Son what will happen to you if I requested you to stop smoking from now?’

‘ Mother I have been smoking for years and will therefore suffer withdrawal symptoms and may even faint’

‘ Good you were honest. This morning I was taken to a gutter by a street in this town. I saw a one day old live baby that had been thrown there by its parents who did not want her. I picked up the baby took her to my Home, cleaned it, fed it and God will take care of the rest. I now ask you—if not smoking can lead to such serious consequences for you, imagine the mental state of that baby that has been deprived of something that is the God given right of a baby –to be loved ,protected and nurtured by its parents. The day you FEEL that sense of deprivation even if you donate one rupee it will amount to a million’

As I saw tears run down the eyes of some listeners I ended by quoting Mother again:

‘When you die and go to the Kingdom of God He will not ask you how many times you read your Holy book, how many times you said prayers , how many visits you made to your House of God. He will simply ask ‘ Did you do your best for those worse off than you?’

‘When I evaluate myself in such terms I am a failure indeed.’

K.R.RAVI

WWW.KRRAVI.COM