August 1995

A Journal of Contemporary Hindu Thought and Expression

* Poems * Short stories * Essays * Children's writings
* Critiques and issues * Humor * Encounters with sages
* Quotes and drawings that move and inspire us toward dharma

Edited and Illustrated by Deva and Gayatri Rajan
Produced by Our Readers * Designed by John Kuzich

Literary Review

Queen of Hearts

V. Dhurandhar

Waiting in eager hush for your liberating words
As you fly around the globe, a congress of birds
Everywhere, of different feather
Flocks around you worshippingly together;
Disoriented, though bound homeward,
You set their compass on course the primal nest inward
Drooping with pinioned wings, they crane their necks for loving props
Their parched throats thirsting for your grace, its vintage drops.
Radiant spirit, the world is at your holy feet
Where the blend of East and West is now complete
And in sizzling sands find the green patch of a retreat;
Yours the gold and silver that filters through the dawn
To end our raven night, its swell of sorrow
And distill out of sour grapes the sweet wine of a halcyon tomorrow.
Weaving miracles of love round every daughter and son,
Your sea-deep syllables modulate in the narrows of their marrow.
A short dark figure, burning with a white flame as tall as the sky.
You prompt us to hitch our wagons to the Great Star on high;
You are the Whole, the Infinite, we the inalienable parts
As stars are of the mind-boggling universe,
Devoted Mother to your children and tender nurse,
Priceless are your gifts, beloved Amma, conquering Queen of Hearts!

Home for the Holidays

American Thanksgiving, 1993

By Meenal Pandya
This thanksgiving, let me thank you,
My culture, my heritage, my motherland-Bharat.
Thanks for shaping my life,
With values and warmth, with ideals and strength.
You are such an integral part of my being
That it is very hard to see myself without you.
In fact, if I had not left your cozy lap
To venture into the glamorous world,
If I had not witnessed my colleagues' struggles
On the problems that barely touch me (thanks to you),
If I had not experienced sleepless nights
Raising children away from your osmosis,
If I had not compared notes with my friends
And understood the warmth of a decent family
(which is not a norm-now I know)
I would have taken everything for granted.
Everything that you gave me
The support, the love, the safety,
The habits, the lifestyle, the faith.
And I would have never thanked you.
Thanks again on this thanksgiving.
You will be my home as long as I live,
No matter where I live.

Don't Get Attached to Illusion

Anonymous

Suffering is built into the system of time
Because nothing ever stays the same
Yet we cling to our illusions, we don't draw these conclusions
Until we're confronted with the dreaded "end-game."

The face that we saw in the mirror,
Once so proud of our skin so fine
Has become an insurmountable challenge
To the entire cosmetic line.

We may recall the words of a lover
Who swore to be loyal ever more
Yet three months later from the vary same mouth
Poured the very same words at someone else's door.

The car that we worked so hard to buy
We loved it so much that have it we must
Yet it's no longer envied by anyone's eye
For the fenders and chassis are rotted with rust.

The photos and clippings that boast our success
Have frayed at the edges and yellowed with age
They don't mean much anymore; to show them's a bore
Yet at the time they made us feel that we were the rage.

So don't forget the truth in your rhapsody of joy
Sift the real from the unreal, the Essence from the toy
Life is like a movie, the images are a dream.
And the only reality is the movie screen.

Superconscious Lake

Jyothi Palani, age 14

The Divine lake of my vast mind
Glitters with life
Its depth not yet explored,
Its life not fully understood.
Take me, Lord,
To the depth,
Where no light shines
And no dark shades,Where a bliss state is achieved,
Pervading every inch of life,
Like water in my body,
And the vast space between atoms.

Take me to this place,
Which is no place,
Take me to the stillness of
The Divine lake of my vast mind.

A Perfect World

Shivani Gita Rajan, age 12

An ocean.
It breathes with the graceful movement of waves.
Hushing, lulling, peaceful, serenely bathing the world.
It carresses you with a loving warm watery embrace.
A birch tree.
It sways and dances to the slightest breeze.
Elegant, poised, graceful, harmonious with the world.
Its golden shimmering leaves freckle your cheeks with kisses.
A mountain.
It demands homage from all travelers. Noble, dominant, majestic,
challenging you to deny its power.
Its heavy body exhibits to you its energy
and prana in its fantastic weight.

A world.
It provides the possibility
to burn all of our weighty karmas.
Complete, faultless, perfect, wonderfully sound and whole.
Its impeccable qualities overwhelm
us in a flawless immaculate
and ideal way.

Lord Shiva

Dipti Singh, age 12: "I thought it might be interesting to wtite a poem upon what I,
as a Hindu child, have learned."

Lord Shiva is never far, nor
away. Lord Shiva is always
close. Close to hearts, close
within, closer than all.
Never will he leave your side.
Shiva will stand by through
the eternity held by life.
We praise and pray for the
true happiness of life that
can be found within the
almighty, Lord Shiva.
Happiness can be achieved
but first you must want.
Then to your fullest you
must strive. Nothing is
impossible. All can be
achieved. Worship, devote
and believe in Him.
Shiva will do no harm.
He will hurt no human
being, nor a soul that lies
in existence. Shiva loves
all. Place your trust
within Him.

He can construct and
He can destruct.
There are no enemies. There is no evil. Listen and wait.
Shiva will tell all.
Find the love within your soul.
Then you will know that
with Shiva's hands leading
the way, problems can be
solved. The vision will be seen.
Always remember Him.
Remember Lord Shiva
Through all the winnings
and the losses, through
the hardship and the
friendship, and through
the good and the bad. If
you remember, you will
understand. At the end
from above a light will
be shone. The holder will be
Lord Shiva. Remember Lord
Shiva throughout the roads
that life may take you.

LORD MURUGAN

Jyothi Palani

Quenching the raging thirst of fire, He leaps forth,
Spear glistening in the radiance of the vast sun,
Face sparkling, like the dew of early morning,
Always filling my heart with a certain longing,
A yearning so great it surpasses all that can be.

Why must you seem so distant?
Is my ego so great it blocks you?
Come to me,
Pierce the ego that blocks all light,
That casts a shadow over understanding,
And eradicates the vision of accomplishment.

This is my God,
A God of understanding and friendship,
One that cares about leading me,
One that saves me from the barrage of negatives.
This is my God,
A God always quenching the raging thirst of fire.

How to Talk to People:

Pundarika Kandiah, Age 5

Calm,
Sweet,
So your voice sounds
Like rainbows
And waterfalls.
Not in a harsh way.
Beautiful,
Light,
So if you could see your voice,
It would look like flowers.
A lot like Udissa Deva...
You know how
Udissa's voice
is all light,
And beautiful?
Like if your voice had weight,
It would weigh zero pounds.
Caring,
Lovely,
Like Hawaii.
All green
like plants.

Awaiting Shiva Shakti

Svayambhu Nasira Alma

Knife that splits the coconut for milk
and carves the reed for song
You shave tinder for fire and cut desire
...desire as sacrifice from the heart
Diamond Knife poised in awful stillness
Strike when You will!

Cobra winged for flight
beyond the realm of twos
even Shiva feels Your union sting
Swaying, You make the music of the spheres
portend death and ecstacy
Sovereign Cobra with the bite of eternal life
Kill me when You will!

Parashakti

Gayatri Rajan

A tree
Swayed and shimmered
In the spring breeze.
Unspeakably lovely.
It sang to me
Of that Grace,
That rhythm
That Perfection.

A white moth
fluttered in abandon before me.
Incredibly delicate,
It spoke to me
Of that intelligence,
That Precision,
That Perfection.

Eighteen birds
Soared in splendid
Flawless formation,
Wheeling, dipping,
eloquent were they
Of the Order,
That Delight,
That Perfection

The red-gold fire
Danced before me
Kinetic, inexorable,
It fairly shouted
Of the energy,
That Purity,
That Perfection.

Serene hills
Surrounded
And protected me.
Gentle, sturdy,
They quietly affirmed
That Peace,
That Equanimity,
That Perfection.

In introspection deep
I sat inturned.
Silent, probing,
In search of that Splendor,
That Absolute,
That Perfection.
The radiance of Love
That bathed me
Was resplendent, exquisite...
indeed, was
That Perfection.

Notable Quotables:

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high: Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action-Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."
-Rabindranath Tagore

"However intense my experience,
I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is not a part of me, but spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it; and that is no more I than it is you. When the play, it may be the tragedy, of life is over, the spectator goes his way. It was a kind of fiction, a work of the imagination only, as far as he was concerned."
-Henry David Thoreau

"These appearances indicate the fact that the universe is represented in every one of its particles. Everything in nature contains all the powers of nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Idol Barrier

ESSAYS

Breaking the Idol Barrier

by Rudite J. Emir

I grew up in a Christian family. Not only was it Christian, it was Protestant. Protestants tend to be austere in their ritualism and in their portrayal of holy images. The typical church holds a cross, perhaps a statue or painting of Christ. Stained glass windows may depict the life of Christ or of his apostles-that is all. The Catholic propensity for richer symbolism was viewed through my Protestant family's eyes as a strange kind of extravagance, colored by a touch of something almost pagan. I remember looking skeptically at Catholics kneeling in front of statues of saints and burning candles by their images to invoke their blessings.

That's the kind of mind that came in contact with the religious thought and culture of the Hindus. Around the age of sixteen the impact of spiritual India began to enter my life. The influence came first through contemplative literature-the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Upanishads. Though they touched my heart and initiated new stirrings deep within, still, the heart was not blasted wide open. I had not yet met my guru.

Then I met Gurudev, Swami Chinmayananda. I was twenty-six, with an unappeased hunger that had begun ten years earlier and had still not been satisfied. Swamiji blasted my heart wide open as his love-drenched intellect pierced through my rational mind to reach the sanctuary within.

Around that time, the symbolic and ritual aspect of Hindu worship also became known to me through bhajans and kirtan, prostrations to the teacher, receiving of prasad from the hands of the guru, and the first tentative, uncertain, yet strangely overpowering experiences with a pada puja, worship of the guru's sandals. Still, the Protestant in me affirmed, "I am a Vedantin, not a Hindu. The ritualistic aspect of the spiritual search is for the Hindu, not for me, a westerner. I am striving for the essence behind the symbol; the symbol itself I can forgo."

My first trip to India, about ten years after I had met Swamiji, included a few unforgettable visits to temples and some dutiful prostrations in front of idols. I did it out of respect for the spiritual traditions of a country I had grown to revere and out of my intellectual appreciation that each symbol stood for a deeper meaning behind it. But the Protestant in me still persisted in her protest against worship of inanimate stone and wood.

In the fall of 1987 I had the good fortune to participate in a Chinmaya Spiritual Camp at Sidhabari, Himachal Pradesh, at the foothills of the Himalayas. The spiritually charged setting, the meditative stillness of the Himalayas left my mind in awe. One morning after meditation, I found myself walking toward the temple. After doing my pranams in front of the idols in the sanctuary, I followed the other worshipers to the rear of the temple. I must confess I had no idea what I might find there. As I turned the corner, my eyes fell upon a wooden image of Ganesha. A blast of overpowering emotion almost pushed me to the ground. I was reeling inside. Lord Ganesha, through the idol, had just come alive for me. In fact, he had caught me totally unawares, had taken me by surprise by this unexpectedly powerful announcement of His undeniable presence. "Lord Ganesha, what have You done? Of all the idols that I had contemplated upon in my intellectual studies of Hindu symbolism, You of all the many deities left me quizzical and wondering-You with the strange animal head, the bloated belly, the broken tusk. I could never take You seriously. I wondered how so many Hindus could. And now, what have You done? Among the bevy of beautiful, statuesque, inspiring images of Hindu gods, dear Lord, You chose to speak to me through the strange, even comical, form of Ganesha!"

I left the temple as though struck by a bolt of lightning. My mind later pondered over what had transpired. Perhaps my encounter with Ganesha was simply the extension of a fulfilling hour of contemplation that had ended just moments before my visit to the temple. The experience would most likely not be repeated. The next day I decided to test the previous day's newfound reality. As I rounded the corner toward the back of the temple, I found myself talking to Ganesha, half-reverently, half-jokingly (as He had left me with a very intimate, slightly jovial feeling of His presence the day before):

"Ganesha, will You really be there for me again? Will You assert Your reality through the dead image of carved wood? Go ahead, prove it to me!"

He did it again. And again and again, for many days afterward.

The Protestant in me no longer protests.

How can she? Not only does Ganesha speak to me through the idol now, He has also proven His presence as the Remover of Obstacles for me.

On my return trip for Sidhabari, I had no train reservations. Gathered in a huddle on the station platform, my friends were valiantly trying to persuade the railway personnel to allow me to use a ticket unused by another passenger. In vain. The conductor's face remained stern; his head continued to shake in an adamant "No!" Departure time was approaching fast. By the minute, it looked less and less likely that I would reach New Delhi in time to meet Swamiji when he arrived there.

Only one thing to do. "Ganesha!" I cried in my mind, "You must come to help me now! Remove this obstacle!" The very instant I shouted those words in my mind, a smile broke across the conductor's face. "O.K.," he said, "we'll arrange for a seat."

The Protestant protests no more.

The idol barrier has been broken.

The Face of the Beloved

The Face of the Beloved

by Mrinalini Sarabhai

The tradition of India's classical literature, with its descriptive imagery of the loveliness of women, is reflected in all the arts: sculpture, painting, dance, drama and music. The close proximity to nature, the sensibility of poetic imagination gave an idealistic and eternal concept of physical beauty. It is a perception that has to be interpreted as symbolic, relating to the known world yet drawn from an inner revelation closely allied to philosophical thought. Elements from the universe were selected and transformed into the total vision. Each object was both a pleasure to the eyes and a reflection of divine qualities. Most popular in representation was the lotus.

The association of the lotus to purity and perfection has its roots in spiritual insights. Here, out of the deep slush and mud grew an exquisite flower, pushing its way through darkness to light. It seems but natural that it was greatly revered. The seat of Goddesses and Gods, the lotus became a symbol of everything profound and sacred. It was the universe that formed from the formless ocean of creation, the eight petals, the eight directions of the cosmos. It was the focus of meditation, the primary avatara of Vishnu. From the navel of the great God grew the lotus that bore Brahma, "which holds within itself all magnificence." His bride Lakshmi is a lotus woman, the epitome of wondrous beauty. Thus the lotus image became identified with all that was ideal in a woman.

Draupadi, most alluring of women, had the complexion of the blue lotus (utpala), the goddess Yamuna had hands like the lotus (kuvalaya), while the divine Saraswati is lotus-eyed (Padmapatra Visalakshi.) Radha's face, the poet Govindadas writes, "glows as a lotus of gold," and while searching for her beloved "her feet fell like lotus blossoms upon the earth."

After the lotus, the moon took precedence. A maiden's face is akin to the full moon in its radiance; "Poornama Chanduru nemomubolu," the hero Venkateshwara addresses Padmavati in a dance-drama, and, "Having perceived the brilliancy of her moon-like face, the full moon became deprived of beauty," says another text.

Here's an interesting observation from Appyya Dikshitar. "Upama (simile) must enhance the beauty of the sense of the object. Upama, the unique actress, dances on the stage of literature assuming varied roles and delights those who have true appreciation." Symbols for the eyes were the deer (mrugakshi) and the fish (meenakshi). In dance, these also refer to the movements of the eyes as in a frightened doe, or the quivering eyes of the fish. The heroine Mandodari, fleeing from Ravana, King of Lanka glances from side to side like a restless deer, says a song. Even the color was emphasised in artistic terms. The Bihari compares the red gullala flowers to the eyes of a woman who has not slept, having spent the night with her loved one, and Rajashekara wrote:

"Her eyes surpass the waterlily
With their iridescent darkness;
Her face has the moon for friend
And her eyebrow's arch is brother
to Love's bow."

Ideal eyebrows arched like a bow, the bow of Kamadeva, God of love, or they curved like tendrils. "In anger my loved one breaks the graceful curve of her brows and snaps the bow of love," a man laments. Beautiful lips were compared to the bimba fruit, coral in color, or red as the young shoots of a vine. The nose was a til flower and cheeks likened to the softness of butter, mirror-like in their shining smoothness. Teeth were as white as the jasmine flowers or like lightning sparkling through the lips. "Your lips are like pomegranates, your teeth are like pearls," was another expressive phrase.

Eyelashes curled like the champaka flower and tears were as delicate as the buds of the kadamba flowers, or a broken necklace of pearls. Glances from these eyes were secret messages of love. "Drenched in shyness and smiles," they were arrows that pierced the heart of the lover. Even the corner of the eye was imbued with meaning in their lightning-like sharpness.

The hair, dark, long and lustrous, is likened to a cluster of black bees over a forehead that has the lustre of the moon, and "ringlets disheveled as young snakes" decorate the brow. With meaningful words, the face flowered into a portrait of grace and vitality, as though nature and art had conspired together in its creation. It seemed as though nature itself was enhanced by these visualizations.

"The cheeks of the women are like sheets of glass upon which the moonlight dances," or "pale and white as snow." The chin, according the poet Surdas, is "like a lake of nectar, which steals my heart. "Every feature of a woman's face was identified with the exquisite harmony of the environment that must have existed in those times.

The conch, sacred in India for all rituals, was compared to a girls neck, elongated and graceful. A heroine is rebuked by her lover, "Why are you angry, turning away your conch-like neck. Even though you ignore me, I will always love you," he declares. "The flower-stem her neck, bends low as emotions crowd upon her," is another concept. The Ananga Ranga, a treatise on love, gives a vivid description of the face of the heroine in traditional terms: "She is a maiden whose eyes are bright and liquid as the fawn's, whose nose is delicate as the sesamum flower; whose teeth are clean as diamonds and clear as pearls; whose ears are small and rounded; whose neck is like a seashell, with three delicate lines or tracings behind; whose lower lip is red as the ripe fruit of the bryony creeper; whose hair is black as the Bhramara's wing, whose skin is brilliant as the flower of the dark-blue lotus, or light as the surface of polished gold." (from a translation by Sir Richard Burton.)

All these similes are revitalized in the dance vocabulary to this day. Dancers interpret age old texts for the powerful imagery which use symbols of our ancient and rich culture.

The lyrics of Jayadeva's Geeta Govinda which are interpreted through dance in every part of India in varied techniques overflow with eloquent word paintings. The delicacy of Radha's face is described when Krishna tries to appease her, saying,

"Your moist lips glow
Like crimson bandhuka blossoms
Your tender cheeks, like pale madhuka petals
Angry Radha! Your eyes defeat
The dark blue lotuses in beauty
your nose is a sesame flower
Your teeth are white jasmine.
Availing of the beauty of your face
Love's flower arrows conquer worlds."

There was no writer or poet of Sanskrit literature who did not exalt and compare the features of a woman's face to the wonders of nature. These concepts influenced other languages, and became general classifications of the nayikas of dance and drama linked with the Sringararsa, the Erotic Sentiment. Each description, though alike in their similitude, had individual qualitites that created fresh aesthetic imagery.

One of the most valuable renderings of the beloved's face is the passage in the Prema Sagara of Lallu Lal Kavi, which was written in Hindi in the year 1810, and is a rendering of the Bhagavatam. This is a portrait in words of the princess Usha, daughter of the Asura Bana.

"Seeing the young woman's moon face, the full moon became deprived of beauty. In comparison with the darkness of the girls (complexion) the blackness of the new moon began to fade; having perceived the tapering of her hair, the female snake, casting her slough, slank away; having looked upon the curvature of her eyebrows, the bow began to throb; having seen the largeness and coquetry of her eyes, the deer, fish and wagtail were abashed; gazing on the beauty of her nose, the sesamum flower withered away, viewing the red of her lips, the bimba began to be restless; having glanced at her rows of teeth, the heart of the pomegranate was rent; looking at the softness of her cheeks, the rose abstained from blossoming; having inspected the roundness of her neck, pigeons began to flutter."

Representations of women are found in the marvellous sculpture on temple walls in colorful frescoes and in elaborate paintings. In drama, Bhasa, Kalidasa and many other celebrated writers of philosophy, poetry and prose used the same comparisons. The words used by the Yaksha in Kalidasa's Meghduta speaking of his beloved may perhaps be true of the ideal woman, that,

"She is the first and best of God's creation."

The Hindu Way of Life

INTEGRAL: THE HINDU WAY OF LIFE

by Dr. J. N. Puri

India is the land of wholeness, integrity and inclusiveness, as testified by our earliest history. In Sanskrit, the ancient language of the land, there is no term equivalent to "exclusive." Likewise the Vedic tradition gives a vivid presentation of how an integral and holistic way of living flourished in India at the beginning of history. There was no clash between the individual and society, between freedom and harmony, between the spiritual and physical aspects of human life.

To ensure fullest growth of the individual, life was divided into four phases. The first two-brahmacharya and grihastha-were for physical growth and development. The last two-vanaprastha and sannyasa-were for spiritual evolution and Realization.

In the same way, for efficient functioning through division of labor, the society was divided into four sections: brahman for intellectual and spiritual services, kshatriya for defence and administration, vaishya for production and commerce, and shudra for physical and manual labour. But the four sections were like four parts of a body or four members of a family, with underlying oneness. One for all and all for one. There was no sense of alienation or inequality based on the superiority-inferiority syndrome. The whole social structure was harmonious. To which section a particular individual belonged depended solely on personal qualities, capabilities, and temperament. The much maligned caste system is a later aberration that resulted from the loss of vitality and dynamism in the original structure.

Rama and Krishna, though different in their roles, also symbolize the Hindu vision of the integrity of life. Meeting the needs of their time, they demonstrated in their lives how spiritual wisdom of the highest order can be translated into action to embody truth. They expressed the Hindu ideal in which heavenly realization and earthly activity go together in the harmoniously developed life. They proved that spiritual realization and physical action are not only compatible but are complementary to each other.

Essentially, Hindu tradition always has held that World Family-Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam-is the goal for social realization. India has not been marked by a narrowly nationalistic spirit. Whatever she has aspired for, or endeavored to achieve, has been intended for the good of the whole human family.

In the post-Vedic period, with the downward movement of the life curve, the integrity of life seemed to become broken at the social level, even though the same essential spirit remained. When non-Vedic religions, Jainism and Buddhism, took birth on the Indian soil, they were considered as emanations from the original spiritual stock. And later, when the religions of non-Indian origin-like Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism-entered India, they were accorded a hearty welcome. Thus in the field of religious culture India became a mini-world where diversity of manifestations expressed the beauty of a fundamental unity resulting from the all-inclusiveness of her spirit. In more recent times, with the development of science and technology, India has continued to hold out the ideal of integrity by offering resources to develop a synthesis between science and spirituality.

Today, despite many difficulties, for all practical purposes the world in fact has become a family. But humanity has yet to learn the art of rightly living as a whole family. This is now imperative to human survival worldwide, and two 20th century exemplars of Hindu tradition point the way toward making it possible. They are Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo.

Gandhi's contribution to the betterment of this strife-torn world can be said to be three-fold: 1) He taught how a person, following one's own religion most faithfully, can love and respect all the religions of the world. He showed how the truly religious people can bring all the religions and consequently the whole world together, and weave it into a spiritual Brother-Sisterhood under the Fatherhood of God and Motherhood of Nature. Gandhi truly was a multi-religious world citizen.

2) Gandhi demonstrated how an intensely religious, moral and spiritual person can be down to earth and practical in the modern and sophisticated age of the 20th century. There is no aspect of Indian national life with which Gandhi did not deal and to which he did not find a solution in particular and practical terms, whether it be poverty and economic development, untouchability and social backwardness, illiteracy and moral education, superstition and religious intolerance, rural uplift, women's liberation, human dignity or political slavery. Look to any sphere and Gandhi's imprint is there. It is another story, and a sad one, that after independence India could not build on his foundations, and that he was not available for guidance. But Gandhi did teach in masterly fashion and in a scientific way the art of synthesizing spiritual values and practical actions, and that too on a mass scale.

3) Finally, the most wonderful contribution of Gandhi to the modern world has been the development of the technique for fighting injustice and slavery with love and nonviolence. He showed how to remove the sin without violence to the sinner. With the weapon of moral force generated by love for the enemy, he showed the way to defeat the mighty British Empire and to open a new chapter of history.

The work of Sri Aurobindo in the field of spiritual science can be compared to that of Einstein in the field of physical science. If Einstein is the father of today's super-world, Sri Aurobindo can rightly be called the father of tomorrow's super-human world. His discovery of the supramental principle of consciousness provides the foundation of a new world of Truth, a new life of the Divine, and a new species of supramental or superhuman Beings. According to the discoveries of Sri Aurobindo:

1) The supramental consciousness is fundamentally of the nature of integrity that is, at this level there is no distance between the quality of knowing and the capacity for doing. In other words, the spiritual experience within and physical expression in the objective world are twin expressions of a single Force. As a result, life is free from division and conflict. With the higher development of consciousness, life undergoes a complete transformation and assumes a new character, the Divine.

2 ) In Nature, the process of evolution is such that first a principle of consciousness is evolved and then life gets organised around it. Ultimately, a new form of being gets crystallized. In this way, a new species emerges on the planetary scene at the ap- propriate time. When the mental principle of consciousness manifested, the result was the emergence of Homo Sapiens. The supramental dimension of consciousness naturally will be followed by the birth of a corresponding species or form of being.

3) The ordinary mind serves a partial and fragmented consciousness. The perception of things through it is limited and distorted, and for that reason the mind has been called an instrument of ignorance rather than a means of knowledge. Ordinarily people will spend their lives in a mentally constructed world of illusion and will not be aware of Reality.

The Supermind, however, is full consciousness. It enables one to live and manifest Truth. This new principle of consciousness represented by Sri Aurobindo is able to reveal and bring about a new world of Truth.

The historic breakthrough achieved by Sri Aurobindo in the field of consciousness releases energy capable of transforming human nature and restoring life to the pristine order that had been disturbed by the emergence of mind. Indeed, the currently distorted pattern of life that generates so much suffering will be surpassed by informing it with Truth-consciousness and allowing it to emerge in its fullness as a Divine Order.

The unprecedented and dangerous situation faced by humanity at present is an evolutionary crisis that marks the transition of life from the human to the divine stage. The prospect is for endless division to be replaced by the integral. What will become possible once again is the natural and inherent integration of life on Earth. This also would fulfill the divine mission of Hindu tradition and of India as spiritual heart and soul of the Earth.

CONTRIBUTOR'S BIO-DATA:

Gayatri Rajan (pg. 23): Housewife and mother of two children, Gayatri has a deep passion for painting, writing and cultivating appreciation of Hinduism and the arts in young people. She loves Lord Siva, and especially reveres Chidambaram and Kauai's Kadavul temple. She hopes to master computer publishing and graphics and continue her writing and illustration of children's books.

Shivani Rajan (pg. 17): Shivani, age 12, daughter of Gayatri, lives with her parents, brother and golden retriever pal, Maya, in the deep redwood forests of Canyon, California. She loves art, gardening, bharata natyam dancing, singing, writing and, of course, Lord Ganesha.

Jyothi Palani (pgs. 17, 19): Deeply devoted to Lord Murugan, 16-year-old Jyothi has won high honors in algebra in the Golden State Exams of California. He loves gardening, photography and biking and helps his father during summer months in his custom-artistic tile business.

Pundarika Kandiah (pg. 19), from her mother: "Pundarika is a very helpful 61/2-year-old. She enjoys caring for her baby brother. Her favorite deity is Ganesha, but she is also very fond of Saraswati. She wrote this poem to help her think about nice speech. Aum Namasivaya," Kulamata Vachi Kandiah.

Rudite J. Emir (pg. 20): Rudite Emir has held Vedanta lectures both in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as in the country of her birth, Latvia. In addition to her writing, publishing and teaching career, Ms. Emir works as a business consultant in California. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Los Altos, California.

Lakshmi Tatyana Ryevzina, Chicago, USA (pgs. 22, 23): "Growing up in a Russian-Jewish family in the USSR, I never really had a chance to practice any formal religion as a child. My family emigrated to the US in 1981, and my first contact with yoga and Vedanta manifested in 1988, when I was 21 years old. Soon after, I met my guru, Swami Vishnu-devananda. My contact with Swamiji changed my life entirely. I felt like I discovered a part of myself that was long lost and that a true spiritual support was now present in my life. I trained to become a yoga instructor in 1989 and have been practicing and teaching yoga ever since. The devotional practices of Hinduism have always felt natural and familiar to me, and when I was blessed with an opportunity to visit India in 1993, it was like coming home. Drawing and painting have always been important to me, and so the Hindu images naturally began to show up in many of my works."

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