SRISHTIYOGA or The Way of Nature ( सृष्टीयोग)

"Srishtiyoga" – Way of Nature – is an ancient unwritten law long before the birth of civilization.
Civilizations have been following a number of Yoga practices, from Jnan Yoga – Vijnan Yog to Karma Yoga – Bhakti Yoga to Hatha Yoga – Tantra Yoga.
People in the Vedic times or in the ‘Garden of Eden’ were perhaps blessed with plentiful of water and fruits.
It is only our wishful thinking that we sing “Sujalam, Sufalam” – abundant water, abundant fruits – that falls short of action.
It is time now for ‘Srishtiyoga’ – Communion with Nature.

(Remigius de Souza)

Republic Day Message: 26-01-2009

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

O, Life!

O, Life!

When did it happen I don’t remember!
A fragile voice from my depths inner
was whispering again and again while
pursuing my passions and desires dear:

“Life is larger than the religions all,
and philosophies, sciences, and arts all;
they are no more than means and machines
to take refuge, and for self-gratification;

“more elaborate they get farther you are,
lost in the labyrinth, away you wander
from Life, holding an empty pot of creation
you create the Creator in your own image.

“A saint or a sinner, a prince or a pauper,
whatever you’re, life does never anyone spare.
Life is most unscrupulous, utterly ruthless.
Life – not a four-letter word – owns you.’
* * *
Poetry comes as a refuge from writing scholarly and authoritative volumes of discourses that veer away from the basic context: Life itself.
* * *
Remigius de Souza
Mumbai 20-24.03.2006

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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Prayer Power and Global Climate Warming

Prayer Power and Global Climate Warming
by Remigius de Souza

IN THE REALMS of Terra Incognita Indica, sages and saints for centuries acclaimed Sahaja-Dharma – natural intrinsic Dharma – of an individual that is beyond and above any Authority, Institution or Agency. Dharma upholds spirituality / religiousness, even if one may be theist or atheist.

Prayer Power

Prayer when becomes Work
Nature becomes ugly liability.

Work when becomes Prayer
Nature becomes supreme serenity.

(Nature, here, that is inside and outside both.)

Global Warming

WITH THE RISE of civilised societies, there also grew elite classes of rulers and clerics i.e. institutionalised religions, which believed in gods or non-gods, where the rulers assumed the role of incarnation of gods, coroneted by the blessings of the class/ caste of clergy.

Ever since, the history has been witnessing chaos, conflicts, exploitation in the name of sovereignty and/or in the name institutionalised religions and their respective gods. However, ironically, the great civilisations and the empires (until the last century) vanish, and People prevail.

As the civilisations advanced, of course in technologies, with new, newer weapons of war of domination over and exploitation of the weaker, the underclass, also emerged.

The history also witnesses the rise of institutionalised ‘no-God-religions’ and the weapons of war, colonisation, globalisation, market, economy, and convenient laws of the state that may rule and deliver judgements but not Justice; all these add on the already existing chaos.

All the religions and hypothetical systems, which rule, promise protestation of life, happiness and salvation during life and/or after Death (now, in the clones, perhaps).

All humans are subject to emotions roused by their senses, virtues and vices, strength and weaknesses handed over by their grooming and orientations; the more powerful the greater their insecurities.

However, the so-called modern, powerful advance societies have succeeded in organising vice/s on mass scale at global level to the effect of mass murder of Land and Waters and all the Living Beings.

Despite all the hullabaloos raised by these societies on the issue of Global Climate Warming, indeed it is trivial before this crime. To cover up their own crimes on mass scale these societies hold responsible the whole of humanity for global climate warming.
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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Trial of Jesus of Nazareth

Trial of Jesus of Nazareth
Remigius de Souza

The trial of Jesus, whenever I read, remember, reminded of, or hear, it shakes me. It, I feel, is the most remarkable, extraordinary and unique, among all the trials – in fiction or facts – over two thousand years of civilized world – may be before, in the past, in the contemporary times and in the present. It tears open the reality of the great divide between law and Justice. It does not even spare the bloodstained history of the Church, the Christian nations, and the institutionalised religion – as a matter of fact, all the institutionalised religions of the civilizations.

When any society becomes a stagnant pool and refuses to flow any more, it stinks and the creative ability of its civilians hits the bottom. They notice the scum of the civilization that floats, they – impotent of any creative thought and action – believe what they see – the scum to be the truth, their true leaders.

Through this Holy Week I have been contemplating on my grand mother (my mother’s mother) whom we called Mai. Mai taught me the Doctrine, at my young age when I was at my native village, thankfully, no any priest or a nun. Well, the priest used to visit the village three or four times in a year. My mother also taught me still Mai though an illiterate peasant was indeed powerful. They both were in and around my daily living then. The lesson is best learnt by example than by rote or preaching – at home or at any university.

There was an event of conflict in our community among some families that I had then heard. A Panchayat – a meeting of the elders to resolve the issue – was called. Mai spoke in protest for a young woman, almost a girl, who was at disadvantage, as usually happens. At last one of them, he was her namesake, surrendered before Mai, “Rujai, I give up. You would make a lawyer, even a barrister, shut up!” What he meant she is illiterate but not ignorant. What he definitely meant was she hailed Justice above law.

22-03-2008
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© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Art and Culture of Warali Tribe

Art and Culture of Warali Tribe
by Remigius de Souza

“As a generation passes away, the statue of ‘Vaghdev’ – tiger god, the oldest of the pair is removed and a new one takes its place. Vagdev’s statue will regenerate in the cycles of death and birth. … We do not find gurus, prophets, scriptures and temples… among the Warlis. His Vaghdev stands in the open under the canopy of the sky, awaiting regeneration. The civilizations created great religions (and anti-religion/s), great temples, great libraries, great deserts, and great wars in the name of religions. His art is part of his religion, culture, community and person. Is Vaghdev the keeper of the forest just as the tribal are?”

(Remigius de Souza, ‘Tribal Housing and Buddha and the Art and Science of Karvi Hut’, paper presented at the First Congress of Traditional Sciences and Technologies of India at Indian Institute of Technology, Povai, Bombay, 28 Nov – 3 Dec 1993)

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Remigius de Souza

© Remigius de Souza, all rights reserved.

Life is larger than all...

In the name of social and economic development i.e., industrialisation, those who deny and destroy livelihood and even life of other humans and the living beings, even by proxy, are no less than cannibals and murderers; Remi may not be an exception.

Life is larger than all religions and philosophies, arts and sciences, trades and tools, sovereign states and governments, that civilisations, including the modern industrial societies, have created in all times and places.

Reflections on ‘A Devil’s Chaplain’

Engraving of moon phases on bone (30,000 yBP

 

A Devil's Chaplain

Reflections on ‘A Devil’s Chaplain’ by Richard Dawkins

By Remigius de Souza

My second attempt to continue reading the book, ‘A Devil’s Chaplain’, failed. It is not because I have any bias against science. Being Indian there is a belief at back of my mind that humans go through cycle/s of rebirth, through as many as 8.4 million yonis (life forms such as, a animal, bird, insect, human etc.) – depending upon their karma; even the gods are not spared. I do not expect Darwin or Dawkins should subscribe to this belief.

Typically, like the western, and later the westernized societies, the book, too, boasts, as if no science did exist in the bygone eras before the Industrial Revolution.

The image of the engraved bone plaque illustrated here is 30,000 yBP old, from Blanchard, France. It shows phases of the Moon, engraved by different tools and in different styles of strokes. It’s from the Palaeolithic Era. The schematic representation shows the serpentine mode of accumulating the sequential information within a small area (Source: Eccles, John C., ‘Evolution of Brain: Development of the Self’, Routledge, 1991, p. 135).

Which compartment does the plaque belong? Is it a work of art or science? It is holistic. Modern science is digging in the past and probing the celestial space. Both certainly could help us to see our place in the geological and cosmic times, with humility.

However, it has so far not succeeded to know and understand the human phenomenon – in body, mind and spirit – that is so dynamic. How does the plaque qualitatively rank in arts, sciences or technologies among all the artefacts the humanity has produced from the beginning of time? Are the so-called self-proclaimed superior societies truly so? 

What prompted Darwin to coin the phrase, ‘devil’s chaplain’, I do not know. Perhaps it is because of the hold of Creation myth, or hypothesis, or theory, of faith, of belief on the Christian societies, and that he by his proof of evolution was challenging it or the contemporary society. I believe that the Creation myth expects one to be humble before God, Nature, or mystery that is Life. 

How ironic that after Darwin (1809-1882), after nearly two hundred years, that the plant and animal species continue to vanish at a faster pace than ever before: ecological collapse. That the rate of rapid climate change and global warming frighten us: environmental degradation. That the reserves of fossil fuels and other finite resources of the earth are depleting progressively at a faster speed: energy crisis. Above all, it is the widespread deadly poverty and deadly deceases such as, HIV-AIDS. These are fallout of the Industrial Revolution, in the name of social and economic development. Its assaults on land and waters and the living beings continue.

Only the coffer of the gene banks and money banks thrive and grow, which, however, has no tangible value. Evolution now takes place on a laboratory table at the mercy of moneys and monopolies. In the past, the Easter Island reduced to a desert. How long would it take the Earth to come to that disastrous state? Could the slogans at world summits, without action, change it?

The western society has grown old with the advent and growth of Mechanical and Industrial revolutions, now identified as one. Small populations, human labour replaced by machine, mass production, sophisticated land, water and air transport, so also weapons of war, establishment and expansion of colonies, greed for more power and profit are some of the characteristics of the western society, which indeed have turned into an addictions. A line between the science and technology too is already blurred.

Science has emerged as a new religion with its several gods – Marx, Freud, and Darwin etc. Technology is its essential ritual, which penetrates in every sphere of an individual and the collective, and their institutions, and followed either mechanically or blindly without checking ground realities. The high priests of science design, the rest of the mass society follows, not knowing the meaning of the great mantra: E=mc². This has been happening also in many established institutionalized religions.

It ultimately has resulted in founding the so-called global society, which spreads across the world irrespective of their sovereign boundaries in the First World and Third World countries. Along with the new religion of science, there emerged also the myths for the delight of the pundits. 

For example: Marx’s myth. Lawrence Coupe quotes and comments on several authors – Edgell Rickword, Kenneth Burke, Fredrick Jameson, Herbert Simson and Trevor Mellia, Trevor Blackwell and Jeremy Seabrook – who speak of Marx’s myth. Trevor Blackwell and Jeremy Seabrook in ‘The Politics of Hope’ draw a comparison, says Coupe, that suggests ‘both Christianity and Marxism are myths of deliverance’ (‘Myth’, Routledge, 1997, p. 70).

As pundits continue their intellectual exercises, there would emerge many more myths in literary discourse; or they already are there! The recent debate (and dialogue?) between the Creationist and Evolutionist lobbies in the West signifies the Evolution myth is already there, but no deliverance!

As a result, perhaps, the school children there may have to go through a new or revised syllabus for their salvation!

Once in a public speech at a conference, I remarked, “The politicians and the usurers take rebirth as mosquitoes and continue their mission of sucking the blood of the people”, while referring to the hordes of mosquitoes at the conference venue, of course in a lighter vein. However, the wars in various forms, against the poor people and insects have caused their populations too grows: by instinct to save the race and by immunity.

“Be fruitful, and multiply…” Genesis, Holy Bible, 1:28

Now the New Religion of Science practices:
Kill and multiply profits.

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Remigius de Souza
07 December 2007

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©Remigius de Souza 2000 - 2007

Confessions by Richard Dawkins

Confessions by Richard Dawkins (Book Review)

A Devil’s Chaplain: Selected essays by Richard Dawkins, Edited by Latha Menon, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London (2003). ISBN 0 297 82973 4

When I make a statement I am certain, whether it hits the mark or not, it boomerangs. I just borrowed this book from a public library. The publishers introduce Richard Dawkins as ‘one of our most important evolutionary biologists, and a bestselling writer, for many years. A Devil’s Chaplain is a personal, intriguing selection of his writing which represents a portrait of one of the finest minds in science.’

As usual I go through the introduction (by the editor), Endnotes, Index, and the second cover page. The title refers, though not mentioned, to God, religion faith, beliefs, authority etc., and thereby its context to science. In the background lies evolution – creation debate that is going on in the West. Endnotes and Index have no clue to what I was looking for any reference to the Eastern religions/ cultures. I felt the author’s world is flat – two dimensional. The book contains lot of information though.

As I read the first chapter, “A Devil’s Chaplain” I catch a quote: ‘…There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed* into a few forms or into one…’ which carries a footnote: ‘*in the second edition of the Origin, the three words ‘by the Creator’ were introduced at this point, presumably as a sop to religious sensibilities’ (p. 13). This obviously refers to Charles Darwin and his ‘Origin of Species’, which I have not read.

Then I turn to the last and only chapter, ‘Good and Bad Reasons for believing’ of the last section, ‘A Prayer for my Daughter’. It is actually a letter written by him to his ten year daughter. I find it was worth reading and sharing with others – adults and children alike, for its orientation towards children, though no one need to agree to everything that he says. We don't know what circumstances made him write a letter instead of speaking in person.

Then I quickly go through rest of the pages, reading few here, few there. The book is full of information. However, much of it may not be comprehensible, or may not be possible to refer back to the references as not many books are available, without the help of specialised libraries. I am not a scientist, besides.

I have been gathering a lot of impressions and some information too over decades. I am not sure how much of this accumulation has turned into knowledge; about any wisdom I am doubtful.

When I read the Marathi Reader compiled by Acharya (Principal) Pralhad Keshav Atre, in my first standard, I developed liking for reading. I did my primary schooling at my native village. I, like many, did not get books (other than textbooks), newspaper or magazines. I would pick any scrap – an old newspaper used for packs that came from grocery shops – to read. Later I was borrowing books from others who had them. Our primary school had a couple of hundred books, which I finished in no time.

Now I read anything available about science from newspapers, magazines, books…, knowing that it is emerging as a new global religion in modern times, bringing along its faith, beliefs, disputes, and also superstitions. Thankfully it, too, is not universal, though global, and is in the safe custody of the scholars, experts and authority alike Vedas in the hands of Brahmins in India.

However now I read selectively, in scraps, at random, even from the bestsellers; I don’t look for entertainment that is usually taken for granted by writers and publishers. I tend to check its claims at the ground level, below my feet, here and now – the hard evidence, which Dawkins boasts while challenging religious and cultural beliefs etc. The results are mostly discouraging.

I find sciences and scientists, as in other disciplines such as architecture and planning, are fragmented, egoistic, and contented in their respective compartments and superstitions. There is no test tube containing ‘life’. They are blissfully divorced from life.

More I read about sciences – pure, natural, applied or social… more I am disillusioned. It is no more than adding the burden on history that is so fickle. This applies even to this book. More I read about the advances in different fields, and the strife it has caused all over the world, more I am convinced it has reduced the living to objects. By adding the three words Darwin has separated Creator from life.

I believe that life – Life – is larger than all the religions and philosophies, arts and sciences, forget the trades and the technologies, of all the ages and places; life is not a four-letter word. I believe that life is larger than all the gods the humanity has invented in all the ages.

How would anyone explain the birth of Sri Ganesh in modern vocabulary? Is he a clone? Did he receive his elephant head in a transplant operation?

On reading, ‘the “Information Challenge” turns out to be none other than our old friend: “How could something as complex as an eye evolve?’ (p. 102), I quote my verse ‘Oldie’s Secret’ here:

Oldie's Secret or Design by Evolution

If any talk of Oldie comes, ‘I’ quits.
This Person is pretty slow in our times.
Now see! How long did Oldie take
to design Homo sapiens, who is thriving on
the fruit of wisdom from Garden of Eden?
Now we are living sure fast life.
Instant food. Instant image. Instant Dolly.
Inflated ego. Inflated market. Inflated houses,
Such as, London – New York – Tokyo – Singapore,
taking farther the metropolitan culture,
taking over from the British Isles, turning faster
the Garden of Gaia, than ever before,
into a perpetual desert to last forever.
Cleverly we build ‘Ark of Genes’ to prepare
for man-made catastrophe, while we continue
to destroy ugly Oldie’s ugly designs.
Thoughtful or crazy Oldie the designer
be to evolve our nose and ears in pair
To carry our proud spectacles, and eyeballs
to wear contact lenses. But Oldie’s secret
and tantrum remain elusive to our vision.
(3 February 2002)

Darwinism or Evolutionism or Judeo-Christian Creationism: why worry? We – the humans – are just speck in haystack: Just be Happy. It’s high time, though civilisation hasn’t progressed much in 5000 years, to wonder at and Love the Life!
Remigius de Souza
23-10-2007
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Remigius de Souza

Jesus and World Environment Day

Jesus and World Environment Day

by Remigius de Souza

Jesus’ public life – ministry – was perhaps the shortest among the dead and the living that may include incarnations, prophets, god persons, statesmen etc. But surely he must have lived the fastest life during this period than any other man or woman in the history of civilised world including that of 20th and now 21st century. His fast life was brought to, perhaps, inevitable end for his confrontation with the powers in religion and the state.

The faithful all over the world and others do celebrate Jesus’ birthday [night] and the day of His Resurrection. Is it because of his miracles, preaching, his way of life or his confrontation with religion and the state that resulted in his death [or murder] by these powers? In worldly sense he was only a son of a humble carpenter. I wonder if he ever attended a school or a seminary.

How would he do in the present times? While Jesus now a virtual reality may allow us new modes of ideas and actions on love, peace, war, progress, development, trade and treachery. Jesus has been capitalised by individuals/institutions like major/ minor gods everywhere. How would real life Jesus fare now? I wonder.

Who is that in the plant – animal – human
worlds whose life itself is prayer
and sacrifice and celebration?
Who does want prayers, rites and rituals other
than the hypocrites and liars and deceivers
when religions are brand names?

I, now, can’t separate Jesus’ birth and death as is customarily done, as is known that death has been haunting him even before his birth.

Lord’s Prayer that Jesus has given is enough for lifetime for anyone in right context intrinsic with love. Then why separate a prayer from life? Does a prayer need words, and mechanical chanting? Can a prayer be an act, an action, any act – humble or great – sleep, work, walk, sit, eat, drink, f**k…, or an annual budget for a country, a science project, designing and building a town or dam on a river…?

An act as a prayer without abuse of other, of man or matter, of the Earth as Mother (if Father is in heaven), directly or by proxy, is for anyone, everyone, may one belong to a faith or a sect, or be even an atheist.

Then even Lord’s Prayer would become ‘People’s Prayer”, and not a camouflage or absolution! But the problem with action as a prayer is it eliminates most of the ‘work’ that offers power, and profit in any tangible form that civilised societies invented over millennia. Work - all work- is dissipation of energy, which is beyond for the basic needs - food, shelter, clothing. Indeed an unprofitable proposition?

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Remigius de Souza
69-243 S B Marg Mumbai 400028 India
25-12-2003

Civilization (India)

In the Memeory of Victims of Indian Caste System

by Remigius de Souza

Water droplets
White light
Miracle of spectrum
Turbans and caps
Of different hues
Misplaced identities
In the fragmented civilization
Otherwise one.

* * *

(This composition is dedicated to four Dalits - the untouchables - in the Village Golana, District Khambat, Gujarat, who were chased and shot dead by the high cast Hindus in a broad daylight on the Republic Day, when the country celebrating, only because they refused to do a menial work for them. In Indian society Dalits" [literally - the downtrodden] still carry the stigma of untouchability though the elite in high places, or the Indian Constitution, may not recognise it.)

Remigius de Souza

because there was no room

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'...because there was no room for them in the inn', is the greeting I designed during the Christamas of 1987. Twenty is the graphic I designed for the Christmas of 1987. Twenty years have passed since then, and not much change for improvement has taken place. Perhaps the situation is worsened for many, improved for a few.

People are being displaced due to development projects, floods, draughts, earthquakes Tsunami, riots, and terrorism. Any help comes is at its bureaucratic pace.

Remigius de Souza

The Pope and the Prophet

The Pope and the Prophet
by Remigius de Souza

Thank heavens and hells here, and the Earth, which is mutilated by the civilised societies, that Pope Benedict XVI, or any other Pope, is neither Jesus nor Prophet.

The Pope is the head of the church, the oldest and largest, and perhaps one of the richest multinational corporations (MNCs); a Pope who claims authority is not exceptional. With the blood-soaked history of the Church behind, he quotes some insignificant long forgotten emperor – the sword in the hands of the Church; it suits him well. He didn’t find any quote from Jesus, the Son of God, or any prophesy by Him that there shall be Mohammad who shall have a link to Ishmael, a son from Abraham’s concubine, Hagar, his Egyptian slave, etc. etc.

The Buddha preached Ahinsa – non-violence, Jesus preached Love, Mohammad brought a message of peace, the religion of universal brotherhood; they had historical role to play. In his formative years of teenage the pope had flirtations with Hitler and Nazism; how would it surface in times to come, and how would Universal Church function? Wait and watch.

We have heard that one of the disciples of Jesus came to India. In two thousand years how many were converted to Christianity? But when the Portuguese landed at Mumbai, they had a war at Mahim Fort and they won. After the war they went around the place and butchered the civilians to strike the terror among them; the conversions of the locals followed by the missionaries.

The news about the pope appears while I am reading M. N. Roy’s “Historical Role of Islam: An Essay on Islamic Culture”, a dispassionate study published seventy years ago, and Sayyed Hossein Nasr’s book, “Islamic Art and Spirituality”, in the context of writings on Hassan Fathy’s architecture. Both books, so also Hassan Fathy, deserve the attention of Muslims as well as people of other faiths, in India as well as in the rest of the world, particularly in the West. I have neither read the text of the Pope’s talk nor do I have intention to procure its copy. I am only a Native Roman Catholic (native: not to mix-up my identity with European race/s, despite my name and surname) of India, a layperson; I have no say in Church’s affairs or its hierarchies. Spare me, O, Brethren!

¬ ¬ ¬ ¬
Remigius de Souza
ARCHETYPES 69/243 S B MRG MUMBAI 400028 INDIA
07.10.2006