Ajooni

There will always be more than a few occasions,  when you know a few things sub consciously,  in bits and pieces,  yet you are unable to form a narrative around it.  Last night, I was watching a movie on TV that I had seen many times before, The Shawshank Redemption.  It's a 1994 movie that I saw years ago and have seen it more than a  few times. There are a few dialogues that in the movie that have  stayed with me. One of them Morgan Freeman delivers and  I heard it again last night " Geology is the study of Pressure and Time, and that all it takes, Pressure and Time.  " Today's blog is about Ajooni.  Are we living a life which will withstand the test of time and pressure, I keep thinking ...

As usual, in today's post, some thoughts and experiences, a Mantra which I have attempted to understand in my own way (I have made my own erroneous attempt) and a song by Ayushman Khurana " Main khoya toh dhoondne aaiyo, chupke se ik khwaab me aaaiyo". 

Very early in life, my grandfather introduced me to Gauri Shankar Temple and Sis Ganj Gurudwara Sahib in Chandni Chowk.  Tomorrow is India 70th Independence day and he would often talk about the partition, a million people died in just less than a month in 1947, families displaced, looted and uprooted, 50000 women consumed poison or jumped into the well to avoid rape and conversion. One day we got off the Fatfati(The four wheeler converted from a WW II motorcycle) at Lal Qila on a July Monday, It was Shravan Month I distinctly remember. He alighted at the Chandni Chowk Lal Qila Crossing and said, look at the Glory of Karma, on our right was the Red Fort, made by Shahjahan in the 16th Century and said, see no one lives there today, no one cares for it. Right next to us is a Digambar Jain Temple and a Bird Hospital and they heal injured birds and feed them. Next to it Is Gauri Shankar temple, despite killings of the Mughal rule, the temple which is on the first floor (hidden in those days I am sure)  is frequented by thousands each day. Further down the road is Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib, this is where The ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded in November 1675 on the order of Aurangzeb because he refused to convert to Islam. The glory of Karma survives, he said. What survives and thrives is Karma, which is efforts with the right intent. From Lal Mandir, run by Digamber Jains to Gauri Shankar Mandir and to Sis Ganj Sahib, the common thread is pressure and time, the perseverance. 

This incident happened in the early 80s, I was 12-13 then,  In my 20s, I used to go to Sis Ganj Sahib every morning especially in winters. In Gurudwaras, there isn't just a mere shoe stand, there are volunteers who take your shoes in their hands, embrace them, clean them, polish them, graciously return them to you, once you are done with your divine shower. I couldn't understand why, until one day, when I returned, my shoes weren't ready. The Sikh gentleman who took my token,  asked me to wait, as my shoes were being polished. He stepped out of the shoe stand and showed me a place to sit and generally started a  conversation. He was a rich industrialist must have been a multi millionaire in those days. As I was a regular devotee, I knew him by face and so did he. I asked him that why he chose just the seva of this form. He said, I am helping you pursue your journey in feeling the energy, that's  my devotion. I can never forget the humility and sense of purpose, he so simply communicated. In November 2014, I met a lady ISKCON MVT Guesthouse in Vrindavan who was the caretaker of the Guest house, she was a Kellogs MBA and was a CFO in the US, till she devoted her life to teaching Sanskrit and Bhagavad Geeta to children. I was speechless looking at her sense of purpose. In 1994 November, I saw Gulshan Kumar (T Series Owner)  in Vaishno Devi, walking barefoot and alone in the middle of the night. His company ran a 24/7 Langar which served food to the devotees.  I was always spiritually pulled towards the energy of temples and Gurudwaras and till date the pursuit of that energy is relentless however I have a small issue with religion. The issue is the religion, at times, make you forget the fundamental pursuit, which is to seek the positive energy, experience divinity, build on it and spread it. Gurunanak or Mahaveer or Krishna didn't start their spiritual pursuit with an intent to start a religion or a franchise. They were spiritual people. Let us first understand the difference between religion and spiritualism; they are not the same thing. Religion is one avenue of life, like politics, art, and science. Religion does not contain the whole of life; spiritualism does. Spiritualism is the whole of life. Spiritualism is not an avenue of life; it encompasses the whole of it. It is life.

Since Life has planned obsolescence, it has a limited shelf life, the energy of life is what will still continue.  In a more enlightened time, there will be no such thing as religion, there will be only two sciences: objective science and subjective science. Objective science deals with things, subjective science deals with being.

In my view, Life for most of us is like a train journey, Social set ups  have turned us into railway trains, running on rails, running from one station to another – and mostly just shunting, going, traveling but still on rails. Those rails they call social order, discipline,  self-control and blah blah.  A true religion will be the one to encourage you to know the unknown, will have this humbleness of accepting that only a few When brain knows, we call it knowledge. When heart knows, we call it love. When soul knows, it has experienced. Just like the experience that the Sevadaars at Gurudwaras get, just like the lady at ISKCON, they experience living, they may not know it all, there is no such thing as "fully known", much more is unknown, and something will always remain unknowable. 

We fall in love – can we say we know love? It seems to be a totally different phenomenon.  Knowing love is not as same as experiencing love, it can't be reduced to knowing. It is not an object of knowledge because it is not a mental phenomenon. It is something to do with your emotions and the intellect is incapable of quantifying emotions. 

This love and this pursuit, is what I call Ajooni, I heard this word in the in the Mool mantra, this word originates in "Joon" originates which means life, jooni relates to yoni, which is how life is born. Ajooni means free from cycles of birth and death. In fact, the Mool mantra describes the basics really well. 

Heres my limited understanding of the Mool mantra. 

Ik Onkaar Sat Naam Karta Purakh Nirbhau  Nirvair, Akal Moorat  Ajooni Saibhang Gurprasad . 

Ik- There is ONE(Ik) reality, the origin and the source of everything. The creation did not come out of nothing. When there was nothing, there was ONE, There is a singular energy of life. 

Onkaar- When Ik becomes the creative principle it becomes Onkaar. God manifests itself as the visible and invisible phenomenon. The creative principle is not separated from the created, it is present throughout the creation in an unbroken form, 'kaar'. 

Satnaam- The sustaining principle of Ik is Satnaam, the True Name, True Name. The existence which is beyond time, which is beyond past present and future, the timelessness of the divine energy. 

Kartaa Purakh- Ik Onkaar is Creator and Doer (Kartaa) of everything, all the seen and unseen phenomenon. It is not just a law or a system. It is enacting through Purakh, a Person. It is the explanation of life in continuous tense, like people being born and dying, small invisible events like aging, skin growing and peeling off, millions and  millions of beings dying and living, sun, and water, making fruit through trees, Man, the Purakh,  is doing, however, everything on a divine guidance. Karta doesn't mean doer here, it is the drive in the Purakh, the person. 

Nirbhau- That Ik Onkaar is devoid of any fear because there is nothing but itself. It has nothing but itself, there is no competition, there is no one else to be afraid of, because nothing other than Ik Onkaar exists. No competition and no fear. We are all unique, we are all pursuing our individual pursuits, as unique as our finger printers. Only Onkaar exists. 

Nirvair- That Ik Onkaar is devoid of any enmity because there is nothing but itself.

Akaal Moorat- That Ik Onkaar is beyond Time (Akaal) and yet it is existing. It's a Form(Moorat) which does not exist in Time. Moorat word is a derivative of moorti like we say God willing, we have given God a Gender, divinity a picture. This "moorat" is akaal , free of gender, shape, and form, all pictures are a figment of mankind's imagination. Some Religious systems believe God is a Man, Gurbani says it is devoid of such forms. 

Ajooni- That Ik Onkaar does not condense and come into any birth. All the phenomenon of birth and death of forms are within it. It is beyond the cycles of birth and death. Has no parents, has no birth process it is beyond that too. 

Saibhang-  Saibhang means self-illuminating, this divine force shines on its own, has its own pull. That Ik Onkaar exists on its own, by its own. It is not caused by anything before it or beyond it.

Gurprasaad- That Ik Onkaar is expressing itself through a channel known as Guru and it is only its own Grace and Mercy (Prasad) that this happens.

I often think of things to do which are Ajooni . 

Main khoya toh dhoondne aaiyo ......Chupke se ik khwaab mein aaiyo..... Honthon ki sadh se mujhe bulaiyo....

Ajooni hun main ....