The Perfect Society - What should it be like? (Vedic Education's role in it)

A perfect society would be one where one does not need to ask for comfort, but gets comforted. People sense it. they see your pain, and rush to help. In this society people would be sensitive to the needs of others as they are of their own. Everyone shares and has enough prosperity to look after themselves. The differences in economic status remains, but only, as an aspect of society so that people have a chance to look after and serve each other.

Why do humans form societies in the first place ?

Only us humans have the ability to think of the other, and we do not want to live in the competitive spirit like animals do. We do not want to apply "Survival of the Fittest" to ourselves or to anyone else. This is primarily why we have governments and authorities, to help those in need, to act non profitably, so that every member of the society can have a happy life, a prosperous and joyous life.

On the other hand, societies today are increasingly becoming focused on the Self - self greed, self possession, self wealth, self benefit. There is only one thing missing - Self satisfaction. That is because, we are only pleasing our body and mind, but going against the soul, undermining it every moment. We choose jobs for money, we choose relationships seeing external beauty and charisma, we choose people based on marketing skills rather than inner qualities of goodness. No matter how much one has today, it never seems enough, so they try to grab more and more and even try to snatch what others have.

Animals form groups, but cannot form societies, because they live in the moment of present fear. On the other hand humans can imagine fear. 

Animals therefore get satiated with little. When they're hungry, they eat, when they're thirsty, they drink, and when there is a drought, they migrate or die. Humans, on the other hand, imagine the possibilities of drought in the future. This is the imaginary fear I'm talking about. This gives rise to one habbit - to save / to store, which gives the rise to storing money and valuables as well. Animals never save for days to come. The lion fights with the hyenas to eat, and once full leaves the rest for the hyenas. The lion doesn't have the capacity to think that if he saves the remaining meat, he won't have to hunt another day. But we humans can sense that, which is why we create societies and systems - to save.



Animals are innocent, they don't have greed, materialism, etc. They have to struggle for each meal. Humans in general do feel bad about struggling with another human or animal for food. We have the immense capacity to give and share. But even after having that capacity and understanding of sharing, when we don't share, it makes us worse than animals. Because then we aren't willing to share for survival like animals, but because of greed. That leads a person to accumulate more and more and more... more than what they need to possibly consume in most cases. 

To avoid this, societies form cultures and teachings.

Culture of a society, is basically norms that we imply first on ourselves, then our family / home, kids, our relatives, our neighborhood, and so on. These norms are there to help us survive in our society that we have formed. That's why each society has its own cultures. They are initiated with one thing in mind, to save, to share, to secure, and be prosperous and happy. 

Now whether they are aimed at that or not, remains to be seen.

Clearly, a lot of people today want more and more to be stored and secured around them, but aren't willing to share, even on a personal level. Could it be a reason why first our relations, and thus our societies are falling apart? People are unhappy, angry, unfaithful, unwilling, anti-social these days.

The Three Cases :
Let's take an example : Imagine that you have a beautiful car. You have employed a chauffeur / driver to take you around. You are quite a busy man and thus you ask your driver to do a lot of tasks like pick up your kid from school, run errands, do paperwork and other general running around. You know that your car is literally with your driver the whole day, and you can't keep a track of how much fuel he uses or maybe he wastes fuel in some ways. Now you know that the driver is a good person but is careless. Now there are many situations that might follow as a result in different types of societies:

1. A society with dying goodness : 
You might start to keep a check on the fuel reading and try to catch him red handed. The driver scorns at your miserliness and revolts by wasting even more fuel and finding excuses to fool you. You might fire him when it gets out of hand. He might break your windshield or abuse.

2. A society where some people are good : 
You know that the driver is over spending some of your fuel, but you can afford it, so you let it be. You know that the driver is otherwise a good man, runs around all day for you, so you don't wanna disturb the faithful bond. The driver respects you utterly, but keeps misusing the freedom.

3. A Perfect Society : 
You don't wanna disturb the relation because he is a faithful & hard working driver, maybe a little careless, but that's okay. Even the driver realizes after a point that it is his "Dharma" (duty) to take care of his employer's belongings, as he is the one who provides for the driver. Thus the driver becomes careful to not spend too much fuel. The trust between the two of you only grows. You look after him, and he looks after you. Forgiveness is forefront. Appreciation of values rather than material wealth in such a society is common.


Can Laws make a good society ?
Laws are ideally always made to govern the misuse, misconduct, violation, etc of an entity (person or animal) or group of entities by another entity or group of entities through any means.
The point to be noted is that laws need to come into existence only when something wrong is being done. So it needs to be presumed that wrong doing has already crept into the society.

Yes laws definitely help to stop the wrong doing / ills, but they most of the times, they are not made understanding the root of the problem. That's because laws are based on a punishment module, not on an educative module. For example, you can put a person in jail & fine him for domestic violence, even send him force fully into counselling, but no law takes measures to correct that behavior from where it starts.

This is where education plays its part. In ancient India, under the "Gurukul" system, children were taught the values of life, harmony and respect, rather than books on science and literature, in the initial years. The Guru(teacher) inculcated these values through individual experiences of each child, much in the way grandparents and parents would teach their own kid.

In modern education systems, we have made moral science into a subject and do not emphasize that it is the only factor that actually governs our lives and societies till the end of times. It is about how we think of and deal with people. 

In the Vedic culture, till about the end of teenage years, the student only learnt good moral values like - Why should one donate and give, the keys to happiness, how to judge what path to take etc. It was only after that the student became confident and decided on which career path to follow. You see, career was only a part of life and not the whole life itself. There were universities for medicine, architecture, literature, astronomy, engineering, agriculture, chemical sciences, etc. But schools were generally for basic core values. 

The point is that in the growth years, the student isn't taught competition, but rather taught how to respect others, build values, and so whatever career path they chose later on, they were able to do things for the society with harmony rather than being materialistic all the time.

This in turn ensured the prosperity of everyone. Today, wealth and resources are largely, and quite stupidly I would say, accumulated in only a few hands. It is insane, how these people would behave clinging on to their wealth. And worse is that we have made these people our role models (the industrialists and businessmen who have earned a lot of money). No wonder every individual today wants to walk that path. They want to focus on the result of work(money and success) rather than the work itself. So obviously, they will chose greedy ways, and those who still won't be able to earn much (there'll always be such people in society) will take their frustration & anger out through unnecessary violence and similar bad habits.

What kind of a society do we want ?
There is some wisdom in ancient texts. People of Indian subcontinent were most spiritual, most prosperous, and most progressive for a large part of the history that we know of. It is only the degradation (like caste system and greed) brought in by elements of societies that snowballed into foreigners taking over and being able to deceive these people, and rob them of their natural prosperity. 


Under the foreign rule, the ancient value based education system was banned, by law. The sustainable nature of industry and agriculture were destroyed, by uncaring atitude of the new ruling government. The ecosystem was tormented (ponds and lakes dried leading to famines and death) by policy making. People were made homeless by grabbing land under Law. This has happened in each and every culture across the world.

So think, 
Will making laws help make a perfect society, when the laws are being influenced by the most powerful and greedy themselves. I feel, we need to ignore those and focus on our own kids and neighborhoods. For example, let the government build schools and define examination, but we need to concentrate on what real education our children are getting. Are we educating to make children run after money and success, or are we educating them so that they can love and share and live life peacefully and happily, even in difficult times.

Keep Thinking
OMCULTR

Where is My Soul ? Experience your Soul... Right Now (Guided by Hindu / Vedic teachings)

There are many who say that they don't believe in a soul. Fair enough. Why should one, when one cannot experience the Soul? Our schooling doesn't teach it, and sometimes scientists also say that there is no such thing as the Supreme Soul... Hell... There is even no such thing as a Soul.

Its all mental and nervous mumbo-jumbo, of our amazing brain. We are chemical structures reacting and acting in a particular way, and that's what makes us feel love, hate and such emotions. Nothing like a Soul exists.


How did I experience my Soul ?
Now this is not the only way, its just my method, and I wanna share it. It could be useful.
It is simple and I'm sure many people can do it. Takes a few seconds and a little practice whenever one's got time and solace. If interested, you can give it more time.

Whenever I'm just relaxing, closed eyes or open, I realized that I see a lot of thoughts rushing by in my head, like images and videos, one after the other, which is what we call "Thinking". This thinking always projects images in connections to each other. For example, I could start with - "Oh, the dinner was tasty... yesterday had tasty food at that restaurant... its wall had a picture of a guitar... guitars are cool... that guitarist at yesterdays show was awesome.... "(cont.) and so on. And then I think... What was I thinking in the beginning... and what am I thinking now?
These don't seem like involuntary actions at all, it seems like I'm voluntarily letting the memories flash one after the other, like playing with them. They form a chain in connection to an instance in one thought, leading to another, but as soon as I like something, I voluntarily and creatively start imagining by changing my thoughts, (cont.)... I'm learning to play the guitar... there is a guitar in my hands... crowds cheering for me... I'm dressed in black jacket.... riding in my Bentley... rich rockstar... and so on.

I realize that all this while there is an entity(Me) that was using my brain to browse through and produce these images by will. The brain was like the super computer producing such fast results, animating and editing videos(thoughts) in split seconds;
the nervous signals were like a super duper heavy duty video/animation software;
the memory was like the 50,000 GB hard drive which stores so much information.

But who was the video editor? 

Oh no, I got so lost in all these videos and images, that I never realized the existence of that one entity that is operating all this. That was Me. I was using my brain. I was in control. But who am I ?

Then I thought, my body is a machine. My brain being a part of it, functions like a machine too. When it functions well, my reflexes are fast, my imagination is good. When it malfunctions, like in the case of all sorts of mental disorders, it does not function properly. Now I started thinking that suppose I have an accident and lose my memory, or some part of the brain stops working to cause paralysis, my consciousness will still be intact. I know that I'm paralytic and a part of me isn't working. I KNOW that. Even the heaviest of brain damages do not take away that sense of "Me". Suppose, if I go into coma, and wake up after many years, supposing that my memory is washed, and I'm even not thinking stright, can't calculate, but still, the question I would ask is, Who Am I ?  Somehow I still know the existence of ME.

Sometimes people call this, The Soul. 

"Aatma" in Sanskrit(Vedic language) means Soul.
"Paramatma" = "Param"(Supreme) + "Atma" = Supreme Soul / God

In Vedas, it is clearly established, that if we learn to see our own soul, in other words, when we realize it more and more, see our souls activated and in constant action all the time, we start getting closer to answers to that very basic question - What/ Where/Who is God ? Because all the souls who think they are separate from each other are actually the same Soul trying to find its meaning by forming different forms / bodies and using different "Indriyas"(senses in sanskrit). Once we start to control our "Indriyas", we can clearly see the Soul - Live in action. Once we know the soul completely, all the desires which are projected through the senses seem so unimportant in comparison to the true bliss.

I realized that my soul/Me, its constantly working and making decisions willingly. It does what is necessary without rest. And why would it rest, it never tires. My body gets tired, I decide to sit. My mind gets tired, I/ my soul decides to take a break, go out. But if there is urgent work, I pressure my body to work, I pressure my mind to work. This sense of urgency depends from soul to soul so differently, that it cannot be calculated. If it were upto the brain, it would have calculated the stress levels of my body in terms of chemical imbalance, and would have put me to sleep. It believes in the survival instinct, so why would it let the body perish knowing that over working is not good for the body. But I / The Soul is thinking about commitment to work and others benefit, which is why it pressures my body to work not listening to the signals of my brain.

I'm actually never getting tired. When I say that I'm getting tired, it just means that my body is getting tired, or my brain is, but try to see that one being, that is You, that never feels tired. 

I also realized, that when I'm doing something out of greed or thrill (like over-speeding in traffic, or refusing a beggar whose asking for alms, or stealing someone's job, shoplifting, or even over pricing a product to earn a little more from a customer, or telling a lie for personal benefit, etc), at that very moment my Self splits into two; one tells me to go for it, one tells me not to.

Its generally my social learnings and values, my mental structure, my thinking, etc which tells me to think of myself, my pleasure, my greed, my fears, my reputation (what is also called for the devil / satan). But there is this other strong force, always there, which knows what is wrong and right once it gets information. Its so sensitive, that it pricks me in a slight way even when I'm having meat these days, for example. Since the time(about 6-7 years of age) I realized, that a whole animal has been killed, and customers like me are the reason why they're being killed frantically, I started to get that poking from the soul whenever I had meat.

Q. What would my brain tell me based on evidences it grew up with over the years, and survival instincts? 
A. My parents eat meat. Everyone has it. Its tasty, its proteins. If humans can grow them they can kill them too. This is our societal norm. People have been doing it for ages. People would think I'm stupid if I quit. Food chains promote it. Its delicious. Being Bad is Good in today's world.

Q. What would be bugging / poking me, even when the brain is giving evidences?
A. Why should an animal die for my taste buds. Humans give birth on intention too, so does that mean that the parents can kill their child. All these arguments are being given by the brain to satiate addiction of the senses; in this case, its taste buds.

Even after this, I pushed my soul away and continued with meat for more than 25 years since birth. It was because I liked it and could not refuse it. Later, when I started to pay attention to this poking going on inside me, I decided to quit eating meat. I saw myself going closer to peace, understanding and happiness. By body became healthier and my mind could work much faster and sharper.
I slowly started to develop control over my senses and thus the addictions too.

I saw, that the Soul constantly thinks of the other(other than me), which is why the virtues come up to pinch me, but my brain only thinks about its own survival and greed, and it argues with my soul constantly, and most of the times I let my brain and body win.

Why does the soul always think of the other??? 
Could it be that it realizes that the other is also itself. And it realizes that the brain and body are locking it in illusion but it is eternally connected to every other soul in the planet. Which is why when we see a person cry, we start to feel the pain. Even babies, their thinking and understanding is not so developed. But you keep a crying baby in a room full of babies, soon they'll all start crying. There is something connecting them, even when they do not have the means to communicate.

This is why the Vedas indicate that babies are like purest forms of God themselves. Their soul is so pure, because their brains haven't developed yet. They know no fear but are able to sense everyone's pain. You would sense that capability in pets also. And yet sometimes we grown up humans, who have so many advanced tools and techniqueswith the mind and body, cannot understand others pain and others problems and point of view. That's because we have so covered up ourselves in materialism and materialistic thoughts(career, house, car, reputation, sex, bank balance, self image) always. That is why we always feel insecure and intolerant of the other.

People don't even wanna adjust with their families anymore, forget the rest of the world.

When its a case of survival, and you haven't had food for 3 days, your Soul justifies stealing this one time. Brains wouldn't function that way. Brains would work according to programming. But souls(The Real You) make the same body and mind function differently in different situations.
It only knows right and wrong.

You'll notice that the soul never rests.
If the body is too tired, it lies down, but the soul keeps observing. Even when we sleep the soul imagines (what we call dreams). It uses the brain's data and plays around with it and also creates new imaginary mixed  up stuff that never existed in the brain, in quite the same way, when we were thinking voluntarily, remember?

When you wake up from sleep, it seems real till 
the time you've woken up.

So if our soul is behaving exactly the same way when we are awake or asleep, it means that our souls are not in the control of our brain. Its the opposite. Our soul / We have a different reality with our eyes open, and a different reality in sleep.

One real world for the soul

Another real world for the soul

I like the dialogue in the movie - "The Matrix". A question is asked - "Imagine if you could never wake up from your sleep, how would you know the difference between the two worlds".
In our world(not in the movie) somehow we can never teach ourselves, when we dream, that it is a dream right now and I will wake up from it. Its only when you wake up, that you realize that it was not reality.
I think that when we sleep in this world, we (our soul) wakes up in the another world and we say to ourselves - "Oh that was just a dream", and when we sleep there, we wake up here, and say the same thing. And this happens every single night. No matter how much you try to tell yourself that you'll just be dreaming at night and that it isn't real, you still believe that its real, till you wake up.
Why would that happen?

An Experiment with the Soul
I imagine if I was blind since birth, I wouldn't have this immense video gallery in my memory obviously.
If I was also deaf since birth, I would have no sound files in the memory.
If I also did not have any other senses of hearing, taste and touch, I would basically have no means to experience this world through my senses, thus no memory at work, thus no imagination.
In that case, would I still have, pretty blank surely but still, a sense of myself? What would it be like? I would know no happy moments, no sad ones, I won't feel when someone pushes me, throws me, no sensory feelings basically. But would I sense my existence in a very still manner or not? What do you think?

Try feeling this. Ok wait, even imagination wouldn't work in a person like that, so how would you imagine.
Mmmmm.... if only you and I could blank out all our senses, which basically means all our connections to the outer world, would we be able to realize what that would feel like. Just the soul.

Could meditation help?

Let's try this simple one right now. Close your eyes, and focus on certain imaginations constantly for 5 seconds each - like a tree, a laughing girl, a laughing boy, a dog, sunset, etc. Like this make a few projections of your choice (let them come randomly) and keep each constant in your mind for a few seconds(but don't count, don't be rigid with timing, let it be natural).

Realize that these images are all in front of you, so you should turn your focus inwards on the one who is looking at these images. Feel the presence of You - the video editor.

Feel the stillness that is not your body, and not your mind.

And Ask
Who am I ?
What I visualize as myself is just my body and face, what if I did not have my eyes.
What I imagine is just my name(given by parents) and designation(given by society),
suppose I could not hear.
What I love in food is also a sensation only. Suppose I could not taste or smell.
What I feel are touches on skin, suppose I could not feel touch.

But do I still feel me, as still as a rock , but do I sense the presence of ME?

Note : Those who are disabled from one or two senses are known to be more sensitive to love and emotions. The soul is always as active, as loving(like a child), as innocent; Maybe its the memory of the senses that form an illusion of who I am, build my ego, build selfishness. The soul is like unending love and is the same that runs through everybody(which is why it can sense pain of others). Its the mind that covers it up in "Maaya" (an illusion).

When we try to separate the illusory senses that wake up our ego, we should be able to feel the presence of The Self - The Soul.
When we realize and feel the same Self / Soul running through every being, we feel the essence of God, omnipresence of God. When we're able to practice this, we are filled with knowledge, peace and senses that are far more capable than the basic 5 senses we think we have.


Keep Realizing the never tiring Soul every moment.
Saurabh Dey (OmCultr)



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