Religion and

world peace

Presenter

TAOSHOBUDDHA

Looking generatively into the inner beings of the Audience, Taoshobuddha

stood silent as if creating the aura of subtle energy. Addressing the
audience, Taoshobuddha began in an unusual manner:

Indeed I am happy that you all could spare time out of your busy schedules
for this presentation. I welcome and acknowledge your presence.

Without much ado about nothing I must proceed with the contribution.
Before I proceed I would like to rephrase the topic of my contribution,

‘What my religion is doing for the world peace?’

This caption is wrong and so is the approach. When you begin with a wrong
conception the result is bound to be disastrous. Let me analyze each word.
First of all ‘World’! Can anyone show me where the world is? There are
certain words that are existential, lively, vibrant and pulsating with life force.
And anything that is pulsating with life force can be transformed. We cannot
transform anything lifeless.

Can we? At least I cannot? But I do not know about you or your preceptors.
There are certain words like World, family, society, nation etc that are all
hypothetical words. One can nowhere see or find anyone of these.

These words are social and mental creation. Can you show me any family?
No! You cannot! Sociologically family refers to a group of people connected
by a common bond. That is all. What is the unit of a family, society, nation
or the world? Indeed the unit is THE INDIVIDUAL. THE UNIT IS THE
INDIVIDUAL. The individual can be transformed that is why the
masters emphasize on individuals. And ignorant ones emphasize and
talk about world peace or national peace and so on. I can assure you
No Buddha, No Jesus, No Prophet can ever talk about such
hypothetical concepts. Buddhas are only interested in you.

In the preface to my book Meditation the Way to Self Realization I

began the preface in an unusual manner:

‘Before I begin to say anything, let me clarify certain things from the very
beginning. I am not interested in any metaphysical questions. It does not
matter who created this world or if God is or is not?

You are! This is most important to me. You can be transformed.

This is meaningful. It neither matters what the relationship was between

Jesus and Mary Madeline nor why did Rama put Sita to the fire test or why
did Rama abandon Sita?

Answers to these questions cannot transform you or give you the taste of
Enlightenment. A Buddha is never concerned with such questions. He works
with you and on you alone.’

Such has always been my approach to metaphysical questions. A master, a

Buddha, A Christ is only concerned about you. Out you alone someone can
attain the status of a Mary Madeline, or an Anand, or a Subhuti, or a
Saroputtha.

Yes indeed the micro unit is THE INDIVIDUAL – the YOU. All efforts have
to begin at the individual level. Have you ever asked or pondered if the
individual is at PEACE; if the individual is harmonized; or if his body, mind
and intellect are in harmony with one another.

Never, never, never!

We do not have time for the individual because our minds are occupied with
bigger, far away and hypothetical things. We go on praising our cultural
heritages but have failed to recognize that in overlooking man we have failed
miserably. And in this process man is left all alone.

My friends…Peace begins with an individual. Peace is the outcome of inner

harmony. Once, the inner equipments both visible and non-visible function in
harmony with one another without any conflict or duality the individual
experiences oneness. This is TRUTH. Then the life, actions, and
understanding are the expression of such experience. Then what happens,
ummm….

Life becomes an embodiment of beauty. This is the ancient most contribution

of VEDIC sages and masters. Hindus have called this SATYAM-SHIVAM-
SUNDARAM. Truth-Action-Beauty! These are three doors to the inner-ness of
a being.

Hinduism is the word of much later connotation. The actual word or the
tradition is VEDIC. The word VEDA comes from a root that means ‘to know’.
During the state of meditation the individual process of harmony begins. And
when he has annihilated all the discordance into oneness his life becomes a
benediction. He is embodiment of SAT-CHIT-ANAND or TRUTH-AWARENESS-
BLISS.

The religion as I have known is the process of transformation. Its unit is an

individual. First he has to attain harmony, oneness, and bliss and then he is
the embodiment of Buddha’s assertion ‘BE A LIGHT UNTO YOURSELF’.

When I was ten years of age I had asked my grandmother – a Naqshbandi

Sufi Master, ‘What is my religion?’ Her response was the methodology of a
Master. She responded, ‘Your religion is the same as that of God.’

Still to the question remained unanswered. But the master has answered. So
I continued, ‘Then tell me what the religion of God is?’

Do you know what she told me this time?

She said, ‘You ask too many questions. What is the religion of God? That you
have to discover yourself.’
This is the way master instills the concept or sows the seed of awakening in
you. And when the seed finds right environment and sprouts transformation
happens as the response.

A man of light can only radiate light not darkness. A man of understanding
can only bring understanding not misunderstanding. This is the ESSENCE OF
THE RELIGION THAT I KNOW AND HAVE LEARNED FROM OUR MASTERS.

A man of PEACE, HARMONY, UNDERSTANDING, LIGHT, and LOVE will

radiate only LIGHT or NOOR-E-ILLAHI. Unless this happens, all talks of world
peace, family or society will remain a myth – a mirage that can never be
achieved.

Resolutions are made. What is the outcome? Every day you hear of such
things – a peace yagna, or something else taking place somewhere in the
world and yet still the world is in chaos. We talk of religious tolerance but
the outcome is RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE and so on. Each religion claims
superiority and engages in the act of conversion but has failed to recognize
that we are all conceived and born the same way. We are all born innocent,
yet blissful. This innocence and bliss is our nature. And that which is our
nature is our religion as well. Jesus said Religion is the saltishness of the
salt. At another occasion when someone asked, ‘Master who can enter the
kingdom of your Father.’ Jesus did not philosophize like a Christian will do.
He simple said, ‘One who is childlike.’ Jesus did not use the word Childish.
The innocence of a child is of the nature of unconscious. And the innocence
of an Enlightened One is Awakened Innocence.

My Grandmother could condition me by saying, ‘You are born in a Hindu

Family – definitely you are Hindu then; or she could say, you are Sufi, so
Sufism is your religion.’ She did not say any such thing. She sowed the seed
of awakening and inquisitiveness in me at the age of ten. Now the seed has
blossomed and the outcome is the presence that is intoxicating and has
capabilities to transform anyone from the throes of misery and
misunderstanding.

Each child is born innocent and blissful – not a Hindu, Muslim, or Christian.
Instead as pure ‘ishness’ he comes into the world overflowing Godliness. But
then the process of conditioning the child into a Hindu, Christian, Jew, or
Muslim faith begins. In the process innocence is replaced with cunningness.
Sometimes I wish we could have a religionless religion. We see a plethora of
religions but nowhere RELIGIOUSNESS is seen.

Let me tell you what is the contribution of my religion? Because I been

asked to represent Hinduism. Not my choice. This I have clarified from the
very beginning by rephrasing the question. When you begin with a wrong
question you are not going to get any results.

This has been enunciated in a 5000 year old scripture THE SERMON OF THE
LORD – THE BHAGWAD GITA.

First of all the message has not been conveyed to a large congregation or
through a forum like this. It is a person to person sermon of the LORD.

The first word that has been spoken in the scripture by the sage poet Veda
Vyas is ‘Dharma’ loosely it is translated as religion. And the last word of the
sermon is ‘MAMA’ – meaning ‘mine’.

Through 703 SUTRAS the LORD of COMPASSION takes the despondent

ARJUNA through various stages of transformation. And through these 703
sutras Lord explains to the despondent one the eternal message – ‘MAMA-
DHARMA’ my religion. The Lord is referring to the ETERNAL RELIGION and
not the outer Religion that you know, practice and propagate. Remember
religion is eternal.

This message was narrated to ARJUNA. No other person could hear. One
person the grand sire got the inkling that something is certainly happening
between the Lord and Arjuna – that is all. Another person has received the
entire message without being physically present at the scene. The third
person was delivered this message as a broadcast from someone who was
given the inner vision. And the last or the fifth one was the sage composer.

Was LORD unwise to give the message only to one person? Was Buddha
unwise when he gave his last message ‘BE A LIGHT UNTO YOURSELF’?
Addressing to an individual!

Neither the LORD OF COMPASSION – the YOGESHWAR – nor BUDDHA was

unwise. They knew to the very core as the individual. It is the individual that
can be transformed – yes indeed it is the individual who can be transformed.

The understanding was to bring a transformation in an individual. Create a

breed of BUDDHAS – men of understanding, love and awareness then the
totality of their RADIANCE will, like myriad suns tear away the girdle of
darkness, vanity, and ignorance.

When the despondent Arjuna was inadvertently arguing and failing to

recognize the crux of the message the LORD OF COMPASSION advises him
through the Sutra 66 of the last message of self study or Chapter 18:

If you cannot do all this O FRIEND then abandoning all religions of body,
mind and intellect come to ME and Me alone. I shall liberate thee from the
sins of thy mortal existence!

Body has organs of perception and action. Body operates through these
organs conditioned by the mind, intellect, memory, and ego sense. All these
alienations have to be abandoned through awareness. Such is the deep
understanding of the word religion. How this can be achieved? By bringing
TOTAL TRANSFORMATION!

And in the last sutra 78 of Chapter 18 the sage poet confirms what happens
to and through such a man of understanding overflowing love or radiating
light or NOOR-E-ILLAHI…

Where there is the LORD OF COMPASSION – KRISHNA – the Absolute,

Undivided or Conditioned Awareness and the mighty archer who is ready to
ward off darkness at each level with his arrows of radiance, compassion,
sincerity, aspiration, and understanding; certainly this will lead to victory of
light over darkness, truth over untruth. And this is my message or NEETI,
understanding or MATI and your religion.

I can go on and on like this bringing the ancient message from eternal
scripture but for now this is all.

Thank you all for being such a wonderful audience. I must end with a prayer
from the ancient scriptures. Let us fold our hands in supplication as I utter
the solemn words.
 Astae ma sd gmya

tmsae ma Jyaeitr ma gmya

èTyaemRa Aèt~ gmya.