Sathya Sai Baba- Osho

Sathya Sai Baba died on 24 April 2011, which was also Easter Sunday. A little more about him:

Sathya Sai Baba was born as Sathyanarayana Raju on 23 November 1926, was an Indian guru, spiritual figure and educator. He was described by his devotees as an avatar, godman spiritual teacher and miracle worker. The apparent materialising of vibhuti (holy ash) and other small objects such as rings, necklaces and watches by Baba has been a source of both fame and controversy – skeptics consider these simple conjuring tricks while devotees consider them evidence of divinity. Sathya Sai Baba claimed to be the reincarnation of the spiritual guru, Sai Baba of Shirdi, whose teachings were an eclectic blend of Hindu and Muslim beliefs....

Koans

Recently I came across a few questions and while travelling too, few very strange looking questions arose in my mind and it reminded me of a Koan.

For those of you who don't know, A Koan is a tradition in Zen. It is basically kind of a question of a very strange kind that may seem weird or absolutely meaningless and is given to a disciple to think on it. It might even be a question that has no answer but the student has to think over it. It is also to confound the habit of discursive thought or shock the mind into awareness.

Thus, the Koan has a specific purpose. A student or disciple is given a Koan to ponder over, and he goes into his room and sits alone- only he and the question exist and that is the only thing he does. Till the time he finds a solution, he just stays with the question, and does nothing else. And there have been instances where they have done this for days, months and even many years! For years, day in and day out, they only think over the question. And many have become enlightened just by this. This is actually just a method, a device, the question itself is not important and nor is the answer. It is the effort, sincere effort put in by the disciple that does the trick. For these questions, you cannot use your normal ways of thinking and logic and anything else. You have to give yourself to this question and become the question itself.............


The purpose of kōans is for a Zen practitioner to become aware of the difference between themselves, their mind, and their beliefs that influence how they see the world as an aspect of realizing their True nature. Paradoxes tend to arouse the mind for an extended duration as the mind goes around and around trying to resolve the paradox or kōan to an "answer". This is a lot like a dog chasing its tail and, while it's chasing, the mind makes itself more visible. Once a Zen practitioner becomes aware of their mind as an independent form, the kōan makes sense and the teaching point is realized.

And out of the hundreds of Koans that exist, perhaps none is as popular as this one- "What is the sound of the one-hand clapping?" You can hear the sound of two hands when they clap together, so what is the sound of a one hand clap!

Enlightened Masters

My fascination with religion and spirituality started quite a long time ago. In fact I would say as far back as I can remember. My grandmother is a very religious person, as they are normally supposed to be, my father too in his own way; not my sister but that too in her own way. In fact it is very difficult to classify anybody into the category of religious or non-religious or spiritual, with some thinking they are spiritual but not religious etc. but it is a personal thing and depends on each individual.

I too, as other kids, listened to the various stories of the Hindu religion which I was born into. It is undoubtedly very fascinating and rich. But as a kid the thing that impressed me the most was the television serial specially Mahabharata and even in that the fights with bows and arrows. It is only now that people have realized that there is tremendous scope by the way of making animated movies in these field, with the central character being any superhero from our vast scriptures. So we have had Hanuman, Ganesha, Ghatotkatch, Bhim and others.

Once, having heard so many stories of how people used to do penances or underwent various other arduous tasks and then God used to be pleased with them, I as a child decided to do the same. After my parents had gone in the evening, I decided that I wanted to see and meet God. So the way I thought was.........