Independence of Mind, Soul and Body

Aug 20, 2022

Another milestone occurred this week, with the completion of 75 years since India received an acknowledgement from the British that Imperialists would stop raping the land for their own greed.

We call it Independence, though it was more of a karmic kick in the face as the British left. Indians allowed the trauma of Partition. Indians fought in the British Indian Army. Indians gave British the blind allegiance that everything European was superior to lifetstyle, art, science, and commerce that is of Bhaarat.

At the stroke of midnight on the day beginning August 15, 1947, those belonging to the bhumi (soil) of Bhaarat no longer needed to pay the British everything the white man wanted. But today - 75 years later - many Indians pay happily for costly items that are European that they will not pay for "native" items. The value of spices, pure cotton, and homemade grains or foods is undermined by Indians themselves, willing to pay ten times more for a pizza than for a samosa chaat.

We celebrate and consider Indians free, no longer demeaned, no longer humiliated as slaves of the British Empire physically. But Indians treat Indians as slaves, refusing to pay houseworkers and manual laborers more for work they are incapable of doing. They look down quickly at others who have less, because they are insecure with their own status.

This year people jubilantly dance at the 75th celebration of independence of India, parading their costumes and VIP badges. Do they respect the work their ancestors did to defend the values of Bhaarat? Do Indians try to learn real wisdom from the Indian Traditional Systems of arts and sciences and then propagate them to the next generation in their kids, students, and colleagues?

The republic of India was proudly formed by a team of people announcing a non-violent victory to independence, but many of them were famous hypocrites, committing immoral acts of incest, adultery, treason, theft, murder, and betrayal of the values of ancient India. In fact, many nations found independence from the British, but did not continue to pay rent for the designs the British left on their land, or did not suffer partition of the land.

Many Indians refuse to acknowledge that Independence also implanted trauma into tens of millions of Punjabis and Bengalis and their descendants. Those that benefitted from the partition made huge profits for themselves. Where was their loyalty to India?

Few Indians know that Bengal was a huge land spanning from Benaras to Burma, from the Himalayas to Madras. They are busy declaring the distinction between Biharis and Jharkhandis, demarcating the line between Assam and Meghalaya. Who separated Bengal and why? The conquerors wanted Indians to be at war amongst ourselves.

Perhaps this is why modern Indians are so distanced from the ancient land and wisdom of Bharat, which secretly whispers only to those who understand that the difference between ungrateful residents whose ancestors were invaders of the land, and the true descendants of the sapta-rishis, the great sages of ancient Bharat.

Nearly 75 years after Independence, a section of the Indian population despises anything Indian. Many ran away and became the wealthy diaspora sprinkled across the globe. A section secretly collaborates - known as treason - with India’s enemies, who line some of India’s borders. A section of the people is trapped in India but dreaming of living in the west, where they imagine corruption and racism do not exist. A section is confused but has a sense of embarrassment about India.

The unspoken soft power of India is that sliver of people who are quietly proud of India.

They admire the deep wisdom in the 18 vidyas/sciences and 64 kalaas/arts. They look eagerly into the caverns of unfathomable knowledge preserved in pieces from the world’s most ancient existing uninterrupted civilization. They believe in the canons of profound prescriptions on how to heal the human body-mind using plants, energies, and routines that connect us to Nature. They worship the land and will on occasion wipe their foreheads with the sacred soil of Bharat.

Soft power is supple not brittle. It understands that Power does not come from the outside; it comes from the inside, from yoking the irrepressible mind with body, senses and soul. Wars are waged to align with powerful subtle energies and stave off the stagnation and inertia of the material world and its habits.

Freedom and independence are truly about effortless interdependence. If we want to transform India, four guidelines could transform the nation in 5 years or less. These guidelines of ancient Bharatiya wisdom come from the oldest texts.

1. Develop self-awareness. Reconnect the mind and brain to the body and the senses and the soul. Revel in the inward journey of connecting with your feelings, intuition, and engage with the emotions and learn how to guide them as messengers and not masters. Meditation. Yoga. Self-study. Learn the 7 ripus of emotions. Walks in Nature help rid the mind of destructive emotions that only produce anxiety and imbalance.

2. Volunteer to help others. Whether assisting a less-able person to cross a street, or feeding a homeless being, stop the day to spend some time in service of those you do not know.

3. Develop awareness of cleanliness, known in Sanskrit as saucha. Keep your inside and your outside clean. The community in which you live could benefit from weekly street cleanups, special projects around rivers and lakes, and regular recycling. The home and around the home could be cleaned regularly, ensuring no pending projects delay the optimal space. Inside the home, clean one drawer or shelf or small area regularly. Make each project only 15-20 minutes but do them regularly. The ritual of new clean energy will bring in wealth and health. Clean inside daily. Cleaning the mind too makes one sweet for interaction. It improves relationships. It eliminates harsh interactions, road rage, and judgmental talk.

4. Know the truth even if you cannot state it aloud. Be aware of the difference between lies and fake news and truth. In your own life, if you have to be later than you expected, call to renegotiate a new updated time so that you do not lie to someone about a time commitment. Don’t casually say, 'give me five minutes' when you cannot really meet after 5 minutes. Push back against the pressure to make commitments you cannot keep. Don't claim loyalty if you are going to cheat on a person.

5. Get rid of what is not yours. As you clean a drawer and find something you borrowed, took unintentionally, or forgot, return the item. Borrowed energy is not yours. If you want to keep an item, negotiate with the owner. If the owner says aloud that you can have the item, thank them, then clean the energy of the item. Take others' money only with clarity on repayment. Money agreements only transform into wealth when arrangements are clear.

6. Don’t consume extra items beyond your need -- food, plastic, clothing, packing materials. See what happens when you reduce/ eliminate the use of items that disturb the ecosystem in which you live.

Independence is the dream of the ancestors when they fought for India. As the descendants of those who sacrificed so much so that we could eat, drink and be merry, it is our duty to curb the corruption and selfishness that has become India's mode of operation for most people who live with European values. Return to the values that defined the wealth of ancient India - integrity, introspection, awareness, loyalty to the environment, and seva - service to others and care of the less-abled.

Everyday Ayurveda

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