The Noose Around Our Necks (Part Three)
Peace, goodness, happiness and virtue are not objectives that can be achieved by the action of desire. While we may certainly desire happiness and peace, such blessings can never be won by motivated action. They blossom of their own accord when the conditions are appropriate.
These conditions have always been non-interference and non-resistance. As Maharaj has said, “They manifest spontaneously and effortlessly, when things are left to themselves, and are not interfered with, not shunned or wanted or conceptualised, but just experienced in full awareness.” 35
It is not by seeking the objectives of peace and harmony through outward action that these can be won, but by the transformation of the inner being, which is the source from which the entire manifested world projects.
The images and events of this world are projections upon our screen of consciousness. If we do not like the pictures that we see projected in consciousness, the answer is to change the contents of the mind that is doing the projecting.
When we look at cinematic images, we may be outraged at the violence and horror that we see portrayed upon the screen. Yet we recognise that these projections are simply part of the film itself. If we do not like these projections, the solution is to change the film, and not to attack the screen on which these images are projected.
It is the person who renounces the desire to help the world who does the most to improve it. He or she is the truly charitable person.
“Find yourself first,” says the Maharshi, “and endless blessings will follow. Nothing profits the world as much as the abandoning of profits. A man who no longer thinks in terms of loss or gain is the truly non-violent man, for he is beyond all conflict.” 36
“Be free first of suffering yourself and then only hope of helping others. You do not even need to hope – your very existence will be the greatest help a man can give his fellowmen.” 37
We imagine that results can only follow from direct action, and that cruelties, violence and war must be attacked by resolute action if peace and harmony are to be achieved. Likewise, we strive for goodness by helping others. We fail to see that we are linked individually to the entire universe.
Every action on our part has its counterpart in the universe we see around us. When we reform ourselves, the world itself becomes reformed, whether we are conscious of it or not. This is the true process of reform.
“There are people in the world”, notes Maharaj, “who do more good than all the statesmen and philanthropists put together. They radiate light and peace with no intention or knowledge. When others tell them about the miracles they worked, they also are wonderstruck. Yet taking nothing as their own, they are neither proud nor do they crave for reputation. They are just unable to desire anything for themselves, not even the joy of helping others. They know that God is good and are at peace.” 38
The presence of enlightened souls transforms the lives of all those with whom they come in contact, not because of any inherent desire to do so, but through the resplendent nature of their Being. Just as shadows are banished by the light of the sun, so do the stains of the mind vanish in the presence of this Transcendent Reality.
When Confucius expressed the wish to live among some degenerate tribes, his followers remonstrated with him. “What about their crudeness?” they exclaimed. The Chinese Sage replied: “If Great Man were living among them, how could they be crude? His very presence would alter all that.” 39
The true message of reform has been passed from generation to generation. Those who would achieve social reform must first submit to self-reform. And in every generation this advice is spurned. For self-reform is a painful process. The soul is torn upon the rack of suffering before it can win its crown of peace and experience the soaring joy of redemption.
Far better say we, and quicker too, to strive for temporal power, and then use that power to compel others to reform. Throughout long centuries of travail, men and women have selected this path of folly. The banner of ignorance flies today from all the standards of the world.
Despite the evidence of sorrow and despair which these attempts have wrought in every age, we remain locked in the conviction that we can succeed where others have failed. We tie the noose ever more tightly around our necks and cry out in anguish when it strangles us.
Will the world be saved or will it slide into oblivion? The choice does not rest with governments or Kings. It remains where it has always been, with us as individuals. We do not need to hold high office to initiate change. When Confucius was asked why he didn’t work in the government, he responded:
“It is said in The Writings of Old, ‘Filial duty! Just let there be filial duty. Then there will be kindness toward brothers, and this in turn will spread to the administration.’ This too is to be working in the government. Why must one actually hold office in order to work in the government?” 40
It is the individual actions of our daily lives that combine to make up the conditions of the universe. If we truly wish to work for benevolent change, we need to deal with those images that we alone are responsible for creating. When our hearts are changed, they will spread their healing to the farthest reaches of the cosmos, whether we intend this or not. For as Maharaj has remarked:
“When more people come to know their real nature, their influence, however subtle, will prevail, and the world’s emotional atmosphere will sweeten up. People follow their leaders and when among the leaders appear some, great in heart and mind and absolutely free from self-seeking, their impact will be enough to make the crudities of the present age impossible.” 41
We believe that we are powerless to influence the vast arena of this world. The world’s problems appear so numerous and oppressive, that we wonder what we, as mere individuals, can do to overcome them. Yet we fail to reckon with the power of a transformed heart.
The people who actively transform this world for the better do not sit in Parliaments, Congresses or on thrones. They are the unheralded individuals in every land who have devoted their lives to rediscovering the True Source of their own beings. It is in the triumph of their inner revelation that the world will be renewed again, as it has been in ages past.
These new leaders of reformation are not daunted by the problems that now confront us. They are not deterred by statistics. If the light of one small candle can hold back the night, then the radiance of a single transformed soul can serve to banish the encroaching gloom.
On the outskirts of the Mexican City of Juarez, a large site was set aside where garbage collected from the city could be dumped. It was to this mountain of refuse that groups of impoverished peasants were drawn, in the hope of finding sufficient food and materials with which they might be able to sustain themselves.
In due course a large community became established at the edges of the dump. These destitute people built shacks of cardboard and odd pieces of metal that they found at the dump. They fed themselves and their families from the scraps of rotting food that had been taken from the dump.
As a way of earning a living, the men of this community gathered at the dump in order to sift through the daily piles of incoming garbage. By retrieving odd bottles, cans and cardboard boxes from the dump, and selling them back to the local Co-op, they were able to buy a few provisions to supplement their pitiful existence.
These labourers worked from daybreak to dusk to garner their meagre spoil. Day followed day in grinding weariness, without respite from the appalling filth. There was no running water. Disease stalked the entire community. Those few who could afford to do so, lived out their days in a blur of alcohol.
Deprived of adequate nutrition, the young suffered extensive brain damage, growing up painfully to face hopeless lives. The dump site outside the city of Juarez was a spectre of Dante’s inferno, home to some of the most horrifying and intractable problems of this planet.
It was to this miserable place that Father Rick Thomas, a Jesuit priest from the neighbouring city of El Paso, Texas, came with a few of his parishioners on Christmas morning, 1972, to share a frugal meal. That meal (as detailed in an earlier chapter), became the occasion for a miraculous regeneration of food, allowing all who were present that day to eat in abundance.
Father Thomas, along with a Daughter of Charity, Sister Mary Virginia, were drawn to the plight of these dump people. Together with a few Catholic parishioners from the communities of El Paso and Juarez, they arranged to visit the dump on a regular basis, talking to the men and women, and sharing with them the gospel message of hope in the midst of hopelessness.
In order to assist these “poorest of the poor”, parishioners sold various items of their household possessions, so that they could raise money and buy a few provisions to take with them to the dump. As Father Thomas remarked, “It is no good telling them of the good news if you are the bad news!”
At first the stench of rotting food, the ever-present flies and the sordid conditions seemed overwhelming. Yet as they persisted, the parishioners found that they were able to transcend these outward conditions, until they were hardly conscious of the surrounding squalor.
Father Thomas met with the men and women of the community and taught them how to pray. Seeing the chronic condition of the ill-nourished children, he prayed with the mothers that their children might be cured of their various physical deficiencies.
Another miraculous event took place shortly afterwards, in which the children were to be seen drawing pictures in the dust. It was a clear sign to Father Thomas that they had been healed of their former brain damage.
Not long after Father Thomas and his parishioners had begun to minister to this community, the local Tax Collector from the city of Juarez, Sergio Conde, got wind of the fact that people were buying and selling provisions at the dump without paying tax. Together with two of his agents, he travelled to the dump one day to crush this incipient commerce.
His intention was to seize the goods and to arrest those who were in violation of the law. During a brief discussion with some of these afflicted people, however, Conde experienced a sudden change of heart. Not only did he overlook the question of the unpaid taxes, but he also returned the goods which his agents had confiscated.
Conde was deeply moved by what he saw that day and underwent a dramatic transformation in character. Inspired by this change of heart, he thereafter chose to spend every Saturday with the people of the dump, and soon assumed control of the operation of the community store.
Describing his amazing conversion, Conde confessed: “God moved my heart to compassion. If it had been any other way, I would not have changed. He changed all my values. He changed my thinking, my interest in money and power. And now I’ve felt a great change in me, a great joy in me, that has been with me for many years now.”
Through the operation of what was called The Lord’s Food Bank, Father Thomas was able to oversee the distribution of food twice a week to about eight hundred and fifty families. Following morning Mass he arranged for able-bodied men and women to move through the community doing whatever useful work they could.
Having performed this voluntary service they would then line up to receive their rations of food. Although there were numerous occasions on which the supplies of food brought by Father Thomas and his helpers were insufficient for the number of families that were present, the food mysteriously multiplied, as it had done on that Christmas morning, so that none were turned away empty-handed.
As Father Thomas remarked, “The Lord is the true underwriter of His Food Bank.” In addition to the Food Bank and the community store, Father Thomas arranged for general storehouses to be built, on land that was donated for this purpose by the Mexican government. These storehouses held provisions for the entire community and were operated by selected families from the dump.
A local Co-operative was also formed, so that the people could become responsible for their own needs. Members of the dump were organized into various self-help groups who worked to assist others in the community. An Employment Agency was started to help people of the dump find work in the city of Juarez, and a Credit Union was formed to safeguard their financial interests.
In due course, a five-hundred-acre ranch was donated to the Church in the state of New Mexico. Christened “The Lord’s Ranch”, this farm not only produced a variety of foodstuffs, but it also served as a recreation and training centre for the young people who operated it.
The entire production of this ranch was distributed free to the poor people of Juarez. Under the guidance of Sister Mary Virginia, dairy products were produced which provided crucial protein for the pregnant mothers of the dump.
By 1980, the dump people of the city of Juarez had become a revitalised community. Not only were they healthier as a result of their regular and improved nutrition, but they possessed a dynamic sense of control and involvement in their own destiny. They enjoyed a spirit of communal sharing which enriched them all.
Underlying these material benefits was an abiding sense of faith and spiritual strength, generating hope and confidence in place of their former hopelessness. They had now become vigorous, enthusiastic and productive, whereas their lives had formerly languished in misery.
They had seen the sick and the deformed miraculously healed, the hungry fed, and broken lives rebuilt by faith. The rejuvenation of the dump people of Juarez was an example of true reformation of body, mind and soul.
This amazing transformation, from conditions that were as daunting as any which exist on earth today, was not achieved by means of any United Nations project or any government plan. No grants-in-aid were set aside, no battery of experts assigned to take care of their abundant needs.
Had the social plight of the dump people of Juarez been tackled in the usual manner of well-meaning reformers, representations would no doubt have been made to the Mexican authorities, pointing out the abhorrent and inhuman conditions that existed within their boundaries.
Petitions would have been drafted, speeches made, marches held, under the full glare of television. Various public demonstrations would have been held in many parts of the world. Boycotts would have been organised against Mexican products, as a means of demonstrating affirmative action and solidarity with the oppressed people of Juarez.
Documentaries would have been made to satisfy the public thirst for horror. Funds would have been solicited, committees struck, bureaucrats involved. Had such a path been followed, there is little doubt that the people of the Juarez dump would still be languishing in extreme poverty today, with the majority of funds collected siphoned off though corruption and intrigue.
The tragic plight of these peasants would even have increased, as they became targets of publicity and made to see their utter dependence on the handouts of others. The well-meaning actions of thousands would have consigned these people to an invidious fate.
In place of this concatenation of disasters, there were no petitions, speeches, marches, boycotts or vindictive campaigns on behalf of the people of the dump. Instead, two inconspicuous people, Father Rick Thomas and Sister Mary Virginia, chose to join these people in their misery, and convey to them a message of hope and love with which they could control and transform their own lives.
They were two dedicated people. Yet unlike the thousands of similar people who labour ineffectively in parishes around the world, they were not dedicated to helping the people of Juarez. They were dedicated instead to the teachings of the Christ. They did not enter Juarez in a fit of exuberant enthusiasm, anxious to put misery to the sword.
Unlike hordes of well-intentioned philanthropists who parade under the guise of helpers, Father Thomas and Sister Mary Virginia did not set out to try and help the people of Juarez. Their motive was simply to utilise an opportunity to grow in love, leaving the results to the natural outcome of that love.
The force of this love, that same force which animated Mahatma Gandhi, then proceeded to transform the lives of those with whom it came in contact, by the effulgent power of its radiance. Father Thomas and Sister Mary Virginia did not try to change the dump-people. They did not attempt to resist the evil they saw around them.
They merely responded to each challenge by drawing upon that reservoir of love within their own beings. In their humble dedication to the words of Jesus, and through their total dedication to His will, they were able to infuse the lives of those around them with energy, joy and peace.
Father Rick Thomas and Sister Mary Virginia are the true peacemakers of this world. If the Nobel Prize for peace is ever again to be awarded to the true bearers of the olive, then it would gain more honour in their names than a score of statesmen and philanthropists.
They are among the few on earth who are tackling the problems of exploitation, disease and want at their root. They are heralds of lasting regeneration, and the true reformers of mankind.
Father Thomas and Sister Mary Virginia achieved their success through the prism of Christianity. Many would claim in this the natural superiority of Christianity and the exclusivity of its hold on Truth. Sadly, in every triumph of faith there always seem to be those who wish to turn this into an opportunity to divide humanity.
The true source of love that nourishes Christianity flows equally through all the religions of this world. Yet it is not confined to them. The fruits of regeneration are available freely to any man or woman who approaches the centre of their being by whatever method they care to adopt.
Throughout history the Sages have borne testimony to the common experience of Transcendental Awareness that lies at the heart of life. While this source is inexpressible in its nature, it can nevertheless be approached by a thousand different paths. Just as the spokes of a wheel all focus on the centre, and meet in the emptiness of a common hub, so all the religious paths which mankind have adopted, lead inevitably to a single source.
That source is the Supreme Reality that underlies and animates all forms. As Lord Krishna taught his disciple Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita: “However men approach me, in that same way do I show them my favour; my path men follow in all ways, 0 son of Pritha.” (Chapter 4:11) 42
This same truth is conveyed by Nisargadatta Maharaj. “Christianity is one way of putting words together and Hinduism is another. The real is, behind and beyond words, incommunicable, directly experienced, explosive in its effect on the mind.” 43
The source of the power that is capable of re-forming the world lies ever present in each one of us. It is freely available to all who seek it. Any person who has discovered the way to tap its bountiful spring will acquire the power, as Paramahansa Yogananda has pointed out, “to reform thousands.”
The price of this attainment is personal self-sacrifice. It is a price that the comfortable philanthropists and politicians of this world do not care to pay. Yet those who choose to submit find it a small burden for the extravagant blessings it confers. They draw on the power of its Resplendent Silence, which is able to transform all dreams.
Being without motive and acting without personal desire or the hope for any reward, they simply work for the welfare of all life. In so doing, they prove that they are the true reformers of this world.
References:
35 “I Am That”, Conversations with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, translated by Maurice Frydman, Book I, Chetana, Bombay, 1973, p. 16.
36 Ibid, Book I, pp. 167-168.
37 Ibid, Book II, p. 22.
38 Ibid, Book II, p. 142.
39 “The Sayings of Confucius”, op.cit., p. 62.
40 Ibid, p. 28.
41 “I Am That”, Book II, op.cit., p. 21.
42 “The Bhagavad Gita”, translated by W. D. P. Hill, Oxford University Press, London, 1928, p. 104.
43 “I Am That”, Book II, op.cit., p. 285.
