In search of the real meaning of life

Bhagavad Gita bagi Orang Modern: Menyelami Misteri Kehidupan (Bhagavad Gita for Modern People: An Attempt to Understand the Mystery of Life); By Anand Krishna; Published by Gramedia Pustaka Utama, Jakarta, 1998; xiv + 380 pp

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Forgetting who he really is, modern man has burned his hands in his self-made fire. The modern world is marked with crises of humanity and the environment. These have often been discussed the world over and man has a better awareness of his surroundings since many of these crises have been brought about not simply by material reasons but rather owing to man's view of nature.

The modern world's spiritual horizon is practically a void. It exists, but the modern man, to borrow a term from perennial philosophy, "lives in the margin of a circle of existence". As the modern man sees everything only from the viewpoint at his existential margin, and not from "his own spiritual center," he forgets who he really is.

Indeed, what he is doing now, namely giving attention to the world and the existence beyond himself, gives him a knowledge about the material world which, quantitatively, is amazing, but, qualitatively, in connection with an understanding of himself, is shallow.

The modern world turns out to be unable to provide man with all his necessities, especially his spiritual needs because it is a world governed by secular, materialistic and mechanistic values. Man finally feels modernism is a process of dehumanization. Man is all the more ignored as a human being, while modernism has led to a number of ills creeping into civilization.

As the problems of the modern man become more acute, man realizes that he has to return to forsaken spiritual values. The interest in the mystic-spiritual world is not concerned only with Eastern spiritualism, as one of the latest phenomena in religious affairs nowadays, but also with a search for Western spiritualism itself.

The author Anand Krishna, who runs the Anand Ashram spiritual center in Jakarta, wishes to remind us through the above book that the revival of spiritualism in the 20th century reflects what society needs as the waves of industrialization and technology roll on.

Born in 1956 in Solo, Central Java, of Indian descent, Anand explores the tendency of the introduction of the Eastern perspective, particularly mysticism, in the way Westerners look at their problems and solve them.

In the case of knowledge, there are now models called "liberating knowledge". In the same way, power, political or managerial problems are understood through a process called "politics that does not kill."

The same tendency is also found in the art of healing with the introduction of nonmedical practices, such as natural healing through Indian meditation or the use of Chinese traditional medicine. Therefore, man has begun to understand that his happiness and sorrow also depends on whether or not he can link himself with the center of the Self (called The Higher Consciousness). There is a grand design in this center, through which man can comprehend cosmic awareness.

Through Bhagavad Gita, Anand, diagnosed with leukemia in 1991, invites us to enjoy this life. Bhagavad means "noble" and Gita, "a song". So Bhagavad Gita is a noble song. The reader is invited to try to understand life and at the same time enjoy every experience.

Don't forget that everything beautiful in this life is rhythmical, urges the author. Listen to the sound of water and the wind -- observe the rhythm. Our life can also be rhythmical if we can dive into the sea of life, for which one will need only a little amount of courage.

In order to learn to swim we must get into the water. Having a good grasp of the swimming theory will not enable us to swim. Bhagavad Gita invites us to dive into the sea of life. Of course this is not without risk. There are huge, wild fish ready to eat us up, but the author reminds us there are also pearls and gemstones. Be watchful all the time but get rid of your apprehension. Just find a way to protect yourself from any attack.

Any handful of pearls that we can get from this sea of life should change the quality of our life and make it more rhythmical and more noble. In addition to everything else, Bhagavad Gita will bring us the realization that studies on traditional power are assuming greater significance in the revival of religiousness and wider appreciation of the spiritual dimension in various economic and political activities toward the third millennium.

In this book Anand makes an analogy between stories about the legendary characters of Arjuna, Khrisna, and the Baratayudha, with events in our struggle through life.

Wherever we are, the Song of the Guru will enlighten us with new ways of looking at things so that we may lead this life without anxiety until the Great Mystery, pulling at everything, gathers us in its embrace.

-- Eni Nur Husniyati

The reviewer is a graduate of the School of Daawah (missionary studies) at the State Islamic Institute of Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta.