Female enlightened master Rajini Menon on attaining enlightenment by adhering to virtuous conduct...

An insightful article on female enlightened master Rajini Menon attaining enlightenment just through adhering to virtuous conduct.

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If you do right, irrespective of what the other does, it will slow down the mind. - Rajini Menon



Swami Satchidananda also states in this regard....


“When even one virtue becomes our nature, the mind becomes clean and tranquil. Then there is no need to practice meditation; we will automatically be meditating always.” - Swami Satchidananda


I would say this showcases the importance of virtues and virtuous conduct as taught in the world religions and secular humanism, and shows that they are not limited to mere conditioning as nihilism believes them to be.

Sound adherence to morals and ethical conduct can even enable an agnostic or atheist to attain enlightenment, without spirituality or religions or spiritual masters, as is the case with Rajini Menon.

 

Wholesome virtuous behavior progressively leads to the foremost. - Buddha AN 10.1

Western philosophy and psychology, which is of recent origin, has not yet touched upon the phenomenon of enlightenment or Buddhahood , and this is why nihilism and other lopsided philosophies like existentialism were prominent in the west leading to an erroneous thought process and corresponding actions, considering all moral values to be abstractly contrived.

“If we present a man with a concept of man which is not true, we may well corrupt him. When we present man as an automaton of reflexes, as a mind-machine, as a bundle of instincts, as a pawn of drives and reactions, as a mere product of instinct, heredity and environment, we feed the nihilism to which modern man is, in any case, prone.
I became acquainted with the last stage of that corruption in my second concentration camp, Auschwitz. The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man is nothing but the product of heredity and environment; or as the Nazi liked to say, ‘of Blood and Soil.’ I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some Ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.”- Viktor Frankl

In eastern philosophy on the other hand, moral values and virtues are considered to be valuable in expansion of consciousness (and destruction of karma) alongside meditation, awareness or total love and instrumental in attainment of enlightenment or Buddhahood.

 

I'd have to disagree that western culture has no ethical or moral teachings. Christian teaching for example is based on the idea of love of one's neighbour and love of God.
In previous phases of western civilization there were very ethical teachings from groups such as the Stoics, Platonists etc.

Each culture has it's skeletons in the cupboard though - in India for instance there's the caste system which seems to be totally entrenched despite some modern Hindu saints etc having spoken against it.

Scientific materialism, which is what this item seems to be criticizing, is far from the whole picture.

 

Here is an interesting conversation between the female enlightened sage Anandamayi Ma and a disciple...


Question: Suppose an atheist lives an ethical and righteous life. Is he on a lower level than a faithful devotee?

Ma Anandamayi : An ethical life purifies the mind. Even though one may have no faith in God, if one believes in some Superior Power or pursues a high ideal, this also will serve one's purpose. By living an ethical life, one progresses towards the realization of the Divine.


Through this Ma Anandamayi too, like Rajini Menon, states that an ethical and virtuous life, is a spiritual exercise in itself and is potent enough to bring about enlightenment on its own.

 

well what then is virtuous conduct? it is the avoidance of knowingly and willingly causing harm. that's what that is. that's either all that that is, or at least its what that does not exist without.

 

Yes, the Golden Rule can be used as a reference basis upon which virtuous conduct can be structured.

Golden Rule - Wikipedia

You can see that Rajini Menon framed much of her actions on the Golden Rule and "in accordance with your inner voice (conscience), irrespective of what others do or not".

 

In moments of great peril it is easy to muster a powerful response to moral stimuli; but for them to retain their effect requires the development of a consciousness in which there is a new priority of values. ~ Che Guevara


Here you can see Che Guevara, an Argentine-Cuban adherent of the communist ideology with elements of atheism and nihilism, and whom Satre had described as "the most complete man of our times", himself intuitively correlating the development of consciousness with the acquisition of higher values and virtues.

Unless such a higher state of consciousness is developed, all responses to the call of truth, duty and justice is bound to be superficial, fickle and fleeting leading to regression rather than progression of the individual and society.

 

The Red Road (Native American spirituality) teaches that you can never escape the sacred. That everything, everywhere, even within you, are of the Great Mystery or the Great Spirit. It doesn't matter what you believe. You are either in harmony with this reality, or you are not. Virtuous behavior is of course something that is in harmony with the Great Spirit, with your reality. Of course, this would have to be authentically good, as the definition of good is a human construct. For example, locking a whole Indian village, men, women, children, elderly, infants, into their long house and setting fire to it in the name of Manifest Destiny, in order to take over their fields and cleared areas for settlement, was a good thing in Colonial America, so good that it was followed by a Thanksgiving Feast. In their eyes they were simply carrying out God's Will. But obviously this was not a good thing. This was not in harmony or virtuous. So there is that existential problem of what is authentically virtuous.

But if we ignore that existential side for a moment. Everywhere and everything is essentially good, and sacred and divine. In my own research this was a universal understanding among indigenous people. To borrow from a Christian motif, what it means is that we never really left the Garden of Eden. We are still there, most people just don't know that. In my own research I believe that it is in the Planter Cultures where this understanding began to change. It was there that we began to understand ownership, and a group ethic and began to view reality in more Objective terms. In the villages that grew into City-States you had the development of institutions, and more defined gender roles and so forth. Spirituality which was experienced on an individual level began to give way to religious experiences experienced on a social level. In an Eastern sense you could refer to this dynamic in terms of a rise of attachment.

So yes, I would agree with this Rajini Menon. It is not a question of belief or practice. Indigenous people do not have a concept of enlightenment. On the other hand, those who walk the Red Road find questions of whether or not god exists, or other such questions around the validity of spiritual experience to be silly. They grew up in, and continue to experience a world in, which spirit plays a very real and present role. What does enlightenment really provide, other than an understanding and knowledge of the hidden reality of the universe. On the Red Road, people strive to be virtuous and humble. They use, what to Modern Man is nothing more than magic, in order to control their reality. And they have a deep understanding and knowledge of the hidden reality of the universe that is a given, a fact of life, and that is experienced directly every time they enter ceremony, or even stop to observe the world around them. I assume this to be much like the experience of an enlightened one in that it is not grounded in a leap of faith belief, but rather an existential and authentic experience of reality.

 

I have a lot of respect for native American spirituality, and am glad that you are working for their welfare. I have gone through some of their teachings and works, and found it to be fairly instructive and eloquent.

I understand that there is a certain degree of indifference and persecution against them even now, which is not auspicious. They may not be materially well developed, but their spirituality is of a higher degree.

Napoleon himself was of the opinion that in the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit. Water is fluid, soft, and yielding but in the long run will wear away the rock, which is rigid and cannot yield.

By cultivating respect and fraternity with the native American community and their culture, I think one can attract auspiciousness to oneself.

 

Presenting the full transcribed interview with Rajini Menon for better comprehension and understanding of the theme...


A light unto herself | Life Positive

 

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