The Mind of Devotion

Kawabonga!

Charles Horton Cooley … the American sociologist … referred to simplicity … as not something direct … crass … or innocent … but comprising … an understanding of mind … and a savoir faire … in their personality. We come across champions … in Golf … Tennis … Baseball … and other sports … that exude a calm disposition … and focus on the game … unmindful of their giant abilities in achievement.

 

Hesiod's depiction of Herakles … gained a huge admiration for the ideal it represented … as a man not only physically strong … but brought to understand the laws … and the right cause for the people. No doubt … the senators of Rome … displayed such a disposition … in law making … philosophy … and the organization of society … that best optimizes the aspirations of people everywhere. It relied on leading societies … with the positive affirmation … of the champion in man.

 

It was also the theme of the Puranas. Vishnu … the God of preservation … was depicted in the athletic garb of the champion … and brought his considerable strength and savvy to aid the world … in the period of the chaos. Curiously he was shown as fighting the mighty man-lion … and defeating him with brute force … while on another occasion … disguising himself as a beautiful maiden to … seduce the mind of a demon … who  fancied himself arrogantly elitist.

 

We encounter in these experiences … the direct representation … of the mighty physique of man … all knees and elbows … in the handsome fashion of its suggestiveness … as a powerful instrument of mind. It serves as a strong deterrent in many cases … or applies itself in the cause of the weak … as a mark of its dedication to our dearly held notions … of righteous might. It serves to assure us that way of the naturally existing expectations … of justice or dharma.

 

In some way … it refers to the preponderance of human sight … and the way we make judgments … based on that. But I suppose it possible that a … lady would expect a little more.  And here's where we encounter the inquiries … raised in the mind about causes for the common good … the support we give to it … including  creating special allowances for its sustainability. No doubt … Sparta was quite fired up … with notions of such possibilities.

 

I met such a man … in my schooldays. He was an American pastor … who was visiting an Anglican church here … in Malacca. He provided service during chapel … and spoke freely on the issue of the Good Samaritan. As I recall … we felt a visible impact … from the way he stood statuesque … in the hall … and in a manner that was entirely unmindful. He communicated from a source far away … rich in youthful enthusiasm of possibilities. It defined devotion … to our young minds.

 

I was raised Hindu … but the inquiring mind had been searching for something tangible … and relevant to believe in. So a pal and I visited him at the house where he stayed with some friends. We had several meetings with him … raised questions … and came to encounter the tremendous force of the man … that reached the subtlest parts of our inquiries … and calmed them. So when he offered to bring us into the faith … we accepted.

 

Thereafter both my pal and I … had a gigantic headache for a week. The pastor had returned to the states and we were left to decide for ourselves … our choice. We met … at the end of the week … behind the school hall … made our decision … and prayed together … to say ' We can't manage it … and we are unable to commit ourselves to our conversion.' We asked that we be released from our request. The headaches stopped.

On reflection … I figured it was the power of vision … combined with the unmindfulness of the experience … that created a powerful impact on me. It was a promise. Curiously I was both relieved and saddened by the event. It occurs to me now … that such potency is certainly … a powerful instrument for the just and pragmatic in our affairs in the world. However as Cooley suggested … it would have to be refined into a greater quality of understanding of the intricacies of mind.

 

We have always relied on a reference to God … in the way we experience our unmindfulness. It continues to be a profound experience … in our dispositions … and we have yet understood very little about it. We are prepared to give our lives … for that intrinsic sense of goodness … whether that's for country … or a noble enterprise. But beyond that … the role that it plays … in the advancement of social causes … children and organization of society … awaits its willing involvement.

 

No doubt the will of God … is consistent with the way … evolution seeks to perfect our experience as individuals. Unmindfulness … may be viewed as the hallmark of integrity … that is entirely consistent with the will of our beliefs … and social natures. It undoubtedly relies on freewill … in the way that devotion expresses itself … by the natural mix of heart and mind … in the acts that we undertake. However some ethical questions remain … when we apply such volition … to specific measured objectives.

 

Perhaps our own experience of such qualities in us … asks for a greater cause. In such a case … it must bring itself to be coherent about the content of such causes … for in its devotion to serve … it must not mistake itself to be only sourced from the divine. In the epiphany of causes … we remind ourselves … that all is God … and our mind of devotion … should not surpass its own wondrous unmindfulness.