Be Do Have: Creativity, Faith, Works and Witnessing

The Biblical Jesus Christ reportedly said that the Kingdom of Heaven is already within those he speaks to. But he also said that the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be seen until one is born again. He also confirmed the ancient notion of the mission to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. 

Being, Doing and Having (a thing) probably have little in common with one another, except the thing in itself. They are distinct mediums in which that thing is realized, knowledge of that thing is gained, and bliss of that thing is experienced - mediums of Time and Eternality, of Motion and Survival. Probably like the difference between the mediums in which creatures of the Earth, the Atmosphere and the Heavens operate. According to the Veda, they are three containers in which the cosmic fire (Agni) burns.

If Being, Doing and Having are not treated as distinct, then the proverbial dog apparently keeps chasing its own tail, knowledge becomes Mechanical, and bliss becomes  mere Entertainment to kill Time. A rather hellish wheel of action and Reaction.

The 3 may also have a logical order at the level of Individual agreement - Being precedes Doing, and Having follows.

That could appear counter-intuitive. Some may think that in order to truly Be something, one has to first Do something in order to Have some qualification, at which point there is social agreement that one is that thing. That's also true - at the level of social or Political agreement. As stated in another blogpost [The Forest and the Village] - "The Political level keeps the Individual level honest, and vice versa."

The Earth and the Atmosphere: Being and Doing

The Sacrifice, Yajna, is to be conceived first in Heaven, then wrought on Earth: 

देव-विशः कल्पयितव्या इत्याहुस् ;
ताः कल्पमाना अनु मनुष्यविशः कल्पन्त इति । 

सर्व विशः कल्पते यज्ञो sपि ।
तस्यै जनतायै कल्पते यत्रैवं विद्वान् होता भवति । 

"'The subjects of the Gods should be brought into order', they say;
'As they are brought into order, the subjects of Mankind come into order.'" 

"All the subjects come into order, the sacrifice comes into order also.
All is in order for that people where there is a Wizard knowing thus."

                                                                  - from Aitareya Brahmana 1.9

So then, the first phase of Yajna is postulated by someone who has already seen the Heavens, and then heard by and refined within the Individual researchers (encompassing their most confidential relationships as well as circumstance). The work then is to remove all obstacles so as to refine one's intention to the point of Being without reservation. Then each one takes ownership of Work. This is Consecration (diksha). 

The adjacent phase of Yajna is in working to create that Heavenly postulate on Earth. It is the translation of the Individual idea to the social or Political. It is an effort in building civilization, or supporting it in balance, or destroying its hypertrophic (ugra-karmic) excesses.

Of course, there is a feedback loop between the two phases, between conception, working, reformation and re-working. 

The progression of one's sense of reality and objective relationships could be described somewhat as follows (in ascending order):

Modes of Doing
Waiting  परिचर्या	-          Passive hope based on waiting for future advent of an avatara or savior, rather than observation -          Simple patience and happiness devoid of ambition
Hiding  अप्यय	-          Occultation of the cynosure from Earthly observation -          Personal renunciation, etc.
Protecting  गोप्तृत्व	-          Confidential preservation and transmission -          Covert affiliation while pretending to be a very dutiful part of inimical mainstream [Like a wife secretly having an extra-marital affair and being extra-diligent in her duties to her husband to avoid suspicion or address her conscience]
Defending  जय	-          Open expression of one's affiliations by violently or peacefully confronting contra-postulates -          The struggle to create social and political space for activity
Owning  स्वतन्त्रता	-          Identification and belonging to a reality and its cultural symbiotes -          Sense of belonging not requiring justifications or reasons
Taking Responsibility दास्य	-          Cognition of one's Basic Purpose as formed in first 2.5 years of life -          Service involvement
Achieving Control संयम	Responsibility, Knowledge and Control increase and decrease with one another in a virtuous or vicious spiral. [If one takes Responsibility for something, it increases one’s Knowledge of it and results in increased Control of that field of activity, which generates an expanded scope of responsibility, and so on.]
Physical Death द्विजत्व	-          Experiencing physical death and being born again. -          Death (यम) as Teacher [I am not sure if physical death can be experienced by yogic method. According to Acharya Madhva, in the Katha Upanishad, Nachiketa experiences actual death by Vajashrava’s words, and is not drawing near to Yama simply in meditative trance.]

... and so on, leading to higher, aesthetic, and ecstatic (disembodied) modes of Doing.

The exercise of mature free will and self-determinism is fundamental. Compulsion or hustle and haste in Political identification, or invalidation of an Individual's sense of ownership would immediately lower Individual responsibility and push the Individual down that scale -- to a reality of Hiding, or Waiting, or a sense of the reality being in Occultation, etc. All types of cult and sectarian doctrines and mythologies could be mapped along this spectrum.

Diksha brings one to the point of active ethics and Taking Responsibility. Any mode inferior to that does nothing active to bring the Kingdom of Heaven closer. Yet, the superior modes of activity must be grounded in the inferior modes, which provide orientation. Otherwise they become mere fruitive activities. Infinite patience, treating the world in good faith and affinity (bhakti) are the foundation of true Vedic Karma Kanda.

But then, in order to actually see the realm of Heaven the Individual apparently has to be born again (dwija). For only in a newborn can the seed of an idea be planted and its own native fruit be observed in present time. An idea transmitted between older 'grown-ups' is merely grafted onto an existing creeper. The newborn is a clean slate, in a limited sense. Whence the logic of renewal, renascence into fresh youth, as in the Zoroastrian frasho-kereti (Sanskrit praso-kriti).

The Heavens: Thanking and Having

So the Being and Doing are not complete without Having as its fruit. And Having is probably not possible until after being born again, not just psychologically but by experiencing physical death, and witnessing Heaven Itself, the fruit of the Yajna. For to see is to believe:

ऋतं वाव दीक्षा सत्यं दीक्षा, तस्माद् दीक्षितेन सत्यं एव वदितव्यम् । 

"The consecration is holistic arrangement, the consecration is truth; therefore, by one who is consecrated should truth alone be spoken." 

अथो खल्वाहुः -
"को sर्हति मनुष्यः सर्वं सत्यं वदितुम् ।
सत्य-संहिता वै देवा, अनृत-संहिता मनुष्या" इति ॥ 

Rather they say -
"What man is capable of speaking all truth? ;
The Gods are of truth composed, but Men of a false-disorder composed!" 

विचक्षणवतीं वाचं वदेच् ;
"चक्षुर्वै विचक्षणं, वि ह्येनेन पश्यति" इति ।  

He should speak using (the word) 'discerning' (विचक्षण - faultless vision, a product of a wise heart);  

"The discerning is the eye itself, for by it he sees distinctly", they say. (i.e., seeing is believing, as compared to hearing/reading about it, inferring it, or imagining it, etc.) 

एतद् ध वै मनुष्येषु सत्यं निहितं यच्चक्षुस् तस्माद् आचक्षाणं आहुः - "अद्राग्" इति ।  

Now the eye/witnessing is truth deposited among men; therefore, to him that narrates they say - "Hast thou seen?" 

स यद्यदर्शम् इत्याहाथास्य श्रद्दधाति । 

If he replies, "I have seen", then him they believe.  

यद्यु वै स्वयं पश्यति, न बहूनांचनान्येषां श्रद्दधाति ।  

But if a man himself sees, he believes not even many others (who may all agree on a different version). 

तस्माद् विचक्षणवतीम् एव वाचं वदेत् , सत्योत्तरा हैवास्य वाग् उदिता भवति भवति । 

Therefore should he speak using (the word) 'discerning' (विचक्षण); his uttered speech then is essentially true. 

                                                                       - from Aitareya Brahmana 1.6

A person who has completed the Yajna in all 3 phases utters postulates. Such an Individual's postulates are food for another Individual seeker's research, and the basis of sound nation-building.

Browsing around, I heard a teacher, Shriman Arya Naresh, practically define Yajna (Devotional Offering) concisely as:

OM ka dhyaan (ऊँ का ध्यान) - Meditation on the Word.

  

Ved ka gyaan (वेद का ज्ञान) - Knowledge of Vedas, i.e. knowledge about knowingness itself. 

Yajna ka anushthaan (यज्ञ का अनुष्ठान) - The execution of Yajna, in ritual and in society. 

Sanskaari santaan (संस्कारी सन्तान) - Raising children through good mental cultivation that protects and instructs the life force and facilitates creative imagination. 

Raashtra hit balidaan (राष्ट्र हित बलिदान) - Sacrifice for the benefit of the nation and civilization.

It spans the Individual and the Political. Indian youth seem to be getting involved at different levels - spiritual, ideological or social - in the political reformation of the nation and its ecology. It may still lack focus, direction, or sophistication, and one hopes it is not too late. Also, all talk of cultural nationalism will turn out to be no different from petty identity politics without genuine guidance and understanding.