Duty of America

Cover for Earth Ethics

The following is an excerpt from Dr. P.K. Willey’s book Earth Ethics of M. K. Gandhi, with teachings from Holy Mother Amma: an Introduction. You can preview more of the book, and contact Wise Earth Publishers for Ordering Information at their website.

The United States of America has given the planet priceless and practical jewels of ethical awareness and understanding that I see in no other country. My brother, Jefferson Mohandas (so named by my late father, Charles F. Willey, a great admirer of Gandhi) and I grew up in a small rural community in northeastern Connecticut. The archetypal ideals of America deposited at our feet ethics of inestimable spiritual worth, which we unconsciously imbibed like the air around us and they became part of our being.

Ethics like:

• All people are inherently equal…
• All people have the capacity to become more than what they presently are…
• There is always hope for a better tomorrow…
• Self-reliance and independence are virtues…
• If you can do it yourself, do it yourself…
• No work is higher or lower, and everybody has to clean up…
• Hard work and sweat are nothing to be afraid of…
• Girls and boys have equal rights to the same opportunities…
• Nothing is impossible…
• Don’t treat anyone like your servant—even if they work as one…
• Try and try again…
• Let’s work together and get the job done…
• It is our duty to help the less fortunate…
• If someone needs a hand, give them one…
• What happened in the past is over—carry on…
• What you make of yourself today is what counts…
• What you dream, you can become…

These are some of the great gifts that my country offers the world community.

A melting pot of peoples from all around the planet, America today is made up of millions of genetic combinations of people, of which I am also one. (My maternal grandparents were in the second shipment of indentured laborers from India to Trinidad, West Indies, making roads and doing plantation work. My paternal grandparents were from England and Canada.) The noble ethics of that land bind the people together and make them `American’. Yet while growing up, I was aware that my country’s government was traveling, with more and more momentum, down a road counter to these basic principles of human brotherhood. A road that went counter to the ethics I felt were the essential American fabric. A road the politics of some elections have shown as counter to the will of the American people. It seemed as though another force—big business, international resource-grabbing and hand-in-glove relationships to the production of the implements of war—was taking over, and it didn’t care about little people, or the Earth, or anyone save a very few. Back in the 1950’s, “A military-industrial complex,” as President Eisenhower had warned, “employed its considerable economic and political influence to encourage American military involvements around the globe.” And the results are there for us to see, to live with, to recover from, to help heal and overcome—now, for we cannot hurt others without traumatizing our own selves.

Public urban and suburban education in the late 60’s and 70’s began changing from open environments, to schools built to withstand riots, with less recess time, and more emphasis on following the letter and form than the spirit of things. Fear of `safety’ has become such an issue that children can no longer climb trees in peace—most have been conditioned out of the natural desire to do so. The relations between big business and education thickened. The situation has reached a point now that many high school graduates cannot calculate simple multiplication and division problems. Many are graduating unable to read well or locate their own position on a geographical map. Fear of horrific violence—shoot-outs and bombs—and the use of drugs is a reality today in many schools across the country.

Sexual openness has eroded the family structure and life, causing deep wounds in the psyches of many people. The role of sexuality in our lives has become based upon a media induced imbalance, rather than coming from a place of ethical balance. Sex does have an ethical place in our life and human relations, one which is lost to us at present. The means and methods used in the struggle for gender equality have brought about mass confusion on what it means to be male or female, without bringing gender respect.

As a young child, from what I could see and understand, everything Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was doing made sense. Great commonsense. While he lived, there was for me a feeling of joy and jubilation, that he was walking with us all, a true son of America, a man of God. He called us to think things through, until they rung clear. He said intelligent things, like:

“Through our scientific genius, we have made the world a neighborhood: Now through our moral and spiritual genius we must make it a brotherhood. We are all involved in the single process, what affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are all links in the great chain of humanity.” (I have a Dream:19)

I sometimes wonder: had King been born in India, would he have been hailed as another `Vivekananda’ or an Avatar of Dharma, a Mahatma, or a Bodhisattva? He certainly was, although unrecognized, for America. In his quest for civil rights, Dr. King included all human rights. Back in the 1950’s, he could see that the USA government was not representing the people when he said:

“I knew I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today—my own government.” (I have a Dream:138–139)

Children often interpret events in ways unexpected. The deaths of J.F. Kennedy, Dr. King and then Robert Kennedy, in quick succession in the 1960’s, made me, as a child, feel that there was an inhuman ruthlessness at the core of this turn down the dark road, that would choke and kill the spirit of what it meant to be an American; kill those ethical ideals in order to dumb us down into consenting consumers and guinea pigs. A force that really did not care about our constitution, about democracy, about the American people or, for that matter, about any people.

I believe King saw the results for the American people over 45 years ago when he prophetically said:

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” (I have a Dream:148)

And about the Soul of America: “It can never be saved so long as it destroys the hopes of men the world over.” (I have a Dream:139)

America does indeed have a soul, it is a great soul, it can be found in the noblest aspirations and ideals of her peoples. In the community of nations, my country has always represented hope, justice, and a new opportunity, a new chance at life and freedom from social patterns of human limitation. In 1958, there was an international demand for world peace and disarmament. The world looked to America to lead the way, being the wealthiest and most powerful militarily and economically. America at that time, represented the hope and dream of a genuine world brotherhood arising in the hearts of human beings. It was paradoxical, considering the issues of civil rights in the USA then.

I grew up in revolutionary times, and when I look at American youth today, I see that same spirit—wiser and more informed in many ways than I was—but at the same time suffering the damaging legacy of what has become a de-civilising society with global influence. The desperation of youth in America is so intense, I am confident that a massive, united and new dawn is fast approaching the horizon, soon to rise. Dr. King said:

“Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism and militarism.” (I have a Dream:150)

We can now add to that list: eternal hostility to the rape and destruction of our Earth, sky and waters, to the squanderous sucking up of resources that sustain life for the whole of Creation; eternal hostility to greed. As Dr. King said:

“The question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be.” (“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” April 16,
1963.)

America, like India, has the universal within her. It has been nurtured through genuine tolerance and freedom from caste- and status-stuck eyes, by her mixed population of peoples. It is there in the deep spirituality of those she has crushingly oppressed within her. In 1954, Dr. King stated:

“Discrimination is a hell-hound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.” (Speech given to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Aug. 16, 1967.)

It is always those who have endured and still love that gain wisdom. The United States of America will rise, with humility and grace to shine the light of joyous human brotherhood upon this Earth. Earth ethics are part of her awakening to her own self and her duty in the sphere of nations.

The misunderstood phrase from the USA’s Declaration of Independence “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” has become a byword for uncaring, unresponsive individualism, economics that are entirely immoral, selfish, destructive and exploitative to human society and the Earth as a whole, to overall ethical unaccountability. It was Abe Lincoln who saw that the greatness of the United States lay not in the material pursuit of individual happiness, but in the people’s participation in a working democracy, as they pursued knowledge of Truth, their ethical instincts, the only real happiness possible. The trend of the last 100-odd years is a departure from the spirit of those ideals first put forth by our founding fathers.

Despite obvious failings, American optimism, enthusiasm and willingness to change is still strong. I am proud of the ethics that can be found in America, her generous, caring and open-hearted people. I am intensely grateful for being born in her atmosphere, for having the opportunity to imbibe the great spiritual qualities that she offers as freely as the air. I know that my country, the United States of America, contains a message of Love, energy and hope for this Earth. The terrible and tragic mismanagement of almost seven decades; the rise of the brutal military and industrial complex, the materialism, racism, and global selfishness of individuals and companies receiving legal sanction there—none of these will be able to crush the spirit of her people, despite education that has dumbed them down, despite media indoctrination that teaches them not to think. As they awaken and rise to their own heart’s way, to the inherent ideals of America, the great people of the United States will assist in the ushering of a new dawn for mankind. I have the faith that this is a Truth. It is for sure, a duty.

The election of the 44th USA President, Barak Obama, has brought tremendous hope to billions of people on the planet. Words like duty and social responsibility have come out of the dusty closet. It is for us, the people, to lead our leaders and make good the promises of our age, otherwise as Dr. King said:

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.” (“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963.)

Dearest Friends and Family,

Amma has counseled us to raise our voices wherever see see adharma or unrighteousness.  I greatly appreciate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 19: that we have the right to voice our opinions and communicate them through whatever media we choose.

In recent years, there is increasing criticism by western countries of the outfits that Moslem women wear. Increasing denunciation of anybody wearing ‘religious jewelry’ or symbols. There seems to be a great fear of people thinking on their own. This type of intolerance is now spreading to India, in certain pockets, as She seeks to emulate the  repressive western political fads.

I recently saw an article by an Australian woman who is Muslim, and trying to spread awareness in that country in reaction to recent governmental barking about Moslem dress on women there.   I wrote this comment, which I wanted to share with all of you.  I like to be frank about things, and `agree to disagree’, if need be. It reflects an evolution in my thinking, which I think is due to living here in India.

This is in response to an article called: Banning the Niqab by Zara Syed on Countercurrents.org on June 24, 2010. The url to the article is: countercurrents.org/syed240610.htm

A mafta is the head scarf worn by Muslim women, that covers their ears, neck and hair, but leaves their faces visible. A Niqab is a facial covering as well.  My comment:

I am not a Muslim woman, but in talking with many of my women friends over the years, we have all agreed that the Muslim style of dress for women is not necessarily prohibitive at all, but, one that allows women to be taken more seriously, as the author notes:

“Everything about me BESIDES my beauty should be important to society” .

At this time, when human society is hurling itself towards ribald, gross and unbridled expressions of its primitive instincts of brutality, greed, and lust rather than our ethical and humane instincts, the dress of Moslem women is an eloquent reminder to all people who see it, that there is another way of thinking about being a human being in today’s world, about being a woman.

All voices and views need to be honoured if we are to have a creative and humane society in which to live. Our children’s minds are improved by teaching them to respect different outlooks upon life.

The Moslem way of dressing is not offensive, crude, violent or hurtful to others.

However, I do feel offended as a woman, when I see my sisters deliberately showing their breasts and bottoms to men, when all women know that many men, strangers unknown to them even, will look at a woman’s body, and desire it, particularly if she accentuates it. Its offensive because it limits the dynamic role that women have in society. When one woman agrees to be a play thing, to an extent, it hurts the chances of other women to be taken seriously.

What young wife would be completely and totally comfortable with her beautiful female friends coming over infront of her husband with their breasts pushed up with push-up bras, their shirts revealing their mammary glands almost down to their nipples?  Or their bottoms tightly outlined?  There is a basic code of human decency which we expect each other to be aware of and observe.  Denying it in the name of ‘objective’ individual self-expression doesn’t make it go away, nor invalidate it.

Perhaps it is because women have been diminished and demoralized into sexual playthings that human brutality towards other humans, other mother’s sons, to Nature, has increased to the destructive level that it has.

If the women who wear it feel the Moslem style of dress is oppressive to them, if they feel they are being conditioned to believe that they are to blame for the lustfulness of men, rather than men having and exercising responsibility to educate and restrain themselves, then, they should feel free to do away with it. But this is their choice, and not something that can be imposed upon them from somewhere else.

However, the author repeatedly uses the word “Protection.” This shows that women do not feel safe from the eyes and intentions of men.

Why is this and who is to blame for this?

Its time that we, women and men together, work towards a society where the relations between women and men are founded upon an ethical footing, first and foremost. Then, perhaps in a more ethically inclined atmosphere, Moslem women will not feel it is necessary to protect themselves through their clothing.

Perhaps opponents should view this insistence on clothing as a sociological symptom – a reaction to an imbalanced human society that does not protect and honour some essential quotients of being a woman? Like Motherhood, maternal feelings, like Love Power, like prizing the creation and children?  All Life is One.  We are one human family, no matter what religion we call ourselves.

It is hoped that Muslim women, recognizing they feel a need of protection will strive even harder to inculcate ethical ideals into their sons that will enable all women to feel safe around them, as should all of us mothers.  We must be vigilant in the character development of our children and each others children, so we have sons and daughters that won’t wage war or hurt others, for anyone.  We the women have this power.  Lets use it.   A son who is violent or who rapes women, has not been given or allowed to have the education he was meant to get from Nature, through his Mother.  If Mothers get distracted from their primal duty to Life itself, who is to blame?

Even if the distraction has been generations, we all have that power, ever present inside us.  Lets use it.

We are human beings, with the capacity to behave with consideration and courtesy towards one another. Tolerance is part of this. I feel that anyone who wants to be reminded of their religion or noble inspirations by wearing a cross or a skull cap, or a pendant of some sort, bracelet or hat,  should not be denied that opportunity. That is self expression also. Its at a higher level than just the physical, its at the level of the mind and aspiration. As a globalized human society, we should encourage any and all ideals which will motivate us towards becoming kinder, saner, more loving and respectful, humane human beings.

I know most of you probably agree, but wanted to put this out there.

Loving you,

Aunty Kamala

Dearest Friends and Family,

Yesterday was Anni’s Release Day in 2007.

The day before, we were talking with the children’s Uncle Sudheer.

When we first came to the ashram, Amma’s baby brother,  Sudheer and his beautiful wife Maneesha were god-sends to us.  There was no school for the children to attend at their grade level, and their Aunty Maneesha began teaching them the NCERT ‘portions’ which are deemed “relevant education”.  She had just had their first child, a baby boy, Amritanand, as well.  They also arranged  violin music lessons for the kids and Mohini Natyam (ancient Kerala style classical sacred dance) lessons for Anni.  Their home has always been open to us, we could trust deeply in their love for Amma, so there was sureness and understanding between us.  They became, really, our blood family.  Around them we have always felt very safe and loved.

Of course, it was all great fun for us, we got a peak into Kerala homes and kitchens, saw infant care, and learned tons of things that one does through atmospheric, rather than bookish means. We learned that Amma’s family are heart people, they live in their hearts.  We got to see the vows of non-possession, detachment in action, as their furnishings, food, supplies of all sorts, as well as time,  rooms, facilities, even laundry facilities, were continually being used or taken out the door for this event or that event at all sorts of odd hours through numerous different angles by the Ashram.  We learned a lot about Amma from their legacies of life with Her.

In those last days in the ashram before we went to the US, after the ‘terminal’ diagnosis, almost all, if not all, of the ashramites came to our room to see Anni.

I remember how after one long stream of visitors, when I had closed the door, Anni said to me, “I feel happy.”  She loved all the loving and genuine meeting with community members that was taking place.

People who were dropping their masks, to show their hearts.  It was all wonderfully healing.  Its strange that love requires bravery, but it does.  You can’t love if you are a coward, only if you are brave.  Real bravery is to keep loving truthfully, not just a show of compassion and empathy.  Amma and Anni are the bravest people I have ever met.

Two days ago,  Uncle Sudheer told us that when he took Anni’s hand to say goodbye at that time, with the crowds around her, she squeezed his hand really, really, hard and long but said nothing.

She Knew.  My Baby Knew.

Only we couldn’t know.  Even to the last second, we couldn’t know, and then, it was clear as day, that Anni had not died, she had just left that aching body.  How could that be death?  She was released, from the experience of the body, and we were stuck here to learn more before we can be released.  As Gandhi noted, ‘Birth and Death are not two different states, but rather two aspects of the same state.”

When we stayed at Mahima’s in Dubai, on the way to the US, when Anni was alone with Mahima, she told her she would not be coming back from the US.

She Knew.

Sometimes I wonder if people will ever recognize who Anni is, what she is.  This is a world of shadows, wherein we eat and breathe, and never give thought to the great essential of our existence.  Her leaving forced Link and I into the direction of certitude, for she can never die. Its a good direction, and actually, the only real direction. And she is with us, in following the trail she blazed for us.

On June 6th, a just two weeks ago,  our Mama Janice also passed on. She is in the photo album with her daughter Suzanne. Her last words to her daughter were, “I can never die!  I’ll never die!” Such is the war-cry of a spiritual lion, a Queen!  Mama Janice also lived a life of great Awareness and utter certitude.  She brought and brings great solace and inspiration to our lives.  These are the only real things.

I found this quote from Amma:

“The wise ones are aware of the inevitability of death and try to transcend it. While living `in life’ a wise person acquires the mental and spiritual strength to live also ‘in death’ or to live in eternity, beyond death. He dies to his ego. Once one dies to the ego, there is no person, and thus there is no one to die. Such people are so full with life that they do not know death.” - Holy Mother Amma in AC 4:270-271

In our room interview this year, Holy Mother Amma said that in the future, Anni’s life will be known as a Life of Light.  Let it be so, from Now.

We were so privileged to live with her, to experience her Love, to be her own.  Looking around us, we still see no one with that degree of purity, kindness, gentleness, bravery, strength of will to be brave in  the face of denial of Love and Truth….to be true to conscience no matter what…she wasn’t dumb about anything, her qualities came from brilliance, not ineptitude, which kindness and goodness is often categorized in…and the miles of maturity.  She had control over her speech.  She never chatted aimlessly.  We always felt she was older than us.

Her leaving made it very clear to Link and I, that we were left here, because we had more to learn.  She had finished with the school.  And this learning, is nothing about what all people seem to think is important – degrees, social positions, accolades of some sort or another.  None of that is at all relevant.  Our learning lies in un-learning all of that, and concentrating on all the virtues that help us to listen and support the voice of the heart within us and all that helps us to be true to it.  Thats all, for that is the Abiding One, within us.  Anni’s message to us was so simple.  In that simplicity is all the Truth, Love, and freedom, contentment, as well as power that anyone could want.

I passed a friend this morning, I hadn’t seen in some days in the lift, and asked, where is your daughter?

“She is studying in L____”

“What is she studying?”

“Ph.D.”

“That’s nice, but what is she studying?”

“Ph.D! Ph.D!”

“Great!  Wonderful!  But what subject?”

“Vedantic Philosophy.”

So many ways this world of shadows dances before our eyes, both entrancing and scaring us.  We have to do something, while we try to learn our lessons, which can’t come from anything outside.  We have to find someway to give our Life the  Space inside us, to unfold….so we do all kinds of things, and keep ourselves ever so busy, until we finally decide to start to listen to the Ever Abiding One.  Then, the busy-ness takes on a different feel – its no longer ‘busy out there’ but becomes ‘busy in here’ with the Abiding One.  Thou the Sufficing, Thou the healing, Thou the Abiding, O Thou, Abiding One!  ( thats from the long healing prayer in the Bahai Prayer book.)  It becomes a sort of experiencing-busy.

At least, this is the understanding we have gained from our Anni and Amma…from the experience….
and all this helps in the certitude…in the certainty.
The certainty, is, I think, everything that is Real and meaningful.

Yesterday, I was debating, ’should I keep silence, seclusion for the day, withdraw and release the pain a little’ -  sort of musing to myself about it.  Then, in the morning itself, in our usual way of working together on music, Anni helped us figure out a song.  Even the tune is there.  We had started it before, but it never came fully.  Here it is.  The first phrase is from a sentence by Malalai Joya, a fearless woman in Afghanistan, who lives in utter certainty.

You can cut the flower, but you cannot stop the spring

There’s a fearless tide, that starting to rise,

inside us all

We will wash the Earth, of selfishness and greed

And sing our song, Yeah, we’ll sing our song, Again

We won’t bash the Earth,by cre-ating Trash

And we won’t have war, we won’t allow war anymore

No more war, we said, NO MORE WAR

You hear? We said, No More War, anymore

The springtime of Her love, is covering this Earth

thawing our frozen hearts

And we’ll sing our Song, That we are One! In Her Love

And we’ll sing our Song

That we are One, in Her Love!

In Her Love! In Her Love! In Her Love!  In Her Love!

Yeah, We’ll sing our Song, that we are One, again.

Loving you,

Aunty Kamala, Anni and Link