Beberapa hari lalu saya ngobrol dengan kawan soal Pemilu yang akan datang, dan apa yang bisa dilakukan untuk membantu pemilih mengambil keputusan yang tepat (lepas dari bias). Ketersediaan informasi (yang benar) menjadi salah satu hal yang muncul dalam percakapan. Di dunia yang dipenuhi hoaks seperti sekarang ini, apakah itu cukup? Rasanya tidak.
Fakta atau informasi yang sudah tervalidasi sekalipun tidak akan bisa “menembus” pertahanan pikiran seseorang yang sudah terpaku pada suatu hal—se-salah apapun informasinya. Tentu saja akses terhadap informasi yang akurat masih dibutuhkan, utamanya bagi mereka yang masih belajar dan yang ada di wilayah abu-abu. Tapi, bagi mereka yang sudah condong pada sesuatu/seseorang, informasi yang datang akan tersaring; yang bisa masuk hanyalah yang mendukung kepercayaan yang sudah dipunyai. Fakta yang tidak mendukung akan dengan mudah dianggap salah atau sengaja menyesatkan.
Karena itu, hoaks pun laku bilamana ia memperkuat kepercayaan dan identitasnya. Hal ini tidak cuma terjadi di Amerika sana, tapi juga di sini. Setiap orang bisa jatuh di lubang yang sama: ternyata kita tidak selalu “rela” mengubah apa yang kita percaya ketika disuguhi fakta yang sebaliknya. Salah satu alasannya adalah “ongkos perubahan” yang mahal, dan murahnya “ongkos mempertahanakan sesuatu yang salah”. Apa konsekuensinya di dunia nyata percaya bahwa bumi ini datar? Hampir tidak ada.
Alasan lainnya adalah kerapnya media menempatkan mereka yang menghadirkan-fakta pada posisi yang SEJAJAR dengan mereka yang ingin menebar kebohongan (dan kebencian)—atas nama keadilan. Ketika pikiran kita masih mencari-cari sensasi dan hiburan, maka kita akan mudah tertarik dengan ide-ide yang kontroversial dan menggelembungkan ego (keunikan dan identitas-yang-salah) kita, seperti macam-macam teori konspirasi. Diskusi di TV dan media lainnya antara kedua pihak tadi seringkali sengaja dibuat mengambang, dan penonton yang pikirannya sudah tercabik-cabik dibiarkan begitu saja tanpa pencerahan.
Trus, apa solusi dari masalah yang sepertinya memang wired di dalam otak kita ini? — Video di bawah ini mengaku bahwa belum ada silver bullet-nya; untuk itu saya menoleh ke sumber lain: Yoga.
Permasalahan di atas bukan hal yang baru. Pikiran manusia dan bagaimana mencapai kejernihan/keseimbangan berpikir telah menjadi subyek penelitian selama ribuan tahun di Hindia, jauh sebelum sains barat mengembangkan psikologi. Salah satu teks Yoga yang penting, Yoga Sutra (YS), yang ditulis oleh Patañjali, mengatakan bahwa benih-benih pikiran-dan-perasaan punya dua kemungkinan berkembang: ia bisa jernih melihat kenyataan apa adanya, atau ia bisa juga menjadi keruh dan mengasosiasikan dirinya dengan kekeruhan itu (YS 1:3–4).
Fenomena hoaks di atas dijelaskan dengan sangat singkat di dalam YS 2:3, bahwa kekacauan dan penderitaan ini disebabkan (berturut-turut) oleh: avidyā (ketidaktahuan), asmitā (ke-aku-an), rāga (likes), dveṣa (dislikes), dan abhiniveśa (keinginan untuk mempertahankan suatu keadaan). Ongkos perubahan menjadi mahal karena kita menganggap bahwa “diriku adalah ide atau pendapat atau gagasan atau ajaran atau ideologi, dst.” (asmitā); sehingga konsekuensinya aku akan menyukasi sesuatu hal (rāga) dan membenci hal lainnya (dveṣa); kemudian aku akan berupaya mempertahankannya (abhiniveśa).
Semua itu berasal dari avidyā atau ketidaktahuan. Nah, di sini avidyā tidak sama dengan ketiadaan informasi (yang benar) dari luar. Avidyā lah yang membuat seseorang salah menganggap siapa dirinya; avidyā adalah akar dari asmitā dan penyebab kekacauan dan penderitaan yang disebutkan di atas. YS 2:5 menjelaskan bahwa avidyā adalah “bias” yang membuat kita salah memahami: yang kekal dan yang temporary, yang murni dan yang keruh, yang menghasilkan suka dan yang mendatangkan duka, serta jati diri dan identitas palsu.
Berita baiknya: solusinya ada, yaitu pada masing-masing individu. Berita buruknya: tidak ada solusi instan—dibutuhkan upaya intensif dan terus-menerus (abhyāsa), serta pelepasan diri dari keterikatan (vairāgya) lewat disiplin diri (YS 1:1,12). Lebih lanjut, Patañjali menjelaskan langkah-langkahnya. Hal ini penting tidak hanya supaya kita bisa memilih apapun/siapapun dengan tepat, tapi berlaku juga dalam semua segi kehidupan yang lain. Dan sebagaimana segala sesuatu yang sifatnya riil dan jangka panjang, solusi ini tidak berpura-pura menawarkan hasil kilat dan kunci jawaban pilhan ganda.
Kita tidak bisa menjamin produksi hoaks berhenti dengan ditangkapnya kelompok-kelompok seperti Saracen; mereka ada karena adanya permintaan, kebutuhan akan validisasi identitas diri. Kita tidak bisa terus-terusan menyuapi masyarakat “what to think”, tapi perlu juga mengajarkan “how to think” lewat disiplin diri. Pada suatu titik, informasi yang berlimpah malahan akan menjadi bumerang jika tidak disertai kebijaksanaan. Jika manusianya tidak berubah, sampai kapan kita bisa berharap pada keberuntungan setiap kali kita mengambil langkah dalam “gelap”?!
IMPORTANT: This is transcribed with the permission of Anand Ashram Foundation from their video clip on YouTube, purely for Non-Commercial Purpose and for this blog alone. Any further reproduction or translation in any manner and by anyone will be considered illegal and liable to legal prosecution.
Below are the transcriptions of the 3 part video series titled “Kundalini” from Swamiji Anand Krishna (2017). Please enjoy, and let me know if there is any mistake in the transcription. Ānandam.
[Video 1 – Kundalini: The Myths and The Facts]
First question: How to activate Kundalini? And what is the main purpose of it?
Second question: Can you recommend the safe way to open the third eye?
First of all Kundalini. Have you all heard of Kundalini?
There is a lot of nonsense going on. Most of the books in the west, which are being translated in the eastern languages, have nothing to do about Kundalini. It’s about making money. So… say, you have to create a monster. If you want to sell armaments, to sell weapons, you have to create a monster. You have to spread fear, make people fearful. And then let them buy arms, guns. If you are fearful, it is a matter of survival for you. Similarly, if I tell you that your Kundalini is blocked, and I have a way to open your Kundalini… to clear this blockage. If you believe in me… if I can convince you that your Kundalini is blocked, you will do anything. The thing is: what is Kundalini has not been explained.
The meaning of the word Kundalini in Sanskrit is related to your own potential. So Kundalini is not something like mystic.. or something mystic. Yes, if you want to interpret it that way. But, it is to do with your own potential. So, when I say ‘your potential’, your potential is your potential. My potential is my potential. Are you getting the point?
If your potential is unique your potential, and my potential is unique my potential, how can I write a book describing the same potential for everybody?! It is not possible. So first of all, you have to drop the books about Kundalini. Because books are not giving you any answer. Books are like… you know… is a blouse or a shirt that comes with a size. (When) your next size is 15 an a half, and if your are 15 and a quarter, you have to settle with 15 and a half. If you are 15 and three quarter, you are still have to settle with 15 and a half because no shirt available in 15 and a quarter, or 15 and a half. But, Kundalini is precise. Your potential is precise. My potential is precise. So it is something to do with practice, and nothing to do with books or bookish knowledge. It is your potential.
When people describe that your Kundalini arising, you feel this, you feel that; while you are meditating you feel this kind of energy, this kind of colors… a lot of description. But all these things are not meditation, first of all. When you are paying attention to what is happening during meditation session you are not in meditative state of mind. You are in a state of mindfulness, which is not meditation. When you are paying attention to all these phenomena: what is happening to me… this color, this energy, and this sensation, you are being mindful. You are not in the state of meditativeness. And Kundalini has got something to do with mediation, not with mindfulness.
The question is “how to activate Kundalini”. If your Kundalini is not activated, you won’t be sitting here. People whose Kundalini is totally not activated they are the happiest people, like Forrest Gump, or Mr. Bean—he have passed away, I think, recently. They can do harm to anybody, and they can get away with it because they are not sensitive. If you are even little sensitive, very little sensitive means that your Kundalini has been activated. If you are unhappy with your job, mark my words: if you are not happy with your relation, if you are not happy with your job, if you are disturbed with what is happening in this world, to this world, in our society… if what is happening in Macedonia, in Greek is bothering you although you are living thousands of miles away; if what is happening today in Norway, or Sweden, or Belgium, or Brazil… what is happening there… if somebody is being bombed in London, if you feel the pain, your Kundalini has been activated. As simple as that!
But, if you think “ah people are dying, but they are not my relation, they belong to different group, they are not me, they are not my people,” then your Kundalini is not activated at all. If you are even little sensitive, your Kundalini is little activated, which means that your awareness is not limited to your body alone. You are not thinking about your pleasure alone. You are not thinking about your safety alone. You are not thinking about your happiness alone. If so, your Kundalini is already activated. A lot of people here, you are come from different part of the world, and you are looking for something. Maybe at this point, you cannot pin point what are you looking for. Of course you all want to be happy, we are all want to be happy. But you may look for different means to be happy. I may look for different means to become happy. Maybe at this moment we are not very clear.. but the fact that you are looking for something, you are looking for higher purpose of life, you are looking for higher happiness, deeper peace, your potential as human being is already activated. Now, how to enhance it; there are no blockages. [End of video 1].
[Video 2 – How to Detect if Your Kundalini is Active?]
How to enhance it? Third eye is related to Kundalini path, when you are rising in your consciousness, the first thing that happens is… the very first thing that happens to you when you rise in your consciousness is you drop all kinds of meats. You realize at that very moment that those animals have the same life. This is the first realization. The first realization is you drop all kinds of meats, whatever your society tells you. “I am alright with this.” (But) if you are still starving, looking for meat, and you are still eating corpses, dead bodies of animals, even your initial development is not there.
Forget it when someone tells you your this Chakra has opened, or that Chakra has opened. Nonsense! First is your diet. Because we share that diet with all living beings. Eating, drinking, sleeping, and sex all animals do this, we do the same thing. These are the lower consciousness. We can have this kind of human body and we can stay in the lower consciousness, for many lifetimes, life after life; not just one lifetime. We can stay in that lower consciousness just looking for food, some comfort, good life, feeling good… even Google knows this. So Google is exploiting you also… feeling good today, because Google knows that you want to feel good today.
Feeling good is something else; it is an emotional thing. But feeling truly happy is something else. It has got nothing to do with bodily comfort, good food, good relation, good house, good husband, good partner, good wife… no. It has got something to do with your Soul. So, if we are just looking for food, sex, and comfort, (we aren’t yet looking for true happiness, MH).
I was reading about a lady in the west, I think in America or Europe… She appeared on CNN. She is 80+, and she said with pride, “I have a boyfriend that is 40 years younger than me. And if you ask him, interview him, he is happy with me.” And at the end of the interview she said, “Thanks to Yoga. I have been doing Yoga for the last forty years and I can have a boyfriend who is 40 years younger than me.” So I tried to find information about this lady. She is filthy rich, very rich. Why 40 years, she can have two for 20 years. With that amount of money, everybody would like to be her boyfriend. No problem. It is nothing to do with Yoga. If your Yoga is for getting a boyfriend or a girlfriend, then it is not a Yoga.
Yoga is about inner beauty. One person who doesn’t even tell anybody he’s doing Yoga is Sean Connery, the James Bond fella. The more he grows, I think, in my opinion, he becomes more handsome. And he doesn’t tell anybody that he has been doing Yoga for the last fifty, or sixty years, or something… No. He doesn’t propagate, he doesn’t promote (Yoga), he doesn’t do anything. It is the inner peace that brings the beauty outside. And the third eye is something to do with your Wisdom, how to look at things from the Wisdom point of view.
So many things are happening. We are reading so many disturbing news. We are reading so many good news also. But we don’t have the wisdom as yet to see what is behind such news. What seems to be a good news may not be good news: A child is born in a very rich family. The child is given all kinds of comforts from the very early childhood. Looks good. But this child grows to become a very lazy person because everything is taken care of.
I had a very good friend 20 years older than me, now he is dead. But he was a very good friend. And he was a self-made men in Singapore. He used to have a very small store in Singapore in 1960s. My father knew him actually, he was younger than my father. He had a very small store in Singapore. And in 1970s-1980s when I came across him, when we became friends, he was already having 7 or 8 stores in Singapore, large stores, his own properties. I am talking about the time when there were no malls. People still had big stores, big shops. So this guy had 7 or 8 stores.
He had three sons. And this guy is making money and all his sons were losing money. So we were just talking one day over cocktails in the evening. And this old man asked me, “What is the problem? My father is a poor man. Their father is a rich man. I am providing everything for them. So they don’t care, they don’t value the money. Lost is lost, they don’t value it. But when I was working hard, my father didn’t have this kind of money. If I didn’t make money, I didn’t make money.”
So you can actually spoil your children, ruin their lives altogether by providing everything… which looks good, but it is not good. And have seen this phenomena: People who are self-made, when they have children, they tend to spoil their children because they are feeling guilty. “When we are young we don’t have all these comforts, all these facilities. So let’s provide these for my children.” But actually, they are spoiling their kids, ruining their lives. So, what looks good, may not be good. This is Wisdom. And this develops.
So, once again, Kundalini… what happens during meditation, forget that. What happens after meditation, that is important. So I was telling you: The first sign that you can recognize someone by… the food habit. Moderation. It is not extreme: not extremely sweet, not extremely sour, not extremely hot spices, not overcooked, not raw food. All these extremes show that we are still fighting with ourselves. Just be natural. Eat natural foods.
In Indonesia, until 1950s – 1960s when I was a kid, we had a very good diet. We didn’t eat so much meat. We ate chicken, yes once in a while. Fish, yes. And our vegetables are either sautéed or just loosely fried, not deeply fried. Or Gado-gado, just put the vegetables in a boiling pan, then take it out… you don’t boil the vegetables until they die. You put some sauce, then you eat that. And the food was very healthy, that was a very very good food according to Yogic principles. And nowadays, I was just reading—I was astonished, I was amazed—that an average Indonesians eat 6,000 chickens in his life. And this number is based on the junk food joints, like KFC, McD, and others.
And more than that: The major consumer of chicken—you’d be surprise—is “restoran padang” (The Padang Restaurants). They are the biggest consumer of meats, more than KFC and everything else. (So) 6,000 chickens you start eating from day one of your birth, if you are living (up to) 70 years. That means from day 1 of your birth, you are eating like 100 chickens every year. To eat 100 chicken means every third day you are eating 1 chicken. Make sense. When you go to KFC you buy this family pack, which is suppose to be for a family, sometimes only two of you eat.
So all these things. If you see what is happening in this world; the number of junk food joints, malls full of food courts, this shows that Kundalini has not worked as yet. Just look at the growing numbers of food courts. The Kundalini is not working as yet, because first of all is food. [End of video 2].
[Video 3 – Sex and the Opening of Chakras]
The second thing is moderation in comforts., that has not only something to do with sleep but also with comfort. If you can do with one car, don’t have two cars. Go back to your homes, especially we Indonesians, and open your cupboard, how many clothes are there that we don’t wear anymore. How many pairs of capals, of sandals, of shoes you have, bags you have that you don’t use anymore. How many people in your lives that are useless. [Laughs]
So, first of all food. Second, comfort. You are not really into a lot of comforts. This and that, I have been hearing. You can do with one computer, (but) you also have iPad, you have iPhone. And all these things are giving you the same service. There are no difference. And then about sex. If at the age of 80—this woman is still looking for a 40 years old boyfriend—she has not done Yoga. Because if you are doing Yoga, what happens when your Kundalini is activated, our energy now, commonly, all of us, uniformly, our energy is stored around our navel. About two inches below the navel, between your navel and your sex organ there is the store house of energy. Whenever there is excessive energy, it goes there. That’s the storage.
Now, there energy there is in the form of liquid. So, when there is so much energy there, the nature of liquid is always going downward. So if there is so much energy there, there is a natural urge for sex whether you are man, woman, anybody. There is a natural urge for sex there because there is excessive amount of energy there and you have to let i go. But if you are doing Yoga, and you are doing Yoga as a lifestyle, not just head down and feet up, your energy is changing. It is heated up. It becomes steam. It evaporates. Then what happens?
When the steam goes up, you become creative. So creativity is the third sign. If your Kundalini is working, is enhanced you become very creative. There are a lot of people who work very hard, but they are not creative and they cannot make money. They are not successful, simply because they are not creative. They are hard workers. So creativity, and food habit, and lifestyles that are not excessive that is the sign that your Kundalini is opening.
And the fourth sign is, that you love. If you are loving your husband, your wife, your partner, your children, the fourth Chakra is not functioning as yet. If your love is directed to some people, “I love this person unconditionally,”—you cannot love someone unconditionally, that is already a condition. When I say, “I love you unconditionally,” that means I don’t love others unconditionally. That is already a condition. I “only” love you unconditionally. When you start loving, you become loving… whether it is you partner, your husband, or your children, or somebody else’s children you have the same feeling.
If someone is dying in London, you feel the pain. Someone is dying in the Middle East, you feel the pain. Someone is being killed, someone is being harmed… an animal is being killed, you feel the pain. That is when your forth Chakra is opening. You cannot see animals being slaughtered, to be consumed by human beings. Your forth Chakra has not open. You can say, you can bully yourselves that my Kundalini is open, I love everybody unconditionally, but, what about animals?
And fifth Chakra, what you speak truthful. Sometimes truth is also bitter, but yet you are not compromised with it. Wisdom—what I was just discussing earlier—(is the sixth Chakra, MH). And then the seventh Chakra, the enlightenment is a process. I have been repeating this over and over, if someone says that “I am enlightened already” (full stop), that means the progress has stopped. Enlightenment is a process, an ongoing process. It never stops. From lower enlightenment you become higher and higher, it’s working all the time. You cannot say “I am enlightened already.”
So Kundalini is an ongoing process from lesser truth to higher truth, from lesser love to higher love, from lesser wisdom to higher wisdom. But you have to start with somebody, you have to start with something, you have to start with someone. You have to start with some kind of step. And so we have summarized this step in our motto, that is “Inner Peace”, become at peace with yourselves first. “Communal Love”, love the people around you first. It is very difficult to love the people around you. It is very difficult to love your neighbour. That’s why Jesus was very tricky when he said “Love your neighour.” Because when your neighbour is farting you can hear it, you can smell it. It is very easy to love somebody in the United States, in Europe, anywhere… in Siberia. But when your neighbour is parking his car in front of your door, that’s a challenge. How can you love this neighbour?
He knows he is not suppose to park his car in front of your gate, and yet he keeps doing that. How to love your neighour, that’s the challenge. How to love your bed neighbour, your roommate? When you are in love everything is so rosy. But once you start living together, then you know, not all is rosy, there is thorn also. You know there is a joke, I have been saying this over and over: In my mother tongue, in Sindhi that is, there is a saying, “When you are in love it is the woman who talks and the man who listens. After you get married, it is the man who talks and the woman who listens.” I am talking about Asian (couple), maybe not relevant for westerners. But the third part is relevant, maybe not so much of the second part.
The second part is, “after you get married, it is the man who is speaking, talking and the woman has to listen.” Today the rice is not properly cooked. Because in the east when you get married, whatever people say, when you get married you take it for granted that the woman does all the jobs at home. So, the rice is not properly cooked, it’s not salty, less salty, more salty, all kind of things. “One year after marriage, both of them are speaking and the neighbours are listening.” This shows that we are very far from being wise, from being enlightened. BUT, the process is on. Now it depends on you—it is said in the Yoga Sutra—it is depends on you, how fast you are to walk, or how slow you are to walk. [End of video 3].
[Tulisan saya ini dimuat di Majalah Media Hindu edisi Oktober 2016]
Om Avignamastu,
“Aku telah berjalan ke semua sudut India, dan aku belum pernah menemukan seorangpun pengemis dan pencuri—sedemikian kayanya negeri itu, dengan nilai-nilai moral yang tinggi, sehingga tidak mungkin kita (bangsa Inggris) bisa menaklukkan negeri itu tanpa mematahkan tulang-punggungnya, yaitu kekayaan warisan spiritual dan budayanya. Oleh karena itu, aku mengusulkan agar kita mengganti sistem pendidikannya yang sudah sudah berusia ribuan tahun, (sehingga kita bisa mengubah) budayanya—karena apabila orang-orang India berfikir bahwa segala sesuatu yang asing dan berasal dari Inggris lebih baik dan mulia daripada apa yang dimilikinya; mereka akan kehilangan kepercayaan diri dan (akhirnya) budaya asalnya akan tersingkir, kemudian mereka akan mudah dikuasai.” —terjemahan bebas kutipan pidato Lord Macaulay di hadapan Parlemen Inggris, 2 Februari 1835.
India, Hindia, Indus, Hindu, Sindhu adalah satu peradaban; sehingga kita pun bisa mengganti kata India di dalam kutipan di atas dengan Indonesia—atau wilayah-wilayah lain di dalam Peradaban Sindhu—dan akan kita temukan pola yang sama. Penjajahnya boleh berbeda: di sana British East India Company, di sini Verenigde Oost Indische Compagnie (VOC), di sana dijajah oleh orang-orang Inggris, di sini kita dieksplotasi oleh orang-orang dari Belanda, di wilayah lain, oleh bangsa-bangsa lain. Sama saja, ‘beti’ beda tipis!
Kita harus akui bahwa mereka sukses dengan misinya tadi. Mereka berhasil mematahkan tulang-punggung kita, menciptakan amnesia sejarah—dan yang lebih parah—amnesia budaya dan jati diri. Hingga detik ini, sadar atau tidak, kita masih mewarisi pola pikir yang mereka tanam ratusan tahun yang lalu itu. Kita masih memandang diri lebih rendah, tidak beradab sebelum kedatangan orang-orang asing yang membawa serta peradaban, ilmu, pengetahuan, teknologi, hukum bahkan seni. Kita masih takjub melihat bule, orang-orang asing dan memandang mereka lebih baik dari diri kita.
Anda mungkin bertanya, apa sih yang kita punya? Kalau itu yang terbersit di benak kita, bagus! Kita bisa mulai perjalanan menggali kekayaan warisan spiritual dan budaya kita di dalam beberapa tulisan saya selanjutnya.
Weda: Kolam Intelejensia Peradaban Sindhu merupakan satu-satunya peradaban kuna dunia yang masih hidup hingga saat ini. Sumber kekuatannya terletak pada Dharma yang langgeng, kekal, abadi, dan selalu ada (baca kembali tulisan pertama saya dalam seri ini). Dari waktu ke waktu, Peradaban Sindhu dibekahi oleh kehadiran para Guru, para Bijak, para Suci yang mampu menangkap, kemudian menerjemahkan serta mengaplikasikan Dharma ini sesuai dengan tuntutan jamannya. Peradaban Sindhu percaya pada perkembangan, bahwa otak manusia memiliki kelebihan dan juga keterbatasan sehingga ia hanya mampu menangkap sesuai dengan kapasitasnya. Semakin berkembang dirinya, semakin banyak yang ia bisa pahami. Selama ribuan tahun proses ini terjadi, dan ajaran-ajaran para Suci diwariskan dari generasi ke generasi.
Sekitar 5000 tahun yang lalu, Resi Wyasa atau Begawan Abhiyasa bersama murid-muridnya mengumpulkan ajaran-ajaran tadi ke dalam empat buku besar, yang sekarang kita kenal sebagai Weda atau Veda. Sesungguhnya, Weda—yang berarti pengetahuan, kebijakan—melampaui keempat pustaka tersebut. Swami Anand Krishna mengatakan bahwa Weda adalah “kolam intelejensia, di mana jagad raya hanyalah sebuah pulau kecil. Alam semesta hanyalah satu bagian dari kolam itu. Sementara kolam intelejensia itu sendiri hanyalah bagian dari Hyang Maha Ada”, sebagaimana yang juga dikatakan oleh Shri Krishna di dalam Bhagavad Gita 2.46.
Saat ini kita mewarisi empat pustaka: Rig, Yajur, Sama, dan Atharwa Weda. Rig Weda merupakan pustaka tertua umat manusia yang berisi mantra-mantra yang selama ribuan tahun telah menjadi sumber dari seluruh Peradaban Hindu. Walaupun mungkin banyak di antara kita yang belum pernah melihat mapun membaca langsung Rig Weda, namun setiap hari kita telah mengucapkan salah satu mantranya ketika melakukan Puja Tri Sandhya, yaitu Mahamantra Gayatri yang bisa dijumpai di Rig Weda 3.62.10.
Sama Weda menggubah mantra-mantra dari Rig Weda ke dalam melodi dan musik yang meditatif. Sedangkan Yajur Weda berisi tentang berbagai ritual Yajna, menjelaskan hubungan manusia dengan semesta. Yajur dan Rig Weda juga diketahui mengandung simbol-simbol astronomi yang kemudian berkembang menjadi ilmu Jyotisha. Bahkan di dalam Rig Weda, Resi Atri merekam peristiwa astronomi, yaitu gerhana yang terjadi sebelum titik-balik matahari musim panas, pada 26 Maret 3928 SM. Atharwa Weda sering dianggap sebagai Weda yang paling muda. Atharwa Weda berisikan ajaran-ajaran untuk menghadapi berbagai aspek negatif serta mengingkatkan aspek positif hidup kita. Ayurveda merupakan salah satu cabang ilmu yang lahir dari Atharwa Weda.
Gambar 1. Diagram Kitab Suci Peradaban Sindhu (diambil dari buku “In Search of The Cradle of Civilization” oleh Subhash Kak et al. dengan modifikiasi oleh penulis.
Institusi Ashram Jauh sebelum Barat mengenal institusi pendidikan, seperti sekolah dan perguruan tinggi, penduduk Peradaban Sindhu—yang membentang dari Afghanisthan hingga ke Kepulauan Nusantara—telah mengenal institusi Ashram. Sayangnya, di Indonesia institusi ini sekarang hanya tinggal namanya saja. Bahasa Indonesia menyerap kata Ashram menjadi asrama yang maknanya telah sangat menyempit, yaitu semata “bangunan tempat tinggal bagi kelompok orang untuk sementara waktu, terdiri atas sejumlah kamar, dan dipimpin oleh seorang kepala asrama” (KBBI). Di masa lalu, institusi inilah yang menjadi tulang-punggung Peradaban Sindhu.
Kata Ashram (Āśrama) di dalam bahasa Sansekerta berasal dari akar kata ‘śram’, yang berarti menjalani disiplin diri, menaklukan diri. Jadi Ashram bisa diartikan sebagai fase, tahapan kehidupan, bahkan juga tempat untuk tidak mengasah, mengolah jiwa. Tidak heran di Indonesia, asrama diasosiasikan dengan sekolah dan tempat tinggal para murid dan guru. Di masa lalu, di dalam institusi Ashram inilah seluruh ilmu dan pengetahuan Weda dipelajari, dikembangkan, dan dipraktikkan.
Di samping bermakna tempat, Ashram juga berkaitan dengan masa atau periode kehidupan. Ini yang kita pelajari dan hapalkan di sekolah: Catur Ashrama, yang terdiri dari Brahmacari, Grahasthya, Vanaprastha, dan Sanyasin. Keempat masa kehidupan ini menunjukkan wawasan mendalam yang dimiliki leluhur kita. Kita tidak diharapkan untuk lahir, hidup, bersenang-senang, kemudian mati saja, namun para bijak di Peradaban Sindhu memberikan kita cetak biru perencanaan jangka panjang yang holistik. Sayangnya, di jaman modern ini, kita hanya mengenal dua institusi pertama saja yang berupa sekolah dan rumah-tangga.
Vanaprastha dan Sanyasin hanya tinggal teori di buku-buku pelajaran sekolah. Kini ketika pensiun, biasanya kita diharapkan membantu merawat cucu, bahkan cicit, di rumah. Perjalanan spiritual ke dalam diri pun terlupakan sudah; hingga akhir hayat, kita akan terus disibukkan oleh dunia. Swami Anand Krishna menjelaskan di dalam bukunya, Sanyas Dharma, bahwa “bagi mereka yang memasuki Sanyas Ashram setelah menempuh tiga masa sebelumnya, inilah puncak dari segala pengalaman. Sebagai Sanyasi mereka bisa hidup bebas tanpa beban apapun. Mereka dapat berkarya tanpa pamrih, tanpa kepentingan diri. Mereka bisa melayani sesama dengan semangat manembah. Mereka bisa sepenuhnya berfokus kepada Tuhan.”
Tidak mengherankan apabila kehidupan modern kita saat ini tidak mendatangkan kebahagiaan semakin tua usia kita—sebagaimana yang ditunjukkan di dalam salah satu penelitian. Institusi Ashram di Bali, yang mayoritas penduduknya beragama Hindu, memang sudah mulai bermunculan, namun masih dipandang oleh sebagian orang, ‘aneh’ serta dianggap hanya diperuntukkan bagi orang-orang tua/kelompok tertentu saja. Salah kaprah ini telah berlangsung sedemikian lama, menciptakan kecurigaan, dan bahkan tidak jarang, pertentangan.
Padahal hanya di dalam lingkungan Ashram inilah manusia memperoleh kesempatan untuk memperoleh pendidikan spiritualitas (dalam makna yang sebenarnya) yang bukan hanya teori namun juga praktik melepaskan segala pengkondisian, atau disebut Vasana di dalam bahasa Sansekerta, yang telah kita peroleh selama ini. Jika suatu masyarakat kehilangan kemampuan untuk membebaskan dirinya dari Vasana yang tidak berguna, maka masyarakat tadi akan dipengaruhi oleh kesadaran rendah, seperti materialisme, sedemikian hingga mereka akan dengan mudah dikuasai—seperti yang terjadi pada kita saat ini. Ashram adalah satu-satunya harapan kita menghidupkan kembali Peradaban Sindhu, Indus, Hindu.
Gambar 2. Foto salah satu kegiatan di Anand Ashram Ubud yang penuh keceriaan dan dinamis.
