Eknath Easwaran and political activism
One thing I’ve struggled with about my spiritual teacher, the perennialist Eknath Easwaran, is whether he put enough emphasis on changing the world, as opposed to changing oneself. After all, he doesn’t seem to have been deeply involved in the independence movement of his native India, or other progressive causes when he moved to the United States.
Easwaran spoke glowingly of monastics. “A Westerner once asked Sri Ramana Maharshi why he wasn’t leading a productive life,” my teacher wrote. “As far as I know, he is one of the few productive figures the world has produced. Because he was always meditating on the unity of life, everyone belonging to the human species has received an unearned bonus.”
I don’t doubt a spiritually-evolved person can help someone by their mere presence. However, as a political activist, I tend to think bending the the moral arc of the universe toward justice — to borrow from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — is an important religious duty. Thankfully, despite his specific calling as a spiritual educator and praise for monasticism, I don’t believe Easwaran would disagree.
Yes, he prioritized meditation above almost all things, but, if you read closely, it’s because he believed this would give his students the energy and power to help others. For Easwaran, God was in all living beings. To love them was to love God. Surely, a crucial part of loving others is working to replace the systems which oppress them.
Further, as I’ve mentioned before, Easwaran wrote two biographies. One was about Mahatma Gandhi. The other was about Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Both were spiritually-inspired political activists. Given the hagiographic nature of these books, Easwaran’s subject choice has to say something about his vision of a life well lived.
Finally, I’ve found it helpful to learn about my teacher’s understanding of salvation. Easwaran was a Hindu, who believed in reincarnation. He appreciated the Buddhist concept of a bodhisattva. This is someone who has liberated themselves from the cycle of life and death, but chooses to return to the mortal realm to help others.
Easwaran called this “the highest role a spiritual person can play.” In my understanding, reincarnation posits an upward evolution of increasing spiritual perfection, until one becomes united with God. If a bodhisattva is the highest role a spiritual person can play, wouldn’t that mean it’s a stage everyone must pass through on their way to God?
If that’s the case, it would seem to me no one would be able to achieve salvation until everyone does. In other words, you can’t reach God by isolating from the world and just perfecting yourself. Salvation is collective. Political activism can’t be the only way to help bring about this universal liberation, but it must be a significant one.
“I love people, I love animals, I want to live long and work hard for the happiness of all,” Easwaran wrote. “When your heart is consumed by this kind of love, when you want more than anything else to continue this life of love in action, then you know what your next life is going to be.”