Sankara Saranam
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| Sankara Saranam | |
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| Born | February 15, 1968 Miami, Florida |
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Sankara Saranam, born February 15, 1968, is a writer, philosopher, lecturer, and proponent of pranayama. His written works address a wide range of issues including political and religious worldviews from an ontological standpoint. Saranam graduated from Columbia University magna cum laude as a student of religion. He later earned his master's degree in Eastern texts and Sanskrit from St. John's College. He is best known for his online commentaries on the practice of pranayama and his most recent book God Without Religion.
[edit] Biography
Sankara Saranam was born Eric Ben-Meir as the second of 4 children of a Jewish family in Miami, FL. His father Alon and mother Dina emigrated from Bhagdad, Iraq in 1954. Saranam attended Jewish day school as a child, later studying music at The Manhattan School of Music. In 1993 Saranam travelled to Israel and wrote his first book Yoga and Judaism in which he claims the ancient Hebrew prophets were adepts of ascetic methods and sense-introversion (pranayama).[1] Saranam would eventually achieve virtuoso status on the guitar. In 2006 he recorded the double album Fusion/Fission produced by Prix Music. Saranam abandoned his musical studies in order to devote himself to the pursuit of spiritual truths as a monastic at the Self-Realization Fellowship headquartered in Los Angeles. After four years Saranam left monastic life due to a debilitating back injury. He currently resides with his wife and their two children in Columbus, NM.
[edit] Teachings
Philosophy
Saranam’s works focus primarily on religious, spiritual, and political systems. Rather than promoting a particular worldview Saranam encourages the practice of “worshipping by wondering” .[2]
“Individuals who unquestioningly accept their inherited beliefs about God end up harboring a narrow view of themselves, humanity, and the natural world. Others challenge their inherited beliefs then hastily adopt the conclusions of a teacher whose answers to spiritual questions are more universal, encompassing expansive love, more people, and broader knowledge; but without testing these answers firsthand, worshippers are unable to personally experience them. In both instances, the acquiescence to others’ precepts inhibits progress.”[3]
Saranam’s teachings often apply both ontological analysis and scientific rigor in the form of a “theory of self” to systems of thought. The theory of self derives from Hindu Vedas and the Samkhya, Vedanta, and Yoga philosophies.
“According to the theory, the spine and brain operate like a receiving set, intuiting a sense of self: as for the self, it relies on the cerebrospinal apparatus to manifest yet is not its by-product. This theory makes it clear why every spiritual and religious tradition emphasizes the importance of surrendering to the infinite: because the individuated human self is merely a localization of an indivisible infinite self, meaning that satisfaction depends entirely on recognition of its infinite nature as opposed to its seemingly finite one.”[4]
Testing the theory of self involves the inward re-direction of electro-physiological energy in the body via pranayama. Ultimately the theory is supported by the ability to stop the heart and breath, dematerialize and rematerialize the body, and other forms of non-finite abilities. Saranam states that “Fully identifying with this infinite substance of self would ultimately endow a person with whatever power might come from intuitively reducing all of the cosmos to a unified substance.”[5]
Politics
Rather than affiliating with any particular political party, Saranam advocates the practice of social asceticism -- a technique by which individuals and societies examine their reliance on institutions with the goal of cultivating greater self sustainability. On the individual level social asceticism utilizes pranayama techniques and methods of fasting, celibacy, and other ascetic practices which Saranam claims disrupts social conditioning and facilitates the intuition of an infinite self by practitioners.[6] Saranam also describes how local governments operating according to principles of social asceticism would restrict reliance on federal assistance and seek instead to achieve local control of their economies, health-care, and energy usages. From May to July, 2006 Saranam hosted the radio show The Nexus in which he openly criticized the George W. Bush administration for its foreign and domestic policies and what he views as its predilection to centralize more and more power.
Ethics
Saranam writes that “In the end, ethical considerations hinge on whether or not one’s activity is limited by sensory conditioning.”[7] According to Saranam unethical behavior is practically defined as that which limits the ability of the spine and brain to intuit the infinite self whereas ethical behavior mimics the infinite self by causing the introversion of electro-physiological energy into the spine and brain, thereby increasing one’s intuitive capacity. His work explains why ethics otherwise does not have an absolute yardstick.
