Prashanta: Dynamic Peace

It was during third grade that my teacher introduced the class to the idea of a polymath or a Renaissance man. I was instantly taken by the idea and decided that I wanted to be a Renaissance man and a great scientist. Not only did I have a scientific side to my personality, but I had a mystical side as well. At time passed I became more and more sure that science was not capable of explaining everything and that there were vast and important spiritual truths waiting to be discovered. In 1972 I was introduced to Ananda Marga, an international yoga organization devoted to teaching meditation and and performing social service. When I was introduced to the idea that the Universe and all of existence were just vibrations in a infinite ocean of Cosmic Consciousness, something profoundly deep in my mind connected.

One of the reasons that I related to yoga was that it was presented as a science and not a matter of faith. While you could read about the principles of yoga, they were not put forth to be accepted on faith. The intent was to master the mind through the process of meditation where upon the individual would gain an inner realization of the principles of yoga. It was very much like mathematics. You can always just read about a branch of mathematics, but he hope is that you will train your mind and perform the difficult exercises required to obtain a deep mastery of the subject.

Another reason I connected with Ananda Marga is that founder, P. R. Sarkar, also known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, was a Renaissance man of astounding depth and breadth. Not only only was Sarkar a master of yoga, but his knowledge of different languages and his ability to speak them was unparalleled in my knowledge. Sarkar had written an array of books on philosophy that conveys a titanic understanding of the Universe and spirituality. But ultimately Sarkar was a man of action. He spent his time organizing a broad array of social service projects. To facilitate the advancement of society, Sarkar created PROUT, a socio-economic theory. Sarkar also advocated and worked towards a global Renaissance by founding Renaissance Universal. Given that my own personal gifts were in the area of science and mathematics, I joined Renaissance Universal and made it the focus of my own personal mission.

As a new member of Ananda Marga, I was given the spiritual name, Prashanta, which means dynamic peace. I was told that the ocean was a good example of dynamic peace. Many people in Ananda Marga as well as many of my current friends on the spiritual path know me as Prashanta. The name reminds me of my spiritual identity, my higher self, and my dedication as a futurist and social activist to help transform the Earth into a better place.

One of Sarkar’s ideas is that among humans there are four types of fundamental mentalities; laborer, warrior, intellectual and merchant. Ideally, those on the spiritual path would embrace all four mentalities within themselves and become a sadvipra or “true intellectual”. It would be the sadvipras who would provide the spiritual and moral leadership necessary to help humanity through difficult transformations. The deeper meaning of Prashanta or dynamic peace is to embrace the warrior mentality and be a spiritual warrior and protector.

In 1978 I made an announcement that astounded my friends and family, after years of poverty and no real career options I enlisted in the US Air Force. It certainly gave people something to talk about in Basic Training when I sat in my bunk mediating every night after the lights went off. Amazingly enough, I found my perfect niche in the Air Force and was assigned to AFTAC. The mission of AFTAC was to monitor the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. AFTAC was an elite organization that protected the US and the world and helped keep the nuclear peace. In order to get into AFTAC a person had get a Top Secret clearance and to score in the top 95th percentile most of the categories of the AFQT. After I graduated AFTAC’s tech school with the highest grades in their history, the organization took the unprecedented step of assigning me, a new person, directly to the Seismology department at AFTAC headquarters.

I started out as a seismologist reviewing seismic events in Asia to insure that the events weren’t the products of nuclear explosions. But soon I began consulting as a systems engineer because of my background in mathematics, physics, seismology, computer science and general systems theory. It was at AFTAC that I received my computer science education and first two years programming experience at a world class scientific institution. It was a wonderful job for someone whose mission was to be dynamic peace. I had the opportunity to use my intellectual strength to and my warrior aspect to serve and protect the world.

Unfortunately, after I got out of the Air Force I was unable to convert my two years programming experience into a job in the computer industry. So in 1982 I went back to work as a full time volunteer for Ananda Marga at their Denver North American headquarters. I was assigned to work with Renaissance Universal and soon came to the conclusion that Ananda Marga needed to join the computer age. I computerized Ananda Marga's reporting for North America with word processors and spreadsheets and explored using CompuServe to network files. While working for Renaissance Universal in Denver, I met Leif Smith and Pat Wagner at Pattern Research. I consider Leif Smith to be one of my most important mentors and an example that you can be a visionary and a Renaissance man while living a life as a whole human being. Leif understood the importance of using computer networks for social networking several decades before hardly anybody else did.

In 1984 though 1985 I obtained a job that would allow me to explore and understand being Prashanta at a whole new level. I was hired at a 120 bed facility for developmentally disable adults soon after the deinstitutionalisation movement had begun. Many individuals had serious emotional and behavioral problems from having been locked up in a hospital for most of their lives. Several months after starting management approached me and asked if I would consider working one on one with a six foot four resident with behavior problems who was violent. At the time I was rather athletic and physically confident of myself, if not cocky. Also, I had studied psychology as part of my involvement with yoga and has several years experience as a volunteer doing crisis intervention. So I ended up being particularly effective at intervening in behaviour problems and deescalating situations that normally would have turned violent. Add to this my background in yoga and my ability not to retaliate when hit, but to turn the other cheek.
So I took the job and went to work for Thomas Cook. Thomas has been one of my most important mentors and much of what I know about psychology and management I owe to him. I worked one on one with my original client and then when on to help Thomas open an experimental Behavior Shaping Unit. I received training from Thomas on how to run the different behavior program the residents were on and then in turn trained the staff on the floor.

It was a difficult and demanding job as I was hit hard in the face several times a week. Twice I had concussions resulting in headaches that lasted over a week. As a child I was raised Catholic and still felt a connection with Jesus. This led to Jesus becoming my role model in dealing with violence. My approach was unconventional, but powerful. I answered violence with spiritual love and respect. It is my belief that a number of people with behavior problems had never felt unconditional love. It was obvious that residents were testing me and my motivation. Accepting anger and frustration and returning compassion and understanding was like draining an emotional swamp of anger. Eventually some of the people ran out of anger and their lives were transformed. While I didn’t make much money at the job I am prouder of my involvement with the team of people working for Thomas than any achievements I made in later jobs. I the period of two years incidents of violence at the facility fell by a factor of twenty. I had a number of staff thank me for helping to make the facility a safer place to work.

Soon afterwards I entered the software industry where I worked for fifteen years. But exploring that will have to wait for another post.