News from Saraswati Publications (sanskritmantra.com)

Hierarchies of Power, Part 1

How does power work within a corporation or government? First, we must find a reasonable definition of power.

1. Effects-oriented. Bertrand Russell defined power as "the production of intended effects." This sounds reasonable on the face of it, but producing intended effects includes an understanding of "intentions." Russell's definition can only be true if there is a superhuman understanding of "the true nature of causality." Even a few links in the chain of "effects" produce potential permutations that after a very few generations of tracing can cause the mind to boggle contemplating potential "intentions." That is not to say that it is impossible, but it is at least preposterous within the context of human abilities as we understand them. Abilities of this magnitude would indicate a category of being sometimes called "an Adept or Master Teacher." Therefore, the only quarrel we have with Russell's definition is that it cannot be used at every level of earthly experience.

2. Means-oriented. Heidi and Alvin Toffler in Powershift offer quite convincingly, that "power is the ability to mobilize and use violence, wealth, and/or knowledge, or their many derivatives, as a way to motivate others in ways we think will gratify our needs and desires." This is a perfectly acceptable definition in most situations that we might encounter. But it still does not explain everything.

Magnetism vs. Love
Many popular spiritual teachers have charisma*. Some misuse it. Misuse derives from spiritual magnetism wrongly applied. In brief, here is what happens. You may be around certain spiritual teachers, and they make you feel wonderful. They may even throw a few compliments your way. But mostly, we respond favorably to the way these people make us feel. This feeling is a product of energy developed and projected by the teacher from the solar plexus center into the solar plexus center of the student or people in the audience. It is emotions-based and not love-based. I have had the rare privilege of being on the receiving end of both of these different kinds of energy. They are as different as blue from yellow, red from green.

*Doe Lang's classic book, The New Secrets of Charisma, is available for anyone interested in a fascinating and empowering look at the phenomenon of charismatic power.

The emotion-based, solar-plexus centered feeling from magnetism is seductive but a mixed bag at best. It can be comforting. It can make you forget your troubles and your worries. It can do good things like inspire you to do good, to study spiritual things, to give up bad habits, to find ways to serve humanity, to generally clean up your life. Emotion-based, solar-plexus centered feeling can help you on your way to a fresh start and a new beginning. However, in the emotion-based projection from the solar plexus, a dependency is often produced. The recipient is conditioned to return again and again to the source of the feeling. . . the teacher.

Positive or negative, solar plexus based magnetic impulses are only a beginning, only a first step on the road to genuine love and genuinely being loved.
In the love-based energy, the recipient realizes that the person sending the energy genuinely cares for the recipient and is concerned for that person's welfare. It is an energy of independence, of empowerment that breeds dependence only upon the divine. Love is energy which leads us to freedom from limitations coming from within or from without. Love is liberating. See the mantras below for generating Divine Love.

Love
The heart-centered, love-based experience is so different that it can be shocking the first time you encounter it. You know it for what it is instantly, by some indescribable encoding that is released upon contact. Doubt about what love is vanishes. And the experience can be fleeting. Because the love commodity is so rare, we are sometimes given a taste of it to serve as a lodestar. Upon experiencing it, we know part of the grand design of things. We understand, wordlessly, part of the destiny of humanity. We know what we must become both individually and as a species. For some, that taste itself is the true initiation.

I cannot help but think that those who lived and walked with Jesus, the Buddha and Krishna, and probably many others must have had such a taste. Those who went out of Egypt with Moses must have felt protected and courageous because of the strength of his love. They knew their destiny in an instant. Then it just became a matter of how best to get there, and getting there usually involves helping one's fellow human in some way.

Spiritual Means Connected
Manifested power is personal and is based upon the spiritual connection of things: consubstantial relationships in a variety of configurations. This includes the power that operates through things like the sun and the earth or through rain and meteor showers and earthquakes. We do not normally view that power as personal, but the power of the Sun is personal to the Sun. Manifestations of rain and earthquakes are personal to the Earth. In fact, most of the power we experience is really personal in nature. It works through individual beings. The Earth is also an individual being. This expansion of the definition of an "individual being" is a place to start in forging a new basis for understanding spiritual power in a personal context.

A New Definition
A new approach to power is presented here which rests on the idea that power is spiritual. In this context, spiritual means that all things in the universe are connected. That which connects them is energy. Although that energy can take many forms, it can generically be called Spirit. Resting on this idea, then, a new definition for power is offered here: Power is defined as the ability to influence and/or control space. Here are the kinds of space I mean:
·Physical Space
·Emotional Space
·Mental Space
·Psychological Space
·Etheric (subtle) Space

A term used to describe the sharing of space in psychology and communication theory is "consubstantiality." The rough meaning of this word is "to share substance with." When people are in consubstantial relationship to one another, they are sharing some type of "space."

Control vs. Relationship
As an example, let's use something very familiar, the corporation. People who work in that kind of organization share obvious types of consubstantial space. Those who control or influence any type of "space" in that corporate consubstantial relationship have real power. Anyone who controls a corporation will have personal control over certain activities, states of mind, policies and relationships within that organization. This is tangible and actual power. It is personal power operating in a pure and direct way. This can mean the control of events or the control of the style and kinds of personal interactions both within and outside of the company. It can even include control of the kinds of thought that take place within a given organization.

Over two decades ago, IBM had a celebration for a retiring member of the very highest level of management. One of the people who worked for this individual noted that no one in his division had worn anything but a white shirt for thirty years. No blue shirts or green shirts or striped shirts were ever allowed. One top executive had mandated and enforced a "white shirt only" edict for all those years. This is an example of real and tangible power. This man had control of the division dress code, and nobody could stop him.

Organization Of Power
Power can be through manifestation of some kind of fantastic display of power working through a human being. But there are other kinds of power at work. It is important for us to examine these sources of power which operate constantly and inexorably in our lives. However much power we may think we have access to, or can gain through focused intention or "divine connection," there are still other forces at work. To understand these other forces provides perspective for our common condition no matter what our station in life.