If only we knew our real self, we would look at life differently, says SEEMA SAXENA
When we look analytically into life, we cannot deny there is a supreme power working through all of us. This power is very much within us but it isn’t something that we always take cognizance of. It is somewhat like the flow of current which makes gadgets work. However, each gadget works according to what it is designed to do.
The inherent qualities or properties of objects decide how they will use the energy available to them. Fire always burns, just as the nature of water is to cool; it cannot work against its own nature.
We make our lives according to our understanding of it and according to how our mind reacts to stimulus around us. Some people get angry while others remain cool in difficult situations. Some are meticulous, whereas others are careless. Like electrical gadgets, each does the work it is assigned to do.
The angry man does not change even when he is about to die. You cannot teach a rabbit to walk like a tortoise.
Humans are undoubtedly earth’s most evolved species. Our mind is supposedly made of four faculties: manas, chitta, buddhi and ahankara.
Manas are thoughts which keep generating, chitta is the memory bank, intellect or buddhi helps us to decide how to act and ahankara or ego maintains our sense of separateness.
Our sense organs keep flooding our mind with choices. We act according to what our intellect tells us. However, not everyone’s intellect can discern between what is good for us and the senseless pleasures promised to us by our sense organs.
As soon as one set of desires are satisfied, new thoughts steer us towards the next course of action ensuring that we remain trapped in the world of actions and reactions.
Our mind chooses to build images which we firmly believe in. We obstinately refuse anything which we do not believe in.
It seems we have forgotten our real nature. Ancient seers were aware of man’s nature and had looked at consciousness as living in four states: waking, dreaming, deep sleep and the absolute which is actually responsible for the other three states. Western philosophers attempted to understand the dream, waking state and deep sleep state to some extent. But somehow, they missed the absolute state.
There is a consciousness within each of us which never ages. Neither is it affected by grief or happiness. It is consciousness that does not react, yet helps us to float through our worst moments.
If we believe that our life will be free of all difficulties if we do this or that, then we have not quite grasped the gist of life.
Neither the objects in the waking or dream states are real. Most of us dream of things that we desire passionately.
The same desires get fulfilled in the waking state, but eventually we become aware that one day, everyone has to let go, yet we understand that at the time we experienced it, it made us feel good.
In a deep sleep state, we are unaware of ourselves, yet we wake up when we sense some disturbance. Therefore, experiences are relatively unreal in these states. These states are like waves in an ocean which keep rising and falling, coming and going.
If only we knew our real self, we would look at life differently.
When we experience our real self, we will take changes naturally without clinging to desires or their fulfilment. When we are bounded by happiness and sorrow, we feel something stifling inside us. That’s because our natural state is to remain forever in bliss. This is what we really aim for in life.
Unfortunately, we look for bliss in temporary things forgetting our real, inner self.
I quote here, a verse from the Mandukya Upanishad:
द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते।
तयोरन्य: पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो अभिचाकशीति॥
समाने वृक्षे पुरुषों निमग्नोऽनाशया शोचति मुह्यमान:।
जुष्टं यदा पश्यत्यन्यमीशमस्य महिमानमिति वीतशोक:॥
यदा पश्य: पश्यते रुक्मवर्णं कर्तारमीशं पुरुषं ब्रह्मयोनिम्।
तदा विद्वान्पुण्यपापे विधूय निरंजन: परमं साम्यमुपैति॥
Two birds living together, both friends, perch upon the same tree.
One eats the fruits of the tree, while the other simply looks on.
Although the two birds are on the same tree, the bird who is eating is anxious and morose, despite the fruity feast it is partaking of. He turns his face to his friend who is the Lord; at once, the suffering bird becomes free of all anxieties.
The bird who finally sees the golden-coloured bird, the Lord, the source of the Supreme Brahman, is finally liberated.
Such a person becomes wise. He becomes free of both pious and sinful karmic reactions. He becomes pure. He attains a spiritual form like the Lord, Himself.
Seema Saxena is a B.Sc in microbiology, and also a B.Ed. She was brought up and educated in Mumbai. Seema is an avid writer and blogger who writes about practicality and spirituality in life. She is now settled in Jaipur.
Image of birds by kandhal keshvala from Pixabay
Featured Photo by Kelvin Valerio from Pexels
