Day: April 12, 2025

Swami ji said…

Do we , at times, ask ourselves whether we’ve understood the meaning of life in ‘whole’ ? Or have we been selective ? Categorised ‘life’ into ‘दुख ‘ and ‘सुख ‘ and have concluded that life is only about these ‘two’ – and maintain a rigid stance – that there can be no other ‘front’ apart from them? Have we in a way developed some kind of a blind attachment to
‘दुख ‘ और ‘सुख ‘ – and is our involvement with them so strong and straight from the heart – that we are not able to either ‘detach’ ourselves from them or remain unaffected by them ? Why do we feel that – “अगर हम आज सुखी हैं, तो हम आगे भी सुखी ही रहेंगे …” “और जब जीवन में दुख आता है, तो ऐसे लगता है की यह दुख कभी नहीं जाएगा …” And this is where we are wrong as life is in a constant state of motion – and things can never remain the same. But we allow these to rule our mind and emotions.

Wouldn’t we make life less complicated if we were to tell ourselves, talk sense into ourselves that in the wheel of time there is no escaping –
‘joy’ and ‘sorrow’, ‘दुख ‘ और ‘सुख ‘ – as they will always show up at every turn ? We can’t avoid them. We will bump into them – not accidentally – but because they were meant to come our way and we were destined to meet them.

To even assume for a fraction of a second that it is possible for us – to prevent events related to ‘दुख ‘ and ‘सुख ‘ – unfold before us – would be a grave mistake. What kind of a life would we be living – if we constantly hoped to see the highs of success and prayed for an escape from the lows of failure ? And, if we were to live life this way- ‘ Would we call it living? ‘ If , we were living with a mindset like this – then there would be no difference between us – and a gambler – who always feels that he is at the mercy of his luck. Isn’t he always gripped in anxiety and suspense at the outcome that awaits him at the end of his game of cards ? Can we live with bated breath through out our lifetime?

“अगर हम हमेशा यही सोचते रहेंगे कि ‘दुख’ आएगा… अब ‘दुख’ आनेवाला ही है…” – then will we ever find ourselves in a state of calmness and peace ? We will always find ourselves tense and edgy ; our nerves frayed – looking fearfully at our doorway for ‘sorrow’ to make its much dreaded entry – and the thought – ” हम अपने आप को इस से निकालेंगे कैसे …” – will be uppermost in our mind. Life is not a cage for us to feel trapped between the cyclic emotions of ‘craving’ for success and happiness and ‘avoidance’ of sorrow and ‘ ‘दुःख ‘. But that life, in its fullness, includes ‘falling’ to failures – as much as it includes – ‘rising’ to name and fame. Similarly, it is not possible that we will always be successful in everything that we do…’ सुख आयेगा और जायेगा …”

When will ‘we’ detach ourselves ; stop taking everything personally – and instead begin to play the role of a spectator – and rise above the so called ‘joy’ and ‘sorrow’? Why do we pray for success and sunshine only?
Why don’t we remain undaunted and fearless while heading into a storm ; praying for strength and wisdom to help us find a way through it ?

We can think of hundreds of reasons to remain unhappy ; but , very often, find it difficult to create moments of happiness for ourselves. Don’t we hear people all around us say – ‘ I am happy ‘today’…’ ‘ I am sad ‘today’…’ Can’t we rise above ‘joy’ and ‘sorrow’? True joy of life can only be experienced when man accepts all that is happening around him as ‘divine’ play. He does not fret over what seems to have gone wrong and does not go overboard with happiness ; when things seem to go in his favour. Neither does he take pride in his success nor is he perturbed on facing failure. He is merely amused by the unfolding of God’s will, like an innocent child – who watches his parents’ antics with wonder.

Acceptance and patience is the key to escape the anxiety and uncertainty of life. As long as we live by our principles – seek to do good and be good in all circumstances- we would have done all that we were meant to do.
Slowly but surely, we will realize that the times we worried about the future and the times we claimed that everything was perfect , in place – for the future – could later turn out to be moments of misjudgment from our end. As time proves to us, many a times, we end up being wrong in both cases. Only then do we begin to understand that such behavior in the past was merely a waste of precious time ; a distraction from the ‘present’ moment – as it is ‘that’ moment that holds all that we need.