Swami ji’s Sandesh… “क्या हम कभी सोचते हैं कि हमारी ‘आत्मा’ को हमसे क्या चाहिए ?”

Swami ji said…

So caught up are we in the scintillating lights of the world—”दुनिया की चकाचौंध में, नाम, इज़्ज़त और सम्मान पाने में…”—that their brightness stimulates us and drives us to sparkle and shine brighter than our peers or colleagues in the field chosen by us. We put in endless hours to succeed and earn recognition. And why not, we may say, for nothing is sweeter than success? After all, the mind thrives on meeting success.

The riches of this world beckon us to work hard, put in long hours, and sacrifice enjoyment today in order to have a better tomorrow. We have unending thoughts about how to achieve success, how to become richer, and how to obtain more. This often leads to anxiety—a constant gnawing at one’s mind about the future. But we happily and willingly undergo all the stress that comes in this quest – as we have decided to be better than the best- ” किसी भी कीमत पर…”

Then there are our emotional needs. The heart longs for us to be loved, cared for and thought of by others. We want to feel important to people. We want to feel that we are a part of others’ lives. When we do not find this to be so, we are driven to grief and anger.

Life is such that no two days can ever be the same. What we enjoy today may not seem adequate tomorrow— be it material things or relationships. One cannot, and should not, hope to find perpetual happiness in physical things or even in people. The circumstances that satisfy us today might make us feel uncomfortable tomorrow. The people who love us today might hurt us tomorrow. That is the nature of life. Its uncertainty is, in fact, the only constant. But, the heart continues to sing a different tune- “क्योंकि उसे अपनी ही धुन में चलने की आदत है..” – as it is confident of receiving love from everyone and everything good from life. Things can never go wrong for it- as all it seeks is love and affection from others- which should not be difficult for others to give it- it feels.

But, since the ‘heart’ and ‘mind’ blind us and distract us from the real truth- the ‘soul’— the real ‘we’— suffers in such circumstances. The soul cannot experience peace- if one is caught in this constant flow of varying emotions and tumultuous thoughts that induce them.

One needs to ask oneself every single day : “When does one’s duty towards this physical realm end, and when must one begin to look within, pay attention to the ‘self’, and take stock of one’s ‘real’ condition?”
Is the soul dragging itself along, carrying the burden of guilt over one’s actions, the grief of the past, and resentment towards others? Is there no calmness or peace within- that can be drawn upon to steady oneself in moments that are otherwise confusing and confounding? Is there no reservoir of patience within- that allows one to let go of the struggles and failures of today and look forward to tomorrow with hope? Is there no tranquility that allows one to forgive the trespasses of others and love them nonetheless? If the answers to these questions increasingly become ‘no’, it means that we are losing the plot. It means that we are unbalanced in our approach to life and are denying ourselves spiritual growth and strength. It means that, instead of engaging wisely with this illusory world, we are completely enamoured of and subsumed by it.

There can be no spiritual development if we pursue only worldly pleasures. The satisfaction of the body, the intellect, and the mind is not to come at the expense of one’s spiritual growth; rather, it must be used to enable it. Even a monk has to satiate his hunger in order to focus his thoughts on God. However, the same monk cannot allow- the taste of delicious food and the desire to consume it- to distract him from his spiritual practices. The solution is thus not to abandon this world – but to rather walk through it without abandoning oneself to it. That is the very balance that we, too, must seek in our lives – giving significance to the fact that we are accountable to our soul too- and that since- “हमारी आत्मा को शांति, पवित्रता, निर्मलता और स्वच्छता चाहिए…” – we should ensure that we do not indulge in any ‘karma’ that can corrupt it, scar it or make it impure- making it next to impossible for us to merge with our Creator- ever.