Human beings like pleasures and comforts. One very common fact which proves this, is that every moment we like to unconsciously breathe and if this action of breathing was not pleasurable then we would not breathe.
Another fact of life that we never know is that “The Next moment will be breath or death”. However, that being said, we all forget this fact and live life as if tomorrow will come and maybe death will take it’s own time to come so why think or worry about it now.
It is not being pessimistic but directly facing the reality of life. Whatever is born has to die. That is the Law of life. The top point of the wheel comes down and likewise the bottom most point reaches the top cyclicly.
That’s how life is. We have constant ups and downs in life nothing is predictable from our perspective. Pleasures follow Pain and vice versa.There are cycles in nature and similarly cycles are an intricate part of our life from birth to death and beyond.
There has never been any human child in the history of mankind which upon taking birth has been found immediately laughing or smiling. The moment a human child comes into this world he or she first cries. Yet we are so attached to our existences or life, our experiences, our identity, our family, spouse, children, property, achievements . . . in short “The story of our life”.
We associate ourselves with our personality and our body. Something in us knows that we are the same person the same “I” who has was a child, then a teenager and then an adult till we reach the death bed. Yet we get so lost in the “our Story,” me , mine and my world my wife , my children. The foundation of our existence is based on this identity. With a few minute of cogitation we may realise that when our body itself doesn’t belong to us then how can wife, children, friends, relatives and property.
Then some logical thought process in us might lead us to the idea that: “If there is only one life then we should make the best use of it.” This leads people to live life to the fullest extent, maximize their pleasurable experiences, have maximum fun possible, self-aggrandize all this they associate with their achievements in life. The more children you have, the more property, bank balance you have, the higher your designation is at work, the bigger the car you have etc. . . . you get the idea . . . It’s the measuring yard stick of how successful you are.
Suppose a net has been cast into a lake to catch fish. Some fish are so clever that they are never caught in the net. They are like the ever-free. But most of the fish are entangled in the net. Some of them try to free themselves from it, and they are like those who seek liberation. But not all the fish that struggle succeed; A very few do jump out of the net, making a big splash in the water. Then the fishermen shouts, “Look! There goes a big one!” But most of the fish caught in the net cannot escape, nor do they make any effort to get out. On the contrary, they burrow into the mud with the net in their mouths and lie there quietly, thinking, “We need not fear any more; we are quite safe here.” But the poor things do not know that the fishermen will drag them out with the net. These are like the men bound to the world. “The bound souls are tied to the world by the fetters of ‘lust and possessions.’” They are bound hand-and-foot. Thinking that these will make them happy and give them security, they do not realize that it will lead them to annihilation.
These things provide happiness to people and this deluded state continues for most of us from birth till death unless one fine day if and when you are lucky then nature wakes you up and you realize that there is some life threatening situation, or some event which jolts you out of this state, it completely shakes you up and then we might start thinking.
We might ask the question why is there pain in my life, why suffering, what is suffering, why I am going through this situation, what have I done, why I didn’t get certain opportunities in life, there are many why’s and if we really serious put in effort then we finally may ask . . . what is the purpose of life. What is the bigger picture . . . What will happen when I die. Why was I born, who am I?
This is when some of us may see glimpses of Truth and see that there is some order in the chaos of life. There is no event which is coincidental or accidental. Every microsecond of our life is unfolded with Mathematical precision. Whatever happens . . . happens due to the perfect Law. We may call this Law of Karma. Also we see that the whole of humanity in one way or the other is connected not only on the physical, astral and mental planes but others as well.
So for this Law to execute to it’s perfection we need agents of it’s execution i.e. Karmic Agents and in one way all of us are Karmic agents either conscious or not. All of us are each others Teacher in this School of Life. And all situations which we face exits for our learning. The moment we learn the lesson the situation will change since the purpose is fulfilled.
We realize that we cannot live in isolation, even though we may try to isolate ourselves on the physical we cannot completely isolate on the Astral and Mental.
But then if we go back to our previous thought that death is the fact of life. Then we may logically understand that the whole premise of only “One Life” doesn’t make sense. Which also explains that why we are born in different family, have different parents, different bodily attributes, different situation and different experiences in life. Which means there has to be some purpose of life and the whole grand cosmos must exist for a reason. We are here to learn, realize something we are here to restore the lost harmony. The very fact that we are in a human form and on this planet makes it clear that we are connected with the whole of humanity. Hence from this perspective we are brothers and sisters. But the moment we ask this question “Who am I” it opens the pandoras box . . . Now even if we apply a simple logic we can see that our physical body dies but then if there is reincarnation then “I” actually continues to live. Who am I? we may think I is the soul or the Atman. But Adi Shankaracharya one of the greatest esoteric teachers of India has said that we are none of our bodies and we are the Atman and later he also adds the idea that there is nothing like my Atma or your Atman. This leads to a life changing and eye opening experience. If I’m not this body, if in reality I’m the Atman and if there is no my Atma or your Atma then it means that there is only “One Atman” or one “Pure Consciousness” which is reflected in all beings. This forms the higher basis of universal brotherhood. How can I the Atman harm, think bad or act disharmoniously for myself or of anyone else. It is the same light shining in all. I am in all and all are in me and we are ONE. The bodily coverings are different, the different ratios and proportions of Gunas lead to different personalities but the substratum of all is same which is our reality.
Which also means that every thought, speech and act of ours impacts the whole and the whole in turns impacts each one. Which means we cannot rise or fall in isolation. Which means each one of us has to put in individual effort to raise ourselves in turn raising the whole. It is either all or none.
Lord Buddha when he experienced the state of liberation, then a person asked him: now what is the difference between you and all of us?
He said: I am awake and you all are sleeping.
While we all sleep this sleep of ignorance we all have the potential to be awake. The one who sleeps can also arise. The very fact that if we are the Atman already then we are in fact complete. We have all the knowledge, we are in fact the All, we are happiness, we are complete and We then in absolute reality never take birth hence we shall never die.
We don’t need to go somewhere to achieve Liberation. We are already Pure Divine Complete Spiritual Beings. All we have to do is awake from the sleep of ignorance and delusion. But what is stopping us from waking up? The scriptures say: it is the knot in our heart. Ignorance (Avidya), Desire (Kama) and Action (Karma) form this knot. This is also know as the “Hrdaya Granthi”.
424. When the knots of ignorance in the heart have been totally destroyed, what natural cause can prompt a man who is averse to sense pleasures, to egocentric action?
425. The culmination of dispassion is when the sense objects do not excite desire anymore. Supreme perfection of knowledge is when there is no egoistic feeling. The peak of self withdrawal is reached when the thoughts which have been merged manifest no more.—Vivekachudamani by Adi Shankaracharya.
“The knot of the heart is broken, all doubts are resolved, and all his karma is exhausted,”—Muṇḍakopaniṣad, Chapter 2, Section 2, Verse 8
Since we have seen the life of Adi Shankara, Lord Buddha, Jesus, Great Sages of ancient times and many wise men, adepts throughout the ages who have come out of this sleep of ignorance so we too can achieve that high state.
In fact it is our true nature our inheritance. From this perspective we all are in reality as we speak now Divine, Pure Enlightened Spiritual Beings . . . all of us. We all have that inner latent potential since it is our True Nature which is Pure, Compassionate, Complete, full of Happiness and One with All. Hence we realise that “Compassion is the Law of Laws”
It is said that a kalpa in which no Buddha appears is known as a Shunya Kalpa. Similarly in one life time if we don’t put in effort, if we don’t wake up to whatever degree we possibly can, that particular life of ours we may label as Shunya Janma.
It is said that “Not speech but Thoughts really rules the world” so with these thoughts as our foundation we need to start living a conscious life. Every moment of life is an opportunity, to learn and realize, to wake up, which is carefully guided and crafted by the skillful and compassionate hands of the law of Karma founded on the basis of Law of Compassion.
The choice of making appropriate use of the precious moments of life is in our hands wherein we need to consciously work and put effort towards understanding the purpose of every situation which we come across and to ascertain the inner meaning of the same.
Only then can we full fill the life’s purpose and our duty. For as mentioned by WQJ in the “Notes to Bhagavad Gita,” p. 235: Dharma means “the sacred Law,” the fulfillment of our karmic destiny through many incarnations, the working out and elimination of defects which have brought us into earth life under the conditions in which we find ourselves, which conditions we should feel and know to be the very opportunities needed for our further progress.
Every moment, every situation, person, sensation and experience which we come across is for our learning in this School of Life. Hence conscious living is important. This can be done consciously from moment to moment and then will become a natural way of life. So Where do we start?
The mental attitude which is required to achieve this is to be understood in context of “a lifetime’s meditation” as mentioned in “Notes on the Bhagavad Gita” p. 148-149. It means that the immortality of man has first to be assumed, and then rigidly adhered to as the basis for every thought and action, for it is only in this way that a realization of immortality can be obtained by embodied beings. As it is from the Spirit in Man that all law and power proceeds, each human being creates his own limitations on every plane of being; he can transcend those limitations only by reverting to and maintaining his immortality, as the observer and experiencer of all the passing changes, himself unchanged and unchanging.
Life Is one; as witness the countless “lives.” Only in and on lives can Life act; only lives can respond to Life. Like the innumerable rays of the sun, which radiate in all directions, is the Monadic Host of the one Monas. “Each life, being part of the whole, carries within it the entire plan to be pursued during the whole period of manifestation. Each life is a copy of the Great All.”
In the vast sweep, attaining complete Self consciousness while in the body being the goal marks the stage of choice and responsibility. Man stands at midpoint, where meet, in him, the ascending and descending evolutionary streams. Evolution proceeds on seven planes throughout the manifested universe. Man, in this world, is the highest manifestation of this evolution, and therefore contains within himself its higher seven planes, which before his advent were not perceptible, although they existed always in a latent state as the germ.
Consider the perspective revealed in the soul-stirring words of Mr. Judge: ‘‘We are therefore not appearing for the first time when we come upon this planet, but have pursued a long, an immeasurable course of activity and intelligent perception on other systems of globes, some of which were destroyed ages before the solar system condensed.”
And, in relation to a human mission here, he points again to vistas of the past: He says: “This immense reach of the evolutionary system means, then, that this planet on which we now are is the result of the activity and evolution of some other one that died long ago, leaving its energy to be used in the bringing into existence of the earth, and that the inhabitants of the latter in their turn came from some older world to proceed here with the destined work in matter.”
So this also means that there have been beings before us who have reached the zenith of the possible evolution in our system and other systems. And in spite of the ignorance and iniquity of Mankind, this Brotherhood of highly evolved wise beings still remains a “fact in Nature,” the chain of being, unbroken. Though forgetting his exalted mission and privilege, assistance is ever at hand, against that time when Man shall strive to shake off the lethargy of mere sense and sensation and seek return to his “Father’s House,” which means that the most intelligent being in the universe, Man, has never been without a friend, but has a line of elder brothers who continually watch over the progress of the less progressed, preserve the knowledge gained through aeons of trial and experience, and continually seek for opportunities of drawing the developing intelligence of the race on this or other globes to consider the great truths concerning the destiny of the soul. These elder brothers are also the keepers of knowledge which they have gained of the laws of nature in all departments, and are ready when cyclic law permits to use it for the benefit of mankind.
We need to note that there is a triple evolutionary scheme in the universe for the formation of three fundamental bases, or upadhis, for the production of three-fold Man—Monadic or spiritual, Manasic or Intellectual and Physical, which three are interwoven and inter blended at every point and further the macrocosm and the microcosm are connected on the all seven planes of consciousness.
This makes it a magnificent whole a living conscious entity with various grades of consciousness. It is essentially Monadic evolution, i.e., development into higher stages of consciousness and action on an ascending scale, that can have no end, of the Divine Monad, Atma-Buddhi, till it becomes self-consciously one with All-Being—Paramartha Satya. This is aided, on the one hand, by evolution of the physical form to serve as the fitting instrument for the Monad to come in touch with, and gain experience from, contact with the terrestrial nature; and, on the other, by Manasic (Egoic) evolution, through which to reap and assimilate idealized experiences of its innumerable reincarnations on earth in the fire of self-conscious experience over series of lives, propelled by its own Karma, the law of ethical causation. Thus, Man was a Dhyani Buddha a God, becomes human, re-becomes a Dhyani-Buddha, and GOD.
Hence only when we truly deeply realise the temporary nature of every thing in the so called manifested universe then arises Vairagya in us and then we need truly surrender ourselves to the Krishna in us and only then our Ego is destroyed.
In this manner we detach ourselves from the para-pher-nalia of material life and instead of focusing on the kaleidoscopic changes happening on the surface of life, we start looking beyond and within from the standpoint of the unchanging Witness i.e. From the standpoint of the Atman our reality our True Self. The more we become conscious of the same the more we can ascertain the real meaning of life on the plane of consciousness on which we are active.
With this attitude as we are “The Witness” and living life from the perspective of the same, we develop conscious Self Awareness. We can observe more clearly our thoughts, speech and actions. With this observation we also realize that the Thoughts, Emotions and feelings arise, sustain and die off due to their temporary nature. We are no longer governed by them. As we know that the real plane of action is our Mind, doing so with practice, our thoughts arises from the inner center of calmness and all our actions are performed with focus and attention without the urge to impulsively react to various situations of life. The mind slowly starts working from the higher Buddhic Manasic aspect as its basis rather than the lower Kama Manasic aspect.
This helps us to live our life in a conscious mindful manner—re-calibrating, aligning moment by moment with the universal harmony and being aware of our attitude, motives and intentions. Thus, enabling us to live a more harmonious, unselfish and altruistic life with full control and not getting swayed by our desires and emotions. Our whole body becomes a temple and our heart the sanctum sanctorum. All our actions are offered to the Lord.
Each activity of life whether we are eating, working, walking, sleeping or doing any chore of life can be performed with this attitude and frame of mind. Thus, we may be doing eating meditation and then walking meditation and so forth. In this manner we become “The Man of Meditation” not only in this life but Life after Life. Doing so will also enable us to develop “Self-Reliance” which is reliance on the “Inner Higher Self” the One unchanging reality which is the basis of All and further enable us to become more and more altruistic.
The Light shines is All of us, however we need to make it shine forth, this is only possible with conscious living. This is a lifelong practice and might take many lives to master. Let us all today make a conscious choice to start living consciously with this higher intent for the benefit of All.
Finally, when we are apt in “Conscious Living” and when we have completely surrendered ourselves to the Higher in us then we will enter the state of death and birth consciously life after life until we arise above the Gunas and become a Gunāthitha, a Stithaprajna with self-devised efforts checked by Karma thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from the lowest to the highest Manas, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha) mother nature admits no privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of reincarnations. And finally we become one with Karma and the Law of Laws. Then and only then will we truly become better able to help and teach others. As a closing thought we have the Supreme Worship which states:
Supreme Worship
The heart is the altar, Atman is the deity,
And the divine virtue is compassion.
Discrimination, dispassion, charity, non-violence and purity
Are the garland of flowers for the Lord.
Egoism is the camphor
Which is ignited with the fire of wisdom;
The shedding of egoism is the waving of light;
The fulfillment of all desires is the fruit—
This is supreme worship!
This worship is continuous through all words and deeds;
Thus, one’s entire life is a long prayer:
The ideals embodied in life are Stotras,
The solidarity of the world is the offering,
And the vision of the Self everywhere is the prostration.
“I am Atman” is the highest Devotion—
Such is the Supreme Worship of the Vedantins!