23 December 2001, 11:17pm IST
SEEMA BURMAN.
A popular tale goes like this: a king was blessed with a child after many years but fate intervened and the baby was kidnapped. the vagabonds, in whose custody the child was, brought up the prince and taught him the art of looting. the prince grew up to be a notorious dacoit. the king’s men caught him after years of struggle and brought him to the king. on his body were birthmarks that proved him to be from royal family. the dacoit realised he was actually a prince. he then recognised the folly of his actions and his sorrows ended. scriptures and saints tell us that this is true of a common man too. human beings are so blinded by the world in which they live, that they are not conscious of its illusory nature. but if the world that we see with our eyes is as illusory as our dreams or the motion picture then why does the world appear so real? why are we engulfed in sorrow and happiness, dullness and excitement, love and hatred? a gold necklace is an object of a woman’s desire but a child has no use for it. a girl loves a boy one day but hates him the very next day on discovering his infidelities. a mother cries for a dead body but stops when told that it is not her son. it is, therefore, the mind that puts a label of like-dislike, attachment-detachment to a situation. to lead a tension-free and successful life, dharma or religion, artha or wealth, kaama or desire and moksha or merging with the supreme soul go hand in hand. amassing wealth or indulging in sensual pleasures without being aware of the presence of god leads to greed and perversion that brings with it sorrow and misery. the secret of a happy life is to be constantly aware of the supreme soul as this will never allow man to indulge in immoral action. explaining it with an incident from the ramayana, swami tejomayananda, head, chinmaya mission says, ‘‘symbolic of bhakti or devotion, sita was constantly aware of sri ram - the supreme soul. but when marichi representing maya or illusion, disguised as the golden deer, diverted her attention, she became adamant and wanted to possess the deer showing how moha or attachment to worldly goods, can disturb the most tranquil of minds. this incident is to remind man that not for a second should one’s concentration be removed from the divine soul’’. says sant sri aasaramji bapu, ‘‘to remove the ignorance of our mind, our personality needs to be changed. faith has to be developed, knowledge has to be pursued, energy should be employed for unselfish ends, physical senses need to be controlled and love towards god should be cultivated. then the mind becomes steady and is ready to perceive the divine’’. with the mind on the lord, no fresh vasanas are produced to bind a person to this cycle of birth and death. this is possible only when the ego is annihilated for it is the ego and its desires that bind us. when the mind, body and intellect are calmed down there is total satisfaction. sri kripaaluji maharaj, an enlightened saint of brindaban says, ‘‘if you follow all the rituals, prayers, worship, yagna and pilgrimages mechanically there will be no permanent change or progress in your personality’’. there are many do’s and don’ts in spiritual practice but if you follow the path of enlightened souls such as meera, prahlad, kabir, surdas and ramakrishna paramhansa, then you will achieve permanent peace. just as a lover sleeps, wakes up, talks and eats normally while constantly thinking of his beloved, similarly perform all actions outwardly yet remain in touch with him inwardly. one becomes as one thinks. as french philosopher descartes said, ‘‘i think, therefore, i am’’. spiritual practices purify the mind but without the love of god they do not remove the ignorance and the person is frustrated as no great knowledge is revealed to him or her. many delude themselves by putting the blame of their bad actions on god saying that it is god’s will. once the soul is cured of ignorance then the body, mind and spirit too are cured. to be in constant touch with god does not mean that tragedies will not come one’s way. past karmas or action will bring adverse situations but they will not affect a person who has his or her mind on the infinite self. through knowledge, one can realise infinite joy that is the true self. each soul is potentially divine and the goal of human birth is to remove all ignorance by controlling nature, external and internal.
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