May 7, 2009, 08.00am IST
ACHARYA MAHAPRAJNA.
If you are not fully acquainted with your own being, you might not feel secure anywhere. Wealth, material possessions and family are different from one's essence.
That which is alien, can provide no refuge. In this context Mahavira said: "He who mistakes insecurity for security and security for insecurity goes astray." Your security lies in your own being. To seek refuge in yourself is the quintessence of the anupreksha of insecurity.
The practitioner of meditation is alert and awake. He is therefore aware of his illusions. The one who visualises a haven in everyone is suffering from a big illusion. You might be required to do so in everyday living, but this cannot be the ultimate truth. Everything cannot become a refuge.
Behaviour is one thing, and reality another. The truth of behaviour belongs to the sphere of conduct and the truth of reality is factual. The truth of behaviour is this much that as long as their self-interests cohere, two persons constitute a refuge to each other. The moment one's self-interest is in jeopardy, all sense of protection evaporates. One is assailed by self-pity. "I did so much for him, and this is the reward i get for all i have done!" Hurt is caused not by another person's conduct, but by one's own forgetfulness of the law. If you accept behaviour, a material object or person to be the ultimate truth, you are bound to suffer. This constitutes the anupreksha of insecurity.
In practice, you might seek refuge in various objects, but never forget the truth that real or ultimate protection lies in your own knowledge, perception, conduct and behaviour. Ultimately, no one can be the refuge of another. If you thoroughly grasp the fact that there is no refuge outside, your involvement with the outside material world is naturally relaxed. The illusion of external support is responsible for accumulation. Both Mahavira and Buddha said: "Seek refuge in yourself."
Mahavira did not declare anyone to be safe. He said, "He who seeks refuge where there is none, is destroyed." There is nothing secure. How can another provide any protection? An enlightened soul represents the purity of the soul; a perfected soul embodies the perfection of the soul; a hermit embodies the aspirant nature of the soul and religion embodies its consciousness. There is no other refuge. Your salvation lies in your own soul, in knowledge, in perception and in character.
The trinity of knowledge, perception and character is veetaragata, an enlightened soul. The one who practises this anupreksha, this wholesome thinking, cannot be unsocial or impractical. All refinement in conduct, reformation in society, revolution and welfare is effected by such persons only. Those who are caught in attachment and illusion cannot reform society, nor accomplish good works, nor can such persons bring about a social revolution.
A person who is deeply attached to material things, who considers matter to be eternal, struggles hard to obtain them. On the other hand, a person who is wholly given to social and group conditioning, follows the group blindly, says to himself, "Whatever happens to others will happen to me". This collectivism then becomes the means of taking one into dense darkness. The individual who seeks security and refuge in others becomes a cypher to himself. He depends upon others to save him. He never tries to stand on his own feet.
Once you begin to seek refuge within, society assumes a form, which it had never assumed before. A society erected on spiritual foundation and based upon these truths, will be an orderly, peace-loving society, well disposed towards all.
(As told to Lalit Garg)
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