Friday, August 24, 2007

The biggest irony of life!

Last night, I was reading a book whose ending left the reader feeling nostalgic. It spoke about all the good and bad times the author spent with his buddies at college and how he misses them when they are all over. Am sure each of our 'last days' at school, university would have been dramatic in some way or the other. People sobbing on shoulders not able to digest that it's all over, some in shock about how it could all end so abruptly.

When we go back into our past and recollect incidents, we always seem to miss so many things. If you are visiting your native place after a loooong gap of 10 years and see the familiar streets, something cries within you. The feeling hits you strongly that so much has changed, you have grown up and have moved on so much in life. Why does this feeling make us cry? Why do we miss our past so much? Why do we want many things to never come to an end?

It brings us to the most interesting irony of life. We love to see everything as permanent and eternal, although we know everything around is temporary! How true isn't it? We cry when something or somebody close to our hearts is taken away from us. We just take the presence of everyone in our lives for granted and are never prepared to see things otherwise. Even our own lives, we see as permanent. That's why when we hear about accidents or other mishaps, we keep thanking God that it wasn't us. It's going to be our turn sometime anyway, we cannot run away from it, however much we try. So, why not accept it and face it? Even better if we prepare to face it. (Will definitely dedicate a post on "death" and how we can prepare for it. It's a beautiful and deep subject!)

Not seeing things as they are, is what sages called 'Maya' (closest English translation being illusion). In this context, we keep missing the truth every moment and keep fooling ourselves that everything is permanent and ours. Have we ever wondered why this is the case? Why do we see things as permanent and love to see them that way? Why do we see our own lives as eternal?

Swamiji gives an amazing explanation to this: Very deep down, our very being, our true nature, consciousness knows no death. It knows that it is eternal. It is beyond life and death. This is the same Truth elaborated in the Bhagavat Geetha when Krishna says:

nainam chindanti sastrani
nainam dahati pavakah
na cainam kledayanty apo
na sosayati marutah (2-23)

which means "The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind".

In other words, our true nature is untouched. To put it in Swamiji's words, we are by nature "unclutched". It is our mind that makes all connections and conditionings. Clutching to the past and seeing a future based on the past is all a game of the mind. Let us unclutch and be free!

In these videos (video1, and video2) Swamiji talks beautifully about how our very nature is being unclutched. N!joy!

- Ma Nithyananda Arpana

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreed, we feel nostalgic because we don't want those moments to go away. Especially university, friends, fun and frolic. We have to accept that life is just a bubble but wishing for it to be eternal for all the loved ones and moments is not wrong either ! Foolishness but still ..... Wish it all stayed for ever....

Ma Nithyananda Arpana said...

Dear Anamika,

Of course, one can choose not to be disturbed from the dream! If you are dreaming about something you love, you will hate it when someone wakes you up. On the otherhand, it you are going through a nightmare, you will sigh with relief for being woken up.

But whether happy dream or nightmare, a dream is a dream. Once we wake up into grand reality and realise everything you thought was 'real' is a dream, then would you want to go back into your happy dreams?

I guess the real answer to that will happen only when we get enlightened, because the experience of it surely is more REAL and BLISSFUL than anything else! Even with just brief glimpses if we can say this, imagine those who experience that state all the time!

Nithyanandam
Ma N!Arpana

Anonymous said...

If you ask me, I like to go back to the happy dreams and at times, I am successful in getting a continuation of my dream after the break at times.

And this un-clutching, when we are in a sad state, uncluthing helps, ok, I am connecting, so I feel bad, but when we feel happy, don;t feel like un-clutching, then the happiness is turned to some kind of neutral feeling !! Happiness is better, thanks to mind's works. May it be unreal! Who doesn't like good dreams ???

Life itself may be a dream, we can choose if it has to be happy or sad everyday. And wish it to remain happy till we have to leave. If we can have control over when to leave, or create what we wish, nothing like it - What say ???