Pair of opposites

[JUSTIFY]Pleasure and pain are two sides of the same coin and this pair of opposite is part of our life cycle. When the pain comes to us, we need to try and understand what that experience is trying to teach us in life. Our normal tendency is to shy away from the problems or burry the problems under the carpet with the hope that somehow that problem would disappear without a trace. When the problems hit us in our life is when we need to be courageous to take it head on. If we successfully resolve it, we should not pride ourselves for our ability to resolve them quickly nor should we be depressed if we are not able to resolve them. If we have a firm understanding that each experience is independent of each other, then, we would develop a tendency to learn lessons of our each experience. It is our mind that connects each one of our experiences and converts that into a sequence of developments and makes it into one giant life. We need to understand the vagaries of our mind to disown cause of the pain as the result of its decision-making process and hence it finds reasons outside of us to fix the responsibility. It reacts very vehemently to put the blame outside of us even if the problem is inside of us.

Let us assume that someone is facing a physical abuse from the spouse, it is inappropriate to practice a discipline that our true nature is to demonstrate unconditional love to the fellow beings and to the spouse in particular. Self respect should never be compromised under any circumstances and the person who gets abused should stand up for the righteousness which is one of the principle natures of every being. Every being has a duty to protect and preserve the body, mind and intellect as they are tools given to us for pursuing the path to self-realization. Similarly, when we experience pleasure, we should feel happy but should not get overly excited to allow the mind to think it is its victory. This only develops ego to make us believe that we are the doer. We have to always remember our true Self is an observer and it is the body, mind and intellect, the shells or tools that are engaged in actions all the time.

In simple terms, equanimity to treat both pleasure and pain the same way is the ideal mindset. Consider the pleasure and pain as two banks of the river (life). If the river chooses either one of the banks, it will not achieve the target of reaching the ocean (Godhead). Life should use it as a border to protect its free flow to reach its destination and learn that they exist to balance our life and make it achieve the goal. If we consistently strive to keep our life calm and contented, it will allow the life to flow freely towards its destination.

Our life’s purpose is to realize our Godhead. All other actions we do as part of our duties in life are peripheral actions to do our karma and that should not conflict with the main objective of life. The four principles that are taught to us are a) Dharma, b) Artha, c) Kama & d) Moksha. We have to always remember the end result that we are trying to accomplish is Moksha and all other three principles are for us to achieve the final destination. In our day to day life we have to always follow dharma. We have a duty to pursue our passion and make wealth through right means. We have the right to pursue the desires that are noble. If the above three are not in conflict with our ultimate goal of Moksha, our life will flow freely without any huddles. We need to use our intellect to find out the conflicts to our main goal and eliminate them. If we make a mistake, we need to retrospect, regret and forgive ourselves. We need to hold all our possessions in trust without any feelings of ownership.

To the extent possible we need to help other fellow beings in removing their sufferings and pains. Service to humanity helps us understand that all lives are created from the same source. It may take many lives to get to the destination but we have to remember that the time and space are felt only by our body, mind and intellect and not by our true Self. Why fear anything in life when we have the power to free ourselves?
[/JUSTIFY]

 

Dear Ramya,

Thank you for your visit to this blog and well said about calmness in the mind to achieve equanimity. What I meant by that last line is to indicate that we restrain ourselves into this body, mind and intellect and it is us who can liberate ourselves. Hence there is no need to be afraid of anything but our own mind.

Viswa

 

Dear Pallavi,

Thank you for your response to this blog. I am so glad to know my blog helps in real life. This is the ultimate happiness I can get. You really made my day. Thank you.

Viswa