Knowledge & Experience

[JUSTIFY]We, as human beings, have a tendency to determine our knowledge and experience based on the age group we belong. I believe the greatest mistake one could do is to determine a person’s knowledge and experience based on how long (s)he lived in the present life. We forget the fact that every life starts with encrypted prior experiences that could go back to many incarnations. We have to remember that in our day to day life, we come across many child prodigies who show exceptional skills even before they get to an adolescent stage of their life. When someone like Adi Sankara showed exceptional knowledge in principles of right living, someone like me remain novice even after spending 6 decades in this beautiful planet.

When Arjuna put his weapons down refusing to fight the battle, Lord Krishna taught Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna. The Lord said, “There never was a time, indeed, when I was not, nor you, nor these rulers of people, nor shall we all from this moment on ever cease to be. As in the body of this body-bearer (Atman) there is childhood, youth and old age so there occurs the transfer to another body. A wise one does not become confused in this matter”.

It is essential for us to understand that when we learn principles of right living, it remains with us beyond one life. The actions we do and knowledge we gain out of our experiences get encrypted in our consciousness. In Law of Karma, our good actions produces pleasure and bad actions produces pain. Even when a person leaves his outer shell such as body, mind and intellect, this encryption would remain with the consciousness. This encrypted consciousness keeps traveling to this planet earth until such time it becomes free of its encryption. We have to understand that someone would have learned the art of right living so well in the previous incarnations resulting in them leading an ideal and purposeful life right from the time they were born again, while others might be at an initial stage of their learning. That is why the age of a person in one life is not responsible for their spiritual maturity.

That is why knowing ourselves is very important in our life. Depending on whether an individual is in pursuit of the world or pursuit of the Lord, selfish or selfless, egoistic or humble, control or don’t control the mind and senses, pursue desires and attachments or keep reducing desires and attachments, discriminate between pleasure and pain or achieve total equanimity, their consciousness keep improving until it reaches the highest possible level of perfection. This pursuit continues forever and there is no escape from that. Even if a person wishes to remain selfish and pursue the world, there is no scope for her/him to remain that way forever as someday, (s)he will have to pursue his goal. All are created out of the same Supreme Consciousness and they will all aspire to become one with it. If we are destined to become one with the Supreme Consciousness, why delay this process is the question we need to ask.

It is important for us to understand that our duty in our life is to make our divine consciousness free and clear. Our attitude towards the life should be to lead it with confidence, have total faith in our ability and pursue the highest level of happiness called Bliss. After all, we are creations of the One without the second and one who is the Knower, Known and the Knowledge. He is the perfectionist who created this world and He knows how to make the part of the whole to merge with the whole. All we need is the belief that we are a divine being with an ability to realize it. We need to believe that we are wired to achieve salvation and it is just a question of time.
[/JUSTIFY]

 

Dear KAlyani ShAnti,

Thank you for your first response to this post. I am glad you enjoyed reading it.

Viswa

 

Dear Angellic,

Thank you for reading and responding to this post. Vijiakka is a most popular writer and affectionately called Vijimma by many members of IL. It is my privilege that you think my writing resembles her writing. I feel honored.

Viswa

 

Dear Periamma,

Thank you for your response. You are right that our life journey is long and involves several steps and some might be easy and some might be rough. We have to remember that the stone that takes chisel becomes a statue and the gold that is put on fire becomes an ornament. Let the Lord shower His Grace to you and your family.

Viswa

 

Dear Vidyalakshmi,

Thank you for responding to this post. Thank you for sharing SriSriSri Ravishankar's quote as well as the relevant Thirukkural. Whatever is our path, our destination is the same. Whether we take 1,000 life or one life, we will eventually reach our destination. Sooner the better.

Viswa