For our
physical survival, we have to depend on the world. The world includes whatever
existed therein, and, whatever has been subsequently added to it by the human
race. There are physical objects for making things convenient for us. There are
rules, procedures, systems and guidelines that we must follow. Perhaps, there
are more man-made things that we depend on than what the nature has given us.
In fact, there are many things that the nature gave us without charging a
single penny from us have been taken under their control by others, with or
without our consent, and we have to pay for them in modern times. For example,
one cannot use a small portion of land for growing food for himself. We have to
pay for water. Many of us can’t even get proper sunlight, even in daytime.
In this
blog, we will not enter into any argument about whether we have actually worked
in our benefit or not. Here, when we say ‘our’, we mean anybody without
exception, and not a few privileged ones. It, however, appears that the human
race has not appropriately made use of his pravritti for his
physical survival. Man has only succeeded in solving one of his problems at the
cost of creating two new ones. The world is flooded with enormous knowledge and
information, but we can never be sure if an action being taken somewhere with
an intent of doing some good for a few would actually benefit them or harm
them.
Can we think
of our own good? I doubt. We often find a success that we achieved in the past
becomes a source of considerable unhappiness later. The reverse is also true.
Does it mean that we ourselves are never clear as to what would be good for us?
Are the emotions of ‘happiness’ or ‘unhappiness’ also illusory? After
‘illusions of the intellect’, we can also talk about ‘illusions of the
emotions’. Depending on the context we can include our ‘intellectual efforts’
in the discussions relating to pravritti and our ‘emotional
satisfaction’ in the discussions relating to nivritti. One thing is
sure that in the matters of life we cannot compartmentalize our thought process
and discussions, as the things are much entwined. We may use our experiences;
knowledge gained from various sources and our ability to think and analyze
maintaining our focus on some defined area, but also need to review how a field
out of our focus is affected. This invariably becomes a never ending process, especially
because the things within us and outside also keep on changing. That is the
reason, self study, rolling over what has been studied or experienced, deep
contemplation thereafter and finally practically working with what has been
thought is considered a must for exploring the truth of things. Here, self
study must include study of self also.
We must
remember that there had always been much that was illusory and tons of
illusions are being added to the existing illusions every day, thanks to our
intellect, emotions, desires and ego. We can’t stop thinking, conducting and
experiencing. If we do it, we, definitely, develop more and more clarity day by
day.
There is no
shortcut to achieving relative freedom from illusions.
[This
series is being presented by Promod Kumar Sharma, who has also authored
“Mahatma A Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our
Wonderful Words”.]
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