A vast majority of the spiritualists insists the world has an
illusory character. No doubt, we live in this world for a short time, but does
that imply that we live elsewhere for a comparatively very long time? We don’t
know. To rely on things that we momentarily encounter, or to rely on things
that we have no experience with; the lifelong dilemma is a part of our
existence. The great thinkers dedicated their lives to know whatever they could
know about the life in this world, real or illusory; and, on the basis of the
knowledge gained they offered workable solutions.
The man achieved and acquired many things, sometimes slowly
and at other times rather quickly, that could have solved many of his problems.
However, this does not appear to have happened. On the one hand, we put in the
most intelligent, diligent, logical, focused and systematic efforts to achieve
something physical for our comfort and convenience, but on the other we very
casually rely on something mystical, unknown and doubtful to solve the riddles
relating to a happy and contended life.
When it comes to finding ways and means
for leading a satisfied and peaceful life that is meaningful for us and
purposeful for others, we, either don’t think or try not to think, paying heed
to the promptings perpetually emanating
from the back of our minds that having been born in this world we are condemned
to suffer.
We all are aware that we suffer in our lives, but that does
not prove that we are condemned to suffer. The weakest thought that we cannot
reduce our sufferings is an illusion that prevents us from making our lives
more meaningful and useful. Perhaps, our very casual approach towards the all
important need for leading a meaningful life is sourced from this illusion. In our
day to day life, when we think that a particular thing is very difficult to
achieve or when we have doubts about our being able to achieving them at all,
we divert our attention towards other things that are easy to achieve and
concentrate our efforts for achieving them, even if we know it full well that
all our alternative achievements may never be a substitute for the thing left
out by us.
Spirituality has everything to do with achieving freedom for
all kinds of illusions. Getting rid of some illusion, amounts to revealing some
truth. The search or exploration of truth is an attitude. One cannot get rid of
an illusion and continue living with others. When one tries to get rid of an
identified illusion, he finds that many illusions linked to the identified
illusion already exist. Just as all truths, practical and/ or immediate, coexist
and their collection lead to the practical truth; all, significant or
insignificant, trivial or major, illusions also coexist and get unified to pose the biggest challenge
before the human life of ‘What is?’ or ‘What is not?’
We, generally, believe that many great thinkers who thought
deeply and worked hard for the benefit of the mankind could get rid of many an
illusion and delivered precious solutions for our problems. We are not aware
whether they tackled multiplicity of illusions one by one, or they pierced
through the gigantic unreal to explore the ultimate truth. We, however, are somewhat
aware that over many years of the history of the mankind, the modern man has acquired
a huge legacy of many illusions ‘invented’ by himself. We know that when
problem looks insurmountable the best way to deal with it is to begin with
small and determined steps.
A few chapters, under the sub-heading of “FREEDOM FROM
ILLUSIONS” will follow in this series. The visitors of this site are, however,
requested not to avoid reading the other Articles and Thoughts that are
published here from time to time. Currently this site is focused on
spirituality.
[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”.]
0 comments:
Post a Comment