Nov 26, 2024
Nov 26, 2024
That we, human beings, have been able to learn and sustain ourselves through out the ages is the most cherishing fact of all the times. With the unending cycle of time we have learnt about our needs and things which preserve life. We have invented and developed sciences which have helped us to become aware about life which exists in variety of forms and shapes other than us. And, it is our awareness, interpretation and understanding of this physical world which has led us to create a world which works to garnish our needs and expectations. Today, as we are being able to fulfill our needs, our expectations for more are growing up faster than ever. The list of needs and expectations is ever growing and it is this list which hasn't let us rest for a while; cherish life for a while. We, in pursuit of these endless desires, have put everything, including ourselves, at stake. It's our desire for that more that makes this existence and ourselves appear imperfect. Now we are out in the world to find imperfection. And, in our attempt to perfect the imperfect things we have unwisely brought things to their distortion only. And, what we call imperfection is but a natural state of things which do favors to all but no one in particular.
Now this is the problem because everybody wants things should be aligned in order of their preference of needs and greed. Something that favors to all is no favor at all! This is what we believe and live. Everybody wants things should especially work for only their privilege, and not for anybody else's. Now, everybody is trying to redefine the order of preference according to their own needs and greed. Result: there are more clashes and conflicts of interests, and we have a human society which is bitterly and sharply divided. Our needs and greed have created an atmosphere of hostility and discomfort which is undoing and demeaning life.
Now, when whole of humanity is daggers drawn, how could they rejoice life but curse it. Our needs and greed have created worlds of differences and we all seem to be fighting against each other an undeclared war, a war of vested interests which is too inconspicuous. It is too dangerous a situation as the matrix of war is getting more complex and subtle. We treat fellow beings as others, and it is these 'others' we are fighting this undeclared war against. And who are these 'others'? -perhaps we all to one another! Yes! This is what we have done to ourselves: 'I,' 'We,' 'You,' 'They' all are 'others' to one another at one time or other.
So. You never know when you are 'dear' and when you are 'other' to someone! Now would you sleep? Would you live and let yourselves celebrate? -Probably, not. And, nobody really seems to be happy and celebrating life. Uncertainties, which haunt us; scare us of life and all that we have invented and accumulated for our needs and greed, have discolored life. We are disenchanted and disgruntled. This world appears to be a hostile neighborhood and we are looking for a safe heaven, a heaven where things are prearranged in accordance with the needs and greed of all, where there is no 'other'.
We, for sure, have fallen prey to our own insatiable needs and greed and there seems to be no help around, no hand to hold our finger to walk us through all this. But then, who will help who when we all are in the same condition? Where to seek help from? Whom do we turn to? Where do we go from here? -well, perhaps to the one who is said to be one of his own kind: God? But didn't we go to find this god? Haven't we been looking for him here, there and everywhere? But for our disappointment we haven't found any trace of him anywhere. So, everyone has invented their own god as long as the actual one shows up!
But even with the invention of god too there seems to be no end to our miseries. Life and happiness are fast becoming strangers to each other. We are yet in the grip of the fear of 'others'. No solace, no peace.
So. You see, the invention of god too hasn't any bettered the things. Instead, we have caught us in another war -whose god is actual god? Now even god is one more 'other'! And this one more 'other' has got so powerful that denying him might spell disaster for those 'others', courtesy -human ego and ignorance. Now everybody is waiting for their god to finally show up one day and prove others' god. a fake, a myth. And everybody is so sure of their god that songs are sung hoarse in his glorification. from dawn to dusk. Yet, it has hardly brought any smiles on our lips and twinkle in our eyes; everybody is just desperately looking forward to the day of reckoning -the judgment day or perhaps a reincarnation who will establish the truth!
Well, know that these two shall never ever happen, as every moment is a moment of reckoning, a moment of judgment. And truth? Well, truth never disappears and nor does it perish. So, what will he establish? There is never a moment when truth is degraded or distorted by falsehood. Truth is the very fabric of this existence which cannot be damaged or destroyed by anybody and anything. It is beyond the power of expression of words. It is indescribable and thus beyond any human interpretation or misinterpretation. It is unspoken because it doesn't become anybody's knowledge. It is not experienced through any technique of sort and neither do any prayers make it work for you. It is doesn't do any favor to one who sees it and disfavors to one who sees it not. It can be seen and experienced in the moments of action and yet cannot be contained for the next moments of inaction. Everyone moment, every action is an encounter with truth. It is not in the indulgence of action and neither in the renunciation or suppression. It is in the knowing of the need of doing it (action) and in the knowing of who is doing it. This knowing is the knowing of the truth, experience of the truth. And, as truth doesn't begin and end in any particular terrain; in any time and space, its experience encompasses wholeness which cannot be communicated through any possible means we have known or invented. Truth is not bringing things to perfection. It is finding perfection that which is.
Truth is not in the moments of absence of passions and desires but in the moments of knowing your passions and desires. It is not detachment and nor renunciation. It is an experience of being fulfilled, fulfilled with the understanding that guides you in the intense moments of passions and desires.
Truth doesn't make you the one who is worshiped and venerated but the one who is celebrated! Yes! A moment of truth is a moment of salvation, a moment of celebration! It is a moment when no 'other' appears, only 'I' remains as essence of truth.
Truth is not seen and experienced through prayers and oblation, but though wakefulness of the being. And, this wakefulness doesn't get wavered by the course of actions of mind rather it is strengthened in those acute moments of knowing and knowledge, as both are experienced at the same time and wakefulness, as it happens, has its way through mind, through the object of the desire of mind.
04-Dec-2004
More by : Sanjay Thakur