“Values” in the Process of Self Unfoldment

It is very difficult to evaluate, the value of values, and come to a conclusive judgment living in this world of matter and maya and find the values applicable as personal or of the fundamental. At a particular time, ‘me’ as a person is different than the same ‘me’ in the next few hours in a different field. May be as a mother I have likes and dislikes, as a father I have some likes and dislikes. Similarly, as a boss, or as a member of some organization, I display likes and dislikes only when I come in an encounter with the opposing personel. I as a mother may like or dislike something in my child As an employee I may like or dislike taking a nap after lunch, but my senior may not like it.

I am the same person, but my likes and dislikes are varying with different people and under different situations. Therefore, it seems that my likes and dislike don’t belong to me. They belong to the role I play as a father, as a mother, as an employee, husband, wife, child and friend and so on. As in the role of a father, my likes and dislikes are different from my role in the office as an employee. Therefore, the varying attitudes of like and dislike belong to the role.

I like certain things and I don’t like other things. I am happy when I have all things are going my way. I don’t like when things don’t happen the way I want. So I suffer the pain of my dislikes and it becomes a disliking factor for me. Life is a conflict of likes and dislikes. As a father I may set rules which I like, but children may dislike my likes. So the pain and suffering follow, for I involve myself as being a father, not as the role that I am doing as a father. If only I learn to play the role of a father, then the problem goes to the role, not to me as a father, who is acting to perform the role. So the choice is still with the role player.

When an artist plays the role of a beggar dressed in utmost shattered poverty begging for pennies, he knows he is not a beggar, but an actor. The role he is playing will make him wealthy. The more reality borne in his acting, the more credit goes to him as an actor. When he is playing the role of a king, he is not a beggar any more. It is only a change of scene, nothing touches him. He doesn’t have a problem in playing the role of a beggar, or a king. If at all there is a problem, it is with the role whether it is played with versatility or not. An actor is like a dreamer. He dreams, he forgets, so he has no problem as to what type of role he is playing. Similarly, if one as a father just plays a role and forgets all as a dreamer, then there is no problem. As an employee, if there is a conflict between the likes and dislikes between the employee and the employer, one has to just behave the same way as the actor does while playing his role, then the intensity of the problems starts diminishing. There is beauty in life as long as the role is palyed as the role. The role should have the problem, not the player.

In every play or in every scene, the artist palys. The director is always there to guide and direct. So the player is an artist playing against another artist who is the director. There should be no problem then, when it comes to follow directions and play the role allotted. The relationship of a artist as a devotee is everlasting the director as an eternal father. Hence the relationship of a seeker and the devotee is everlasting as the seeker becomes devoted. Once any relation with the devotee is well developed, then that relation becomes everlasting and it cannot be dismissed.
In the process of evaluation again, if we take the creation and the creator and try to establish a relationship, we find that that one is merging in another in a unique blend. A child may ask a mother who created this creation. The answer is “God”. “Where was God before creation?” There is no answer to it. The logic is that if he is the creator, there is nothing beyond creation. The creation is infinite, it has no boundary. Then the question is irrelevant what is beyond boundary? God is neither in the creation, nor outside creation; but merged in the creation. The creation cannot be separated from the creator. A pot maker who artificially shapes the pots from the mud is definitely different from the pot. The watch maker is different from the watch. Only God doesn’t have that luxury to be outside or inside his creation. He cannot be detached. He is the material and He is the maker. He is the creator and He is the creation. So we confront when we see, perceive, touch, feel that the creation is nothing but the creator.

But the veil of Maya deludes us. Now what is Maya? If one takes a bangle made of gold and show it to a lay man who has not been acquainted with the names of ornaments, nor is he well equipped with the knowledge of shapes and sizes and ask him what it is called. He will tell you that it is Gold. You may argue that it is a bangle. He may see only gold and not a bangle. Or may be to convince himself he ask questions if the hole in the centre is the bangle. No! The gold is a bangle, or whatever is called bangle is not gold! But if the bangle is not gold, then we melt the metal, but the result is still gold. Here the bangle is not gold, yet we call it a bangle, and the gold is not bangle, yet we call it gold. So gold it was, gold it is and gold it shall be. The bangle is sustained by gold. The bangle transforms itself into gold, a bangle is the name, it is not gold. It does not have its own existence without gold. It forms gold in the end after melting. It is only gold that matters when takes for value. When objective analysis takes place, the reports say that it is matter the smallest particles like atoms and molecules that make everything, but still each object is different from the other, but the matter that makes the objects is the same. That matter which is same in all is God.

The creator and the creation cannot be separated. To realize while living the oneness of the creator in everything around and at all times may only help in merging with Him as does the ray of sunlight merge back in the sun during sunset, to come back at dawn. Let today be the dawn of ones life.