Dualities gives credence to mundane existence!

Sometimes back, I suffered a financial loss which made me to contemplate issues connected with finance. I asked me three vital questions. 1. Wherefrom I earned the money? 2. Where I spent the money? 3. Have I brought money along with me during my birth in this world?

The answers are evident. 1. I earned money from this world 2. I spent the money in this world. 3. I came naked in this world without any burden of wealth. These three answers stem from my philosophical outlook. Well, this loss has enabled me to contemplate on the above truths.

Invariably, everyone earns money here and spend his money here. Also none has carried their wallet tucked inside. Having said that, I need to contemplate more, on ‘loss and gain’, joy and grief, heat and cold as well as birth and death. The above pairs of opposites are inevitably linked with mortal life for everyone! Well Sir, “what is the definition of loss or gain? One who loses his possession feels that he suffered loss. Otherwise, the one who gains monetary windfall or even trickle of money may seem to satisfy himself that he got something. Now, the next question is ‘who is that who grieves and who is that who feel joy? This is an intricate question. But the mind which is attached to a body with name, feels the grief and joy. If the mind is unconcerned with the loss or gain, it won’t feel sad.

We are all woefully attached to the physical frame called body and we assume that something belongs to us and some other thing belongs to others. In this manner, we go on attaching ourselves to persons, wealth, property, status and fame. Why? A sense of attachment do arise when we think of the perishable body as “I” and the possessions as “Mine”. This is the paradox of life. This naturally induces the feelings of ‘my house, my car, my wife, my children, my job and my status. Now, consider that the very idea of the body as evanescent and ephemeral. How can you consider an impermanent entity as you? In reality, the self within every individual is the real owner of all creation, cosmos and the various beings. Also, the Self is hidden in the various veils as the ‘bodily sheath, the mind sheath, the vital air sheath, the bliss sheath and the supra sensory (vijnana maya kosa). Hence, it is evident that those who are attached to the various sheaths never comprehend the self. This naturally leads us to an illusory existence, all through our life. This false sense of identification lands us in grief and pain.

Man is essentially of Bliss, which he is not aware of. He runs after fleeting sensory pleasures thinking that they will lead us to Bliss. Every time, he enjoys a sensory pleasure, he realizes that it is of fickle nature and nothing lasts. His quest for permanent bliss thus makes him to seek many such adventures in vision, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. The entire gambit of life is contained within the five sensory inputs. Hence the sages want us to contemplate on the self instead of body/mind complex and the world outside. Eternal Bliss belongs to the realm of spirit or self. Hence, we need not waste our energy and time in the fleeting pleasures of the world. However much one enjoys, he is never satisfied.

There are many prophets, saints and sages that came embodied in this physical world mainly for the purpose of guiding the ignorant worldly people of the pitfalls of sensory worldly life. Jesus and Prophet Mohammad taught the people the same principles albeit in different tongue and ways. Hence we have eternal truths in all the religious scriptures such as “Thou art That, All are One, Be alike to everyone and “forgive seventy times seven”, ‘do not seek the dirt in other’s eyes while you have a huge mole on your back. In Hindu scriptures, these truths are termed, “Mahavakyas”. This contains more profound statements like, “The knower of Truth becomes “Brahmam”. Knowner is not mere theoretical knowledge. It combines realization and experience!