Vedanta does not offer any easy windfall, or miraculous solution to the problem of life. It exhorts us to face the realities of the life by living in a mature way.Such mature living is marked by the following characteristics:
1) Mature living is goal - oriented and is , therefore, integrated. Most individuals have short-term goals-professional , educational, economic- but have no goal for their whole life. Not only that, but their short-term goals for their whole life.Not only that, but their short-term goals are found to be in conflict with one another. This indicate the need for one goal with which all other goals can be integrated and harmonized.Vedanta signifies this goal as liberation through Self -knowledge.Vedanta speaks of the four values of life- dharma , or moral perfection; artha,or worldly attainment;kama, or fulfillment of legitimate desires;and moksha,or liberation. The first three values become meaningful only when they are cherished for the sake of the fourth. The fulfillment of desires and worldly attainment , unless they greed and lust for power. Aesthetic perfection,when not inspired by the desire for liberation,degenerated into sensuality. Knowledge of science and technology,when not dedicated to the pursuit of Self-knowledge,becomes a dangerous wepo in the hands of man.
2)Mature living means living with the spirit of dispassion. Dispassion enables one to view things in their proper perspective.For those who are ignorant, all things are real and permanent.The ignorant take everything for granted. They love life and hate death; they cling to the pleasurble and shrinkfrom pain.
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November 11, 2009
November 9, 2009
Life and its Problems
Life is a Paradox. The things of the world are not , what they appear to be.
What we want, we do not get;
What we get, we cannot posses;
What we possess, we cannot enjoy;
What we enjoy, does not give us permanent satisfaction
And when we think satisfaction is permanent, it proves to be boring.
What we want, we do not get;
What we get, we cannot posses;
What we possess, we cannot enjoy;
What we enjoy, does not give us permanent satisfaction
And when we think satisfaction is permanent, it proves to be boring.
Every feeling of happiness is followed by a haunting sense of fear and anxiety and this seems to be universal feature.
The healthy have the fear of disease,
The wealthy of thieves and robbers,
The beautiful of old age
The socially prominent of dishonour
The learned of rivals and
the virtuous of slander.
The human individual is born crying, lives complaining and dies disappointed. As a general rule, the young are optimistic and live in dreams of the future, while the old, having lived long, become pessimistic and they live in past. The agonies of life outweigh its pleasures and promises. Small wonder, then, that for the vast majority life is a series of cries and confrontations, anxieties and disappointments. What then is the way? Where should one seek solace of life?
Unable to cope with the problems of life, many give in to despondency and after desperation. Some maintain that the problems of life come from the external world and try to eradicate their causes by material means, but with no success. Some wait in vain for a millennium to com, when there will be happiness and no misery. Others consider the problems of life as irresolvable and look forward to eternal happiness in heaven after death, and still others regard the problem as predestined and blame their fate. Most feel perplexed and helpless and do not know what to do ..
The Vedantic view
The problems of life, according to Vedanta, cannot be called purely objective phenomena, nor can they be indicated as wholly subjective in nature. They are not due to change in time or circumstances, nor are they inflicted upon us by an inscrutable providence, We cannot say that our will is free, nor can we ,at same time , say that it is not free. If everything were predestined, there would be no meaning of life. If, on the other hand, our will were totally free, we would not complain about our sufferings. Good and evil, Vedanta points out, are not things but feelings. Happiness and misery are two different conditions of the same mind.
The world is neither good nor evil; it is perceived as good as evil because of the value judgments that are made of it by individual minds due to their condition. It follows that the world of good and evil experiences by each individual is not outside but inside his mind. Conditioning of the mind created an inner disposition and is due to the cumulative effect of past living.
Change of place or enviornment does not help,because wherever we go, we carry our own mind.An ideal eniornment is not somehting that can be given to us: it is made by our own effort . The attempt to go back to past is no soltion,for none can go back int ime. The effects of wrong livin can be corrected only by right living. The solution to the problem of suffering ,according to Vedanta,must be found "here" and not "hereafter". Such problems cannot be solved by readjustment after death ,because any solution, in order to be meaningful,must be in the context of the problem .Furthermore, salvaiton of the pious after death is a matter of belief and cannot be verified in life. The conditions on the two sides of the grave are different, and the dead never coe back to tell us about the life hereafter. Vedanta believe that salvation is liberation. It is not going to some other realm from where we are, or acquiring something which we do not have. The core of Vedantic liberation is self- knowldge. it is seeinf one's Self in all and all in one's own self. Self-knowledge comes int he wake of self-purificaiton. Another name for self-purification is deconditioning of the mind. Decondotioning od the mind cannot be attained by anyone but ourselves; there is no vicarious solutio for a problem whihc is the result of self -indulgence.
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To quote the words of Swami Vivekanand :" We get only that for which we are fitter. Let us give up our pride and understand this:that misery is never undeserved.There never has been blow undeserved;there never has been an evil for which I did not pave the way with my own hands. We ought to know that. Analyse yourself and you will find that every blow you have received came to you because you prepared yourself for it. you did half and the external world did the other half : that is how the blow came. That will sober us down. At the same time,from this very analysis will come a note of hope, and the note of hope is this:'I have no control over the external world; but that which is in me and nearer unto me, my own world , is under my control. If the two together are required to make a failure , if the two together are necessary to give me a blow, I will not conribute the one which is in my control - and how then can the blow come? If I get real control of myself, the blow will never come'
The conditioning of wrong living cannot be escaped in any way, nor can it be ignored.No one can run away from life.
Change of place or enviornment does not help,because wherever we go, we carry our own mind.An ideal eniornment is not somehting that can be given to us: it is made by our own effort . The attempt to go back to past is no soltion,for none can go back int ime. The effects of wrong livin can be corrected only by right living. The solution to the problem of suffering ,according to Vedanta,must be found "here" and not "hereafter". Such problems cannot be solved by readjustment after death ,because any solution, in order to be meaningful,must be in the context of the problem .Furthermore, salvaiton of the pious after death is a matter of belief and cannot be verified in life. The conditions on the two sides of the grave are different, and the dead never coe back to tell us about the life hereafter. Vedanta believe that salvation is liberation. It is not going to some other realm from where we are, or acquiring something which we do not have. The core of Vedantic liberation is self- knowldge. it is seeinf one's Self in all and all in one's own self. Self-knowledge comes int he wake of self-purificaiton. Another name for self-purification is deconditioning of the mind. Decondotioning od the mind cannot be attained by anyone but ourselves; there is no vicarious solutio for a problem whihc is the result of self -indulgence.
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