Scenario: After 13 yrs of exile in jungles he arrived to Dwarka, the land of Yadavas. He was welcomed warm-heartedly and was given his due respect as the best Archer and the Prince of Indraprasth. To show the respect and the love Krishna organized a big festival, where all the yadavas were invited for the hindu rituals as well as to enjoy the day. Meanwhile, when Arjun and Krishna were enjoying the festival, Arjun saw an un-controlled chariot coming to them. But to his suprise, the chariot was skillfully controlled by the girl riding it. He was amazed by her skills and also with her beauty. This was noticed by Krishna and he tripped on Arjun. arjun felt really bad as it was not a good behavioral conduct by a guest to ogle the girls of the state who welcomed him so generously. So he asked Keshav to go out of the place, so that he will have less distraction and less probability of such a slip. When they were alone, he asked to keshav
Arjun: Hey (a word to address) Keshav (aka Lord Krishna)! I feel that my mind struggles between two different phenomenon. When I go to some temple , or some religious place, my mind enters the state of elation and then I feel that all the materialistic indulgence are like specs of dust, which doesn't have any value. I feel like I have no desire of such materialistic things. I become very restless to break the bound of this material world and rise to know the ultimate truth, which is eternal and the base of life. I feel hatred for the all the materialistic things, my physical desires and all my achievements seems worthless. My mind eagerly wants to quit all these.
BUT suddenly my inner-self changes to the other extreme. All my desires roars back with much more intensity. Pleasures and ease of life attracts me. I cannot see anything wrong with it. I reason I give is God has made all this world for pleasure and enjoy, not to forfeit all those worldly pleasures. The force of desire is so irresistible that I fall short to stop it, and start flowing with it.
Krishna: Yogi's neither eat more than required nor eat less the its is required for their body.
Arjun: But I am not talking about my desire for food. But about other worldly pleasures.
Krishna: I know your dilemma between pleasure and sacrifice. I am referring excessive food with excessive indulgence in pleasure and less food with forfeiting worldly pleasure.
Krishna: One has to live the life naturally. Put oneself to austerity, give unnecessary pain to oneself is just useless. You followed the path of abstinence. That was forceful suppression of you desires. As soon as that force was weakened, all your desires, like a stretched rubber, came with twice the force. Thats the reason I say donot run away from the materialistic world, neither over indulge in materialistic pleasure. Try to lead a life naturally. Flow with nature.
Arjun: But this the squandering, its the human nature isn't it? So your supporting squandering?
Krishna: No I am not. If you want to get rid of them then, you need not kill the desires. You have to detach yourself from them. Thats why I always propose to do things without any attachment to it. Eventually you will see that you will not be bounded by your desires.
Note: Taken from 'Dharma' by Narendra Kohli.
Note: Taken from 'Dharma' by Narendra Kohli.
Well said. But learning itself is Tapasya in its own way. But the catch is what are we learning? Are we proceeding in right direction? Then here it comes the BIG question. What is the right direction?
ReplyDeleteSo there is only one ultimate goal. Its just matter which path u chose. Time taken to realize will be directly proportional to the path u chose. This the sequence of birth will end only when one realizes the goal. This is what literature says. And I m sure one doesnot believe on it until they themselves realizes this.
ReplyDeleteEat once per day, you are a yogi. Eat twice per day you are asking for trouble. Eat three times per day, you are in the grave. There is a right time for everything in life. In the beginning of life, one must focus on education, then being a householder and creating kids to contribute to the world, and then one can pursue full devotion to a path of austerity. I don't know the answer, but I think it is all about devotion. If you eat a little and enjoy a little, but dedicate yourself to daily yoga, meditation, and prayer, then you will strike a healthy balance. The yoga sutras explain nicely. Stick to the yamas and niyamas and try to keep the % of good you do in the majority, lest you come back as a bird or a tree, or worse, a rock. It is important to go down a spiritual path, but it is not always the right time to fully devote oneself to it. When the time is right, your desire will have naturally faded, as happens in a human lifespan, and it will be easy to move to the forest!
ReplyDeleteThen why do you abstain from alcohol just because someone asked you to? Isn't that forceful supression? that is definitely a good thing, but its bad its done by force and not naturally!
ReplyDeletebtw, renuka16: the answer to ur question is, the path to this starts from belief. So I believed. And addictions are needed to taken out by force. Force can be anything.
ReplyDelete