The Journey of Life

by Smt. Mandira Lahiri

 

The mystery of life at some point or the other puzzles everybody. When I was a little girl, I would often ask my mother that if we all must eventually leave this world, why must we come here at all in the first place? My mother would calmly reply, “That's the way of life. We don’t come here of our own free will, and we can’t leave this world of our own free will. Everything happens according to Divine Will.” This answer did not satisfy me completely, but my little mind understood that something very big was working behind this world phenomenon. Ours was a close-knit family and my parents were my role models. They were devout people who led a simple and pious life. I saw them accepting the highs and lows of life with equal vigor. They believed that no aspect of life is to be shunned, and reiterated that the adverse circumstances in life help refine people. As I grew up, the diversity of the world, and the suffering, miseries, instances of selfishness, struggles and challenges that I witnessed within it, baffled me no end.

In the course of time, when I came in contact with Prajnanpurush Sri Sri Babathakur, my thoughts underwent a change. In His magical voice he explained, “Good and bad exist side by side. You are not noticing the good. You do your bit and don’t worry about others. All files are different. This is a ‘Sportful Dramatic Same Side Game of Self-Consciousness’, so just play along. Do everything properly but in a detached way. Just be a Witness Consciousness. You cannot even see the back of your head, therefore why bother? Instead, just dwell more on your big-I.”

Presenting few relevant lines from Ashtavakra Gita----“He who has known that adversity and prosperity come through the effects of past actions is ever contented…. He who knows that happiness and misery, birth and death are also because of past actions--- becomes free from care and is not attached even though engaged in action.”

Excerpts from The Speaking Tree in the Times of India (TOI), Bangalore, dated 11/12/22 written by Humayun Taba about Taoists----“The Taoist’s focus is not on ‘personality development’ but on deep character transformation. Taoists have valuable insights for our times--- for sane living by way of unfixing our opinions and opening our minds; to bring balance between activity and repose; check the distractions of hyper-busyness; reduce overthinking and rediscover natural living. To tame the restless monkey mind with its purposeless activities, one needs solitude and to look at one’s pre-occupations with a critical eye.”

Some excerpts from The Speaking Tree in the TOI, Bangalore, dated 19/12/22 written by John Hierl which help us to navigate through the journey of life:

“No matter what the challenge in life, we always need to stay aware of the nature of thoughts that we harbor when things start to prove difficult: Do we think in defeatist terms and put ourselves down as losers? Or are we willing to take on any difficulty and build on the successes we have already achieved in life? We must be honest with ourselves and put things in the right perspective for the sake of our spiritual evolution.

We are part of God and at the same time always one with It. The Divine’s Lila is playing Itself out through us, whether we are aware of it or not. Therefore, by looking beyond the immediate goals ahead, we become motivated to work for a higher cause: to realize the Self.

Life is not about our performance in the outside world, but about keeping our focus on the Atman. In so doing we gain inner peace, strength from within and the will to carry on. Why should we then still feel the need to fulfill finite and passing desires which do not make us happy in life?”

Hermann Hesse in his book ‘Siddhartha’ writes about the young Brahmin Siddhartha’s search for Self-realization. Disturbed by the contradictions between his comfortable life and the harsh reality around, he takes to the life of a wanderer. But subscribing to an ascetic life, and shunning all temptations, does not give him a sense of fulfillment either. In despair, he goes to the riverbank and sits there quietly. And then in the silence he could hear himself, his inner self. In the end he grasps the wholeness of life, experiencing the sense of fulfillment and wisdom which come with it.

I strongly believe that the handholding of a Sadguru helps one to go through the vagaries of life. In the book, ‘The Science of Oneness’ Prajnanpurush Sri Sri Babathakur (Sadguru) elaborates:

“The Supreme Guru is verily the Absolute, Divine-Being or Divine-Self, Brahman/Atman personified.

The Guru by his divine glance creates all the worlds, nourishes all things and Himself is the essence of all scriptures.

It is high time for all to remember and worship Guru and God, not only for the good of a particular section of people, but also for the good of entire universe. Humanity, as a whole, is now in complete delusion--- delusion of pride of material power or atomic power pertaining to diversity and relativity, which in the guise of so-called modern civilization, full of tension etc., is very difficult to get rid of or to overcome. This is called the effect of ‘nescience’ or ignorance.

Men are born, not only to experience or suffer from the train of miseries of transmigration, but also to realize their True Nature, which is ‘All Divine for All Time, as It Is.’ Unfortunately, they are not yet able to reach that state. Divine-Self which is all-pervading Reality, out of love and bliss, manifests Himself in the form of human being and appears before all seekers of Truth, Liberation, Perfection and Realization, as Sadguru to help all of them to rise from transmigratory existence to Divine Existence, and thereby transcend the cause of the bondage of rebirth due to the hypnotic influence of triple gunas or forces of Prakriti (Nature).”

To break the cycle of cause-and-effect, Sadguru again reiterates on page 86 of the same book: ‘Human life wants lasting peace and infinite bliss or joy or happiness. But he does not know how to get that. The joy he gets from objective enjoyment or in contact of objects through senses is not lasting or permanent. Without Divine help human life cannot progress perfectly, cannot experience the perfection and his True Nature which is ‘All Divine for All Time, as It Is.’ This term is very comprehensive. It covers the essence of all sayings and all philosophy. You are eternally one with the Almighty God, though you cannot always realize it due to some causes. And all such causes are not fully known to you. Lord, in the nature of Guru, appears before you and makes you conscious of all such causes. Then you can easily get over the effect of your actions. You can easily become free from the reactionary effect of your thought, action and behavior or treatment.’

Sadguru has constantly reminded us of the fact that the culture of ‘Science of Oneness’ is the only panacea to overcome the miseries of the world. As I progress in my journey of life, I realize that the above mentioned words of our Sadguru holds true for one and all. His teachings will help us overcome the obstacles that life throws at us and complete our sojourn successfully.