Tuesday, August 01, 2006
GITA 108 DAYS- DAY 31
31. We are not equal; we are incomparable
Lord does not declare that we are all equal, but he expounds that we are incomparable!. You, I, and whatever we see are all eternal. They don’t have a state of non-existence, because the basic nature of everything is existence itself. In the body level, death happens in the same way as a child transforms through adolescence, youth, middle and old ages. It is just a change of state. Men of courage do not get deluded in this. Being courageous is, not to do anything with out the full awareness what is being done. Nothing can confuse the mind of a man who has realized the ephemeral nature of pleasure and pain and developed equanimity towards them. (In Vedanta, man and woman are synonymous)
Gita’s attitude is, “let us enquire first if there is life after birth, then let us see if there is life after death”. Observe everything carefully- reminiscing about our own childhood or pointing an old photo to say, ‘that is me’, etc., are observing the self from a distance. Bring that observation to the present time as well -cry if you feel like it and laugh when you feel like laughing. Be ready even to die at any moment and accept everything as provided by the nature wholeheartedly, without any complaint. A wise man will never even ask the Lord to “take me away without making me suffer in my death bed”.
Ask some one whose legs have been amputated to see if his ‘I’ awareness has been injured. This one example is good enough to see that this ‘I’ is beyond the body. When a tree is born, it is not the death of a seed, but it is the fulfillment of the seed’s life. In life, we see continuous transformation of the body. Life not like a train that goes through a fixed track, but it is like the flow of the river Ganges. It flows through the forests and mountains, making a lot of changes in its path, snaking through valleys and plains, carrying and depositing a lot of things in the journey.
It is true that the body will disintegrate, but it has its own duties (dharma) to fulfill. If those dharma expounded in the Upanishads are to manifest in me, my senses must be energetic. If one suppresses his senses and deny the existence of his body, he will not be able to follow dharma as these are mutually compatible. A citizen of Bharath should be able to find bliss through knowledge – not by calling out “Bharath matha ki Jai” slogan adorning a nice sandal wood paste on his forehead. Gita teaches us to learn to know and suffer without vengeance. We should be steadfast like a mountain or deep sea. There is no use in visiting temples if we do not know the import of such pilgrimages. The temple helps me developing self-awareness knowing the symbolic nature of the deity, i.e., it represents the Lord within me. This is where we belong. If we don’t occupy the rightful place where we should, others will take over the place and that will lead to all kinds of problems. Sage Vyasa does not ask us to join any side. Gita’s aim is to make us see ourselves and develop further, not to assess or criticize others.
Lord does not declare that we are all equal, but he expounds that we are incomparable!. You, I, and whatever we see are all eternal. They don’t have a state of non-existence, because the basic nature of everything is existence itself. In the body level, death happens in the same way as a child transforms through adolescence, youth, middle and old ages. It is just a change of state. Men of courage do not get deluded in this. Being courageous is, not to do anything with out the full awareness what is being done. Nothing can confuse the mind of a man who has realized the ephemeral nature of pleasure and pain and developed equanimity towards them. (In Vedanta, man and woman are synonymous)
Gita’s attitude is, “let us enquire first if there is life after birth, then let us see if there is life after death”. Observe everything carefully- reminiscing about our own childhood or pointing an old photo to say, ‘that is me’, etc., are observing the self from a distance. Bring that observation to the present time as well -cry if you feel like it and laugh when you feel like laughing. Be ready even to die at any moment and accept everything as provided by the nature wholeheartedly, without any complaint. A wise man will never even ask the Lord to “take me away without making me suffer in my death bed”.
Ask some one whose legs have been amputated to see if his ‘I’ awareness has been injured. This one example is good enough to see that this ‘I’ is beyond the body. When a tree is born, it is not the death of a seed, but it is the fulfillment of the seed’s life. In life, we see continuous transformation of the body. Life not like a train that goes through a fixed track, but it is like the flow of the river Ganges. It flows through the forests and mountains, making a lot of changes in its path, snaking through valleys and plains, carrying and depositing a lot of things in the journey.
It is true that the body will disintegrate, but it has its own duties (dharma) to fulfill. If those dharma expounded in the Upanishads are to manifest in me, my senses must be energetic. If one suppresses his senses and deny the existence of his body, he will not be able to follow dharma as these are mutually compatible. A citizen of Bharath should be able to find bliss through knowledge – not by calling out “Bharath matha ki Jai” slogan adorning a nice sandal wood paste on his forehead. Gita teaches us to learn to know and suffer without vengeance. We should be steadfast like a mountain or deep sea. There is no use in visiting temples if we do not know the import of such pilgrimages. The temple helps me developing self-awareness knowing the symbolic nature of the deity, i.e., it represents the Lord within me. This is where we belong. If we don’t occupy the rightful place where we should, others will take over the place and that will lead to all kinds of problems. Sage Vyasa does not ask us to join any side. Gita’s aim is to make us see ourselves and develop further, not to assess or criticize others.
# posted by Sukumar Canada @ 4:52 PM 
