Why is present-day society suffering from so many psychological disorders? We see so many cases of depression and suicides. Cases of divorce are increasing rapidly. Not only the cases of divorce but the cases of false allegations. Disputes among the siblings are reaching courtrooms to decide the division of the properties. Employees are fighting the employers. Love seems to have evaporated from the Earth. Discords, disputes, and debates have formed deep roots in our hearts. Everybody is living in a state of perpetual fear and stress. In fact, yesterday while interacting with a few kids, I was surprised to know that their ambitions aim at smooth survival. How much fear this society must have instilled in the hearts of those young kids that they make smooth survival the mission of life.
Probably, we can not love others unless we learn to love ourselves. Most people will laugh to read this and say that of course everyone loves himself. Is it so? Can I love somebody without knowing that person? Definitely not. Do we know ourselves? Do we know who we are and where we have come from? Do we know why we take birth on this Earth and where will we go after death? Have we ever contemplated why we are born in a particular family? Why so many people are born with so many diseases while others are born healthy? Why do some people suffer throughout their lives? Have we ever examined our own emotions and reactions to the situations? Are we aware of the feelings of jealousy, hatred, our own biases, beliefs, and the thought process? Can we see the relativity of our own thoughts and how our thought process has changed over a period of time?
An honest analysis will reveal that probably we know very little about ourselves. we have just believed what society told us and continue to live life accordingly without examination. At best, some of us start following one or the other Guru and start believing what he says, again without examination. Probably, it is because awareness is not so easy. We are living in a world of "light pollution" where all through the night, the streets are full of lights and we are not able to look at the stars. We are living in a world full of noise where the sound of the birds is lost in the loudness. We are living in a world full of materialistic desires which have gulped the time and energy required for "self-inquiry".
Even if somebody genuinely makes efforts for "self-inquiry", it is quite hard to find answers. There are many reasons for the same. First of all, genuine gurus are rare and have traveled along the path. Most of the genuine gurus stay away from society because society is so full of pretensions and falsity that for any such person it is almost impossible to stay in society. There is hardly any space left for the genuine people in this society. People are so full of themselves and their desires that they hardly leave any scope for such people to survive. Whosoever is left, has to form one or the other organization and the moment an organization is formed, they have to make efforts to get funds for its survival and they are trapped in the loop.
Yes, of course, there are many books available that have been written by the realized masters. For example, we have the Vedanta, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and many other books written by the saints and realized souls. However, we set our ambitions so high that most of our time and energy are lost in the pursuit of our ambitions. Even if there is some energy left over the weekends, the same is lost in the pursuit of pleasures. Working throughout the week for the fulfillment of our ambitions and desires sucks all our energy. Because we lose complete connection with our inner self in the process. That is the reason why over the weekends we become mad to regain the joy. We try to find a poor substitute for joy in the form of socialization, parties, birthday celebrations, marriage ceremonies, movies, eating out, fun, and entertainment. Since none of these connects us to our souls, we feel more tired after doing all these things and feel tired on Monday again. That is how we grow old and finally retire and wait for death to come. In the meanwhile, we keep looking forward to some entertainment in some way again to be disappointed.
We can not start loving ourselves unless we take a bold step to examine our lives. The moment we examine our lives, we soon realize the futility of all this routine. We also realize that the pursuit of happiness in the form of fun and entertainment is actually making us more hungry. We realize that there is something else we are seeking. We realize that we need to spend time with ourselves. We take some time out of our schedule to introspect. I had all these questions in my mind since 2003 and read hundreds of books on quantum Physics, Neurology, Science, Philosophy, Spirituality, etc, to get answers to my questions. However, it was during my first Vipassana camp in 2012 when for 10 days I was completely isolated from the world and away from my phone. I got an opportunity to connect to myself for the first time.
When we connect to ourselves, that does something wonderful. It requires time since we have been so conditioned and have been living a life constantly moving away from that connection. Once we get an opportunity to examine ourselves: our thoughts, body, sensations, and deep-rooted beliefs and conditioning, and realize the relativity and temporariness of all these things, a space is created between the thoughts and ourselves. In that state, we can examine our own thought process from a distance. We realize that we have a far wider existence away from our thought process and that gives us the liberty to work on our own thought process. We reconnect to the "self" and in that state, we develop the capacity to examine our body and mind as a witness. We realize in that state that other people too are different from their thought process and therefore develop the capacity to connect to their "selves". That "self-to-self" connection brings love to relations. However, since most people in this society keep identifying with their "ego" and hardly ever connect to their "selves", and are so obsessed and fixated on their "ego" that they can go to any extent to protect and promote their "ego", slowly and gradually, the ones connecting to their "self" decide to move away from the society or decide to stay in isolation. That's the harsh reality of the society of the day. I hope, a critical mass of the "internally connected" people soon emerges in society so that they can build upon that.
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