What I find most interesting and painful in our discussions is that most people have the feeling that the purpose of life is to live a comfortable life and aim for more money and power. They feel quite jittery when we discuss the relative insignificance of these things in life. In fact, they become quite aggressive to defend their fixations quite reluctant to examine the truth. For most of us, whatever the society tells us is the gospel truth and there is no question to examine the same.
The frog in the well does not wish to come out of the well. The frog is happy inside the well in its limitations. He feels that so many others are living inside the well happily. He is not sure of what exists outside the well. It's like the people living in India when India was under the British Rule. Most of the people got so used to slavery that they stopped making efforts for their freedom. They accepted the third-grade treatment from the British and thought of enjoying whatever little freedom they had. However, there were some like Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, and Subhash Chandra Bose who realized the value of freedom and once they realized the value of freedom, they could not be contended with slavery.
I really do not know why some people can see the pains and sufferings of this life and make efforts to know the truth and become Buddha, while most people keep enjoying the comforts of this world till they get the much-needed sufferings in their life to realize the real nature of these pleasures. In fact, most people, even after suffering these pains and sufferings, again get attached to other pleasures and comforts to face the suffering. It appears that most people are so shallow and disconnected from the divine that they get trapped in the most meaningless comforts and pleasures. They behave like bonded laborers who are so hungry that they sell their freedom for a few pieces of bread. Once they become slave, they just live a life of slavery and have to follow the commands of the owner. If they do not follow the command of the owner, the owner uses hunting and other means of torture.
Similarly, in a state of disconnection from the divine, we get so restless for pleasure. We get completely disconnected from the divine and in that state, we become madly hungry for pleasure. We keep looking for pleasure in food, money, power, roaming around different places, watching movies, and taking liquor. Since we are madly deprived of inner joy, all these things give us pleasure and we get so addicted to such pleasure that these things start dancing on our heads. They become our rulers and make us crazy.
The more this society is moving towards materialistic objects the more it is suffering from psychological disorders. Ravana had all types of comforts in his life, was an expert in all forms of knowledge, and was the most powerful person in all three worlds, yet he was so discontented internally. Why all the wealth, powers, and knowledge could not give contentment to Ravana? It is because possession never brings contentment. Possession of money, powers, and knowledge just brings fear. Ravana was quite afraid of death. He was afraid of his insult since he regarded himself to be the most powerful person on the earth. When he could not win the Swamvara of Sita, he felt insulted and decided to take revenge.
The same thing happens to us. The more we get the pleasures, comforts, and powers the more we become fearful of losing them. The more society validates our actions the more are we afraid to be criticized. The more we eat tasty food, the less our tolerance for food that is not tasty. The more we get respect in this society the greater our resistance to disrespect. Probably the reason is that the more we get worldly pleasures, comforts, money, power, and validation, the more we get fixated on them. The more we get fixated on these things, the more we move away from the truth. Truth is the consciousness and all forms just emerge from that and merge back into the same. The day we get fixated on our kids, we have sown the seeds of our sufferings that will become a full-grown tree when our kids move away from us to fulfill their dreams marry against our wishes, or give more importance to their own kids than us. The day we center our life around money, we have sown the seeds of our suffering and just waiting for the day our investments fail due to a volatile market or our property is occupied by somebody. The day we get attached to power, our sufferings are bound to come the day somebody else becomes more powerful.
Somebody will say, let suffering come when it comes. Let me enjoy the present moment. Why worry about the future? That's perfect. But was Ravana happy any day in his life? Do we equate pleasure, fun, and entertainment with internal bliss? Can we ever compare Rama in the forest with Ravana in Lanka? I sometimes feel sorry and sad to see the society of the day. We pray to Rama and follow Ravana. Unless we understand and appreciate the bliss Rama had, we will keep following Ravana in our lives and remain as shallow, fearful, discontented, and anxious as Ravana was. Ravana at least had the strength and determination to fulfill his ambitions. Most of the society today has ambitions greater than Ravana and courage and hard work not even iota of what Ravana had. That is the reason why the entire society is full of depression and sadness. The most worrisome part is if they feel that this discontentment is necessary for them to be motivated in life. Rama does not need the wealth of Lanka to fight Ravana. Even after defeating Ravana, he just gave it to his brother Vibhishana. Ram is complete, internally connected to the divine, and therefore does not need all these externalities to be happy. Einstein does not need any degree to explore the world of science.
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