Today, I attended a session by sister B K Shivani. She talked about adopting qualities like love, compassion, honesty, and integrity and dropping qualities like greed, lust, jealousy, and completion. I wondered as to why the adults need to be told all these things. If a person in his 40s and 50s is greedy, competitive, and full of jealousy, then we have failed miserably as a human race. If we learn how to live life while half or more of our lives are over, then there is definitely something absolutely wrong with civilization.
We go to these sessions, listen to these preachers, feel good, return back home, and start doing the same things that we were doing for years again. Why does it not serve the purpose? Why despite the world being full of so many gurus and preachers, the world is full of rapists, terrorists, and criminals? I think Sister Shivani gave a good example of drinking tea on the bed. If tea falls down, we immediately clean the bed sheet before it seeps into the mattress. Similarly, unless we handle these impurities at the level of the conscious mind, they will enter the unconscious mind where it becomes quite difficult to clean them. Unfortunately, the worst part of the unconscious mind is that we are largely unaware of the same. Just like Lanka. We don't know where Ravana stays and what are his strengths. Rakshasas keep attacking us camouflaging in different forms. We keep chasing the golden deer and meanwhile, our virtues are taken away like Sita taken away by Ravana.
The unconscious mind is like a black box and once we allow that black box to take over and make decisions for us, we are in deep trouble. It appears to be easy. Our conscious mind need not be burdened with the decision-making. We wear what we we unconsciously like and spend great time, money, and energy to buy these products. If anybody asks us to give reasons for the things we purchased, we hardly have any reason. It does not stop with the clothes, it applies to food, properties, home, furniture, choice of friends, partners, friends, job, and everything else. Our preferences are largely a product of our unconscious mind, which in turn is just an imaging machine that mirrors what it sees and experiences. Since we are not aware of the contents of the black box, they are never challenged and that is the reason why our preferences, opinions, biases, and viewpoints keep getting stronger as we age. Of course, society has put a lot of premium on the age and the children are not supposed to ask questions from the adults. That makes their black boxes darker. So dark that no ray of light can enter them. From black boxes, they turn into black holes.
As we age, it becomes more and more difficult for us to open these black boxes. We are so comfortable with them. We choose the company of people having black boxes of similar contents and there are hardly any occasions to challenge their contents. In the process, we become parents and make many new friends. our kids end up mirroring the contents of our black boxes observing our behavior and everybody in the family and almost all our friends have black boxes with the same contents. Everybody has the same greed. Parents encourage kids to compete and come first in the class because they have the desire to come first. Parents want their kids not to share whatever they have learned with their friends so because winning is more important than friends. Parents tell their kids unconsciously by praising the kids with a fat pay package that money is the only thing that matters in life. We want to close the eyes of our kids when we encounter death and suffering. We want their focus not to waver by looking at these harsh realities of life. That is how we not only make multiple copies of our black box but also turn our black box into a black hole.
It's not easy to start the process of observation. Observation of the contents of our own black box. We need to first find out the whereabouts of Sita. That needs strength and concentration like Hanumana. That requires unwavering faith in the divine which is not easy when the whole of our existence is controlled by the black box. Initially, when we sit in meditation and prayer, our mind like Hanumana has no faith in its capacity to fly above the surface. The gravity of worldly things and thoughts pulls it down heavily. But when one is open to possibilities and not too fixated on his "mount Stupid", the words of Jamvanta magically inspire one to fly above the material world. That is the first step in the process. Once we find the whereabouts of Sita and get to know the contents of the black box, we develop confidence to have a face-to-face battle. It still needs a bridge to be built for the entire army of existence to reach Lanks. We do some selfless deeds that float on the same greed and lust as the floating stone thrown by Nala and Nila. After reaching Lanks, we meet our own past samskaras in the form of Vibhishana that help us kill our inner Ravana. The black box becomes completely transparent and ruled by the devotee of Rama rather than Ravana. It needs the devotion of Hanumana, and the conviction of Rama to enter and examine our own black box of the unconscious mind. We generally like an easy way out and that's why somebody needs to tell us how to live life even after reaching our 40s and 50s.
प्रवाह
flow.pravah@gmail.com
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