All of us are trapped in different frames of life. We keep passing through the moments of sadness, stress, and depression due to these frames and yet fail to break free of these frames. Sometimes we successfully break free of a frame and get trapped in another frame. People successfully get free of the frame of "family" and become "Sanyasi" and get fixated on the frame of being "owner of a math or ashram or organization". People break free of the frame of "pursuit of success" and get fixated on the frame of "becoming a philanthropist". People break free of the frame of "one relationship" and enter into "another relationship". People break free of the frame of "tasty food" and enter into another frame of being "health freaks". People break free of the frame of being "lazy" just to enter into another frame of being "super-active".
There are millions of examples where people have been able to break free of a fixed frame of life just to enter into another frame of life. That shows something very fundamental about human nature that we are afraid of breaking free of all the frames and at best we switch from one frame to the other. These frames of life are fundamental to our existence. Very few have been able to break free of all the frames. Buddha was not fixated on any frame. He left his kingdom to live the life of a beggar. He dropped his family to become a sanyasi. He gained a lot of respect in contemporary society and yet did not react when a few people in that society conspired against him and tried to make all types of false allegations against him. He could have compassion for the biggest of his ill-wishers.
Krishna could break free of all the frames of life. He was a Gwala happily playing with his friends when he came to know that his parents were imprisoned by Kansa. He immediately entered into a different frame of life and fought a battle against Kansa. When he was constantly fighting a battle against Jarasandha, he realized that there was no point wasting time in that battle and decided to move his capital to Dwarka where his subjects could live peacefully. He could have decided to sit peacefully when the battle of Kurukshetra was in foresight between Pandavas and Kauravas but rather he participated in the battle and mentored confused Arjuna. He chose Kurukshetra to tell his friend Arjuna the meaning of life. He actively participated in different frames of life as a singer, flute player, lover, friend, fighter, king, and philosopher, and he played all the roles as a versatile actor.
Coming back to the question as to why Buddha and Krishna could break free of all the frames while most of us are stuck in one or the other frame. I feel that the most fundamental reason is our false understanding of life. We keep searching for security in these frames. We search for security in family, social validation, money, powers, and relationships. Just think of a scenario where Krishna seeks security from his friends and family in Brij. Would he ever be able to leave Brij in that case to Mathura to play his role in the larger frame. If he seeks security in Dwarka, would he ever be able to impart the teachings of Geeta? If Buddha seeks security in his kingdom, how would he go to the forest to discover the technique that can help millions of people across time and space to break free of these frames? It is not surprising at all that today the best minds in the world such as Yuval Noah Harari.
Probably the biggest difference between Buddha and us is that he was born as a prince and having been born so, he realized the futility of almost all the frames, we somehow struggle the whole of our lives to get in. He realized the futility of money and power due to his keen observation of life. He could see that money and power can't save us from diseases and old age. He realized that suffering is inevitable so long we remain fixated on a frame and that motivated him to find a solution that can help everybody to get rid of the suffering. Finally, after a lot of sadhana, he found that the moment we break free of the fixation on different frames of life, we become free of the sufferings as well. The same message was communicated by Krishna to Arjuna. The fundamental cause of the conflict and suffering of Arjuna was his fixation on the frame of social validation and family. He was so concerned that fighting against his own cousins would land him in hell. He was also afraid of criticism from the social and social expulsion. Krishna told him that he needed to break free of all these frames and accept truth to be the sole guide and carry out his "Swadharma". Somehow like Arjuna, we get fixated on different frames of life and unfortunately do not make the right use of the wisdom contained in Bhagwad Geeta and the preachings of Buddha and continue to live a confused sub-standard life confined to a very narrow frame. We just need to set the center-right. The moment we set wisdom, love, and compassion at the center of our life, everything else will be taken care of and till that time suffering is our destiny.
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