Our lives are driven by our own mental stories. We assign different meanings to different phenomena based on our understanding. There may be two different ways to live life. Society conveys meanings of the purpose of life, the meaning of relationships, the importance of money, right and wrong, and good and bad. We may pick these meanings without examination to save effort. It's like driving on a well-regulated highway where we just follow the signposts and reach our destination safely. However, quite often we see that signposts are not well-maintained. Having been hit by a vehicle, its arrow has turned in a different direction, and if we follow the signpost, we will reach the wrong place. Similarly, in our society, many meanings have been distorted due to a perpetual lack of awareness and examination, and therefore, following these meanings will not take us anywhere.
In addition to that, there are conflicting signposts. One is asking us to go in one direction, and the other is asking us to go in a different direction. Society tells us to be truthful, and at the same time, telling lies is seen as a "winning formula," and speaking the truth is seen as stupidity. While the purpose of life is Moksha, the prayer places are full of demands for money and power. While integrity of character is a desired quality, parents encourage their kids to ask for dowries and take bribes. While we should stand with the truth, we should also respect our parents and listen to their demands that are grossly unjustified. While our ideal is Rama, who left his palace at the drop of a hat, we pray to Rama to provide us with wealth and powers like Ravana. While we pray to Buddha, who opposed idol worship, we have the idols of Buddha all around us. While we should help others, we have to compete with our best friends in the examination hall.
It's easy to close our eyes to these inauthenticities and accept whatever society says without examining the same. That's how these inauthenticities become a part of our character and reflect in our daily lives. We do not hesitate to tell lies. We easily tell that we are about to reach in 5 minutes while we are 30 minutes away from the venue. We do not think twice before bargaining even with God that I will do X..Y..Y..if you give me this. Why would God be happy if somebody offered him money, or jewellery, or gets his head shaved? We have become madly fanatic and hung our intelligence and wisdom in some dark corner of our existence. We refuse to see the lives of people who have earned a lot of money and still suffer from mental diseases. We refuse to see the rise and fall of the powerful people in this world.
Why do our minds refuse to see reality? It is because of the law of inertia. The law of inertia says that if something is still, it will take force to set it in motion, and if it is in motion, it will take force of friction to stop it. Society sets kids in motion from a very early age. They have to compete in one examination after another. By the time they get exposed to good books and culture, their mind have already been strongly conditioned. What if I fail? I will be of no use to my parents. I will spoil the reputation of my parents in society. I will spoil their expectations. My life will be hell if I get 1% less. These are the thoughts of most students because of the constant conditioning of their minds by their parents and teachers. Does it stop here? No, they have to prove everywhere. In organizations, while doing their jobs, they start the competition with their colleagues using fair and unfair means. There is a constant fight for credit. Bosses steal credit from their subordinates. So and so that even relationships become a use case. We get so obsessed with "being best" that we fail to realize that we have passed on the same obsession to our kids and made their lives a hell. They will never take a break to look back and realize that they have wasted their life in a race. They have always lived their lives in the future and never enjoyed the present moment.
It's not easy to look at our mental stories, the meanings imprinted deep into our minds, and our inauthenticities, because we are always in a race. Examination needs time. We are always afraid of being out of the race if we take a halt. That's why most people are never able to examine their lives. They start their life racing against fellow sperm and die racing against fellow human beings. The purpose of human life is to connect our body and mind to the inner self and explore the potential of the same. The inner self is full of love. Everything is connected at the level of the field, and that has been proved by the science of the day through experiments in CERN on the Higgs Field. Unless we connect to that oneness, we live a very hollow life. We remain insecure and keep running the race to feel secure, and the fact of the matter is that that security can never come, whatever medals we win and whatever external support system we gather. The richer and more powerful will always remain more insecure. Yes, there is a need to have external resources, but I don't think that in today's world, if we do what we love, livelihood is ever a problem.
The problem is that we do everything to feel secure but fail to engage in what we love. We have never connected with our inner selves to experience true passion. Instead, we merely calculate what meets our standards, based on those set by society. One achievement after another, we remain as hollow as ever. Unless we dare to step out of this race of "achieving the best," we will never see what we truly love. The chirping of the birds cannot be heard unless we turn off the loud music. Moreover, once we listen to the chirping of the birds, that same loud music, which once improved our mood, now sounds like noise. Can't we recognize the hollowness of our lives? Would we want to pass that same hollowness on to our children? Don't we see the consequences? Why do so many "intelligent" people behave so madly? A brief pause and reflection on the journey we've taken would reveal everything. If we do not take this initiative ourselves, circumstances will force us, and that's what is happening as we witness a troubling rise in mental disorders.
Comments