Why is self-inquiry so difficult, and why do most people continue to live the way they have been living despite the miseries of daily living? Why are very few of them able to take the first step? Even among the people who take the first step, why do so many people not make any progress? What is the fundamental reason behind all this?
The other way of asking the question may be what was so special about Krishna, Jesus, Meera, and everybody else who could break free of all the frames. The starting point is always awareness. A pig is happy lying down in the dirty mud because it is not aware of the foul smell of the dirty mud. Not so that we do not have awareness of the holes in our framework, as children, but most parents discourage such questioning because that's uncomfortable to them. Children often ask questions about death, but we try to hide them behind the false promise of security. Children see through relationships and ask questions as to why we differentiate among relationships. They see pretension in our behaviour with different relatives, and when children ask questions, we simply tell them to shut up, citing their young age as the reason. Children ask many more questions, and we often reject all such questions. Parents feel that they have acted very smartly by hiding the truth behind their fractured relationships and vulnerabilities of life, but effectively, they have just passed on their ignorance to their children. By constantly discouraging the children, we make their intellect blunt. The tool of awareness that is given by the Almighty to every child is dulled to the extent that they lose awareness of the "foul smell" and stop challenging their framework.
Slowly, the children are conditioned not to think beyond the framework they live in. "Known discomforts" look better than the "unknown". Children grow status quoists. They try to find some "workable" solution within the frame they are living in. They become masters of pretension and escape. If they have discomfort in a job, they will keep waiting for the weekends the whole week. They will find some way to pass the time in the office. They will try to pretend a good performance and get a good appraisal. If relationships do not work, they will try to do some patchwork and stay within those relationships. They become masters of "workability" because the "unknown" is frightening to them. They have been told not to trust in "life" since childhood. "Known" is always better than the "unknown", even if that is quite painful. They try to find escapes in relationships and at the workplace. Little pleasures here and there become the motto of life. They look forward to pleasure trips because daily life is stressful. They look forward to peeping out of the cage of relationships to have some pleasure because relationships have become painful.
On the other hand, people like Krishna and Buddha did not allow this society to kill their sensitivity. They always ventured into the domain of the unknown. They were ready to take up any challenge that life offered to them. They learned to dance with life. Not so that staying with that foul smell is easy, and dancing with life is difficult. It's just a matter of awareness. It's just a matter of habit. "Habit of ignorance" is probably the most difficult habit to break free from. It is because the person caught in this habit pattern tries to justify the same. The harder somebody tries to explain to him and the more forcefully he asserts that the other person can't understand his situation. Learning the "habit of breaking free of the frameworks" is easy and at the same time difficult. Arjuna could learn that because he has absolute faith in Krishna. Krishna challenged his deep-rooted beliefs, and Arjuna could see through his limited frame of life. Duryodhana could never break free of his limited framework because he was idiotically sure of his framework. That's what "closing eyes to the reality" by Ambika, while facing Vyasa, did to Dhratrastra and his sons. That's why it's so important to remain fully aware when we see that reality. The moment we confront that reality, we would never stay back with Ravana, however comfortable that may be, and will kick Ravana away from our life, even if he is our own brother. Truth will be the sole guide of our lives.
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