Can we take our eyes off the scoreboard and expectations of the spectators to play our natural game freely?

The previous post, "Sudarshana" https://observationwithawareness.blogspot.com/2025/11/sudarshana.html, has got a comment from someone as follows:

"But what about the timing of Right Vision. Duryodhana has enjoyed his life, while the Pandavas have suffered throughout theirs. Likewise, Ravan enjoyed his life fully."

That's quite interesting. It's a strange phenomenon that we define pleasure and pain in the context of a limited framework and then sit in the seat of a judge and start judging life. We feel that money, fame, and power are rewards, and if somebody follows Krishna, he should get all these things. Pandavas gained the rulership of Hastinaur, but why did Duryodhana enjoy throughout his life, while Pandavas suffered? Why did Ravana enjoy throughout his life, while Rama suffered? There are two basic presumptions. First, money and power give pleasure. Second, somebody who follows a spiritual path should get more of these things.

Coming to the first presumption that money and power give pleasure. Can we see what our brain is doing to us? It has fixed the centre of its existence to pleasure. What is this pleasure? Why do we get pleasure from money and power? Because they provide us with comforts and pleasures. We buy a comfortable home, hire servants who take care of the work, and a chauffeur drives the vehicle, and we move around easily. We buy luxury cars and branded clothes. What are all these things doing to us? They are doing two things. First, they make our lives comfortable and secure. Second, they lift our image in society. Regarding comforts, yes, they have a functional use. When we feel heat, we feel life switching on the AC, and when we feel cold, we feel like switching on the heater. We need money to buy the comforts. The Kauravas in the palace are far more comfortable than the Pandavas. We will not make our lives uncomfortable by choice, and we may make efforts to earn money to make our lives comfortable. No doubt about that. But comfort and safety, at what cost? The purpose of a car can't be to stay secure in a garage and have a tank full of petrol. It has to run on the roads and take people from one place to the other. In the process, it will be exhausted and tired and also consume petrol. That is the purpose of a car's life. Vanavasa of the Pandavas prepared them to live a fulfilling life where all the Pandavas could work on their strengths. Vanavasa of Rama helped him meet all the Yogis who helped him understand the true meaning of life.

Similarly, talking about the self-image, that's just a mental story. All the brands of the world and all the self-images are just stories. Some images are more approved by society. An image of being helpful, a good person, a good neighbour, being powerful, and so on. Isn't it just a mental story we have created in our childhood and somehow blindly believe in the same? That's why "self-image" is very prone to manipulation. In fact, many of us get manipulated almost every day to retain the trophy of "being good". We see that manipulation is taking place within the families also, where one person is a "good boy" and he will be assigned more and more responsibilities, while the other son will absolve all his responsibilities. Do we see that the image of being respectable is so prone of manipulation and fills us with immense danger of shattering this image.

Again, it is not the comforts or that self-image that makes us vulnerable and fearful, rather it is attachment thereto. Somebody may live like a lotus in mud, unaffected by it. We have examples of Janaka, who lived in a comfortable palace, was very powerful, and also had a very good social image, and yet he was unaffected and unattached. His daughters suffered the most due to the boons granted to Kaikeyi by Dashratha. Urmila had to stay away from Lakshmana for 14 years. Sita went to the forest with Rama. Had there been any other person in place of Janaka, he would have been extremely troubled. But Janaka had complete equanimity. That is the instant reward of moving on this path. When witness mode is established, we are not disturbed by the storms that keep coming and passing in our lives.

Why would somebody who follows a spiritual path want money and powers? He has lost taste thereof. They are like the best of sweets offered to someone who does not have a taste for sweets. Like a spicy food for someone who has no taste for spices. He has a ve different reward, and that reward is instant. He is just like a spectator, watching the game of life, irrespective of who is playing the game. He enjoys every shot. It does not matter who plays that shot and to whose scorecard that score is added. Yes, it is difficult to perform and be a spectator at the same time. But that's the biggest challenge of life, and whoever meets that challenge enjoys life most. Enjoyment does not come with money and power. Joy of life lies in living life. A player plays his best inning when his eyes are off the scoreboard and the expectations of the spectators in the gallery. Thus, we need to come out of our limited frame to understand the deeper truth, and that can happen only when we stop evaluating the outcomes in terms of the rewards and punishments we have defined within our limited framework.