- contd from Part 6
The Burden of Choice
One day when I went to buy grocery in a grocery shop that is located in one of the Asia's largest mall, I stepped into the food section and was first amazed to see the list of varieties arranged in glaze packages - aisle after aisle with all kinds of things right from pasta, noodles, chips, etc, etc., extending to 10 aisles arranged on either side with 5 shelved, 6 racks. Each shelf has further a choice of 10 varieties of products. Thus, in total I have a choice of 10 x 5 x 6 x 20 = 6000 varieties to chose from to buy my grocery. I tried to do a little bit of statistics over there in looking at the possibilities of cooking a dish for a cook and ended up with an undefined value. For a while I was startled and my brain went into a freeze mode.
Next I walked into aisles of toiletries and detergents section and felt as if I am in a chemical factory and my mind questioned me - "is it really necessary to use so many different chemicals to keep yourself and your clothes clean and aromatic?" I was silent and could not answer my mind. Another question came from my mind as if Mother Earth is asking me - "do you know how many chemicals you are using and throwing onto land and polluting me?" Again, for the first time, I felt ashamed of being a human being and polluting the Mother Earth so much.
Later, instead of buying what I went for, I just bought about 4 items and left that which was more of a big chemical factory rather than a shop.
Simplicity is the key
Later after coming home, I started my research on how to live more nature friendly and less dependent on chemicals as much as possible. To my surprise, I could find many methods and highly nature friendly which slowly I started adopting in my life and slowly started convincing my partner who has agreed and started cooperating in most of the ways.
One of the outcomes of my learning was where I self reflected upon my way of living and started looking at the ways of Indian Rishis lived in ancient India. For them everything has to come from nature, least processed and has to go back to nature for its natural degradation.
How many choices we make in a day of 24 hours and how many of those choices we choose really wisely with a calm mind and do not regret in future is a very big question, and I don't think we get an affirmative answer for it. How many choices we make for our physical well-being and our mental well-being? And among those that we make, do they really promise our well-being both on physical and mental realms? Since, we were not able to choose wisely based upon the plethora of choices that were thrown in front of us by all kinds of marketing people, we ended up in a big confusion. Hence, the result is a more disturbed, stressful and highly complicated life which we are living as if there is no choice.
So it is high time we simplify our external life. Because if we don't simplify our external life and the choices that they are going to lure us with, we cannot and will not be able to take out some time to look within and reflect for the eternal Truth that is lying always within us, which is ready to show up and bless us eternally.
INTROSPECTION
Introspection means looking within. When we look into a mirror, it will tell us how we are physically - our physical body, the color of skin, the dress that we are wearing-how much well fitted they are, etc. Similarly when we introspect and look into our internal mirror and observe our reflection of self, then it will tell us how we have behaved, how much our actions were ego based and non-ego based, how much our actions with love and how many were with hatred and whether we are really living happy or not. The process of self-reflection will also enable to mend our ways so that we can take all those measures that enhance our overall well-being.
A proper introspection will provide us a detailed analysis of our various emotions that we are going through.
The emotions are nothing but the extent or the intensity of our entanglement towards a particular phenomena or an incident or a perception that we have perceived through our senses and used our intellect to decipher that perception in the way our ego has directed it to understand. An unbiased and unprejudiced introspection will let us disentangle ourselves from all of our emotions. In this way we can become free from all entanglements. As each emotion also has it own effect on our physical bodies, by understanding and disentangling ourselves from our emotions we can also enhance our overall well-being.
One of the most important aspect of life that helps us in introspection is silence. While the process of introspection is happening it is always advisable to be in a safe and silent environment. We can also introspect in a busy street, or a busy cafe or may be in a local transport also. However, when we do this we may not be so much cognizant about the physiological changes that are happening within ourselves. And the physiological changes does influence to some extent on our introspection and the reverse also. Any psychological change will also influence our physiology. When this introspection is performed extensively with the help of some kind of breathing techniques or the scientific meditative techniques as mentioned in Vijnana Bhairava Tantra विज्ञान भैरव तन्त्र and merge into the meditative silence, then we can as well cauterize all of our innate habits or entanglements that which we have developed in this or from previous lives. Even one technique among the 112 available from this when practiced properly can lead us to liberation and freedom.
Most of us when we try to introspect and make an attempt to question ourselves, our behavior and the aspects that might be causing us pain, we do it on the surface and may not dive deeper. This is one of the reasons why we do not change much in our external behaviors or we do not change our habits. To change internally, we need to question why a particular activity is being done by us. Are we trying not to accept something in our lives and trying to mask it with something else? Because, as long as we are trying to mask consciously or unconsciously i.e., knowingly or unknowingly then we would never be able to truly change ourselves and we continue to suffer. Hence, our introspection has to be deeper and excavating so that we understand what exactly we are craving for in our lives and why? This will enable us to clearly see - what is there underlying? - which could be unfulfilled craving, need, want or desire. When we question this - in a way that:
- do we really need to have it?
- are we ready and prepared ourselves for the consequences it is going to result in - in terms of short term and long term?
Then probably we may forego all those cravings, needs, wants, desires as they are not really going to enhance our overall well-being. Sometimes the knots in the psyche could be very deeper and they get freed only by excavating questioning and a highly unbiased, unprejudiced, non-judgmental introspection. As long as we do not free our deep seated knots, we cannot be free and cannot have our overall well-being. We have to let go all our masks, strip our psyche so naked and make it so transparent that it can transmit the Divine light and wisdom.
Another aspect of introspection can be in a way on questioning ourselves, as how we would like to remember ourselves? What is that identity that we would like to be identified with? What is that emotion that we would like to be in 99.999999% of the time? What actually we need from life? These questions will also reveal to us the reality of life and the priorities that we should be choosing at appropriate times in various stages of life.
If we have to introduce ourselves to someone are we going to introduce ourselves with a position, a designation, bank balance, social status - what? And, are these positions, designations, social status, bank balances really describe us as a human being? Or do they provide us masks that we have inadvertently created to hide the Truth so that we can live a life full of lies? How many times can we introduce ourselves truly that I am a human being or I am a Spirit living in this human body? Do we have that awareness? Have we made any attempts to create that awareness within us? Did we create that kind of environment within us and around us so that we can become aware of ? Are we creating such kind of environment so that our future generations can become aware of what the Truth is?
We cannot live with ourselves until and unless we get rid of our attachments and aversions towards the external world and the worldly objects. This can be done by cultivating dispassion towards all the unnecessary necessities.
Sage Patanjali mentions in his Yoga Sutras:
dṛṣṭānuśravikaviṣayavitṛṣṇasya vaśīkārasaṃjñā vairāgyam ॥ 1.15॥
दृष्टानुश्रविकविषयवितृष्णस्य वशीकारसंज्ञा वैराग्यम् ॥ १.१५॥
tatparaṃ puruṣakhyāterguṇavaitṛṣṇyam ॥ 1.16॥
तत्परं पुरुषख्यातेर्गुणवैतृष्ण्यम् ॥ १.१६॥
Dispassion cultivated and developed over a period of time will not only enable us to be detached, it will also enable us to go beyond the three attributes of nature (sattva, rajas and tamas), thus allowing us to become free from all entanglements to reach our real home of the Truth.
Introspection (antardarshana अन्तर्दर्शन ) along with study of Self (svādhyāya स्वाध्याय) will definitely lead us to the Truth.
Hence, it is the right time to wake up from our dreams of living the lies that society has impinged upon us. -
Enough of it. Let us look into ourselves.
CONCLUSION
Hence, when we look into this process of life, introspect deep enough, we will understand clearly how much we got distracted from our true purpose of life and instead of actually living life and enjoying the life that is so much thriving within us, we make ourselves vulnerable to enter into a maze of mess of choices, things and what not all kinds of unnecessary necessities.
So, it is high time, we take a break from this nonsensical routine and instead of succumbing to the external non-meaningful temptations and end in messing up our lives further, we take the reins into our hands and walk the path of Truth with dignity, integrity, honesty, and
Love Alone. Because, when I can live with Myself, I can live with any other self. Because every other thing, every other one is my own Self.
When we adapt the meditative or mindfulness practices they will give us the following benefits:
- to be less reactive and be more responsive
- to be more detached and be more loving
- to be less noisy and be more calm
- to be less complicated and be more clear
- to be less confused and to have a better clarity in everything
- to be less attached to things and to be more loving to life (whether in humans or any other animals)
- to live more a life that which is available as a blessing for us than just being an automaton.
- moderation in everything
There are few verses in Bhagavad Gita which emphasize on moderation. We will look at two verses from Chapter 6.
नात्यश्नतस्तु योगोऽस्ति न चैकान्तमनश्नत: |
न चाति स्वप्नशीलस्य जाग्रतो नैव चार्जुन || 16||
nātyaśhnatastu yogo ’sti na chaikāntamanaśhnataḥ |
na chāti-svapnaśhīlasya jāgrato naiva chārjuna || 16||
O Arjuna! those who eat too much or eat too little, sleep too much or too little, cannot attain success in Yoga.
युक्ताहारविहारस्य युक्तचेष्टस्य कर्मसु |
युक्तस्वप्नावबोधस्य योगो भवति दु:खहा || 17||
yuktāhāra-vihārasya yukta-cheṣhṭasya karmasu|
yuktasvapnāvabodhasya yogo bhavati duḥkhahā || 17||
He who is temperate in his habits of eating, sleeping, working and recreation can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.
Hence, let us take some time and reflect upon our true selves and then adapt:
- a mode and way of conservation in everything instead of being on the spree of consumption; and
- moderation in all of our day-to-day activities.
4 Approaches Towards Practice of Presence of Mind
The way I look at life is to have 4 approaches where we can practice the presence of mind and be conscious of every moment and maneuver ourselves in leading towards a more meaningful and harmonious life.
These are:
- Having a regular morning and evening schedule for some structured Meditation or Mindfulness practices which inculcates self-discipline (anuśāsanam अनुशासनम् in Sage Patanjali's terms) into our life.
- Practicing presence of mind in daily activities by stealing some moments amidst of daily activities and focus on breath and just observing what is happening without the interference of ego or having without any identity. Just being a witness on the three - gross, subtle and causal realms.
- Becoming a Witness towards all life's activities. Being in the world and not of it. Having a complete awareness of all life's activities while actively participating and acting with detachment on the three - gross, subtle and causal realms.
- Contemplating and introspecting at the end of the day just a few moments before retiring to sleep on the day's activities and having an unbiased, unprejudiced, non-judgmental outlook on how we have behaved through out the day on the three - gross, subtle and causal realms, and accordingly amend and improvise for future to have a more meaningful, enhanced and harmonious life.
One of the ways of turning the outgoing mind inward is to remember this verse from Vivekacūḍāmaṇi विवेकचूडामणि written by Sri Adishankarāchārya:
लोकानुवर्तनं त्यक्त्वा त्यक्त्वा देहानुवर्तनम् ।
शास्त्रानुवर्तनं त्यक्त्वा स्वाध्यासापनयं कुरु ॥ २७०॥
lokānuvartanaṃ tyaktvā tyaktvā dehānuvartanam ।
śāstrānuvartanaṃ tyaktvā svādhyāsāpanayaṃ kuru ॥ 270॥
Control, resist yourselves and renounce your involvement regarding the various ways of the world, give up regarding too much grooming about the body, leave aside unnecessarily pursuing the scriptures, and finally banish the superimposition which has crept up on your True Self.
Thus leaving aside all the lies that the world like to superimpose upon us let us make an attempt to anchor ourselves in our True Self.
Let us understand the life that is thriving within us and around us. Let us live the Life that is our life and not someone else's lie.
Because, when we live our life truly we can support the life in everything else, and enhance the well-being, and the life itself thriving in everything.
