In the general sense there are 5 reasons why we suffer in life:
1. Ignorance – This is 1st one. Misery is due to ignorance. What is ignorance? Ignorance is giving importance to something which is not worth giving importance to. For eg. Someone said something wrong or bad to you and you hold on to it as a permanent fixture. This will bring misery in your life. Second is thinking something to be permanent which is ever changing. A person’s mind, thoughts, body, intellect keep changing. Eg. if someone behaved with you in a particular fashion some time back he may be a different person NOW; his feelings thoughts might have changed. Labeling that person as bad for life is ignorance. Third, Imagining something to be joyful which is not joyful and something to be pure which is not pure is ignorance.
2. Asmita (Constant Thinking of the self)– Always thinking about ‘ME’ ‘ME’ ‘ME’ or ‘I’ ‘I’ ‘ I’ . When you become the center of your own thoughts, activities and actions, the problem starts. When your whole universe revolves around you, remember you are in trouble. Lets see why ?
This feeling of ‘I-ness’ disconnects you from the others. When that happens your energies get stuck and you feel miserable.
Another way to look at it is: When you think that i am sooo good, this means you have subconsciously discounted others as bad or not-good-enough; this also makes you miserable. On the other hand even if you think ‘I am not good enough for other’ then also you get disconnected and move into the trap of misery.
When you are natural like a child you will again feel connected to everyone around you. Just notice, do you ever know any child who suffers from misery or depression. It is impossible because children are very natural.
3. Fear – Fear is another reason why we feel miserable sometimes. Why ? Lets see. Fear is associated with the heart chakra. So when there is fear, love is absent. Have you noticed that ? Lets go in detail – every emotion in the mind has a corresponding sensation in the body. The sensation of fear is felt in the heart. The sensation of love is also felt in the heart. Only one emotion can exist at a time either love or fear. Thats why people who are madly in love don’t fear anything.
How to increase love in life so that fear has no place ? Start giving more love to people around you. The only way to increase love is by giving. The only way to reduce love in your life is by asking. This is such an irony isn’t it ? When love fills your life there will be no room for fear.
4. Craving – It starts first with someone’s talent or with an appreciation of someone. The attraction then turns into craving. Watch out for that ! When this happens expectations arise in you. And when expectations are not met we feel sad and miserable.
5. Aversion – The other thing to watch out for is aversion. When you are averse to someone of something, that thing sticks to your mind and prevents you from seeing the BIG picture. We specially need to watch out for this because our mind has the tendency to stick to negative things faster than positive ones. Often our aversions reflect our own nature. Whatever we are averse to or avoid doing we will find those things coming back into our lives in some form or the other.
Kick out all the complaints from your head for if you keep them, then that head is not going to be very useful. This is so important. Because only then your consciousness which is like a flower is all blossomed, brilliant, blissful, peaceful, and full of love.
Cravings and aversions take over you because of three basic reasons.
1. One is when you are not focused.
2. The second is the time in your life – there is a certain time when these obsessions and cravings reach the peak and come down. However much you understand, read books and tell your mind to avoid them, these forces become so strong that they take over you.
3. The third thing is the nature in your body. When there is too much rajas or rajogun or too much energy that is not channeled properly, then there’s obsession. This can also happen because of lack of understanding about the obsession or lack of understanding about Truth, the Reality. But if you fail to conquer your obsession once, twice or even thrice, don’t lose heart.
Don’t start to blame the Knowledge and lose faith in it when it doesn’t work to control your obsession. Your weakness will enable you to pray deeper !!!
Thats all for today !
Love
Rohit
Celebrating Silence 