Veda46- Worldly people vs self-aware people

[Quick links]

 

 

A few episodes ago I was talking about this world as a drama played by the Atma that has taken many forms. Each form has a role to play in this drama. Some of them play a sad role and some play a happy role. From the point of view of the drama there is nothing sad or happy about it. Each form is just playing its role. So, no need to worry about it.

Well, we can say that if the actors know that they are just acting their parts. What if they forget that and start identifying themselves with the role? That is when the actor suffers. And that suffering is not something that can just be wished away.

Worst case is when the actor totally forgets his role! That results in a totally chaotic condition.

Most of us are like the actor who has forgotten his role. We just do not know what we are supposed to be doing. We get carried away by a given situation and start playing instinctively without having any inkling about the script of the drama. One of the Upanishads namely the Swetaasvatara Upanishad gives beautiful similes to distinguish between such worldly people.

In one simile the Upanishad compares this world to a beautiful and enticing woman who has many things to offer. Her only job seems to be to produce more and more likes. She is surrounded by many types of men. There are some who are always anxious to have her. They are never satisfied. They keep getting more involved and do all sorts of things which ultimately puts them into misery. This misery is their own making. But they don’t realize their folly.

There are others who too go after her. Enjoy her for some time, but realize the futility in such pursuits and move on to higher goals in life. They learn from their past experience and show the determination to pursue better things. They stop chasing her. They are the worldly people who after some spiritual practice give up their wayward style of life and tread the path leading to higher goals.

But there are more advanced souls. They learn by the mistake of others. The Upanishad gives another simile to explain that scenario.

The Upanishad talks about two types of birds sitting on the same tree. Here the tree refers to the material world and the bird refers to people in this world. Among these birds, one type of bird eats the fruits in the tree. It enjoys when the fruits are tasty and sheds tears when the fruits are sour. This bird is the one who has forgotten his role and has taken the world too seriously. He does what his instinct tells him. Accordingly, he undergoes pleasure and pain alternately. That is the fate of most worldly people. They alternatively enjoy and undergo suffering.

But on this very same tree there are birds who merely watch what other birds are doing. They neither eat the fruits nor shed any tears. They learn from the mistakes of others and their own analysis. People of this kind are completely detached from the world. For such people there is neither suffering nor enjoyment. They are free people. They have no interest in this world.

But most of us are in between types. We often are in a state of confusion and get deeply involved in the world without any discretion. And we get trapped in a mire of pleasure and pain. Only those who know the truth behind the world as well as the forms, can retain an equipoise. They are the enlightened ones. They still have a form but are not carried away by the form.

Buddha was one person who initially went after worldly things but gave up the chase when he understood its futility. That is what made him Buddha. Ramana Maharshi was another who never went after worldly things since he was clear of his goal right from the beginning. Both played their role with total detachment, never to get entrapped in the world.

A form taken by the Atma suffers because it is surrounded by a mind that keeps enticing the Jeevatma or the soul to indulge in worldly pleasures. Mind is like the beautiful woman who misleads the men who go after her. Or it is like the fruits on the tree that tempt the birds. Once you fall into the trap, you are in for trouble 😉

But the Upanishads are not preaching total departure from the world. If that were the purpose, why all this drama? Why so many forms and myriad lures? The real fun in the drama is not in pulling down the curtains once for all, but each actor playing his/her role when the curtains are raised. They need to do it without over involvement. That is what another Upanishad namely the Isaavaasya Upanishad says

This entire world, with all animate and inanimate things, is pervaded by the Atma. One should aspire to live in this world for full life time of hundred years. But

1. One should enjoy this world without over indulgence.

2. One should not covet what does not belong to him/her.

3. One should keep doing one’s duty with total detachment.

-- Isaavaasya Upanishad 1,2

The Upanishad is not making any assumptions about the purpose of life or the ‘reason’ why the Atma ‘became’ this world. As I said earlier, these questions can never be answered since these are beyond the grasp of the forms which are space-time limited and bound by causality. This Upanishad is only giving a ‘safe’ advice to an actor who seems have no knowledge about the script of the drama of life. Ironically, most of us belong to that category. We need to keep the drama on without messing it up by our foolhardy 😉

Supposing, we want to get an answer to the fundamental questions such as purpose of life or the reason for the emergence of this world, Upanishads suggest two ways. Let us discuss them in the next episodes.

Start            Previous          Next

 

A series discussing the most ancient of the Indian scriptures, nay the world scriptures namely the Vedas. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2021-22