26. Eternity Lives in the Moment
We are busy chasing things in our life. We are totally focused on goals, on achievements, on other things surrounding the goal. We forget the purpose of our goal.
Life is not a goal. Achieving lifestyle is a goal. Understand the difference between the two. When we chase a lifestyle we are following the norms laid by the society. We are trying to please someone else. Our decisions are influenced by comparison with others. We are constantly trying to better the other person in terms of finding a way to stay in the lead.
We also live in the fear that our position will be toppled any minute. We fight and squabble over little things. We are living in a rat race. Our life at this point has no satisfaction. We have no idea what peace is and we have never experienced it.
Even when we have so much we are dissatisfied with our life. We have lived our years but not added life to it. At the best we have lived our life superficially. Great Masters like Sankara, Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and others show us how to experience life. One more thing about the realized Masters- they all left their body at an young age: Sankara at 32, Vivekananda at 39, Ramakrishna at 50 and Yogananda. They had such deep satisfaction because they experienced life fully.
They experienced every moment with profound satisfaction. They focused on the moment yet lived in eternity. The fundamental difference between the way the Masters lead their life and we live through ours is simple, but deep. If we are centered on lifestyle we might add more more years to our life. We still need outside energy, attention, to carry on with our life. But if we are oriented on life we will continuously radiate energy. This energy radiates from within us.
Science offers no solid proof for this. It only has to be experienced. Like all great truths this one too is beyond logic. We cannot prove the presence of God through logic. The moment that is done logic will become greater than God! God is great because He cannot be proved by logic. In the same way life also is beyond logic, it is paradoxical. When you try to see it logically we miss life itself.
It takes constant remembrance to let these ideas sink into our being. If we let this consciousness and awareness flower in our self, we will experience life in eternal bliss, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. Let us.
27. Are You Paralyzed?
A small story:
A few friends sat to chat over a cup of coffee. The first man said, 'Good we could all come! I know a man who spends his evenings, every evening, at home. He has been doing it for the last 30 years since his marriage.' The other man replied, 'Oh! This is what I call love, real love for your wife.' The third man said, 'You call that love? Doctor says it is paralysis.'
Understand the word 'paralysis.' We are not referring here to a medical condition where a person is unable to move. We are examining the habits that paralyze us. Most of us, although healthy and wealthy, are actually paralyzed. We are unable to move in the direction we want at our will. We are incapable of determining the path and purpose of our lives.
We live in paralysis when we cannot make a conscious decision. Only when we choose and if choose consciously, deliberately, with our discrimination, are we making a conscious decision. When we make a conscious decision we take responsibility for our actions. We choose the direction of our life. We attract the best purpose that suits our nature and work towards it. It is only when we decide to live consciously we have a 'life.'
By saying conscious choices, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM does not say that we should be adamant, attached and fixated on a purpose. Let us say that we decide to smoke. Let us do it consciously. If we become deeply aware of breathing the smoke in and breathing it out, and the pleasure it give us, then we are in a position to make a conscious decision about our smoking habit. This is the same with drinking, gambling, food addiction, and other addictions. When we become deeply aware of the purpose of doing an act- understand how our mind interprets it- then we are living consciously.
A vast majority of us do not live in this manner. We do not make conscious decisions. We let incidents happen on their own. If incidents happen in our lives on its own, not by our choice, we are paralyzed. Our lives are nothing but a state of paralysis. Living without conscious choice can never be called life. Until the moment we decide to live and live consciously it cannot be called 'life.'
Wake up! Live and get a life. Direct the life events consciously. This is the only way to shake the paralysis that has gripped us.