93. Bestowing happiness or ruining it is in your hands.
- The human mind is affected very much on account of media which wastes away time. This is a sad truth.
- As a result our thinking is affected. We think of imagination as real and reality as imagination. The mind has become devoid of clarity. It is only because the decisions are made by such a mind that there is a lot of confusion in life.
- Imagination cannot be real. One cannot imagine the reality. This is the practical truth.
- It will be a great thing if out of 100 imaginations, one or two become real. This does not require a big explanation. In the book of your mind, turn to the page containing, 'personal experiences'. You will understand.
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A man was running very fast in order to escape from a tiger. As he continued running, he came to the edge of a mountain. Due to his haste and agitation he fell down.
As he was falling downwards from the mountain, he caught hold of a bush containing red coloured fruits. Having caught hold of it, he was hanging, dangling in the middle.
A tiger on the top, a valley at the bottom as he was holding on to the bush, it was getting uprooted from the soil.
In those dangling moments, the red fruits hanging in that bush struck his eyes. He plucked a fruit by one hand and put it in his mouth. He began tasting it. 'What taste! What sweetness!' he said to himself. Till then a red fruit had not been so sweet in his life.
In that moment, the imagination as to, 'Oh! What will happen to me if I fall down?' was not there in him. Therefore even at a situation when he would have had to die out of fear, it was possible for him to taste the sweetness of a fruit in a sweet manner.
Your fear, irritation, grief – all these are formed due to your imagination around some one or some thing only.
Our state of peace or the lack of it is decided depending upon the angle in which we imagine about something which has already been done or something that is going to be done.
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In the man's life, out of 100 real experiences, 99 of them would have occurred either suddenly, naturally or normally.
Whether we are prepared or not, we are under compulsion to face strange experiences.
If we are prepared, unexpected life experiences will give joy for us. Otherwise, they only ruin our joy.
The couple, who were destroying their own happiness, went to meet Sakkiya Muni, who was giving happiness to one and all.
As the couple entered the hut of Sakkiya Muni, the Muni welcomed them, saying, 'Welcome, welcome, welcome', as though he was welcoming actually a big crowd.
Fear and confusion caught the couple, because there was no other person other than those three persons in that room.
The couple sat before the Muni thinking of what was going to happen.
Sakkiya Muni once again looked at the room and said, 'Why don't you listen? If all of you sit around me in a crowd, to whom can I talk? I cannot satisfy even one person.'
Because there was nobody else other than them, fear gripped the couple totally. Both of them started sweating.
Sakkiya Muni said, 'All right. First of all both of you tell your problem. Later on I will talk with the others.'
First, with a little bit of courage, the husband said, 'Only this woman, who has come to me as my wife, is responsible for all my problems.'
Sakkiya Muni said, 'Don't tell a lie. I will be very angry. You have two wives.'
As the Muni said this, the husband was shocked. As he was thinking within himself, 'Even my wife came to know about it only a few days back that I live with another woman. How does this man know all these things?'
The wife said, 'This man, who happens to be my husband is not all right, having lived a life of chastity, what remains is my irritation only.'
Sakkiya Muni said, 'Kali Yuga! In spite of being a woman, how is it that you speak a lie without feeling ashamed about it. Truly you have two husbands.' As the wife heard this, she felt as though a scorpion had stung her.
The husband was horribly shocked really. He reached the peak of anger as he went on thinking, 'Have I lived all along being afraid of such a deceitful woman?'
The wife said, 'Master, it is true that he is having another wife. But I am a chaste woman. Burn the camphor on my palm. It will not burn my hand. This will prove that I am a chaste woman.'
Sakkiya Muni said, 'Oh foolish girl. Then you do not know the full truth. Really your husband has four wives and you have two husbands.'
The husband went to the peak of confusion. 'Who are those two wives, whom I myself do not know?' he thought.
The wife was an intelligent lady. She had already known about enlightened Masters. So she understood deeply that there will be truth in what a Master says.
The wife asked, 'Master, who is my other husband?'
Sakkiya Muni said, 'The man who is sitting here is your first husband. A collection of all the judgments you have about him is your second husband. The husband who is here is different. The husband who is painted with your opinions is the other.
You live with your husband only at the bodily or physical level. At the mental level, you don't live with your real husband. You live only with the imaginary husband painted in colour with your opinion.
The husband who is in your mind is different. One who is here in reality is different.' – He made them understand this very great life truth.
That lady was able to understand easily as to why the Muni had said that her husband had four wives.
The wife asked, 'Master, Why did you say that there are many people sitting around us?'
Sakkiya Muni said, 'If the good as well as the bad relations living continuously in your mind and those relations living in your husband's mind are added together, then one entire village lives within you.
When you talk to each other, not just the two of you are doing the talking, two villages talk.
Same way, when you quarrel too, two villages fight with each other.'
He finished saying, 'Unless you drive away those people (imaginations) in your mind, created by your own opinions, happiness and bliss are impossible.'
The couple understood the reason why in the couple's life instead of having more and more joy in the relationship even their existing happiness was torn apart. Throwing away the imaginations, they started to live as a real husband and a real wife.
Any one who has read through this essay can commence a real and true life from today.
For the psychological quarrels that happen between you and the imaginary forms of yourself and also for the mental sorrows, you find fault with the real relations and make them suffer. Let us put a full stop for this dullness of intellect.
From today, let us live in reality and let us give more and more joy to others. Let us destroy the imaginations which destroy the joy.
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A meaningful incident.
In a T.V. programme, Mukund and his wife, when asked, 'How many children do you have?'
Mukund said, 'Both of my sons are in good jobs.' The journalist asked, 'How old are your sons?'
'The doctor is 6 years old and the engineer is 3 years old.' he said undisturbed in his imagination!
- The mind is just a fire-fly caught in the net of imagination. It must be freed.
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Meditation chisels. Chisel No.49.