Doing, having, being
We all function around these three axes: doing, having and being. Doing for having, without enjoying being, is the sole cause of all our misery. Doing never catches up with having. Every time we work hard and fulfill one desire, there are more desires to make us run.
Never think, 'Let me work now, I can enjoy later.' Don't think you can come back later and enjoy! I tell you, it will never happen. Every tomorrow comes in the form of today. Doing should lead to being every moment, only then you are on the right track.
Doing for having*, without enjoying* being*, is the sole cause of all our misery.*
Don't postpone living. Celebrate! Enjoy life; it is now or never. We all run throughout our lives thinking that we can enjoy later, but we land up finally running into the graveyard. When you get onto the running track, you lose your real capacity to enjoy. You forget how to enjoy.
As they say, 'There is more pleasure in the pursuit than in the attainment!' Always, as long as you are chasing something, it seems that it is worth the whole world, but after you get it, somehow it loses its importance! If you become aware of yourself and understand what exactly you want, and try to do that alone, you will never find yourself in this kind of a self-contradictory and fragmented situation.
Ramana Maharshi beautifully says:
Adaivadar mun kadugey aanaalum malayaay kaatti
Adainda pin malayey aanaalum kadugai kaattum maya manam
It means, 'Mind is that illusion which shows a tiny mustard seed to be a huge mountain until it is attained, and a mountain to be as insignificant as a mustard seed once it has been attained!'
People ask me, 'Swamiji, unless we compare, how will we know where we stand?'
In the whole world, someone is sure to be better than you at whatever you do. There is a 99.99% chance that you are not the world's best engineer, the fastest runner or the most talented painter. Does that mean that you enjoy these things any less? Only when you think that you might be enjoying less than someone else, you start enjoying less! The moment the thought that 'someone else might be enjoying more than you' comes in, your whole flavor changes. You become uneasy and jealous.
It is like this: Poverty itself doesn't trouble us. The thought that we are poor troubles us! We might be leading a peaceful life as we are, but when the thought that we are poor enters us, we suffer. And how does this thought come? By seeing others and comparing. We feel this way because this thought directly hits our ego and we shrink, like a mango.
A small story:
There were two shops opposite each other across
Poverty itself doesn't trouble us. The thought that we are poor troubles us! the street, selling the same kind of things. There was always a stiff competition between them.
The shopkeeper of one of the shops came out one day and put up a signboard outside his shop: Established in the year 1929. The shopkeeper of the shop across the street was watching this from inside his shop. The next day, he came out and put up a signboard in front of his shop: All fresh stock. No old goods.