ARANI SERIES
February 22, 2016
Spark 18
REMOVE THE ROOT CAUSE OF SUFFERING
“When you see THAT, the knot in your heart is destroyed,” declares Mundaka Upanishad1. What is this knot? Made of vast collection of habitual urges, which have thrived thanks to ignorance, it is no other than desire2.
Natural completeness, childlike innocence, unconditional love and unhindered compassion are within us, waiting to be discovered. Thought comes along and creates the sense of incompleteness. “I am not good unless I too have a big house like that man has,” says thought, which compares and is conditioned. This movement has no objectivity and it is not based on facts. Fanciful conclusions and erroneous decisions mark this activity of thought.
We must study the liberating teachings of the Upanishads and dwell on them. All unnecessary desires, which drain our energy, flee in the light of the wisdom of the Vedānta. We then desire what is truly needed. This does not mean only food and drink. We may wish to take up an enterprise, do something that helps people and alleviates their misery. We may rejoice in poetry, art or engineering; there is nothing barred from the celebration of life when Self-knowledge dawns on us. The difference is that we do not do any of these out of inner inadequacy or insecurity. We do things out of the energy of pure love. There is no attempt to build our self-worth for Self-knowledge has given us – in no uncertain terms – the feeling, “I am all right.”
Rich or poor, talented or otherwise, we can have this spiritual insight that we are wonderful the way we are. Desire, jealousy, low self-esteem and countless other forms of negative energy take to their heels in the light of this quiet recognition. The joy of “being” takes precedence over the excitement of “becoming”.
Swami Chidananda
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Notes:
1 bhidyate hridaya-granthih .. tasmin drishte parāvare – Mu. Up. 2.2.8
2 avidyā-vāsanā-prachayah .. kāmah – Shankara on the mantra cited above.