WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?
It seems we possess so much, and yet we are poor. Where did we go wrong?
There is completeness1 everywhere, says the Upanishad. {That is complete; this is complete; completeness arises from completeness; completeness alone remains after completeness emerges from completeness.} Our divine source (Brahma) is said to be full, complete. We are said to be complete too, in our true nature (Atma). How is it that we suffer from an endless sense of inadequacy?
Everyone knows the story of the old lady who was searching for a lost silver coin under the street lights. When asked where she had lost it, she replied, “Inside my house”. She was doing so because it was bright and nice below the street lamp. Similarly we are searching for the sense of completeness in the domain of ‘sense gratification and emotional satisfaction.’ This domain is no doubt quite colorful and enchanting. Completeness however lies inside us – on the ground of our true nature, which is Pure Awareness, distinct from ‘senses and mind’. Awareness is the supreme truth, declares an Upanishad2. We will never come upon true completeness (poornataa) if we stay in the field of objects, emotions and thoughts (OET, as Swami Chinmayananda ji used to call). When we pursue OET, we become right away the PFT (perceiver, feeler and thinker). Clinging to the limited, we become limited.
When wealth, qualification, position, status etc. are seen to fail in the matter of giving us the sense of “I am totally all right now,” there is another reason also for us to be sad. We find we are incapable of compassion towards those who are suffering. We are dissatisfied with what we are and with what we have. Beggars cannot be givers. We are ourselves constantly in need of receiving; how can we give? The choice we make – in ignorance – to look for completeness in the realm of the finite, outer world leaves us incomplete. This results in an unenviable condition. We are preoccupied with ‘what we can get’ and, in the process, have hardly any room in our heart for those around us who are suffering.
There is an expression in the Geeta3 about spiritually mature people, “interested and engaged in the good of all living beings.” This maturity is characterized by ‘contemplation upon that4 which is everywhere,’ and ‘having kept their senses under check5.’ These inner qualifications are not mentioned in the same verse by mere coincidence. Turning inward and recognizing the sacred that pervades all life are the requirements for us to first enjoy our own natural, inner security. It is only then that we let go of our hankering after sense pleasures or dependence on emotional fulfillment. A radical change takes place in our outlook before we are really peaceful within and compassionate towards others. The hallmark of this basic change is that it does not matter to us anymore whether pleasures and comforts are part of our daily life or people praise us at all.
No wonder the great thinker J Krishnamurti observed, “There is no intelligence without compassion.” Bookish knowledge can very much be ours but it surely lacks the perfume of compassion. True intelligence is that where we abhor selfish, scheming ways. This wisdom is definitely accompanied by compassion.
May Vijaya Dashami – the tenth day of Dussera, which marks the victory of good over evil – bring to all of us the insight into where true happiness resides. The ignorant mind, accompanied by the outgoing senses, is Ravana indeed. Spiritual intelligence, born of unbiased study and self-inquiry, is Rama. May we celebrate Rama’s conquest of Ravana, and rejoice in the bliss of living in awareness.
Swami Chidananda
Notes:
1 poornam-adah poornam-idam . . peace invocation of Ishavasya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads, Shukla Yajurveda
2 prajnaanam brahma – 3.1.3 of Aitareya Upanishad, Rig Veda
3 sarva-bhoota-hite rataah – 12.4
4 sarvatragam 12.4
5 sanniyamya indriya-graamam 12.4