What is life

Sri Sadgurubhyoh Namah

What is Life ?

Life is a sequence of events which is interpreted by one's mind. Each event has an external and internal component. The event that happens in the world and its impact on oneself. I would like to define 'oneself' as the ego-self. An event in the external world can occur by another external entity or by oneself. The event caused by oneself is also two kinds,

1) action caused by oneself arising out of latent impressions.

2) reaction to the external event.

This event caused by oneself , causes one more event by external world. Hence the sequence of events happen in a cyclical manner.

Eg: Somebody hurts you , one takes revenge, then otherside retaliates. This is seen everywhere in world , where there is strife.

No one has control over external causes of an event occuring, but one can minimise or eliminate its impact on mind. But always the mind tries to control the external events instead of controlling oneself. One should strive to be peaceful and stop the two types of actions one does. Instead one's action should be by inspiration.

Eg of inspiration : One sees a nail on road that can cause tyre puncture to some vehicle. One can avoid and go, one can curse the person who threw that on road, or one can put it in dustbin.

If one tries to help oneself, and others also by removing the nail and putting it in dustbin, It gives a good feeling. A simple thing like that gives happiness and peace.

How to respond and stop reacting

1) Develop positive responses, slowly one by one. Just as over years we have accumulated negative things, similarly, we can develop positive impressions.

2) Stop, think and act. This is the difficult part. The time period between an event occuring, and our reaction to it is very miniscule. One needs to use the tool of Observation 'Swaadhyaya', to understand whether one is acting out of reactionary force or by responding. Before we act, there might be different possibilities for that action, the time to pick a relevent action is small. Thats why it is easy to act and then do post-mortem on that action and say, i should have done like that, I shouldnt have done like that etc. So push this post-mortem a little bit higher in the path of action. This is called observation, self-analysis on a constant basis. Then when the time comes to act, we have little extra time to take a decision on what the action to take.

All this you can find in any personality development books. Is there anything different I am saying. May be not. But the fact is , by observation of your feelings, you know what gives you happiness and peace, and you know what makes you sad. So avoid those actions that makes you sad, and do those actions that makes you glad.

What are the pitfalls in this self-observation and analysis ?

None. One needs to be aware / vigilant of falling back into old habit of impressions driving you.

Example of how our impressions' pattern clouds the thinking ?

1) A child sees a chocolate, he wants it and eats it when given.

2) A diabetic patient sees a chocolate , he wants it but avoids it when given.

3) A person who doesnt like sweets, sees a chocolate. He dislikes it.

4) A romantic romeo takes a box of chocolates to juliet. How will she view it ?

These are all the different reactions / responses to same object by different people in different contexts.

The same child may grow up to dislike chocolates. A diabetic patient after bringing his cholestoral/sugar/BP under control can enjoy it. If romeo takes chocolates everyday to juliet, she may throw him out.

What has changed ? is the external event of 'giving a chocolate' changed or is there a change in the attitude of the person recieving it ?

Probable conclusion to these random thoughts:

One may or may not have control over external events. If one wants to be happy and peaceful, try to find what are the actions that can make one happy and peaceful and do them. Often we find that those actions are very simple in nature, as I explained in the case of nail on the road.

Ripples in the pond :

Pond is the mind, ripples are the thoughts. In the process of becomming peaceful, there will be many ripples in the meantime. The practice is to be aware of them. A silent and peaceful mind is like a still pond.

Let there be peace in the world. Let all living beings have peace.

Hari Om

In Guruseva