Health and Happiness - Dr Dwarakanath
In the sloka
attributed to Surendra the disciple of Sankara, he explains the vain clinging
of human relationships and he clarifies that it is not unnecessary but the need
for us to know its real limitations are. According to him, the distinction of
'You' and 'I' consist only so long as there is the body. Before one's birth,
there is no such relationship as 'father' and 'mother', but once the body came
into existence, we have relations. Who were we previously? Who were our
parents, brothers, sisters, friends, uncles, aunties, grand-parents, cousins,
etc., earlier? What are these illusory forms? What is this Maya? One has to wake
up from this dream, open one's eyes and try to see the reality. If one succeeds
in seeing that one reality behind all the creation, then the problem is solved
once and for all. The mirage will disappear and one finds liberation. One has
to understand and be aware of oneself vice- versa one's relationship with the
other individual and at the same time the Maya that is binding both of them.
It does
not mean that one should not have such bonds, but one should understand the
fragility and its limitations, as most of such relations related to body rather
than soul. Soul mate does not at all refer to wife-and-husband relation, father
& daughter relation, mother & child relation but any soul which gets
enriched by the experience and relation to the other soul in spirituality is a
soul mate. It is, therefore, important to know oneself before forging any
relationship with the other individual. While making use of the rational
intellect by asking such questions as to whence and whither have we come from
and who are our parents, etc., we should root out our misconceptions and reach
to the roots of reality. it is definitely a difficult task to overcome this
state of mind at the moment, but through consistent Sadhana (Practice) and
rational approach, one develops the ability to look within oneself totally to
get freedom from these bonds.
Thus, having
successfully dismissed all the sense-passions from one's mind, turn the mind
inwards for a close and critical observation of oneself to find out answers to
the above questions, one would understand the hollowness of the world of names
and forms and the enchantments of the objects and their vanities around us.
This is to realize the strong clutches of the Maya upon the human at large. The
influence of which is the root of all these vicious cycle of happiness and
sorrow in all human life, which in turn prevents human from its ultimate goal,
Realization. In our next part of analysis, we shall continue the search, on the
finding of oneness in us from the clues Sankara left in his Advaita philosophy!
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