A step to go “Beyond”

We are not human beings with souls, but souls with human bodies. We have chosen the current body to perform a particular role, let us do it to our best, remembering that every little thing that comes our way was designed by us.

We can experience this finite world through our five senses, but we need to keep in touch with our real world and our real identity, the soul. This is not possible through the five senses, but through the sixth sense, which we were all born with, but never bothered to develop. We can develop it and also get in touch with our soul through meditation.

Meditation

 It is a long journey. Ultimately everybody has to undertake it. We can do it in this life, or in the next life, or after four lives. There is no hurry. After all, time is only in the mind!

Several questions arise in the mind, as, Why have we chosen these bodies? What is the explanation in our philosophy for this phenomenon?

In this Universe, there is only one energy, the Paramatman or we can call God for the sake of understanding (Remember ‘Tat Twam Asi?). It wanted to experience itself. When we want to see ourselves, we look at the mirror. Similarly, the Paramatman created his/her own images to experience itself - as jeevatman.  

Who designs our lives?

When we take birth as a human, we decide a life plan for ourselves, choose our parents, birthplace etc.,  As we start our lives, we are fascinated by things and beings around us and instead of sticking to the original plan, we deviate our path and create new karmas, which will create further bondage.

For example, we look at the ramp walking of the models on TV and wish deeply to become a model. Then we have to take birth with a body fit to be a model. Now as the model spends life, she craves for a peaceful family life, which leads to another life as a home maker. It keeps on happening and after experiencing a variety of roles, slowly, ‘Virakti’ (disenchantment) sets in and the mind is ready for long meditative periods to understand the Self and the purpose of life.

For many people, it is difficult to see the exact role that they have to play. What are the roles you are playing? A daughter/son, sister/brother, wife/husband, mother/father, doctor/engineer? What are the duties prescribed for all these roles? Life is that simple, we have to just perform these duties without expecting results. That is where the catch lies. We do expect results.  When we get expected results, our ego rises, and attachment to the associated money and fame increases. If we don’t get the expected results, we experience anger and restlessness. In both these situations, we are creating karmic bonds which will keep on creating more incarnations.

Burning desires through ‘Sadhana’

Whatever happens in our life, we are solely responsible for them. Our desires are like seeds, they will germinate or manifest under suitable conditions. Just like roasted seeds can't germinate, we can burn our desires so that they cannot manifest. This can be done only by genuine 'sadhana'(disciplined and dedicated practice), which one has to decide and be at it for as long as it takes. There is no short cut available. It takes different time period for different persons depending upon accumulated desires over incarnations, and on sadhana done in previous lives.