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In our never-ending quest for the meaning of life, we often forget, or, perhaps we are totally oblivious of the simple truth that, we are the creators of who we are. Everything that we are, including the body, character, emotions, talents, health and longevity, intellectual capacity, spiritual traits and many other things besides, are self-created. Do not blame external causes entirely, for what is occurring in your life. Of course, during the formative years, our nature is molded by our parents primarily, but, that does not mean that the subtle effects of past actions; self-created in former lifetimes, were not influencing circumstances, for good or ill, at the time. For the most part, many people live mechanical and selfish lives; not knowing why they are here in the first place; vanish from this motion picture show suddenly, without having realised the truth about the purpose of human life, and why they were sent here.
It is said that all beings want to be free from suffering and attain to that state of consciousness where there is only perennial peace and joy: freedom from the bondage of all human sorrows. Unfortunately, we are searching in vain for these things in external material pursuits. Time and again, we blunder into the ditch of error and suffer, as we attempt to satisfy endless desires in our quest for happiness. We think we are happy but we are actually suffering silently, and we cannot, in the majority of cases, pinpoint the exact cause of this suffering. People create a host of psychological problems and then end up on the couch of a psychiatrist, and are later given a prescription for medicine, which medicine they think will make everything disappear, magically. Then, they go on with their lives repeating the same mistakes and suffer some more. How utterly self-defeating is such behaviour? If we only knew that we have everything that we need within us already to experience that lasting peace and joy. What is required is that, we learn to cultivate that special something within us, and cease to repeat the same mistakes, simultaneously. Then, we would carry a “portable paradise” within us. To the extent that we cultivate this inner garden of spirituality, we will notice a marked and proportionate increase in peace and joy. Conversely, and in the same way, we are also capable of cultivating nightmarish circumstances for ourselves. Heaven and Hell exist relative to each other, and are not external locations in space and time, however, they are an inner state of being that we have created for ourselves through the way we think and feel about things, people, environments, God and so forth. So many varieties of so-called realities and misconceptions lead to a host of troubles. Isn’t it time to break with the age-old tradition of self-imposed suffering? Yoga, the science of God-Realisation strikes at the root-cause of all human maladies: ignorance (avidya), and opens the way for abundant health and vitality; longevity, prosperity for the body and mind, cultivation of soul qualities and the gradual refinement of one’s nature. Learn to control your mind, and let it not control you. You are the spirit shining in the “bulb” of the body. You are not the body which is a nest of troubles. To think that you will derive perennial peace and joy by this association, alone, is ignorance. Learn to temper materiality with spirituality.
HARI OM TAT SAT