You know that changeful, imperfect objects cannot give you the changeless perfect experience. Now try to make your life a quest after That which is changeless, which is all-full and, therefore, perfect and blissful. You are at once confronted with the fact that as embodied beings, you cannot entirely dispense with the performance of your day-to-day duties as members of a family or as citizens of a society. Whether you like it or not, for the time being, we have to fulfil these duties. How should they be co-ordinated with the exercise of our highest duty in life—the attainment of Bliss?
Those who have only a nodding acquaintance with Indian philosophy have acquired a strange and rather confused conception of the Buddha, Nirvana, the theory of Maya, the theory of Karma, etc. There is a nebulous haze in their minds out of which has emerged the idea that India professes a philosophy of fatalism, as though everything were pre-destined and there were no need for doing anything. Indeed, one could not do anything because the ultimate goal would be a nullity, according to this way of thinking. In this conception, man himself would be a cipher, because Nirvana means nothingness. This is the inference which has been drawn by some people from the message of Patanjali. There could be no greater mistake than this. Indian philosophy declares in bold and unmistakable terms that the great aim of human life is to attain supreme bliss. It asserts: “All beings in this universe have come forth from Bliss. In Bliss they have their being, in Bliss they are sustained, and to attain Bliss they are destined. Therefore, it is perennial Bliss indeed which is the great and the ultimate Truth and Reality”.
This is obviously not a philosophy of fatalism. This is not an advocacy of do-nothingness. When it is said that the supreme state is Nothing (No-thing), the meaning is that it is nothing which could be described by articulate utterance. Utterance is too weak and inadequate to do so. It is also nothing that the individual human soul, in its state of relativity, in its state of duality, has either known or ever experienced. So it is a totally new and novel experience from the point of view of the experiences which the human being, in his state of finitude, has ever known. Silence is the only way in which one can express That which is beyond all speech and thought.
The great goal of life, according to Indian philosophy, is the attainment of Bliss. Whatever we do, we must not forget this goal. Attaining this goal, we are not deprived of anything. Rather we are filled with something—something which the whole world can never give, which all the objects of the universe are powerless to give. Our outer lives are characterised by the very antithesis of that blissful, peaceful experience. But if one is to start in quest of that great attainment, is he to cancel completely the course he has already adopted? Is this life to be set aside? Can it be set aside?
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Next: Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 5.Spiritual Life and Life in this World—A Reconciliation
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Sri Swami Sivananda The Path Beyond Sorrow
Chapter 6
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, Glorious Immortal Self! There is a permanent Reality behind this entire universe that lies before you. There is a vital living Truth behind the names and forms that constitute the world we have come to know. That great Reality, that living Truth is of the nature of bliss and blessedness. It is a state of untrammelled freedom, limitless peace, boundless wisdom and indescribable bliss. It is a joy which nothing upon the surface of the earth can even remotely equal at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 1.The Great Search for Happiness
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 1.The Great Search for Happiness, Let us make an observation of life. What significant point emerges out of our observation? It is that wherever man exists, activity is also evident. People are running about, everyone bursting with activity! There never seems to be a moment just to pause and reflect. And what is this activity? Let us try to analyse it. Most of this activity is a furious search for happiness, for enjoyment, for pleasure, of different degrees and shades of experience. Simultaneously, man is ceaselessly trying to rid himself of sorrow, pain and suffering. He is trying to avoid all that is unpleasant, painful, sorrowful and grievous, and to attain all that is joyous, pleasant, happy and enjoyable at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 2.Right Education as to the True Meaning of Life
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 2.Right Education as to the True Meaning of Life, It is the duty of every parent, educator and elder to give to growing souls (young people) the sense of lifes wondrous purpose. If from the very beginning of ones life this were inculcated in every soul, a great deal of searching and struggling and sorrow would be obviated. Right from the very start, life would be meaningful. Life is not just a haphazard flight from one object to another. Life is a quest full of significance and meaning at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 3.Living Is Not Life
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 3.Living Is Not Life, Thus you are caught up in this whirl called life, and so closely gripped by it, so deeply entangled in its meshes, that the mere process of living rather than the true life engrosses you entirely. Living takes the place of life. And naturally, with the true purpose missing, there lies an essential emptiness within, and this emptiness you try to fill by ever exerting to obtain external objects. But objects cannot bring the experience of happiness within; they foment anxiety and bring the experience of unrest and turbulence. Happiness is a state of the inner life of the individual. It is a state of the mind and the intellect at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 4.The Goal of Life According to Indian Philosophy
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 4.The Goal of Life According to Indian Philosophy, You know that changeful, imperfect objects cannot give you the changeless perfect experience. Now try to make your life a quest after That which is changeless, which is all-full and, therefore, perfect and blissful. You are at once confronted with the fact that as embodied beings, you cannot entirely dispense with the performance of your day-to-day duties as members of a family or as citizens of a society. Whether you like it or not, for the time being, we have to fulfil these duties. How should they be co-ordinated with the exercise of our highest duty in lifethe attainment of Bliss? at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 5.Spiritual Life and Life in this WorldA Reconciliation
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 5.Spiritual Life and Life in this WorldA Reconciliation, Both the ancient and the modern Indian sages are idealists, but their idealism is practical; it is combined with a very sane and sensible realism. In the quest for bliss and peace, the other life has to be reconciled with the striving for perfection. The physical and intellectual aspects of the being which operate upon this relative plane have to be reconciled with the great urge of the truly spiritual being. This reconciliation is one of the tasks of the spiritual life at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 6.Practice of Virtues
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 6: Your True Purpose In Life, 6.Practice of Virtues, Of what does righteousness consist? The answer is to be found in the very structure of truth. If one is fulfilling the truth, one is drawing nearer to the realization of God. But if ones life is characterized by falsehood, one cannot have God, one cannot have happiness; for one is cutting himself away from the Source of all blessedness. If one is cut away from Him, then not even the whole of the earth can give him happiness. Peace and happiness cannot, by their very nature, come into the life of the individual who contradicts truth. Righteousness is, therefore, the fulfilment of the principles of truth in life. It consists in being true to your inner real nature which is Divine at energyenhancement.org
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