Ignorance
is the cause of our problem. As a result of ignorance we suffer.
Stress comes as a result of ignorance. To the extent that our
knowledge increases knowledge about ourselves, the world and other
things - our problems decrease, and all the stress we have will
be eliminated.
So,
ultimately, it is a search for knowledge. Through faith in God
and self-control - control over the senses - we get knowledge,
and soon after we get knowledge we attain to supreme peace. In
peace there is no stress. In peace, all stresses of the body are
dissolved. So it is very important to develop within ourselves
a particular type of culture, a culture which is physical, mental
and spiritual. The physical culture is called 'asana'. Asana means
to sit in a posture.
In
the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells us that subtler than the
body are the senses, subtler than the senses is the mind and subtler
than the mind is the intellect, meaning that it is more difficult
to control the senses than the body. If we cannot control our
body, how can we control our mind?
Attachment
It is good to sit in one posture, to be very calm, quiet, peaceful,
and to be aware that we are sitting in that posture. And to the
extent that we become aware, something will happen within us.
If we try to concentrate on a particular thing, the mind will
wander all over the place, but if we try to sit in a particular
posture, being aware that we are sitting in that posture, we will
find - without consciously knowing what we are doing - that the
mind will become detached from this world, from other things.
And our problem lies in the world, because we become attached
to this and that, to so many things. That attachment saps our
inner core. The inner will gets weakened. As a result of that
weakening our problems will come.
When
stress develops within us and the will is weakened, we do not
have the power to withstand anything, for stress overtakes us
and we become helpless, we cannot do anything, we cannot reverse
it.
It
is necessary, therefore, that with this inner core we maintain
the particular posture we sit in and try to maintain it without
shaking a limb for as long as possible. When the senses become
detached from the world, concentration develops. When that concentration
develops within us, our inner will starts to reassert itself.
The body has subtle sheaths or different states of existence.
Stress that develops within us causes our consciousness to function
at a very superficial level. As a result of that, our mind - functioning
at this level of consciousness - creates a barrier between these
different states of existence, the subtle and the causal. There
is no contact between them and as a result of that all our other
problems develop.
Take
faith-healing for example. Faith-healing means going to the core
of our being and trying to establish our consciousness on that
deeper level - the source of our being. Being detached from that
source is the cause of stress. When we give our inner will a chance,
the freedom, to assert itself, we begin to experience a sense
of freedom. That sense of freedom is very important, because it
is when that sense of freedom comes to us that absolute relaxation
develops within us. When our mind functions at a pure level of
consciousness, things start to happen within us. So it is important
for us to understand ourselves a little bit. That little bit of
understanding ourselves will help us to overcome the problems
of life.
In a life governed by a spiritual outlook, stress factors should
not be there. In ancient Vedic times it was called 'studentship'
when a child goes to the home of a guru to start his mental training
and discipline - brahmacharya, which make his whole being integrated.
When he enters the other stages of life, being integrated with
that physical and mental discipline, he can enter society with
the full understanding of a mature person, understanding himself
and society. But when he grows up in society without that kind
of spiritual upbringing, he becomes materialistically orientated.
As a result of that material orientation, stress develops, because
material life has no stability, material life undergoes changes
all the time. So we live all the time in a world of uncertainty,
of insecurity. This combination brings about anxiety, and stress
develops within us. We cannot get rid of stress unless we turn
to God, to religion. For nothing else can give us security but
God.
Look,
for example, at an insurance company that has another insurance
company to protect it, that insurance company has another company
to protect it, and so on. Take, for example, a rich and powerful
country like America which is still developing arms. Is this not
a sense of insecurity? So, insecurity is the basis of material
life.
In
the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells us that it is He Who gives
us that security. He does not only give us material things, He
gives us the security of that as well. So our pursuit, our whole
dharma - righteousness, our culture - is spiritually orientated.
In that spiritual orientation we find an inner integration and
as a result of that we come nearer to God. Thus in our thought
God is unchangeable, God is the real, God is the source of happiness,
Sat-Chit-Ananda. Only in God can we find happiness, not in this
world. This world gives us one moment pleasure, another moment
pain. Because of this instability, anxiety develops within us.
That
is why our rishis advised us to do our meditation in the morning
so that all negativity that develops during the night will be
cleared, and to do our meditation in the evening again to clear
any negativity developed during the day. In that way we establish
a relaxed, refreshed, sublime life. And when we go to sleep, we
can sleep with a relaxed frame of mind and body. We feel refreshed.
It is in that state of relaxation that the whole system gets rejuvenated.
When there is tension within us, we cannot sleep.
Drugs
rob us of our inner power
In modern society, we take one drug to keep us awake. We take
another drug to put us to sleep, and drugs for all sorts of pains.
We live in a materialistic, a drug orientated society. If we live
the right type of life, eat the right type of food, we do not
need anything else. Our system is going to help. If we take things
that are not good for our system, it will revolt against that
particular kind of thing, and stress develops within us. The good
and the pleasant are quite different. The wise man - after looking
at every side - chooses the good, but the ignorant man runs after
the pleasant.
In
the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells us about the pleasant: in
the beginning it is like eternal nectar and joy, but in the end
it is like poison and destroys us. But the good is like poison
in the beginning and like nectar at the end. The implication is
that we must be able to look at things, to analyze things: we
should accept what is good for us, we must reject what is not
good for us. If we follow this simple principle in life, getting
up early in the morning and the first thing we do is to remember
God, to think about Him, our day begins nicely and our whole day
will be happy. If we have a little brawl in the morning, the whole
day will be stressful.
Meditation
gives us good vibrations. We do not understand how important they
are. Because when these vibrations get within us nothing else
can enter. Let us surrender ourselves to God after we finish our
work, after any mental type of work. Let us try to surrender all
these to the Lotus feet of God. If we can be like that, stressful
feelings will disappear. But if we are hoping that drugs are going
to get rid of our stress, we are wasting our time because drugs
create more problems than they solve. They rob us of the inner
power and of the body to overcome its own problem. So let us have
faith in dharma, in God, in prayer and meditation. With faith
in what we have, we will find that our life will become happy
and beautiful. Om Tat Sat Hari Om.
The
Bhagavad Gita, or 'Song of God', one of the sacred Hindu texts,
recounts the dialogue between Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu,
and Arjuna, His disciple.
Reprinted
with the kind permission of Share International Magazine.
