I have been a smoker for more than 35 years and I am familiar with statutory warnings on cigarette packets. You have graphic and unpleasant looking photos of diseased body parts with a message saying – Smoking Kills or Cigarette smoking is injurious to health.
Now there is one statutory warning that is required as far as life is concerned. And that is the sentence – Not to be taken seriously.
Most of us take life far to seriously. More seriously than is required for our own good. And more seriously than our maker intended us to do.
And I have the authority of the Hindu scriptures to back me up on that.
Below are some basic teachings of Hinduism that I think are relevant:
- You must be familiar with the concept – Bhagawan ki Lila. All of life is the play or the sport of the Gods.
- Another basic concept is that all is a dream or dreamlike. So why be so serious about something that is not real.
- A third concept is that the BMI – the Body-Mind-Intellect aggregate – is not the Self.
- Next the teaching that all is momentary and transient. There is nothing that can be grasped or held on to.
If all these teachings are assumed to be true there are reasons for a more laid back approach to life. But why do many people fret and fume and get all hyper about their lives?
In my opinion there are two main reasons:
- We are afraid of death and want to live long lives.
- We have been hypnotized by the authorities and the persons we look to for guidance. This guidance most likely has the motive of keeping the economic capitalistic machine going.
Most people are not philosophers and do not think very hard about spiritual teachings and are taken in by this false guidance. So we spend our time and our lives pursuing illusions. This is literally true if you accept that the world is dreamlike.
So what are the concepts that will help us live better lives. According to me:
- The fact that the BMI (Body-Mind-Intellect) is not the Self needs to be pondered over.
- A related useful concept is that we are one with Brahman – that is our true nature is that of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.
This will help counter the fear of death and we will feel much lighter as a result.
What I want to do in my life and recommend to you is that you need to dehypnotize yourselves by pondering over these Hindu spiritual concepts daily. I highly recommend the videos of Swami Sarvapriyananda of the Ramakrishna Order. His videos on Advaita Vedanta are excellent and will serve as a sound basis for your lives. Do a search for him on YouTube and watch his videos daily.
How to contemplate is explained in the video below:
Nothing less than that is required for dehypnosis.
Now I am not expecting too many people will follow my advice. The path I am advocating is difficult. But everything worth doing is also difficult.
The Bible says that Many are called but few are chosen. Out of the entire human race many are called so most are not even called to spiritual pursuits. And even if you have the aptitude there is no guarantee that you will be chosen.
But all of us have more than one lifetime to become enlightened. There is no hurry and in the meantime we will be leading this lifetime according to sound philosophical principles.
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