Why the unhappiness? The reason is that we don't accept God's will.
We want God to fulfill our wishes. You see Palaces, Mansions and Gardens in a movie. But if the viewer wants to keep on viewing a scene forever! No, the scene will go and others - of roads, thieves, dacoit, good people, dancers, and lovers - will come. All these are ever-changing scenes of the cinema. If somebody wants to keep a particular scene stationary or to prevent some scene one does not like, it is not possible. If somebody wants a particular scene to go away, it is not possible. You cannot keep any scene stationary or prevent any scene or change a scene at your will. This is only a film for your amusement, entertainment or education.
Likewise, God has made Shastras; He has prescribed paths of Jnana, Bhakti and Karma. God wants our well-being. If we view films, deceive others or do other unworthy things like drinking, gambling, slandering, are not we ourselves sowing the seeds of misery?
So sorrow is formless, weightless and colorless. Unhappiness is the other name for foolishness; it is the lack of good sense, of insistence.
Somebody dies. His death does not make you unhappy or sad. It is the feeling of ‘he is my relative…’ that makes you sad. Birth of a person does not give happiness by itself. It is the belief ‘a son or daughter is born to me’ that gives you joy. We take the body as ‘I’ and the things and persons related to the body as ‘mine’. But if we take the Self, the Supreme Self from where the ‘I’ arises as ‘mine’ and the world as a dream and conduct ourselves in the world judiciously, there is happiness and bliss all the way. ‘These are my diamonds. These are my pearls. This is my house…’ They were possessed by someone else in the past and will be possessed by some other person in the future. The land which you believe to be yours belonged to somebody else before it became yours. And when you die or may be before that its ownership will pass on to somebody else. So do these things actually belong to me? No. You may believe them to be yours superficially, but know within that all this is but a dream and the One Who ‘knows’ it i.e. God alone is mine. He is mine who does not leave my company even after death. This realization leads to perennial bliss.
So, God did not create sorrow! Neither was it created by nature, brother! Attachment-aversion, ignorance, egoism are the causes of sorrow. Ignorance will be removed by the knowledge of essence; attachment-aversion will be eliminated by worshipping the Lord, by meditation. That’s all, your love for Lord is accomplished and attainment of the Supreme bliss is done.
God did not create unhappiness and you too don’t want it. Unhappiness is the second name for foolishness and it can be eliminated with the help of satsang, for satsang awakens discrimination.
‘Wisdom dawns not without association with the saints and such communion cannot be easily enjoyed without the grace of Lord Rama.’
(Sri Ramacharitamanasa Bala-Kanda: 2.4)
One gets human birth with the simplest grace of God. One gets faith and a Guru with special grace of God. With more divine grace one gets initiated into Guru Mantra and love for the Lord is kindled in one’s heart. Divine love will lead sooner or later to the divine Knowledge also.
Your Self is eternal and immortal.
‘The individual soul is a part of God, immortal, conscious, untainted by illusion and by nature perfectly blissful.’
(Sri Ramacharitamanasa Uttar Kanda: 116.1)
You are blissful by your very nature but these visitors – worries, passions and beliefs etc. – make you unhappy. You do not want sorrow; and it is not created by God or Maya or nature. Unhappiness is on account of ignorance. Don’t intensify your pains and sorrows thinking yourself to be miserable or suffering. ‘The mind is afflicted with unhappiness; the body is afflicted with the pain; I am the Immortal son of God, the Knower of all.’ – Thus Self-enquiry can eliminate your pains and sorrows.
We want God to fulfill our wishes. You see Palaces, Mansions and Gardens in a movie. But if the viewer wants to keep on viewing a scene forever! No, the scene will go and others - of roads, thieves, dacoit, good people, dancers, and lovers - will come. All these are ever-changing scenes of the cinema. If somebody wants to keep a particular scene stationary or to prevent some scene one does not like, it is not possible. If somebody wants a particular scene to go away, it is not possible. You cannot keep any scene stationary or prevent any scene or change a scene at your will. This is only a film for your amusement, entertainment or education.
Likewise, God has made Shastras; He has prescribed paths of Jnana, Bhakti and Karma. God wants our well-being. If we view films, deceive others or do other unworthy things like drinking, gambling, slandering, are not we ourselves sowing the seeds of misery?
So sorrow is formless, weightless and colorless. Unhappiness is the other name for foolishness; it is the lack of good sense, of insistence.
Somebody dies. His death does not make you unhappy or sad. It is the feeling of ‘he is my relative…’ that makes you sad. Birth of a person does not give happiness by itself. It is the belief ‘a son or daughter is born to me’ that gives you joy. We take the body as ‘I’ and the things and persons related to the body as ‘mine’. But if we take the Self, the Supreme Self from where the ‘I’ arises as ‘mine’ and the world as a dream and conduct ourselves in the world judiciously, there is happiness and bliss all the way. ‘These are my diamonds. These are my pearls. This is my house…’ They were possessed by someone else in the past and will be possessed by some other person in the future. The land which you believe to be yours belonged to somebody else before it became yours. And when you die or may be before that its ownership will pass on to somebody else. So do these things actually belong to me? No. You may believe them to be yours superficially, but know within that all this is but a dream and the One Who ‘knows’ it i.e. God alone is mine. He is mine who does not leave my company even after death. This realization leads to perennial bliss.
So, God did not create sorrow! Neither was it created by nature, brother! Attachment-aversion, ignorance, egoism are the causes of sorrow. Ignorance will be removed by the knowledge of essence; attachment-aversion will be eliminated by worshipping the Lord, by meditation. That’s all, your love for Lord is accomplished and attainment of the Supreme bliss is done.
God did not create unhappiness and you too don’t want it. Unhappiness is the second name for foolishness and it can be eliminated with the help of satsang, for satsang awakens discrimination.
‘Wisdom dawns not without association with the saints and such communion cannot be easily enjoyed without the grace of Lord Rama.’
(Sri Ramacharitamanasa Bala-Kanda: 2.4)
One gets human birth with the simplest grace of God. One gets faith and a Guru with special grace of God. With more divine grace one gets initiated into Guru Mantra and love for the Lord is kindled in one’s heart. Divine love will lead sooner or later to the divine Knowledge also.
Your Self is eternal and immortal.
‘The individual soul is a part of God, immortal, conscious, untainted by illusion and by nature perfectly blissful.’
(Sri Ramacharitamanasa Uttar Kanda: 116.1)
You are blissful by your very nature but these visitors – worries, passions and beliefs etc. – make you unhappy. You do not want sorrow; and it is not created by God or Maya or nature. Unhappiness is on account of ignorance. Don’t intensify your pains and sorrows thinking yourself to be miserable or suffering. ‘The mind is afflicted with unhappiness; the body is afflicted with the pain; I am the Immortal son of God, the Knower of all.’ – Thus Self-enquiry can eliminate your pains and sorrows.
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