Life and
Its Grand Fulfilment
An
Analysis of the Dilemma of Life
Bewildered by contradictions in
life, and speaking in contradictions, sometimes the critical and cynical
intelligence thinks that God perhaps made a mistake in creating us in His
own Image, a mistake which is, like His other mistakes, an act of His
unerring and all-seeing Wisdom. If He did not do so, we would not hunger
for Him, and there would be no need for a philosophy of life, the Master,
the Scripture, the spiritual progress. If He did not mean us to have
dominion over everything, we could not attempt it, nor resist attempting
it.
In the scheme of creation, we are
strange creatures. The Immortal and the mortal dwell together in us. We
have a surprising strength and happiness when we are conscious of the
Immortal, and we feel weak and helpless when our intelligence is wholly
absorbed in the mortal. Our reason tends to deny the Immortal, yet our
hearts secretly long for it.
We are full of contradictions:
this is our weakness, yet our glory. It is at once a challenge and an urge
to accomplishment. In it lies the circumstance of our manhood and the
possibility of our Godhood.
We do not want God, but long for
happiness; but, we cannot have happiness unless we have God. Truth, we do
not want, but desire peace, and peace without Truth, we can never have.
The Eternal, we dismiss as a subject for speculation, and get busy with
perfecting everything about us, but perfection lies only in the Eternal.
We are caught up in strange, yet
delightful dilemmas. That which we deny most vehemently, turns out to be
the most real. We denounce the Invisible, with the strength which is, on a
deeper analysis, found to be derived from the Invisible within ourselves.
We dislike God, yet use Him in ourselves, love Him in the wife, kiss Him
in the child, serve Him in the friend, and admire Him in the nature. We
hate religion, yet express it through our good works, in our love for the
wife, the tenderness for the child, the services for the friend, in the
admiration for nature.
God is fully
everywhere, and shows Himself up even in the blows we administer Him. We
are like the troubled dog before the huge mirror; not knowing that the
other dog in the mirror is its own reflection, itself, it barks at it, and
finds the other dog returning the bark. Tired and exhausted, it turns
back, discovers there is no other dog besides itself, and is happy. God is
that which we do not want, but without which we cannot subsist. He is as
much in our wanting Him, as in our not wanting Him. He is as much in our
denials of Him, as in our acceptance of Him. He is as much all of Himself
in Himself, as He is all of Himself in ourselves. The Truth of His
unconditioned Being renders us ridiculous. He is that which we oppose,
also all that with which we oppose Him, and what is more, He is Himself
the opposer. Tired, defeated, depressed, we slip into Him, become Himself,
and find all is good.
Your
Essential Nature and the Fundamental
Problem of Life
God is all that is highest,
strongest, best, wonderful, in yourself. He is your real Being, Self, the
Life of your life, the Light of your existence. He is your essence,
treasure, intelligence, joy. Why run away from yourself? Face yourself.
You are a container of endless Consciousness of all kinds of powers and
possibilities. Unfold that higher Consciousness. See yourself. Think for
yourself. Understand and know yourself.
God is the supreme Reason, the
infinite creative Intelligence. Nothing in life is so rational in nature
as God. You cannot escape Him; you cannot run away from Him. You cannot
live without Him. Can the sun subsist without light? Can the air exist
without space? Grow more and more conscious of the Light without which you
cease to be, and discover fully the infinite Ground of Being without which
you have no subsistence. What is this Consciousness within you, from which
your intelligence rises, your love emerges, your qualities,
characteristics, attributes, have their source?
Face yourself. Say no more that
you need no God, no Reality, no infinite Consciousness. Mistake not your
fleeting thought for yourself, your passing experience for yourself, your
changing circumstance for yourself.
You are always more and other
than all that belongs to you and all that is not yourself. Your wishes and
aspirations change, your nature is transformed, your conditions are
altered. All is subject to change, but not your real Self, yourself.
Know this God in the heart of
your life. Then, you shall fully know your mind, your world, and all else.
Then, you shall find real and eternal Life, Peace, Power, Strength, Joy,
Perfection.
What
is the Solution to the Problem of Life?
Our life is a problem, with God
as the only solution. Not economics, not politics, not education, not
sociology, not ethics, not science, not psychology, not any of these by
themselves, can resolve the problem of life. They are purely instruments
of particular ends that man strives for at lower stages of development.
Man is a rational being, whose
reason shall not stop asking questions until it arrives at that which is
the fulfilment of reason, - God. Man is a happiness loving being, who
shall not stop his quest until he finds a happiness that is imperishable
and unconditioned, - God. Conclusively, then, the answer to the problem of
life is God. The solution to the problem of life lies in making the
limited, troubled love in the human heart universal, cosmic, unlimited,
unconditioned, divine Love, - God.
Man,
Science, and the Meaning of Life
Deceived by the spectacular
advancement of scientific knowledge, modern mind in all countries and
continents, has not cared to understand the fundamental meaning of life. It has sought its satisfaction in a sensational floating upon the
apparently attractive scum of existence.
Such has been the spirit in which
science has taken its marvellous strides in progress, that it has nothing
in its constitution to drive it towards a grasp of the deep and
significant changes that man undergoes beneath his scalp, towards
understanding the potentialities of man as a mind, as a heart, as a
spirit, as a creative entity, towards directing his aspirations, towards
aiding the blossoming of the noblest forces that lie buried and latent in
his bosom.
Life
is a Challenge and a Circumstance for Fulfilment
Life is a wonderful challenge and
a great circumstance for the expression of the all-illuminating Love, the
all-transforming Wisdom, the Heaven-making Delight, and the all-conquering
Power enshrined in the inner recesses of our consciousness.
Life is granted us not for
rejecting, or negating it, but for enriching it by touching that which is
beyond it. Life is entrusted to us, not for renunciation, but for
fulfilment in that which transcends it. Life is a circumstance which can
be best maintained and enjoyed only by filling it with the treasures of
the timeless Divinity. The river is fulfilled in the ocean, the smaller in
the greater, the limited in the Unlimited. The time is fulfilled in the
Timeless, the finite in the Infinite, and the life of man in the life of
God. The fulfilment of human life consists in relating itself in love and
in knowledge to, and expressing the fullness of the peace and the delight
of, God.
Essentially
Life is a Divine Phenomenon
Life is a complex circumstance,
in which we are required to express actively that which is most precious,
fundamental, highest, all-creative, all-enriching, all-luminous, - God,
and that which the life itself bears as the fundamental ground of its
being.
Life is a divine phenomenon,
disfigured by the ignorant and the impatient, and disclosed by the wise
and the illumined intelligences. The proper conduct of family, the
administration of the country and the society, is a part of the eternal,
universal Government, run by the all-creative divine Intelligence, which
looks at the entirety of beings with a strictly impartial eye. We can be
neither wise, nor happy by disregarding the evolutionary aims and laws
inherent in the wider framework of the cosmos we inhabit.
We live because God exists, and
our life is to be perfect, peaceful, creative, joyous, even as God is
perfect, peaceful, creative, joyous.
We exist in God's Being, we
breathe and move in Him. How wonderful we are rests upon how fully
conscious and actively related we are to that in which our being is
grounded, that which is the Light of our intelligence, the Being of our
being, the Power of our power, the Perfection that sustains our
perfection!
The
Purpose of Life on Earth
Life is a war between the
instincts and the intellect, between the forces of the darkness, all that is undesirable, and the powers of God. Life is a steady growth; a
progressive evolution characterizes it. This earth-arena is a field of
self-development.
The perception of the one Life
Principle, or God, in all, the merging of the personal self in the divine
Self of all creatures, great and small, is the ultimate meaning and end of
life. To rise from this world of limitations while yet breathing on earth,
into the boundless world of Freedom and Beauty, Power and Joy, is the
purpose of our brief, but meaningful, existence.
Fear
not Life, Rule It
Fear not the thorns that bring
you the rose. Take the rose with the thorns. Fear not the duties, the
troubles and the trials that bring you the joys and the achievements of
your life and your growth. Take the joys of life and growth with all their
accompanying struggles, duties, trials, and await the divine Perfection
which is the natural result of your struggle to grow.
The
Foundations of the Life Divine
Two things are essential for the
obtainment of undying Happiness, Peace, Power, Freedom, Perfection:
one,
a strong faith in that which is infinitely higher and greater than all
that we are; a strong faith in the supreme Reality, - God, who is
infinitely more real than the body we live in, the mind we use, the will
we exercise;
two,
a dynamic knowledge of our high destiny that consists in the attainment of
the infinite all-illuminating Consciousness, Happiness, Peace, Power and
Perfection subsistent in that Reality.
That there is God here with us,
sustaining our life by His eternal Life, supporting our consciousness with
His infinite Consciousness, impelling our will, with His omnipotent Will,
- this faith, is the first requisite.
That the meaning, aim and destiny
of our life consists in the experience of God, through a continuous growth
in Love, Knowledge, Works and divine Nature, - this knowledge is the
second requisite.
With this twofold equipment, our
life on earth becomes the most delightful journey from freedom to endless
Freedom, from happiness to the everlasting Happiness, from peace to the
infinite Peace, from power to the absolute Power, from perfection to the
illimitable Perfection.
The
Poetry of Life
It needs a microscope to detect
the presence of tiny life-organisms which are invisible to the naked eye.
It requires the penetrating intelligence and the luminous and all-seeing
vision of the unfolded divine Consciousness within man, to perceive the
infinite Glory of the infinite Godhead everywhere, here on earth even as
in Heaven.
Beneath the physical disease and
physical death, beneath the mental problems and mental pleasures, beneath
the good and bad actions of man, beneath colour, sound, form of life, -
there is the infinite Harmony of the timeless divine Consciousness.
Discover it. Know it. Experience it. Life is a Poem of God. Those that do
not seek God first, find life a pain, a problem, and at best, a field of
suffering relieved rarely by fleeting moments of pleasure. Those that know
God, know life to be an epic, a song, a glorious episode, that takes man
apparently away from God, and brings him back to God. From God to God, and
in God, is the whole history of Life on earth.
Every phase of life has in it
some poetry. Every facet of life is aglow with the eternal Energy and
Light of the infinite Truth. Every circumstance of life is rich with the
splendour of spiritual glory. The whole world is throbbing with the divine
Consciousness that is the source, the soil and the fulfilment of all that
is. Man's primary duty consists in knowing, and being in harmony with,
this all-pervading, all-sustaining, infinite Light of the supreme Reality,
Being, Existence, Consciousness.
All
Life is a Divine Song
Even under the most trying
difficulties, let us not be conscious of our weakness, nor of our
strength; let us be intensely conscious of only one thing that matters, -
the supreme, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-merciful, all-powerful,
all-containing and all-granting Godhead. The extent to, and the intensity
with, which we sustain ourselves in this inner discipline of
consciousness, determines the degree to which the invisible energies of
God's Peace, Power, Joy, flow into us and make of our whole life a divine
song.
All
Life is Divine
Feel the divine Presence
everywhere. Accept the physical body as the temple of God. Behold the
Divinity within yourself and in all beings. Take the grounds whereon you
stand, as holy. Pour out your Love on all things and beings, as you do on
God within and around yourself.
Offer every act, every work, in
the house, in the office, in the broad world, to God. Do everything for
the Glory of God, with the strength and the joy that comes from the Love
of God, the Truth and the Beauty, the Light and the Life.
Elevate your feelings. Exalt your
reason. Expand your consciousness. Change your attitude. Acquire the
divine vision. Eliminate from the heart all that cuts you off from the
immediate enjoyment of the divine Presence and Perfection. Know that the
breath that you breathe in, the brain you use, the hands you employ in
service, the world you live in, were not made by you, do not belong to
you, but to the supreme Creator. Find His Energies seeing through all
eyes, hearing through all ears, working through all hands. Be cosmic in
your feelings, universal in love, divine in experience and in life.
All life is divine; wrong cannot
subsist; evil cannot endure; untruth cannot triumph; all that is bad,
disharmonious, distorting, is already in the process of being dispelled.
Concern yourself with Light and Love, Thought and Power, Presence and
Perfection of God. You will live and move in the realm of the Divine,
while living and moving in a time-space world of limitations.
The
Symphony of Life
Like a light unto yourself, move.
Like a genius, think. Like a giant, work. Like a saint, live. Let thy
heart be a sea of love, and thy mind a sea of luminous knowledge. This is
the real road to peace, joy and perfection.
Flood
the Life with the Light Gained in Contemplation
On the full-moon night, go out
into the open and gaze for fifteen minutes on the moon. Then, suddenly
look around. Wherever your sight falls, there you see the moon.
Even so, if you gaze in
contemplation on God's dynamic Presence, Love, Light, Peace, for fifteen
minutes in the morning, fifteen minutes in the noon, and fifteen minutes
in the evening, you will find that wherever your eye falls, there you will
behold God's Presence and Peace, and your life will be full of light and
joy.
To be with God's Power and
Perfection, while all the time living and working in the world, the way
lies through brief contemplation on God's Nature from time to time.
- Swami Omkarananda
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