Spiritual Message for the Day – The World Is an Abode of Unhappiness (Maya-Bazaar) by Sri Swami Chidananda
Baba Times Digest© | 29 October 2014 17.26 EST | New York Edition
The World Is an Abode of Unhappiness
Divine Life Society Publication: Essentials of The Higher Values of Life by Sri Swami Chidananda
What it is that diverts us away from our goal? What is it that deceives and dupes us and makes a fool of us? What is it that makes us repent and regret that I have not done what I should have done? When the time of departure comes, you are very sad thinking: ‘I have not been able to do what I ought to have done, I have not been able to become what I wish I had become.’
It is the deceptive attractions of the sense objects all around us. They entice us saying: ‘Come, come! You will get all the happiness from us’. Some beautiful sight says, ‘You will get happiness from me.’ Some pleasant, attractive sound, smell, taste or touch says, ‘Come, come! You will get happiness from me.’ So, all our time and all our energy are consumed by numerous attractive objects of this wondrous supermarket of Maya-bazaar. Your attention is scattered through the five holes of senses.
You do not realise that this is only a delusion and there is not an iota of real happiness in these objects. It is only some momentary pleasant nervous sensation. It is not a real happiness. Such pleasant experience is purely a gross, primitive, biological process and a phenomenon common to all the animals. When a sense object comes in contact with the related sense organ, the tactile nerve catches the sensation and sends a message to the central nervous system which passes the message to the brain and the brain feels a momentary pleasant sensation. You are now hooked by this sensation, you are enslaved. All these pleasant sensations are momentary and depend on the proper functioning of the apparatuses. Even if any one of them, a sense organ, the connecting nerve or the receiving centre in the brain is impaired, there is no sensation pertaining to that sense faculty. If you have lost the sensation of taste, you will not be able to experience any taste, even if the most delicious dish is given to you. If your optic nerve has become week, the most beautiful sight will have no impact on you even though your eyes may remain open.
How long does this experience of pleasant sensation last? You are eating your favourite tasty dish. So long as the food is in the mouth there is the pleasant sensation. But once it goes in, it is all over. In a flash of a moment the sensation disappears. But who thinks about this? If you ponder over it, if you analyse it impartially, you will realise that it is only a purely biological nervous sensation and this cannot be called real happiness. But we are duped by it and we interpret it as happiness and we waste our life in chasing the sense objects. Can there be a greater folly? It is a great blunder. It is not wisdom. There is no happiness here. On the contrary He who created all these, says:
Ye hi samsparshajaa bhogaa duhkhayonaya eva te;
Aadyantavantah Kaunteya na teshu ramate budhah.
[The enjoyments that are born of contacts are only generators of pain, for they have a beginning and an end, O Arjuna! The wise do not rejoice in them. B.G. V-22]
He makes it quite plain that all the enjoyments arising out of the contact of any sense object are the source of sorrow and pain only, there is no happiness in them. This is the second great truth given by Lord Krishna in Gita. This is a scientific and analytical way of looking at the problem.
He puts this truth in a general form also. He says, ‘O Arjuna! Do you know what is the nature of this world? It is duhkhaalayam-ashaashwatam [the place of pain and is non-eternal. B.G. VIII-15]. This world is a world of transitory objects with names and forms. The transitory objects cannot give you lasting, eternal, real happiness. This world is an abode of misery and sorrow.’
In a negative way, He describes the characteristics of this world as: Anityam-asukham lokam imam [this impermanent and unhappy world. B.G. IX-33]. This world is characterised by a total lack of happiness. The senses are duhkhayonaya eva te, generators of pain. Again and again He reiterates this great truth that there is only pain and sorrow that you can obtain from this world.
Excerpts from: The World Is an Abode of Unhappiness - Essentials of The Higher Values of Life by Sri Swami Chidananda
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