We have often heard
it said that the world is wide. As we
all know, its metaphorical meaning is that there are plenty of opportunities
for people to explore and bring about good living. Those to whom that adage makes
sense apply themselves with confidence and, sooner or later, allow a spirited
career to blossom in their lives. However, there are many who make sincere
efforts and are still in doldrums, not to speak of those who don’t even make
those efforts. So, people who reflect on
these issues come up with an enquiring mind. Some questions like the following
arise:
1. Is there a fundamental cause in the way
human beings live that brings
mediocrity and shallowness to life?
2. Can
one apply oneself to that cause and hence change the process so that
it not only adds vibrancy to one’s
life, but also becomes a catalyst for others
to lead a wholesome life? That wave of deep feeling and respect for
others
can spread and engulf the whole world.
An investigative approach based on questions like the ones above usually
helps us bring about an in-depth, well-ordered and useful life. A problem is that such investigations may
turn out to be merely intellectual and verbal in nature – the ‘introspective’
type. They make barely a scratch on the
surface and do not touch the core of our being. Thus, they fail to produce any fundamental
change. That being so, is there any
other approach? There seems to be a
totally different one that can give us a helping hand in sweeping away the
cloud. It can be termed the non-verbal contact with life. This may
sound unclear to some people at the beginning.
An attempt is made in the following paragraphs to clarify some points regarding
this esoteric theme.
Our thought process during the waking
hours is primarily through words and symbols.
This habit alienates us from being in direct contact with what we are
experiencing. An issue that acts as a
retarding force on this unhealthy process is the simple self-awareness. Those interested in understanding the total process of life,
body and mind, beyond the accepted clichés and verbal knowledge, see the need
and value of the non-verbal contact with them.
This perception takes such people potentially to an unconventional
region of awareness. They discover a
contact with their Deeper Being and limitless goodness in that non-verbal state. Usually, conventional human beings make that kind
of non-verbal contact only under crisis situations – situations of intense fear
or shock. However, those who understand
the potentiality of self-awareness move frequently during the waking hours into
that word-free state of mind. This state
is not one that thrills the ego; in
fact, the ego sees it as a threat. Thus,
religious sentimentalism and the associated ego-boosting states of mind have
nothing to do with this movement towards the Inner Being.
The inwardly
moving direct-awareness is a matter of going beyond the thought created ‘I’
that thrives on the verbal approach to life.
Once we appreciate the non-verbal state of awareness, the inward journey
sustains itself and our outlook on life takes a radical shift towards
recognizing the sacredness of all manifestations. Simultaneously, we also see how the
externalized state of mind causes us to move away from Divinity. In other
words, there is a feeling of impoverishment of the soul. When the mind is externalized, even though it
may practice a religion, it remains absorbed in its own self-centered
activities. That is why there are the exclusivist attitudes and conflicts in
the name of religion.
If you thus become deeply aware of your
own mind’s insistence on the verbal approach to life and the resulting
externalization, then the mind becomes extraordinarily quiet without any
effort. It is this freedom from any strain due to effort that helps us sense
the beauty of the non-verbal contact with life.
Now, as you were reading the above
lines, a silence would have come into you imperceptibly because of your
inquisitiveness and the interest with which you were reading the lines. A deep passivity characterizes this mental
state. It has the capacity to cure
everything. It is good to sense the potency
and sacredness of this passivity and leave it alone. Like an honored guest, it will then visit us
at its own time. It helps us move
closer and closer to the non-verbal contact with life. DOs and DON’Ts have no roll to play in this
inner transformation.
Here we may digress a little by mentioning
a cartoon by the humorist RK Laxman. The scene is one of
a mountainous region with successively rising peaks and valleys. An American, presumably one attracted by the
Indian spirituality, wearing a hat and carrying a mountaineering kit, keeps
climbing. At some altitude, he finds an ascetic with white hair and beard sitting
in meditation. Next to the ascetic is
the inevitable brass vessel with water as also the wooden hand-stand that
signifies an Indian hermit. The American
sits next to him in all humility and asks him something. The hermit responds: “How to find peace? How can I tell you? I myself am an American.”!
The point is that, taking the inward journey does not mean that the person becomes an
ascetic in the conventional sense of the word.
It means an inward asceticism that does not in any way dilute a healthy
practical life. On the contrary, it
helps one apply oneself spiritedly to all aspects of life. That is how joviality and mirthfulness too
find a place in it. Such comprehensive
attention brings about care for oneself and others and leads to wholesome
living.
