Towards a Wholesome Life

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.