Stone-Alive

While I was zooming along on the beautiful tree-lined highway, suddenly I hit the brakes! Screeeech! Thud! Generally, when your car tire runs over a tiny little squirrel that chooses to scamper across the road just late enough so that you cant do much about what’s about to happen, you get that sinking feeling. And unless you are quite stone-hearted, the next few minutes are not so joyful. That guilty feeling lingers on for a while before it’s replaced by things more important than the life of an innocent squirrel that chose the wrong moment. But this time, I was not feeling any remorse. Because I had just overrun, not a tiny little squirrel, but a little boulder. It was just a stone, and by definition, it was already dead. Stone-dead.

Just suppose for a moment that this stone had life. It still has all the characteristics of a stone, but just that it knows that it exists. No matter how many trucks choose to trample it, since its after-all a stone, it does not feel any pain. And just as is fit for a stone, it cannot feel any joy when the spring is round the corner. Isn’t that the most coveted state of existence? Well, granted that there is no experience of the exhilaration before the promising spring, but then definitely that’s not a bad price to pay for escaping the agony of being crushed to pulp under the nonchalant tires of a nameless truck. Yes, the stone is so happy to be alive, as alive as a stone!

Wait a moment! This does not sound quite right. Are we saying that the life of a stone is better than our present lives? Suppose you go to someone and open up your heart to him: “I have such and such problem in life. What could be the reason? What is the remedy?”. And that person replies: “Because you are not yet dead, you are suffering.” Its not an answer that will fill you up with so much joy that your heart cant contain it. Such a stone-hearted reply will hardly help you. And yet, there are so many philosophers who will tell you just this. Not quite as bluntly, but that will pretty much be the essence of their philosophy. You are suffering, they will say. Suffering is because of your desires. Put an end to all your desires. Do not rejoice for anything, and do not lament for anything. And so on. That means one must eventually, not immediately, but eventually, try to become qualitatively just like a stone, or something equivalent that has the same qualities of lifelessness as does a stone!

The philosophy I am referring to is known as impersonalism. It has got many flavors, but all of them have one central theme. That ultimately, the highest truth, the source of everything, is an un-variegated oneness. And therefore, since the ultimate truth is that quality-less oneness, attaining the ultimate truth lies in merging oneself into that oneness. Once merged into that oneness, since its all oneness, there is no question of the dualities represented by happiness and sorrow, pain and pleasure, good and bad, and so on. Hmmm, sounds quite like our friend, Mr. Stone. And what’s more, in such a merged state, true to the definition of oneness, all individuality of the “merger” is lost.

Lets think for a moment or two about this. Who will get really hooked onto such a philosophy whose end goal is negation of all that characterizes life? The immediate response that pops up in our minds is: those who are so totally frustrated with their lives that life has become an unbearable burden for them. To them, the philosophical escape to featureless oneness gives relief from the pains of their routine lives. They do not mind the concomitant philosophical relinquishment of all pleasures either, since they don’t have much to rejoice in their lives anyway. The other category of people who would hook on to this philosophy is of those who have understood the miserable and temporary nature of this world. Since their understanding is based on sound philosophical understanding of the truth of the temporary nature of all things in this world, they choose to not be part of any of it. Due to this strong philosophical conviction, it is not so tough for them either to desire becoming desire-less.

So yes, people do have valid reasons for accepting the impersonalistic philosophy. But if I ask myself to write an essay on “The Happiest Day of My Life”, it will hardly glorify a day I spent in nothingness doing nothing thinking nothing feeling nothing with no one around. Instead it will perhaps glorify a day which I spent in a scenic natural place with a stream of crystal clear water flowing nearby, joking and playing around with my best friends, and feeling a strong current of joy surging through me. Someone else might have a different essay, but surely it will not describe a day full of nothings.

Why then is the impersonalistic philosophy so prominent? Because, most people of this world hardly ever actually live the “happiest day of their life” that they would describe in the essay. And even if they live some, the number is just too insignificant compared to the number of other days. In order to make all their days the “happiest days”, they redefine their happiness as oneness, or even nothingness. This way, their happiness means the absence of all sorrow. Since positive happiness of this world has the dual counterpart of unhappiness, to eradicate the unhappiness, they would go to the extent of eradicating the happiness too!

But what if one could live the happiest day of one’s life every day? For ever. Would you still like to take the other alternative of living days full of nothings? What if every day of your life is in a place where every step is a dance and every word is a song? A place where not only is there no sorrow, but where positive happiness abounds in boundless abundance? A place where happiness does not have the unhappy counterpart. Who in their right minds would reject such a destination and opt for a mindless existence devoid of anything at all!

The make-or-break question is whether such a place of boundless happiness really exists? The answer is that it does. This place is called the Spiritual World or the Kingdom of God. A place full of life and joy where all the inhabitants are always engaged in the loving service of God and as a result are completely blissful at all times. The essential difference between this world and that is that in the spiritual world every thing is spiritual, i.e. eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss. As opposed to that, in this world everything is material, i.e. temporary, devoid of knowledge, and devoid of any bliss. Further, the oneness that the impersonalists desire to become desire-less in, is just the spiritual sky in which the spiritual Kingdom of God exists. Any person who is convinced about the existence of the spiritual world will quite naturally make this choice. Because this is the place which more than fits the place we described in our “The Happiest Day of My Life” essay. Those philosophers who make this choice are known as devotees of God. By serving God, even in this world, the devotees experience spiritual bliss. They do not have to attempt desirelessness, because all their desires are centered around serving God. Such desires are all spiritual, and the happiness derived from them does not have the unhappy counterpart. Contrast this with the impersonalists’ understanding of desirelessnesss where it means no desires whatsoever. The impersonalists do not know that the spiritual kingdom of God exists beyond the oneness of the spiritual sky. Therefore they settle for the lower platform of happiness defined as “absence of sorrow”.

Our journey started with a dead stone. Then we wandered around for a while in nothingness with our imaginary not-quite-alive Mr. Stone. Eventually we crossed over the featureless oneness (or nothingness), and fortunately reached where we really wanted to be! The spiritual world. Since everything there is spiritual, even the stones there are spiritual, i.e. they are eternal, full of knowledge, and full of bliss! Stones that are truly alive - Stone-Alive!