Quality of Living

Life is about what you do daily, not about where and in which condition you are.

Conditions of life, e.g. how much money you have, where your house is, how you look, your social stature, your job, etc. are all external. You might not have full control on these externals.

But what you do daily in all conditions of life reflects your internal state and the quality of your life.

Standard of living and quality of living are two different things. The former is an index of the conditions of life, while the latter is about what you do in life.

Beyond a certain point, increase in the standard of living ceases to bring in any improvements in life's quality. And yet the whole world seems to be impressed by and running after high living standards.

A worthy purpose shoots up the quality of our life. It guides our daily activities, values, and commitments. It minimises the position of standard of living from our minds.

The higher our purpose, the higher the quality of life. A purpose about something that is ultimately temporary can't be the highest. Embrace the eternal, and live life fully.

Life Before Death

Life After Death is a popular topic with varying opinions about its possibility. But what about life before death? What characterizes life? The answer to this question heavily influences our opinion about the possibility of life after death. And in fact, it decisively influences our definition of death too.

If life is just about pumping of the heart and activity of the brain, then absence of these two can be called death. But life is more than the functioning of an electro-chemical mechanical system; life is about consciousness – about thinking, feeling, desiring. Life is about the ability to perceive. Consciousness is what differentiates a man from a machine, a live human from a dead one.

No characteristic of matter (atoms, molecules, electrons, etc.) suggests that it can be the source of consciousness or the seat of perception. What, or who is it, that perceives or is conscious? For example, a periscope helps me see beyond a high wall, but I can see not because of the periscope, but because I have eyes that can see. The periscope is merely the medium through which the light rays are reaching my eyes. Similarly, the eyes of my body are merely the arrangements of atoms that allow light to pass through. I see what I see, not because of the atomic arrangement of my eyes, but because I have the ability to perceive and make sense of the incoming light.

That I is the soul. I can see, hear, feel, think, will, etc. only because I (the soul) have these abilities. These perceptive abilities that characterize consciousness are the inherent qualities of the soul. Since matter does not have these abilities, we understand that the soul is unlike matter. The soul is non-material, it is spiritual.

The soul does not depend on matter for its fundamental abilities of perception. In fact, its fundamental abilities to perceive are conditioned by the nature and state of the body that it occupies. For example, going back to the periscope example, how well I can see beyond the high wall depends on how clean the lens of the periscope is. Even if my eyesight is perfect, a dirty lens will hamper my perception. Thus, to define life in terms of a pumping heart and an active brain is like defining eyesight in terms of the condition of the periscope. Just like my fundamental ability to see is not dependent on the periscope, the soul does not depend on the body for any of its fundamental abilities.

Since the soul, characterized by consciousness, does not depend on anything that makes up the body while it’s in the body, we understand that the soul does not need the body for its existence. The body is merely a lump of matter; it is always dead. Life is when a soul occupies a body and animates it; death is when the soul moves on to leave behind a dead lump of matter – the body.

Life exists not because of a functioning body, but despite being in an inherently dead body. If life exists even before death, it definitely can exist after death.

Begin Your Journey of Joy

As long as we think, even mildly, that material situations are important, we are in the trap of deadly illusion. This illusion causes us to mistake the unimportant as important, the inessential as essential, the temporary as permanent. It makes us despair in unfortunate times; it makes us fearful about losing the good ones. It makes us struggle to accumulate more and even to just maintain status quo.

Unfortunately the world situation today forces us to struggle even for basic necessities and securities even if we are unattached to material situations. Gone are the days where one could lead a peaceful spiritual life away from the rigmarole of the general life of the masses. Life has become a struggle for all.

Most seek respite in the shallow entertainment of this world which leads them into denser fogs of illusion. But the wise seek respite in focussing on the essential ingredients of happy living even while the world conspires to allure them away into the sinister fogs of illusion.

Focussing on unchanging universal wisdom principles leads to a peaceful and fulfilled heart. Break the shackles of materialistic life, stop being impressed by material accomplishments.

When the mundane stops interesting you, your journey of joy begins.

True Foundations

Certain truths take a long time for us to accept. It takes a humble heart and an unagitated mind to make these truths the foundations of our living.

Life and the Comfort Zone

Life begins at the end of the comfort zone.

My View of the World

My view of Religion changed,

When I came across the thought,

That it is all about Love,

And merely Rituals it is not.

My view of Rituals changed,

When someone made a comment,

They enhance expression of Love,

And are themselves not the end.

My view of Love changed,

When I read this principle deep,

Love for God embraces all,

Without which it is incomplete.

My view of God changed,

When I introspected a lot,

The object of highest Love,

Cannot be impersonal at all.

My view of Myself changed,

When it finally did register,

I cannot think, love, or Live,

If all I am is matter.

My view of Life changed,

When I accepted I am a soul,

Found a new way of life,

With Spirituality as its goal.

My view of Spirituality changed,

When my Spiritual Master taught,

It's not passive negation,

But dynamic Love for God.

-- *~ -- *~ --

Stone Alive

This article appeared in the January 2012 issue of Back To Godhead (India Edition)

Stone-Alive

Presence of joy is higher than absence of sorrow

By Abhijit Toley

I was zooming along a beautiful tree-lined highway when I slammed on the brakes. Screeeech! Thud! Generally, when you run over a squirrel scampering across the road just a little too late for you to stop, you get a sinking feeling. Unless you’re stone-hearted, the next few minutes are not joyful. The guilt of having taken a life lingers until it’s replaced by more important things. But this time I was not gripped by remorse; I had just run over not a squirrel but a rock. Stones are, by definition, already dead. Stone-dead.

Life of a Stone

Suppose for a moment this stone has life. It still has all the characteristics of a stone, but now it knows it exists. No matter how many trucks choose to run over it, it feels no pain. It is, after all, just a stone. And, just as befits a stone, it doesn’t feel joy when spring is right round the corner. Isn’t that a most coveted state of existence? Granted, there’s no exhilaration in life, but not a bad price to pay for escaping the agony of being crushed under the nonchalant tires of some nameless truck. Yes, the stone is happy to be alive!

Wait! This does not sound right. Are we saying a stone’s life is better than ours? Suppose you go and open your heart to someone: “I have a problem. Why am I suffering like this?” and that someone replies: “Because you’re not dead.” This is not an answer that will fill your heart with happiness. Neither will such a stone hearted reply help you. Yet, there are many philosophers who say this—perhaps not as bluntly, but it is pretty much the essence of their philosophies. You are suffering, yes. Suffering is because of your desires. Put an end to your desires; do not rejoice for anything, and do not lament for anything. And so on. What they are suggesting, really, is that you must eventually (not immediately) develop the qualities of a stone.

This philosophy is called impersonalism, and it has many flavors, all with a central theme: ultimately, the highest truth, the source of everything, is a unvariegated oneness. Therefore since the ultimate truth is quality-less oneness, attaining the ultimate truth lies in merging oneself into that oneness. Once merged, all dualities disappear, so there’s no happiness or sorrow, no pleasure or pain, no good, no bad—no feeling at all. Sounds a lot like our friend, Mr. Stone. And what’s more, in that merged state, all individuality is lost in the merger.

Why Impersonalism is so popular

Let’s think about this for a moment. Who will get really hooked on a philosophy whose end goal is negation of everything that characterizes life? The immediate answer that pops into my mind is those who are so totally frustrated with their lives that their lives have become unbearable. To them, the philosophical escape to a featureless oneness sounds like relief. They do not mind the concomitant relinquishing of their pleasure, either, since they don’t have much to rejoice about in their lives.

The other people who tend to relate to this philosophy are those who understand the miserable and temporary nature of this world. Since their understanding is based on a sound philosophical understanding of the temporality of all things in this world, they choose not to be a part of anything and to strive for desirelessness.

So yes, people do have valid reasons for accepting impersonalist philosophy. But if I were to write an essay on the happiest day of my life,” I doubt I will be able to glorify a day I spent doing nothing, thinking nothing, feeling nothing, and with no one around. Instead I imagine will glorifying a day I spent in nature or joking with friends. We seek the surge of joy.

Why then is the impersonal philosophy so prominent in the world? Because most people hardly ever get to live the “happiest day of their life.” And even if they do, their time of happiness is just too fleeting that it stands as insignificant when compared to the number of mediocre or pain-filled days in their lives. So to make all their days “happiest” they redefine happiness as oneness, even a sense of nothingness—and something they will achieve in the future. Happiness becomes the absence of sorrow, and since we can’t seem to have worldly happiness without its counterpart worldly unhappiness, they’re willing to relinquish what they would normally consider joy to avoid their suffering.

But what if we could live that “happiest day” forever? Would we still choose no-feeling? What if we lived in a place where every step was a dance and every word a song? A place where not only is there no sorrow but where happiness abounds? Who in their right minds would reject such a place and opt for a mindless existence devoid of anything at all?

Beyond Impersonalism

The make-or-break question is whether such a place of boundless happiness exists. It does. This place is called the spiritual world, the kingdom of God, a place full of life and joy, where all the inhabitants are ever engaged in the loving service of God and as a result are completely blissful. The essential difference between this world and the spiritual world is that everything in the spiritual world is eternal and full of knowledge and bliss. We know from our experience in this world that it’s just the opposite: everything here is temporary, ignorant, and filled with sorrow at one point or another. Further, the oneness the impersonalists hope to achieve is simply the light of the spiritual sky rather than the spiritual world itself. Anyone convinced about the existence of the spiritual world will naturally choose to go there.

Those philosophers who choose the spiritual world are known as devotees of God. By serving God, even in this world, the devotees experience spiritual bliss. They do not have to try to become desireless because all their desires are centered on serving God, which brings them joy and no sorrow. Contrast this with the impersonalists’ understanding of desirelessness—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 into nothingness with our imaginary Mr. Stone. Fortunately we crossed the featureless oneness and arrived at where we really wanted to be—the spiritual world. Since everything there is spiritual, even the stones are alive and full of eternality, knowledge, and bliss. Stone-alive!