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17
th
October 2011.
Philosophers like J Krishnamurthy ask us to live in
the Present. What is actually meant by living inthe Present?
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Are we not living in the Present? The answer is,
most often not. We are often haunted by either
our past or future. This is the truth. Our mind has
a deep association with our past and future -unpleasant past and uncertain future. Our
dealings with the world people, places and
incidents tell us that the sphere of our emotional
past is an inseparable one and an anxious future is
the very rejoinder of them. We can cite many
examples.
Thus, we miss the Present moment. We get either
drifted into our past or future. Can we retrieve the
living moment? This is the question.
When we are contended, we seem to be living in
the Present but when haunted by emotions and
excitement, by perilous situations, we lose sight ofthe present moment and fall into the lagoon of our
past or drift into the vastness of future. So, one
key factor to be living in the Present is
contentment. But remember, contentment is only
a state of mind that is subject to changing
situations. Can we overcome the impact of
changing situations and remain in a steady,pleasant mood?
This is our very challenging area. Is is possible to
feel life as a continuous flow of the same
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experience always? Can we accept both misery
and happiness in the same sense and degree?
Then only, the flow of the same experience, the
steadiness in life can be maintained.
For ordinary people like us, misery is a miserable
situation and happiness is a positive one. Thus, we
all long only for positive situations and not for
negative situations but we all know that life is an
admixture of both positive and negative situations.
It is important to remember that by negating
miserable situations we practically gain nothing.
We only add resistance to such situations and such
protestation and resistance will further drain our
mental resources to face the situations with
boldness and courage and with clarity of
perception. What do we after all gain by trying to
run away from unpleasant situations? How far can
we try to escape from such situations?
So, an acceptance of life should be there to view
the flow of life as a continuous and steady
experience. Misery also has to be accepted so that
we will get a solution to overcome the obstacle.Both misery and happiness are always relative.
Such relativity is decided by the degree of our
mind in a given situation. One may feel to be
miserable but another may not feel to be so
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miserable. For Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa, cancer was not at all a miserable
sitution. What I mean to say is that our attitude
towards a miserable situation plays an importantdegree in deciding whether the situation is
miserable or not. If we have an acceptance of life,
we can have a healthy mental attitude towards the
so called miserable situation. Great masters of
philosophy would always stress on the point that
no situation practically gives us any problem and
the whole problem lies in our reaction to a given
situation. We need a reflection on this point. We
can take this way or that way also but are we
doing this?
Thus, it follows that we need enough equanimity to
be living in the Present. In the language of
Vedanta, this level headedness is termed as Sthita
Pragya. The pre-condition is that one should
accept life as it is. Summer will come and so
winter and monsoon. Pain will come and pleasure
too. Nothing is permanent here in this world of
mortal experience. So, why worry about our Past
and Future? Past is past and future is very
uncertain. We cannot take a journey into our pastand correct ourselves, others or the situations. We
cannot fly into the future to get away from the
path of misery and death. Actually, the very
thought of an unsecured life, the thought of death
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seem to be the main culprit in forcing us away
from our living moments. Why do we tend to
count only our loss and not our profit? Why are we
deeply thinking only about our failures and not oursuccesses in life? Why do we forget god in our
victorious moments and always blame Him in
moments of failure? Such double attitude wont
work. Can we look unto our past only as a
witness without attaching any emotions? Can we
look unto our future without assigning any
negative sign to it?
We have so many discrimination, mental divisions
and this is our pitfall. Can we look at the stream of
life not as a difference but as unity in diversity?
Our thoughts hover around differences and
contradictions rather than feeling for variety and
diversity at the core. Such an attitude would bring
in more misery than happiness, a less contended
life.
The net result is that we will not only be missing
the Present moment but will be living in our
unpleasant past and projecting ourselves into ableak future for no gain. Mind will get
contaminated. Our thoughts will follow only a
nagging life. This will not only drive us to a tight
corner but will also affect people around us.
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Do we really wish for such a homicide of humanity?
Dont we have any responsibility for the upcoming
generations? Dont they also need good views inlife for their healthy survival?
Beyond a possessive attitude, let us maintain the
attitude of custodianship. All our possessions - be
it wealth, our house, our institutions, this Nature
or environment are meant for our futuregenerations as well. Let us try to maintain them
from the point of custodianship. Our forefathers
have gifted this Nature and environment and all
such possessions for our healthy survival but are
we doing the same for the survival of future
generations? So, to be living in the Present has its
own meaning. Let us not waste our mentalenergies on trivial matters and by getting
engrossed in Past and Future.
Be loyal unto thyself. Be a witness to the stream
of life. Be a custodian of all thy possessions for
the benefit of future generations. Be living in the
Present with equanimity, without blaming the
world for own setbacks. Remember, we cannot
either teach or correct the world. All that we can
do is self teaching, self learning and self
correction. At the most, we can guide people
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around us by our good words and good deeds and
not more than that.
To be living in the Present is very much part of a
Steady State Theory.
18th October 2011.
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