The wheels of samsara rolls us into these life situations. Often we are caught in them so much that , every activity , every experience is clouded, sad and painful. It is often not possible for us to relinquish negativity because of external factors. Before starting the discourse on spirituality , Arjuna and Duryodhana are portrayed as symbols of mortals who suffer from these wheel of samsara. If you look at Duryodhana he is the epitome of evil in terms of adharmic actions and attachment to wealth , fame and security. But why Arjuna?. Before Gita starts , he calls all Dhartharastras as Durbudhe ( evil minds). But on seeing all his relatives, he breaks down. So you can see the wide end of the spectrum. You could be good or bad, you could be dharamic or adharmic, all suffer because of samsara.
The first and foremost problem in life is that of attachment. An attachment is not necessarily due to attachment to people. You could be attached to concepts, blind beliefs, relations, health, wealth and so on. All attachments are collectively called Ragah. A ragah is always one in which we seek some material benefit either directly or indirectly. An expectation is implied in an attachment. When you love your child, there are lot of implied expectations, even though you may never admit it. In any relation also there are lot of implied and direct expectations. When you probe deep in to that you will see what your expectations are. If there is no problem or expectation it is not an attachment and there are no problems at all. In contrast to attachment, love is one of zero expectation and that is why it is a spiritual quality and why it is difficult!. Many love that we experience is only attachment in a guise.
Attachment comes with an expectation and hence implies a giving and taking. We give something now to receive something back later or now. It is this taking that is implied in the hidden expectation. Love on the other hand implies sacrifice and non expectation. It is also unconditional. All attachments comes with conditions. Why do the people to whom i have done so much behave this way? is the common compliant. You can see how many things attachment depends on. No wonder you are thinking and emoting a lot if you have attachments.
You may wonder , why do attachments happen and what is the root cause?. It comes from repeated thinking and weak identity. A weakness in our identity , as a limited being causes repeated thinking about all things close to us and this leads to desire for fulfilling and finally leads to attachment. If we truly need to do things for others. our thoughts and actions should spring from pure love and sacrifice and not from attachments. Do things with a pure heart and forget them instantly is the way.
Attachment leads to non fulfillment most of the time. Conditions change, dependent things move away, things which arise will pass and so on. This leads to the second problem in samsara called Sorrow or Shokah. When results of our actions of attachments dont bear fruit, we are immersed in misery. We fail to see what we may have achieved even because sorrow is an over powering emotion. Most of the times attachment are emotional and hence implies intense emotions in the form of sorrow. Even if i have achieved or attained something , it would be hardly seen as significant.
Sorrow is a misplaced emotion because by their very nature , every appearance is impermanent and hence will pass and dissolve. All appearances have to go back because it is intrinsically empty. Only foolishness draws sorrow from such transient things. Even though we criticize evil people for their deeds because they inflict pain on others , a sorrowful person is not considered as evil . Actually a sorrowful person is also committing the same error as an evil person as he is inflicting pain on himself. So just as suicide is considered as murder, a sorrowful person is also doing incorrect things.
When sorrow has sufficiently established itself we are lead to the third problem of samsara which is called delusion or Mohah. This is a very dangerous thing to have. Delusion always prompts us to do incorrect actions. When Arjuna was overcome with Ragah and Shokah his intellect got clouded and he wanted to withdraw from the war. The same people whom he called Durbudhe , became his relatives and whatever they did was overlooked. So delusion had its grip on him. We are not discussing whether war was right or wrong in this context. But we can see how things are progressing in Arjuna's mind as a pointer into our own life.
This is one of the reasons why spiritual masters ask us to calm our mind and intellect before taking decisions. All decisions which are taken with the clouding of attachment and sorrow are bound to be incorrect. It would be emotional and adharmic mostly. When we have calmed our mind through spiritual knowledge and contemplation, most of the actions wouldn't be necessary and if karma is required at all , it would be pure also. On the other hand , actions done with a clouded intellect leads to more incorrect situations which again leads to ragah and sokah and the wheel rolls on.
The first and foremost problem in life is that of attachment. An attachment is not necessarily due to attachment to people. You could be attached to concepts, blind beliefs, relations, health, wealth and so on. All attachments are collectively called Ragah. A ragah is always one in which we seek some material benefit either directly or indirectly. An expectation is implied in an attachment. When you love your child, there are lot of implied expectations, even though you may never admit it. In any relation also there are lot of implied and direct expectations. When you probe deep in to that you will see what your expectations are. If there is no problem or expectation it is not an attachment and there are no problems at all. In contrast to attachment, love is one of zero expectation and that is why it is a spiritual quality and why it is difficult!. Many love that we experience is only attachment in a guise.
Attachment comes with an expectation and hence implies a giving and taking. We give something now to receive something back later or now. It is this taking that is implied in the hidden expectation. Love on the other hand implies sacrifice and non expectation. It is also unconditional. All attachments comes with conditions. Why do the people to whom i have done so much behave this way? is the common compliant. You can see how many things attachment depends on. No wonder you are thinking and emoting a lot if you have attachments.
You may wonder , why do attachments happen and what is the root cause?. It comes from repeated thinking and weak identity. A weakness in our identity , as a limited being causes repeated thinking about all things close to us and this leads to desire for fulfilling and finally leads to attachment. If we truly need to do things for others. our thoughts and actions should spring from pure love and sacrifice and not from attachments. Do things with a pure heart and forget them instantly is the way.
Attachment leads to non fulfillment most of the time. Conditions change, dependent things move away, things which arise will pass and so on. This leads to the second problem in samsara called Sorrow or Shokah. When results of our actions of attachments dont bear fruit, we are immersed in misery. We fail to see what we may have achieved even because sorrow is an over powering emotion. Most of the times attachment are emotional and hence implies intense emotions in the form of sorrow. Even if i have achieved or attained something , it would be hardly seen as significant.
Sorrow is a misplaced emotion because by their very nature , every appearance is impermanent and hence will pass and dissolve. All appearances have to go back because it is intrinsically empty. Only foolishness draws sorrow from such transient things. Even though we criticize evil people for their deeds because they inflict pain on others , a sorrowful person is not considered as evil . Actually a sorrowful person is also committing the same error as an evil person as he is inflicting pain on himself. So just as suicide is considered as murder, a sorrowful person is also doing incorrect things.
When sorrow has sufficiently established itself we are lead to the third problem of samsara which is called delusion or Mohah. This is a very dangerous thing to have. Delusion always prompts us to do incorrect actions. When Arjuna was overcome with Ragah and Shokah his intellect got clouded and he wanted to withdraw from the war. The same people whom he called Durbudhe , became his relatives and whatever they did was overlooked. So delusion had its grip on him. We are not discussing whether war was right or wrong in this context. But we can see how things are progressing in Arjuna's mind as a pointer into our own life.
This is one of the reasons why spiritual masters ask us to calm our mind and intellect before taking decisions. All decisions which are taken with the clouding of attachment and sorrow are bound to be incorrect. It would be emotional and adharmic mostly. When we have calmed our mind through spiritual knowledge and contemplation, most of the actions wouldn't be necessary and if karma is required at all , it would be pure also. On the other hand , actions done with a clouded intellect leads to more incorrect situations which again leads to ragah and sokah and the wheel rolls on.
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