Baba
Monotonous life & rejuvenation
Namaskar,
In this world, no matter how much one likes to do an activity one eventually gets bored of it. For instance, someone who has an attraction for eating particular food items will, after eating those same items day after day, eventually lose interest in them. Someone who likes to sleep a lot will get bored of sleeping on a long train / airplane journey. Swimming is a popular activity, but one gets bored after swimming for a while. A person living in a warm and comfortable house may get bored of the comfort and yearn to go on an adventurous trip to a mountain so they can get away from the monotony of their home. On the other hand, after some time in the wilderness they will again long for the same comfortable, warm house.
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If a person seeks worldly objects like food and shelter for survival then it is a different thing but seeking those same worldly objects for pleasure will in the due course invariably become bored with those same objects. That is the topic of this letter.
Why people get bored
All worldly pleasures are temporary and short-lived. Humans have a desire for the Infinite which does not get satisfied by worldly pleasures. This is the reason that after a while any worldly pleasure begins to seem boring as the pleasure gets repetitive and feels limited.
Ananda Marga ideology guides us, “Boredom occurs when the same thing happens in one’s life again and again, day after day. When people are forced to eat the same type of food for days together, it becomes bland [—even if the food which they most long for is provided daily]. People are fond of change.” (1)
Grass is greener elsewhere
The nature of worldly pleasure is repetitive and limiting, yet people keep engaging themselves in various activities in its pursuit. The reason behind this is the defective thinking or belief that others are happy with their mundane pleasures. It is a mirage that befools people into a cycle of pleasure seeking and boredom.
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For instance, unmarried people, often, upon seeing married couples, imagine how happy the couple's lives are and lament about their own painful singlehood. However, they hardly realize that the couple may be putting up a show of happiness and in reality may not even be on talking terms with each other due to a fight. And upon marrying to overcome the perceived agony of their singlehood may realize their mistake and then try to get a divorce. This cycle of pleasure seeking and boredom goes on forever but one does not get any satisfaction in it.
As another example, consider a person who gets mesmerized by looking at a large mansion. That person may think that the only way to become happy is by buying that large mansion and may imagine that the resident of the mansion must be the happiest person. Ironically, the resident of the mansion might have gotten bored of it and might even be planning to destroy it and erect a new building. This all happens because one is seeking permanent bliss in the worldly objects which have only the capability to give temporary pleasures.
Cycle of pleasure & pain
Pleasure and pain appear in mutual succession. A fictional story or film cannot be liked if it has only joyous scenes or only tragedy. A skilled story writer or filmmaker interweaves a mixture of joyous and tragic scenes. Likewise, the world also presents pleasures and pains. One may be infatuated with a person of the opposite gender and cannot bear separation from that person. Marriage may provide temporary relief, but soon they may begin to have fights and want a divorce. The judge, as per the laws, then instructs them to live together for a few months before the divorce, which they will find extremely painful. So the same people who could not bear living separately before marriage find it agonizing to live together before the divorce. The pleasure and pain appear in cycles. People keep seeking pleasure after each painful episode. This repetitiveness of pleasure seeking is the cause of boredom. The cycle of pleasure and pain creates a bondage and compels people in seeking pleasure all the time.
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Why boredom is positive sign
Boredom is an important part of sadhana. Due to the realization of boredom from mundane objects, sa’dhana’ vijinana was invented. The fact that one does not get satisfaction but rather gets bored from the mundane objects is good because it is the driving force that makes a person seek spiritual sa’dahna’. If one is satisfied from worldly objects like house and wealth then that person is living an animal life.
Animals never get bored. They are fully satisfied if their basic requirements are fulfilled and they are permitted to live in their natural way. The reason is that animals do not have an infinite desire. If anyone looking like a human being says they are very happy in their mundane life and never gets bored, most probably they are lying---or they are developmentally delayed i.e. mentally retarded. Because 100% of human beings have an infinite desire. That’s why they get bored in the course of mundane physical indulgence.
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Solution of boredom
Only spirituality will provide the necessary force to break the bondage and compulsion of pleasure-seeking in the world. Spirituality will lead people to the Infinite Bliss. Boredom is not a possibility in spirituality as the repetitiveness of mundane pleasure seeking is absent. The only condition is that one should practice spirituality seriously and cultivate bhakti.
Conclusion
Worldly pleasures are short-lived and temporary. People actually need and desire infinite bliss yet mistakenly seek it in the worldly pleasures. The world is an interweaving show of pleasures and pains in which people get caught, and this results in their perpetual lust for worldly pleasures. Often they see others and think that if they do the same things that others are doing then they will get happiness. However, in this process, they repeat the pleasure-seeking which causes boredom. Boredom is a positive thing because it makes people aware of the futility of the worldly pleasures. The only escape from the cycle of pleasure and pain and the ensuing boredom is a committed spiritual approach.
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In Him,
Bhakti
Reference
1. Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 4, “Caraeveti Caraeveti” – “Move On, Move On”
* * *
The below sections are entirely different topics, unrelated to the above material.
They stand on their own as points of interest.
* * *
== Section 2: Important Teaching ==
All pathys under same roof
Ananda Marga philosophy states, "There was a time when diagnosing illnesses and prescribing medicines were not very difficult because diagnoses were based on three constituents of the body – air, bile and phlegm – with blood as a fourth constituent. But increased physical and glandular complexity has led to a corresponding increase in the number and complexity of diseases. So to what extent can this method of diagnosis be useful to a doctor? Is it not simply guesswork to prescribe medicines for a particular disease when the medicine is prescribed for the disease but the disease is diagnosed according to the bodily constituents?" (1)
Thousands of years ago when ayurveda was founded the human body was not as complex as it is today. So the system to diagnose disease was based merely on four properties: air, bile, phlegm, and blood. Now, however, due to the increasing complexity of the human body things have changed. Ayurveda is no longer as useful as it once was. So one should not depend fully on ayurveda as it cannot cure everything.
Ananda Marga advocates the practice of having all pathys under one roof because no pathy can cure everything. For example, allopathic medicines do not kill diseases, rather those medicines are taken lifelong. Whereas another pathy may offer a medicine that actually cures the disease. In that case, that other pathy should be used. Yet, allopathy may be very useful for diagnosing a patient and performing certain surgical procedures etc.
Allopathic medicines do not kill diseases
Ananda Marga philosophy guides us, “Disease is caused by negative microvita. When people take allopathic medicine to cure a disease, the medicine disturbs the ecological balance of the body because more negative microvita get concentrated at the point of the disease. Allopathic medicines do not kill diseases – diseases die by their own natural death. Although the medicine may check the disease, the increased concentration of negative microvita can overcome the effect of the medicine. In fact, the increased concentration of negative microvita caused by allopathic medicines creates many new types of diseases, and due to this, two or three new diseases are presently being created every decade.” (2)
Ultimately, when a patient is admitted to a hospital then teams of doctors will decide which pathy is best for treating the patient. Each pathy has its own specialty. For more about this read the subsection - “Methods of medical treatment” - in the chapter “Various Occupations”.
References
1. Human Society - 1, Various Occupations
2. Microvita in a Nutshell, Some Guidelines for Commencing Microvita Research
== Section: Important Teaching ==
No occult powers for Parama Purusa
Ananda Marga ideology says, "For living beings, omniscience (evedaḿ) is certainly a recognized occult power. That is right. But for the Supreme Entity it is not a recognized occult power; He does not get it as a result of cult…To know everything is His nature. That is why He is omniscient." (1)
Note: The entire creation lies within the mind of Parama Purusa so Parama Purusa sees everything. Because it is all in His mind. Whereas human beings acquire knowledge from outside themselves. For humans, knowing something entails the psychic assimilation of external objectivity. According to the definition of the faculty of knowledge, for a person to know something then they must look outside the scope or periphery of their own mind. But with Parama Purusa nothing is outside His mind. That means that He does not 'know' anything per se; rather, He intrinsically sees everything as it is all going on within His own mind.
Reference
1. Ananda Vacanamrtam - 5, The Omniscience of the Causal Matrix
== Section: Hindi Quote ==
Sadhana is the only remedy of monotony
Ananda Marga philosophy guides us, “एक ही घटना से, एक ही भावना से, एक ही तरह की चर्चा तथा ज़िक्र से monotony आ जाती है | जिनमें आध्यात्मिक साधना नहीं है, बुढ़ापे में वे कहते हैं—"अब मरना ही अच्छा है |" जिनमें आध्यात्मिक साधना नहीं है, कम उम्र में भी मन पर अधिक चोट लगने से अथवा चोट लगने की शङ्का रहने से मनुष्य ख़ुदकुशी कर बैठते हैं, आत्महत्या तक कर देते हैं | क्यों जी ? न, higher pursuits नहीं है | मन में monotony आ जाती है | Applied psychology में मैं ऐसा ही कहूँगा |
तो, इस monotony से बचने का उपाय क्या है ? न, मन को एक ऐसा object चाहिए, mind के objective counterpart में एक ऐसा विषय चाहिए जो कि अनन्त हो | अर्थात् जिसके contact में आने से मनुष्य के मन में कभी भी किसी भी हालत में monotony नहीं आएगी---हमेशा नया, नवीन, नवीनतर, नवीनतम | परमपुरुष एक ऐसी सत्ता हैं, जो हमेशा नूतन हैं, हमेशा नवीन हैं | इसलिए life की monotony से बचने के लिए आध्यात्मिक साधना हर इनसान के लिए फ़र्ज़ है | रुहानी तरक़्क़ी के लिए तो फ़र्ज़ अवश्य ही है; Life की monotony से बचने के लिए भी यह फ़र्ज़ है |
तो, dharma is a cult of individual life. Dharma is a must for individual life | धर्म नहीं रहने से मनुष्य धीरे-धीरे क्या हो जाएगा ? न, पशु के स्तर में चले जाएँगे | जब मनुष्य देखेंगे कि मानविक जीवन में monotony आ गई, तो हो सकता है ख़ुदकुशी कर बैठें | अथवा, इतना गिर जाएँ कि पशु के स्तर तक पहुँच जाएँ, ईंट-काठ-पत्थर भी बन जाएँ | तो, मनुष्य को अधोगति से बचाने के लिए भी धर्म एक फ़र्ज़ है |” (1)
Reference
(1) Subhasita Samgraha 15-02 (H) “त्रिस्तरीय मुक्ति सोपान क्या ?”
== Section 3: Links ==
Other topics of interest
