The Real Reality

IV

The question before us is not of religion nor of society. It is one of right understanding and proper evaluation of things of the world. All our acts and deeds are but for one purpose ? the purpose being to secure ease and comfort for our body. We judge everything on this touch-stone. A husband loves his wife not for her sake but for himself. Similarly, a wife loves her husband not for his sake but for herself. We love the children so that they may be of some help to us in our old age. There is nothing wrong in wealth and riches. It is only the use to which these are put ? selfish or otherwise in selfless service and the way in which these are earned, which determine quality and value, and also their effect on the earner.

We generally spend our wealth for our personal comforts and to satisfy our needs. Truly speaking, one does not need much to live. We, unnecessarily, go on expanding our desires and create a kind of subtle web around us. And for what? Just for a brief span of time in which we have to live. Life is a great struggle. We have to struggle with our minds and senses. We have to struggle for right understanding of things instead of flowing down with the current of time with no foothold or handhold to steady ourselves.

An Awakened Soul cannot but pity our condition and out of compassion give us a piece of His mind. They speak in aphoristic terms full of deep meaning in them. They talk to us in parables and stories to bring home to us our faults and shortcomings. They tell us that this world is a puppet show and there is some Power behind us whereby we move. But with all Their teachings and preachings, we continue to tread the same old Path as before. We do not try to understand the will and purpose of the Power behind us. If we do so, we can easily escape the magnetic field of karmas. 

The problem of karmas is very complicated (see ?The Wheel of Life? for an exhaustive explanation of the subject); karmas continue to dog us from age to age. Time is a stern arbiter. All our deeds make an indelible impression on the tablet of time, and the mind working in the time cannot but draw upon those impressions. 

Of King Dhritrashtra, the congenitally blind progenitor of the Kaurvas, it is said that he could read back his past one hundred incarnations but could not say as to why he suffered blindness when he had a clean slate for all these lives. Lord Krishna then placed his hand on the head of the blind king to enable him, with the help of his own yogic powers, to penetrate further back to find out as to when and to what deed he could ascribe this calamity. It was then that the king was able to say that his blindness was the reaction of a particular action committed in one of the incarnations beyond the hundred of which he was originally not aware. 

We simply see the effect of our past karmas on the present screen of life and remain ignorant of the causes set going in the past, may be in this life or in some previous incarnation, and are thus taken aback. These effects come so suddenly and swiftly that we get flabbergasted. Our desires and longings are at the root of all our karmas. This is why Buddha, the Enlightened One, laid emphasis on desirelessness. In fact, all Saints say so, each in His own words. 

Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth in line of succession to Guru Nanak, said: Cut yourself away from desires.

In the time of Akbar the Great, there was, in his council of Ministers, one Wali Ram. It was customary with the ministers to stand in attention when the king came to preside over his council of ministers. It so happened that one day a scorpion got into the toga of Wali Ram. As he was standing in attention, the scorpion stung Wali Ram at different places as it moved. The minister silently bore the agony and kept standing erect so as to maintain the decorum of the royal court.

When the king sat on the throne, Wali Ram, with folded hands, came forward before the imperial majesty and said: Oh king, I have been thy slave for all these years. Little does your majesty know that I have been stung by the scorpion so many times but could not for all that raise my little finger to throw the scorpion down for fear of violating the court etiquette. Saying this, Wali Ram tore his mantle and ran out of the court to serve the King of kings, the Lord God. Akbar felt sorry to lose such a wise minister as Wali Ram. He sent his courtiers to recall Wali Ram. But now Wali Ram was not the Wali Ram of old. He refused to come back. Then the king himself went to persuade him but in vain. 

The king in all humility wanted to confer some rare boon upon his old minister who had served him so well for so many years. He inquired as to what he could do for him. Wali Ram replied, Oh mighty king, all I beg of you is to spare your shadow from over me. I am grateful to you for the royal patronage that you so kindly extended to me, but now I am a free man and I do not need any more royal favours.

It is such like incidents that bring about a sudden change in the way of one?s thinking. With an awakening like this, one feels like one liberated from the bondage of the world. 

Our troubles begin our desires, and desires, in their turn, lead to all other vices as enumerated already. They have become part and parcel of our life, and we live and die for them. If you were to step aside, you can for yourself witness and see how people drift along helplessly simply by force of habit. A really Awakened Person looks on the world from a safe point of vantage ? from the level of the soul. They take pity on us and, in loving terms, try to impress upon us the futility of the life which we are leading. They tell us: We have seen many a human mould rotting under the earth. When this is the case with the human body, what is there in it for us to be proud? 

It is rightly said, 

Dust thou art and to dust returneth.

This is the angle of vision that is presented to us by Godmen. Guru Nanak now goes on to explain: 

Listen ye to our sage counsel; listen ye must. Godly acts shall alone save thee from the cycle of births.

With what a sense of compassion these words have come from the heart of Nanak. The body and the bodily adjuncts have been given to us as aids in self-realisation and God-Realisation. But we are going the other way around. When Godmen see us in this sad plight, They are moved to the extreme and cannot help giving us a piece of Their mind. They, having solved the enigma of life for Themselves, tell us of the Way whereby we, too, can do likewise. It is the Godly Acts that can help us in this behalf. Human life is a great blessing. It provides us with the opportunity and the means to save ourselves from this mighty maze of the world in which we are lost like babes in the woods. Godly Acts may be distinguished from good acts. Good and charitable acts, whatever their merit, keep us in bondage like their counterparts, the evil acts. If the latter takes us to nether regions, the former, to higher regions. But in each case, after the period allotted for undergoing punishment or enjoyment is run out, we have to return to the mortal plane again. Thus we see that good acts are not of much avail in gaining freedom from mind and matter. The Saints, therefore, speak of Godly Acts ? acts which take us Godward. These acts are termed Sukrat.

Kabir also emphasises: 

Do Sukrat deeds; commune with the Word ? who knows what may happen tomorrow?

And significantly enough He adds: 

What to speak of the morrow, one does not know what may happen the next moment.

In the list of Godly Acts, the most important thing is righteousness. One must be true to himself. If one is true to himself, he cannot be false to anybody. He would not try to deceive and cheat others. He would be truthful in thought, word, and deed.