Saturday, June 30, 2012

Don’t rock the Boat, row lightly in the river of life!

What you want to accomplish in your life stems from your innermost desire and becomes your goal. Sometimes this goal is obscured by life’s passing fancies and we accumulate a lot of luggage which must be jettisoned if we want to climb the mountain and reach the pinnacle of bliss. All the three western monotheistic religions state that enlightenment came from the mystic mountains. The Prophet Mohammed received the Koran in the cave of Hira on the mountains of Jalal-al-Nur; Moses saw the burning bush on Mount Horeb & Jesus’s transfiguration was in the high mountain of the holy land. In eastern philosophy the snow peaks of the Himalayas is where the sages retreated for meditation. However Hindu philosophy always considers the holy river Ganges as the place for liberation and fulfillment. The river is always the metaphor for life and our lives are considered as the voyage in this river of life. Imagine your life as sailing on a boat in the river, as life progresses you load up the boat with material possessions you think are essential in life. You acquire huge mansions with servant’s shining cars, expensive clothes, LED TV’s, a family, sometimes a mistress or two also tucked away and rare paintings & artifacts. Also visualize a host of friends and sycophants who keep you entertained and praise your ostentation and fashionable wardrobe & other luxuries that cloy with sensual pleasure. What happens to the boat? Obviously it becomes very heavy and slows down; life becomes dangerous to manage all that stress, tension, mebbe a stroke, till finally the boat capsizes. So now we understand why this obsession for detachment is omnipresent in Hindu philosophy

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