Human beings are nothing but an Evolving story with coming and going on through births and deaths till the mission is fulfiled.
Pearls from the Obsolete
Spiritual Pursuit (not religion), is the only way to a peaceful and tranquil old age in order to welcome satisfied death. If we can not welcome a peaceful happy end of our life we are not worthy of our intelligence, in spite of all our achievements .
The evolving human ego, aging and death.
Human evolution is only the evolution of our ego. We call it civilization. Civilisation tries to gives some meaning to our ego , but not for life.We can not evolve outside, our ego.The truth and our ego works like the fixed Sun and the revolving earth, making the day and night possible.In reality we are the soul of the universe. It is awareness of the being .Our ego is the earth that evolves and revolves to produce black and white emotions ,that colour our life.The life never evolves, only the perceptions of our ego do evolve with our changing knowledge.As the final resort of water is the ocean, any individual drop has to join it to be back at source in a closed environment of cycles.The water undergoes evolutions of different forms.But the ocean, as the last resort and origin never changes.
We are fulfilled in truth of the being.
As the perception changes, our ego being too change to satisfy our needs and desires.But as our knowledge increases, our ignorance too increases.It is balanced like day and night. The modern life styles are the result of modern knowledge. When it destroys our natural health, peace and happiness, it shows the modern ignorance that follow us. That is why many people follow cult Gods and different faiths instead of being aware of the truth. We practice violence everyday and search for peace elsewhere .We destroy our health and try to buy it in hospitals and by doctors.Many people enjoy an extended, artificial life over 85 years but with grave social and private problems of the old age.
We have to face different challenges in the old age . When we are young ,we live, burdened for acquiring wealth and pleasure ,with a wrong karma,till we become senile of dementia, showing the euphemism of a second childhood. Millions of people suffer from some stage of Alzheimer’s, and millions are needed as caregivers for people suffering from dementia.On the other hand, a highly active ego with a weak physical condition makes old age a challenge for ourselves. It is worth analysing some ancient wisdom that made a different human culture.
No body could welcome a physical death unless our ego dies.
We can not welcome a physical death unless our ego dies.Only a few like Jesus or Budha acquire this status, joining the holy spirit of eternity. In the vedic system they designed the life in such a manner that, by getting older, we become calmer, wiser, with joy and freedom from fear to welcome death, in a fulfilment of our life.
Each generation has different perceptions to live the world in an evolutionary process, that translates into our cultural decisions and countless other habits. There can not be any comparison of today’s human culture with that of the prehistoric times.Yet there are pearls of wisdom,that could be relevant and meaningful in today’s world.With proper understanding and adapting its working,we could reap the same benefits. People,especially the elderly people enjoyed in those days, ” Peace of mind and fulfilment of their lives” towards a “great death”, following the spiritual path of life.
Peaceful retirement from active life in the vedic culture.
The vedic culture had a great respect and understanding of a human life.They thought it good, to have a happy end of a great life. It do not happen as an accident.So they structured the life as a spiritual path that is driven in different gears for the smooth and safe journey. They understood that, a great death, is more a spiritual aspect than a physical planing. Our high knowledge or net worth,will not help us to have a great and happy exit, if we do not follow the great spiritual path of life.It needs a different perception, that leads to a peaceful life style,which has its roots in the pre-historic human culture existed in ancient India.
TheVedic age was a period in human history during which, the vedas, the oldest scriptures of spiritual knowledge has emerged. To day`s Hindu faith has some relations to the vedic knowledge ,but mostly mislead and wrongly interpreted in symbolic religious myths and rituals.
“Veda- ntha” the supreme knowledge of “understanding of oneself” took the centre of the vedic culture.They understood that life should be driven by awareness, and not by any belief or prejudice.They relied on consciousness, through all facets of life.This culture could be understood as a divine culture in the human evolution till date.
Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha, the four pillars- defining the meaning of life.
According to the vedic culture ,there are four main goals to be followed in life, known as the Purusharthas .They are virtuous duties (Dharma),material prosperity(Artha), satisfying desires and making pleasure without hurting others (Kama),liberation(Moksha).
When Dharma, Artha and Kama ,supports each other ,they together create a mature “Ego”(the emotional being) in everyday life, so that Moksha could be realised to get release from the “Karma cycle” of cause and effect. Attaining Moksha, a person joins back the source of origin-the spirit.
Of the first three disciplines, virtue must have the highest priority, a peaceful life has the second and pleasure and lust the least priority. When ever different motives conflict in our person, the higher ideal is to be followed. Thus, in making money virtue must not be compromised and earning a livelihood should take precedence over any pleasure of our ego.
During brahmacharya, we should learn about anything. Youth is the time for life with pleasure, and as years pass, one should understand the folly of pleasures and wealth in the never ending trap of desires in our ego status. This knowledge shall lead us to escape the vicious cycle of karma and repetition of the same miseries.
The Ashram life. (Life in peace and tranquility)
In ancient India, there was alife style and social culture, known to be laid out in the Manu Smriti. Also known as Manava-Dharmashastra( moral code of human life), “Manusmriti” became the norm of the vedic socio-cultural life. under which One life span is divided into four stages as “Brahmacharya”, “Grahasta”, “Vanaprastha” and “Sanyasa”. The Vedic culture defines a specific purpose for each ashrams , meaning phase or stations, during the spiritual journey of life. Each stage follows specific disciplines, to be followed .
Brahmacharya, a journey in the first and second gear.
The first station of human life, brahmacharya, is the student phase of life where we are supposed to engage in learning everything in preparation for later stages.One becomes proficient with questioning and self study under a guru who is well versed with all facets of the life. During this period we are expected to live a perfect celibate life . Brahmacharya means move with the being.It means free from emotions.Then only we could concentrate on what we do and be free from prejudice and beliefs. It help us to understand the truth as it is,so as to fully concentrate on learning all skills, in the sacred atmosphere of the Gurukula ( domicile of the guru). Sexual life is considered only for the next stage. Celibacy had to be kept till marriage,which was considered to be a divine institution. Even sex had to have a meaning in the vedic culture.Awareness, which is divinity, stood in the centre of any life activity.Any learning had to be undertaken with full awareness and reason.
Grahasta, journey in the third and fourth gear.
Grahasta. meaning household life which, was the stage of family life. It begins with marriage and proceeds with taking up full responsibilities of family life. It involves earning the livelyhood for the family through the skills acquired during Brahmacharya. It encourages the enjoyment of a material life, including sexual life (with in the marital relation). The householders take up the responsibility of bringing up their children in the same way, as their parents brought them up. The householder needs to perform every thing in a righteous manner only so as to avoid hurting others or the nature.
Vanaprastha, jouney in the reverse gear.
This station, indicates the departure from material earning and possessing. One lives with the family and in the society, but in a withdrawn manner. The man no longer takes part in the active life. The women leaves the responsibility of running the household to her daughter-in-law. People in this stage, play the role of mentors and care takers of the junior members. At this stage,life becomes religious in nature. Celibacy is again advocated in this stage. One is in this world but not of this world, is the moto during vanaprastha. We practice here to become a mere spectator of events,with out emotionaly engaging in it. The process of detachment from possessions, desires and relations begins in this stage.
Sanyasa,destination arrived,absolute resting in the neutral gear,till the fuel get finished and engine stops itself.
The final stage is Sanyasa or renunciation. The person, leaves society to spend the remaining part of his or her life in meditation and solitude for enjoying the fulfiled moments. This is a very severe step which is impossible as an ego being.When, we did not abandon our ego being,in the vanaprastha stage, we cannot enjoy the sanyasa.It is meaningless to enter sanyasa with our ego being. To merge ourselves in the param atma (consciousness in the being) the renunciation of our ego is a pre-requisite.
Salvation through sanyasa
The last suit we wear, does not need any pockets. The vedic philosophy was based on the theory a ‘Param Atma’, which is the Consciousness of the Supreme being and the Jeeva Atma‘.(consciousness of the ego being). They gave a meaning for the human existence through living our life through 4 different stages of an evolution to understand ourself in order to merge our Jeeva Atma with the Param Atma, which is known as moksha or salvation.
Jesus described it as re-birth in to the spirit. The death of our ego is our re-birth in to the spirit of being.Here we enter the heaven,the place of peace-the God.
I am the way,the truth and the life.
The ideal behind the ashram culture was the fulfillment of our life with a meaning. It was an attempt to institutionalize life as a spiritual pilgrimage in to our real being, as joining back to the source.
Centuries later,when Jesus became enlightened,He proclaimed this journey more clearly as follows “ I am the way,the truth and the life”.
We have made the life more rich with modern and innovative culture with advanced technical knowledge.We have many many entertainments.Yet we are in prison of our Ego being , burdened with all baggage collected in our life time.As a result most of us make a short circuit in the system and become Dementia. It may be the short cut to become free of all burden,we carried with us a life time.It becomes tragic when we had a proud life behind us,but our aged ego resists to detach from the possessions to welcome an exit.
Now,it makes only one difference with the Ashram culture. The modern man lives like driving an automatic car, with easiness of drive, but with a lot of stress and confusion that leads to a tragic exit .Tragic because the spiritual path is unknown and the drive is going through uneven paths of a desert called EGO.
