#Ancient Culture ( Samskaram ) of Bharatham-4.9. : Swami Krishnananda.

 

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# OPINION : Saturday,  September 19, 2020. 8:30. AM. : 2244

#Chapter- 4.The Fourfold Aim of Existence and How to Achieve It-9.

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1.

So what are the aims of existence? Dharma, artha, kama, moksha. Inasmuch as moksha is universally inclusive, it is not just one of the four aims; it is the aim which includes the other three automatically, and subsumes the other three. The goal of life is Self-realisation, God-realisation, the realisation of this absolutely universal Consciousness. This is to say something about the fourfold aim of existence: artha, kama, dharma, moksha.

2.

How are we going to work for it? Now comes the practical question. We have understood that these are the aims of life. How is it possible to achieve it? This methodology of the actual attainment of this great purpose of life is laid down by the regulations of a different type altogether, namely, ashrama dharma, the dharma or the law of the order of life, the stages of life. You have to grow vertically into the expanded state of the dimension of consciousness by overcoming the limitations to which you are subject through a process of education, which is the ashrama dharma. Brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa are supposed to be the stages through which everyone has to pass. When a person is born as a little child and grows into an adolescent, that person is put under the restriction of a law and order of education, and a discipline which conserves energy. This frees the mind from distractions which, if they are allowed to work with a free hand, may deplete the energy of the system, and the self within may feel weakened by its concentration on things other than its own self. We call this consciousness as Atman, and that which is outside the consciousness is anatman, also known as the subject and the object.

3.

Pure consciousness cannot be an object. It is the knower of all things, the seer of all things; therefore, it cannot be something that is known by somebody else. But we in our physical condition of embodiment in this body see something outside – the world in front of us, filled with things, people, etc. – and our mind moves in terms of these external things. This movement of the mind in terms of external things is what we call the Atman moving in terms of the anatman. You are moving in terms of that which you are not. You know you are something and the things that you see in front of you are not you, so whenever you think something outside you, or the sense organs pull you in the outward direction, you are concentrating your mind on that which you are not. This is the reason why you become weak physically and mentally. When you are not yourself and you have become somebody else, naturally all your energy is sucked by that which is not you, the object, and you have poured yourself, as it were, on that thing which you are not, and you have become weak. A person who is sensorily indulgent, mentally contemplating objects of sense outside, weakens the system physiologically as well as psychologically.

To be continued ....

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JAI HIND

JAI BHARATHAM

VANDHE MATHARAM

BHARAT MATHA KI JAI.

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