A
real spiritual aspirant will properly discharge
his or her duties in the relative world, and
will at the same time attend properly to his or
her duties in the spiritual world; and between
the two worlds, there will be a happy blending.
In the external world there should be an
objective adjustment, and at the same time in
the psychic world there should be a subjective
approach.
Furthermore,
never forgetting that human life is an
ideological flow, human beings should always
move towards the supreme ideology. They have
been moving in this direction since time
immemorial and, through this process of
movement, have reached the present stage of
humanity. Passing through many lives as worms,
insects, birds, and animals, they have undergone
countless pains, miseries, tortures and
humiliations. Take for example the life of a
goat. A goat spends its life eating grass, until
the day comes when the butcher grabs it, kills
it, skins it and sells its flesh piece by piece
in the market. That goat at one time had to live
such a miserable life. But today it has
forgotten all this. Through a process of forward
movement, today it may have attained a human
life.
Human life is
more secure than animal life. Many animals live
in the jungle where there is something to fear
every minute; where the weak are the prey of the
strong. To escape this atmosphere of fear and
insecurity, many wild animals have sought refuge
with human beings. They have been fed grass,
leaves and other types of fodder until the right
moment came to kill them for their flesh. Even
today, this is generally what happens. Animals
fully trust human beings; they trust them even
up to one minute before their death. But when
they see a person approaching them with a weapon
in hand, they realize that those they had
trusted as friends are actually their enemies.
Although human beings feed their animals, the
love or attachment which they have for them is
purely external. There is no genuine love in
them. This is how wretched animal life can be.
Every human
being has had to pass through that sort of
painful animal life in the past. But that does
not mean we should be the cause of misery for
those animals who have taken shelter with us
today. On the contrary, we should have a
merciful attitude towards them. A woman who has
been badly treated or humiliated by her
mother-in-law should be careful that she does
not treat her daughter-in-law in the same way.
Human beings should carry out their duties
properly in the external world and should always
ensure that no being suffers unnecessarily from
any undue mistreatment. In the physical sphere,
the rights of all should be protected. Each and
every human being should be guaranteed the basic
necessities of life: food, clothing, medicine,
shelter and education. "I won't exploit anyone,
and I won't allow others to exploit me." This is
the spirit of proper objective adjustment. And
while this proper objective adjustment is
maintained, work must continue in a progressive
way. You will have to move ahead on the path of
life while keeping an adjustment with the
external world.
You must always
remember that your existence is not only a
physical one. It is animals who are primarily
concerned with the physical world, who struggle
merely to survive. Those animals which live in
jungles are constantly confronted by the fear of
tigers, lions, bears, elephants, snakes,
crocodiles and a host of other ferocious
creatures; while those which have surrendered to
human beings, such as goats, sheep and cows, are
confronted in the last moment of their lives
with the fear of being slaughtered by a human.
So it is quite obvious that animal life is less
secure than human life.
In today's
world, human beings face difficulties
maintaining an objective adjustment with the
physical world. As we have not yet been able to
build an ideal human society, we will have to
first concentrate on providing everyone with the
basic requirements of life. Once that task is
accomplished, we shall be able to build an ideal
society. To enable society to progress
spiritually, people will be given sufficient
scope and time for spiritual practices.
The subjective
approach is to first withdraw the crude mind
gradually from the external world and merge it
in the subtle mind, and then to merge the subtle
mind in unit consciousness. When unit
consciousness is merged in Cosmic Consciousness,
a human being is said to have attained the
supreme fulfilment in life. In the present
world, human beings face such tremendous
difficulties maintaining their objective
adjustment, that they cannot afford to give any
time for their subjective approach. This is the
greatest tragedy of the day. That is why I would
like to advise you to build a healthy human
society as early as possible, so that each and
every human being gets enough scope and time for
spiritual progress. (Excerpted from 'Ánanda
Vacanámrtam'
Part - 6)
