Essential Philosophy: Flow With Life
Raja Sharma
Copyright@2011 Raja Sharma
Smashwords Edition
All Rights Reserved
Chapter One
Inquiry is an inevitable part of human existence, and human mind easily changes every experience into a question. If you start questioning everything, it becomes very destructive. You should avoid it. It is good to know all that which is still unknown but all that which is not knowable is beyond our reach. We should not waste our time in stupid questioning. If your mind is full of questions about such things which don’t seem to be in the reach of human mind, you will be distracted and there will be no peace in your life.
If you come across a situation where you feel that it is really inexpressible and it can’t be put into words, just enjoy it and avoid questioning. You must give subtle to grow and dance with you. In such an experience you will find that you will obtain something which can’t be expressed to others because you have experienced it and others can’t feel the same.
Generally, modern learned scholars are always ready to make theories, based on their hypothecation and observation. But you must avoid it and please don’t make a theory out of any experience which you think can’t be understood fully. I believe that theories are very dangerous and they are always uncertain.
You must remember that all that you have made is in your reach but all that nature has put before you is definitely beyond your reach. You can never understand it fully. You see the scientists have been making theories about human existence, including Darwin, for hundreds of years but they have not found the truth. They are further confusing the matter. I don’t mean that all scientific inquiries should stop; I mean to say that you should try to enjoy all that is in front of you. Let it grow. Don’t kill the child before it is born.
Sometimes, it happens that you have an experience which you can’t compare with any other experience. You try to find the reasons and the circumstances. You begin to believe that this and this thing is responsible for this experience. You are wrong here because the enjoyment which you may have had from the same experience was not received by your friends. At that moment something happened to you, something strange, something very subtle, and something divine perhaps, and you want to share it with others. Stop here for a while and try to concentrate. You can’t express it yet it has happened to you. You should be happy because you are blessed.
If something inexpressible starts happening to you, you are heading towards godliness, the ultimate secret of the divine. Keep on moving because you are on the right track. Don’t you try to share it with others because others will not understand you! Your happiness is very personal to you and you can’t explain it to others.
Your mind does not help you because it is bigger than mind. That something if it happens to you is the blessing. Just continue to enjoy it. You will never understand it through any kind of analysis, or dissection. You will have to absorb the entire experience. You will have to swallow the whole experience, digest it, and feel it within you. Let this experience become a part of you and then only you will understand it in totality.
Humans have their shortcomings. They try to name everything they come across. If you see a creature which you have never seen, you are disturbed. You want to name it. You begin to call it ‘rat’ and you are satisfied. You think you know rat but you are wrong. You have only named that creature but you can’t understand it. It will take a never ending research to know the physical aspects of rat but you will never be able to understand what is happening in the mind of the rat. You will never be able to experience all that that rat is experiencing. But you continue to make theories about the rat, its behaviour, its feelings, its actions and reactions, etc. You continue to ask questions but here you miss the point. You begin to live in the world of theories, assumptions, and your conclusions.
I have a rat in my shop. At night, if I am working late, I often see that rat come out of its hiding. When it first appeared, I did not pay much attention. I noticed the next time that it was eating a piece of biscuit which had fallen off the table in front of me. I did not mind. In the evening, I often take tea and biscuits in my shop. It continued for many months and that rat appeared every day.
One day, I was not feeling well so I did not order for biscuits. I was enjoying my tea. I noticed that the little rat was looking towards me with its round twinkling little eyes. It seemed he was asking where my biscuits were. I felt there was a connection between that rat and me. I immediately got up, brought a packet of biscuits from the kitchen and threw one biscuit in front of the rat. The little fellow got scared when the biscuit fell in front of it but soon that poor creature was enjoying the sweetness of the biscuit.
I felt something at that time and it seemed as if a ray of light had entered my mind. I was smiling, and after a while I began to laugh. I extended my hand and I wanted to touch the rat. I was quite amazed that the poor creature did not run away. I really touched it and it did not mind at all. That experience made me think about all the theories about humans and animals which had been stuffed into my mind in my schools and colleges. There was definitely something between me and my rat and it had not been mentioned in any course book which I had read. That something unknown did not need to be enquired because I had experienced it. I don’t want to question it and I don’t want to make any theory because it is possible that you begin to wait for your rat with a biscuit in your hand night after night but that rat never comes. No, I don’t want you to try to train your rat in the way I reacted with my rat. You might have a different rat, a very angry rat, and the moment you touch it, it bites you.
I mean by this incident that what I had experienced was very personal to me. My rat is my rat and you all have your rats and I don’t know how you feel when your rats are in front of you.
If something strange, something unknown, something inexpressible happens to you, just experience it, just dance with it, and just continue to experience it. Please don’t pause to question it, don’t try to make theories, and don’t try to tell it to others. You will see that without questions you will be a better person, with more peace of mind and more happiness.
Understanding is a very beautiful thing and it fills you with a very pleasant kind of feeling. Having understood something you feel that you have added something very valuable to your existence. You have known only the mind and its ways. It labels things very immediately. Whenever you ask what this is, what are you asking really? You see a bush and a flower and you say, “What is this?”
You are definitely disturbed when you come across something and you don’t know that thing. You see a strange creature and you have no name for it. You are ignorant but you want to know it. It disturbs you and continues to disturb you. You see a flower but you don’t know anything about that flower. Someone tells you that it is called Jasmine. You are satisfied because you know its name. You think that you know Jasmine flower but here you are wrong. You know the name of the flower but you don’t know anything else about it. You start reading books about the jasmine flower and begin to add to your knowledge. You think that your understanding of the flower is complete after finishing those books. Here you are wrong. You have not communicated with jasmine flower, you have not concentrated with it, you have not faced the rain it has faced, and you have not faced the sunlight the flower has felt. How can you know the flower without complete involvement? Your ego is supreme and you want to prove that you know everything about jasmine flower. It is intolerable to you that you don’t know much about the flower.
All that is unknown to you disturbs your mind and you definitely feel uncomfortable. You see somebody; you say, “Who is this man?” And then somebody says he is a Mexican, a Chinese, an Indian, or an African, or Japanese, and you feel at ease. What have you known? Just by saying that he is a Chinese…. There are millions of Chinese – eight hundred million – and no other Chinese is like him. In fact, nothing exists like the Chinese. There are millions and millions of Chinese – each individual is unique, different; each has his own signature, his own being. What have you understood by labeling a man as a Chinese? But you feel at ease.
You continue to ask. You come to know his religion, his political belief, and even his qualification. You are a bit more comfortable because you begin to believe that you have known him and understood him. No, you have only come to know about some of the labels and names attached to him.
Chapter Two
Knowledge is not as easily gained as you might think. It is definitely not cheap and it does not come just by labelling the things. If you simply label or name a thing, you stop there. You miss a great opportunity that was open before you. Knowing requires complete involvement. You could have known the man if you had got involved with him. You could have known the rosebush if you had meditated alone with it, if you had allowed its fragrance to enter into your nostrils and into your heart; if you had touched it with love. If you had a communion with this rosebush you might have known something.
There is no way of knowing something absolutely because in that case you will have to be alive for infinite years because everything has billions of mysteries still unknown attached to it. If you can know a single rosebush totally then you have known the whole universe – because in the single rosebush the whole universe is involved: the sun and the moon and the stars and the past and the present and the future. All time and all space is converging on that small rose flower. If you can know it in its totality you will have known the whole universe. Then nothing is left behind. Each small thing is so great.
If you come across something or some experience which is absolutely new, I mean unknown to you, just pause and think. Don’t jump to conclusions and never try to analyze of dissect it because you will miss a great experience. You will have to deal with the situation very gracefully, slowly, giving it fair amount of time.
Though I was born in a very religious Hindu family, and in the course of growing up I did study all the religious scriptures provided to me by my elders, but I could never become a Hindu like them. I found that the story of Lord Rama was very personal to him and it was the rescue of his wife and the destruction of some demons which led to the creation of the entire saga. Yes, he did a few things which our elders believe were good but at the same time he was involved in killings and massacre of the rival army. I would never go the same way because I would never impose myself on my children. It was Ram’s father who had promised something to Ram’s step-mother, and as a result Ram had to go on exile. He was forced to do something which was imposed upon him. The Hindu elders often say that he was an obedient son but I say that he was made to think the way his elders thought.
Likewise, in Bhagvad Gita there is the detailed description of the war between Pandavas and Kauravas. Lord Krishna teaches Arjun the meaning of life, war, truth, righteousness, and so on. Whether for good or for bad, Krishna was inciting Arjun to fight against his cousins and elders. It was their family dispute and the saga was put into words and named Bhagvad Gita.
Now they say that these religious scriptures are full of moral lessons and one should learn from them. I don’t find any difference when I see my two neighbours fighting over their ancestral property. Both have their logics and some points for the others to learn from. I meet both my neighbours, brothers, from time to time and they try to justify their stands. Since their situation is not the result of my doing, I have no authority to interfere. It is very much personal to them. They are fighting over a piece of land and I don’t want to get involved.