Like a traveler without a destination,
anonymous among so many people in this world…
by lakhs… by crores…
we are living just because we were born…
we eat in order to live.
we live only in order to Eat & Earn …
We need them but...
Along with the crores and crores of life forms
spread across the universe, we too…
nameless births,
meaningless journeys.
Believing that being born itself is life,
thinking that breathing alone only is spiritual practice,
mistakenly assuming food itself is happiness,
we are chewing away time.
Amid the crores and crores of moving life forms
in the universe,
even after receiving intellect,
we are beings who have discarded intellect.
Like ants, like mosquitoes, like locusts…
without any purpose…
without any goal, without any ideal…
like a dry leaf flying in the wind…
like a traveler without a destination…
Utter emptiness throughout, detachment,
incapacity without foresight…
twenty-four hours a day…
thirty days a month…
years pass after years without any change…
without any distinction…
Time flows…
days, months, years.
But within,
the mind does not move even a single step forward.
Birth happens,
death becomes inevitable.
The life in between, however,
turns into a meaningless pause.
Living uselessly as long as there is life,
all these beings finally reach the funeral pyre…
But
who said this itself is the law of life?
The ancient sages saw a different path.
The Vedas conveyed
a silent truth..
Person’s goal is not to live,
but to become knowledge, and let it reflect in conduct.
Balya (Childhood)
is not the time when the body grows,
it is the moment when consciousness takes shape.
Here the ego sprouts,
and here too the seed to transcend the ego.
vidhyaabyasa (Education)
is not only for profession,
but for discernment.
Letters are not what matter,
the truth behind the letters matters.
Only one who knows this
recognizes ignorance as the enemy.
Gruhasta (Householder life)
is not permission for indulgence,
it is a test of responsibility.
Whether relationships become bonds
or become disciplines,
this is the field of action that decides it.
Here itself
karma becomes bondage,
here itself karma becomes purified.
In living for others,
one’s ego slowly dissolves.
But…
if one stops here,
the home becomes the destination,
responsibility becomes bondage.
Therefore the sages showed
the next step..
Vanaprastha (retirement from worldly life)
This is not running away to the forest,
not an attempt to escape responsibilities.
This is slowly
withdrawing from attachments.
Handing over what has been accumulated,
letting go of the identities that were built,
transforming the feeling of
“I am the doer” into the state of a witness.
Here,
letting go becomes strength
rather than acquiring.
Silence becomes the guru
rather than sounds.
Vanaprastha does not mean forest,
it means conquering
the jungle of desires within the mind.
Only then does one become ready
for the final truth,
Moksha (liberation)
This is not a place to be reached,
but a state to be known.
Not escaping from birth and death,
but the vision that can witness
the true nature of birth and death.
Here,
the ‘I’ dissolves,
the ‘mine’ collapses,
what remains…
is the experience that all that exists is one.
Only then
does the destination-less traveler realize
that he himself is the destination.
He is no longer a dry leaf,
he shines in time,
and becomes a lamp of knowledge
that illuminates time for others.
Then life
is not an event,
it becomes self-realization
within oneself.
From Teachings of... Master Raghu Raama, Santhi Dhaam, Kuchinapudi, Andhra Pradesh (ST) INDIA.
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