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Struggles & Emotions

March 13, 2010

In human life, there are times when it seems that everything is going very nicely and you may feel a great joy in your life. In other times, this and that trouble comes your way, your relationship goes poorly, your job goes poorly or different internal strife arises and you may feel discouraged, despondent, depressed and unhappy. You may feel nervous, worried and anxious. These are times when the mind is disturbed by such emotions. Different experiences in life trigger these emotions. When discomfort and unhappiness come, perhaps you lose a loved one, a relationship goes poorly, you lose your job; something serious takes place. One longs for happiness; one longs for a way to comfort and security, ease of mind, peace of mind and a sense of well-being. Perhaps an ailment comes in the body. All these physical ailments, disturbing circumstances and losses in the life disturb your sense of well-being, They disturb mental peace and ease. Your sense of well-being and equanimity are disrupted. Then the desire comes to stabilize happiness, that sense of well-being, security in one's life. I think you have all experienced these types of experiences, have you not?

Q. Yes Baba.

A. Yes, this is normal in life. It is normal. The highs and lows are part and parcel of every life. Never think you are alone. Never think you are different or separate in this life, "Why is this happening to me? Why do I have this suffering?" In one form or another, suffering comes to all in this world. The person who lives in poverty looks to the rich and says, "Look what they have. Their life is good. If only I had that money, I would be happy too. I would have this and that." They imagine so much happiness in that rich person. They covet that wealth, thinking, "If only I had what that person has, I would be happy." They live in misery, always wanting, if only I had that money, that car, that nice house, then I would be happy." Meanwhile, the person with the nice car and house has just lost a wife, husband, or the love of children and they are crying themselves to sleep. They are not happy. They say, "If only I had the simple life. If only I had the love of my children, my wife back with me. If only my life were normalized, I could be happy."

Thus, each is restless, thinking if only the life were different, they could find happiness. How many times have you found yourself in this position? If only my life were different in this or that way, then I could have happiness, isn’t it?

Q. Yes. Yes.

A. Always, circumstances around you change. Your situation changes. To one degree or another, you find your circumstances mediated. In one way or another, your life gets better and you can't quite figure out how that happened, what caused it to get better. It seems you tried and tried then somehow it just got better. Some people you love came into your life. Some circumstances changed. Your job got better. Your income got better. Something improved in your life. This up and down of human life is the natural condition.

Always there is striving, desire, a need to create happiness, a need to create balance and human life is absorbed in the struggles to get stability, security, happiness, well-being, financial and emotional stability, stable relationships, loving situations and dynamism in the life. Sometimes one feels stagnant and does not know how to create a dynamic situation. Human life is going on with these struggles always, with these difficulties, with this restlessness and unhappiness. Most people tend to think, "I am the only one who is so unhappy. Look at all those friends of mine. When we all get together they all smile and are so happy and look how good their lives are, they have this and that, but me? I am just putting on a front. I am struggling inside." Little does one know when thinking this way that the others they think are so happy are putting on the same front.

There are periods of genuine happiness in everyone's life, some more than others, and there is struggle in everyone's life. Everyone has times of sorrow, downheartedness, fearfulness and worry. These are part of the human condition. You say, "Oh, if I only lived in more simple times." Then you must fear the bears and mountain lions and wonder where you will get your next meal. Even though human beings may advance technology and live very comfortable lives, still they struggle. Their struggle only moves from the physical to the psychic plane.

In countries and situations where people are struggling physically, all the samskara comes in the physical plane. They do not struggle as much psychically because there is no space for that. They are trying to find enough food. Once the basic needs of food and shelter are met, you would think that people would be happier. Now they have nothing to worry about. Their survival needs are met. While you would think people are happier, in fact, the mental struggle begins. The struggles goes from physical survival of food and shelter to emotional psychic struggle. Now it is, "I do not have enough love in my life. These people were mean and I am wounded inside. I do not feel adequate. I feel shy around other people. I do not feel good about myself. I feel sorrow. I feel anxious. I feel worried." These struggles replace fears for food, shelter and warmth. That is replaced by psychic struggle.

The more one is free from physical struggle, the more one is available for psychic struggle. This struggle is everywhere in human life. Interestingly, there is commonality among all human beings, all cultures and with animal life as well. All struggle. The deer is so frightened, always living in a state of complete anxiety and fear that they will be attacked, always on guard. Do you think you have stress? Think of the poor deer! You say, "Oh look at the beautiful deer in the field." But think of the stress in the deer, careful of the predator. If you walk toward the deer, it will run. It is afraid. Think of the lion. How to get the next meal? It's a hard job to hunt for every meal. Think of the stress the lion is under for food when game is scarce and it is going hungry, not knowing if its young will die because it is not a good performer in the hunt. The struggles go on in all parts of life, in all aspects and all living beings have this in common.

All living beings also have the commonality of joy. There is the moment when the deer sits in its quiet nest with its fawn and there is love between them. They feel the peace and joy, the warm sun, the comforts of good grasses. There is peace, joy and happiness. Amid the struggle and fear, there is happiness. The lion has struggled and worried, "How can I acquire the food for my cubs? How will I do it? How can I hunt? There is not enough game. I cannot find the food. I am hungry, days on end without food." Then the lion catches the food and brings it back. Then all are lying together, basking in the sun with full bellies feeling happiness. When the human being living a very simple life acquires food, shelter and security of the family, they are happy. When the human being who is living the more mentally complex life acquires the love, secures themselves, feels the stability of love, they achieve happiness. Yet the happiness in all these beings is very tenuous, always tenuous because always in the back of the mind is the fear, "This will not last. This will not remain. I will again be struggling as I was before, what to do?!" There is great joy of the moment of happiness but in the back of the mind is the knowledge that it is temporary. That is why the great Buddha said all of this worldly life is suffering. It is because even in the happiest moments, the very cause of suffering is seeded. It exists in causative form and the samskaras will arise. What to do?

The yogis, being human, being part of this expression, part of this struggle, thought very deeply how to achieve freedom from this difficult situation of bondage. They realized by destroying avidya, dissolving avidya, the ignorance in the mind, the knowledge arises of the unitary nature of all existence. With that comes the knowledge that, "I am not this body. I am not this mind, these worries, these struggles, these fears, the loneliness, need or the pain. These are of the temporal world but I am an immortal being made of immortal essence. The yogis realized in the knowledge of immortal essence, divinity, came the true shelter in the storm of life, came wholeness for the restlessness of human and animal existence. The human beings and even the animals have a separate sense of self, an individual sense of self that is separate and apart from the whole. The more developed is this separate sense, this ego, the more there is capacity for suffering because in this very self-aware separateness comes the very source of anguish and the longing, the restlessness to return to the fundamental wholeness that is lost. This understanding is described symbolically in the scriptures of different religions.

In the Old Testament, the Torah, Eve bit into the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the duality of "I" and "Thou." Suddenly, there was the fall from grace into the knowledge of separation. In knowledge of good and evil, light and dark, the duality of "I and "Thou" comes the fundamental source of anguish in human and animal life. In the fish, because the ego is a little less developed, there is perhaps a little less suffering because it is only dimly aware that it is separate. However, by the time the animal is a lion or deer, the awareness of individuality and vulnerability is very keen. In that awareness of vulnerability, they are in anguish to establish safety, security and unconditional love.

Thus, when the mother does sits with the little fawn, she feels a kind of warm love and is content. The little one is content with the mother and a sense of union forms. In this is a temporary dissolution of the sense of separate individuality. That is happiness. That is what happiness is. Even from acquiring food, the animal can feel a sense of well-being and their sense of separateness dissolves. That is happiness. Whenever that sense of duality begins to soften, one feels more happiness. It happens when you find one that you love dearly and you are together just enjoying. When you are with dear friends and enjoying, laughing together, your sense of separateness diminishes and your sense of happiness grows.

In each and every one of us there is a dharma, an essential nature, an essential and inherent way. For human beings, it is Bhagavad Dharma, meaning the path, the longing for reunion with the Divine, for the experience of wholeness. Some people think this is very lofty and that one must be a swami or a priest to follow one's Bhagavad dharma. It is not only for holy persons; it central, natural to human life. All follow it even an atheist with no meaning in any type of God for when they are with their loved ones or when they achieve something of importance, that sense of separateness lessens and the sense of happiness grows. This is fundamental to all people, this Bhagavad dharma, the striving to relax the sense of duality and experience the happiness that ensues.

Christianity offers very interesting analogies of the duality, good and evil and the world of dual form, dual existence. The solution in all religions is to recognize that duality, that tasting of knowledge of good and evil, dark and light, "I" and "Thou," the sense of separation and duality is fundamentally based upon ignorance. In Christianity, ignorance is called sin. Sin means ignorance. It is based in avidya, meaning not of truth, not true, ignorance, falsehood and false assumption. The false assumption is that you are your physical form, separate and apart from all else. This ignorance becomes the basis of suffering. Out of ignorance, the perception comes that you are confined by the skin of your body and can be harmed by many things in life so you must strive endlessly to achieve even a little happiness. That little happiness as long as we remain ignorant, always carries the seed of suffering, so said the Buddha.

When the veil of ignorance is removed from the eyes, then one becomes able to see past good and evil, past right and wrong, past light and dark, past "I" and "Thou," past pleasure and pain. One can see that pleasure and the pain are part and parcel of an integral whole and suffering is due to misunderstanding of one's own nature, believing you are separate, alone, can be harmed, can be killed and believing you can lose what you love.

Even in the physical world, all forms dissolve and change. They return to the earth and they rise again in different forms. The energy is never lost. The tree becomes the wood. The wood becomes the fire. The fire burns the wood and releases gases that becomes the air, becomes the elements. The elements always move and change but nothing is lost. It only changes. Even in the physical universe reflecting this cosmological unity, nothing is lost, nothing can ever be lost. That which you love and seek is eternal because you are eternal. It is immortal because you are immortal. While your body is not immortal, in one sense it is immortal because all it is composed of will ever remain though it changes form.

Forms are not immortal. Forms are like the dream in the mind of the dreamer that move, change, come and go. That which you call yourself is immortal essence. That is unchanging. That is eternal. This is a simple truth. It does not require a great intellect. It does not require any profound ability to know this truth. Just adopt it. Just take it to heart. Know it. Become it and live your life accordingly, taking joy in what you have, finding contentment and peace in what is, knowing that what you love you will never lose. The forms change and the feelings of human beings are always in flux. Today you laugh; tomorrow you cry; the next day you smile broadly. It is all right. When you gain equanimity, see the larger picture and allow the duality to play. Tagore said it is to be in the world but not of it, meaning the world of form and experience play around you but you remain ever self-sustained. You experience the sorrow. You experience the joy.
You experience the longing. You experience the pain. You experience the happiness and completeness. When you are a yogi established yoga meaning the unity of the little and the Great, all this plays out in a base of equanimity and wholeness in which you remain ever sustained, every wholly one, complete, knowing that despite the appearance of the moment, you remain ever complete, fulfilled, whole.

You have come into this world for teaching, for learning. This is a place of learning for young souls to learn. When the lessons are learned, you move on. Learn to see the non-dual nature of the Self, the eternal oneness of all. Learn to see your suffering and your joy. With a little separation, you experience highs and lows, peaks and valleys of life but find that you are complete and whole whether in a valley or on a peak. Then you will find true happiness, sustainable happiness, a completeness of Self. At times, you may experience this sense and then it seems to wane as the samskaras rise and diminish, rise and diminish. Still, you always return. The veil of samskara thins and thins until the reactions to past actions, the distortions of mind cannot contain you or define you. You remain established in truth, in saccidananda, the truth of your eternal nature. Be one with the Supreme. All right? Are there any questions?

Q. Baba, when you are in a state where you are listless or feeling anxiety despite your practices, what then?

A. That is normal.

Q. Patience?

A. Observe. Witness. With your mind, your knowledge, tell yourself, "I am one with all beings, I am one with all," and watch. Separate yourself from the experience, be the witness, realizing, "I am not this mind, these thoughts, I am the eternal Self." Witness the disturbances that rise and fall, witness all.

Pain cannot be avoided in that way but suffering can. The pain of the restless mind will be there until samskaras burn up, However, the suffering can be avoided that comes from merging your conscious identity into that agitation. You see?

Q. Yes. Baba.

Q. There is one in this room who is about to go into a place of great suffering and illness and death. Do you have some advice for her?

A. In Haiti?

Q. In Haiti, yes.

A. It will be an education to see how much suffering there is in this world. That experience when one has opportunity to go to areas where disaster has occurred, where so many people are in a disrupted mental state, where there is great poverty and disease and the basic human needs are not met as you are accustomed, it brings into recognition that there is so much suffering in this world, so much suffering.

I would say that suffering is not confined to places such as that. Suffering occurs everywhere. Its forms only become more subtle. Human beings suffer. Animals suffer. Therefore, one must develop great love and compassion for all living beings. That is why to dedicate one's life to alleviating suffering for others in whatever form is a most noble cause.

When love grows in magnitude to the point where there is no thought for one's own self, where one's love flows in great endless waves of compassion and care and one loves selflessly, then one comes close to Parama Purusha. His love for all beings is unconditional. You come closer to him by loving selflessly. You cannot acquire him as you acquire an object, "I want to be near the divine, I want to experience this divine. Therefore I will acquire it." You are accustomed to acquiring, are you not? The striving and pain and struggle is all to acquire but this happiness cannot be acquired. It is an unconditional flow of love so that when one takes association of the Divine, one begins to emulate that endless compassion and then discovers in that wave of unconditional love the seeds of separation and selfishness melt away. The feeling of duality melts away.

The people you are going to help are your brothers and sisters. They are your family. These are all your family. Treat them like family members. Let your love flow in unconditioned compassion but know that all are in his hands and that suffering is a part of human life. You cannot stop it.

As I have been saying today, the poor man thinks the rich man has the answer. The rich man cries himself to sleep at night, all right? Each is thinking, "If only I had, if only . . ." Do not be deceived by this. When one goes to a place where there is great suffering, the greatest relief is to give the people hope, give them joy in their own love, in their own humanity, in their own families, in what they have.
Sometimes in the poorest of places, you will find the happiest of people. In the most stricken poverty, in the most difficult circumstances, the communion of people and the love can be the strongest. Who suffers and who does not is a relative situation, not predicated by circumstances. Go with great love and compassion. Go to assist others, to find happiness and joy in what they do have, for what they have is very precious.

In this country, in capitalist society, in the vaeshyan era that exists now, the tendency is to think happiness is associated with how much one has accumulated in the physical plane but that is not the source of happiness and can be the source of terrible loneliness. We see this in the separations of families, in the old person whose children live thousands of miles away because they have a good job there and don't really want to care for their parents. They may have had a comfortable job, comfortable life but in their loneliness, their pain may exceed that of the simple person in a crisis, in a situation of poverty and difficulty who loves their family and has their family is around them. So even in such situations, great happiness can exist.

The problem is that when there has been disaster so many people in the village and family have been lost and so the people are in great, great grief. They need to have spirituality above all else so that they can feel their divine union and their connection and not dwell on their losses. Forms come and go. The dwelling on the loss and the grief must be transmuted into new direction, new horizon, into spiritual love and realizing their loved ones are with them even still. They have not lost them. Your sadhana can help people as much as your physical work. All right?

Q. Yes, Baba. Yes.

A. No one has a corner on suffering but joy abides everywhere, can be touched everywhere and sometimes in the most difficult and critical of situations, there is the greatest opportunity to get real, to sincerely make contact, to find the truth, to find the beloved, to find one's pathway forward. Sometimes in the comforts of life, one becomes lost as in a maze. It is somewhat comfortable but not fulfilling. It is somewhat pleasurable but is not deep happiness. There is a sense that something is missing but you cannot find it. So many years are wasted in this maze of mediocrity without truly touching your essence. Therefore, Parama Purusha in his grace, gives suffering to break through the maze of mediocrity, to touch you in the core, in the essence, and open your heart so that you can remember the way. You can remember there is something more to life, a great wholeness, completeness, a union and a joy that makes the pleasures of this world seem dry and tasteless by comparison.

That is your true home. That is where you have come from and that is where each and every one of you will return. It is a sure guarantee.