By Vijaya Jayaraman
Q: What does this mean to say, 'How to think is more important than 'what to think'?
Ans: Our mind is nothing but constant flow of thoughts, all day and the entire lifetime. It is vital to manage the thoughts and direct the mind. Negative thinking encourages negative relationships, words and actions, discourages objectivity leading to nervousness and paralysis.
Arjuna's thoughts that he would kill his loved ones and gurus led him to feel sad, anxious, confused and question his own decision to fight leading to not able to act.as a warrior. Imagine if a surgeon panics before the surgery on a patient. Emotional thinking raised by anger, guilt, fear and sorrow lead to crippling effect in ones life. That's why it is important to learn 'how to think' than 'what to think'.
In any situation, ask, 'Here I am in this situation, what's the best I can do to get out of this and move forward?' and take appropriate action, to avoid self pity, blaming others and losing the inner strength.
Q: Compare Arjunas 'misunderstanding' in today's life.
Ans: We often see this 'misplaced thoughts' in practical life. This is everywhere, though common in healthcare.and financial sectors. We all know prevention is better than cure.. Health is not after the fact. In today's society it is very common to go to bed late, wake up late, go out empty stomach and have late lunch causing a havoc in the system. When a particular disease is identified, then we try to follow the schedule, sleep on time and exercise but can we not do it earlier? This an example of misplaced thought or misunderstanding. Same with the finance, When we are young, we spend all our health, energy & resources to accumulate stuff and money, later when we are old, we spend all our money to save our health or have the fear of losing them or worry about the ways to preserve them. This is another 'misplaced thought'.
To think before we act and to do the right thing at the right time is critical in any situation.
Arjuna had this misplaced thoughts when he looked his enemies as his family instead of enemies and was confused.
Q: If the 'presence', or 'atma' is same in all what's the difference between humans and animals?
Ans: Humans are bestowed with the sixth sense, the ability to choose. Animals follow instinctive behavior. Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor in Auschwitz, in his book, 'The man's search for Meaning', says while he was in the concentration camp, he saw a few walking around and sharing their last piece of bread with others. He says "this confirms that, everything can be taken from a man but the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way".
"It is not what happens to us that affects us but how we respond to what happens to us that affects us" says Norman Vincent Peale. How true!!.
How we perceive, how we respond to any situation is our choice. To do the right thing, not do the wrong thing, or not do anything at all, is our choice.
Surrendering that 'ability to choose' to Lord is the highest of all surrender, completely dissolving ego. Arjuna finally surrendered to Lord Krishna, seeking guidance.
Q: What are the consequences of the Fear of Failure that Arjuna experienced and is it still true today?
Ans: Fear of failure cripples a person.There is no failure. When we don't get the desired outcome, we think it is a failure but we need to learn to detour as needed to reach the destination. It is wise to think through the situation, decide and take action to the best of our ability.
Fear of failure is a self doubt, emotional upheaval on the consequence of the action, at the time of action, causing numbness.
The consequences of our actions is not our choice. Just like an aimed arrow or spoken words cannot be taken back, when we allow our emotions to take over we get stressed, we are unable think clearly leading to fear, grief and panic.
This was the situation Arjuna was, when he saw all relatives on the other side of the aisle, even though he decided to fight, he was taken over by the affection, attachment he had for them causing a total break down.
Q: What's the cause of one's suffering?
Ans: Heat and cold, pain and pleasure will come in life.. These are known through the senses. Only humans have these five senses, ears, eyes, taste, touch, smell (shabda, sparsha, roopa, rasa, ghanda). Thru the eyes we measure the size and form, through ears we understand the sound, and as a human we can hear only a certain wavelength,.
We experience this world through the senses. When in deep sleep state the senses are withdrawn and there is no experience through those senses.
In the state of wakefulness, if any one sense not functioning properly that part of the world is completely blacked out.
When our senses, each one touches the objects we have an experience. Our eyes can see far away objects like stars in the sky physically millions of light years away, is a marvelous equipment. But our ears cannot hear that far. Thunder is closer than stars. To smell it has to be further closer than the sound. Touch is possible only with the physical contact, not otherwise. Taste has to be inside of us. By touching the cake, you cannot experience it.
The world is the same but the mind interprets differently.
Senses gives perception but the mind gives comments on the perception. A dog sees the book, if it is edible he eats or moves away, there is no disturbance in it's mind..
The senses helps us to perceive objects and situations. The mind interprets by judging, comparing, evaluating good or bad, through the lens of likes & dislikes. Based on our understanding of our life and wisdom, our interpretation differs.
Heat and cold at the physical body level and pleasure and pain at the mind level. This is natural whether we like it or not..Saints also experience but how they interprets makes the difference.
Suffering is because of our interpretation. For ex... I'm hurt because you did this or that.
The senses perceive as long as there is connection with the object. When I close my eyes I don't see but my mind creates an image from memory and I see it.
When in meditation and while living in the present, the object goes and the images also go away. One need not carry the past.
Q: How do pleasure and pain occur?
Ans: Two monks were walking. The river was strong. They needed to cross when there was a young woman also wondering how she would cross. The young energetic monk lifted her and carried her to the opposite bank and she went away.
Then after ten min the older monk said "you didn't do the right thing. You touched a woman and carried her".
The young monk responsed, "yes, I lifted her and carried her but I left her after crossing but you're still carrying her in your mind".
That's exactly what happens in our life. All our experiences have a beginning and an end but we keep doing an action replay, thus enabling repeated suffering.
If we do action replay of pleasurable situations it creates attachment if we do action replay of sad situations it creates deep sorrow. Either way it is a chain, binding you.
Just experience them as they come and, let go of them, very much like viewing scenarios as you move in a train, don't hold on to any particular one. You don't turn your neck and keep on looking back. Let it go!! Similarly with every situation in life, don't look back, learn to live in the present.
Q: What is death?
Ans: When a child goes from elementary to higher studies and far away. the parents may be sad but not grieve. Because they know s/he is evolving. Similarly each body undergoes changes and eventually falls down.
Death is not painful, but a smooth transition. When a person dies he is in the path of evolution like a child to teenager, adolescent to adult, to a senior. The body keeps changing. The cells in the body keeps dying every minute. The entire body changes once in every seven years. So there is no pain in the birth of the body or the death of the body. But while living within the body and identifying with the body, we experience pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow as long as the senses come in contact with the world.
Q: Isn't the world real? I interact, see, smell and experience it..
Ans: The world is neither real nor unreal but it is an appearance. Real has no non-existence. Unreal has no existence at all like horn of a rabbit or a unicorn.
Just like the mirage.appears to be water. It exists and therefore is not unreal. Pain & pleasure, success & failure, name & fame, world, wealth & position all these are appearances. Our experiences in the waking state are appearances called mithya.
The popular example is when you see a rope on the path at dusk, you think it to be a snake, which causes anxiety and fear in you, but the moment you realize it is a rope, the snake in your mind vanishes. But it still existed, created an emotion in you, so you cannot call it unreal. That was an appearance, mithya.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Vijaya_Jayaraman/666215
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