Everyone on earth is in bliss. Trees, flowers, animals, birds are all in the state of bliss. Look at birds returning in the evening, do they feel sad or depressed? Do trees feel sad or depressed because of unfulfilled desires? If a storm comes tree leaves tremble and when scorching summer comes with no air, leaves simply stay unmoved. But do they complain? Frogs simply hibernate their bodies in the soil, lay unmoved beneath as dead matter. When monsoon comes, they resurface. Everyone on earth makes an effort to survive without any complaint—a choiceless choice.
But man wants to live and does not want to die. He does not comprehend his own death because he wants to live more. Why he wants to live more is hidden in his hopes. Man continues to complain about life. He lives in hopes. Hopes live him by. Hopes are like unfulfilled desires. This is nothing but paranoid rejection of life in the now-ness of being. If you hope it means you are poorer by something that you hope for. It means that you cancel your life now for living it in future when the hope comes true. But hope always remains a hope and breeds myriad hopes. Chances are that one never lives and cancels life that one could have experienced in the now-ness in hope for a better now-ness. This dilemma breeds fear of death. Because when you keep suspending now-ness to live tomorrow, chances are that you keep on rejecting life till death knocks your door. Man wants to live and does not want to die because he wants to fulfil unfulfilled hopes. That is the fear of death because deaths takes away all hopes together with the life that one never lived but hoped to live. If one would have lived in the now-ness of being, chances are that having lived in the now-ness of being he would be happy. Like a person who is running in hope of earning more, rejecting precious moments of life that he would have lived enjoyingly and overwhelmingly joyous. But his hope to earn as much that he could call enough is what makes him defer his life to the future.
All species on this earth are in bliss except men. All species live in spontaneity except men. No one is under depression except men. All are rejoicing except men. Man says that he will rejoice one day and he continues to say not-have-enough rejoice. Irony is that he collects more in order to rejoice. Nothing that man is doing that is distinctive on earth than other species. Man is also procreating, just like other species. But man is living dangerously on earth that has cost the lives of other species and health of the planet.
Man does not want to accept that whatever he has is enough. He is not ready to accept the order of the universe. He wants to prove himself distinctive from the order of the universe. His mind always hopes for what he does not have and does not care for what he has. By not accepting the order of the universe as that is, ego has bred in his mind. He thinks from the false-self that is ego. Ego is, in fact, a disease that has diseased man and patient has become the disease. Ego is a kind of packaging label that has hypnotised man with elusive meanings and desires compared to others.
Existence has endowed humans with consciousness which flowers to become one with the existence that is the possibility of ultimate flowering in humans. In the Vedas it is said ‘Tat-Tvam-Asi’ (you are that). The possibility is so immense that you become one with your Godhood, the Buddhahood. That-which-is who is sleeping in you has to awaken and you have to empty you from false-self to let that-which-is dawn on you and let it risen the light when that which embodies the whole existence dissolve all that false that is not true. Let you go into the feet of the awakening of the awakened one which exactly means “Buddham Sharanam Gachchhami”.
You have to be one with the existence one with the order of the universe. Lao Tzu calls this order the Tao. Vedas call it the Rit. Hindus call it Brahma. What Nanak calls it the Hukum. Nanak describes it with great beauty of love and compassion: ‘Hukum Rajayee Chalna, Nanak Likhya Naal’. This means, Nanak says, accept His Order (Hukum) in accordance with His will. That Nanak accepts the order which prevails this existence. It means that hopes that are impairing our life, ego that sores like a wound in us causing suffering, miseries, anxieties will disappear the moment you accept His Order as per His will. It will let you flow with the river but your ego wants to go upstream. You will reach upstream automatically when water that gushes you down to the sea and vapours replacing you on the top of the hill so that you melt again flow into the river to the sea. But if you like to go upstream you are unnecessarily making yourself miserable one and against his will.
Nanak further says, “Hukumi Andar Sabhu Ko Baahar Hukum Naa Koy, Nanak Hukumi Je Bujhe ta Haoo Mein Kahe Naa Koy.” Nanak says that the True Name Satnam that The Order prevails in one and all as a source of existence and without which one does not exist. The one who accepts the Order (Hukum) he goes out of his false-self, the ego.
Man is living in the absolute forgetfulness of what he is and what he ought to be. Man’s forgetfulness makes him forget the existence that-which-is that prevails as the order of the universe. He forgets that he is not only the part of existence but that-which-is manifests him. Nanak says, “Guran Ek Deh Bujhaee, Sabhna Jeeyan Ka Eko Data. Sau Mein Vissareya Naa Jaee.” Nanak says, O Master just guide me to solve this riddle. That the one who prevails in all and the one who is the Giver to all that he is the only One and the One alone who is in all of us, O Master never let me forget Him. Let me never forget Him. Nanak says that let the uninterrupted remembrance (Surati) always flow in him that does not let him ever forget the True Name that God is One and the Truth is His Name that he calls Ek Onkar Satnam—the True Name.
The author is a spiritual coach and an independent advisor on policy, governance and leadership. He can be contacted at arunavlokitta@gmail.com.