How to get released from the grip of worriers and to attain peace?
Every person is beset with anxiety of one kind or another. The student is anxious about how he fares in the examination; parents are worried over the choice of a match for their grown-up daughter. After having lent money, the lender is uneasy to think of whether he will be able to recover the money or not, while the borrower is consumed with anxiety to find how, if at all, he will be able to discharge the debt.
The poor or indigent man is deeply concerned about his means of livelihood while he who earns is concerned about how he should invest his wealth in such a way that his corrupt and concealed earnings do not get revealed and confiscated. Statesmen are anxiously finding ways and means of seizing power, whereas those who are in the seats of power try not to do anything which may loosen their grip on the handles or seats of power. Even the Government is anxiously planning protection against hostile countries to be safe from their political machinations while the unemployed are ever-anxious to secure jobs. In short, anxiety, in form or another, is present everywhere. So, the question is; how can one be released from the letters of anxiety?
The root of anxiety and worry
If you think over this deeply enough, you will reach the conclusion that man is subject to anxiety when he has fears that he might suffer loss one way or the other, or something harmful, displeasing or contrary to one’s liking or tastes might come to happen. For instance, a student thinks that great harm will be caused or wrong done to him if the result of the examination is bad. Parents consider it calamitous that they have not succeeded in finding a suitable match for their daughter. Similarly, a merchant thinks that things might go wrong if he does not recover the money loaned out to others. So does he, who is out of work, think that it would be bad if he did not secure a job without any further delay. So, it is clear that frustration, despair or some doubts lurking in man’s mind about his future are the root cause of man’s worry or anxiety.
But, a clear analysis would show that this anxiety or doubt does not help; rather it is this which lands man into trouble. For instance, when the Banyia (merchant) thinks thus, “I doubt it very much that the man whom I have lent money would ever pay me back his debt”, this very feeling of doubt and hopelessness makes the borrower’s mind also waver. The anxiety and feeling of uncertainty in the mind of the lender-merchant makes the borrower’s mind also shaky so that if now he thinks of paying off the debt, the next moment he thinks that he would clear it off after a couple of days or, sometimes, he even thinks that now his economic condition being unsound, it would not be possible for him to repay his debts in these straitened circumstances. Anxiety or worry of this kind gives rise to subtle psychic vibrations, i.e. currents of thought which agitate the atmosphere and, perverting the borrower’s mind, produce results which are regarded by the anxious individual (lender) as harmful.
Because man is assailed by doubts which shakes him, the results of his actions also become shaky in nature. Hence, we should never be afraid by thinking that anything undesirable or bad is going to happen; rather, we should always have benign thoughts for others. Thinking of evil or being afraid of evil, brings evils on one’s head. Even when nothing bad happens and results are unexpectedly good, he who is prone to be torn with anxiety before the results and thereby lays himself low in sadness for days and weeks, months or years, incurs sin.
To be worried about harm even before it comes and thus to be restless is not the right type of human endeavour or effort. Rather, it is like looking on the future as if it were a ghost and then dreading it. This is not to say that man should not think of future and plan well this work. A man may be a visionary, he may have dreams of his future but he should not be the type that visualises horror or harm. He may think but not as a pessimist does.
Worry lets slip the chance
A man who has the habit of worrying about things, always entertains doubts and fears about the future. “Oh, what will happen?” – such a thought always hovers over his mind. But, a little deep thinking would reveal that such sort of thinking is meaningless and unnecessary because it is quite certain that if we do good, we will get good. What is to happen would always be the result of our past as well as present actions. So, why should we worry about the result and about the future, long before it comes to happen? What is not to happen will never come about and, so, all anxiety is futile.
We should know that the world we are observing is a Drama-stage. What is happening at present, we are observing is a Drama-stage. What is happening at present, we are observing it as one would observe a scene of a play. After the present scene has ended, another scene will appear on the screen of events and then we shall see that also as observers. So, why should we worry about it at the present moment? We shall thus be watching as observers the scenes that follow one after the other, like the reel of the future, unrolled before our eyes and depicting events is sequence. The future is not yet known.
So, all anxiety on this account is useless. The present is the time for efforts and the future will be seen when it presents itself to us. Now is not the time for anxiety. If we get involved in fears of the future, we shall miss the chances that the present offers us. Hence, without yielding to anxiety, we should take the opportunity and do our best.
Anxiety is not the same thing as far-sightedness
Anyone, who has heard what is said above, may say that man should obviously be far-sighted. No doubt man should have far-sightedness. What is meant by anxiety is to bid goodbye to far-sightedness and to have, in advance, fears of the far off future, which means that we do not stretch our gaze, far but to spot out misery. This is why we say that man should certainly think and plan about the future but he should not let himself be grounded down by anxiety for the future. He should not explore all possibilities but should not let himself be scorched with care.
Getting concerned about one’s children who are either growing in years or are already grown up, worrying about sums lent to someone; feeling nervous on learning about the illness of another – getting worried over these things is a bad habit. We are not here to be scalded with anxieties. Hence, we should not allow ourselves to be subject to worry but, while doing good deeds, always have good thoughts for others. Does not care kill a man? On the contrary, entertaining good thoughts serves as a tonic to man and, consequently, his ways become unimpeachable. After all, anxiety does not bring forth and good.
He, who rushes into events and becomes anxious, finds his anxiety to have been in vain when he gets what he desires. And when things go wrong, his anxiety has failed to change the result. In either case, we find that, by leading himself to worry, he has simply troubled his ownself . We should understand that worry amounts to spiritual suicide, and, so, it has no place in spiritual effort. The dead body, on the burning pyre, does not feel pain because it is devoid of sentience. But worry takes good care to burn man out when man is alive. Hence, worry is the death of man, even before the body dies and, so, it should be avoided at all costs.
God-consciousness is the real Chintamani
They say that the jewel, called ‘Chintamani’ removes all worries. Possessing that jewel ensures the fulfillment of all washes and the removal of all sorrows. Ancient epics extol highly its powers. There is really no such gem in the world. Worry (which is called chinta in Hindi) is another name for a particular subtle behaviour, an attitude or habit of the mind. So, no gross stone can remove man’s wrong mental attitude. We have to know what this ‘Chintamani’ really is.
In fact, the anxiety to realise the truth about God is true self-effort. It eradicates man’s misery and leads him to complete happiness. This kind of anxiety is not what is meant by worry but is the real ‘Chintamani’ jewel, i.e. it is an invaluable means of release from cares and worries.
Therefore, man should give up worries and accept his care-killing jewel. He should do well to think of himself. I.e. his soul and of the blissful form of the Supreme Soul. Thinking of other things dissipates a man’s mental faculties. Thinking of the self concentrates his mind, and meditation on God’s incorporeal form becalms the mind and renders it peaceful.
Worry weakens one’s memory and the faculty of judgement. A care-laden man cannot put in his best endeavours. All one’s plans go away because one, in the condition, goes about his business like a confused man bereft of all strength. It is said that it is thought that has created the world. Hence is who is given to worrying, thinks wrongly and whatever he does produces results which are not wanted. Because of his own feelings which give rise to bad vibrations, he brings evil on his own head. So, by being care-free, one succeeds like success because his mind works at its best. ‘Bid goodbye to care’ – this is a dictum of the experienced.
Man must know that there are ups and downs in life. Even the sun passes through three stages in the course of a day. As day follows day; conditions change. There is no need to worry. Man must engage himself in his endeavours and work most happily – in remembrance of God.
How to have peace when some near and dear relative passes away?
A little close reflection will lead you to the conclusion that all men and women are like co-passengers of a train, as it were, some of them boarding off the train earlier while others travelling on for a further station. Now, imagine how odd it would look if a passenger in a train develops bonds of attachment with a co-traveller and begins to weep bitterly when the latter gets off the train at the end of his scheduled journey!
It will really be an act of ignorance on his part. Parallel to this is the act of a human soul who, having come from Paramdham, ties itself by bonds of worldly affection to men and women, who are no more than foreigners here in this world, and begins weeping when they leave the body and pass away.
It is rightly said that neither a traveller nor a bird can be anyone’s permanent friend. Is not the soul like a bird which is, at the moment, present in the cage or the nest that the body is? Is not then the soul a traveller, come from Paramdham – his Home – into this foreign land and resting for a while in a serai. To be attached to a living being to such an extent that you are in grief over his death is to regard this caravan serai of life as your home and to attach yourself to a bird on the wing or a traveller on the move. This is like wishing to wipe out the inexorable law of the transitoriness of the world and the law of decay of the body. Life hangs by a thread; death may come at any moment. Hence, man should be thoroughly cautious so that he does not tread the wrong path. That means, he should learn to be stabilised in remembering the Immortal Lord Shiva, the Supreme Soul, instead of remembering the departed. Mourning is a very low and gross occupation, indicating the extreme of one’s low nature; its place should be taken by peace.
One must not forget that this world is like a short-lived fair. One who considers companionship or link with people at a fair to be eternal, fails to appreciate and understand that it is a fair after all and all companionship here is, therefore, short-lived. One who does not treat all relationships in the world with this point of view, he, instead of enjoying the fair, prepares for a mourning as it were. He thus works for soiling his own mind by converting this fair into a Babel.
Parents should remember God rather than mourn and remember the dead
Parents beat their breasts at the death of their son. They weep bitterly, saying, “our dear son is no more – the son whom we had fed and brought up with loving care and got dully educated! Ah, our support is gone and can be recovered no more!! Now we have none to look up, we are now like the blind without a guide. The light of our home has gone, leaving us broken-hearted!”
While expressing their grief in these words, they forget that, in reality, we are, all of us, the children of God and that we come into this world like actors to play our individual part on the stage for a short while, having individual names and appearances and associating with one another in different ways. Truly, we are actors in a vast drama, in the course of which everyone, after having played his part, shakes off the old body like worn out garments to take on another body to be able to perform his part at another place and point of time ad in other environments.
He, whom we considered our own son, must have, in a pervious existence, played his part under a different name and in a different form at some other place, and having finished his part there, left his mortal coil there, appeared here in our midst in a few bodily frame and with a new name. Here too, having done his part, he has passed on to a different region of activity under a different name and form. Neither his association nor relationship with us was meant to be everlasting for the very simple reason that the body, on which this relationship with us was based, was in no case an undying thing. Hence, there in point in grieving over or getting shocked at his death. Hadn’t he arrived here from some other place? After all, he had not been here from time immemorial. It may thus be stated plainly that he who had come here, has now gone away.
Here in this world, this process of going out and coming in is going on for ever. We too have to make our exit. One day, we also have to depart. Surely, we will not play this very part here for ever. So, instead of giving way to grief, we should remember Shiva, for it is He who is our true and eternal Friend and our support in old age. It is He who keeps us up and grants us happiness.
We are, all of us, His children. All other relationships are transient being formed on the basis of actions done by us in the present life or in previous lives. He, with whom we have squared up our accounts, is, as it were, turned away from our family-circle or orbit of activity (has died, as people say) and has passed on to another family somewhere else. Hence, we should pluck up courage and understand that there is no cause for grief because it is simply foolish to bewail separation from him whom we meet, for a short while, in a serai.
Man should therefore realise that if it behaves a father to bewail the death of his child, then God, whom he mankind recognises to be both Father and Mother, will have nothing to do but to bewail all the twenty-four hours of the day and for ever, for not a moment passes in this world when death does not take toll of human beings, who are God’s children, at one place or another. But the fact is that God does not have any attachment towards anyone, even though all are His children. He is known as the ‘Love Infinite’; He loves all and, under all circumstances, He remains to be the Ocean of Bliss and the Ocean of Peace also which proves that though He is our Father, yet He is detached and discrete.
He is the Supreme embodiment of Knowledge. Hence, we should also engage ourselves in the way of Knowledge, and instead of shedding tears over a dead body lying before us, we should bring before our eyes our relationship to God, and revel in it, because except Him, there is no stable and powerful support. He is as much our son as our Father; He is in a position to discharge His obligations as both Father and Son. And, so, it proves only the foolish ignorance of man not to know in what relationship he stands towards Shiva but only cry in grief if ephemeral relationships are snapped.
If he who sheds copious tears over the death of those related to him by wordly ties, sheds even a very small fraction of tears out of love of God in His remembrance, he would have an easy journey Home – Brahmloka. Men will then have no occasion to weep or to seek for support from those other than God. If you link yourself to the Supreme Soul with as much love and depth of feelings as a mother has for her son or a wife has for her husband, you will perceive that His support is always strong, timely and highly beneficial. He is the master of those who believe that they are born to command; He is the Supreme Master of the husbands of the world, the Supreme father of fathers and the Supreme among the friends of the world. Certainly, He must he lovingly discharging his obligations in these several ways wherefore He is remembered as the Supreme Mother-Father etc.
Contd....Part 2
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Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya
