Darkness At Noon-Part VII

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No Full stop or even a comma

We are presuming that our mind is very orderly, efficient in pursuing the goals it has set for itself. Who can better such a top class mind as ours! Can we even dream of questioning this belief? But one has to, if life is to be meaningful and not just a giant-wheel of destiny"s ups and downs.

Let"s face it. The fact is that ours is a cluttered, chattering mind, running hither and thither, pulled by the accumulated strength of thoughts. 'There is no full stop or even a comma". We don"t remember where the control switch is. As a result, the entry or exit of any thought is not under our control. The controller, the thinker, has allowed his capacity to think to be usurped by a crowd of thoughts, which have grown in strength by the very fact that attention has been paid to each one of them at sometime or the other. The natural flow of thoughts that is therefore strangled by this motley crowd of thoughts.

Hence, the job is to reclaim one"s throne by a strong urge to do so and not allow it to peter into channels of 'weak and uncertain desire". This has to be followed up by an enquiry as to how this usurpation has taken place, an enquiry undertaken by using the same attention of the mind and generating its energy to centralise thoughts. The thinker is the Boss and can always resume his authority over any thought.

The contemporary scene

Everybody is busy. They are doing something or the other. There is the momentum of money-driven psychology looking for its location and being ready for the sacrifice of time, which it necessarily implies. If the economy is on the upswing or the graph of the industry, which is one"s field of specialisation is rising, than there are enough opportunities to hop from job to job based on the economic law of supply and demand. But in every new job the employer wants more of your time. This is an endless chase for those who are caught in the wheel of time through a desire-oriented, mental environment, which keeps intensifying as you feed it on this diet of money, success and more of it.

No one seems to be ready to ask the famous question of Leo Tolstoy, “How much land does a man require?" Not more than 6 feet in some graveyard, for which you may have to book in advance with growing scarcity of land in urban areas!

They also serve who stand and wait. This is well-known but seldom remembered by those who are willing victims of this 'mad-race" in which one has become a part. Looking at this scenario one might go further and say that it is only those 'who stand and wait", that serve God and themselves too. Life has its meaning and opportunities. Isn"t it time you asked the question, “What has all this added up to? What for is this endless day-in and day-out toil?" Such questioning alone can help one to stand a little apart and reflect, then one could say that the first rays of the “dawn of knowledge about oneself" would have entered one"s life. Then one is ready to reverse this meaningless drift called 'life", with all its lack of values.

As this question takes deeper root one will be strengthened to live what Ramana Maharshi calls an “unhurried and reflective life". All said and done it is your life, and no one can alter its course except you.

To be continued

About the author

A.R.Natarajan

Sri A.R.Natarajan has had the opportunity of a long association of over 50 years with the Ramanashram. He was the editor of "Mountain Path" for two years. He was the secretary of Ramana Kendra, New Delhi for ten years. He founded the Ramana Maharshi centre for learning, a non profit institution. He has authored more than thirty six books and eleven pocket books on the life and teachings of Bhagavan Ramana.