Darkness At Noon-Part XI

Purchasing sorrow

Given one"s lifestyle, at present, one is seeking endlessly enjoyment from the various sources, which is mind, as identified as its needs; be it family bonds, job obligations, social demands and need to be entertainment. What he seeks as entertainment is only in an escape from the routine to which one has reduced himself to.

Do not ask the question as to how Tuesday is different from Monday or Wednesday. I am afraid there is no difference. The same schedule of being woken up by the mobile alarm, rushed breakfast and even more rushed reaching of the office in time, keeping ahead of all the colleagues, playing to the tunes of the bosses, disciplining subordinates and so on. This is not only a daily routine. For one can say safely, that the same holds good whether it is taken at the end of the month or the quarter, or even the year. One"s activities live no time to think, of let alone, contemplate, reflect, about the meaningless drifting of his life. Where is the time to find out if there is a alternative way of life, which could be of a totally different dimension, a joyous one, wholly different from the crushing speed of one"s present life.

The reason for this is laid squarely by Ramana, in one"s rooting oneself on the brittlest of brittle 'enjoyment". For in that lies the entire burden of one"s sorrow. According to Ramana, every enjoyment oriented action contains in it a memory mark of that experience of “enjoyment". Hence, one is back again and again for the more of the same type of heady-wine. It is ever illusive, ever out of one"s grasp, more particularly when the only instrument one has, is the mind, whose attention is never on one thing.

It is movement, endless a movement propelled by desires, fears, grieves and so on. Actually therefore one is drowning in sorrow, but in a state of delusion believing that he is enjoying life, getting the kick out of it, instead of being aware that he is being kicked around by it. Hence the great one"s like Ganapati Muni praise Ramana as one whose job as the Sadguru is to uproot this false God from the mind"s of all those, who have turned to him for guidance.

Dacoity in day light

The fate of one who does not enquire about the nature of the mind is to say the least pitiable. Instead of being the boss of what he thinks is his mind, he is wholly and truly its victim. The mind is distracted by a thousand and one thoughts, which keeps surfacing in great profusion, innumerable in number,
full of contradictions, full of associated thoughts and so on. By their massive strength, they have robbed the thinker, whose attention alone is watering them, of his sovereignty.

The thinker is reduced to such penury that one goes here and there in search of gurus, who will teach the various methods of controlling this unruly motley crowd. Can they give any real relief? Really no. For it is like a doctor guessing at the cause of a patient"s disease, with reference to only the symptoms without investigating the cause of the disease, which has produced the symptom.

The single lesson

Ramana"s single base note is “Understand the nature of the mind". Is it a tangible concrete entity or it is only a congregation of thoughts? Sometimes, he would jocularly tell a devotee, “Does your mind have moustache or a beard?" Or most seriously, “Show me the mind, and I will strike it down". For contrary to one"s belief that mind is a concrete thing like one"s body, it is only an idea caused erroneously linking the mind with the body.

To be continued