Fear Of Old Age -The Guidelines of Vedanta II (Contd)

So long as we lock ourselves into an obsession with youth culture, we can only develop fear, anger, and frustration. There are two ways to face the reality of old age: to deny old age by creating fantasy and make-believe and yet be forced to grow old unhappily; or to accept old age as the fitting transformation of youth and grow more wise, serene, and authentic as age advances following its own law.It is an illusion that makes a person believe that by arresting old age he can remain ever young.

Prolonging life by medical technology poses a dilemma for the goals of medicine. Should medicine strive to prevent death or eliminate suffering? What if achieving the first frustrates the second, and vice-versa? The genetic potential for attaining maximum life span is no guarantee against meeting with an accident along the way. We may postpone fate only to succumb to the law of chance.

(3)Practise Non attachment.

Attachment is a form of mental fixation. When a person dwells on anything repeatedly, he develops a liking for that thing, and with the growth of liking he desires to possess the thing. Any obstacle in his way brings anger. From anger comes delusion, and from delusion loss of discrimination and right judgement. Failure of discrimination and right judgement brings moral death. Thus the Bhagavad Gita asks us not to get attached to things that are fleeting and changeable, and will not accompany us after death.

Attachment prevents us from seeing things as they really are. With every attachment there arises a corresponding fear, the fear of losing what we cling to. This fear in turn intensifies the anxiety of the ego, which then seeks to sustain itself by another attachment, and thus our entanglement never ends.

Vedanta tells us that all miseries stem from five causes: loss of contact with Reality, ego and its possessiveness, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life.

Reality has two faces: the Absolute and the relative. Absolute Reality is that which is real for all time, while relative reality is that which is real for a limited period of time. When we ignore the 'Absolute', the world of relative reality becomes delusive and destructive. By re-establishing our contact with the 'Absolute' we eventually overcome all fear, anxiety, despair, and disappointment, all of which result from attachment.

Non-attachment is not being cold, insensitive, and indifferent toward others. It is transferring our attachment to some higher ideal or cause. Practice of non attachment becomes easy for a person who is a seeker of God. He makes God the centre of his life, diverts all his love and attachment to Him and showers his love on all equally, seeing the reflection of his God in them. Those who are not able to do this are advised to practise love and compassion for all beings as the moral duty of a humanist.

To Be Continued

Chat With The Devotees Of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa