Part XL
- vAsanA-s part 1
The life of everyone is driven by their
desires to do 'this' or to have 'that' or to
get rid of 'this', etc., so that they can be
happy. In all of these pursuits one is looking
for happiness. 'This' can be a person, a place
or a thing. My desires are different from yours,
which are different from his. Some people want
to become something great or famous; some want
to become artists, some actors or actresses,
some dancers, musicians, scientists, doctors,
or multimillionaires or football players and
some even vagabonds; some just want to sit around
and drink. A mother knows that the likes and
dislikes of two look-alike twins are different
even when they are babies, as though each one
has brought his likes and dislikes with him.
Likes and dislikes (rAga and dveSha) are two
sides of a coin, but different for everyone.
Where do these likes and dislikes come from?
Let us illustrate with an example: When I drank
a delicious cup of South Indian coffee for the
first time, I liked it so much that I want to
have it again the next day. While the cup of
coffee gave me pleasure, which is an immediate
tangible effect, it also had an intangible effect.
It left behind a subtle impression in my mind,
to have that experience again. That subtle impression
is called vAsanA, meaning ‘fragrance’ of
that action in the mind. Since I liked it so
much, I went to the shop, bought all the ingredients
needed, and started making it at home, first
thing in the morning. I began to enjoy that hot
cup of coffee in the morning, everyday. Every
time I enjoy the coffee, the subtle impression
in the mind or that coffee vAsanA becomes stronger
and stronger, day by day. It comes to a stage
that as soon as I get up, I have to have a cup
of coffee and without it I cannot do anything
else. My happiness depends on having that cup
of coffee, otherwise I feel miserable, the whole
day. Sounds familiar? If I run out of coffee,
I will run from place to place restlessly to
get that cup of coffee.
Looking at the mechanics of this process reveals
that deliberate or ego-centric actions will leave
intangible impressions of likes or dislikes called
vAsanA-s in the core of the mind. These vAsanA-s,
in turn, cause desires at the intellectual level,
agitations at the mind level, and actions at
the body level. Unless those desires are fulfilled,
I become restless. I go in search of environments
that are conducive for the fulfillment of my
desires or vAsanA-s. All ego-centric desires
are grosser manifestations of the subtler impressions
in the mind, the vAsanA-s. When vAsanA-s manifest
as desires, they cause agitations in the mind,
and the mind becomes restless until those desires
are fulfilled. When the coffee vAsanA manifests
as desire for coffee, my mind is no longer free
to think of anything other than that hot cup
of coffee that I think I need in order to be
happy. I can suppress the desires temporarily,
but they will spring up again eventually with
greater forces, in one form or another. They
will express as anger, frustration or irritation,
etc. We are all familiar with these experiences.
On the other hand, when a desire is fulfilled,
my mind becomes calm and quiet, and I am happy
until, of course, the next set of vAsanA-s drives
me to do something else. I will be tossed from
one desire to the other. Life becomes a rat race,
trying to fulfill one desire after another.
From this example, we arrive at some important
conclusions. vAsanA-s are accumulated by deliberate
willful actions - we call them as ego-centric
actions. Ego-centric means 'I’ and ‘I
want'. vAsanA-s can be favorable or unfavorable;
that is, they include both likes and dislikes.
They are subtle impressions in the mind, perhaps
even deeper than the unconscious mind in western
psychology. Even though actions are over, their
effect in terms of these subtle impressions will
be long lasting. That is one of the reasons why
one should be very careful of how one acts or
with what attitude. An action can also be done
in such a way that it does not leave a vAsanA
and it may also nullify or neutralize the previous
vAsanA-s; and that attitude in action is called
karma yoga or yoga of action, which we will discuss
later.
When vAsanA-s cause desires in the intellect
and agitations in the mind, the mind becomes
restless. In the coffee example, unless I have
that hot cup of coffee in the morning, I am agitated
and restless and cannot do anything else. When
the coffee comes, I am back to myself, and say
that I am so happy that I have my cup of coffee.
Happiness did not really come with the coffee,
but when the desire for coffee is fulfilled,
all the agitations of the mind subside and I
am back to myself - I am free from a wanting
mind or desiring mind. In those moments, the
mind is calm and I say I am happy, and I think
that the coffee gave me happiness. In fact, the
happiness is actually being tapped from myself – because,
as we discussed before, I am in reality complete
and full or limitless – and that is the
state of happiness. Hence, happiness is my intrinsic
nature. Fulfilling the desire for coffee has
brought me ‘back to myself’, and
I am content with myself, at least for those
few moments until another desire pops up in my
mind.
One can get the happiness that one is longing
for in this way, by fulfilling the desires, all
the time. But one serious caveat is: as I fulfill
my desires, the stronger those vAsanA-s become
and there will be situations where I will not
be able to fulfill my desires. That is the time
when anger, frustration and other psychological
problems will arise. I lose my freedom since
I depend for happiness on something other than
myself. Essentially I have become a slave to
my own vAsanA-s. As a corollary, we can now define ‘absolute
freedom’ as freedom from all our vAsanA-s.
All other freedoms that we talk about are only
circumstantial or temporary freedoms.
More vAsanA-s means more desires, more agitations;
I am continuously busy and restless and 24 hours
are not sufficient to do what I want to do. In
the same vein, if there are fewer vAsanA-s, there
will be fewer self-centered actions; the mind
will have fewer agitations, and I will be more
peaceful with myself; my happiness will depend
less on things other than myself. Suppose I have
no vAsanA-s. There will then be no self-centered
desires; I will have no agitations in my mind,
and I will be happy all the time with myself
as I am. Krishna calls ‘one who revels
in himself by himself’ a j~nAnI or sthita
praj~nA [standing in wisdom] or a realized soul.
In that state of fulfillment, any action that
I do then is not for the gaining any personal
fulfillment (since I am happy regardless), but
for the benefit of the society at large. Such
a person is called mahAtma or a great soul, and
is revered for generations to come. They leave
a mark in the society with their self-less service.
Annie Besant called Mohandas K. Gandhi a mahAtma,
and that became his title when people subsequently
called him affectionately Mahatma Gandhi.
Proceed to the next
essay.
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