2. The destination (Goal in life)
You do not know your destination. However, the generic definition of the word 'destination' is known. It is that place, on reaching, which you do not travel any further.
Your own home may not be the destination, if you are not going to be contented over there. In other words, the destination could be defined as a status of complete contentment (or happiness or fulfillment). When you feel that there is nothing more to do and no need to go anywhere else, then you have reached your destination.
That destination is called Joyful Living.
However, most of your fellow travelers are not intelligent enough to find out their ultimate destination. Instead of saying, 'I want happiness' beyond which there is no need to travel, every one names different places as their destination. After reaching that destination, they will spend some time and effort and then realize they are not happy. They will continue their journey with a new destination, hoping they will get contentment over there. Thus, the travel never ends.
Similarly, in life everyone has varied goals. One wants to qualify as a doctor, another wants a job as a sales manager, yet another wants to build a house. There seems to be no end to the variety of goals. On analysis, we find out there is only one goal, which is common to all of them, which is contentment/ happiness.
Everyone wants to earn money in order to spend it and gain contentment. They assume that the contentment will come by acquiring name, fame, money, wealth, power, position or people.
Presence/ Absence Logic (P/A Logic) says sweetness is the nature of sugar and it can never be separated from sugar.
We can apply this logic to name, fame, money, wealth, position or people and prove that there is no happiness or contentment in them. Everyone is primarily interested only in contentment and not in name, fame etc.
Example: A girl loves her neighbor very dearly and wants to marry him.
This statement cannot be true. She wants to be happy and she assumes that by marrying him, she will be happy. If it is shown to her that she will not get happiness from him, then she will not want to marry him.
Thus, everyone is highly selfish and the only objective is to be happy and contented. No one really cares for name, fame, money, wealth, power, position or people if he or she cannot get happiness from them.
Example: I love my son.
The word 'my' is more important than the word 'son'. If he runs away with my enemy's daughter, he is no longer my son and I do not love him anymore!
Taken from celextel.org
Path to Joyful Living - Part-1
[Based on Jeeva Yatra of Gnananda Bharathi]
By Raja Subramaniyan
1. The Journey (Life)
When you wake up one day, you find yourself in the lower berth in a moving train. There are many fellow passengers and you wish them, "good morning". It is strange that you do not remember who you are or where you are going. Since everyone around you seem to be normal, you do not want to alarm them by asking them the question 'who am I'.
May be there will be some clue. You check your bag and find a bundle of currency. You do not know whether to feel happy or not. This currency bundle will solve the problem of survival, but the problem of where to go still remains.
There should be a ticket showing the destination. There is one. It shows when and where you bought the ticket and the destination. Great! However, there is no name on it. Atleast, now you know the destination! Your happiness is short lived because you find many more tickets inside the bag. You seem to be a buying ticket everyday and there are countless tickets.
The current ticket shows that you are going to reach the destination in few hours time. The train stops in a station. You get down and get some breakfast. Thanks to the currency notes. You wonder if you should discontinue the journey, but you get into the train and decide to continue the travel until the destination showed in your ticket.
A casual conversation with the fellow passengers reveals that you are not alone. None of the co-passengers around you seems to know who they are. They seem to enjoy the travel without worrying about the 'unnecessary' details. One thing is common in all of them. They all want to get back home and they are sure that this current journey will take them home! You are not so sure.
Finally the destination has come. You get off the train, bid farewell to the fellow passengers and walk out of the station. You sincerely hope that you will recognize it to be your hometown. No. It is yet another strange place. You do not know where to go and what to do. After spending the rest of the day in that place, you decide to continue to travel. You buy another ticket, get into the train and find a berth to sleep.
Next morning when you get up you have no idea who you are. There is absolutely no idea what happened on the previous day. Yet another day follows in the same pattern.
The scenario is the same with respect to our lives. None of us knows our identity. We have no idea when we began the journey. We go on traveling without any end in sight. Nevertheless, everyone wants reach home and that is the reason for traveling. It is time to review the direction, do a course correction, if required, and not to keep traveling blindly.
Taken from celextel.org
Path to Joyful Living - Part-1
[Based on Jeeva Yatra of Gnananda Bharathi]
By Raja Subramaniyan
continued in next post
2. The destination (Goal in life)
