Words from the Master

Yes... any questions?

Swamiji… what would you say is the root cause for so much of worry and tension in our lives?

The fact that you have come out with this question shows that you want to look deeply into it.

You see, we are continuously having some imagination about everything – about the people around us, the places where we live, the situations that arise, and the lifestyle that we follow. We are continuously fantasizing or expecting things to happen in a particular fashion. But reality is always different from this imagination. The gap between reality and our imagination gives rise to tension in our lives.

We have created a virtual world inside us and are continuously looking to realize it in reality. The more we have imagined, the more will be the gap between reality and our imagination and the more will be the tension.

We always think that we are getting to the point of realizing our imagination but when we get to it, our imagination would have grown further and so we never really get to it. This creates disappointment, tension and worry for us.

The fact is, we are not even aware that we are working with imagination. Our imagination has become such a solid thing for us that we can’t even see it as imagination. We are caught up in it. Be very clear: If working towards something is causing tension in you, then you are not working in reality, you are working in your zone of imagination.

Every moment, we are trying to realize our expectation in the world outside. If people don’t react or respond in the way we imagined, we feel let down. From minor to major things, we are always looking for a match for our imagination. This has become an unconscious process inside us, which is why we don’t understand the cause for tension. The cause is so subtly woven into the whole thing that it cannot be made out.

If you bring your awareness acutely to this point and watch yourself for just a few hours, you will understand how your whole mind works. Just decide to be a watcher of your mind and the people around you. You will see how subtly, your mind is continuously creating expectations in every small thing you see and do, and how reality sometimes matches and sometimes misses your expectations and how feelings of tension and worry arise within you when this happens.

Just by flooding awareness into this whole thing, you can see how your mind plays and creates tension for you. Once you learn to become the watcher, your worries will drop and you will also not internalize any of the outer world incidents. When you internalize the outer world incidents, you are just creating a larger database of words inside you, out of which new worries will arise.

And one thing: When you plan chronologically and work towards realizing your chronological plan without loss of time, you are on the path of reality. If you find yourself worrying more than working and not getting anywhere, then you are on a path where there is a gap between reality and yourself. It is then time to look into yourself and straighten out your thoughts.

Thinking to plan chronologically is alright, but thinking about how you are going to execute your plan is what is not alright. This is what is called psychological planning and this is what creates tension and worry.

If it takes just 2 hours to plan for yourself, the remaining 22 hours are available to you to execute the plan. Why then is the plan not getting executed? Because, you waste more than 80% of the remaining time on worrying about how you are going to execute the plan.

When you keep repeating the plan to yourself, you are in effect draining your own energy into it. Instead of using the energy to execute the plan, you simply waste it. How will the job get done?

One more thing: If you really want the job to get done, you will get down to doing it without worrying. Let me tell you: Tension and worry are mere excuses for running away from reality. Under the pretext of worry and tension, you escape from responsibility.

Every problem is pregnant with the solution. If you really want to solve it, you will do it. All you need to do is look at the problem with deep awareness and the solution will stand out automatically. When you don’t want to solve it but feel comfortable talking about it, you will continue to talk about it and come around it in circles and feel great that you have so much to worry about.

The best way to shrug responsibility is to get into a deluded state of mind – a state of worry and tension. Most often, people suffering from depression feel comfortable in that state because they don’t have to take up any responsibility. They can simply be free from all responsibility.

A small story:

A man who was known to be a great healer, visited a village.
Very soon, a crowd gathered around him.
He touched a man on his neck and the man who was suffering from chronic spondolosis felt he was relieved of the pain instantly.
He then touched another man on his head and the man’s headache simply disappeared that very moment.
He moved towards a man on crutches.
But the man on crutches moved away and said, “Don’t touch me!”
The healer was puzzled and asked why.
The man said, “I have just applied for my Disability Benefit claim.”

(Laughter!)

We talk endlessly about our problems, but when we are offered an instant solution, we find it hard to accept! When we are offered an instant solution, we immediately feel a big void in us. We feel that there is nothing more for us to do in Life. We feel too relieved! We find that we are not able to think properly when our problems suddenly vanish, because we have never thought beyond our problems!

All your tensions and worries are actually comfort zones wherein you hide from reality. If you really want to get something done, what is preventing you from doing it? Why would you immerse yourself in unproductive tension and worry? You do this either because you have too much time on hand or because you want to escape reality or because you feel great in harboring so much of tension and worry, that’s all.

So drop all your imagination about your lifestyle, people etc and start living in the present moment and things will automatically happen. Remember: You can’t live in this comfort zone for long. Some time or the other, reality will find you. So start living consciously, make conscious decisions and take up responsibility for every decision made.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.