Words From The Master - 20 April 2008

You don’t have to pay the bill

Nitti Mudaliar went to a restaurant and ordered one each of everything on the menu. He ate everything. He ordered for some dessert and coffee. He was soon ready to leave. Then the waiter stopped him with a bill. Nitti, in exasperation, said: “I never ordered this bill. Why have you brought it to me?”

Most of us live and behave like Nitti. We have no recollection of asking for the bill as we go about acquiring things, and building on our expectations of acquisitions.

When we finally get the bill we are startled and upset as we had not expected it. There is a saying: be careful what you wish for, for it may come true.

We are driven all our life by our vasanas and samskaras. These are unfulfilled desires that are deeply embedded in the unconscious.

Most of the time we are not even aware of the existence of these samskaras. But they shape our future decisions. They drive us into illogical and irrational decisions, even decisions that harm us.

You enjoy a drink or smoke once in a while. But you enjoy it so long as you have the freedom to give it up.

When you get addicted to “them” “they enjoy you”.

Addiction happens when you do not enjoy the habit but cannot do without it. You can get addicted to food, TV, newspapers, gossip, so many things. When you are addicted, food “eats you”, cigarettes “smoke you”, and liquor “drinks you”. When you do not have freedom you are “used”; you are not in control; your desires control you.

Vasana is the hangover of desire or desire not fully lived; samskaras are desires that are lived but those which leave a thread for continuous enjoyment of those desires. Karma is fulfilment.

Vasana is the seed, samskara nourishment, and karma the tree. Nirvana also means moksha, liberation.

When all the vasanas, samskaras and karmas are finished you reach liberation through their extinction. At this stage you will experience a new kind of space, a new kind of understanding and a new life.

Meditation is the path for dissolving and burning your samskaras. Meditation leads you into a “no mind state” where samskaras do not exist.

Meditation brings you into the present, the here and now, where you are aware of what is buried in your unconscious and have the energy to destroy your samskaras.

You become liberated.

We can live in joy without ever feeling afraid of having to pay the bill.