Words From The Master - 14 May 2008

Choices are constraints

NO CHOICE in life is without a cost. Each decision to choose something necessarily costs us the option of keeping something else. In most cases having the cake and eating it is just an illusion.

In many cases we choose the wrong option. Without the power of foresight choice is a gamble, and as with most gambles odds are theoretically even. Since human nature is to mourn losses far more than celebrate gains, end result of a sequence of choices is mostly dissatisfaction. Why must we choose? Why can’t we accept contradictions in life? Choices appear to give us freedom; in reality they constrain us instead of liberating us.

It is our ability to work with the seemingly opposite qualities in life that leads to fulfillment and happiness; not the power to choose between one and another, since there really is no choice.

Many seek to give up material life in search of a spiritual Truth. For them it is an obvious choice between what they think is a debilitating life of women, children and possessions that precludes any possibility of their ever finding lasting happiness and peace.

Not so. There is no need to choose between a material life and spiritual satisfaction. Both are perfectly possible to achieve together, as they can and do coexist.

A story in the Mahabharata goes thus: A young sage gets up from his morning prayers when a passing crow’s droppings foul him. In anger the Sage looks up and burns the crow. Satisfied with his power he walks to the nearest house and seeks food. The lady of the house is serving her husband and makes him wait. When she comes out to give him food, he stares at her in irritation. “Do you think I am a crow that you can burn,” she asks. Startled the Sage asks her how she knew. She tells him to go to a person in the nearby town who will explain. After a search the curious Sage ends up at the town’s butcher. The butcher asks the Sage whether the housewife sent him. The Sage is startled again and asks the butcher how both he and the lady knew things that only the Sage knew. The butcher explains to a chastened Sage that the mere performance of their own dharma had made both of them enlightened.

To be enlightened one does not have to choose between material and spiritual life. All one has to do is to live in the present with no regrets about the past and speculations about the future. Life is all about living with contradictions sensibly and in balance.