Be careful what you wish for

HARI goes to a bar and orders drinks for everyone around. He has a great time with everyone back-slapping him and telling him what a great guy he is. As he is about to leave, the bartender gives him the bill. Rattled, Hari says, I only ordered the drinks. I didn’t order the bill.

Most of us live our life like Hari, just as foolishly, just as brainlessly. We have no recollection of asking for the bill as we go about acquisitions and expectations of acquisitions. When the bill does finally arrive, we are startled and depressed as this is not part of our expectation. There is a saying: be careful what you wish for, for it may come true.

We are driven all our lives by our Samskara. These are our unfulfilled desires that are deeply embedded in our unconscious mind. Most of the time, we are not even aware that these samskara exist. However, they are what determine what our decisions will be. They become our will. They drive us into illogical and irrational decisions, even decisions that are harmful to us.

When you drink or smoke once in a while you enjoy them. As long as you have the freedom to drop them you enjoy them. When you get addicted to them they enjoy you. Addiction is when you do not enjoy the habit but cannot do without it. You can get addicted to food, TV, newspaper, gossiping, so many things. When you are addicted, food eats you, cigarette smoke you and liquor drinks you. When you do not have the freedom you are used; you are not in control however much you believe you are; your desires control you and lead you into a vicious cycle of suffering.

Often people tell me that they have good samskara. These memories help them improve their lives. As long as you live in the past you cannot improve your life. You cannot drive forward by looking backwards.

Meditation is the path to dissolve and burn your samskaras. Meditation leads you into a no-mind state where samskaras cannot 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 our life in joy, without the fear of having to pay the bill.