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ignoring the reality
> Guest contributors > Know Thyself: Don’t ignore the reality

Know Thyself: Don’t ignore the reality

"Actually, everything is in a flux-everything is constantly changing and moving. Perhaps, the only thing that does not change is change and it is like a river, a flow." - Sri M

Human life is like the bubble that appears in the stream. You see it one moment and then, the next moment, it is gone like the star that twinkles.

So, in this complete picture that we discussed, what do we see? We see that the idea that we have about life–the image that we have about life, the security which we think we have, the everlasting happiness that we think we might derive, the feeling that we will exist forever, the insecurity of losing one’s life, of giving up all that we have–all these are facts which the mind refuses to accept.

Usually, it may accept it for a split minute, when something dire happens but not in the normal course of life. It likes to shut its eyes, put on blinkers maybe and move only in one direction saying–this is what it is.

Well, we can ignore reality but the reality is reality and we can’t stop time. So, these are some of the psychological illusions linked to the physical quality of life that we all human beings go through and as yet, refuse to acknowledge as far as possible.

The refusing to acknowledge is the illusion. According to Vedanta, this is ‘Maya’. This means we like to think of something as we prefer to think about it and not as it actually is. And, what is it actually?

Life moves, but the problem is that we would like to freeze it and hold it. It is not possible.

Actually, everything is in a flux–everything is constantly changing and moving. Perhaps, the only thing that does not change is change and it is like a river, a flow. Life moves, but the problem is that we would like to freeze it and hold it. It is not possible.

We can freeze it for a while but it will break its dam and begin to flow. And, life flows like the river–if we consider it as a flow–that is the reality. Not as something that is frozen, and when we have a vision of the free flow of life, then we are beginning to see the reality, in a way free from the illusion. This does not mean that it flows without control.

A flowing river, by the very fact that it is flowing creates its own boundaries. We don’t have to do anything about it. Look at a river, it furrows through the sand; on both sides, there are banks. It builds its own banks. Oh! It floods sometimes but that does not mean that we can freeze it and hold it in one place.

This movement of life, the ever-expanding quality of life, that is Brahman–the Supreme Reality–that, if we break our illusions and look at freely, we will realise is part of us and we are a part of it. In fact, the word ‘Brahman’ comes from the Sanskrit root–’brh’–that means ever expanding, never stagnating, moving, full of life, acting.

This is the search for the Brahman and the examination of the illusions that prevent us from doing so.

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