Life's Kurukshetra

Posted on Jun 06, 2020 by Harsha Vardhan (Founder Director & Trainer)

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"The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong." Swami Vivekananda stated this wisdom once, in his short life of 39 years.

Indeed, we always keep looking for happiness and wish the sorrows to stay away. Indian scriptures call it 'Raag' and 'Dwesh'. We want pleasant experiences only and dread the unpleasant ones. We spend an entire life resisting the sorrows and toiling for comforts. We work this way to the extent that we actually undergo a harrowing time to accumulate comforts.

We run the rat race unabashedly, uncaringly for others, stepping on to others to reach higher goals, practicing one-upmanship, always worried about being overtaken and wishing to be applauded at all times. This rat-race is a plain ego game. Even if we win this game we remain a rat. A winning rat though!!

Some one asked Ramana Maharshi, "What is the best way to behave with others?" He quietly replied, "There are no others".

Man's inability to see others as himself is the prime reason for his self-centredness. He is not only ignorant about the reality of other humans but he is unaware of himself too. He thinks he is the body and fulfilling body and ego needs, his primary goal.

His true self, his consciousness, made in the image of God, lies under the mud of 'sanskars' of several lifetimes. Only through conscious effort of spiritual illumination, can he invite light into a dark and dusty room. And when illumination happens, it is instant. It doesn't matter how many years the room was dark.

Each one of us is here in the same soup. Living our karmas. Learning our lessons. Sometimes we are good, sometimes we are bad, sometimes right, sometimes wrong. The soul progress graph sometimes shoots up and sometimes slides down like a share market graph. We are dynamic beings. We are not only one type of a person. We are many things at different times. Let us not brand each other as X and Y.

We tend to keep huge expectations of others. How they must behave or act. We are far lenient on ourselves. We have ready justifications for our follies. And to us they are true and reasonable. For others the yard stick suddenly shortens. Let us remember we are all into it together. We are essentially one. The next time you shout at someone making a mistake, Think!! He or she has her own set of challenges. We are all undergoing a test. A different test at different times. It is always a good idea to sympathise with a fellow traveller on the planet.

The sense of separation is what makes us adopt double standards. Making us more equal at times. The fact of the matter is we practice morals selectively. The need to include all in our daily life is the only way to sprout tolerance and kindness amongst humans. We all have not yet overcome worldly desires and that's the precise reason that makes us similar, that we are still incarnating on the planet. This similarity can be collectively called as humanity.

Kindness is a virtue a blind can see, a deaf can hear and a dumb can speak. We are more courteous with the people we know. More due to the fact that our ego's reputation is at stake because of our familiarity.

Learning to simplify and choosing kindness is a good beginning. We need to consciously work on aspects of our nature that we can carry along on the soul journey. Challenges are really good for our evolution or else at the end of the lifetime, it'd be a boring ending. Without the blacks you can't see the white. Without the misses you can't appreciate the catches. Without the trauma there would be no life drama. Welcome the Kurukshetra of your inner and outer battlefields.

In the onslaught of challenges, it takes wisdom to become better and not bitter. Be grateful to God for all experiences. They are all good. The canvas of life can't be completed without all shades. Not even a leaf falls without God noticing it. Do you think God is not listening to your prayers? Sometimes an unanswered prayer is a blessing.

If you wish to be that Smart-Alec, invest in what will last longer than the body you occupy. Your soul !! This will last unthinkable number of lifetimes. Work on the vibration that you are becoming. If you work on it for spiritual reasons – well and good. Or else work like an investor. The battle of Kurukshetra is fought every day, every moment in your consciousness. Want to win?? Yes, it can be won.