Fit Soul – Dr. Mayank Shah
The journey of life is a journey from one side of the ocean to the other. In such a journey, many forms of the ocean are seen. Sometimes the sea is calm and sometimes stormy. Sometimes a gentle wind blows, sometimes a storm blows, and sometimes the waves of the sea take you to the destination, sometimes push you in the opposite direction. Therefore, it is not easy to move from one side of the ocean to the other side. There are many parallels between the journey of the ocean and the journey of our lives.
One thing we tend to forget while talking about the journey to the ocean is that the tools we use for this pursuit are in our hands. Someone jumps into the sea and tries to swim forward on his own. Someone else floats a small boat and struggles to move forward, and some rare intelligent being takes a big ship and tries to quickly reach the opposite shore. No matter how many tools humans use, they end up bowing their heads against the vastness and ferocious value of the ocean or asking for help from an invisible force. This common phenomenon of normal life is often seen everywhere. It doesn’t end here…
Philosophy brings out a third aspect of this paradigm. This amazing view can revolutionize our lives. This science can make this journey ‘easy’ by removing the struggle from human life.
Don’t be dependent… be independent!
Let’s imagine. Let us make this ocean a tool. Let us build our throne with its water, make our journey a chariot journey by relying on it. Let us make the power of the ocean waves the horses that propel our chariot and consider the vast and ferocious form of the ocean as a theater made by nature for our entertainment.
Philosophy says that this ocean is our own ‘mind’. The waves of the ocean, its various forms, are symbols of mind-colors. If there is a storm in the ocean, there are also storms in our mind. Just as the ‘eddy’ in the ocean fills everything, our desires and lusts fill us. We have created this ocean barrier and we will merge it. The philosophy explains that no grace or external help is required, you can help yourself! Be self-sufficient.
The tool of independence – compassion
One has to cross the ‘mind-ocean’ to make life successful and meaningful. One thing has to be carefully imbibed – the mind is our own power, our servant. But the mind is a double-edged sword, which can create happiness and invite unhappiness. To give proper direction to mind-power one has to develop spiritual virtues and follow its principles in life. One such special virtue is ‘compassion’.
Compassion means kindness, sympathy, grace with which we do it. We have developed the mentality that someone is poor, miserable, suffering, and to show sympathy towards him. Sympathy, kindness vs. May be idealistic but whether it is really useful or not is a matter of contemplation. An enlightening story comes to mind here.
Once a shepherd found a lion cub. The cub was separated from the lioness. And was hungry and thirsty. The cub would die without its mother, so the shepherd took care of it. The lion cub began to grow. Began to live among other goats. So that the other goats would not be afraid of this lion cub, the shepherd put a goat skin on it. So that it looks like a goat. The lion started behaving like a goat and instead of his natural roar, he started doing like a goat. Once upon a time, a lion came hunting near a forest where goats were grazing. The goats started dying and the lion with this goat’s skin also started running away. By chance, the predatory lion pounced on it. The lion cub got scared and started doing… I…. Shikari Singh took off his skin and was shocked. Then he started laughing and said to the cub that you are a lion cub so why are you scared? The lion cub became self-aware and became fearless.
The basic feeling of compassion is “a strong desire to be free from suffering. Then the effort starts to solve the suffering, whether it is one’s own or others’. Pity or sympathy do not work to defeat suffering. There is no place for charity. Indeed, all living beings can remove their sorrows, such power is in them, to cultivate that consciousness. That is true compassion! The lion’s cub in the goat’s den became sad because he forgot his nature. Realizing his form and power he roared again.
Let us not make the suffering beings more miserable by giving mercy in the name of compassion. But make those miserable creatures aware of their natural powers, show them the way to be freed from misery. There is a saying in English, Ujnaksha’in lashdaya rajnajnam jnin vinya kshayamu, yinfabhava vinyal vajnu jnin yafakshi vinyashi rajjnam.’ Meaning: Let’s make living beings independent, not dependent.
Before sympathizing with the sufferings of others, know that you are the one to be pitied for such false understanding. Yes, be sensitive to the pain vibration of others and if possible, be instrumental in removing their pain by awakening their natural strength! Then you will feel peace and become the cause of world peace.
