The End of Sorrow

by Eknath Easwaran

  When we dedicate our whole life unreservedly to the service of humanity, the Lord will magnify all our faculties. In some amazing way, even our sleep will be given us to serve others. As our meditation deepens, we will find that we need less sleep, less food, and more opportunities for service. We will find that we must use the tremendous forces placed in our hands. A family of two or three or four will not satisfy us; we will want a whole continent for our family, as Gandhiji had. When Mrs. Gandhi was asked how many children she had, her reply was, “I have four, but my husband has four hundred million.” As meditation deepens and self-will becomes less, we come to regard everyone as our own; if they have problems, it is our privilege to live for helping them to solve those problems. When at last we regard the entire world as our family, we will be enabled to draw upon the vast reservoir of love and wisdom lying unsuspected in all of us.

  We should not mistakenly interpret Sri Krishna’s declaration as telling us to go serve others and neglect our own at home. It is not that we learn to love our family less, but that we learn to love everyone equally well. It is a travesty of the spiritual life to think that Gandhi did not love his family because he loved everybody else. His capacity to love became so limitless that he was able to flood the whole country and the whole world with it. Not only in India are his teachings cherished; all over the world we are beginning to see what a tremendous contribution this humble man has made to the welfare of all. Gandhi loved mankind and showed us the way to regard all countries with love, trying to understand the other person’s needs exactly as we understand our own.

  Here again Arjuna is very much like us; the prospect of having his resources magnified is very appealing. He would like to have his creative intelligence and capacity to love increased; he knows that they are in need of magnification. The Lord understands what is going on in his mind and tells him:

  32. Understand that those who violate these laws, criticizing and complaining about fate, are utterly deluded, and are the cause of their own suffering.

  Here Sri Krishna cautions Arjuna that if he chooses not to observe the Lord’s spiritual laws, but lives for his own pleasure and profit, even the small capacities that he has will be reduced still further. Instead of being maximized, they will be minimized. We have only to look at people who live only for themselves to see how constricted their consciousness is, how easily they can be upset, and how people naturally avoid them. We cannot avoid making this choice between living for ourselves and living for others. If we try to serve others without turning our back on our own self-will, we will neither be able to serve others nor to help ourselves.

  Ignorance and scepticism do not exempt us from the spiritual laws governing the world. Many people question the validity of these laws, and I remind them that whether we believe in them or not they apply equally to all of us. When I was speaking at the Kaiser Center in Oakland – not before a gathering of Hindu mystics but before hard-headed Kaiser businessmen – one of my friends there came up to me one day and told me in a very affectionate manner, “We like you, and we appreciate your talks, your enthusiasm, and your humor, but this law of karma isn’t applicable to us. We do not believe in it as you do in India. We live west of Suez, and the law of karma stops at Port Said.”

  I just said, “All right, I’m going to the roof, and I’m going to wave my arms and fly over Lake Merritt.”

  He got terribly upset and said, “Why do you want to try that? Don’t you know it will kill you?”

  “Why should it kill me?”

  “The law of gravity, man!”

  So I said, “The law of gravity stops at Port Said; we in the East don’t subscribe to it. After all, it was not given to us by a Hindu mystic but by a British scientist.”

  He came close to me, put his arm on my shoulder, and said, “My dear fellow, whether you believe in it or not, the law of gravity works.”

  Then I put my arm around him saying, “Whether you believe it or not, the law of karma works everywhere, every day, in everyone’s life.”

  This should remind us to start going beyond the law of karma by subordinating our personal feelings and desires to the welfare of all those around us. There are people who claim they know nothing of these laws. They will tell you, “I am completely ignorant. I always thought that by living for myself I would become secure. I always thought that by dwelling upon myself I would enhance my personality. You shouldn’t hold these things against me when I didn’t know.” Sri Krishna’s reply to this is that all of us are expected to use our common sense in observing who is secure, who is at peace, who is able to contribute to the welfare of others.

  When we make the choice to lead a selfless life, we are really being practical and using our common sense. One of Gandhiji’s favorite hymns in his mother tongue says, “Lord, give me piety, give me devotion, but please don’t deny me common sense.” On the spiritual path there seems to be the mistaken belief in some minds that the less common sense we have, the more advanced we are on the path. If there is anybody terribly practical in life, it is the man of God. If there is anybody terribly impractical in life, it is the man of the world, because he spends his whole life in the pursuit of money, trying to follow a pattern of life that only fills him with insecurity.

  33. Even a wise man acts within the limitations of his own nature. Every creature is subject to prakriti; what is the use of repression?

  Even though all of us are governed by the indivisible unity that is the divine principle of existence, on the surface level of life we are all individuals, with special samskaras. Though we are all one at the very source of life, no two of us are alike on the surface of it. This is the marvel of life – that we should be so different outwardly, yet in the deepest sense be one and indivisible.

  In the Upanishads, there is a vivid description of how the one reality, the Lord, became very lonesome. The Lord, being advaita, ‘One without a second,’ had no one to play with, and just like a little boy he said, “I want boys and girls to play with, and animals and birds. But there is no one in the world but Me, so whom can I ask to be my playmate?” He began to meditate, and thought, “Why don’t I ask myself?” Then he divided himself into millions of creatures, and when he looked around, he was surrounded by a big football team. He said, “Now I want a big stadium to stage all these big games. Let the world be my stadium.” This is the coliseum of the ego, and for the superficial observer, life is really like going to a big game. Everyone looks different – different clothes, different things to eat, different ways of cheering. But in this stadium it is the Lord himself who is playing on both teams. The home team and the visiting team are part of a conspiracy, just pretending to play against each other, to win or lose.

  Once we begin to perceive the unity underlying all life, we will have nothing but love and respect for everyone around us, beginning in our home and extending to the entire world. We have only to look at the newspapers today, every page reporting violence and conflict, to see that the vast majority have forgotten this unity. Sri Krishna reminds all of us that in politics also we should never forget that there is only One; what conduces to the welfare of all is inclusive of the welfare of each one of us. There is no one in the world except the Lord disguised as many, but as long as we live for ourselves, pursuing our own private satisfaction and dwelling upon ourselves, we can never see this underlying unity. It is selfish people who see separateness everywhere because they look at life through their own selfishness, whereas the selfless person sees what is common to himself and others. Spiritual awareness is seeing this basic unity.

  The one Lord within, who has disguised himself as many, is the soul or Self in man. This purusha, as it is called in Sanskrit, is what unites us all. Prakriti is what makes us appear separate. Our physical and mental being evolves according to the laws of prakriti. To use the language of Hindu mysticism, all of us have evolved through millions of lives to become man, but even among humans there are different degrees of evolution. From this point of view, the person wh
o is excited by money has come into the human context just recently. He has been wandering in the jungle as a lion or tiger and has never seen money. They don’t use currency in the jungle, so he has had no contact with money at all. When he comes into the human situation, he is fascinated by the dollar, the pound, the rupee, and the ruble, because they are all new. According to this theory, when he has been this way a number of times – has been to banks, bought shares, seen them going up and down, and been agitated – he slowly learns to look upon money as rather irrelevant. Then when he sees it he says, “This is just metal; it has no intrinsic value at all.”

  The process of learning is the same in the case of pleasure. People who have been through the sensory game a number of times do not get easily drawn into sensate stimulations. The compassion of this explanation can appeal to all of us, for it does not classify us as either good or bad. It is not good to sit in judgment on those who pursue ephemeral pleasure; in a little while they will find it fails to satisfy, because there is an innate need for a supreme purpose in every human being. We cannot live without a supreme purpose, and though we may mistakenly try to fulfill this purpose by building houses, or sailing boats, or painting pictures, we must eventually find that nothing finite will ever satisfy us. We can go to the moon; it is a great achievement, but after a while our eyes turn beyond to Neptune. Wherever we go in space, wherever we go in time, we find limitations. Our need is for infinite joy, infinite love, infinite wisdom and infinite capacity for service, and until this need is met, we can never, never rest peacefully. But from the very day we begin meditation, supplementing it by discriminating restraint of the senses and putting the welfare of those around us first, we have started after the infinite. We will find our very endeavor gives us joy.

  We begin our journey towards the supreme goal of life from where we stand. All of us begin the spiritual ascent by accepting ourselves as we are. Just as it is good to be patient with others, it is equally necessary to be patient with ourselves. After all, when the desire to lead the spiritual life and live for others comes to us, we can be haunted by our past mistakes, by the amount of time and energy we have wasted in selfish pursuits. But the Lord of Love implies here that we must accept ourselves with all our strengths and weaknesses. Without this kind of great patience with ourselves, the precipitous ascent to the summit of human awareness is fraught with great danger. There are many obstacles on the spiritual path meant to strengthen us, and these cannot be overcome unless we have infinite patience with ourselves. When we are patient with others, we cannot help being patient with ourselves. As this verse indicates, each of us is individual, with his own special samskaras and qualities. We start now, where we are, with our partial love for money, partial love for pleasure, partial love for prestige, and a little love for the Lord.

  Just as we all start our sadhana from a different point, as determined by our prakriti, we also set our own pace on the path. We should be careful that each person keep within his own stride. Christine and I are usually rather fast walkers, but when we go for a walk with our little nieces, Meera and Geetha, we shorten our stride, rest a little more on each foot, and make use of any excuse to look at a seagull or pick up a pebble. One of the necessities in spiritual counseling is to see that each person goes at the right pace. People who have spent their time in the pursuit of money and pleasure may sprain an ankle with a long stride and fast walk.

  There are different types on the spiritual path. There are people capable of tremendous enthusiasm who suddenly turn over a new leaf. The man who slept until noon now starts getting up at three in the morning for meditation. The same enthusiasm he had for money or pleasure can be redirected towards the spiritual life. The highly enthusiastic person is already one-pointed and, because of his concentration, can easily take to the spiritual life. It is the butterfly, flitting from flower to flower, that will find it difficult to attain samadhi. Those who say, “What does it matter? Why go to school? Why take up a job?” will also question, “Why meditate? Why repeat the mantram?” People capable of throwing themselves heart and soul into any great endeavor, even though it may not be the most spiritual, will find themselves taking enthusiastically to the spiritual life when the time comes. It is good to have enthusiasm, not for many things but for one big passion, because this unifies the mind and increases concentration.

  We do not have to wait until we have advanced on the path of evolution to turn our face to the Lord. There are many great sinners in the annals of mysticism who have turned to the Lord and become completely pure and perfect through his grace. In the ninth chapter there is a tremendous verse which has consoled millions of human beings who have committed many mistakes through ignorance. The Lord tells us: “A person may be very selfish, may have led a very reckless life, causing suffering to others as well as to himself, but when he turns his back upon himself and surrenders to Me, he becomes pure rapidly, and I lead him into the perfection which is my nature. Any person, whatever his past, when he gives Me all his heart, becomes free and is united with Me” (Gita 9:31–2).

  All of us, no matter what our past has been, no matter what our present drawbacks are, can take to the spiritual life, and we will progress on the path at our own pace. It is not good to compare one person’s progress with another’s. This, as well as guidance in meditation, is very much a personal matter.

  Last Saturday when we took my mother and nieces to Santa Rosa, we went to a big shopping center where we were able to treat the children to ice cream. The children then wanted to ride on the escalator, which they had never seen in India. My mother was very timorous about this, but I assured her that the art could be learned gradually. First Meera wanted to try. I stood by her side and told her to watch me and do as I did. We took the first step together, as I held her hand. When the time came for us to get off, I said, still holding her hand, “Now you do the same thing; take your foot off and put it on the floor, just as I do it.” We came down the escalator in the same way. In this first experience she had been just doing what I was doing because she identifies herself easily with me. Even my mother was reassured. Then we made the same pilgrimage, but without holding hands. Now confident, she went up and came down by herself. This is very much the meditation experience too; for a long time we have to hold on to an experienced person.

  Now, seeing Meera, who is older, doing this in three easy lessons, Geetha said, “I want to go up and down the escalator too, just like Meera.” I took Geetha’s hand, but as we stepped onto the escalator, it was as if I were holding her in the air. All her weight was on my arm, but she was under the impression that she was on her own.

  Similarly in meditation there are a few people who have to be helped in this way without their ever becoming aware of it. A good teacher is one whose touch is so light that you can hardly feel it, whose muscles are so supple that he shows no effort at all. He just looks at you saying, “Yes, you are doing well; you are doing very well.” Even a person who must be helped in this way will begin to learn, but he may not learn in three easy lessons. He may require six hard lessons. We should never ask ourselves why there is this difference between people. It is good to be content with the speed at which we are able to go because it is in accordance with our dharma.

  34. The senses have been conditioned by attraction to the pleasant and aversion to the unpleasant. Do not be ruled by them; they are obstacles in your path.

  Two of the important words used in this verse are indriya and indriyartha. Indriya denotes the sense organs, and indriyartha the sense objects of which the external world is composed. In the relationship between these two, there exists ragadvesha, ‘attraction and aversion.’ All of us are governed in a large measure by this tyrannical duality of likes and dislikes. We avoid something because we do not like it; we move away from people because we dislike them. We are tied not only to what we like but also to what we dislike. To give an extreme example, when we love someone, we are always thinking about that person, wanting to serve their welfare. Unfortun
ately, when we hate someone, we also think about the person all the time, about how to frustrate their welfare. It is the same emotional relationship.

  In my mother tongue, there is a folk song about a boy who knows a good bit about girls. He tells his girl, “Love me or hate me, I don’t care; I have got you. But don’t ever become indifferent to me; then I have lost you.” When someone says, “I hate you,” don’t give up – they are as entangled emotionally with you as they can ever be. When your girlfriend says this, do not slam the door and say, “I don’t want to see you again.” That is the time to close the door from inside and say, “I am not going to leave you at all.”

  I think it was Sai Baba, one of the spectacular mystics of modern India, who put this concept of likes and dislikes into epigrammatic words when he said that if you do not do what you like, then you can do what you want. As long as we are dominated by likes and dislikes – in our job, in our studies, in our friendships, in our food, in our recreation – we are just being compelled by our nervous system to move towards what we like and away from what we dislike.

  A friend of ours who is a physicist made the keen observation that most of meditation is a reconditioning of the nervous system. As long as our nervous system works only one way, enabling us to run towards the pleasant and away from the unpleasant, it is considerably damaged. It is really meant for two-way traffic, the mystics tell us, and it is only because of our long conditioning that it has come to be so constricted, able to move only towards the pleasant. When it has been reconditioned through meditation, we can live in freedom, choosing to do what is in the interests of others even though it may be painful to us, may cause us mental and physical distress.