The End of Sorrow

by Eknath Easwaran

  Another reason this erect posture must be maintained, according to the Hindu and Buddhist mystics, has to do with the vast mass of evolutionary energy called kundalini that is located at the base of the spine. As meditation deepens, kundalini rises up through the spinal column, activating the different centers of consciousness. According to this theory, keeping the spinal column erect in meditation, when accompanied by allied disciplines such as discriminating restraint of the senses and putting the welfare of others first, helps kundalini to rise.

  Sri Krishna also refers here to the position of the eyes, for this can indicate our state of mind. We can see from the eyes of a person whether he is angry, sorrowful, or restless, because in these states the pupils keep darting to and fro. Similarly, when the mind is at rest and the heart is full, the eyes become still and begin to shine. If we want the beauty of the eyes to shine forth, we have to learn to still the mind through the practice of meditation.

  14. When his mind has ceased to wander, a man finds complete fulfillment in Me. In this state all fears dissolve in the peace of the Self, and all actions proceed toward Me.

  As our meditation deepens, the mind will become so calm that agitated people will find rest in our presence, and angry people will be forgiving. Even without preaching to others or advising them, our conduct and our unfailing sympathy and support will have a beneficial influence on all those around us. We are all concerned about external pollution, but internal pollution is equally dangerous. One angry person, for example, can upset a whole family. For some, anger is even a feast, a way of introducing excitement into a dull, torpid existence. When a person has been agitated for a long time, it is difficult for him to give up his agitation. We can help such people by never indulging in violence ourselves: by never retaliating, never using harsh words, and never failing to love even those who hate us.

  It is difficult to understand that most angry people are frightened. As Gandhi told us, a man who carries a gun is really walking about in fear for his life. When we trust and respect others, all fear vanishes because those around us become our protector, our shield. Another fear that many have is of growing up. Many of us carry a big cradle on our backs, and wherever we go we put it down, get into it, and lie there saying, “You do what I want you to do, and if you don’t I’m going to howl and howl and howl.” Growing up means taking on life with all its responsibilities and facing whatever comes our way with courage, calmness, and security. We will lose all fears when we realize the Lord is in everyone, making them loving and merciful at heart.

  Fear exists only when there is a division in the mind. In the mind there are deep crevices where little bugs of selfishness and separateness live, which thrive on all the minor irritations which occur day in and day out. To remove these little bugs we do not need to use pesticides; all we need to do is reduce our separateness by putting others first, by embracing in our consciousness not only those who support us, which is very easy, but also those who provoke and attack us. Meditation gradually transforms the negative capacity for resentment into a positive capacity for moving closer to our family, our friends, and finally our enemies. By overcoming the obstacles of separateness and self-will that come our way daily in all shapes and sizes, from little irritations to big storms, we eliminate all fear from our consciousness and move closer to the state of perfect peace which is union with the Lord.

  15. When he constantly controls his mind and senses through the practice of meditation and seeks the Self within, he attains nirvana, the state of abiding joy and peace in Me.

  The person who keeps his eyes on the Lord all the time, who practices meditation regularly with sustained enthusiasm, trains his senses, and disciplines his mind to obey him, at last becomes established in nirvana, the state of abiding joy, in which he sees that all of us are one. Nirvana is not to be found beyond the grave; it is found right here in this life. As the Buddha teaches in the Dhammapada, the man of the world, who lives for himself, suffers in this life and afterwards as well, while the man of nirvana lives in joy both in this life and in the life to come. It is possible to live in the world and find nirvana; it is possible to live within the family and yet be established completely in oneself and see the presence of the Lord everywhere.

  16. O Arjuna, they will not succeed in the practice of meditation who eat too much or eat too little, who sleep too much or sleep too little.

  We should always try to follow the middle path, which means we should strive to be temperate in all we do. We should neither indulge our senses excessively nor mortify them excessively; we should have neither too much wealth nor too much poverty, neither too much learning nor too much ignorance, neither too much work nor too much leisure. Striking this balance in all activities is an exhilarating discipline we all can learn to practice.

  Most of us, for example, do not need as much food as we may think we do. One of the finer points of the art of eating is to stop just when you are about to ask for another helping: when your hand is outstretched, you should be able to get up and turn your back on the table. It can be a little distressing at the time, but afterwards you have much more appreciation of the meal. I would suggest that we eat just three times a day – a hearty breakfast after meditation, a moderate lunch, and a lighter dinner, based on the findings of modern nutrition rather than on fads or fancies.

  There are all kinds of interesting ways in which we can keep the palate on the middle path. When it is craving candy or a hot fudge sundae, go for a walk repeating the mantram, and bargain for time with the mind by telling it, “In two hours when we are going home we can go to an ice cream parlor for a deluxe sundae.” Interestingly enough, two hours later the mind has forgotten ice cream sundaes and is thinking about the movie it will enjoy tomorrow evening. All you need do is put just a little break of time between the palate and its desire, for you can count on the mind to change its desires. A more gentlemanly technique, whenever the mind asks for some unnutritious delicacy like a chocolate candy bar, is to try giving it raisins instead. Very soon it will stop asking for candy.

  Playing these little tricks on the mind will bring no harm, but do not be violent with it. Treat it gently, patiently, and compassionately; since we have allowed it license for so many years, it is not fair to expect it to come to heel in a day or two. Occasionally, however, when there is a first-rate conflict – when you see a wave of resentment, anxiety, or frustration welling up – it is helpful to skip a meal. When this is done with discrimination, taking particular care that the body is not deprived of its energy, you will find that not only is the mind easier to control, the body benefits too.

  Too much sleep, too, is bad for the body, mind, and meditation. When we sleep too much, we may be unable to face a challenge; then, instead of stretching out to meet the challenge, the will simply becomes paralyzed. Sleeping too much is like saying, “I don’t like being human; I prefer to be inert like an old tree, or a rock.” But too little sleep is equally an enemy of meditation. In order to live in harmony with the laws of life, we need to observe the rhythm of night and day by going to sleep as early as possible at night and getting up as early as possible in the morning. When you get into bed early, repeat the mantram until you fall asleep. Though at first you may not fall asleep easily, you will have no trouble after your body has had a little time to recondition itself. All our habits can be changed completely by using the immense learning tool we acquire through meditation. Going to sleep too early or too late, getting up too early or too late, eating too much or too little, bursting out in anger or crying in agitation – these are all just repeated patterns of thinking, speaking, and acting which can be altered through the practice of meditation.

  17. The person who has learned to be detached in all his actions through the practice of meditation, who is temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow.

  Sorrow is necessary for us only when we require it to grow to our full stature. We can think of the Lord as a physical education teach
er; he looks us over carefully and selects those of us who are drooping with selfishness and self-will. To these he gives sorrow, saying, “Let me give you some special exercises to help you grow as tall and as straight as you can.” When we have grown to our full height and can push ourselves out of the way to become sensitive to the needs of others, the Lord will say, “You don’t require any more sorrow, any more ordeals. You have gone beyond all suffering by extinguishing your self-will and selfishness. Now you are ready to help reduce the suffering and sorrow of those around you.”

  If we start looking carefully at our own suffering, we shall find that it often comes to teach us to stop repeating our mistakes. In my young ignorance I committed many mistakes, and much sorrow came my way. But through my Grandmother’s blessing came the desire never to be separate or selfish, and with it the horror of being angry or violent towards any living creature. I was able to learn the lessons of sorrow so that it became impossible for me to commit the same mistakes again. When we have learned not to commit selfish mistakes in life, not to impose our self-will upon our dear ones, our society, and even our enemies, there is no reason why personal suffering should come to us at all.

  18. Through constant effort a person learns to withdraw the mind from selfish cravings to the Self within, and thus attains union with the Lord.

  In the early days of meditation we often seem to hear, as it were, two tape recorders playing in our consciousness at the same time. The first tape is the inspirational passage we are using in meditation; the second is a distraction expressing itself in words that contradict and distort the words of the passage. On such occasions all we have to do is give more and more attention to the words of the passage, which means that we are giving less and less attention to the second tape recorder. For a long, long time our meditation will be this dull, dreary discipline of bringing the mind back to the words of the passage and shunning associations and distractions. But if we persist the great day will come, through the grace of the Lord, when our mind will not wander once from the Upanishads or the Prayer of St. Francis. At that time we will not be aware of the jets roaring in the sky, or the trumpets blaring in our neighbor’s apartment; we will not be aware of the body which we have always believed ourselves to be. Even if the rapture of this state lasts for only a few minutes, it is long enough for the Divine Physician to dissolve our tensions, resolve our conflicts, and give us the certitude that we can function with a new freedom no matter what problems come our way.

  In this verse Sri Krishna tells Arjuna viniyatam cittam: “Have a completely disciplined mind; be the master of your senses and mind.” The Buddha would say that most of us do not live intentionally. In fact, he would question whether most of us are actually alive; to him we are like puppets pulled by forces outside ourselves, running after what satisfies our senses and away from what violates our self-will. This is not living; this is being flotsam and jetsam on the sea of life. Only when we have brought our senses under control, when we have extinguished our self-will, can we say we live intentionally.

  Just imagine what would happen if all the cars in a city were to roll out of their garages and roar out onto every road at top speed without a driver, without obeying signals or traffic rules. There would be hundreds of accidents. This is just what is happening today when people go about driven by their senses, controlled by their self-will instead of sitting in the driver’s seat directing their body, senses, and mind. I admire the ease with which the good driver drives; it is almost as though he has eyes in the back of his head. In order to master the art of living we too need eyes in the back of our heads to be able to look at our behavior in the past and correct ourselves wherever we made mistakes. The person who has learned in this way to respect the freedom of all, who has learned never to manipulate others, never to attack others, has a driver’s license which is valid always. This is the sign of the person established in himself: he does not collide with those who are angry but goes about with love and respect for others no matter what the circumstances.

  19. When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a sheltered place.

  When I was at the University of Kansas I visited the President Truman Museum where I saw a little clay lamp from Israel, on whose pedestal were inscribed these words from Proverbs 20:27: “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.” These clay lamps, common in ancient Jerusalem, are still used today in Kerala, where they are lit and placed in an alcove of the shrine. Since there is no wind in the protected niche, the tongue of the flame burns without a flicker.

  In the depths of your meditation, when you are concentrating on an inspirational passage such as the Prayer of St. Francis, your mind should be like the tongue of a flame in a windless place, motionless and steady. At that time you will be concentrating completely on the words of the prayer, which means that you are slowly becoming like St. Francis in your daily conduct and consciousness. It requires enormous endeavor to do this, but through ceaseless effort I think every one of us can reach the state in which the mind, like the flame of the clay lamp, does not flicker or waver at all.

  20. In the still mind the Self reveals itself. From the depths of meditation a man draws the joy and peace of complete fulfillment.

  21. Having attained that abiding joy beyond the senses, revealed in the stilled mind, he will never swerve from the eternal truth that all life is one.

  22. In this state he desires nothing else, and cannot be shaken by the heaviest burdens of sorrow.

  23. The practice of meditation frees him from all affliction. This is the path of yoga. Follow it with determination and sustained enthusiasm.

  In these verses Sri Krishna is trying to tell us, as far as words can convey, the state we reach when our mind becomes completely one-pointed. First of all, we see ourselves as we really are. Up until this point, the one person we have never seen is ourselves. When Nureyev appeared in San Francisco not long ago there were quite a few ballet fans who, I was told, flew all the way from New York to see him. The mystics would point out how fruitless it is to go to see important people when our first priority is to see ourselves. We think we know Tom, Dick, and Harry, but we really know everyone, including ourselves, only on the surface level. If we could see our real Self coming down Ashram Street, we would wonder who this beautiful, radiant, magnificent creature could be. We would not be able to take our eyes off him, we would be so full of love. Then he would come to us, slowly, step by step, and enter our consciousness. All of us are full of dazzling beauty just waiting to reveal itself, and in order to let this radiance emerge all we must do is throw off the mask of the self-willed, separate ego with which we identify ourselves today.

  Once we have seen our real Self in all its glory, no treasure on earth, no achievement, no pleasure is even worth mentioning. When we look at money, it is only dull metal; when we look at pleasure, it is just dull tinsel; when we look at power and prestige, they are no more than dimestore jewelry. Today we can be excited about the pursuit of little satisfactions because we lack a frame of reference in which to evaluate them meaningfully. It is only when we have made a certain amount of progress on the spiritual path through meditation that we develop a standard of comparison. When we acquire this deeper, clearer point of view, we can compare the joy of St. Francis to the joy of going into a pizza parlor, or the joy of Meister Eckhart to that of going into a beer garden. Then we realize we have been penny-wise and pound-foolish in life, going after trivia when we could as well go after the supreme goal.

  In the final stages of meditation the whole burden of regret, resentment, vague longing, and restlessness falls away. This is the end of all sorrow. We become established in the Lord and see him in the heart of every creature – human, beast, bird – and in all life. With this inspiring picture of the goal of meditation, Sri Krishna appeals to Arjuna: “Make your will resolute, and throw yourself into this spiritual endeavor so that you too will go beyond sorrow to become established in the indivisible unity that is di
vine.”

  24. Renouncing wholeheartedly all selfish desires and expectations, use your will to control the senses.

  In order to attain the supreme state of complete security and boundless joy, we have to renounce every trace of selfish desire and sweep away the last little selfish urge hiding in the cobwebs in the corner of the ego. For the vast majority of us, this takes a whole lifetime of sweeping with the broom of meditation.

  Every morning my Grandmother used to sweep the veranda of our house, which was constantly threatened by the dust of tropical India. If she had neglected her sweeping, the dust would have grown thick after just one morning; and if left unswept for a few weeks, the entire veranda would have been hidden under the dust. Similarly, our minds get cluttered and covered with debris when we fail to have our daily meditation. We may be tempted to meditate only once or twice a week, so that on weekdays we can devote all our time to pursuing our pleasure and profit. But when we try to clean only on the weekend, it takes all day. Even then we sometimes add further difficulties by stimulating our senses. After a few weekends like this, we begin to clean only once a month, but at that point the pile of dirt and debris is too high for even a vacuum cleaner to clear away.

  The way to keep the mind clean and pure is to spend half an hour every day, no matter what other responsibilities we have, in the practice of meditation. If we do this regularly every morning, we gradually shall find that it becomes easy to keep the place clean. By practicing meditation regularly and keeping our senses under control, we can clean away the debris of sankalpa, all our selfish desires, and make room for the Lord of Love. Without the practice of meditation, it is difficult to bring the senses under control, and without sense control, it is difficult to rise above the physical body; without rising above the physical body, it is not possible to discover the indivisible unity of life. From this we can see how important it is to devote a half hour every morning – such a small amount of time – regularly and enthusiastically to the practice of meditation.