Question::
What is this ‘struggle for happiness’?
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How come ‘pleasure’ & ‘pain’ are intertwined?
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Why “sufferings” occur, even though we do not seek it?
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How come our “desires” are considered a source of suffering?
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Why our ‘moods’ change? What is the cause of ‘changing moods’?
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What is the root cause of “depression”?
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Can ‘desires’ terminate, if/when we fulfil them? How come ‘fulfilment of desires’ is a source of fleeting happiness?
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Why can’t “worldly desires” give us abiding happiness?
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What is the “Law of desire”?
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How come ‘suffering’ is considered spiritually advantageous? What are the pros of “suffering”?
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How to mitigate “desires”? When can one get freedom from one’s desires?
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How are “detachment” and “happiness” related? What are the different “degrees of detachment”?
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What is ‘Shmashan Vairagya’ or temporary detachment? What is ‘Tivra Vairagya’ or intense dispassion?
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What is ‘Purna Vairagya’ or complete detachment?
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How come “detachment” is a prerequisite to “happiness”?
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What are the advantages of “desirelessness” or ‘complete detachment?’
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How can ‘complete detachment’ annihilate suffering?
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How to handle “blame?”
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How come “complete detachment” is condition for LASTING and TRUE happiness?
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How come ‘mental suffering’ is acute than ‘physical suffering’? What is the advantage of ‘physical suffering?’
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Suffering is said to be self-created. How so?
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Even Yogis can’t handle ‘mental suffering.’ Why so?
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What happens when “complete detachment’ happens?
Answer::
(Extracted from Meher Baba’s literature, which is a copyright of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust(©AMBPPCT), Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India)
Every creature in the world is seeking happiness, and man is no exception. Seemingly man sets his heart on many kinds of things, but ultimately all that he desires or undertakes is for the sake of happiness.
- If he is keen to have ‘power’, it is because he expects to derive happiness from its use.
- If he strives for ‘money’, it is because he thinks it will secure the ‘conditions’ and ‘means’ for his happiness.
- If he seeks ‘knowledge’, ‘health’, or ‘beauty’, ‘science’, ‘art’, or ‘literature’, it is because he feels that his pursuit of happiness is directly dependent upon them.
- If he struggles for worldly ‘success’ and ‘fame’, it is because he hopes to find happiness in their attainment.
Through all his endeavors and pursuits, man wants to be happy. ‘Happiness’ is the ultimate MOTIVE POWER, which drives him in all that he does.
Everyone seeks to be happy, yet most persons are immersed in some kind of ‘suffering’. If at times they do get small installments of happiness in their lives, it is neither unadulterated or abiding. Their lives are never a series of unmixed pleasures. It moves between the opposites of ‘pain’ and ‘pleasure’, which are entwined like darkened clouds and shining rainbows. The moments of pleasure occasionally appearing in their lives soon vanish– like rainbows, which shine in their splendour only to disappear from the sky. If these moments of pleasure leave any trace, it is of a ‘memory’ that only augments the ‘pain’ of having lost them. Such memory is an invariable legacy of most pleasures.
Man does not seek ‘suffering’, but it comes to him as an inevitable outcome of the very manner in which he seeks happiness. He seeks happiness through the fulfillment of his desires, but such fulfillment is never an assured thing. Hence in the pursuit of desires, man is also unavoidably preparing for the suffering from their non-fulfillment. The same tree of desire bears two kinds of fruit:
- one sweet, which is ‘pleasure’, and
- one bitter, which is ‘suffering’.
If this tree is allowed to flourish, it cannot be made to yield just one kind of fruit. Those who have bid for one kind of fruit must be ready to have the other also.
Man pursues ‘pleasure’ furiously and clings to it fondly when it comes. He tries to ‘avoid’ the impending suffering – desperately, and smarts under it with resentment. His ‘fury’ and ‘fondness’ are not of much avail, for his ‘pleasure’ is doomed to fade and disappear one day. And his ‘desperation’ and ‘resentment’ are equally of no avail, for he cannot escape the ‘suffering’ that results.
Goaded by multifarious desires, man seeks the ‘pleasures of the world’ with un-abating hope. His zest for pleasure does not remain unalloyed, however, because even while he is reaching for the cup of ‘pleasure,’ he often has to gulp down doses of ‘suffering’. His enthusiasm for ‘pleasure’ is abated by ‘suffering,’ which often follows in pleasure’s wake. He is subject to sudden moods and impulses.
Sometimes he is happy and elated, at other times he is very unhappy and downhearted. His moods change as his desires are fulfilled or frustrated. Satisfaction of some desires yields momentary happiness; but this happiness does not last, and it soon leads to the reaction of depression. His moods subject him to ups and downs and to constant change.
Fulfillment of desires does not lead to their termination; they are submerged for awhile only to reappear with ‘added intensity.’ When a person is hungry, he eats to satisfy the desire, but soon he feels hungry again. If he eats too much, even in the fulfillment of his desire he experiences ‘pain’ and ‘discomfort.’ It is the same with all the desires of the world; they can only yield a happiness that is fleeting. Even in the very moment of their fulfillment, the happiness they yield has already begun to fade and vanish.
‘Worldly desires’ can therefore never lead to abiding happiness. On the contrary, they invariably invite unending ‘suffering’ of many kinds. When an individual is full of worldly desires, a plentiful crop of ‘suffering’ is unavoidably in store for him. “Desire” is inevitably the cause of much suffering; this is the law.
If a person experiences or visualizes the ‘suffering’ that waits upon desires, his ‘desires’ become mitigated. Sometimes ‘intense suffering’ makes him detached from worldly life, but this detachment is often again set aside because of a fresh flood of ‘desires.’ Many persons temporarily lose their interest in worldly objects due to the impact of ‘acute suffering’ brought on by desires, but “detachment” must be lasting if it is to pave the way for ‘freedom from desires.’ There are varying “degrees of detachment”, and not all of them are lasting.
Temporary detachment::
Sometimes a person is greatly moved by an unusually strong experience, such as
- seeing someone die or
- witnessing a burial or a cremation.
Such experiences are thought-provoking, and they initiate long trains of ideas about the futility and emptiness of worldly existence. Under the pressure of such experiences, the person realizes that one day he must die and take leave of all the worldly objects so dear to him. But these thoughts, as well as the “detachment” born thereof, are short-lived. They are soon forgotten, and the person resumes his attachment to the world and its alluring objects.
This temporary and passing mood of detachment is known as shmashan vairagya, cremation- or burial-ground detachment because it usually arises when witnessing a cremation or a burial, and stays in the mind only while in the presence of the dead body.
It seems to be “strong” and “effective” while it lasts, but it is only sustained by the vividness of some experience. When the experience vanishes, the mood of detachment also quickly passes, without seriously affecting one’s general attitude toward life.
The passing mood of detachment might be illustrated by the story of a person who once saw at the theatre, a spiritual drama about Gopichanda, the great Indian king who renounced everything in pursuit of Truth. The drama impressed him so deeply that, disregarding all his duties to his family, he joined a band of bairagis (wandering ascetics) belonging to the cult of Gopichanda. Renouncing all his former modes of life, he dressed as a bairagi , shaved his head, and sat under a tree, as advised by the other members of the group.
At first he plunged into deep meditation, but as heat of the sun grew stronger his enthusiasm for meditation began to cool down. As the day went on, he began to feel hungry and thirsty and became very restless and miserable.
When the members of his family noticed his absence from home, they became worried about him. After some searching, they found him sitting under the tree in this miserable plight. He had grown haggard and was plainly unhappy.
His wife seeing him in this strange condition was furious and rushed to upbraid him. His mood of detachment had flitted away; and as he was thoroughly tired of his new life, he took her reproach as a boon from heaven. So, silencing her quickly, he put on his turban and ordinary clothes, and meekly followed her home
Intense dispassion or tivra vairagya::
Sometimes the mood of detachment is more lasting and not only endures for a considerable time, but also modifies one’s general attitude toward life. This is called tivra vairagya, or intense dispassion. Such ‘intense dispassion’ usually arises from some great misfortune – such as
- the loss of one’s dear ones or
- the loss of ‘property’ or ‘reputation.’
Under the influence of this wave of detachment, the person renounces all worldly things. ‘Tivra vairagya’ of this type has its own spiritual value, but it is also likely to disappear in the course of time or be disturbed by the onset of a recurring flood of worldly desires.
The disgust for the world that a person feels in such cases is due to a powerful impression left by a misfortune, and it does not endure because it is not born of understanding! It is only a severe reaction to life.
Complete detachment or purna vairagya::
The kind of detachment that really lasts is due to the understanding of ‘suffering’ and its cause. It is securely based upon the unshakable knowledge – that all things of this world are momentary and passing and that any clinging to them is bound eventually to be a source of pain.
Man seeks worldly objects of pleasure and tries to avoid things that bring pain, without realizing that he cannot have the one and eschew the other. As long as there is attachment to worldly objects of pleasure, he must perpetually invite upon himself the ‘suffering’ of not having them- and the ‘suffering’ of losing them after having got them.
LASTING DETACHMENT, which brings freedom from all desires and attachments, is called purna vairagya, or complete dispassion.
Complete detachment is one of the essential conditions of lasting and true happiness. For the person who has complete detachment no longer creates for himself the ‘suffering’ that is due to the unending thralldom produced by desires.
“Desirelessness” makes an individual firm like a rock. He is neither moved by pleasure nor by sorrow; he is not upset by the onslaughts of opposites.
One who is affected by agreeable things is bound to be affected by disagreeable things. If a person is encouraged in his endeavors by an omen considered auspicious, he is bound to be discouraged by one considered to be inauspicious. He cannot resist the discouraging effect of an inauspicious omen as long as he derives strength from an auspicious one. The only way not to be upset by omens is to be INDIFFERENT to auspicious as well as inauspicious omens.
The same is true of the opposites of ‘praise’ and ‘blame.’ If a person is pleased by receiving ‘praise,’ he is bound to be miserable when he receives ‘blame.’ He cannot keep himself steady under a shower of ‘blame’ as long as he is inwardly delighted by receiving ‘praise.’ The only way not to be upset by ‘blame’ is to be detached from ‘praise’ also. Only then can a person remain unmoved by the opposites of “praise” and “blame”. Then he does not loose equanimity.
The steadiness and equanimity that remain unaffected by any opposites is possible only through ‘complete detachment,’ which is an essential condition of lasting and true happiness.
The individual who has “complete detachment” is not at the mercy of the ‘opposites of experience’; and being free from the thralldom of all desires, he no longer creates his own suffering.
Humanity is subject to much suffering – physical and mental. Of these two, ‘mental suffering is the more acute.
Those with limited vision think that ‘suffering’ can only be physical. Their idea of ‘suffering’ is of some kind of illness or torture of the body. Mental suffering is worse than physical suffering.
‘Physical suffering’ sometimes comes as a blessing because it serves the purpose of easing ‘mental suffering’ by weaning away one’s attention from the ‘mental suffering.’
It is not right to make much of purely physical suffering. it can be borne through the exercise of willpower and endurance. The true suffering that counts is ‘mental.’
Even yogis who can endure great physical suffering find it difficult to keep free from ‘mental suffering’, which is rooted in the frustration of desires.
If a person does not want anything, he is not unhappy under any adverse circumstances, not even in the jaws of a lion.
The state of “complete desirelessness” is latent in everyone. And when through ‘complete detachment’ one reaches the state of wanting nothing, one taps the unfailing inner source of eternal and unfading happiness – which is not based upon the objects of the world but is sustained by Self-knowledge and Self-realization.
– Meher Baba
Source ::
Discourses, Pg:: 388-393
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India/Bharat
