Men as we are, we are mostly creatures of circumstance, confined to the sensations of the outer world. Our mental activities depend upon such external sensations, even our reason is unable to go beyond the material; and the joys and sorrows of life are but echoes of outward events. this slavery is due to the domination of the body. In the Upanishad, it has been said, The Self-born has set the doors of the body outwards, therefore the soul of a man gazes outward and not at the self within; hardly a wise man here and there, desiring immortality, turns his gaze inward and sees the Self within him. Normally, the outward, physical eyes with which we observe the life of man, in that kind of seeing the body is our chief support. However much we may call the Europeans materialists, in fact all men are materialists. The body is a chariot with many horses to pull it, the body-chariot on which we ride across the ways of the world. But, admitting the false importance of the body we give such a prominence to the physical mind that we find ourselves wholly entangled in outward activity and superficial good and evil. The result of such ignorance is lifelong slavery and subordination. Joys and sorrows, good and evil, affluence and danger, compel us to mould our mental states in their own terms, and we too float float along the waves of desire to which we give our thoughts. Greedy of enjoyment and afraid of sorrow, we come to depend on others and, receiving our joys and sorrows from others, we suffer endless misery and humiliation. Because, be it man or nature, whoever or whatever is able to exercise control over our body, or can bring it within the field of its own forces, we have to submit to that influence. - Sri Aurobindo Ghose, Prison and Freedom, 1974 The Beautiful Earth Larry King Narendra Modi Arvind Kejriwal Kiran Bedi Ajay Maken Bill Gates Richard Branson
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 09:27:20 +0000