Consider you’re suffering from a specific kind of skin allergy which causes rashes or pimples to appear on different parts of your body in a way that approximately ten pimples remain present on different parts of your body at any time.
Kindly note that even problems inside you require energy to express them and this energy is provided by your body/brain/mind. As your body/brain/mind has a limited amount of energy, a problem can also grow to a limited extent over a limited period of time, though such limits may be different in different circumstances.
If you try to treat one of these pimples with the help of an external medicine like an ointment; as you may find this pimple the most troublesome one, you may succeed in this effort in a day or two. However, as this problem has not been caused on account of external factors and the root cause of this pimple as well as all other pimples on your body lies in the allergy living inside you; external remedy may provide temporary relief only.
This is because if this allergy is strong enough to cause ten pimples on your skin at this time and you kill one of them through external methods, another pimple may appear somewhere else on your body; so that the number is ten again. Technically speaking, this allergy is drawing certain amount of energy from your body and considering the amount of energy required by one pimple to express itself on your skin; the energy being used by this allergy is sufficient to make ten such pimples appear on your body at a time. When it comes to the spots on your body where such pimples may appear, the ten most vulnerable spots are selected automatically by this allergy, at any point in time.
Consider you are confined within a big enclosure covered with walls all around, it is spread in hundreds of acres and along the walls, there are thousands of doors placed at small distances. As you feel the urge to get out of this enclosure, the most logical way out is to break one of these doors and get out. Consider most of these doors offer the amount of resistance which is greater than your strength. Hence you may not be able to break these doors and consider this fact is known to you.
However, there are some doors randomly placed; which are weaker and you may be able to break them, if you try. This fact is also known to you and the only fact which is not known to you is which ones among these thousands of doors are the ones which are weaker. As the urge to break free reaches its peak, there may be only one logical way out. You may start hitting the doors one by one with strength; so that you may randomly come across one such door which is weak and you may break it.
This is what happens within your body when the particles of a disease carry energy and they desire to break out of your skin. They keep trying for such openings which may offer resistance which is weaker in comparison to the energy carried by these particles. As they find such doors; they get out and pimples appear on your skin.
Moving ahead, when you kill one such particle or a group of such particles by applying external medicine on the skin, but you don’t do anything to treat the source of this energy which is the allergy in this case, this is what may happen. As this particle is killed, it stops asking for energy and as a result, the source of allergy has extra energy available with it. This extra energy is given to another particle which is not doing anything on account of lack of energy, that particle starts finding a weak door in your skin and the moment it finds one; another pimple appears somewhere else on your skin.
It is like when you break a door and try to get out of the enclosure, an armed man pushes you inside and warns you that he’ll shoot you if you try this door again. When you go inside, you’re again left with the same choice which is to try and break another weak door and hope there’s no armed man on the other side of that door. If there is an armed man behind the next door also and he does the same thing, you may again start finding another weak door with no armed man behind it. This process may go on until you find one such door and you get out; or you get unconscious or you die because of lack of energy as you don’t have anything to eat or drink; assuming that quitting is not an option.
The same thing is happening in case of this allergy. Hence the correct approach is not to kill a pimple in question from outside, the correct approach is to kill the source of energy that feeds this pimple from within you. As this source disappears; the energy being supplied by it to the particles vanishes and as this energy goes away; the pimple in question and all other pimples caused on account of this energy have to go away.
Therefore, the destruction or misfortunes of your neighbor are not the correct solutions to this problem of jealousy because these things will try to treat this problem from outside only; instead of treating it from inside where the root lies. Hence even if your neighbor is completely destroyed; only a pimple has been killed from outside and the allergy is still the same strong within you.
The name of this allergy is jealousy and the root cause of this allergy is your self-pride. Therefore, the problem of jealousy is not going to go anywhere until you learn to kill the root cause of this problem; which is your self-pride. This is because the moment you turn your focus away from this neighbor who has lost his car and house through misfortunes; a part of the energy allotted to jealousy by your self-pride becomes free. As you can understand now; this energy starts finding another outlet and sooner than you know, you may develop the same feelings of jealousy for another neighbor, friend or a relative.
This process may go on; the objects of your jealousy may keep changing but the problem of jealousy may not go away or even lower. This is because this problem lies inside you and accordingly; it needs to be treated from inside. Consider you start working on this problem; you try as hard as it takes and after a number of years of dedicated effort; you’re able to lower your self-pride to the extent where it may not allot much energy to jealousy. When that happens, your problem goes away. Now the same neighbor may live happily with his house as well as car and he may even buy many more of them; but you won’t care. The root cause of this problem has been killed and hence this problem can’t trouble you now.
However, when it comes to kill self-pride or even when it comes to lower it significantly; it’s a lot easier saying it than doing it in reality. To kill self-pride completely; is undoubtedly the most difficult job you may ever try to accomplish and this is the reason it is the last job which needs to be accomplished; on your mission to liberation. As soon as you’re able to kill your self-pride or in simple words; as soon as your self-pride is completely replaced by moral-sense; liberation happens at that exact moment and not even a moment after that.
This is on account of the reason that liberation means complete freedom and in the deepest sense; each and every kind of restriction or condition is imposed by your self-pride. Accordingly; as your self-pride leaves you; all the restrictions which come with it; go with it too; leaving you liberated. You can’t imagine even a single condition which is not imposed by your self-pride, in the deepest sense. We’ll discuss this topic in details, later on. However, let’s still look at an example.
One of the noblest conditions that you may apply to you is that you should die for your country when it is in require. This may be among the noblest kinds of conditions but it may still be generated by your self-pride instead of being generated by your moral-sense; and here is how you can check it. If the feeling to sacrifice yourself in times of require comes in case of your country only; it is generated by self-pride. On the other hand, if this feeling comes even when another country needs natives to fight for it for valid reasons; and you go to that country in order to fight from its side with no personal benefits attached; this feeling is coming from moral-sense and not from self-pride.
Have you ever wondered why do a number of natives feel proud when it comes to die for their countries whereas they may find even the idea of dying for another country strange? The answer is not pleasing but this is always the case with the truth. If you can gladly die for your country but you can’t even think of doing the same for another country even if their require for you is the most genuine one; this noble act of yours is inspired by self-pride and not by moral-sense.
This is because you’ve defined a condition that you’ll die for one country and you won’t die for another country even when they may require you the same. When you go to the bottom of it; you may find out that you’re doing so in case of your country because it is your country; which means you’re attached to it. As you can remember; it was mentioned in an earlier part of this book that attachment is the ornament of self-pride and not that of moral-sense. As you’re attached to your country; it is an act of self-pride if that attachment is inspiring you to die for it.
Looking at the unconscious reasons behind this attachment or behind the wish to die for your country; your forefathers have invested a lot in this country and you have also made some investments in this country. The future generations of your family are supposed to benefit through these investments, just like you’re benefitting from the investments made by your ancestors. This is the reason you feel like dying for your country if required. However, all of it may happen at the level of your unconscious part of brain/mind and hence you may not be consciously aware of these reasons. Hence all you may think is that you love your country and this is the reason you feel like dying for it.
For example, you may have a house, bank balance, circle of friends, society and a number of other things which depend on the wellbeing of your country in the deepest sense. It means if the enemy succeeds in capturing the area of your country where you live; you may have to move to another city, state or even to another country according to the intensity of the circumstance. When you do that, all of the things mentioned here may go away completely or partly. For example, your house may go away completely, your circle of friends or even your community may get dispersed and you may have to do all or most of these things from the beginning.
These fears as well as many other such fears related to your survival and wellbeing; as well as those related to the survival or wellbeing of your loved ones; are the causes of your desire to die for your country, if this decision is taken by self-pride. Hence in the deepest sense; you’re not willing to die for your country but you’re willing to die for your family, house and other such things or natives you care for. However when it comes to die for another country; none of these things is in question; which means you don’t suffer any loss at all; whatever happens to this country or to the natives living in it. This means that deep down, it’s all about your profit or loss and hence it’s all about self-pride since doing things for profit or loss is the domain of self-pride.
Then there may be a second kind of natives who may not have such fears or greed inside them and all they may feel on unconscious level is that they’re indebted to their country for what it has given them so far and hence they’ll happily choose to die whenever their country needs them. It means the desire of these natives to die for their country is not because of what they may lose in future if their country loses one such war; it is because of what they’ve already been blessed with by their country so far. Hence it is all about paying the debt of their country and it’s not about future benefits which may stop coming to them; if they choose not to engage in war.
The first act is that of greed based in future whereas the second act is that of paying the debt based in the past. Accordingly; both of them are the acts of self-pride and none of them is a pure act of moral-sense since none of them is happening on account of the require of the present, which is what happens in cases when acts are conducted through moral-sense. However, the percentage self-pride in the personality of the first kind of person is higher in comparison to that in case of the second kind of person. This is because the first kind of person is willing to engage in war, primarily because of profits or losses based in the future; which means on account of greed.
On the other hand, the second kind of person is willing to engage in war; primarily because he wants to pay the debt of his motherland; which means on account of gratitude. Hence the second kind of person has a better personality kind, which means he has less self-pride and more moral-sense; compared to the first kind of person. It is easy to understand that an act of gratitude is better than an act of greed. However, what may be difficult to understand is that even an act of gratitude has some percentage of self-pride attached to it, though such percentage may not be high. Let’s now look at the third kind of person in the same circumstance, so that this equation may become easy to understand.
This is the person who’s willing to die for his country; neither because of greed and nor because of gratitude. He is willing to do so because he feels that fighting for his country is the right thing to do at this time and there’s nothing more to it. Kindly note that the sense of duty in case of the first kind of person is coming from greed based in future; the sense of duty in case of the second kind of person is coming from gratitude based in the past and the sense of duty in case of the third kind of person is coming from the require to do the right thing; and this require is based in the present.
If you’re willing to die for your country because you may lose a number of things otherwise, it’s an act of trade where you’re trying to cut your losses. It means if you don’t lose anything at all, in case the result of this war is not positive for your country; the feeling of dying for your country may not rise from within you. This is because this feeling is being controlled by future circumstances which may change anytime. Since this feeling is not based on inner feelings of the purest kind; it is corrupted and it is coming from your self-pride, as corruption is another name for self-pride.
Coming to the case of the second person; the feeling is being controlled by circumstances of the past; since he has this feeling because of events based in the past; where these events helped him gain advantages through his country. Hence this feeling is an act of payback, which means it is trade; because an act of payback means trade and nothing else. In the deepest sense; if these favours were not there to start with; this sense of duty wouldn’t have been there.
That is the reason this person can die for his country but not for any other country; because the other country in question has not done him any favours in the past. Therefore, this act is also controlled by self-pride though this person has a better reason than the person of the first kind, since gratitude is inspiring him and not greed.
The third person however feels the require to die for his country because this is the right thing to do at this moment. It means injustice is being done to his country as an enemy may be invading it without a valid reason. Hence he considers it to be his duty to fight from the side of justice; so that justice may prevail in the long run. This is the person who can die for his country any time when the circumstance so demands in a fair way; even if he’s has no gains or losses in the future and he doesn’t have any gratitude to return.
That is the reason this person may be willing to die for another country also; if the require of such country is genuine. It means that the wish to fight is rising because of the require to do the right thing at any moment; and this require is not inspired by anything else. It means this decision is based in the present only; and it is not based in the past or future. As soon as any decision gets related to past or future; corruption may be added to it; since past and future are illusions and only the present is reality.
That is the reason when lord Krishna is reminded in the battle of Mahabharata that he promised not to use any weapon during this war whereas he’s trying to use a weapon at the moment in question as he’s about to use his best weapon Sudarshna; his answer is beautiful. He says making such promise was the right thing to do at that moment and breaking the promise is the right thing to do at this moment. Hence when he made that promise; it was based on that moment since that moment was the present moment then. Similarly, when he’s trying to do something which breaks this promise; such thing is also based on the present moment.
It means he doesn’t relate his decisions to the events in the past and he keeps them unaffected from the past as well as from the future; so that such decisions may remain uncorrupted. The moment a decision of yours is attached to something that happened in the past or it is attached to something that may happen in the future, this decision gets corrupted in the deepest sense. This is because the present moment alone is real and the past as well as future at any time is illusion. Let’s take an example to understand it in a better manner.
Consider you see two natives fighting on the street and this fight is more like one person beating the other one. Consider there is no self-pride on your part and you feel the purest require to help the suffering person. Hence you go to the scene, you try to understand the circumstance and you find out that the weaker person is representing the truth whereas the bigger person is wrong. You promise the weaker person that you’ll help him and you even start doing so. With your help; this fight changes in a way that in a matter of minutes; the weaker person is not only saved from further beating; he may even start beating the bigger person; since the collective strength represented by you two is more than that of the other person in this equation.
It may happen for a few minutes or so and you may even let him beat the bigger person as you may feel that he’s been treated unfairly by the bigger person and hence he has the right to payback. However, if it keeps happening; you may soon start feeling restless and you may ask the weaker person to stop beating the bigger person. If he doesn’t stop, you may even warn him that you’ll stop helping him and this is when he may stop. Consider this entire act took 10 minutes from the moment you promised; to the moment you warned the weaker person to stop beating the bigger person.
It means that if we consider this equation at the moment you warn him; this is what is happening. Just 10 minutes earlier, you promised to help him and you’re backing out from this promise now. Does it mean you’re guilty of breaking your promise and does that make you a bad person? No, you’re neither guilty of breaking a promise nor you’re a bad person. You made this promise 10 minutes ago because doing so was the right thing to do according to the demand of the circumstance at that time. You’re breaking this promise at this moment because doing so is the right thing to do according to the demand of the circumstance at this moment.
In the deepest sense; your only intention at both these moments is for justice to prevail in sense. Since the weaker person required help in order for justice to prevail 10 minutes ago; you helped him. Similarly, the weaker person needs to be stopped in order for justice to prevail at this moment; you warn him that you’ll stop helping him. Though in literal sense; you’re indeed breaking your promise of helping him; you’re not doing so in the real sense or so to say, in spiritual sense; which is the deepest sense among all the senses.
When you said you’d help him; it meant in reality that you’d help justice to prevail. When you said you’d stop helping him; it again meant you’d help justice to prevail. Hence your promise was not broken in the deepest sense and you kept it very well. The reason you were able to do so effectively was because your moral-sense helped you make the decisions by looking at the things happening at the moments, in both the cases. It means when you warned him to stop offering help; you didn’t get attached to the promise of help made by you 10 minutes ago. Since attachment based in past or future is the act of self-pride; you were able to stay away from it; as there was no self-pride involved in this act.
You may think after reading the example of wishing to die for your country; that this way; even the best of the things done by us are inspired by self-pride in part, in most cases. Though it may hurt; it is the ultimate truth and there is nothing wrong with it. As soon as a person get rids of his self-pride completely; he’s liberated which means he’s never born again under compulsion. It means that the mere fact that we’re born in this world means that we have self-prides and no other proof is required. Hence you don’t require to worry about the fact that you have self-pride as all of us have it. The only thing you require to do is to assess its strength and then start engaging in practices which lower it.
This is the reason natives witness that a true saint is willing to help anyone or suffer for anyone; as long as doing so is for positive reasons. Since he operates on the basis of present moment only; facts like whether he may profit from this person or not in future; and whether this person has done something for him or not in the past; don’t affect him at all. Kindly note that you also help natives when they require your help and not otherwise. For example, as long as your boss doesn’t desire to have a cup of coffee; there’s no point in feeling the require to make coffee for him.
The saint also offers help when there’s genuine require for it and the only difference is that you’re focused on the result of this act of help whereas he’s focused on the act of help itself. Since the result is to appear in the future or it has already appeared in the past; you’re not living in the moment and hence this act is an act of illusion in spiritual sense. If you’re willing to make this cup of coffee for your boss because you fear he’ll get angry if you don’t do so and hence you may suffer loss in future; this act is controlled by your self-pride. Similarly; if you’re willing to make this cup of coffee for your boss because he’s a good person and he’s given you a number of favours in the past; this is an act of payback based in the past; and hence it too is controlled by your self-pride.
However, if you’re offering him this cup of coffee as you feel that he needs it and you can make it for him while he’s doing something else which may be principal for him; this is an act of moral-sense since it is rising from the require of the moment and it is not rising from past or future. It is in this case only; that you’re focused on the act of making this coffee and not on the results of this act. If such is the case; you can now make coffee for each and every one who needs it since you don’t attach any greed, fears or gratitude to this act. This is what makes you a saint since you’re focused on the karma of making coffee and not on the result of this karma.
This brings us back to the two most principal factors; the desire element and the require to focus on karma. As soon as you start focusing on the karmas instead of their results in the deepest sense; all your problems go away. When it comes to get attached to results; it is only the desire element within you which ties you to the results and hence the desire element is in the root of everything. Since the saint has crossed this stage; which means he doesn’t have desires and he’s able to focus on the karma; he has the ability to decide on the basis of what is right or wrong in the present moment.
Going back to the example, when it comes to die for an unknown country, you have no attachments to this country and hence the decision to die for this country or even the wish to die for this country can come from moral-sense and moral-sense alone. Self-pride always works on the principal of profit and loss as well as on the principal of attachment; whereas moral-sense works on the principal of right or wrong as well as on the principal of universal wellbeing. Hence a person ruled by moral-sense may fight for his country as well as for any other country which needs him and such require is genuine. On the other hand, a person ruled by self-pride may die only for his country and he may not even think of dying for any other country.
Let’s look into a meaningful incident from the epic Mahabharata. The final war is all set to begin between the armies led by Yudhishthir and Duryodhana. Millions of men are ready to fight from each side and just when the formal announcement for this war is about to be made, Yudhishthir says something very principal. He conveys to the warriors in his army as well as to the warriors in Duryodhana’s army that this is not just any war and it is a war between right and wrong.
He says that the purpose of this war for him is to establish the right by fighting the wrong. He adds that that is the reason every warrior should fight this war, not on account of encouragement from his self-pride but he should ask his moral-sense to make this decision for him. Hence he proposes to all the warriors belonging to both the armies that they should take a moment to ask themselves this question; which side is fighting for the right. If the answer comes in favour of the army they’re already fighting for; it’s all right.
However, if any warrior’s moral-sense tells him that the army of the opposite side is representing the right in this war and it further tells him to join that army, such warrior is free to do so. Hence he proposes to each and every warrior in both the armies that if they feel like changing the side they’re going to fight for; he’ll welcome it. He concludes that this way; he allows every warrior from his side to join the other side if such warrior feels that the other side is representing the right and he’ll welcome every warrior from the opposite side; who thinks that the right is being represented by his side and such warrior wants to join it.
This is a good example to understand the difference between the working of moral-sense and self-pride. If Yudhishthir is a man ruled by self-pride, he may never be able to make this announcement as it comes with high risk. This is because victory is one of the most principal things for self-pride and the means through which such victory is achieved are secondary. It means that a person ruled by self-pride may try to win a competition, first by playing fairly but as soon as he realizes that he can’t win by playing fairly, he may start using unfair means so that his victory is ensured.
On the other hand, a person ruled by moral-sense doesn’t care whether he wins or loses and all he cares for is to play fairly and give it his best. This is one of the basic differences between self-pride and moral-sense where the former is focused on the result which is victory; and hence the karma which is playing in this case, may get out of focus. Accordingly, one such person may not be able to pay much focus to the quality or nature of his karma and all he cares for is the result. As long as you initiate most of your karmas after being attached to the results, it is a sign that the percentage of self-pride in your personality is high, though you may still have moral-sense.
A man ruled by moral-sense may however, do what needs to be done in a particular circumstance and he doesn’t get attached to the result. He’s all focused on the karma, which improves the quality as well as the nature of his karma. As already explained in an earlier part of this book; when most of your energy is focused on a point or objective; such objective is likely to be highlighted; which means you may do your best to achieve this objective.
It means when you’re focused on karma; you pay focus to the nature of your karma whereas if you’re focused on the result, you often forget to focus on the nature of your karma. When most of your energy is focused on the objective called result; you may not have sufficient energy left; which may help you decide whether the method adopted by you to achieve this objective is fair or foul; even if the objective itself is fair.
Going back to the example, the choice given by Yudhishthir to the warriors of both sides is a neutral choice as it may result in his profit or loss. Kindly note that if this war is won by his side, he will have one of the biggest empires of his time at his disposal. Hence the result of this war is not a small one and it is one of the biggest results anyone can choose to have or not. Accordingly, all his energy should ideally be focused on making sure that he wins and he gets this kingdom, if he’s ruled by self-pride. Add to this the fact that he as well as most wise men of that time were sure that his side was representing the truth, which means his side was right.
This gives him all the reasons to make sure that this war is won by his side because he’s fighting for the right or justice and his victory means that of right or justice. All these reasons are very but they may only serve as excuses for his self-pride; if he forgets the basic rule which says to focus on the act of engaging in war and not to focus on the results. Since Yudhishthir is a man ruled by moral-sense; this is what he does and that is the reason he does so.
Moral-sense puts utmost importance to freewill of each and every soul whereas self-pride tries to restrict it by imposing conditions on the others, in order to gain personal benefits. Being a man of moral-sense; Yudhishthir realizes that the fact that he feels or knows that he’s fighting for the right side doesn’t mean that each and every one should think so; at least the natives in his army at that point. As soon as he thinks that everyone should follow the truth that he follows; it becomes a condition and as you know; conditions for personal benefits are created by self-pride and not by moral-sense.
Hence he wants every warrior to find his own right or wrong; instead of being forced to act on the right or wrong decided by him or even by Duryodhana. Kindly note that the definition of right and wrong may be different for different natives facing the same circumstance and everyone should have the right to express this definition the way he finds fit and stick to such definition, in order to do what he wants in the same circumstance.
Consider a king has delivered a verdict to publically behead a person who’s found guilty of a murder; though he may be innocent but the king doesn’t know it. This means that the king has done his best to deliver justice and it was on account of the circumstances that he delivered injustice; like there were solid evidences or proofs against him though they were fabricated; and there’s nothing much to support his side. Hence he decides on merit that this person is guilty and he awards him the punishment that this crime calls for.
The public has gathered at the day of the punishment and the person who’s supposed to behead this person is ready with his weapon. Consider a person who knows for sure that the convict is not guilty of engaging in this crime, requests the punisher that he should not behead the convict as he knows for sure that he’s not guilty of this crime. He even prays to the king that the convict is innocent and he should be freed; but the circumstances are such that he’s not able to prove the truth. As a result, both the king and the punisher reject his prayer and the convict is beheaded.
There are three natives in this example; who are fighting for justice or right; and the definition of right is different for all of them. When it comes to the king, he’s done his best to deliver justice and this is what is right on his part. When it comes to the punisher, it is his duty to obey his king and this is what right means for him. Looking at the person who’s requesting to free the convict; it is right for him to make this request as he knows that the convict is innocent and accordingly; he should try his best to save him. You see, the right defined by the king is different from the right defined by the punisher and they’re both different from the right defined by the person who’s making this request.
It happens because of point of view; which means though a number of natives may face the same circumstance; they may be assessing the circumstance from different angles and hence their points of view may be different; thereby making the definition of right or wrong different for them. For example, if you’re standing face to face with your lover in an outdoor location and both of you are enjoying the beauty all around; as well as enjoying each other’s company; your truths or points of view may be different at different points in time. Consider this location has hills and a lake in it.
Your angle gives you a vision of your lover plus some hills in the background along with some other things and hence this is your truth at this moment. Your lover’s angle gives her a vision of you as well as the lake behind you and hence this is her truth at this moment. Your true interpretation of beautiful in this case at this moment means your lover plus the hills whereas her true definition of beautiful in this case at this moment means you plus the lake. You see, you’re both calling this scene beautiful but your interpretations are different, depending on your points of view. Unless you see this view from her angle which means from her point of view; you simply can’t understand her interpretation of beauty in this case.
This is the reason it may not be wise to judge the right or wrong of other natives and you should only judge your own right or wrong; because you’re standing at a point different than them. Hence your vision sees different things compared to their visions or it sees things differently compared to how they see them. Since the judgments are based on what each one of you is seeing; they may become different as the variables affecting your judgments are different. Hence you should try to not judge anyone and you should try to judge yourself only, if a judgment is necessary to start with.
This is because when subjected to the other person’s point of view; you may surprisingly find the same thing true which the other person found in that circumstance. For example, when facing hills in this example, you may say that the scene is beautiful because of hills and when facing lake, you may say the scene is beautiful because of the lake. None of these statements is false and they’re true from a specific point of view.
It is an interesting fact that if you’re a shopkeeper or a seller, the right thing for you is to sell your products for maximum profit whereas the right thing for the buyer is to buy your products as cheap as he can. When he tries to do so, his right becomes the opposite of your right because your purpose is to earn maximum profit and his purpose is to lower your profit to minimum. Hence you may have some grudges against this buyer as his truth is the opposite of your truth.
However, when you go to another shop to buy something for yourself, his truth becomes your truth and your truth becomes your enemy as it now becomes the seller’s truth. As long as you’re a seller, higher price for a product is what you like and as soon as you become a buyer, lowest possible price for a product becomes your desire. Accordingly, you try to lower the price as much as you can, when you go to another shop to buy a product. It means you’re doing the same thing that the person who purchased your product was doing in the same circumstance. Then why do you dislike him for reducing the price whereas you love yourself for doing the same?
Hence Yudhishthir knows that the truth he knows is his version of truth and a number of warriors may have different versions of truth; depending on their points of view. In fact, the truth of some of these warriors may be the opposite of his truth. Being a man ruled by moral-sense, he follows this rule in deepest sense that just as he has the right to stand by his truth; everyone else also has the same right; which is to find their own truth in this circumstance and stand by that truth. That is the reason he offers that if anyone wants to change sides, he’ll welcome them.
This is a high risk decision as even some of the best warriors of his side may choose to go to the opposite side; which may lower the chances of his victory and he may even have to face defeat. However, victory or defeat is the result of this war and getting attached to result instead of focusing on karma is the mark of self-pride. Hence he ignores the result, though it is one of the best kinds of results anyone can achieve; and he focuses on his karma; which is to fight this far in the best possible manner. As all his focus shifts to the act of war, he becomes able to realize that everyone has a right to choose which side he wants to represent in this war and accordingly; he makes this announcement.
Though the war needs to be won for justice; focusing on the result gets the self-pride involved and hence he chooses to focus on the act of war itself. As you fall in love with an act instead of falling in love with its result, it is natural for you to beautify that act as much as you can. This is what Yudhishthir is doing; beautifying the act of war, as much as he can. Only one warrior named Yuyutsu changes side, who is one of many brothers of Duryodhana; as his version of right is to fight from the side of Yudhishthir.
Moral-sense places great importance to freewill and hence a man with high moral-sense hates imposing his will on others whereas this is the thing, self-pride loves doing. As already mentioned in an earlier part; self-pride can feed on your body, brain and even on your heart. Many natives think that since feelings come from heart and heart is generally related to beautiful feelings; feelings may not be as destructive as brain. However, it may not be true in many cases and feelings can also do equal amount of damage, when they’re being fed on by self-pride.
When it comes to heart and feelings, love is one of the best feelings heart may generate. So let’s start with love. Consider you love a woman and your heart is filled with beautiful feelings for her. You desire to spend a lot of your free time in her company as you enjoy her company. It is fine till here but you may not know that as your feelings for this woman start gaining intensity, your self-pride may silently start feeding on them. It may start attaching itself to your lover through your feelings and it may even start controlling your feelings, which are related to this woman.
As time goes by and as you spend or invest more time in the company of your lover, the attachment of your self-pride to this woman as well as to the feelings related to this woman may become even bigger. You may remember this rule that more you invest time or effort in something or someone, more your self-pride gets attached. This is the stage where your problems may become significant though they have started long back, as your self-pride was in the early stages of getting attached to this woman.
When your self-pride significantly gets attached to her, consider your lover is going for a business meeting to a nearby town and she’s accompanied by a male colleague. If your self-pride is attached to her through your heart, you may feel uncomfortable about this whole incident. Your self-pride may start giving you a number of fears like, what if she develops liking for this colleague, what if the colleague tries to take undue advantage of her and many other such fears. Though your lover comes back on the same day, your self-pride has given birth to a number of doubts.
The reason these fears are rising is because of the presence of self-pride as it hates losing anything it gets attached to. At the same time, it is always fearful of losing things or natives it gets attached to. This is on account of the reason that self-pride never plays fair, even in the fields like love which are dominated by heart and which should be the fairest among all the fields. As self-pride doesn’t play fair, it knows that the other person may also not play fair because of his or her self-pride. It means when you tell your girlfriend that you love her truly; you don’t really mean it; though you may not know it consciously.
Your unconscious part of brain/mind already has this information that your self-pride has corrupted your love for this woman and hence it is not pure. Since this is happening on the level of unconscious part of brain/mind; you may not have conscious knowledge of this fact and you may believe that you purely love this woman, when you don’t. As you’re not telling the truth to your girlfriend when you say you love her; you simply can’t trust her deep down; when she tells you the same truth. It means when she tells you that she loves you; you know on unconscious level that her love for you may also be corrupted like your love.
This is on account of the reason that in the deepest sense; you simply can’t imagine a feeling or experience that you’ve never gone through; though you may think you can. For example, if you’ve never tried bungee jumping; you simply can’t imagine the feeling of thrill it can give you, in the deepest sense. Yes, you may compare this feeling to something else of the similar kind that you have done many times and through this comparison, you may try to get as close to this feeling as you can. However, you simply can’t have this exact feeling of bungee jumping until you actually have it; which means you try bungee jumping.
If you’ve never eaten a mango, you can’t feel or imagine its exact taste though you may try to get close through other fruits which taste like mango and you’ve eaten those fruits. Hence when a person who’s eaten lots of mangos tells you that mango tastes sweet, it’s pulpy and other attributes related to this fruit; you may start using the taste and texture of a number of fruits eaten by you so far; and you may try to build a mango in your imagination; which may have the sweetness of one fruit, the texture of another fruit and so on.
This is what your brain does and this is what you may do in this circumstance. Hence you may build an imaginary taste of mango through your brain and this taste may be different or much different from the real taste of mango. However, on account of the limitation of your brain; you can only get this close to the taste of mango and in order to know the exact taste of mango; you have to eat it at least once. Therefore, you can’t imagine the exact taste or feeling of something; unless you’ve gone through it or done it at least once. If you eat mangos a number of times; you may now be able to imagine the exact taste of mango.
It happens in case of all other things related to all other spheres. You simply can’t imagine anything in its proper sense; until you’ve gone through it or you’ve had it. That is the reason experience is considered much better than theoretical knowledge. Verbal knowledge can only help you imagine something and such imagination may be different or much different from the real thing.
Practical experience on the other hand, gives you the exact feeling of this thing as you’re living it instead of imagining it. Hence you can only imagine things through verbal knowledge whereas you know the exact truth of such things through experiences.
Himanshu Shangari