Manah Sodhanam -Verse 14



From a dreaded Monday-after-a-long-weekend beginning, the day progressed into a successful one. The small success at work brought so much happiness, whereas, while I was struggling with the closing of this issue for the past 2 weeks, I was filled with dread, worry, fear, apprehension and frustration. I just wanted to get done with the issue.


So while I was grinning like an idiot in the auto, while returning back to office from client's place, a sudden thought struck me. While the positive outcome, after so much hard work, made me feel elated, I am sure I would have felt very depressed if the outcome was negative. Absolute no brainer right? But then, life is full of such continuous oscillations between happiness and sadness -which again arises due to external factors, some of which are not even under our control. And I keep seeking happiness through the pursuit of various activities that I enjoy. And if we all are already beings of bliss, then so many of our activities loses meaning, because they are done in the pursuit of an already existing happiness right?


The whole point of doing this Manah Sodhanam is to have a balanced outlook towards life. While it is pleasant to get carried away in the feeling of joy, negative emotions often make me react stupidly. But, on a closer examination, it is always the expectation of a certain outcome that makes me either happy or sad. I do something, and I have a certain end result in mind. If I get the desired end result, I am happy, else, I am not. So, if I remove the "expectation", from the equation, then I can automatically remove the emotions associated with it. Nothing great about this...because this is what Lord Krishna tells us in Bhagvat Gita -Do your duty but without any expectations. I was always wondering how this is possible,   but now that I have deduced this, I kind of understand what it means.


Moving on to verse 14, Swami Tejomayananda comes to a conclusion that ignorance alone is the cause of all sorrow. Because, we are affected by the impurities of the mind only when the mind is in the waking state (verse 12), and even in the waking state, the impurities of the mind does not affect the wise (Verse 13). So, Swami says through inquiry, I must understand the nature of the mind and its mode of operation.


TASMADAJNANAMEVATRA  SARVADA  DUHKAKARANAM
TATSVARUPAM  HI  JNATAVYAM  VICARENADHUNA  MAYA

And what this is true because, when I pause to observe the reason behind my emotions, I really get to learn a lot more about why I feel what I feel. I only wish that slowly I can get rid of the fears and insecurities that plague me.


PS: All images in the blog are from google search. This image source: http://apocalypse-how.com/tag/expectation-is-limitation/

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