Old Age....who cares? lot of time left.

Continuing with our subject. We have already covered the two problems of life: Birth & Death.
Some people gave their feedback that it was a very negative outlook by completely denying any positive result. But we are forgetting that our basic premise to reach the final stage of ULTIMATE HAPPINESS is complete eradication of problems.
If one foolishly feels that sadness is necessary to realise the importance of happiness, then I am sorry to say one is seriously illusioned. Cessation of pain should not be percieved as bliss, but as a relief. And similarly birth or death. Though they force us to look at the small happy events of life, nontheless they are problems and should be treated likewise.

Jugglery of words and making problems sound like " Gold becomes pure only after undergoing a lot of heating" and "one learns from mistakes and problems" is cheating oneself of pure bliss. In that case achieving happiness is easy. Cut yourself with a knife -- Pain. Bandage yourself and realise the importance of not being cut -- Happiness.(sine wave) But this process is not an intelligent proposition.

Now I will describe the next problem briefly.

3) Old Age

Do I need to explain anything. We've all seen the ill treatment meted out to the senior citizens by both nature and their family members.
Again we'll see this from 2 views.

i. Physical Agony
Arthiritis, Indigestion, Cataract, Deafness, Rheumatoid, Heart Problems, Inflexibility, Breathlessness. All these and many more. A person becomes limited in one's mobility. Slowly and gradually keeps on becoming dependent on others. In short, the body starts preparing for ultimate destruction by slowly decaying into useless dead matter. The pain in joints is unbearable. Try asking someone in your immediate acquaintance. Please dont mind, the words might seem harsh.

ii. Mental Agony
Loss of beauty: the skin wrinkles, the hair starts greying, the once flexible waist starts becoming a rigid girdle. And the body sags at just the right
places. All ego of being once beautiful thrashed.

Loss of independence: We generally pride ourselves in being independent. So happy that we are staying out of our homes and yet doing quite good. Then we gradually even get ready to take charge of a complete family. But then finally what happens, if we are so fortunate to reach this stage of life ? We become utterly dependent. For food, company, mobility. Sometimes the situation so worsens that one is reduced to an invalid. Being bed-ridden one becomes dependent on immediate family members for even basic needs like nature's call.

Loss of companion: Then comes the ultimate test. The world is already a changed place. One no longer identifies with the current world, being born in a previous era. All the recognizable faces are lost. Parents gone. Uncles & Aunts gone. Some contemporary people like siblings and friends gone. The final blow comes with the passing of the spouse. That special person who we searched for and promised to spend life till death do us part. And the death takes it toll and really do us part. Become completely lonely, with no one to sit with us and hear our endless ideas and thoughts.
Just remember the last time you sat with your grandpa or granny for 2 hours and shared their stories.



My goodness, so much pain, so much agony, who would like to face a problem like that? For one I wouldn't. The question is Would You ?

Identifying the causes of suffering

Hey!

Good Morning, How are you doing? Hope you have a great day ahead.

Continuing with the last post. We were logically looking at the process of achieving happiness.

The steps were
1. Identify the reasons for our distress/misery.
2. Eradicate them fully.
3. Identify the things which make us happy.
4. Achieve them.
5. Experience ever lasting, never ending bliss.


Elaborating step 1.

Identify the reasons for our distress/misery.

In our fast lifes, distress / suffering has become a part and parcel of our daily experience. in some form or other we are hurt. Do we agree?

I do. One day I wont get a bus to office on time, the other day if i get I wont get a seat. The next day even though both situations are favourable, my boss would still arrive earlier than me. All the reasons give stress, and if the intensity is raised it gets converted to distress.

Rightly so. Such is the nature of this world.

Now if Edison the inventor of a light bulb tells of an inherent defect in his creation. We will all agree to it very easily.
If Ford announces that life of its engine is only 10 years we won't question it and assume that it would be more. In essence, the creator or the designer knows about his creation and when he says so, we all accept it faithfully.

Our supreme benefactor, Krishna - the master, the creator of this universe has declared in his address to Arjuna:

That this world is dukhalayam ashashvatam. That means its an abode of misery and temporary.

So in this abode of misery (which the creator himself is saying) can we expect to achieve happiness. now dont confuse this realistic view with that of a pessimistic one. Today we have grown very much cynical and render every realistic bad news as pessimism.
Identifying a problem as a problem is not pessimism, but the first step to solving that problem.

Let us understand what these problems are ? They are also described by him, yes the creator.
The main problems of the life are forur in number. No matter what every living being, how ever may rich/healthy/beautiful that person be. The person is bound to be afflicted by these miseries.

1. Birth
2. Death
3. Old Age
4. Disease

krishna says " janma mrityu jara vyadhi, dukh doshanu darshanam": means an intelligent person is one who sees these four viz: janma (birth), mrityu (death), jara (old age) and vyadhi (disease) as the main problems of life.

Yes I agree, not everyone is fortunate enough to experience an old age. Many people leave their mortal lives much before that.

To be contd........


regards,
Your friend Shalav.