Birth.....a misery ?

Good day

We were on the first step to achieve the ultimate happiness, i.e, To identify the causes of our suffering, the main problems.
Then we talked about the four miseries that affect everyone, viz: Birth, Death, Old Age & Disease.

Let us now understand how these are the main problems of our lives, which need to be eradicated.

1. Birth.
Most people would probably fall off their chair after reading this.
You must be thinking, "How can someone call the miracle of birth, a happy arrival, beginning of a new journey a problem. How rude and how stone hearted ?"

Its not me who says its a problem. Its Krishna. What to do? He's our creator he must be knowing and must be saying the right thing.
Let us understand how this seemingly happy note is a problem. A birth in a family may be a joyous situation for the family members. But let us see it from the point of view of the person who's born.

Imagine a person is locked inside a dark room for some time. and when the door opens he comes out crying. What would be the rational conclusion ? It would be logical and rational to think that the person must have undergone some serious trouble/ beating/agony.

Now see a baby who is just born. It cries and screams like anything. After 9 months staying in the dark womb of a mother. The womb, 1a mucous filled place, 2close to the organs storing body's waste product. The embryo is attached just below the stomach, which gets 3heated up due to digestion of food.
Moreover the embryo is attached in an 4inverted position. The consciousness develops in the initial weeks after conception. Undergoing so much agony, the baby faints again and again. The situation is so miserable that it can't do anything about it, but just pray for getting out of that hell hole.

Someone may rightly say, so what if we underwent so much pain, we don't remember anything.
Its like if I break that person's nose right now, 10 yrs down the lane he wont remmber the pain either. That doesnt mean that undergoing the pain is OK, if we forget it later.
Similarly the birth of a person is the most painful event in one's eternal journey.

I for one would never like to undergo such 3rd degree hellish torture.The question is Would You ?


To be contd......

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.

What are we doing here ?

Hi!

What are we doing here?
This summer internship. MBA....slogging through the tiring office routine in a strange land. why are we doing this. Why are we compromising with a seemingly undesirable situations in which we have to separate from our families, tolerate our boss' egos (my boss is extremely good in that sense).

We are all doing this in order to achieve Happiness in a not so distant future. All life we hanker for this happiness and never in our life we reach a point where we say "Now its enough. Now I wont suffer anymore in want for more happiness.". We never reach the state of this ultimate happiness. I hope everyone agrees to this.

Now if we logically reflect on the cause of this unsatisfactory feeling, we can come to the conclusion that: we dont know how to achieve happiness ?

To achieve happiness, the logical steps would be:

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.

Instead of sequentially following the first four steps, we end up mixing them and we never reach the final stage.

Think about it, and let me know if you agree or disagree with me.