Re: Escape from Reality?
Namaste Yajvan.
Originally Posted by
yajvan
That is, this 'escape' is not from reality that is sattA, Being, wholeness, joyfulness, but the from a 'reality' of duality, of multiplicity, fragmentation - being pulled left and right by the senses, which is tiring - it is this they want a break from. They wish to regain svasthatA, well being.
Yes, it is ironical that people seek to 'escape from the reality' (thinking that the apparent reality of the duality of life is the Reality), whereas they should actually seek to 'escape into the Reality'!
Let us try to ponder the difficulty to associate oneself with the 'real' Reality from the POV of a layperson in his/her daily life.
• When I look at my hand, I know it is 'mine'--it is not 'me' or 'I'. However, when I look at my face in the mirror, I see it as 'me' or 'I'--not as 'mine'. It is strange that while I can see all the other outer parts of my body (even my back to some extent) I can't see my face without the aid of a mirror! So I conclude that my face is 'me' or 'I' for the simple reason that it is not known to me except as a mirror image (in a mirror or photograph). In other worlds, I believe the reflection to be the reality in this case.
• As with my waking life, I have no direct visual perception of my face in my dreams, yet my face is the only reality I associate with 'me' in my dreamlife experiences. But then there is neither me nor my face in deep sleep; enlightened people tell me that this faceless reality is the Reality--the 'Real I or Me', which is the same for all beings of life. I scarcely believe that third state to be more real than the other two states of my existence, for the simple reason that I have no face in that state, and so I don't remember how I was in that state.
• Thus in any case I need a face to face the reality. Every being in this universe has a face; even my God has a face! Face is said to be the index of the mind but for me it is the index of the Reality. Face is what readily distinguishes one being from another within the same gender of the species.
• Why is the face so important--even ubiquitous? When I think it over from my current level of exposure to spirituality (I am a layperson remember), I find that four out of the five jnanendriyas (organs of perception) are housed in it. That leads me to a weird thinking: if the human beings are just self-sustaining faces with no bodies, with only speech and facial expressions to communicate, there will be no strife in this world at all! Universal peace and happiness will prevail because nobody--or rather no face--needs anything more than the other to sustain itself!
• I also find that speech, which is perhaps the most vital of the five karmendriays (organs of action) and mind, which is the force behind and the field of action all the indriyas is housed in my face (which is synonymous with head). Apart from my physical self, even my emotions, feelings and thoughts are mostly associated with a face or have their own faces. Do disembodied souls and ghosts have a face? Sri Yuktesvar, guruji of Yogananda tells me that they do: a person retains his/her appearance even in the afterlife.
• Why are the humans provided with a body, the trunk then? This thought brings up the answer that the body is for the sole purpose of procreation--the means to multiplicity. Even as the body indulges in the selfless act of procreation (which is the desire to give and share), it is the body that gives me the feeling of 'my' and 'mine' (which is the desire to take and possess).
Although I am thus faced with the overwhelming reality of the face, I have a vague but distinct feeling that this reality cannot be the Reality because its face is ever changing! For something to be real, the wise people tell me, it needs to remain unchanged in time and space; they also tell me that it needs to remain unchanged in the all the states of human existence.
I guess then, that I need to escape the reality of the face into the reality of the faceless, unchanging, absolute. For this I would need to learn to efface the faces in my thoughts, feelings and action, including my own face, and get used to the realization the face is nothing more than--a facade!
रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
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