Be aware of not just the destination but also the starting point

Life comes to us short point blank when a bullet is shot point blank is almost certainty that the bullet is going to hit the target and along with that there is very little time for us to react a lot will depend on our reflexes and especially it will depend on how much we have trained our reflexes without training without alertness if a bullet is shot at us it will fell us in movies especially bollywood movies where the hero is often shown to best 5, 10, 15, 20 people the hero is shown as having extraordinary alertness almost to the point of prescience that means that say the hero is fighting with one person who is ahead of the hero and then suddenly somebody attacks that person that hero from behind then just before that person from behind is attacking the hero turns around and counters the attacks or dodges the attack or counter attacks. So, prescience means knowing something before it happens and although what is depicted in movies is unrealistic it is fiction but it too has its own parameters by which it reflects reality to some extent. A novelist said that the difference between life, real life and fiction is that fiction has to make sense.
In real life sometimes things happen so randomly and we say some facts are stranger than fiction. If something very strange has happened it has happened and we simply have to accept it but sometimes in fiction if something very unrealistic is done then it becomes difficult to accept it. So, at such times people just close the novel and throw away the book and start doing something else maybe read some other book.
Real life is not a novel that we can close when we don’t like the story or when the story doesn’t make sense. At all times we need to keep reading the story. We need to keep this keep not just reading the but often we need to keep participating in the story knowing that this is what my life is no matter how believable or unbelievable it seems to be.
So, similarly when things happen in our life we need to have the capacity to see them with without tainted spectacles. Rose tainted spectacles often refer to seeing things with undue optimism. There is the word Pollyanna.
Pollyanna refers to a person who is not at their who is just so unrealistically optimistic as to be dangerous for themselves and dangerous for others. Now, we don’t want to be Pollyannish definitely not. At the same time we don’t want to be ultra cynical to the point of being super pessimistic to the point of being so negative that we can’t get anything right because as soon as we come to situation we start seeing wrong things, wrong things for ourselves and wrong things for others.
Now, for us as spiritual seekers it’s vital that we move onwards in our life based on an understanding of where we are and where we want to go. So, the journey which we wish to take if we for example use Google Maps. Now, we want some guidance and we have to give a starting point and a destination.
Now, sometimes Google might itself be able to detect a starting point if the starting point coincides with where we are. But then once the starting point is properly given we just have to enter the destination. If the starting point is then thereafter Google will tell take this path and it will take this much time for you to reach this destination.
But say if we are considering a future journey and for that the starting point is different from our current location then we have to enter the starting point and we have to know the starting point for that. Now, if somehow say Google detected our starting point wrong then then all other estimates would all about which path to take, how long it will take to reach the destination, all those predictions would turn out to be wrong because the starting point itself was taken wrongly, was assumed wrongly. The location services are on and are functional.
Usually Google may not make a mistake like that of assuming a wrong starting point but our mind often makes that mistake. We imagine ourselves either to be far better than what we are or far worse than what we are and either way that imagination works against us. It works counterproductively to keep us from getting a reasonably accurate estimate of where we should be going, of what we should be, of what all we need to take into account when making a decision of where we should be going and what we should be doing to get there.
So, just as the starting point in a journey is important similarly self-awareness is important. In the Bhagavad Gita 14 chapter 11 verse Krishna says that the door of the senses actually all the gates are illumined and they are illumined because there is the opportunity, the capacity, the maturity, the clarity that comes when one is situated in the mode of goodness that one can see what to do, what not to do, what to take inside our senses, what to not take inside our senses. So, for us as spiritual seekers such clarity is vital when we wish to embark on any endeavor for self-improvement.
Sometimes we may hear a very inspiring class and on hearing that class we may decide that oh this is what I am going to do, this is how I am going to mold my life, this is how I am going to achieve things in my life and it is good to be inspired. But often inspiration has to be seen along with our situation. Just like say somebody hears about you know what a comfortable, luxurious, free place America is and they desire to go to America.
Now the desire is fine but along with that how practical is it going to America for them? There are many steps involved which they have to go through not just getting the visa but also arranging the money, planning itinerary, taking whatever is required for the journey. There are so many logistics which have to be taken care of. Similarly, when we are trying to do a particular activity at that time say when we are inspired by hearing from someone about what needs to be done or how something should be done, about who is likely to do, about how wonderful a particular destination is.
We have to also consider where we are so that we can get there. If we do not consider that is somebody that we hear a class about say how important fasting is but then we do not ourselves take due care to consider maybe we have had some health issues, maybe we have some physical limitations, maybe we have a particular bodily constitution that makes fasting nearly impossible. In either or any of these situations we need to move on from where we are.
So, the mind messes, sometimes when we hear something inspiring from someone the mind sometimes messes up our current location data. I think that is where I want to go and that is where I will go. Now, it is not that based on our current location we should let ourselves always be imprisoned by that current location and never try anything to improve ourselves.
No, that is not the point. The point is that while trying to improve ourselves we need to know that the endeavor for self-improvement has to be balanced, has to be complemented with the endeavor for it has to be the endeavor for increased self-awareness of how will I go, where exactly am I and what all does it take to get there. If we hear that we should wake up early in the mornings that is very good, but if somehow our job, if our family situation requires that we cannot sleep early, we sleep only, we are able to sleep only late at night, then if we sleep late and wake early we are tormenting the body and although we may bend the body to our will for some time, in the long run the body will revolt against the torment and when the body revolts against torment it is not a pretty sight.
It often impels us to do multiple times the things which we would otherwise have modest, moderately regulated. So, it is helpful to make sure that on any journey we get an inspiring understanding of the destination which inspires us to go to the destination. At the same time we also have a sobering awareness of our present location, the sobering awareness need not be disheartening because we do want to change and Krishna himself wants us to change.
So, it’s up to us to take the steps with his grace by acknowledging our present situation and by taking tangible steps to change from that present situation towards a better situation. Thank you.