Why is man still attached to the world when he knows well that he must reach
God?
“
I believe I have earlier already touched upon aspects of the answer to this
question; nevertheless, I shall repeat all that once more since this is an
important question. In fact, this is a standard problem. Let me start with the
second part of the question for that contains the clue. The questioner says in
that part, “When he knows well that he must reach God?” I wonder. I mean if one
were to do a poll and ask, say, “Do you know the purpose of life?” how many of
them do you think would say the purpose of life is to go back to God?
Or, suppose one asked, “Do you know that you are supposed to become one with
God eventually?” I am sure 99.9999 % of the people polled would simply be
unaware of it! And that is exactly where the problem really starts. So really
speaking, we should first ask, “What is the purpose of life?” or “Why has God
given this life?” and so on; and after having asked that question, seek to
answer it seriously.
Actually, Baba has dealt with this question several times. In His discourses,
Baba has often asked, “Has life been given by God to humans just for eating,
drinking, sleeping and dying [khana, peena, sonaa aur marna]?
God expects something more from the life gifted to man? What is that
something?” That is what Baba has explained in detail in not only His
discourses but also in many of His Vahinis, particularly the Gita Vahini. I
cannot obviously deal with all that in detail here but would confine myself to
the core issue, which is the pursuit of happiness.
The famous Declaration of Rights prepared by the founding fathers of America
talks of fundamental entitlements of all human beings, which includes life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yes, much of life is conditioned by man’s
quest for happiness. Like most valuable things available in the market today,
we have in the “happiness bazaar”, if I may say so, only fake happiness.
Humans are ignorant about the true purpose and pursuit of happiness
What do I mean by fake happiness? Suppose a person buys a gold ring thinking it
to be made of gold, because the salesperson said so. Actually, the ring is made
of brass and simply plated with gold. So, after a while, the gold covering
comes off and all that remains is the brass ring! Clearly, the buyer has been
taken for a ride. In the happiness market too, there is the genuine stuff and
umpteen fakes.
The fake stuff is the temporary happiness that is available in plenty in the
transient world, while the genuine stuff as I call it is ‘bliss’, is available
only when one unites with God. By giving the human form to us, God in His
infinite mercy is giving all of us a chance to become one with Him and enjoy
permanent bliss.
But man does not understand that, and, misled by the mind [which is very good
at selling fakes], he gets duped and goes around looking for permanent
happiness in an impermanent world. Man thinks he can get God in this world on
his terms, and that is the fundamental mistake he is making. And that mistake
is being made because man insists on being spiritually ignorant.
What is this ignorance am I talking about? It is the belief that what seems
real, namely the world, is actually real; no, it is not. It is God who is the
basis of this world, who is Real, though He might not be seen. In short, man is
attached to the world on account of ignorance and delusion. He may want to
reach God, but if he adopts the wrong methods, how can he?
I now come to the last question in tomorrow's session, which is:
Continued....
QUESTION 3:
How can we understand the principle of “I AM I
