To an individual caught in worldly life, the experience of joy and sorrow is unavoidable, say the scriptures. But they also show the way to be free from this experience and to learn to live in peace with oneself and the world, pointed out Sri Krishnamurthy Sastrigal in a lecture. For instance, the oft-quoted analogy of the snake and the rope is used to explain the mental and emotional experience arising from false perception followed by recognition of the actual state of things. Was there a snake at all? If at all it was there, where did it go? How did it disappear? It seemed so real at one point of time. Such questionings remain in one’s consciousness to remind the jivatma of the nature of human life and experience in relation to that of the self that is immortal and imperishable. The Katopanishad states that there in no bondage and hence no release to one who realises that the self is already free. Such a realised soul does not find the body and the attendant constraints as binding. He is known as a Jivanmukta and he awaits the end of his life tenure accepting whatever experiences that come his way in the interim period. He lives very much in this world but in his attitude remains distant from it. In contrast, the general tendency is to give in to the stress of day-to-day living and the consequent emotional upheavals.
A child gets involved in a game of carom and desires to win at all costs, or enjoys the thrill of the brilliance of sparklers. But the experience of the grandparent who plays with him or holds the sparklers along with him is different since he is only too well aware of the ephemeral thrill of these experiences.
