Finally, as we have seen many times, the real expectation or purpose of Life is that this Joy of Being will be experienced through every aspect of Life and not by shunning one’s general work or activity in Life. In fact every aspect of one’s active Life (whether labelled as positive or negative) can be used by one to move more rapidly to attain the ‘Joy of Being’, always. The more one evolves the more easy it seems and the more one uses the practical aspects of Life to move inward the more the negative aspects of Life lose their sting. At one point, then Life becomes perfect.
This series brought into focus even some of the tendencies which one tends to bury away by diverting the Mind to other channels. It also brought a very sharp attention to my own reactions to situations / persons and avoid being judgmental in one’s dealings with the circumstances of life. I can say that I am convinced that an active, ambition led practical life need not deter one from pursuing the Spirit or the ‘Joy of Being’! I also have experienced many of the reactions to circumstances and know that it is never the same at all times. In fact, I can say that since a reaction needs to arise, the Mind will use a circumstance, event or person to create a cause. Therefore, once one starts observing oneself in one’s interactions with the rest of the world it becomes easy to start distancing oneself from ‘Becoming’ and gives a chance to get nearer to ‘Being’. Finally, even a little taste of Being is so infectious that one cannot but go back to the same every time a chance arises or effort is made to create an opportunity.
I hope these articles have been useful in passing on an enthusiasm and desire to pursue True Happiness. I am grateful to the readers who raised questions as the same were incisive and actually led me to the flow of articles which I had originally planned being made even more relevant. Some of the readers had been asking a number of questions and my special thanks to them. Finally, I have received many mails thanking, encouraging and most importantly asking me to write/speak more on spirituality. I am well aware of my limitations of both knowledge and time but it was these messages which encouraged me to finish this series of articles. I wish to thank them as well.
For me it has been a great revelation that I could write a series of articles and based on feedback I am considering the possibility of bringing out these articles as a book. While wishing the readers all Happiness and Bliss, let me finish by quoting again from the Savitri (The last Canto – The Eternal Day: The Soul’s Choice and the Supreme Consummation). To digress when I was first introduced to Sri Aurobindo’s writings, I used to think that he was not following the principles expounded in the Upanishads but later it became clear how wrong that first reaction was! This is how relevant most of our reactions are!
“All earth shall be the Spirit’s manifest home,
Hidden no more by the body and the life,
Hidden no more by the mind’s ignorance;
An unerring Hand shall shape event and act.”
This happens when one arises from the Ignorance and the identification with the ‘Becoming’ stops. When this happens:
“This world shall be God’s visible garden-house
The earth shall be a field and camp of God;
Man shall forget consent to mortality,
And his embodied frail impermanence”.
The Truth will then be visible to the Ignorant Mind. This would be by
“The Spirit shall be Master of his world
Lurking no more in form’s obscurity
And Nature shall reverse her action’s rule,
The outward world disclose the Truth it veils:
All things shall manifest the covert God,
All shall reveal the Spirit’s light and might”.
This will result in
“The end of Death, the death of Ignorance”
To make this happen what is required
“And Man aspire to the Eternal’s light
And all his members feel the Spirit’s touch
And all his life obey an inner Force.”
How will that happen?
“Man too shall turn towards the Spirit’s call.
Awake to his hidden possibility,
Awake to all that slept within his heart
And all that Nature meant when earth was formed
And the Spirit made this ignorant world his home
He shall aspire to Truth and God and Bliss.”
The progress would be very fast –
“A heavenlier passion shall upheave men’s lives,
Their mind shall share in the ineffable gleam,
Their heart shall feel the ecstasy and the fire,
Earth’s bodies shall be conscious of a soul;
Mortality’s bond-slaves shall unloose their bonds’
Mere men into spiritual beings grow.”
Once this happens and the world becomes ready and mature –
“Thus shall the earth open to divinity
And common natures feel the wide uplift,
Illumine common acts with the Spirit’s ray
And meet the deity in common things.
Nature shall live to manifest secret God.
The spirit shall take up the human play
This earthly life become the life divine”
Life on Earth becomes the ‘Joy of Being’.
There will be complete Awareness of the Truth and there is nothing other than the Truth.
(The writer is the Joint Managing Director of TVS & Sons Ltd., and MD, TVS Logistics)
