To live means, to have a balance in every action and even thought. There is a also a constant balance required between activity and rest, between physical and mental activity and so on. There are various sayings which highlight that excess of any kind leads to ‘suffering' or, in other words, is termed as ‘bad'. The fact is nature does not allow us to move away from this balance. The ancients experiencing this, realized that this applies not only to man but every object created.
The Law of Nature is such that only Man assumes and thinks he can overcome it and, therefore, is seemingly forced to face this reality. Every object in Nature grows, stabilizes and then withers away, only the period required for this to happen may be from a few seconds to millions of years.
Man in his ignorance wants to believe that not only should he be permanent but also he must experience only such circumstances which he rates as pleasant or those which give him Joy or Happiness.
Physically, one keeps growing till an age and there is a seeming period of stability followed by a decline till death assails one. This reality is known to all of us and even science confirms this. However, we seem to want to not accept this and instead fight against this not by living a balanced life but by resorting to all possible medicines, vitamins and running behind or after those whom we believe can deliver us freedom from this cycle.
In normal life, what does balance entail? We hear today of work and life balance. We assume this means spending time with family and trying to relax or setting aside time for physical activity and holidays. But unfortunately, these merely scratch the surface as the real truth behind the word ‘Balance' lies in Mental Equanimity.
What does Equanimity mean? Mental disequilibrium arises from one's mental state (which has been explained in earlier articles) and with what one identifies. No doubt, life will throw up experiences of so called opposites (pleasant vs unpleasant, happiness vs unhappiness etc.). Equanimity is the ability to accept these experiences for what they are and not allow oneself to react either negatively or positively. As we have seen earlier due to Karma or Genes, the reactions and labels will arise but the only way to have a balanced life is to stay rooted in that state of calm acceptance even while being involved actively in not only experiencing but even creating more experiences through our actions. This reality that one's own actions actually result in what one terms as unpleasant outcomes lead us to think that either ‘no action' or somehow finding the way of choosing the right action can lead to an outcome which will cause us to feel happy. Unfortunately, as was explained earlier, the Laws of Nature will force one to not only act but also the perfect result could be an outcome one deems ‘most unpleasant'.
It is no doubt true that ‘Desire' causes us to act and in the surface it is essential that we try to reduce our desires to something which we can achieve through reasonable effort which does not strain our body or mind excessively. But this standard of what is reasonable seems to vary from person to person. Therefore, ‘Balance' in the lower level of knowledge or life may be a control of our sensory impulses and desires. But unless we quickly move on to a higher understanding, this control or suppressing of the desires will not last long. Typically, all sacrifices or ‘Thyaga' (Giving up of our pursuit of desires) were undertaken to strengthen our mind and then lead it upward. However, by itself these sacrifices if glorified will only lead to the mind affirming its superiority over the Desire Impulse and ultimately lead to a necessary loss of balance to correct that tendency.
In my limited experience, I have seen in Nature's (God's) desire for man to evolve, She creates repeatedly circumstances which expose us to situations we deem unpleasant until and unless we move upward to a state where the reaction to those set of circumstances become trouble free. A mundane example would be an allergic reaction – somebody if consuming coffee or cucumber would have a tendency to throw up. For a few times one would not correlate as to why this occurs, suddenly when one attains the knowledge that the consumption of these caused the problem there would be great relief and one would give up eating that till the body improves enough to again attempt. When the reaction does not recur there would be a surge of happiness because one has overcome a weakness. Apply this to every nervous or emotional reaction. The understanding that we need not identify with the reaction (even though it arises) is itself a huge release. Then due to repeated practice of non-identification, the reaction stops; it becomes a complete release. This knowledge is the first key step towards Equanimity.
However, even for those who understand the meaning of non-identification, the practice is no doubt most difficult. So how does one attain Equanimity? There has to be a complete faith in a power either above or within us (this would depend on each person's proclivity and even the atheist needs to have faith in Nature as the deliverer). This faith needs to lead to a deeper and complete surrender of oneself to the object of one's faith. Surrender would mean that every outcome is seen as the blessing of the Giver. Also, every effort is made at the behest and for the benefit of the provider.
Complete surrender is complete acceptance of what is and not an inactive state of accepting what will be. What does this mean:- in complete surrender, every effort will be made with whatever avenues available to one to apply logic and the best effort to ensure the best possible outcome is tried for. However, the outcome as much as the effort, is surrendered to the Master (or Nature for the non-believer) and therefore, the need for reactions at the emotional level is not felt at all. Even while relating to another every effort would be made to fulfil the expectations of the relationship but this would be through the medium of Nature and therefore all outcomes would be surrendered at her Altar.
This three-fold step of first the Knowledge that one should not identify with the Mind but instead with the Self or a reaction / thought-free state, second complete faith, in that One inside you or Nature that He or she would lead only on the right path and we need to only happily hold His / Her hand and walk on without fear, regret or doubt at any point of time and the third and most importantly a complete surrender to Him / Her and the experiences He / She wills us to undergo is the only way to lead a life of Equanimity. The Knowledge or understanding in itself gives a release into a relatively happier state, the faith improves and conditions that state to be more permanent and the complete surrender leaves one in the arms of That for Whom, by Whom and on Whom we exist. Then we can say that truly we are in the path towards Happiness, which experience we are able to glimpse and which may not be permanent (because the past habits still persist) but enough to draw one unerringly to the ultimate experience of overcoming, or accepting all outcomes as His/Her Blessings.
Feedback and questions may be e-mailed to: joyofbeingrd@gmail.com
(The writer is the Joint Managing Director of TVS & Sons Ltd., and MD, TVS Logistics)
