Samsara or a life of constant changing experiences is compared to an ocean. To understand this clearly, we first need to know what is life. Life is living. The breath is what helps us survive. However, breath alone is not a factor to say we are alive, and if that is the case, then there would be no difference between a human being and an insect.
If breathing alone is not a yardstick for life, then what is? Life is breathing no doubt, but as we continue to exist, we pass through a series of experiences. Just as many tiny dots form a line or a circle, similarly life keeps changing every moment.
These experiences include the millions of contacts the body makes with the atmosphere around and within itself every second, the stream-like flow of inhaling and exhaling breath, the uncountable number of thoughts that flit through our perception, the millions of different emotional states of feeling we experience each day, the numerous decisions we take right from the moment we wake up till the bed time, and the experience of joy through the day in spurts—interspersed by sorrowful and delusory thoughts every now and then. Our contact with people, things and situations give us joy or sorrow and this experiential series is called life. It happens from moment to moment.
In this life, everything follows a great cosmic plan, of which, we are also a part. Yet, Adi Shankaracharya points out in the last verse of Moha Mudgara or Dwadasa Manjarika Stotram, attributed to his authorship, about the man who is constantly spending his time thinking about his dear one and the pleasure he can derive out of his companion. If the mind is not preoccupied with lusty thoughts, then it follows the course of acquiring more and more money. “Don’t you know that there is a person who takes care of these petty needs in our lives?” Is there no one to organise and channelise these resources in your life? The Acharya means that it is the supreme power that takes care of all our little needs in life, and so why waste time and energy thinking about ways to acquire pleasure and money?
Join the company of people who focus their energies in knowing the existence of reality. It is this gathering of people called the satsanga, who focus their thoughts on existence. When we find ourselves lucky to be in a satsanga, then in all the three states of being—waking, dream and deep sleep—we serve as a great luxury liner ship. This ship takes us across the disturbances we face while crossing the ocean of change and modification—Samsara.
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