Uplifting oneself: Swami Sukhabodhananda's wisdom to embrace reality over imagination
A group of expectant fathers was waiting in the hospital. The nurse came out and asked, “Who is Kuppuswamy? Congratulations, you have a daughter.” Ramaswamy stood up and screamed at the top of his voice and said, “I have been waiting three hours before him.”
We live in an illusion that we are just one. Who we are is one thing and what we suppose ourselves to be is another thing. The person we suppose ourselves to be needs to be observed. We observe the world outside, but we have to observe the world within. Our thoughts and feelings have to be clearly observed.
When we observe ourselves, we find that our imagination takes control of our life and then we superimpose our imagination on reality. It is this superimposition one has to observe. Life is interesting with imagination. We are free to imagine but let us not treat imagination as reality. Unless an imagination becomes a reality, it is still imagination. Discarding imagination does not make us miserable.
What makes us miserable is expecting imagination to be a reality. What is more interesting is that the reality is full of wonder and marvel but we are not able to see it.
For instance, look at your eyes, they can see millions of things, so too your ears can hear millions of sounds. Your nose can smell millions of things. You are not able to see this marvel but instead say to yourself, ‘Only if I see this form, I will be happy. Only if I hear these words, will I be happy. Only if I taste these things, will I be happy.’
We are limiting ourselves with our own expectations. Without expectations, life is infinite. Why limit ourselves to limitations? We have not tasted the world of reality and feel the world of imagination is more fulfilling.
One may feel that life without expectations is empty in the area of relationships. But expectations should not be like a begging bowl. Husband and wife have to be sensitive to see whether they are seeing objective reality or their own subjective reality. Many of our misunderstandings emerge from our imagination. We imagine how a husband should be or how a wife should be. When they don’t fit into our concept, we are hurt. We are not hurt with “what is” but with “what should be”.
We have the freedom to imagine but we should also have the wisdom to realise that the world is not obliged to fit into our imaginative concepts. We form maps of people and suffer. This understanding will make our perceptions more accurate. This will enhance the quality of our relationships.
Now, don’t think that this is difficult to practice in one’s daily life. Difficulty or ease depends on the individual. For some, killing flies is difficult, but for a terrorist, killing a small child is very easy. Learn to enjoy difficult situations too. With understanding, one realises that whatever the cost of living, life is worth it.
A Sufi mystic was asked, “What has been the most eventful experience in your life?” He answered, “When I was a child and uttered lies, my mother, with tears in her eyes, hugged me and told me that I was the most precious gift from God. But I would rather see you dead than hear your utter lies."
Please join Swami Sukhabodhananda ji for the Bhagavad Gita Utsav, a 13-day online festival starting April 12. Email: support@prasannatrust.com. Swami Sukhabodhananda is an international management, spiritual & corporate guru.