On Accepting Impermanence as a Truth of life

“I do not wish to die in this lovely world

I want to live in the midst of men

If I may have a place in the sunshine

In flowering gardens and in living hearts”.

(Tagore’s poem; Morite chahina ami, translated by Dr. A. C. Bose)

This sentiment is the echo of all mortal beings of this impermanent world. Nobody wants to die. This world which we perceive through our senses looks so real, so beautiful, that we grow a deep attachment to it, never wanting it to end.

But we get shaken when we see glimpses of the underlying reality of life which is quite different from what we imagine it to be. The reality that we are forced to confront when our loved ones have to leave the stage of life and disappear behind a curtain that we can’t look beyond - which is called “death”. Death is certain, life is uncertain. And seems to be that certainty is one that we have a constant struggle against.

Life’s challenges become more intense when the fear of death is added to it.  Feelings of insecurity force us to hold back as much as we can for ourselves in the quest for greater security and we find it harder to ‘let go’ of anything.  And this mind, distracted with fear loses the sense of the underlying truth of impermanence. And in the attempt to make life more attractive we go on accumulating things more than our necessity and capacity. In that process of accumulation, we may deprive others from their due share; we tend to become intolerant, selfish, and more self centered. In such a state, a life focused on itself can never blossom with peace and happiness since that self-centered gaze is the psychological blockage that also blocks true happiness.

As light can dispel darkness, so only the true knowledge can help us to come out from the fear and ignorance.  According to Vedanta, Brahman is one, the ultimate reality, (Ekam eva advitiyam), which manifests it self in the universe through living and non-living things, which are called para prakriti (consciousness) and apara prakriti (matter) in Sanskrit. Gross body and matter are sustained by subtle divine consciousness. Gross body is perishable, but divine consciousness, is immortal, imperishable. We are all children of God - “Amritasya putrah”. Our inner nature is immortal bliss. And the goal of human life is to have the realization of our true divine nature. According to The Veda, God is everywhere - he has filled up the storehouse of this earth for our enjoyment.

It is beautifully expressed in these few lines;

The blissful winds are sweet to us,

The seas are showering bliss on us

May the corn in our fields bring bliss to us.

May the plants and herbs bring bliss to us

May the cattle give us bliss,

O father in Heaven, be Thou blissful unto us!

Swami Vivekananda

There is one subtle warning pronounced in one famous shloka of The Vedas, where it says “Tena takhtena bhunjita, Ma gridham”. It means enjoy everything with a spirit of giving, do not be greedy. That balance of enjoyment without attachment is the essence of balancing the gross body existence and the nature of our subtle body, which is composed of energy - prana.

These truths which were found, realized, and articulated by our ancient sages, may help us to come out of the clutches of fear and anxiety that taint much of what could be a different experience of life; we may live life with a spirit of joyful freedom of our divine nature through our energy body, which no amount of worldly pain or suffering felt in the gross body can diminish.

We cannot change life’s pattern, which is derived from light and darkness, good and evil, life and death, by our creator. The only approach available to us is to change our attitude, which is constantly at hand. By changing our inner attitude to this outside world, we may bring tremendous benefit to our own joyful experience of life as well as to others. In the acceptance of impermanence and in taking life’s each challenge without fear, to go forward and to evolve towards our true divine nature, is the first step – and perhaps the only one we can take. Life is a great school where our soul learns to make itself free from the many forms of bondage this life can tie us up in. We must realize we all come from the same source and go back there only. Each life manifests itself like a wave that forms in the ocean, which stays for a moment and then returns to the ocean. The ocean is the Brahman; the wave is but one of its many transient manifestations.

Today’s society is divided into fragments on the basis of caste, creed , religion, etc, that is generating jealousy, enmity, and intolerance amongst us. We are short sighted and this is its result. As is beautifully said in Gita “The universe is strung in me like pearls in a string (B.G Chapter 7/verse 7). Realisation of this “truth of oneness” may help us to develop the feeling of universal brotherhood, and we may see this world as a one big family. Today the evil of fanaticism is tearing apart our society into pieces. By realizing, practicing and applying this truth in life, we may help ourselves come out of the clutches of the great evil called fanaticism. Only then life can blossom with peace, love, and harmony.

Another point on which we may introspect deeply, is the difference between love and attachment. We tend to confuse these two as one, which is actually not so. The language of love is to give, the language of attachment is to desire. Attachment always pushes us to have more and more by fueling our unending desires. Attachment makes us an eternal beggar, whereas love makes us a generous giver. Attachment is the seed of today’s consumerism, which is the breeding ground of greed and intolerance. “Toleration is the homage that the finite mind pays to the inexhaustibility of the infinite” (Eastern Religion and Western Thoughts by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan).

Now everything depends on our choice, of how we want to live. There is no point in blaming others, or trying to change that which is unchangeable. Whatever we can do we should do now, whatever we can say, we must say it now. If we can give a smile, we should not wait. This is the only way to avoid regrets in life. I conclude with a quote from Vivekananda, “If in this hell of a world one can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true; this I have learnt after suffering all my life; all else is mere moonshine”.

---------