Monday Morning Greetings 2017 #49 – Life’s Greatest Tragedy
Dhanurdhara Swami December 4th, 2017
The greatest tragedy is to have the wrong goal, for then all of one’s work in life will be for naught, even if one reaches one’s desired destination.
Take the rich and famous, for example. How sad to have reached their goal only to find that happiness still eludes them-as happiness is never something temporary or superficial like fame or money. This kind of happiness is superficial because such pleasure doesn’t touch the real you. We are consciousness that reaches fruition in service or devotion and therefore material attainments are useless unless they help to change one’s consciousness in that direction.
But misguided faith is not just the problem for the materialist. Are we not all, even the spiritual aspirant, to some degree or another in the illusion that “I will be happy in the future when the world finally conforms to my desires”? What a sad plight to set our aspiration on being the enjoyer of a world that we cannot control! The question then naturally arises: is there any alternative to such frustration and tragedy, an eternal and blissful goal that is attainable?
Theists say yes. That everlasting and joyful goal is our eternal loving relationship with the Divine, an experience so sublime and impressionable that just a drop of its awakening at the beginning of our spiritual life becomes śraddhā, unflinching trust in something truly sublime. It is only for one who has śraddhā that life is not a tragedy or a labor for nothing. If you don’t have it then pray for it. If you do have it then treasure and nourish it, especially by the company and service of those who call out the holy names of God with love. Put ephemeral things in perspective. You may need them to be peaceful, but they are not the goal within themselves. Do not make anything in life but krishna-prema, a heart filled with devotion, your aim in life. Don’t live a life of tragedy!
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Mark 8.36
- Monday Morning Greetings
- Comments(0)