The Background of Thought :1.

Most of us are in such a helpless condition, as it were, that we have to take into account everything that takes place outside without having any say in the matter. 


This is the life of slavery. 


A slave is one who has no personal say in anything. 


Whatever he is ordered to do, he has to do, and his life depends not on himself but on something else. 


Whatever changes may take place in that ‘something else’ will also be the corresponding change that takes place in one’s own self. 


This is not a life of freedom, and therefore, it cannot be a life of happiness and peace.


We are unhappy for one reason or the other. 


Though the cause of the unhappiness may vary from one person to another, the consequence is the same. 


People may die for various reasons, but the result is that all die. 


The consequence is uniform: no one is happy, whatever be the cause behind it and whatever be the ultimate reference we make as to the originating factor of it. 


We cannot be slavish in our conduct of life and at the same time expect to be happy. 


A slave cannot be happy because slavery is selling oneself out to something other than what one is. 


We have sold ourselves, as it were, entirely into the hands of factors which we regard as more real than what we are endowed with in our own selves. 


This is a life of dependence, not a life of independence.

Continues

Swami Krishnananda

Born on- 25/4/1922.

Mahasamadhi-

23/11/2001.