Pursuit of Pleasure is Invocation of Pain : 7.

Thus, the repeated cycle of birth and death continues endlessly, unbroken, and we cannot know where it begins and where it ends. This cycle is called the samsara chakra, the wheel of birth and death. All this trouble has arisen on account of the original mistake committed – namely, the assertion of individuality as a principle, independent by itself, whose erroneous presence compels it to come in contact with other individuals, objects, etc. Unfortunately for it, it has the temptation of enjoying pleasure in contact. If that had not been there, perhaps it would have caught the lesson immediately at the very first contact itself, but the memory of a previous pleasure becomes a cause for working further to repeat the contact for the purpose of the experience it once had.


The sutra, refers to the immediate consequence of self-assertion. What is this immediate consequence? It is the conviction that arises in oneself that there is a purpose in self-affirmation. What can be the purpose, other than the enjoyment of pleasure? But, in this effort at coming in contact with things for the purpose of satisfying one’s wishes, there is a hidden aspect, which is the reason why we always keep ourselves in a state of anxiety. It is not all pleasure that we see in this world. There is the other side also, which is pain, and that pain is the result of the working of another aspect of experience, which goes simultaneously with, or hand in hand with, the desire for contact with objects. The objects are finite; therefore, a desire for an object is a finite movement of the mind exclusively in the direction of certain given things, by which it sets aside other factors of life which it does not regard as conducive or helpful in its present activity. Thus, it has always a feeling of anxiety that these factors that have been set aside may not intrude.

To be continued  ...