The Three Root Desires :2.

We are told that there are realms of being above this world, of which we are totally unaware. They do exist, and perhaps they exist more significantly than this physical world; yet, they do not exist for us. In our daily considerations, we do not regard them as being there at all. Let them be there or let them not be there. Let the forces of nature be operating or not; we are not concerned with earth, water, fire. We are concerned with people, relations, and a little bit of our daily occupation.


The world's existence, as far as any person is concerned, is to the extent of its involvement in one's consciousness. This is why it is called a self. You will be wondering how the world is called a self, how an object is a self. Its selfhood arises on account of your self, which is consciousness, being involved in it.


If you are not involved consciously through your mind and through your affections, that particular thing does not exist for you. Therefore, the world cannot be handled very easily because it is another way of handling your own self, in a larger social extension of it. You cannot say you will renounce the world. There are people who say that they have no commitments; but you have every commitment because you are living in the world. If you are not living in the world, you have no commitments.


Now, what do you mean by saying that you are in the world or not in the world? The very consciousness of there being something outside you creates fear. The Upanishad says, dvitiyad vaibhayam bhavati: Wherever there is another beside you, there is fear. Even if there are only two people living in the whole world, there can be quarrel and war.

Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  ...