Seeker what? Living Brains or of Dead Bones

   It is known that every creature on this planet is a seeker. We all seek happiness, that is all. But most often we end up looking for this in the wrong direction and in a perverted manner. As an engineer, I look for ways to improve people's comfort, making communication possible with loved ones, and perhaps helping an ailing person recover from illness. But recently, I started pondering, what is the root cause of all human suffering? He has the best of technology accessible to him, well connected with friends and the world through social media; and many other facilities to make him happy. Many of us are fortunate to be well educated as well. So what is it that we actually show-stopper for human happiness? 

The ancient scriptures, known as Vedas explain that any living being is conditioned because of three factors. The first is due to the body, the second is due to the people around him and the third is due to natural disasters.  The real problem lies in our identification. We often associate our self with this body or our relations with the body. This is said to be the root cause of our suffering by the Shastras. To illustrate it, we suppose that someone owns a car. If the owner thinks of the car as himself, then his happiness is bound to depend on or relative to whatever happens to that car. For instance, if the car happens to break down he thinks the world has come to an end. Similarly, if we identify with this body which is made of Kapha (phlegm), pitta (bile), and Vata (airs), then we make the same mistake of identifying our self with the car. Since a person's body is present only for one's lifetime, it is not intelligent to identify oneself with this "human machine". In fact, our shastras call the body to be a Yantra, which translates to a machine. This means that in a civilization that is driven by excess consumerism, we are seekers of a mirage in a desert or in other words ephemeral happiness. Our body cannot give eternal happiness, nor our research work can lead to that. So, we understand that even though our goal is correct, the direction we take to reach the goal is perverted. So the question arises, whether there is an alternate direction and if that exists, how do we seek it.  

The fundamental flaw is that we think that whatever the gross senses give is the truth. But unfortunately, that is not so. We understand that human vision is limited to 380 to 700 nm, in other words, we cannot see bodies that are outside this range. When there is a mission sent to another planet we cannot confirm whether there is life there or not, because even these manmade sensors have its limitation. All other senses have this same limitation. So it seems that we are having a hopeless situation in this body; first because of wrong identification and second which is due to our imperfect senses. This suggests we are a class of blind men taking help from other blind people. Although this is true, many of us even fail to realize this reality.  The question then comes to whether there is a foolproof method to understand the absolute reality or absolute truth, which according to authoritative sources is well beyond the concept of God. If I were to at some point of my life were to ask, "what is the reality", then I have to seek a authoritative person who knows the truth and accept that version. To our surprise, we are unknowingly following this procedure. For instance, take a currency note and check whether it is fake or not. It is only possible to check the genuineness of the note by using the guidelines issued by the authority of the Federal Banking institution or the Government. So, returning to the key quest of reality, we have to seek a master who has seen the truth and is also an authority of knowledge.

Fig: A depiction of the system of acquiring knowledge - from Ego to the Senses (The mind is symbolized to a monkey, because of its nature to always jump from one thought to another, and the senses are symbolized as a snake that is characterized as the source of all envy. The real flow of knowledge is from the inside out and the real happiness (or bliss) is the ability to use the senses to serve the "proper" ego )

In a recent reading of an interview between a spiritualist and a disciple, the two were discussing the theory of evolution. The disciple backs the Darwins version of evolution, which states that primates evolve to mammals through the process of natural selection and the struggle for existence. The spiritualist however sees it differently, and terms that evolution is that of the soul and not of the body. The bodies are already available in the seed form, and according to the desire of the soul these seeds are given by the localized feature of the Supersoul or the Paramatma, just like a father plants the seed of a child in the womb of the mother. The mother, or the Prakriti, gives it a condition to grow and fulfill the desire of the soul. A good example the speaker gives is that of an apartment. The apartment has accommodation for 1 BHK, 2 BHK, and  3 BHK (where BHK is for Bedroom, Hall, and Kitchen). According to the desire of the individual and the paying capacity, he can choose one of the three types of apartments. Similarly, the living entities at the time of leaving their present body are given a choice based on their final desires and the spiritual credits against the individual.  

As human beings, we are all seekers of both happiness and truth, and the success of human life is especially dependent on the direction that we take to pursue this happiness and the authority from which we receive the truth. The spiritualist ends with a noteworthy quote which is "They (referring to evolution scientists/researchers) are seeking happiness/truth in dead bones, while we (the spiritualists) are seeking truth in living brains". The choice belongs to us, and we must execute this God-given power of discretion to make the human form of life successful.