Desires, life, death & beyond

A MAN is a three-fold entity: mind, body and spirit. While body is matter, mind is a bundle of desires and the spirit is unit consciousness — the witnessing entity. We all know that matter’s shape or form can be changed but it can’t be destroyed. On the same analogy, we can safely assume that unit consciousness, which has emerged from universal consciousness, also cannot be destroyed. The saying that mind and spirit outlive the body’s death is thus based on logic.

It is a natural instinct in all human beings to desire to live forever. Even in old age sans physical strength and mental capability, this desire is still there and becomes the cause of rebirth. The law of desire teaches us that as long as the mind is filled with desires, there can be no escape from the chain of births and deaths.

In order to get out of this vicious circle, a man should either be able to fulfil all his desires or he should voluntarily give them up. While the former is out of the realm of possibility, the latter is much easier said than done.

What then is the way out from such an impasse? It is to foster a desire for liberation (moksha) — the ultimate goal of life. We also learn from the law of desire that all desires (not wishes) have to meet with their fulfilment unless given up. The supreme desire to attain liberation, being no exception, will also be fulfilled in due course of time depending upon the intensity of the desire and the degree of efforts made. In the process of its fulfilment, it will devour all lower (worldly) desires as a matter of course just as the bigger fish eats up all smaller fishes.

If we carefully look around, we would find many examples of extreme human suffering in everyday life — for instance, some young girl is widowed in the prime of her youth; some child is born blind or deaf and dumb or is orphaned at the tender age; some youth loses his both legs and, or hands in a road accident; and so on. Considering all these sufferings as inherent in human birth, some people consciously strive to attain liberation.

When the unit consciousness (spirit) of man getting itself freed from worldly desires, merges with its source — the universal consciousness — it is eternally at peace with itself and happy; a separate part meets with the whole and itself becomes the whole.

Death, in fact, comes as a reward to a dutiful man who has led a righteous life as a promotion to a higher rung in the ladder of progressive human evolution. And in the case of a man whose life has been a failure, death brings to him another chance to better his life in different environment and continue his journey from human form to divinity after the completion of his journey from animalness to humanness.

A.K. SURI
Chandigarh

Next millennium

A millennium is a thousand years. If the present Gregorian calendar is taken to have started on January 1, 0000,then the first millennium ended on December, 31, 1000. Right?

The second millennium, therefore, started on 1-1-1001 and will end on 31-12-2000, and not on 31-12-1999. Right again?

Then how is everybody holding that the third millennium will commence on 1-1-2000? Clearly it will start on 1-1-2001.

N. KHOSLA
Panchkula