One way of looking at life is that man enters the world from one door and leaves it from another. Man enters the world when he is born, he grows up, get educated, obtains a job for his living, gets married, brings up children, gets old and leaves the world by another door at the end of his life span. Is this a correct way to describe human life. Those who believe in this way of living live mechanically from birth to death. The fact is that life is much more than a sheer mechanical living. Life provides plenty of adventure and opportunities to those who live every moment of it mindfully. So what exactly is life. We have a few options to describe human life as perceived by our men of wisdom.
All life is Yoga: Our great spiritual philosopher Sri Aurobindo says that all life is Yoga. Yoga is defined as the method of connecting individual soul to the Supreme soul or over soul. This concept is based on the Hindu ideology that human life should be utilized for God realization.
The soul inside a man is potentially divine and while living in the world we should direct our entire effort to unite the individual soul with the supreme soul to free ourselves from the cycle of birth and death. All life is yoga implies that whatever we do in life is done in a spirit of dedications towards God. It never means that we should discard the world and go into a forest to realize God. It only means that we live in world do our best to contribute towards world solidarity with the mind settled in God consciousness. This is in confirmity with what Gita says "Remember Me at all times and fight". Conduct yourself in the world while firmly established in God.
Life is a School: Sri Aurobindo further says that all life is a school where learning process never ends.In this process of learning earth is considered as a big class room. When we accept that life is a school, we accept that life teaches us if we keep our mind open. Rig veda says that let noble thoughts enter your mind from all sides. You can learn from any one, even from those who are younger to you in age. In Shrimad Bhagawat sage Dattatreya says that if we keep our eyes ears open we will find that everything that exists in nature around us, even birds and animals, have a lesson to teach us. Dattatreya talks about twenty four gurus from whom he has learnt. For example earth teaches fore bearance, tree is an excellent example of selfless service since it provides shade to all without any expectation of return. But why should we learn throughout our life. It is because Learning makes us gain both worldly and spiritual wisdom. Learning enables us to unlearn or weed out what is unwanted or undesirable in our mind. Learning makes us grow inwardly to find newer interest in life learning gives us freedom, learning makes us observe the reality and at the same time we become open to change our perceptions. Therefore be not a scholar but be a brilliant student. Develop sun like affection, river like generosity and earth like hospitality.
Life is a battle field: Dr. Radha Krishan says that life is a battle between spirit and matter, between knowledge and ignorance, between self control and temptation, between discrimination and sensual life. When we commence to fight this battle then our journey starts from humanness to divinity. Life is a battle because no one will give room for yourself, we have to create it for ourself. Human life is not programmed. We have a free will to be what we want to be. When we look inwardly we find that we are fighting the inner battle continuously. Fighting the outer battle of life means tackling our day to day problems relating to ourself, our family, our profession and our society. Since man lives in two worlds, outer and inner, simultaneously he as to fight both these battles firstly to evolve himself and secondly to become a useful member of the society while contributing towards its efficiency. Hardest battle you have to fight is the battle to be just you.
Life is a train Journey: Life could also be compared to a train journey where all are traveling towards our destination. We meet new people who enter our compartment and then there are those who leave our compartment at different stations never to meet again. This happens in worldly life where we meet some for the first time and loose some of our dear ones for ever. Our relationship in life is not permanent as people come and go from our life. Some time the train passes through green fields and some time later through barren ground, sometime through a tunnel. This compares with the pleasant and unpleasant situations which we meet in Life. There are some in the train who are traveling in higher Class while majority is traveling in lower Class. Those who are traveling in higher class are those who are spiritually evolved. There number is very small as compared to the worldly people who are in majority and are traveling in lower class in the train.
Life is a celebration: Sri Sri Ravishankar a spiritual teacher and humanitarian par excellence and founder of Art of living foundation call life a celebration Sri Sri Ravishankar himself is cheerfulness personified, He says that man has become too serious in life and forgets to smile. He ask human beings to smile and serve, to meditate and celebrate. Sri Sri Ravishanker says that sun rises and celebrate, rivers flow and celebrate, tree flowers and celebrate then why not man evolve himself and celebrates life. Spirituality is not seriousness but cheerfulness.
So what is human life all about and what should we do in life. The answer is simple. We should become a yogi, we should learn from every moment of life, we should fight the battle of life to undertake the journey from humanness to divinity. We should celebrate life as we celebrate any festival because life is a beautiful experience. While doing so we should listen to the advise of Lord Krishna. He gave to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita that or we should live life in spirit of Yajna or Sacrifice doing our best to look after the welfare of others. Do not cook food only for yourself because if you do that then you are a thief.
All life is Yoga: Our great spiritual philosopher Sri Aurobindo says that all life is Yoga. Yoga is defined as the method of connecting individual soul to the Supreme soul or over soul. This concept is based on the Hindu ideology that human life should be utilized for God realization.
The soul inside a man is potentially divine and while living in the world we should direct our entire effort to unite the individual soul with the supreme soul to free ourselves from the cycle of birth and death. All life is yoga implies that whatever we do in life is done in a spirit of dedications towards God. It never means that we should discard the world and go into a forest to realize God. It only means that we live in world do our best to contribute towards world solidarity with the mind settled in God consciousness. This is in confirmity with what Gita says "Remember Me at all times and fight". Conduct yourself in the world while firmly established in God.
Life is a School: Sri Aurobindo further says that all life is a school where learning process never ends.In this process of learning earth is considered as a big class room. When we accept that life is a school, we accept that life teaches us if we keep our mind open. Rig veda says that let noble thoughts enter your mind from all sides. You can learn from any one, even from those who are younger to you in age. In Shrimad Bhagawat sage Dattatreya says that if we keep our eyes ears open we will find that everything that exists in nature around us, even birds and animals, have a lesson to teach us. Dattatreya talks about twenty four gurus from whom he has learnt. For example earth teaches fore bearance, tree is an excellent example of selfless service since it provides shade to all without any expectation of return. But why should we learn throughout our life. It is because Learning makes us gain both worldly and spiritual wisdom. Learning enables us to unlearn or weed out what is unwanted or undesirable in our mind. Learning makes us grow inwardly to find newer interest in life learning gives us freedom, learning makes us observe the reality and at the same time we become open to change our perceptions. Therefore be not a scholar but be a brilliant student. Develop sun like affection, river like generosity and earth like hospitality.
Life is a battle field: Dr. Radha Krishan says that life is a battle between spirit and matter, between knowledge and ignorance, between self control and temptation, between discrimination and sensual life. When we commence to fight this battle then our journey starts from humanness to divinity. Life is a battle because no one will give room for yourself, we have to create it for ourself. Human life is not programmed. We have a free will to be what we want to be. When we look inwardly we find that we are fighting the inner battle continuously. Fighting the outer battle of life means tackling our day to day problems relating to ourself, our family, our profession and our society. Since man lives in two worlds, outer and inner, simultaneously he as to fight both these battles firstly to evolve himself and secondly to become a useful member of the society while contributing towards its efficiency. Hardest battle you have to fight is the battle to be just you.
Life is a train Journey: Life could also be compared to a train journey where all are traveling towards our destination. We meet new people who enter our compartment and then there are those who leave our compartment at different stations never to meet again. This happens in worldly life where we meet some for the first time and loose some of our dear ones for ever. Our relationship in life is not permanent as people come and go from our life. Some time the train passes through green fields and some time later through barren ground, sometime through a tunnel. This compares with the pleasant and unpleasant situations which we meet in Life. There are some in the train who are traveling in higher Class while majority is traveling in lower Class. Those who are traveling in higher class are those who are spiritually evolved. There number is very small as compared to the worldly people who are in majority and are traveling in lower class in the train.
Life is a celebration: Sri Sri Ravishankar a spiritual teacher and humanitarian par excellence and founder of Art of living foundation call life a celebration Sri Sri Ravishankar himself is cheerfulness personified, He says that man has become too serious in life and forgets to smile. He ask human beings to smile and serve, to meditate and celebrate. Sri Sri Ravishanker says that sun rises and celebrate, rivers flow and celebrate, tree flowers and celebrate then why not man evolve himself and celebrates life. Spirituality is not seriousness but cheerfulness.
So what is human life all about and what should we do in life. The answer is simple. We should become a yogi, we should learn from every moment of life, we should fight the battle of life to undertake the journey from humanness to divinity. We should celebrate life as we celebrate any festival because life is a beautiful experience. While doing so we should listen to the advise of Lord Krishna. He gave to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita that or we should live life in spirit of Yajna or Sacrifice doing our best to look after the welfare of others. Do not cook food only for yourself because if you do that then you are a thief.
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