The secret to worry free life is in a clean life. This is
very important to remember. All our worries are caused by certain uncleanliness
that is inside us. It may be that the pretext of the worry is outside, but the
real cause is always inside. And this is precisely why, no matter what happens
to the ever-changing world outside us, we can overcome our worries. If the real
causes of worries were outside, then it would not be possible to subdue all our
worries, for what is outside us we can never fully control.
While the secret of worry free life is in a clean life, the
secret of a clean life is in living certain simple teachings of the scriptures
and the spiritual masters.
In other words, life lived in the light of Truth alone can
be clean. And what is Truth and its implications for life should be learnt from
the scriptures and the spiritual masters of the world.
Undoubtedly our lives are tainted by uncleanliness of
various sorts and it would appear as though it is part of our being. But in our
heart of hearts there is always a revolt against this uncleanliness.
A part of our mind always rejects it, while the other part
may appear to accept it or even enjoy it, as a worm enjoys living in dirt. This
is because a human being is a mysterious amalgam of spirit and matter. There is
a secret longing within everyone of us for a clean life. Very often a whole
life passes away before we could come to know how to do it. Yet the longing
persists all the time.
There are many who say: ‘Come error be thou my guide,’ and
when they are caught in the meshes of selfishness, lust and evil desires,
misery is begot. Yet does all life yearn for the truth and the truth only can
cure our diseases and give peace to our unrest.
Those who fail to aspire for truth have missed the purpose
of life. Blessed is he who rests in truth, for all things will pass away, but
the truth abides forever.
We all want to get rid of worries, yet all our lives worries
only continue to increase. The simple reason for this peculiar situation is:
either we do not know the methods of removing worries or even if we knew, somehow
we would not just do those things which could remove our worries.
It is but common sense that if we really mean to remove our
worries, we must enthusiastically do those things which cause their removal.
But before we can do anything about removing our worries we must try to understand
the phenomenon of worries as clearly as possible.
There are certain fantastic facts about our worries, which
often escape our notice. If we would but analyze the absurdities of some of our
worries, and realize their utter irrelevance, they would cease to exist right
now, even though we might have been their victims for a quarter of a century.
It has been said that: 50% of our worries centre around our
past, 40% around our future, and 10% centre around our present.
Now what good are these worries over the past? And what need
have we of them? Most of the worries that centre round our past arise from the
concept of sin and its inevitable results. Future worries are centered around
fear and it is nothing but ignorance. The best way to overcome present worries
is by following Dharma.
All our worries are rooted in our ego-sense. . . When faith
ripens, the ego-sense disappears. And as Sri Ramakrishna says, when this
ego-sense disappears all our worries will cease to exist. The man of true faith
cannot have fear of the unknown. For what is unknown to him, is also within
God. And what is within God is all good. It may be terribly good, of course!
But he does not worry about it since it is within God. When faith knocks at our
fear of the unknown, it also simultaneously uproots our fear of losing what we
have gained, our fear of old age and our fear of death, all of which are rooted
in our ego-sense.