With the advancement of technology, the hope of getting more
leisure dawned on modern man. But, alas, instead of increased leisure, increased
activity has become the order of the day! Instead of rest, restlessness has
taken hold of the human heart. What went wrong?
In this age, when progress is reckoned in terms of material
development, economics takes center stage. Activity calls for more activity,
resulting in increased production. This, in turn, demands more
markets for selling the goods produced. Advertising creates more markets, and
that again leads to
increased consumerism. Thus the rat race goes on!
In the Bhagavata there is the story of the great king
Yayati, who, at the threshold of old age, felt that his desire for worldly
enjoyments had not been satiated. So he requested his four sons — one after another
— to exchange their youth for his old age. The first three sons refused to do
so, but the fourth son, Puru, agreed. Yayati, with the borrowed youth of his son,
continued with his enjoyment of worldly pleasures. After some years he suddenly
realized that desires can never be satiated by more enjoyment, and uttered this
great truth: Desires are never appeased by more enjoyments; rather they grow
all the more fierce, like a smoldering fire fed with ghee.’
Modern people, finding no respite from intense activity on
the one hand and boredom on the other, are seeking ways and means of bringing a
little peace and quiet to their disturbed minds. In this
scenario, they clutch at various kinds of contemplative and meditation
practices.
But the true answer to the problem lies within. Only the person who has quietened his mind can achieve peace and bliss. The day one realizes that true happiness is within and not in external objects one overcomes sorrow and unhappiness.