Inside - Outside

The Essence of Volume 1 Chapter 16

Inside – Outside

Om Sri Gurubhyo namaha!!!

Most humans have a feeling of deficiency or lack. All feelings of happiness or beauty or desires are all generated from within. Whatever is inside is what reflects outside. There is nothing outside. Everything is inside. All that is there outside has to merge with what is inside. Lord Krishna said in Bhagavadgita:

apuryamanam acala-pratistham 
samudram apah pravisanti yadvat 
tadvat kama yam pravisanti sarve 
sa santim apnoti na kama-kami                                 Chapter 2 Verse 70

(A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires--that enter like rivers into the ocean which is ever being filled but is always still--can alone achieve peace and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires)

A desire (Kama) is nothing but a longing or attraction for outside objects. We try to derive happiness from such desires.  How can a person always deriving happiness from outside be at peace? There are innumerable objects in this world. It is futile to chase the never ending desires. Peace will be with the one who understands that everything is within him. The one who thinks that he would be happy only if he gets a big position or a beautiful woman or plenty of riches is an absolute fool.

 “yatsoukhaymbudhi lesalesata ime sakradayonirvrita”

The self-realized have the feeling of happiness and delight due to Paramatma’s iota of blessedness that is residing in their heart. For the self-realized, there is nothing to feel happy or sorrowful with the objects of the outer world.

If one is always searching for happiness from outside objects, he would be joyous when he gets them and sorrowful when he loses them. He would feel incomplete in the absence of those objects and will always be attached to them. In case, he doesn’t fulfill them, it leads to frustration, anger and violence aimed at others.

The outside objects arrive and leave but if someone makes these transient objects as the basis for his happiness, he is bound to suffer and will never be at peace.

Lord Krishna in the above verse says that one should be like an ocean which is unmoved irrespective of whether something comes and joins it or not. The moment one says that “I need this or that”, it symbolizes that he is short of it which leads to disquietude.

Only a person who is unmoved by the desires caused by outside objects will achieve tranquility of mind and find quietude.

Om tat sat!!!

Om Santhi Santhi Santhihi !!!