Inner Light and the Final Destination

 

Inner Light and the Final Destination

Life sometimes brings us to a pass in which the world begins to seem difficult to cope with. People appear shallow, selfish and quite avoidable. All our social responses become little more than role-playing in a place that demands a basic minimum in the form of social obligation. It is a development in which the lust for life, in its more basic form, attracts no longer. The gloss in relationships begins to fade and everything becomes nothing. At such a juncture, a man can begin to look inward. He can begin to draw from inner resources and discover how his earlier existence no longer matches up to what he now seems to need. The mind gets more clearly connected with the soul and to a domain of the unconscious in which the present, past and future have all got merged.

The inward journey is a direct consequence of setbacks, sufferings, and disappointments that have compelled the mind to distrust the outer world. The everyday, material, and social existence, where every road leads to regret and disillusionment, is no longer inviting. The only path to take is into one’s consciousness or, beyond it, into the soul. It is here that one is able to detach oneself from what is essentially the self; one’s personal identity, the bindings of an individual born on a particular date, living in a particular place and in possession of a certain residential address. A particular time and place seem to grip him and compel him to identify himself as a particular being because so far he has relied on and believed in the outer world, mistaking it for the real world. But now with the outer world fading or falling to pieces, he has no option but to withdraw and find a new abode in his inner being.

Such a person, if he is a man of action and in possession of courage, does have the occasion to become a #Gandhi. If he is a man of thought with adequate language at his command, he can become a #Shakespeare. In both cases the inner journey is vital. For the outward world is essentially misleading; it only promises without fulfilling deeply. It is the inward movement that has the potential to provide bliss and contentment. This inner world, once reached, can become an anchor; it can be like a lighthouse, giving clear directions to a mind that is groping around in a tempestuous darkness. An outward existence banks on the senses that merely half perceive. They mistake physical pleasure for real joy. But once the inner journey begins, the soul takes charge and the final destination comes into sight. The Buddha in us begins to dawn.