Is There A Way Out of Struggle
How often do you come across someone who is always blissfully happy? Well, you might immediately push back, asking if being always blissfully happy even possible, and what would that even mean if it was?
A look at the world around you would quickly reveal the struggles that abound around us. Right after birth, a baby realizes its helplessness and dependence on the parents and people around. Then, as the child grows, they are constantly reminded of the restrictions of what they can and cannot do. It is not very late before a teenager realizes the need for some education or skills to survive in the world. Then one is restricted by the income one generates for their living. A little later in life, senility may restrict even the physical movements without anyone else becoming the cause.
Even if we are very healthy and strong, there is a limit put on by nature on what we can do. The laws of nature are omnipotent and omnipresent. One cannot escape or disregard the laws of nature. No matter how strong you are or how much you can ignore it, you cannot deny the fact that death is coming closer to you every moment.
Is this is all there is in life? Struggles, yearnings for happiness, and the inevitable demise?
What is meant by struggling in life? The struggles are a fight for freedom. Everyone is innately yearning for freedom. Everyone aspires to be free to do what they want without restrictions. Those who do not understand life aspire to be free from death.
The fight for freedom is universal. The tiny creatures constantly collect food to be free from starvation. Some humans do not hesitate to resort to criminal activities to satiate their desires. However, most of us accept the bondage of nature and society and toil through life daily until it ends one day.
What is the way out?
The animal kingdom accepts their limitations and acknowledges that the bondage by the laws of nature is their fate. So instead of struggling to go against nature, they convert the bondage into bonds with nature. It is no wonder that animals can sense danger way before humans or human-made instruments can detect it. Without using any weather satellites or artificial intelligence, almost every non-human creature can predict changes in weather or climate. For example, they somehow can know that it will rain shortly or that they should collect food because winter will be here soon. They even can sense an impending earthquake.
That is why the animals do not resist nature. On the contrary, they have learned to become one with it. Once they realize that nature is no different from them, they do not yearn for independence from its laws.
But humans are a step above animals. The humans have been given a ground to stand on with no limitations above on how high their ambitions may take them. Hence, the urge for freedom does not stay subdued.
Humans are not more powerful than nature. Their intellect may enable them to exploit the laws of nature, but there is no escape from them. Or so it seems to the mere mortals.
In India, the ancient sages, referred to as the Rishis, explained the way out by pointing to the difference between the real you and your body. The real you, according to Vedanta, are no other than God Himself. Instead, it is the body subjected to the laws of nature.
Spiritualism takes you beyond nature. Once you are beyond the grasp of nature, its laws cannot restrain you. Vedanta proves that you are no different from the ultimate reality. You are Brahman. All our struggles are because of our ignorance that we are not Brahman. Once that veil of ignorance is removed, one becomes free and fearless.
If you are lucky to have come across one of the self-realized saints, some of who are alive even today amongst us, you would have seen an always blissfully happy person. And, just by coming into contact with such a being, you know it or not, a flame of spirituality would have got kindled within you. If you nurture that flame with your hard work as guided by Vendanta, you can, too, become the enlightened one someday. And that would be true freedom with no fear of death.