That which is inherent is the guiding force

You cannot separate sweetness from sugar because the attribute sweetness, is inherent to sugar. And any quality that is inherent is always a constant. Which means at no point of time can sugar suddenly become less sweet than at other times. Its sweetness is consistent at ALL times. Which means the quality of sweetness is natural to sugar.

Now imagine out of greed for more sweetness, man adulterates this sugar. Of course the result is no more sweet, in fact it is less sweet. But in due course, the people who tried this experiment passed away leaving the “unfinished” task to their next generation. The next generation being bolder and aggressive try adding several other ingredients to sugar to make it “more sweet”. Now the sweetness is even lesser than the result after the first experiment.

Millions of generations later, sugar got so adulterated that a very feeble and highly cosmetic strain of sweetness which is like a dot compared to the original sweetness of sugar, is accepted as the ultimate taste of sweetness simply because almost nowhere else can more sweetness be found even across continents and generations. In fact, now man is more busy handling the insecurity and frustration arising out of his inability to hang on to this elusive cosmetic sweetness, than finding its source.

He is investing all he has i.e., working round the clock to a feverish pitch to earn more money, invest well so that he earns even more, doesn’t matter if other basic needs like health, a quality family life, pursuing a hobby etc. are compromised because more money can get a lot more things which he might need in future (he is very sure of living well for many more years) – and all this for ultimately what ? - so that he can get more sweetness and which stays constant. The last nail in the coffin is that, his experimental cauldron of specialized sophisticated research to find more sweetness have led him to add all kinds of ingredients under the sun into the cauldron, except the very source of sweetness - sugar itself. After millions of generations, man’s desperation for sweetness, has blinded him to its very source - sugar. His vision has become myopic towards sugar. He is not even aware that he suffers from myopia. This is what the masters mean by ignorance.

Indeed, there have been a handful of people in each of these generations who found themselves also running like their million other brethren, panting and puffing but realized that this cannot be. So many before me too have failed this experiment so why should I too race towards imminent failure ? I may not know the source of the sweetness but I can clearly see what experiments the majority are trying, are bound to fail. So let me at least pause.

This pause needed a lot of courage, determination, a high self-esteem and trust. This path being unknown in the functional world, fear was inevitable. Living in a highly scientific and technologically advanced society where the derivation of any finding had to be proved through experiments and research papers, here they were scratching at the doors beyond mind’s known realm – a complete inner journey hitherto unknown to them, which was impossible to prove.

Thus, having paused, having dropped from the race, they gradually realized that even a mere pause itself, has given a different texture to the very fabric of their minds. They found themselves more at peace. In due course of time when the restlessness and the cacophony in the mind dropped, it threw open some windows which brought in fresh profound thoughts and insights which were life-sustaining. Though they did not understand the source of this newly found peace and strength, they simply continued to let go because they seemed to be in sync with some unseen order. Some unknown source seemed to be “taking care” of them while swimming against the tide.

The newly found peace was so welcome that in due course of time they just forgot about running after the sweetness and stayed put by simply doing what needs to be done for every moment in their lives be it family, job, or relationships, without pandering to endless desires and piling on any “extra baggage” no matter how tempting and no matter how much they were criticized by their brethren as “no ambition”, “how dull”, “not in tune with times” etc.

One fine day they slipped into a state engulfed by a sweetness, just as sweet as the original sugar. Soon they realized that this sweetness and its consistency are inherent to sugar and had always BEEN THERE and that they didn’t need to add anything to it, rather they had to simply drop the adulterations. Nature’s built-in mechanism took care to have all the guiding forces inherent and they didn’t have to look for them outside. They also realized that these guiding forces had all the time been nudging them towards their ultimate destination. But they were so subtle that they could be perceived only when the cacophony in their minds dropped. And they remained rooted in that sweetness.

Love and wishes,

Rekha