Acharya Mahaprajna
The Art & Science Of Living
Chapter 2.
The Issues
16
Planning
[Life has basically two aspects - the individual and the social. Both the aspects have to be well looked after. Prekshadhyana is the process of individual development as it regulates emotional health, thereby the physical and mental health are maintained and the individual as a whole becomes healthy, constructive and creative. When an individual is healthy, the society is also healthy. We should plan some time for meditation.]
Indian philosophy has discussed truth, which is bound by time, and also the eternal truth, which is not limited by time. The eternal truth is relevant in the dimensions of the past, the future and the present moment.
Visiting the meditation camp for ten days is time bound and whatever is gained inside the meditation camp should be eternal. Your gain in meditation is always beyond time. Whatever is gained has to be protected and enhanced further. Nowadays there is the big problem of shortage of time. Most people have no time for self-study, meditation and many other jobs. The paucity of time is applicable to industrialists, managers and labourers. Nobody is an exception in this respect. I have deeply pondered over this aspect and concluded that it is not basically deficiency of time but ignorance of time management. People do not know how to organise their time properly, though they have ample time on their hands. There are twenty-four hours in one day. Man can organise and do what he feels like in this time. Because of ignorance °f time management, the problem of lack of time cannot be tackled effectively. In the twenty-four hours, somebody may be working for a maximum of six to eight hours and six to seven hours may be dedicated to sleep. Then, what about the remaining ten hours, these are simply wasted in uncreative and lethargic activities. Divide the time into parts - holistic and integrated.
The holistic and integrated are important in their respective field. In case you want to seek the truth, you have to integrate yourself because the truth is holistic in the sphere of utility and behaviourism. We divide everything in the material world, so life also has to be divided. We divide life into two parts, namely, individual life and social life. Today, there is a big discussion going on regarding socialism, its end result is that the individual is being ignored. In olden times, the individual was very important, discussion was mainly centred around the individual and society was ignored. There is incompleteness in both the outlooks. We are always inclined to ignore one thing and develop a one-sided outlook.
Today, there is much discussion on society, so an individual is being marginalised. It is important to give equal importance to both the parts of life. Individual life and social life should be equally attended to. If the individual is not healthy, society will not be healthy, and if society is not healthy then the individual will not be healthy.
Individual life has three aspects, namely, physical, mental and emotional health. If the body is unhealthy it creates obstacles. If the mind is not healthy, it is bad, if the emotion is not healthy, it is the worst. First of all our emotions should be healthy so that our capacity to control our impulses remains effective. Many people are not able to control their impulses; they easily get tempted by impulses. Though anger, greed, fear, hate and lust exist in everyone, only healthy people are able to control their impulses. And those who cannot control their impulses, often get provoked by impulses, thereby creating negative health. First of all there is a need for individual health, which is achieved by restraining the emotions. People practising Prekshadhyana should clearly understand its purpose. The important objective is to achieve emotional health, physical health is secondary. We should improve our capacity to control our impulses, though it may take a lot of time to reach that state, where there is no existence of impulses at all in the mind. It may happen that though impulses exist, they do not impress. We should be able to control them. That is a big achievement. Prekshadhyana means the purification of emotions. The emotions should be so purified that the rise of anger becomes less and the controlling capacity becomes more. Even if anger crops up, it should not be exhibited. The lips should remain sealed. Practice, which is used to reduce the restlessness of the mind, is the same as the one adopted to render anger fruitless. When anger rises, turn your tongue up towards your palate. Then anger may emerge but it will be ineffective. By speaking, anger gets aggravated. If one is speaking angrily and the other also responds in the same tone then anger gets strengthened. If one speaks and the other keeps silent, then the anger becomes weak, ineffective and unsuccessful. The angry person enjoys himself only when the other person responds angrily. If the other person does not respond angrily then the angry person feels alone and so he calms down.
This is the application of control. It is applicable for all the waves of impulses, not merely for the spurt of anger alone. Your emotions will be calmed. The first segment of individual health is emotional health. When your emotions are healthy, then your mental health will be good and the mind will be calm. When anger erupts, the mind gets totally disturbed. Many thoughts of different kinds arise and provoke unrighteous acts. When there is no anger and fear, then the mind will not be misguided. The mind will remain calm, composed and healthy. Emotional health promotes physical health automatically. Commonly, the cause of physical sickness is mental and emotional disturbance. Though simple diseases may be caused by germs and viruses, chronic ailments are caused by the mind and its imbalance. The practice of Prekshadhyana improves three aspects of health, namely, physical, mental and emotional. Therefore, the practice of Prekshadhyana is the process of individual development.
You cannot live without society. If you are a businessman and deal in cloth, then where do you get cloth from? There are lots of processes involved in getting things. Let us examine the breathing process. It sounds simple but several muscles and organs collectively work to enable you to breathe. In one breath, about seventy to eighty muscles have to work. Similarly, thousands of people collectively work and then you get a piece of cloth, milk, bread or water. An individual's life depends upon society. Thus if society is not healthy, then how can the individual remain healthy? The practice of Prekshadhyana improves individual health and simultaneously nourishes social health also because the reform in individual tendencies promotes the general reform in social tendencies also.
Basically, greed, possession and selfishness render the society sick and unhealthy. Dr. Lohia, a well-known socialist revolutionary leader of India, was a very clear and outspoken personality. During discussions, he made a statement that if his social revolution succeeded, then many people would lose their money and life. However, Mr. Prabhudayal, a businessman who was working for the welfare of the poor people, might lose his money, but he would not lose his life, whereas other businessmen may lose money as well as life. I was stunned to hear this. There was a revelation in what he said. At the onset of a economic and violent revolution, the person who is away from society and does not know social life, finds it very difficult to protect his life. But the one who is working for society will never find his life endangered, for he is fully respected. Such individual mental propensities, which create obstacles in promoting social health, should be given up totally. Our psyche should be purified so that cruelty does not exist in it. In the absence of cruelty, selfishness will not exist. Selfishness, cruelty and greed, are interrelated. If greed is present, then selfishness will exist and cruelty will also be present. The greatest fruit of meditation is that sensitivity is awakened in man. If he has no compassion towards others and he does not consider others' grief as his own, then it is obvious that meditation is nothing more than an intoxication for him.
When the dire need to give up vicious tendencies is forgotten, then meditation is just intoxication. Intoxication just provides simple peace. Peace descends even in the state of sleep but this peace is not meaningful. Meditation is not meant just for peace, it is also meant for reforming emotions. After practising meditation for an hour, if you start a quarrel, then what is the use of the so-called peace.
The end result of Prekshadhyana is to reform the emotions, the tendencies, the habits and one's nature. This reform obviously enhances the value of meditation.
The first unit of social life is the family. Without a good family life, a person cannot be good for society. This is because our social life is formed by society only. Ten people living together may form a society. If a man among them has a disturbed family life, then he cannot contribute much towards the welfare of the society. Those who have practised meditation should have a better family life. The most important factor is to develop tolerance. The biggest threat of the day is the thriving of intolerance. Nobody dares to say anything to anyone because the others will not tolerate it. When a father criticises his son, the son gets angry. He is unable to tolerate it. This malady of intolerance is universal and it is not being treated at all. Basically the trait of intolerance is promoted by the ego. Almost everybody is gradually turning egoist, egocentric and egomaniac, right from childhood. The society, which promotes egoism, cannot be healthy at all. Prekshadhyana teaches politeness and letting go of the ego. On the annihilation of ego, the ailment of intolerance, and violence will automatically be resolved. Without dropping one's ego, one can never become non-violent. The whole emphasis is on the ego, when the ego gets hurt, only then does intolerance come up. Even a small child thinks, "Who is father to tell me this?" This is the height of ego even in a child.
Everybody has a personal life, in which nobody has the authority to interfere. Nobody should interfere in an individual's life. The intolerance level has grown so much that even a child can think of killing his own father. Such tendencies do prevail in the Indian system of life. Thoughts are gradually becoming contaminated. If social health is paramount then we have to ensure that the ego is terminated. The practice of Prekshadhyana is the practice of shedding the ego because there is less opportunity for the ego to grow in spirituality. In the material world, the ego has a greater chance to exist and be activated. Discrimination of class, caste, creed and community is pronounced in the mundane world, which enhances the ego. In spirituality, there is no distinction between big and small. In this situation, the ego is not nourished.
Though our life is divided into individual and social slots we cannot delete parts. Both are inseparable, hence they complement and supplement each other. As we have five fingers, they can be divided functionally but they cannot be separated from one another because they collectively contribute to a common goal. There maybe five societies and all of them are distinct. The same relation exists between an individual and a society. There may be lakhs of people, but they are all united by the common object of emotional health.
For the health of the society and the individual, the root cause is emotional health. The process of Prekshadhyana is the process of contributing to emotional health. Those who practise it will have a very clear judgement in life because they have practised a purely spiritual process, which cleanses the emotions. If this issue is kept in view, then Prekshadhyana will progress further in life. The family will appreciate it and society will also adopt it. Ultimately, this would lead to the welfare of the individual, the family and the society.