Acharya Mahaprajna
The Art & Science Of Living
Chapter 4.
Awakening
23
Awareness
[Prekshadhyana is a support to know truth, which is beyond articulation and reasoning. The practice of awareness crowns life with success, and the state of infatuation makes life unsuccessful. A religious person uses his time constructively and creatively. Basically, duty (Dharma) consists of non-attachment and awareness. The biggest duty of life is to shatter maya or infatuation completely and to attain the state of awareness. One becomes successful, when one thinks about one's inner self and is engaged in creative and constructive acts.]
The practice of Prekshadhyana is a means to understand that truth, which is beyond articulation, reasoning and thinking. After its long practice in different camps, participants are trained as teachers to propagate the practice of Prekshadhyana to the general masses.
The question arises, "Why is sadhana required in life?" It is so because everybody wants to become successful in life. Nobody wants to lead an unsuccessful or meaningless life. The biggest philosophy of success is to practise the state of awareness. Those who are aware are successful, whereas those who remain infatuated are always unsuccessful in life.
A man thought of leaving his town to get rid of his poverty, which was responsible for failures in his life. After deep meditation, he realised that by going to a new place, his poverty or inclination would not change. So he dropped his plan of leaving the town.
Successful people are always guided by their awareness and they never get infatuated with life. An infatuated person is not able to assess a situation correctly, so he fails to take appropriate timely decision, thereby failing miserably at every step in his life. In the wake of deep infatuation, his discretionary consciousness and intellect become so clouded that he cannot take proper decisions in life. His third eye remains shut because of the dense layers of illusions and ignorance. The philosophy for a successful life is practice of awareness.
Mahavira has beautifully described the state of infatuation and awareness in two ballads as follows. Time is the only factor, which is highly valuable, as time lost, cannot be regained. So it has to be carefully used only for constructive, creative and positive development in life. The person who works unrighteously, destructively and negatively in life is considered useless. The person who works religiously, creatively and constructively with his time and contribution is useful and successful. Time may be wasted or utilised effectively.
The question arises, "What is duty (Dharma)? Duty is an unerring state of awareness. The state of awareness is duty and the state of infatuation is Adharma (neglect of duty).
The highest duty of life is to attain the state of awareness. A man who is not aware, can never practice sadhana at all. Infatuation is in many forms like useless gossip, attachment with objects and feelings of likes and dislikes. The state of sleep is also an infatuation but sleep is required for good health. Excess of sleep is not good, so we should sleep just to meet the requirements of the body. In Ayurveda (an ancient Indian system of medicine), sleeping during daytime is strictly disapproved of. In case of over-tiredness of the body, one may rest for half an hour at the most. Sleep is an infatuation, and it is not good to be infatuated. The state of sleep is one hurdle in the state of awakening. Indulging in useless gossip is also a form of infatuation, as a lot of time is simply wasted in this useless task. Many people go on wasting a lot of time in the criticism of others and discussing politics and administration which are not relevant to them.
The philosophy of success is to think about ourselves constructively and positively.