[Advaita-l] Local vs Global Vision

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

                                                                                     Local vs Global Vision

A question was posed by a seeker. He finds misery all over and therefore is becoming restless. He finds many things beyond his control and getting frustrated as he cannot do much and in this environment he cannot sit down and meditate. Therefore he wants to run away to Himalayas where he can peacefully meditate on the higher truth. 
This wright-up was intended to him but it may help others who look at the life from a very narrow perspective. 
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There are two ways of looking at the problem. I am reminded of the prayer of serenity which represents the correct approach to the life. You can find this at  <http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/special/serenity.html>.  In this world there are lot of things beyond our (of jiiva's) control. There are some things under over control such as the free-will about what I want to do next, given the circumstances that I am in - that includes your choice of going to somewhere to avoid the current problems here. Going somewhere else, you will find somewhat similar problems but presented differently. Hence going somewhere to find some ideal environment is like chasing the mirage waters to quench the thirst. There are many things that we have no control, that we need to accept it do whatever we can do and leave the rest to that infinite wisdom.

One way to look at it - examine our own dream creation. We create the dream world and enter into our own dream world as one jiiva or subject and looking at the world, forgetting that it is our own creation and say this world is very bad and I have to go somewhere else in the dream world to find peace. Remember the dream world is not dream world for the dreamer while in the dream. For him it is a real world that he has to deal with - with things beyond his control. However when he get up from sleep the whole dream world problems are dismissed as unreal - from the point of the waker. This world is exactly the same. It is the creation of the total mind which we call as Iswara and entering into the creation as one of the subject and looking at the world of beings and non-beings and say this world is full of suffering and I have to go somewhere else to find peace and tranquility. Anywhere you go you will find exactly the same, with ups and downs which are
 beyond your control. Hence I said it is like chasing the mirage water to quench the thirst - since there is no water there to start with and going after water will only make you thirstier only. Going after peace to somewhere else only shows that one has not recognized that peace that one is seeking is right there where the seeker is - says Vedanta. 

The other way to look at it is seeing the whole life itself as drama where there are varieties of the scenes - we have heroes and heroines and many villains as well as other roles that make the whole life a total drama. One should play the role that is given to him, understanding that it is a role that has to be played as long as one is in the drama of life. Roles will have problems but the actor who is playing the roles do not take the problems of the roles as his problems. He may be really multi-millionaire but acting as a street beggar and enjoying the play. The problems of the beggar in the role-play do not belong to the actor who is playing that role.  That is what drama means. Life is a drama – a world play. 

The roles are given to us by our own praarabda or actions done in the past life or lives. In essence we demanded these roles knowingly or unknowingly. Now, we have no choice but to experience the results of the past actions. Same is the case with other jiivas too. Hence nobody suffers or enjoys unnecessarily, the roles and the problems are blue prints that we ourselves designed. That does not mean we should be a silent spectators or prisoners of the past. We should do within our means to make the environment better or peaceful. If we are not capable of doing anything, either physically or financially, we can at least pray sincerely for everybody’s welfare. The actions we can do within our own means are to beautify the life around us, with God given gifts that we have. What we have is His gift and what do with what we have is our gift to Him. Hence the beauty of life is to make life more beautiful with our allowed self-effort. 
Hence my suggestion is to keep up your spiritual discipline that involves doing something that helps the surrounding to the extent one can, keep-up daily study of scriptures and reflect on the teaching to keep the mind looking at the world in total perspective. Then only you will see the grandeur of the creation where His beauty manifests in terms of varieties of the things and beings in the creation.  The vision from the top is different from the local magnified vision of space and time.  If you imagine yourself to be outside the space-ship earth and looking from there and seeing the whole world revolving around itself and around the sun, you can get a global perspective with complete detachment. Generations have come and generations have gone, empires have been built and ultimately got destroyed. The whole drama of life becomes incredible to look at it. There is always good and bad happening all around the world – but from the point of totality it is
 just one whole universe going in circles. Just stand apart and have that vision both first thing in the morning and the last thing in the night. The life itself opens up as incredible drama, if only we can just stand apart. >From that vision you cannot but bow down to that intelligence that sets the eternal wheel of the drama of life in motion.  From that perspective, everything is in order. 

The life itself becomes a wonder.  If you have time read the articles on Iswara Darshan or vision of the world as vision of the Lord where both positive and negatives are part of His glory only. There cannot be a creation without destruction – that is essence of the law of conservation itself. From the grandeur perspective everything is governed by the cause-effect relationships whether we understand the relationships or not. This vision of the totality is the vision of the truth too. 

Hope this helps.

Hari Om!
Sadananda