Integrating Ancient Wisdom in Modern Life: Success, Significance and Self-Realisation
- Swadhyaya has two meanings. One is knowledge about scripture and other is knowing oneself, significance of self. So the purpose of Swadhyaya is to know the purpose of your life. Importance of the purpose of life is to live a meaningful life. Life in itself has no meaning. Life is an opportunity to create meaning. Meaning has not to be discovered: it has to be created. You will find meaning only if you create it. So remember: Buddha finds the meaning because he creates it.
- To create meaning needs great intelligence, to create meaning needs great awareness, to create meaning needs great endeavour. The intellect is absolutely bankrupt. It has nothing of its own, all is borrowed. And that’s the difference between intelligence and intellect. Intelligence has an eyesight of its own, a capacity to see into things, into problems. Intelligence is your inborn quality. Intelligence means the capability to respond to new situations. It comes from your being – mind is only a vehicle – a kind of awareness of what the mind is, without belonging to it. Intelligence is the quality of the witness; it watches the mind and it gives direction to the mind.
- Intelligence is dangerous. Intelligence means you will start thinking on your own; you will start looking around on your own. You will not believe in the scriptures; but you will experiment with it and you will believe only in your own experience. This is the real Swadhyaya.
- Meaning of life is in three stages – self enhancing purpose of life is efforts to live a comfortable and happy life for self and family is called life of success. Self-transcending purpose of life is the effort to live for others’ happiness and comfort, life is called life of significance. Going beyond self. Self realisation purpose is called life of self-realisation. Practise in all the three stages is Listen, Contemplate and Practise.
- Meaning of life is to live fully functional life in all the three dimensions. Success, significance and self-realisation. Significance means being supportive and giving your presence to others without interfering in their decisions, without being dominant. Self-realisation means double arrow consciousness, living in the world without forgetting the self.
- Now research has shown that when you have a purpose of life, your biochemistry will be different depending upon the purpose from success to self-realisation. Starting point is success from which you move to self-realisation. This is the ultimate purpose of life.
- Meaningful life gives you meaningful death, is the culmination of a life lived naturally, without any inhibition, without any repression. Means death will reflect the ultimate culmination, the crescendo of your whole life. In a condensed form, it is all that you have lived.
