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Anil Kumar Questions and
Answers
Question 27
Why do we
have to go through this or any life to get Self-realization? Why
didn’t we arrive already Self-realized? Have you found anyone who
is? Also, once you have blessed something, or asked for something,
or chanted a manthra, why do we have to do it over and over again?
(15.12.2002)
Very good! This is a question to be asked in this computer age. As
I told you last time, I am not making fun of these questions. I am
not underestimating the calibre and the spirit of the person who
has asked this question. I have the highest respect and reverence
towards them and thank them from the bottom of my heart because
they help me to go through Sai literature time and again.
Now
the question is this: “Why do we have to go through this or any
life to get Self-realization? Why?”
The
answer is simple. We
find many people sitting in front of the TV, watching serials
these days. I don’t know about television serials abroad, but here
in South India particularly, some of the serials go on for 500
episodes or more!
There is even a
joke about it.
It
seems that an old man wrote a letter to the television director
saying, “I may die any moment. Let me know how the story ends so
that I may die peacefully. (Laughter). Since I do not know
how long it will continue, I may have to be born again! Why all
this? Tell me the ending of the story!”
And secondly,
something that is common to all the television serials in South
India in particular is that most of them make you cry. None of the
serials make you laugh.
There’s also a
joke about that. It seems a young girl went to the TV director and
asked, “Sir, why don’t you give me a role? I want to act in your
serial.”
The director
said, ”Yes.”
He asked for a
plastic bucket to be brought and put in front of her.
The director
said, “Come on -- fill this bucket with your tears and after that
I will give you a role.” (Laughter)
So, one has to
learn the art of crying, you know? We sit in front of the
television and we also cry. A few days ago, I got a phone call
from my friend in Hyderabad. He said that his wife and
mother-in-law don’t go to bed unless they have cried bitterly
until 10 o’clock at night, and only then do they retire. (Laughter)
The crying starts at seven PM and goes on until 10 o’clock! They
are busy until seven, or else they would have started at five
o’clock!
Why do we cry? We
pay money and cry. (Laughter) Why do those actors cry?
They receive money and cry. So, we have got two categories of
people who cry -- those who pay to cry and others who get paid to
cry.
My friends, we
cry. Why? Because we think that the hero in the television serial
is real. Or we think that we are in a difficult position, so we
cry. Suddenly the husband comes home from the office. He says, “I
am tired from working and you are crying here at home! Let me have
a break.” Then the wife will come to her senses.
So my friends,
when I consider a television serial to be true, when I consider
the cinema to be a reality, it is because I am identifying with it
and so I cry. However, once I am aware that it is just a cinema or
that it is just a television serial, I am not disturbed. I am not
perturbed.
Similarly, in
life we pass through bumps and jumps, ups and downs, smiles and
tears, elation, jubilation and frustration. It’s like a pendulum
that moves in between two extremes. When you are praised, you are
up in the sky. But when you are pointed at, you are down, totally
down. This is because of a lack of realisation.
Realisation will help you to achieve equanimity and balance.
Realisation will help you to not feel proud of all the simple
achievements or simple talents that you have. Realization will
never allow you to be depressed or frustrated or create a
situation where you need to consult a psychiatrist!
Therefore,
Self-realisation is necessary for your own sake. In your own
interest, you should seek Self-realisation. Bhagavan has given a
simple example. It so happened that a small cub lost its way and
started living among some sheep. Suddenly one day a tiger was
ready to attack the sheep.
When the sheep
started running, the little cub also started running. “Don’t kill
me! Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”
The
tiger said, “Stop that! Don’t cry.”
The
cub said, “We are sheep. I am a member of the herd. Don’t kill
me.”
“No, no, no, you
are not a sheep. You and I are one. Let us go to the river and
check out the stripes on our bodies. You roar and I roar. Our
language is common. The body is common. Why do you think that you
are a sheep?”
Then the cub
understood that it no longer belonged with the sheep. Similarly,
we think that we are sheep. We think that we are so cheap. We
think that we are so simple. We think that we are nobody, no, no,
no. Shrinvantu Vishve Amrithasya Puthraha. “You are the
Son of Immortality.” “You are Divine.” When Bhagavan addresses you
as ‘Divyatmaswarupulara’, that means you are embodiments of
Divyatma. You are embodiments of the Divine. Why do you
think that you are a pauper? Why do you think that you are so
simple? Certainly not!
It’s like the man
who kept asking for loans. Then someone said, “There is one
lakh rupees to your credit. Why are you seeking more loans?”
He said, “Oh, I
see. I forgot. That was long time back.”
He
immediately went to the bank, utilised the money and no longer
needed to ask for loans. Similarly, when you have
Self-realisation, you are beyond the duality of good and bad,
profit and loss, victory and defeat. You are in equanimity and are
perfectly balanced. It is for that reason that you need to
realise the Self.
© Anil Kumar Kamaraju 2004 - Here
reproduced for personal use of the devotees for the purpose of
seva.
Anil Kumar website:
http://www.internety.com/anilkhome/ -
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