Is Moksha Pursuit selfish? (Guru purnima, 2014)

Is Mokha pursuit selfish? (12th July, 2014)

In our scriptures all the human goals are classified into four types. In Sanskrit the goal of a human being is called purushartha. The four human goals are Artha, Kama, Dharma and Moksha.

Artha is all those things that are required for our security, all the things we seek for our security and survival. After making sure we have the basic needs, the next thing we look for is entertainment or pleasures. All those things that we acquire for pleasure is called Kama. Once these two are taken care of reasonably well, the next thing a human being seeks is Dharma. It means pleasure and joy and well-being that I get when I contribute to others. By doing good or noble actions through one’s efforts, whatever satisfaction or self-respect and feel-good factor is enhanced and that is called dharma. In shastra we call it punyam. In modern language it would be self-esteem. The last one is called Moksha, liberation or freedom (spiritual freedom). Therefore Artha, Kama, Dharma, and Moksha are four purushartas. According to our scriptures the greatest purusharta is the fourth one, namely moksha. It is said that those human beings who pursue moksha are superior and discriminating people. In Katha Upanishad ……the majority of people seek the first three called preyas and they are mandas (foolish) while deerah are those matured and wise people who seek shreyah or moksha. In Viveka Choodamani …….Sankaracharya says that three things are very rate for a jiva. The first rare thing is being born a human being. After human birth, being interested in spiritual knowledge is because of lot of punyam. A person who does not dedicate his life for the pursuit of moksha is wasting the precious human life and Sankara calls him “moodathi”. Our scriptures affirm that moksha is the greatest goal for a human being and pursuit of moksha is the greatest pursuit.

But unfortunately majority of people are lost in the pursuit of other three. Either they are busy pursuing Artha (pursuit of wealth, real estate etc and the whole life is spent). Or they are after Kama or entertainment. Earn for five days and entertain yourself for two days. So during weekdays you work and become weak during weekends! They so busy in parties that they don’t come anywhere near moksha. There are some people who are more mature, they are not interested in artha and kama too much. They have come to dharma and they are noble people engaging in some many community service activities, either is neighborhood service or religious service or national service or varieties of NGOs etc. They do a lot of good work to the society. They are highly dharmic people and according to scriptures they are ideal to come to moksha. But many such people get stuck in service unable to come to Moksha. They service has purified their minds and they are fit for moksha but they are still busy serving. They are varieties of obstacles for them to come to the fourth goal. Among many obstacles to pursue moksha there is this misconception. That is going to be my main topic today:  misconceptions regarding moksha that prevents them for coming near it. I want to analyze those misconceptions in this lecture. Some dharmic people look upon pursuit of moksha has a selfish pursuit. Their argument is “I don’t want to pursue moksha for it is for my benefit only. I want to sacrifice as I want to serve the society.” Serving the society is an unselfish activity no doubt, and pursuing moksha is a selfish activity is their contention. This is a view held even by some matured people and this prevents them from coming to moksha. But we as students of Vedanta must be clear about this misconception. Because someone even in our family may charge us that we are pursuing a selfish goal. They say,” You are dropping your duty for the family and running after Swamiji and running after weekly classes” When they charge us, we may ourselves feel guilty whether we are selfish or not. Here I want to analyze “what is the definition of selfishness” according to our shastra and “what is the pursuit of moksha’s aim is”.

            According to Vedanta every human being except a liberated or spiritually enlightened person are naturally selfish. A liberated person is one who has got self-knowledge and who is a jnani who is free from selfishness. According to scriptures except for a jnani all others have selfishness has their instinctive characteristic. Selfishness is a most natural trait of a human being and it is caused by self-ignorance. As long as we are spiritually ignorant, selfishness is natural and no one can avoid it. This is the first lesson of scriptures regarding selfishness. Just as hunger is natural, thirst is natural “selfishness” is instinctive and universal for a human being. According scriptures this selfishness is expressed in three ways.

            Selfishness is manifest in three different expressions and these stem from self-ignorance is something you should note. The first expression of Selfishness is “Ahamkara”. Ahamkara is a notion or idea that I am an individual with a body and mind sense complex. Ahmakara is a misconception or notion or idea that I am a human being with a body-mind sense complex. This is a universal expression of selfishness.

 The second expression of selfishness is a natural corollary of the first. The Ahamkara in an individual is connected to a few things and beings around – my house, my property, my land, my extra land in kodaikanal, etc. These are connections with a few things and few human beings; my wife, my child, my grandchild, etc. These connections represented as MAMAKARA. Mamakara is extended Ahamkara. Mamakara is universal second expression of selfishness. I am also selfish to find out whether you get the message or not!

            The third expression of selfishness is an extension of Ahamkara and Mamakara. I divide the entire world into two groups: a favourable group from the standpoint of my Ahamkara and my Mamakara. I make a list of few things and people as giving me happiness. This is RAGA or attachment where a segment of world is classified as favourable and to those objects/people I develop RAGA. I also classify a few things as unfavourable, a source of sorrow and so I develop a dislike or hatred towards them which is DVESHA. Raga and Dvesha are twin brothers stemming from Ahamkara and Mamakara.

            Therefore according to our scriptures every living being and every human being is bound by Ahamkara, Mamakara, Raga-Dvesha. So the nature of every being is SELFISHNESS. As long as this selfishness is there, all the human pursuits are conditioned by (directed by and determined by and governed by) selfishness only. Wherever I have RAGA I run after those things. Wherever there is dislike I run away from it. Life is always either running to or running away. As Swami Dayananda says, first they will say “I love you” after a few days of dating. Dating or baiting I don’t know. Initially a person is categorized as favourable and become raga-vishayah (object of desire) and I run after that person saying “I love you, I love you.” Then they decide to live together and after a few weeks or few years, the very same person who was raga-vishayah becomes aragah-vishaya or still worse dvesha-vishayah. Swami Dayananda humorously says: First I love you and now I allow you! (smiles). Even in English it is correct     a-love. You go your way and I go my way. Then another person is trapped and again “I love you and I allow you.” Throughout life selfishness prevails….pravruthi and nivrukti. Artha pursuit is selfishness governed and kama pursuit is selfishness governed. Even dharma pursuit is selfishness governed. Ethical people have got fine selfishness and unethical people have got gross selfishness.

            I generally give this example. When there is school anniversary, there will be several programmes. There will be one drama enacted by school children. It is a long drama with several scenes. And after a few scenes a bunch of people will vacate the hall. When you observe closely you will find a group of people going out with a boy or girl in some costume. Then it hits you: they came to the programme only to watch their son or daughter or grandchild who is present in a particular scene. They are not interested in the school or anniversary and not even interested in the drama. They are just interested in “their child who is playing a particular role” for a few minutes. That too a very minor one! – in a palace scene the grandchild is a gatekeeper. There is no dialogue. This child stands for 5 minutes during which a dozen of family members take hundreds of photographs. This is Mamakara for “my child is there” and therefore I have raga to the school, the management, anniversary and all of them. After that particular scene they leave the hall. After each scene, groups and groups of parents walk away when their child’s role is over. For the last child they will only be 5-6 people! Therefore every jiva’s life is governed by Aham, Mama, Raga-dvesha. These are packaged together as SELFISHNESS. And you cannot blame anyone for this is instinctive. So all pursuits are this package then what is the pursuit of moksha?

            Our scriptures say that if all pursuits are selfish, we admit that moksha pursuit is also a selfish one. Then our scriptures add that moksha pursuit is most intelligent selfish pursuit. Because one who pursues moksha has an understanding about selfishness. That understanding is “as long as a person has selfishness consisting of aham, mama, raga-dvesha, the life will be miserable. AS LONG AS MY LIFE IS GOVERNED BY AHAMKARA, MAMAKARA, RAGA-DVESHA MY LIFE WILL BE MISERABLE. This understanding a seeker of moksha has got. How do you say life will be miserable? As long as you have raga and dvesha, I want the world, the people and the event to conform to my likes and dislikes. I want everyone to conform to the norms of my raga and my dvesha. How the child should be, how the daughter-in-law should be and for everything I have my own personal likes and dislikes. I want the setup to conform to my raga-dvesha. But unfortunately most of the time the setup does not conform to my raga-dvesha. Because the world is governed by so many factors over which I have no control. I have no control over the behavior of my own spouse. I kept calling my spouse for gurupurnima day talk and he has not come! (repressed laughter in the audience). I have no control over my child or government or neighbor or even an event like rains. Since the setup does not conform to my raga-dvesha I am upset most of the time. Reverse “setup” and you get “upset”. I get upset at my failure as the world does not conform to my likes and dislikes. Therefore definition of selfishness is “my likes and my dislikes”; I am going to be miserable. Because most of the time the setup in the family or setup in the neighborhood or the setup called society or setup called government does not conform to my raga-dvesha. I find myself helpless. Helplessness leading to anger, anger leads to frustration and frustrations lead to depressions. This will be the cycle – helplessness, anger, frustration, depression – of a selfish person who is trapped in his/her Ahamkara, Mamakara, Raga-Dvesha.  

In the case of a moksha seeker, his entire endeavour is to get rid of this selfishness package. A moksha pursuit is a selfish pursuit to remove this selfishness as it keeps me miserable and upset most of the time. In other pursuits of artha, kama, and dharma the selfishness is perpetuated while only in moksha pursuit the aim is to remove and dilute selfishness. Life is all about the lists in artha and kama and dharma changing from Raga list to Dvesha list. In the earlier generation they tolerated their spouse when they became a dvesha item in their list, now people separate and move. Therefore all pursuit perpetuates selfishness while moksha pursuit is the only noble pursuit where a spiritual seeker has diagnosed the problem. What is the problem? Selfishness is the problem. So a mature person works to remove this problem so that setup does not make him or her upset. Setup based upsets will never go away unless I remove this selfishness. This the seeker of moksha has a clear understanding. He is an informed selfish person. Besides he also has another very important information. A selfish person has this package of selfishness called Ahamkara, Mamakara, and Raga-Dvesha and this is born out of what? SELFISHNESS IS INSTINCTIVE AND IT IS BORN OUT OF SELF-IGNORANCE. Self-ignorance is the result of Aham, mama, raga-dvesha and if selfishness has got to go away then “samasara” has to go away. I have to remove self-ignorance and self-ignorance only goes away with self-knowledge. Just like Chemistry ignorance will not go away with physics-knowledge, it only goes away with Chemistry knowledge. Therefore self-ignorance goes away only with self-knowledge. And moksha pursuit is nothing but knowledge pursuit. This pursuit is a long pursuit and as we gain this knowledge the ahamkara, mamakara, raga-dvesha will have to go away. This is a very long journey and I want to highlight three important lessons which are inimical to ahamkara, mamakara, and raga-dvesha.

            The first lesson is a understanding or new insight with respect to my body.  What is my relation to my body? This knowledge will eliminate ahamkara. The scriptures teach that body and mind is not me. I AM NOT BODY AND I AM NOT MIND, they are temporary medium through which I transact with the world. Much like the spectacles I wear both body and mind are temporary mediums that I use for experiencing and transacting with the world. It is temporary for in the waking state I use both body and mind, in the dream state I use mind, and in the deep sleep state where both mind and body are resolved “I” am still there. In that state I am not using body and mind as I am not doing any transactions with the world. I gain in understanding that I AM NOT THE BODY and it is just a temporary medium. The body will be with me for some time and then it will go away whether you like it or not.

            The second lesson is I am not the body and I also not the owner of the body. It is temporarily given to me for my use only. I am the user of the body but not the owner of the body. Bhagawan is the owner of my body and HE has given it to me for my temporary use only according to the law of karma. And HE will take away the body without notice, without even three months notice, two months notice, one week notice. HE gives no notice and HE will take it away the body at any moment. HE does not require my permission indicating that I am not the owner of the body.

            And lastly I am not even the controller of the body also. I am one of the factors that determine the destiny of the body. There are so many factors that determine the future of the body. There is time, there is place and there is the law of karma and so many other factors. I AM N OT THE BODY, I AM NOT THE OWNER OF THE BODY AND I AM NOT THE CONTROLLER OF THE BODY.  Once my understand this clearly my ahamkara becomes weaker. For ahamkara is claiming body-mind complex has myself and claiming I am an individual human being. Ahamkara becomes weaker with self-knowledge. Then who am I? I am ATHMA the consciousness principle who is the experience of the body. I am athma and this is only remedy for weakening the ahamkara. This is lesson number one.

            By repeated study of scriptures Mamakara will also be dropped. For once I don’t claim ownership of this body itself, how can I claim the ownership of other bodies? Whether it is my wife or husband or child or my grandchildren? Therefore mamakara also has no scope at all and I conclude that I am not the owner, not the controller of other bodies. Majority of the problems arise as I want to control other family members. I want everyone to behave as per my norm. Many parents will educate the children to chant guru stotram or gita gyna stostram. They will train them to chant these stostram as Swamiji is coming home for bhiksha. The kid will nod this head when asked if he will chant the slokam before Swamiji. For the proud parents even the bhiksha to Swami is secondary. The child is called before all others and parents badger it to say the slokam but the child will stand mute. Even a five year old baby whom you claim as your son or daughter, you cannot control. The more you try to control the more we become miserable. Samsara is trying to control the uncontrollable. Therefore mamakara also will drop as I hand over everything to Bhagawan. Tana, man, dhan and sub kuch tere!     Ahamkara and Mamakara is dropped and as I understand my relation with God.

            The third important lesson is understanding of my nature. If I am not the body and mind, the next question is who am I? What is my real nature? Our scriptures points out a mind-boggling thing. Initially it is very difficult to accept but ultimately we have to gain this knowledge. What is that? I am the ATHMA and this is ONLY source of happiness in the creation. I realize that nothing in the world is a source for happiness. We have raga or attachment to the objects and people in the world for I mistakenly think they are a source of my happiness. Vedanta blasts that misconception and don’t get attached to anything. The only source of happiness is the realization that I am the ATHMA. Whenever the world seems to give happiness it is only my raga and dvesha that creates a particular state of mind. In that state my own happiness is evident or manifest like seeing my own reflection in the mirror. The biggest delusion or brahma is the people and things in the world give happiness. This delusion is like the baby sucking the thumb. The baby sucks its own thumb thinking it is getting mother’s milk. Till the baby is weaned it is attached to the mother, and it delusion (brahma) it sucks its own thumb. When it sucks, what does it get? It’s own saliva. Saliva not from the mother but its own body. That its own saliva the baby mistakes it for mother’s milk. And it goes so sucking, similar is the state of us. We mistake the world to give happiness but it’s sucking our own thumb. We think the husband gives happiness, children give happiness or grandchildren when it in fact our own saliva. It is our own Athamananda that gives happiness and we attribute it to worldly factors. That mental state is contentment and detachment. Through self-knowledge if our mind becomes content and detached, we can enjoy our own happiness all the time. We need not be attached to the world. Therefore the more joy I discover in myself; neither raga nor dvesha will affect me. The second lesson is the I AM THE ONLY SOURCE OF HAPPINESS and nothing in the world can give me happiness.

            Thirdly and finally when we realize that as long as ignorance is there, selfishness is very natural. I am now able to understand the nature of the world. The world is in a continuous flux where change is constant. Therefore I learn to adjust to different conditions of the world, by hating or resistance you cannot change the world. Learn to accept the nature of the world as it is. Then I won’t hate old age, I won’t hate by own body in the old age. When we are young we pray for long life and when we are getting old we pray for a short one. First you long your body and now in old age you hate your body and others in the home! You must learn to adjust to different conditions of the world without generating rage or dvesha. Once you understand the whimsical nature of world, you learn the virtue of acceptance. Slowly I learn to accommodate the nature of the people also. The nature of people is selfish!

A wise person who has accomplished self-knowledge by dropping the Ahamkara and Mamakara understands and accommodates the selfishness of ignorant people. He realizes that others are selfish and they are helpless. They are helplessly selfish because of their ignorance. Their selfishness does not surprise a wise man. If I expect others to help me as I have helped them in the past, you are bound to be disappointed. They would always look for their convenience first. They have to cater to their ahamkara and mamakara and only then consider yours! I will accept their selfishness without hating them. As Krishna says in the Gita that a jnani is one who is free from ahamkara, mamakara, and  raga-dvesha. A jnani has consideration for others, he knows all others would be naturally selfish. Therefore it does not shock him. And he will try to help them fulfill their raga and dvesha but he himself is above them. He has destroyed his selfishness and he does suffer from raga-dvesha based samsara.

Moksha is freedom from selfishness through self-knowledge and accommodating others selfishness. Therefore he does not hate anyone and he is not attached to anyone. Therefore Mokha pursuit is a selfish pursuit but that is the best selfish pursuit for it destroys selfishness and gives ananda. On this auspicious guru purnima day we worship the entire guru parampara which helps in destroying our selfishness.