Do Your Past& Future Bother You?
H H Maa Purnananda
Founder Chairperson
Sree Guru Swami Chinmayananda Sewa Nidhi ®
“Yogi Yunjeet Satatamaatmaanam Rahasi Sthitah. Ekaaki Yatachittaatma Niraasheeraparigrahah.”(Sreemad Bhagawad Geeta 6/10)
“Let the Yogi try constantly to keep the mind steady, remaining in solitude, alone, with the mind and body controlled free from hope and possessions.”
Past haunts and future seems to be bleak to most of the aging people. No matter how educated or illiterate the person is, neither his past leaves him alone nor is he able to stop being apprehensive about his future.Therefore, he finds it difficult to be with himself all alone and hence, meditation on the Higher remains next to impossible for him.
A young man is ambitious and looks forward to his future with all the hopes and anxieties, having almost nothing to talk about his own past. An old man has almost nothing to look forward to and hence, keeps singing the stories pertaining to his achievements and possessions of his past. A child has no past and has not yet set his eyes upon his future; so, he conveniently lives in present!
Oh! That is what our scriptures are teaching us! Every scripture tells us to live in present like a child; without clinging on to our past and without building castles in the air about our future. So, physically anyway we can live only in present, but then what is the way to remain even-minded while facing any favour able or adverse situation in present, having our intellect well-focused on the planning of the work in hand now? The passing of time is counted on the basis of the gross physical body and the world around, which indicates that every moment the physical bodies are passing away into the past. And yet, we are sure that physically we cannot go into the past nor can we travel into the future. But since we have the liberty to mentally go into the past and to have bloated imagination about our future, that is the reason why our mind has the tendency to hang on to our past and fly in the future rather than to remain steadily single-pointed in present.
How does one come out of this perpetual habit of one’s own mind?What is the way to live in
present? Can any of the cultural, religious or spiritual practises help us to live in present? Can the social bonds help us to live in present? Can our academic education help us or can our home environment help us to do so? What exactly can make us live in present?
Everything in this perceivable world, including the subtle world of emotions and thoughts,
is subject to modification.Modification or change indicates passage of time. Passage of time
means three periods of time – past, present and future.
Now it is clear that nothing other than the ‘Changeless’, ever remains in present;
rest all that which is subject to change just cannot remain in present!
So, if I want to remain in present, then the cultural practises cannot help me to do so.
The social bonds, academic education and the home environment can anyways not do so. It is the religious practises that remind us of that ‘Changeless’ Supreme Truth through the philosophical and ritualistic symbolism. It is the spiritual practises that groom us to see beyond the world of change and to identify with the Changeless Self. Such a transformation evolves the practitioner,apart from being an educated, cultured and religious individual, to a spiritually motivated seeker. Thereafter, the seeker no more suffer from the worries of the past and anxieties of the future! The seeker learns well, the art of living in present, by way of constant association with the Self within, through various spiritual means and practises.To live constantly with Ishwar Smaran is to be with the Supreme Self; and to be with the Supreme Self is to live in present.
Gurudev says – “Never brood over things which have happened or worry over things yet to happen. Live in the present. Intelligently face life with a tranquil mind, full of prayer and Ishwar smaran.”
What can I add to what beloved Gurudev says! Seek His blessings to live up to the instructions given by Him and Sreemad Bhagawad Geeta, - in present, as His child. Your past and future will no more bother you!