The Real Perils of Climbing an Invisible Mountain

As we are born into nescience, and slowly make our way up by gaining into the various perspectives people have of the "so-called" reality around us. With every interaction comes conditioning.

The conditioning consists of having us believe that if we don't follow in the normal rules of the normal society then we're really just dumb, how can we not get it?

Of course you use the best face creams, because they're good for you, so what if your skin is just a wrapper on the bone/muscle machine that your body is. So what if your body is going to wear out soon, due to the transitory nature of all things material. So what if nothing lasts forever. Good skin is something you're earning all that money for, and good skin is what you will get.

Somehow in all the madness, we stop to question why. What is going on? This is like half-waking up from the deepest of deep sleeps. We begin to see how people who are negative affect us negatively. How people who have a bright aura help us immensely. How envious people sap our energy. And we begin to see that we are as related to each other as the ant is related to the bull.

Somewhere in the insanity, people are yelling that its not fair. Its just not fair that some people decide to progress, and try to leave the rest behind. How can they be selfish? And don't they know that in practical real life "on earth" things like this don't work, its too crazy a risk to take.

Our bodies are all machines being operated under the control of five factors: super soul, soul, field of activities, types of endeavour and the senses.

But we feel that the body is not under the control of any five things, its under our own control. Worse still we believe that we are the body. If death comes to the body, it scares us, although we are immortal souls. And when the Life Insurance Policy does not help us to live longer, we crib and hold on to our wasted old bodies like a parrot clinging to a cage. The calm in letting go is more desirable than compulsive attachment to the temporary body made of flesh, bones, blood and stool.

When a person embraces death he sees what a relief it really is. No more of the weight, no dirty smells, no noise, just beauty, purity, peace and knowledge. Everyone knows in the heart of their hearts that beyond this material world and its barrier, is the most beautiful divine light which attracts everything to itself. There is no fear, and no clinging.

But we chose to prolong our miserable stay on this planet. Where mother nature is most cruel to us, in spite of our many endeavours we have to tolerate so much. With every passing year summers are getting to be hotter, winters cooler.

Srimad Bhagvatam speaks of the future of Kali Yuga - there will be no food, electricity, water or shelter. People will run to the forests to live peacefully. There will be so much cheating and open-air stealing that people will lose their final straw of faith in the already hilarious thing called "law".

The material world is perverted reflection of the spiritual world. We are in a matrix whose opposite exists on the other side of a river. Here we have duality. There we have absolute, nothing is relative.

Temporary cessation of misery, or temporary distraction from misery, is the definition of happiness in this material world.

If we have sex pleasure, it lasts for exactly a few moments, after which it is gone. We are left tired. Nothing satisfies us permanently. Something is always lacking.

And in contrast, in the spiritual world, the bliss is ever increasing. There is no misery, only bliss. One has no bad qualities, no pains, no disease.

Meanwhile we think that disease is flu, or infection. But disease is actually the presence of a spiritual entity in the non-spiritual or material atmosphere. The very covering of the body on top of the soul is the disease. The soul can never be happy in material confinement. However, it has no choice to accept a body according to its own desire, and according to the results of past activities, whether good or bad.

The soul searches for spiritual happiness in material things: husband, wife, brother, sister, father, mother, baby, house, vehicle, tv serials, movies, thrill rides, thrill giving things, so called food, sports, flirting, etc. But in the end, instead of happiness, it is met with frustration. The effort to obtain fruits is spent, but the fruit does not taste the way the soul wants it to.

Finally, after exploring all the material pursuits, the soul comes to knowledge, I do not belong here. I have nothing to gain here. My place is in the spiritual sky - para vyoma.

How did I gain this temporary identity that I will lose as soon as the body is finished? What is my real identity?

When the questions are asked, the answers come themselves to decorate the fortunate soul, this is the beginning of all auspiciousness. Till then we are to be understood to be under the effect of deep sleep where we are watching a very interesting dream. In our state of dream we cannot see others who may have woken up. We cannot understand the actions of such individuals, and we cannot understand how their goals can be different from ours. We cannot ascertain what motivates them to act they way they do - they seem just like the rest of the crowd, but there is something very disturbing about them. What is that disturbing? The inability of the sleeping soul to recognise or understand the soul trying to wake up is disturbing to it. How dare someone try to wake up. How dare they ruin the dream? Why can't they just play the role they are expected to in the dream and allow the dream to proceed as planned, or desired by the sleeper? How dare a soul try to become dettached from the impermanent body? How can it ever decide that it has had enough of the material world. No matter how hard it tries, the whole current will oppose its motion.

Although swimming upstream is a fool's effort, discovering the fountainhead is a euphoria greatly unmatched with any material pleasure. And although climbing invisible mountains is strictly forbidden, the curious soul will always take the risk and go after its true happiness, not caring for any illusory obstructions.