OUR SO CALLED KNOWLEDGE
We say “I know,” but in reality we hardly know. The whole material world has its own laws. We don’t understand them and our life is passed in ignorance. Ignorance causes wrong thinking, decision and suffering. It has come to us very strongly-right from our childhood. We don’t believe that ignorance has taken total charge of us.
We deny reality. We project the unreality as real. This permeates into every little decision of ours. We don’t have an answer to “Who am I?”, yet we carry on. There is continuous pain and suffering, but we do not try to understand the beginning of it.
A wise person understands that that the physical body is changing in a little period of time and is decaying’ but we don’t understand this. The whole day we talk and worry. We worry about things that did not happen, about people who cheated us, about future, about all types of pain, etc.
When Buddha’s son was born, Buddha said that it was one more link in the chain of suffering. A lay person generally becomes happy when a son is born to him or her. A wise person understands and does not get involved. He does not get totally lost. If at all his is a surgical kind of involvement, duty is the word and this sort of mental frame can solve the problems.
The entire system of yoga is working to eradicate ignorance. Asanas and Pranayamas too help in doing this. The tradition emphasizes the need for concentration of mind and developing self-control and in the end self-knowledge.
Anonymous
Published in the February 2010 edition of Yoga & Total Health Magazine.