Are you
taking life too
seriously?

Living Joyfully
SATSANG BY SWAMI AMAR JYOTI
© 2007 TRUTH CONSCIOUSNESS

 

Prabhushri:  I was going through some literature and I came across this quote—and there’s a joke at the end: “At a certain spot on the road of life you get stuck in a rut called seriousness, and because of this you miss the joy of the journey. Going forward is called spontaneous living, moment-to-moment living, to have such a refreshed and renewed outlook.” Do you know who said it?

Seeker:  Swami Amar Jyoti

WELL, EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE I LIKE MY QUOTES.  In the Vedas they speak of the various ages—the Golden Age, Silver Age, Copper Age and Iron Age. It is written that in the Golden Age1 there is nearly seventy-five percent dharma, truth or righteous living. And then in the Silver and Copper Age, dharma reduces gradually until we come to the present times, the Iron Age, Kali Yuga, when truth and dharma are only about twenty-five percent. What does this imply? When the way we behave and deal in relationships, with things of the world and with our own mind is hardly twenty-five percent on righteousness, this is called perversion. It is not exactly the opposite of the Golden Age, but in this degradation, we lose the spontaneity or fresh view of living.

1 The vedic term for the golden Age is Sat Yuga or Satya Yuga, literally “the Age of Truth.”

      What is perversion? It means the things we should be serious about we’re not, and the things we shouldn’t be serious about we are. This is what I meant by the “seriousness rut.” The goal or purpose of life, that highest attainment for which we are born, loses the seriousness it should have. Here seriousness is synonymous with concentration or focus. And then day-to-day issues that should not be serious but are just a part of natural living, become serious. When this happens our mind loses track of the ultimate goal or purpose of life; we get distracted in side issues. Therefore we miss the joy of the journey. It’s not only philosophically so—let’s take it more practically. The journey could be joyful but when we get stuck or distracted on the way, we miss the ultimate goal, which is what we are all searching for in our own way.

If lasting joy, peace and happiness could be obtained from things outside of
us, there would be nothing wrong with being serious about such things. It is
precisely because happiness does not stay with us that we keep trying to find it.



Continued
<<Home | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Next>>