living in the present - subramanian a

8/3/2019 Living in the Present - Subramanian A

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17

th

October 2011.

Philosophers like J Krishnamurthy ask us to live in

the Present. What is actually meant by living inthe Present?


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Are we not living in the Present? The answer is,

most often not. We are often haunted by either

our past or future. This is the truth. Our mind has

a deep association with our past and future -unpleasant past and uncertain future. Our

dealings with the world people, places and

incidents tell us that the sphere of our emotional

past is an inseparable one and an anxious future is

the very rejoinder of them. We can cite many

examples.

Thus, we miss the Present moment. We get either

drifted into our past or future. Can we retrieve the

living moment? This is the question.

When we are contended, we seem to be living in

the Present but when haunted by emotions and

excitement, by perilous situations, we lose sight ofthe present moment and fall into the lagoon of our

past or drift into the vastness of future. So, one

key factor to be living in the Present is

contentment. But remember, contentment is only

a state of mind that is subject to changing

situations. Can we overcome the impact of

changing situations and remain in a steady,pleasant mood?

This is our very challenging area. Is is possible to

feel life as a continuous flow of the same


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experience always? Can we accept both misery

and happiness in the same sense and degree?

Then only, the flow of the same experience, the

steadiness in life can be maintained.

For ordinary people like us, misery is a miserable

situation and happiness is a positive one. Thus, we

all long only for positive situations and not for

negative situations but we all know that life is an

admixture of both positive and negative situations.

It is important to remember that by negating

miserable situations we practically gain nothing.

We only add resistance to such situations and such

protestation and resistance will further drain our

mental resources to face the situations with

boldness and courage and with clarity of

perception. What do we after all gain by trying to

run away from unpleasant situations? How far can

we try to escape from such situations?

So, an acceptance of life should be there to view

the flow of life as a continuous and steady

experience. Misery also has to be accepted so that

we will get a solution to overcome the obstacle.Both misery and happiness are always relative.

Such relativity is decided by the degree of our

mind in a given situation. One may feel to be

miserable but another may not feel to be so


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miserable. For Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna

Paramahamsa, cancer was not at all a miserable

sitution. What I mean to say is that our attitude

towards a miserable situation plays an importantdegree in deciding whether the situation is

miserable or not. If we have an acceptance of life,

we can have a healthy mental attitude towards the

so called miserable situation. Great masters of

philosophy would always stress on the point that

no situation practically gives us any problem and

the whole problem lies in our reaction to a given

situation. We need a reflection on this point. We

can take this way or that way also but are we

doing this?

Thus, it follows that we need enough equanimity to

be living in the Present. In the language of

Vedanta, this level headedness is termed as Sthita

Pragya. The pre-condition is that one should

accept life as it is. Summer will come and so

winter and monsoon. Pain will come and pleasure

too. Nothing is permanent here in this world of

mortal experience. So, why worry about our Past

and Future? Past is past and future is very

uncertain. We cannot take a journey into our pastand correct ourselves, others or the situations. We

cannot fly into the future to get away from the

path of misery and death. Actually, the very

thought of an unsecured life, the thought of death


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seem to be the main culprit in forcing us away

from our living moments. Why do we tend to

count only our loss and not our profit? Why are we

deeply thinking only about our failures and not oursuccesses in life? Why do we forget god in our

victorious moments and always blame Him in

moments of failure? Such double attitude wont

work. Can we look unto our past only as a

witness without attaching any emotions? Can we

look unto our future without assigning any

negative sign to it?

We have so many discrimination, mental divisions

and this is our pitfall. Can we look at the stream of

life not as a difference but as unity in diversity?

Our thoughts hover around differences and

contradictions rather than feeling for variety and

diversity at the core. Such an attitude would bring

in more misery than happiness, a less contended

life.

The net result is that we will not only be missing

the Present moment but will be living in our

unpleasant past and projecting ourselves into ableak future for no gain. Mind will get

contaminated. Our thoughts will follow only a

nagging life. This will not only drive us to a tight

corner but will also affect people around us.


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Do we really wish for such a homicide of humanity?

Dont we have any responsibility for the upcoming

generations? Dont they also need good views inlife for their healthy survival?

Beyond a possessive attitude, let us maintain the

attitude of custodianship. All our possessions - be

it wealth, our house, our institutions, this Nature

or environment are meant for our futuregenerations as well. Let us try to maintain them

from the point of custodianship. Our forefathers

have gifted this Nature and environment and all

such possessions for our healthy survival but are

we doing the same for the survival of future

generations? So, to be living in the Present has its

own meaning. Let us not waste our mentalenergies on trivial matters and by getting

engrossed in Past and Future.

Be loyal unto thyself. Be a witness to the stream

of life. Be a custodian of all thy possessions for

the benefit of future generations. Be living in the

Present with equanimity, without blaming the

world for own setbacks. Remember, we cannot

either teach or correct the world. All that we can

do is self teaching, self learning and self

correction. At the most, we can guide people


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around us by our good words and good deeds and

not more than that.

To be living in the Present is very much part of a

Steady State Theory.

18th October 2011.

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living in the present - subramanian a

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