H.H. Swami Paramananda (Dr. (h.c) R.Dassruth)
Email: mystery@globalmindtransformation.org
Who would believe that people purchase death and diseases in the form of pleasure! Alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, junk food, snacks and soft drinks lead to diseases and eventually untimely death. Besides, it is a squander of hard-earned money. People are so unconscious that they do not realise that what they call pleasure is nothing but sensual friction. In their ignorance, they grip to anything that soothes the senses, even though that ends up in a lot of suffering. With experience, many people know that certain things will cause pain, yet they continue to be addicted to those things. Habits die hard indeed!
How does all this work? The cells of our senses have memory. Once in contact with the sense object, they react and when the reaction is pleasurable, the senses record it as desirable. This leads the mind to seek the same object again and again. That is how obsession and addiction are born. Sensations that are soothing to the senses are labelled pleasurable, those that irritate are called painful. Here the law of repulsion and attraction enters the scene. We recoil from those which irritate the senses, but are drawn irresistibly to those that soothe them.
Being very much unconscious, we are unable to stop habits which end up becoming obsessions and addictions. These simply mean that the senses and the unconscious mind have taken over the reasoning faculty. This is why despite the fact that we know something is harmful, we continue with it. I remember youthful conversations where friends wondered whether there were medicines to cure the obsession with masturbation. Then an elder friend said, “Where medicine fails, there the mind must take control.” But I am not very sure he knew how to do it. It is only after through spiritual awakening that we learn that we can master our mind, thus our behaviour, simply by raising the level of our awareness.
Alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, junk food and soft drinks kill us slowly. Buying and consuming them means going towards suicide, but we cannot resist. We are urged to stop our bad habits, obsessions and addictions, but are we taught how? My understanding is that till we do not taste the inner nectar, which is a state of our soul, there is no possibility to give up lower sensual pleasures.
Our whole being is looking for pleasure, but due to our unconsciousness we succumb to whatever pleases our senses, just like the drowning man is ready to catch even a straw despite knowing that it will not help him. I remember my father once saying, “Even if a coffin moved around me announcing my death, I won’t quit alcohol!” Then I realised the power of addiction. He was over 50, but his consciousness had not grown; he had remained childish. Such a thing like alcohol – what’s there in it?
Some people attempt to quit smoking or drugs only after the habit has sunk deep in their unconscious mind. The trace has taken deep root in their physical, etheric and astral bodies. Since the addiction is not only physical, therapies are needed. Rehabilitation is good, but meditation under enlightened guidance is best. This, however, depends a lot on the firm intention, willpower and regular practice of the individual.
So, you see, dear reader, in this cosmic democracy, people are free even to buy death. How foolish we should be to be spending our money to destroy ourselves! Our own hard-earned money becomes a curse. The money wasted on alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and junk food could be used to buy healthy food such as fruits, nuts and vegetables.
Most people are childish. They eat or drink whatever appeals to them, without reflection. When it comes to eating and drinking, reason, discernment and logic have no sense for them – only taste, satisfaction and filling the stomach matter. I wonder what people gain by smoking. I have even tried it to know, but I fail to understand the motivation. Could it be psychological? Does it have some sexual connotation as Freud suggested? Maybe! Otherwise, it is more than absurd how people buy diseases and even death in the name of pleasure, isn’t it?
