“God has created the world so that every flower may grow in its right standard. But the lashes of time have made it to forget the purpose of God. So, some feel the life as the purpose of enjoyment, others feel the life monotonous. But the question is: What is life? It is a state of being which should remain permanently, as long as we live, thoroughly in contact with the Being, smelling at each step the fragrance of the Being.” – Complete Works of Ram Chandra, Vol III
I know some people will read the above quote and get caught on the first sentence. There are some who will read it and, if they don’t get caught on the first sentence, will get caught on the second sentence. Some still, may catch on both. That’s fine. Eventually they will be able to move on to the richness found the latter sentences. Truthfully, part of me did and does also catch on the first couple sentences – and probably for the same reasons others will, too. After all, what does “right standard” mean? What does the “purpose of God” even mean? Throughout human history so many people – too many people – have been sure they knew the precise and only real answers to what a “right standard” and “purpose of God” mean. Strangely, this certain knowledge of God’s right standard and purpose has invariably meant death – not to the ones who thought they knew, but to others near them.
Saying you know right standards and purpose of God is as foolish as saying the Sun rises in the East, and thinking it’s actually the truth. Yes, sure, the Sun seems to rise in the East. And for spatial and relational purposes, etc… the Sun seems to do just that and so it’s fine to make that reference. But for those who can see the bigger picture, or even know the bigger picture theoretically, that’s not true. There is a perception, possible only because of a very limited view. And so it seems like the Sun rises in what we call the East (which itself isn’t really even a thing – we live on a sphere, for Pete’s sake. We can go east, but there is no place which is the East and where we can arrive – and so the Sun can never rise from there.) We know the Earth travels around the Sun and rotates while it does that. Many of us understand that the “Sun rising in the East” is really our place on the Earth completing yet another spin in this pattern of travel. The Sun stays put. It doesn’t rise. And yet, those who are able to understand an even fuller picture know that even saying the Sun stays put while we cycle around it is false. Our Sun also travels through space, quite unfixed. This illustration of how limited our views usually are should be sufficient to know how terribly foolish it is to ever claim to know the purpose God has for something or what its right standard is. If most of us incorrectly perceive something as simple as the concepts of spinning or rotation, then what are the chances we’ll correctly perceive God’s “purpose” or “right standard?” At best, the most enlightened among us can probably only claim to know a fraction of those truths.
And really, the next sentence kind of says just that. Some see things one way while others have a different view. Now, those who get caught on the first to sentences will read what I just wrote about others having different views and they’ll say, “Well the view of others is just wrong.” And this is a big part of why those minds will remain on the so-called “square one” and will continue for some time to be caught on the first two sentences. As before, that’s fine.
The last sentence, however, is what we should aim for. Don’t bother with determining the right standard for something or with figuring out the details of God’s purpose. You probably can’t do anything about changing either of those things, anyway. And if you could figure them out completely and truly and risked wanting to change them, what would that mean for yourself? See, more questions and no additional answers come from that effort.
Aim for staying permanently and thoroughly in contact with the Being. That’s it.
Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti
Sthapati Samanvayam 