Consciously
or unconsciously, all seem to maintain a list of priorities in life.
Priorities differ from person to person. The human psyche tends to
play a major role in the determination of priorities. From a
pragmatic viewpoint, it is a person’s state of mind that ultimately
decides his/her inclination or proclivity for an object. From a
religious standpoint, it is the station of life one is in which goes
on to decide a person’s priorities in life.
Regardless
of these commonly held beliefs, it is an eternally proven fact that
realization of God should top the list of priorities in life. The
argument advanced in favour of attainment of God being the first
priority is two-fold.
Firstly,
everything mundane is ephemeral. Nothing ever accompanies one to the
life hereafter. Secondly, with God being the source and origin of
everyone, we should necessarily strive to attain Him and merge our
individual consciousness into His cosmic consciousness. If ignored,
the dreadful cycle of birth, death, and rebirth will go on
ceaselessly with associated pain and suffering.
Despite
the choice being so obvious, the majority tend to believe that until
one has reached the point of saturation vis-à-vis the worldly
happiness and experiences, one should not make a commitment to God.
The proponents of this theory firmly hold the view that in order to
fully appreciate the bliss of God, one must first experience the
happiness and pleasures of this world to the maximum. With this
mindset, they tell themselves and advocate to others that commitment
to God can wait until one has enjoyed worldly pleasures to the
fullest. To say the least, God is much lower in the list of
priorities they have set for themselves.
These
exponents, while advocating experiencing of worldly happiness to
one’s heart’s content and then making a commitment to God,
declare unabashedly that embracing a spiritual lifestyle can be
conveniently postponed to the evening of life. This is as if the
spiritual way of life is a loathsome job which can be deferred to
post-retirement life when nothing really worthwhile needs to be done.
The
underlying assumption of this mindset is the philosophy that the
primary purpose of life is to work towards satisfying one’s wishes
and engaging in activities that match a person’s age and stage in
life. Inherent in this view of life is the thought that only after
the individual feels that his check list of achievements has been
crossed off, he can choose to begin living a life of contemplation,
introspection, and meditation. Still another assumption of this
mindset is that one can’t fully appreciate what God has to offer
until one has absorbed what the world has to offer.
There
is no denying the fact that one cannot really devote oneself to
spiritual work and evolution until one attains fair amount of
certainty in his mind that there is nothing in the world that can
match the bliss of God. On the face of it, it appears that there is
nothing wrong in nurturing a strong urge to experience the boons of
the world in order to fully and finally arrive at a conclusion as to
what is better for him.
Despite
his intellectual understanding, which tells him that the spiritual
way of life is a better option, his restlessness continues until he
has experienced the material world to the maximum. In the life of
such people, there are times when they were extremely happy, had
nothing to complain or grieve about; life favoured them to the
maximum and offered them choicest blessings. Let these people recall
to themselves these times of extreme merriment. Did the thought of
God come to them in those times? Whether the realisation of God, who
gave us our life’s desires, crossed our mind? How many can reply in
the affirmative to this question? On the contrary, we remained lost
in revelry and even the thought of God did not occur to us. We hardly
spared a thought to understand the divine purpose of this precious
human birth. Moreover, when these moments of happiness start to drift
away, we use all possible means to regain them.
To
the question why the thought of God does not come in good times, the
saints have answered in a way which should serve as a warning to all
who give first priority to worldly boons. They say that the Lord does
not share his space with the world. The Lord, therefore, will not
come to mind when worldly matters have consumed it.
Sufi
saint Rabia is said to have experienced God whispering in her ear
saying, ‘Be careful, lest you want Me to fulfill your material
desires and take away your desire for Me. Material desires and the
desire for Me cannot exist within the same heart.’ Similarly, when
Lord Krishna asked Kunti, mother of Pandavas, to ask for a boon, she
said, ‘Lord, all I desire is grief. Because only in grief, do I
remember you; in happiness, you drift away from my thoughts.’
It
is thus patently wrong to presume that one takes to the path of God
only after he is fully satisfied with his life and his
accomplishments. On the contrary, the longing for worldly boons
drowns one deeper and deeper into the materialistic world.
Can
we deny that the love for material objects conditions and
pre-programs our mind to think that we have ample amount of time in
the world to worship God but very little time to achieve our worldly
desires? But scriptures say that human life is transitory. One never
knows the time of his departure from this earth. What is certain
about human life is its uncertain nature. Life appears and then
vanishes like a mass of fine droplets of water in the atmosphere. The
following lines from the Bible are enough to stir anybody’s
conscience: ‘What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a
while and then vanishes’ (James 4:14). Saint Kabir often uttered
this couplet: ‘This is the time, this is the season. Even after
spending millions, one cannot regain this precious human life, once
it is lost.’
The
pursuit of affluence does not lie in hoarding up materialistic
affluence but the affluence of self-realization. The Bible says,
‘What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and
lose his own soul.’ That is why, it is said that the wealth of the
soul is the only true wealth. It is soul alone that raises us to
nobility.
Worldly
happiness may attain its zenith or its nadir, but only the happiness
gained from God stabilises our restless heart and brings peace to our
tormented soul. Pay heed to the scriptural advice- ‘Loving God is
the only pleasure. Other delights turn bitter. What hurts the soul is
to live without tasting the nectar of its own essence.’ Thus, rise
above the idea of procrastinating worship of God and seriously
consider reversing your priorities in life.
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