An uncontrolled vehicle goes berserk and causes ruins. Similarly an uncontrolled life leads only to chaos and anarchy in our lives and others as well. When we have real control over our lives, we are free in our mind and can have better enjoyment that can lift our life. Life becomes a cool journey in a well-controlled vehicle.
A Philosophy of Life helps us there. It is like a Quality Management System for a company – a company simply can’t be run effectively with just commitment to some values, there needs to be a policy-based system at work in the company.
Mainly, a philosophy of life should address the fundamental questions of life – who we are, what is this life all about, what is our ultimate purpose in life, how do we achieve it and what do we do once we achieve it.
The Vishishtadvaita philosophy popularized by Swami Ramanuja addresses all these and much more in a stellar fashion. It is based on a complete and true interpretation of the Vedas.
The journey to understand this philosophy starts with the first question - who are we? Are we just our bodies? Or are we something else? As mentioned in the preceding sections, Vedas declare that we are not just mere mortal, ever changing, decaying and destroyed bodies – we are eternal souls. When we say “I”, we refer to the soul inside our body and not our body as such.
It is like understanding something as basic as me and my vehicle are different. I should be driving my vehicle and not vice-versa. Vedas say that we are the drivers and our body is the vehicle.
As a matter of fact, we all have an intrinsic understanding that we are in fact souls and not our bodies or our mind. Think about the following statements – have we not said it or heard it at some point?
“I have conditioned my mind to think positively and not to expect anything”
“I have conditioned my body well through regular exercises”
What do the above statements indicate? That I see myself as different from my body and mind – as if I am above both of them and am in a position to control both of them. True. This is what Vedas also say – that you are a “soul” (“jeevaathma” or “aatma”) and not the body.
But too often, we forget this and think more from the angle of the body. The moment we get this clearly that we are “the soul” and not “the body” we have started recognizing the realities around us.
So, what is this soul stuff? Vedas say that we as souls are eternal in nature like energy – neither created nor destroyed, but take different bodily forms due to our various “karma”. And what exactly is karma?
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