Vedantham : ( 07/11/2012. )

Chapter-3. A Philosophic Outlook of Life Part-11. When we feel that we cannot receive answers to any important question in life, we feel miserable indeed. It is worse than being in a concentration camp. "What is going to happen to me?" "Where am I?" "And why am I here?" Oh! We cannot rest, we cannot sleep, and it is impossible for us to have a moment's peace. Thus, a truly philosophic mind cannot rest in peace until it gets an ultimate irrefutable answer – not to one or two questions only, but to every question pertaining to every type of existence. These are the philosophic minds, and you know the difference between a philosophic way of thinking and a commonsense way of thinking. Do you believe that it is necessary to know the reason behind things? Or will you be satisfied by merely reacting to phenomena or events that occur outside? Why is there a curiosity to know things? "What is there above? If I go up, what will ...

Chapter-3. A Philosophic Outlook of Life Part-10. When we feel that we cannot receive answers to any important question in life, we feel miserable indeed. It is worse than being in a concentration camp. "What is going to happen to me?" "Where am I?" "And why am I here?" Oh! We cannot rest, we cannot sleep, and it is impossible for us to have a moment's peace. Thus, a truly philosophic mind cannot rest in peace until it gets an ultimate irrefutable answer – not to one or two questions only, but to every question pertaining to every type of existence. These are the philosophic minds, and you know the difference between a philosophic way of thinking and a commonsense way of thinking. Do you believe that it is necessary to know the reason behind things? Or will you be satisfied by merely reacting to phenomena or events that occur outside? Why is there a curiosity to know things? "What is there above? If I go up, what will I s...

Chapter-3. A Philosophic Outlook of Life Part-9. These are the difficulties of a philosophic mind. It cannot be easily satisfied with mere perceptions of things. We see a man dying, and the matter is over. He has gone. But the philosophic mind cannot be satisfied merely with seeing somebody going. "Where does he go?" "What happens to that person that has gone?" "From where has that person come?" "What is the reason why we cannot even know our own future the next moment?"  "What is this big world around us?" "From where has it come?" "Who made it?" "Or has nobody made it, and it is just there as it was?" These questions require an answer. "Does the world exist as it is?" "Is it its own creator?" "Or does it have no creator?" "Has somebody made it?" "If somebody has made it, where is that somebody?" These are als...

Chapter-3. A Philosophic Outlook of Life Part-9. Children put questions sometimes: "Where does the sun go in the night? Nobody knows what has happened to the sun. We see him coming from the east and jumping down into some pit in the evening, but in the morning again we see him from the same place. How does he jump from the west to the east?" Children think that sun must be jumping in the night when they are fast asleep. One boy gave this answer. I asked him, "How does the sun again come from the east?" "He must be coming suddenly in the night when we are asleep, and so in the morning he is again starting his drama." These are questions which occur to children's minds: "Why does the sun not fall on our heads? There is no support in the sky. The stars, the moon and the sun are all hanging in empty space, without any support. Why do they not fall on our heads?" We may put such questions, and easy answers do not c...

Chapter-3. A Philosophic Outlook of Life Part-8. We will never be satisfied unless we know the ultimate meaning of things. "Why all this?" "What is all this?" These questions come to our mind. "What is the matter?" We go on asking, but no answer comes. "Why do we do anything at all?" "Why should anyone do anything?" "What is the matter with people?" "Why are they so busy?" "Why do they run?" People run physically, as well as mentally. "What has happened to people?" "Why do they not keep quiet?" They cannot keep quiet because the pressures inwardly felt in the psyche, as well as felt from outside – from society and nature – compel them to be very vigilant and active, perpetually. These questions arise. They are a set of one type of question. Swami Krishnananda To be continued  ...

Chapter-3. A Philosophic Outlook of Life Part-7. Now, our life normally, empirically – in the ordinary sense – cannot be considered really as an act of freedom. We have to eat because we are hungry; we have to drink because we are thirsty; we have to sleep because we are tired; and we have to do many other things of this type, because we are pressurised by conditions of life which are manifold in their character. These are matters for deep consideration. How is it that life should be made in this way? Why should there be a need to eat? Because there is hunger. There the answer is clear, and there is no need to put further questions. Everyone knows why one eats. But it is not enough for a philosopher to know that hunger is the reason behind eating. That is only an immediate cause, a visible reason, that we are placing before our mind to explain our act of eating. But why should there be hunger? This question can be put only by a philosopher. An ordinary ...

Chapter-3. A Philosophic Outlook of Life Part-6. We may be running for two reasons. We may be a participant in a race, and we are running continuously for a long distance because we have taken part in the race and we want to win a prize. We may regard it as an act of freedom : "I am running because I want to run. I have enrolled myself as a candidate in this race. So, in this running, I am exercising my own free choice." But suppose we are running because a hundred monkeys are pursuing us, a tiger is chasing us, an elephant is attacking us, and because we are chased from all sides by these wild animals we run for our life; do we call it a free act, though we are running in the same way as we ran in a race? Therefore, the action may be the same outwardly – in both cases it is running – but they are two different things altogether. In one case, we exercise a freedom. In another case, we are forced to run due to reasons beyond our control. Swami Krishna...