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96
Life of an aspirant
from the heat. The invigilant boy who wanted to make fun of others, met his death.
Impulses like anger, pride, delusion and greed are like the snake which sometimes lies dormant due to the cooling and serene effect of sādhanā. But by believing that our impulses have been completely vanquished, or that anger and greed have been dissipated, we tend to become careless and invigilant. Because, in reality, these impulses have only been temporarily rendered inactive or unconscious, they have not lessened but have been suppressed. They can easily be activated with the slightest provocation. Once they awaken, the aspirant-like-existence comes to an end.
The lad had made an error in calculation by assuming that the snake was dead, a mistake that cost him his life. Often, such errors are made by our aspirants in the sphere of sādhanā. As a consequence, people often judge them as proud and haughty, and shirk them away as fraudulant mendicants.
Recently, newspapers carried shocking reports on the gross negligence of renowned hospitals where doctors without careful examination, declared unconscious patients dead. Due to this callous error, those unfortunate people were made to lie along with dead bodies in the mortuary. When some of them regained consciousness, there was obviously an uproar against the negligence and insensitivity on the part of the doctors.
A similar kind of invigilance often derails the life of the negligent, unsuspecting aspirant. He commits a grave error by taking for granted, even for a moment, that all his negative or physical impulses are dead. Therefore, when these impulses surface unexpectedly, his actions cause distress to those around him. The person is also shocked at his own negative impulses. Constant introspection of the self is of extreme importance in order to keep our impulses in check.
Calmness in the face of fear is the sign of true renunciation. Succumbing to objects of fear is not true renunciation. Fear can direct even an animal to tread warily. Take the example of an
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