________________
Ans. The realization of transience and the direct ex
periencing of its reality, pushes a man in the direction of the eternal. The living form of transience is before us all. The people a man lives with, in whose company he spends his childhood and youth and with whom he plays and whose joys and sorrows he shares, all who ever loved one are ultimately burnt to ashes. Here one is face to face with the challenge of transitoriness. Waves arise in the ocean and subside. Similarly, in the world, things come into being and disappear. In such a state, if there is a steady companion for man, it is his own consciousness. Excepting his own consciousness, nothing else can give a man constant company.
In order to come face to face with the eternal, the simplest way is the contemplation of transience. Union and separation are inevitably interlinked. The man whose mind is permeated by this reflection, succeeds in breaking out of the circle of illusion. Only the sadhak who comprehends transience can pierce the veil of delusion and do obeisance at the altar of awakening.
Q. Every sensible person knows that the world is
mortal, that all worldly pleasure is fleeting, all union transitory and the individual himself lasts for a short time, and yet he is not able to come out of the illusion about the world, about pleasure, about one's kin and about himself. Why?
Ans. Mere theoretical knowledge serves little pur
- pose. Many people know many things, but do they achieve their goal? The way to realize anything is through constant practice. Eklavay's constant practice turned him into an eminent archer. Whether it be the path of art or of sadhana, without practice nothing is achieved.
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