Hurdles On The Path

Within man, an unquenching, eternal hunger is ever-present. A hunger that doesn’t let him either live or die. Forget about feeding the hunger, he is ever unconscious that it’s even present.

And it’s the same hunger for which one is running in a bar or a temple. Where they run is irrelevant. The point is he finds himself incomplete, inadequate, and like the fish which is out of water and struggling.

Even a fish struggling in the sand has more wisdom than man. At least she knows why is she struggling. She knows her destination, her home. She only has to gather strength enough to jump back in the water – and her suffering ends.

But man has forgotten. He is out of the water, out of his infinite source but forgot! Now just imagine his suffering. A fish out of the water, struggling for every breath, but starts to run in the opposite direction! 

One fish starts to run towards the temple! Because all of his scriptures, pundits, and so-called holy people said that if he runs for the temple all of his sufferings will dissipate. And the thing to wonder is, the water was only meters away. But he chooses to run away from the water. And in the direction where he is running, he is bound to find only those who too are out of the water and struggling themselves!

Now, what do you think will satisfy the fish hopping for every breath of life? Only the journey back home. But now once forgotten the source, the fish will attempt many impossible experiments.

• He will feed himself and expect her struggles out of the water to go away!
• Try all sensory pleasures to satisfy hunger.
• Will try religions, philosophies, beliefs, theories, and scriptures. Anything that will claim to fulfill himself.
• And see the greatness of man, when nothing will work, then once forgotten the source, he will try his best to forget his struggles too, by getting drunk more and more.

And to get drunk there are a million ways more than just hitting the bar. One can be drunk on almost anything, from anything grand as running for political power, to as mundane task as shopping.

Forget of those fishes running away from water to satisfy themselves, even those who choose to return, make the returning too into a way to get drunk and forget the suffering.

The returning fish will start to feed on the scriptures, read-listen the words of enlightened masters, join extreme religious groups, will dress like a Buddha, and somewhere by getting lost in these, will desire to make his suffering disappear.

And so the first hurdle on the path- Taking the wrong direction.

If your first step is in the wrong direction, now it doesn’t matter how much determination, and hard work you put in, you are bound to fail. The fish will never find satisfaction running away from water.

So, how does one overcome the first hurdle?

Realize that the source is within! Misery, sadness, happiness, ecstasy, all emotions are caused from within. We may use an external person, event, or object as a stimulus but the source of our happiness is within.

Go to a neurosurgeon and try to do all that makes you happy while recording your brain waves. Be it dopamine, serotonin, or any other blissful experience, notice that is happening within. Not coming out of an apple, wine bottle, person, video games, and entering you! They are generated within.

Upon the dawn of this realization- “the source to all is within”, all the hankering and running of a person for the “pursuit of happiness” disappears. You still hold the freedom of choice to go into a relationship, job, or your dream pursuit; but your life won’t be any more of ‘extraction of joy’ rather it will be of an ‘expression of joy’.

Above all, by living this truth, not just on the intellectual level, but rather on experience, serene contentment surrounds such a person. Then he doesn’t need to renounce any sensory cravings and habits. They all fall by themselves, by the simple fact that he no more runs nagging his tail behind them. He drinks from the source. He is the source.

IC