Living in a Mental Hell

 

Photo Credit: The New Indian Express

Living in a Mental Hell

Hell is always our own creation – whether we wish to live in heaven or in hell, we live in our own creation. This creative capacity and propensity lie between our ears – in our minds only. Nobody else is responsible. Don’t throw the responsibility onto God, fate, luck, society, economic structure. Don’t throw the responsibility on past lives, on others. We should take the whole responsibility on ourselves, because that is the only way to move, to change, to go beyond. The only cause of hell, the only cause of misery is us and nobody else. Except us, nobody can cause it. And it is not the past; we are creating it every moment.

Osho narrates a story which explains our predicament – there are two drunkards talking to each other in a pub. “My name is Viking”, says one. That’s strange says the other, “My name too is Viking, where do you live?” “Just across the street”, responds the first one. “Wowee! me too! Which floor?”, asks the second. “Third”. “Gosh! That’s where I live too.” At this point the bartender turns to another customer, and shaking his head says, “Every Saturday it is the same thing. They are father and son!”

We need to become a little more conscious. Watch how we create our hell. Watch carefully each step, and we will be able to find out how we create it. People only reap the crop they have sown themselves. To become aware of it is the greatest moment in one’s life, because from there transformation begins, from there a new life starts.

We have to take the whole responsibility of whatever we are, and wherever we are. This is the first principle of becoming sadhaks on the spiritual path. The whole responsibility is ours, don’t blame anybody, and don’t try to find causes somewhere else. It is easy, and it is the strategy of the ego always to find causes somewhere else, because then there is no need to change. What can we do? The society is wrong, the social structure is wrong, the political ideology is wrong, the government is wrong, the economic structure is wrong – everything and everyone else is wrong except us. We are beautiful persons having fallen into everything that is wrong. What can we do? Then we have to suffer, and then we have to learn how to tolerate.

That’s what people have been doing for centuries – learning tolerance. Swamiji doesn’t teach us tolerance; he teaches us transformation. Enough of tolerance! Tolerance means we have misunderstood the whole thing. Transformation means we have started to begin – at least the first ray of understanding has entered into us.

Now whatever it is, watch each step how it comes. If it is anger watch; if it is lust, watch; if it is greed, watch – these are the three poisons we need to be aware of. And through watchfulness we will be able to get rid of them. In fact, through watchfulness they simply start disappearing.