All of us are after gain or profit avoiding the possibility of any loss in our dealings. When we are involved in our everyday life with the things and affairs of the world, gain and loss are measured according to materialistic standards. Until we become conscious of a principle that transcends matter, our needs and desires are limited to our body and the surrounding world. In such a scenario, our happiness is equated with material gain that turns out to be unsustainable. The underlying reason for the dissatisfaction lurking even in our achievements is the fact that we are essentially more than matter and nothing finite can effectively quench our infinite thirst for more and more of everything.
In this perspective, we may try to understand the words of Jesus, the supreme master of spirituality, about the futility of gaining the whole world at the expense of one's own soul. What will we give in exchange for our soul? (Matthew, 16:26). The only way to gain our true self is to deny our apparent self (see the next post for the difference). This is the gateway to perfect and permanent happiness (Matthew, 16:24; Mark, 8:34; Luke, 9:23).
The subconscious objection in our minds to this proposal is that we would prefer to keep the one bird we have in our hands to the two in the bushes. What we see and perceive right in front of us seems to be more real than something invisible and attainable only throgh faith, hope and love. However, even in our daily life we gamble so much on uncertain and future gains, for instance, when we make investments. The money I could have lavished on a luxurious life now, I decide to invest in Bank, real eastate, stocks etc. Here happiness depends on uncertain future gains that may turn out to be a big loss and disaster. Besides, the objection arises from a misconceived notion about life in this world and the world to come and the interconnection between the two.
In the Old Testament story of Esau and Jacob, we see how Esau, the elder brother, sold his birthright to his younger brother, Jacob (Genesis, 25: 29-34). His logic for the same is irrefutable: what use is my birthright, if I die of hunger from which the pottage prepared by Jacob could save me? Esau's thinking was justifiable since the birthright and its advantages could benefit him only if he was alive in the first place. His fault was in despising his birthrigh(verse34). However, this is not the case with the needs of the body and the soul in view of perfect and permanent happiness. The Letter to the Hebrews 12:16 advises the faithful not to be immoral or unspiritual like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. Jesus wants us to shed our fake and apparent self by losing ourselves inorder to gain ourselves. Our usual self in interaction with the world is body- centered ignoring our soul and so is not real. Our real self will shine forth when we allow our soul, that is the powerhouse vivifying our body and sense organs, is accorded its due place.This is the way to perfect and permanent happiness.
The upshot of the messge is that a person who amasses wealth without being rich in the sight of God is really a fool. The parable of the rich fool in Luke's Gospel,ch.12:13-21 conveys this truth beatifully. The context was the seemingly just demand of a man in the crowd for the intervention of Jesus for division of property with his brother. He was asking for his rights through the mediation of a repectable master for the property left by his father. Jesus asked the man who appointed him a judge to divide their property and warned the people to watch out and guard themselves from every kind of greed. The reason is that a man's true life is not made up of the things he owns, no matter how rich he may be.
To illustrate this truth, Jesus told the parable of the rich fool whose land bore rich crops. The man was overwhelmed by the abundance of things that he was worried about the storage capacity for the produce. He calculated that building larger barns after pulling down the old ones with less capacity, he would be able to store all his grains and other goods. Then he would say to himself: "Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink and enjoy yourself" (12:19). But God had other plns for him as that very night he would have to give up his life. Who, then, was going to get all those things he had piled up?
The point here is not so much about his afterlife, but about this very life on which he trusted and for which he provided without any thought about his real welfare. He completely left out God and and the needs of his own soul from his scheme of things and that was his mistake, not that he provided for himself for his life in this world.
In this perspective, we may try to understand the words of Jesus, the supreme master of spirituality, about the futility of gaining the whole world at the expense of one's own soul. What will we give in exchange for our soul? (Matthew, 16:26). The only way to gain our true self is to deny our apparent self (see the next post for the difference). This is the gateway to perfect and permanent happiness (Matthew, 16:24; Mark, 8:34; Luke, 9:23).
The subconscious objection in our minds to this proposal is that we would prefer to keep the one bird we have in our hands to the two in the bushes. What we see and perceive right in front of us seems to be more real than something invisible and attainable only throgh faith, hope and love. However, even in our daily life we gamble so much on uncertain and future gains, for instance, when we make investments. The money I could have lavished on a luxurious life now, I decide to invest in Bank, real eastate, stocks etc. Here happiness depends on uncertain future gains that may turn out to be a big loss and disaster. Besides, the objection arises from a misconceived notion about life in this world and the world to come and the interconnection between the two.
In the Old Testament story of Esau and Jacob, we see how Esau, the elder brother, sold his birthright to his younger brother, Jacob (Genesis, 25: 29-34). His logic for the same is irrefutable: what use is my birthright, if I die of hunger from which the pottage prepared by Jacob could save me? Esau's thinking was justifiable since the birthright and its advantages could benefit him only if he was alive in the first place. His fault was in despising his birthrigh(verse34). However, this is not the case with the needs of the body and the soul in view of perfect and permanent happiness. The Letter to the Hebrews 12:16 advises the faithful not to be immoral or unspiritual like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. Jesus wants us to shed our fake and apparent self by losing ourselves inorder to gain ourselves. Our usual self in interaction with the world is body- centered ignoring our soul and so is not real. Our real self will shine forth when we allow our soul, that is the powerhouse vivifying our body and sense organs, is accorded its due place.This is the way to perfect and permanent happiness.
The upshot of the messge is that a person who amasses wealth without being rich in the sight of God is really a fool. The parable of the rich fool in Luke's Gospel,ch.12:13-21 conveys this truth beatifully. The context was the seemingly just demand of a man in the crowd for the intervention of Jesus for division of property with his brother. He was asking for his rights through the mediation of a repectable master for the property left by his father. Jesus asked the man who appointed him a judge to divide their property and warned the people to watch out and guard themselves from every kind of greed. The reason is that a man's true life is not made up of the things he owns, no matter how rich he may be.
To illustrate this truth, Jesus told the parable of the rich fool whose land bore rich crops. The man was overwhelmed by the abundance of things that he was worried about the storage capacity for the produce. He calculated that building larger barns after pulling down the old ones with less capacity, he would be able to store all his grains and other goods. Then he would say to himself: "Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink and enjoy yourself" (12:19). But God had other plns for him as that very night he would have to give up his life. Who, then, was going to get all those things he had piled up?
The point here is not so much about his afterlife, but about this very life on which he trusted and for which he provided without any thought about his real welfare. He completely left out God and and the needs of his own soul from his scheme of things and that was his mistake, not that he provided for himself for his life in this world.
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