The Art of Living - Sri Ramakrishna’s Teachings - Swami Satyapriyananda

The millennium fever may have left us, but not without leaving many questions behind. Humanity as a whole is concerned today with many aspects of life and these need to be solved or resolved with greater urgency because time and space have been reduced to a point. Men and women are not machines—even machines wear out—and so they do need a certain measure of poise to be able to respond correctly, with clarity and humanness to various challenges. Matter and thought have been impinging on us from time immemorial, but in today’s world the frequency and intensity of the impact have both increased beyond measure and to an equal extent reduced our capacity to maintain our equipoise. We are easily thrown off from our moorings and react unpredictably and spontaneously. We do not have in us, in today’s world situation, that calm of the ocean which can absorb the fury of the many rivers that empty themselves into it.

No man is an island. His reactions—the result of others’ reactions on him—impinge on others who are as equally unprepared for them as himself. The result is a chain of reactions. Quite often it becomes explosive. Today men and women stop to ask: Can we be sure what the future holds for anyone in a world populated by men and women with a strong consumerist tendency? Can we be too sure that there will be a future at all in this conflict-ridden world with each nation vying with other nations in amassing lethal weapons? Can we be sure that highly cherished values of the past will ever find a place in society? What is the ultimate goal of human life and are we marching towards that goal? Does our present life indicate that our short-term goals are in keeping with our long range expectations? Questions like these can be stacked indefinitely.

© “The Vedanta Kesari” (December, 2000) published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, # 31, Ramakrishna Math Road, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004. (Website: www.sriramakrishnamath.org). Reprinted with permission.

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