HOW TO OVERCOME TENSIONS AND HAVE PEACE OF MIND - 3
Several years ago, a book was published. The title of the book is, Main Currents of Western Thought. The author of the book is a historian, Franklin Baumer. He refers to our age as an “age of anxiety.” Wherever you go, you find people living under the pressure of worry or anxiety. Truly, our age is an age in which material comforts have grown beyond the expectation of man. But material comforts have not given man true satisfaction. And civilization, today, is sick. Those are the words of a number of modern thinkers who, surveying the situation of the world tell us that civilization is sick. Today, wherever you turn, you find there is the passion for power, the greed of gold, the lust for fame. Today, the nations are wandering in a jungle of darkness. Today, Humanity stands on the brinks of a precipice. Today, Mother Humanity is shedding tears, while her children are busy preparing nuclear weapons. Today, Humanity is as an orphan crying in the night, crying for the light. What is the reason?
The distinguished Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, diagnosed the illness of the present age as alienation from God. Civilization, he said, has become sick because it has alienated itself from God. Man has cut himself off from God, who is the Source and Sustainer of life. And man cannot live a healthy life, physically, mentally, morally, spiritually. The more we turn away from God, the more we shall continue to wander, the more restless will our hearts become. And Carl Jung also said: “It is easy enough to drive the Spirit out of the door, but when we have done so, the salt of life grows flat, life loses its flavour.”
Life seems to have lost its flavour, today. An ever increasing number of men and women, boys and girls, all over the world, say, “Life is not worth living! Life has no meaning!” Today, we seem to have more and more means, but less and less meaning. Is it not significant that the countries which claim to have highest per capita income are the countries in which you have the highest percentage of suicides? Material wealth and opulence on the one hand and suicides on the other: the two seems go together.
A number of people meet me and say to me: “Our life is full of tensions: what shall we do?” Modern life is an unbalanced existence. Everyone is racing for something he does not really want when he gets it. We are hurrying, hurrying all the time. Our pace needs to be slowed down. Hurry is the number one cause of tension. And whenever there is tension, we cannot put forth our best efforts. For tension uses up, burns so much of our energy, which we could utilize in better ways.
It is not only when people are moving that they are in a hurry. Even while they are waiting, mentally they are in a state of hurry. Though they may be sitting in an outer office, waiting to be called in for their appointment, or they may be standing, waiting for a friend or for a bus, in their minds they are hurrying. It is this mental hurry that causes tension and keeps on adding to it, until it expresses itself in one physical ailment or another.
Several years ago, a book was published. The title of the book is, Main Currents of Western Thought. The author of the book is a historian, Franklin Baumer. He refers to our age as an “age of anxiety.” Wherever you go, you find people living under the pressure of worry or anxiety. Truly, our age is an age in which material comforts have grown beyond the expectation of man. But material comforts have not given man true satisfaction. And civilization, today, is sick. Those are the words of a number of modern thinkers who, surveying the situation of the world tell us that civilization is sick. Today, wherever you turn, you find there is the passion for power, the greed of gold, the lust for fame. Today, the nations are wandering in a jungle of darkness. Today, Humanity stands on the brinks of a precipice. Today, Mother Humanity is shedding tears, while her children are busy preparing nuclear weapons. Today, Humanity is as an orphan crying in the night, crying for the light. What is the reason?
The distinguished Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, diagnosed the illness of the present age as alienation from God. Civilization, he said, has become sick because it has alienated itself from God. Man has cut himself off from God, who is the Source and Sustainer of life. And man cannot live a healthy life, physically, mentally, morally, spiritually. The more we turn away from God, the more we shall continue to wander, the more restless will our hearts become. And Carl Jung also said: “It is easy enough to drive the Spirit out of the door, but when we have done so, the salt of life grows flat, life loses its flavour.”
Life seems to have lost its flavour, today. An ever increasing number of men and women, boys and girls, all over the world, say, “Life is not worth living! Life has no meaning!” Today, we seem to have more and more means, but less and less meaning. Is it not significant that the countries which claim to have highest per capita income are the countries in which you have the highest percentage of suicides? Material wealth and opulence on the one hand and suicides on the other: the two seems go together.
A number of people meet me and say to me: “Our life is full of tensions: what shall we do?” Modern life is an unbalanced existence. Everyone is racing for something he does not really want when he gets it. We are hurrying, hurrying all the time. Our pace needs to be slowed down. Hurry is the number one cause of tension. And whenever there is tension, we cannot put forth our best efforts. For tension uses up, burns so much of our energy, which we could utilize in better ways.
It is not only when people are moving that they are in a hurry. Even while they are waiting, mentally they are in a state of hurry. Though they may be sitting in an outer office, waiting to be called in for their appointment, or they may be standing, waiting for a friend or for a bus, in their minds they are hurrying. It is this mental hurry that causes tension and keeps on adding to it, until it expresses itself in one physical ailment or another.
-to be continued
(Author: Sri J P Vaswani)
