“Listen to me; do not stay up all night at this blog.”

“You shouldn’t really fill your stomach with ice cream.”

“You should start being an adult.” then again “What, don’t talk like that. You’re just a kid!”

“Never judge a book by its cover.” yet “How could you possibly be friends with that person, he doesn’t even look right.”

Well, how does right or wrong change with different persons or under different circumstances, for that matter?

We have all been there and are clearly bonding over the above set of statements.

This brings me to question the whole concept of right and wrong. How did it start? What could have been the first ever rule book or the first scenario of judgment.

No, I am not talking about the constitution and definitely not about the individual choices, they are truly personal.

I am more intrigued with finding the answers through religion. I am referring to the time of intuition of the first set of traditions that we are following as rules, the first seed of thought that stemmed into spiritual paths of righteousness.

Let us travel back through time to find our answer.

700 BC.

To the land of Upanishads, the age of Vedanta and a little tint of sepia.

To Hindustan, the present day India.

When people got tired of riding the tides of caste system they took to the caves of meditation and discovered ideas of Karma and Rebirth, right like enlightenment in the caves.

The early versions of Upanishads said, “Samskaras are impressions of Karma embedded in silence in the unconscious mind, which is their store house. A new born baby carries forward into this world from his previous birth the old samskaras in his unconscious mind. He gathers in this world also, the new good and bad samskaras. Evil samskaras can be washed away in this world by the good ones in proportion to the quantity present. These good and bad samskaras remaining at the end of one’s carrier give personality and color to the possessor reflected in habits, nature, behavior and inherited tendencies. A rishi maybe able to write a balance sheet and assess your distance from the goal of Moksha or how many more rebirths are waiting.”

So, Karma is like your register of good and bad deeds that Santa has to check before he visits you for Christmas. Just this one extends beyond your whole single lifetime.

This was the time when the newer branches, Buddhism and Jainism emerged. They stood aloof from the orthodox cultures and believed in salvation or focusing on character and ethical stature to be freed from the cycle of life.

You can go through the green tunnel, take the brick bridge, swim alongside fish that look Chinese or climb the tree to the sky. All of these representing different religious paths followed within the same game, Hinduism. Not done yet.

You still have to survive all the stages which the Buddhists believe are eight in total. Maybe you could dodge a few with cheat codes that are like memorizing the Gita to perfection. You have a number of lives to pursue this mission, although this for us is good news, we start back at the previous checkpoint and have to go through the same cycle of life. You procure your own food, sometimes kill the little mud mounds to reach your extra life and go behind the shiny coins, all of these actions are registered up there under the good and bad deeds sections. The ultimate goal is to reach the princess’s castle tiled in gold as Moksha and what is the most important ingredient, the game spirit.

This has already been leafed in the Bhagavad Gita.

“Work alone thou art entitled to, not its fruits; never work for reward in this world or in heaven, nor desist from work, work with an even mind without attachment. You are only an instrument, I have already slain them.”

This quote brings to light two important ideologies.

The first is to work without expectation.

Krishna said, “In whatever way men worship me, the same way I fulfill their desires.”

Various approaches of spiritual attainment, through knowledge, meditation, love and devotion have been described in the Gita. But the special emphasis was on Karma yoga, which is work and action.

Believe in yourself and worship your work, you will excel in the path you have chosen.

Don’t all of us take that one step back, to reach the highest point on the flag post, to score the perfect 800?

Sure, it is wonderful when the flag is raised and there are fireworks at the castle.

And there is the second, which differentiates the real self from the temporary body.

“You are only the instrument, I have already slain them.” This sounds more like match fixing.

But, if we look closely both the above statements are interrelated. Of course they are spoken by the same person.

He means material designations or in the above case expectations do not apply to the eternal soul and the ideas of reincarnation are natural extensions of this preliminary concept.

I came across an interesting analogy with respect to this interlinking.

Here the body is compared to a vehicle and the soul is compared to the driver. When reflected upon, this is the original scenario at the Mahabharata.

So, a car cannot run without a driver. Similarly, the body does not work without the presence of the soul. The driver may identify with his car and even feel kinship with drivers of a similar model. Similarly feelings of friendship or enmity arise from identifying with the body. The driver develops a deep attachment to the car, so in an accident he commonly cries out “You hit me!”

Although the driver is not the vehicle, he will move according to the nature of the car namely fast, slow, etc. If the soul identifies with the body in the same way, preoccupied with the body’s condition then he gets caught in a web of distress and happiness because the driver will not be satisfied maintaining the car alone without looking after his own needs. Similarly, looking after the body alone cannot satisfy the soul.

When in reality the driver can get out of one vehicle and drive another.

Similarly does the soul leave one body and enters another. This we realize is a reflection of the karmic cycle.

These notions of unchanging self and the ultimate need for self realization have always been at the root of Hindu attitudes towards many important issues.

“Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor any of these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.”

Bhagavad-Gita 2.12

 

All forms of yoga and spiritual discipline are aimed at realizing the true self. Only when one stops seeking external happiness and looks within, can one perceive the true self. According to the BhagavadGita, this can be achieved not only through study, meditation and renunciation but also by active and selfless performance of one’s duty

So the key is to realize that every match has been fixed and deliver irrespective of the result. The best part is that, it is fixed the way you believe in it to be. Think of the person you will be after the game and what you have contributed to it, not what the game gives you.

The path you choose does not really matter to reach your spiritual self. Happiness to the other person is not the same as is to you. Do not be afraid to create your different path, it’s just unique.

Right and wrong are not the terms, balance and imbalance are.

Go write to your heart’s content, eat all the ice cream you can and never let anything shatter your beliefs.

Live your life like the video game. Though it is not real or permanent, you define it. So, explore every door that opens and ring those registers until they are full. Never let the mud mounds, the red ducks, the fire breathing monsters or even the power cut bother you because this is not the end and also you are not alone. People have been doing this since 700 BC.

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