Page 19 - TheJoyOfOneness_Demo

As per the Sanātana Dharma tradition, the journey of
obtaining mokṣa is purely an individual effort. The
ultimate truth that we are seeking is something that every
one of us must individually experience. Whether one may
acknowledge it or not, this is the goal of our life. Ultimately,
everything that we do directly or indirectly, is to reach that
destination. Practices such as prayer, bhakti, and upāsanā
serve as catalysts and they are only a part of the process
towards this direction.

While we work towards the destination, we don't seem to
know the right path, let alone the shortest path. If we ask a
cross-section of people to describe what they are trying to
achieve in this janma we may end up with different
responses. This includes, for example, “I am running an
organisation – want to become number one, I want to
prevail on others with my views so that they accept me as
their leader, I want to show my power, strength, and
influence, I want to become famous, I’m spending time
accumulating wealth”. Are these the right pursuits in our
life to reach the destination? Will these guarantee that we
will reach the destination in a finite time? Do we need
some references and guidance to make this journey
productive and worthwhile?

Let us understand this with an example. Consider that I
need to go to the airport in Bangalore from my home. My
ability to reach the airport depends on a few factors:
• Firstly, I should step on the road and not be sitting
idly at home simply uttering, “I want to go to the
airport”. This is called “puruṣa-prayatna”.
Depending upon the context, the nature of
prayatna may vary, but one can agree that
prayatna is fundamental.

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