At some time in our lives, it is necessary to rise above the mundane experience that we have from birth until death. The culture in which we live, the times in which we live, the technological culture in which we live that has completely paralyzed us, it holds a big power over our minds. In India, with the technological advancement and development that is taking place, people are swayed by it. In the West people are steeped in it, but in India, even though they are overtaken by the technological culture, they know and really do believe in their hearts, that along with this technological culture, man has to face a new set of problems. Even experts, psychologists and thinkers have accepted that with this technological culture, modern man will have to face new problems.
With the technology that we have at our finger tips, life has become very easy. We have a lot of time. How do we spend it? We spend it with different types of amusements which titillate us, which make us very excited and agitated. That is how we spend our time, all our time. The free time that we have, because of technology, we spend in amusing ourselves, entertaining ourselves, finding new ways to excite ourselves.
That is how we spend our time, and problems keep piling up one by one: economic problems, family problems, social problems, emotional problems. So much so, that modern man is very restless, agitated and excited. He has so many different gadgets at his disposal for his amusement and comfort. He lives in luxury and comfort.
He may have all the luxuries and comforts, but does he have the appetite for them? Can he really enjoy them? You have the best house, the best bed, but you don’t get sleep at night. You have the best food, the best cuisine, but you can’t digest it. You have everything at your disposal, but do you really enjoy everything that you have? There was a time when the civilization in India was at its peak and people had all the luxuries and comforts, and they came to this one conclusion: that luxury and comfort make man lazy.
Luxury and comfort stagnate the mind. The mind becomes lazy, it loses the power of awareness. Struggle and difficulties awaken the mind, they awaken the power within you; they make you alert and aware. This is very simple logic. It is nothing great which I am telling you. If you have everything, naturally you are not going to be very alert and aware about things, but if you don’t have anything, every moment will be spent being alert for survival. But is survival the only thing in life? There is something more than that, which is awareness.
17 June 2011, Bulgaria