Amma on Dharma and suffering.

[Guest guest]

Namaste, Latest from Amma ---------ONS..Saktidas/

Question – How can we be released from suffering?

 

Amma – Those who truly absorb spirituality and live according to

dharma do not experience sorrow. What is the use of just sitting and

crying if your hand is cut? You have to apply a salve to the wound. If

you just sit and cry, the wound could become infected and you could

even die.

 

Suppose someone verbally abuses you and you react by sitting in a

corner crying. You are unhappy because you accepted the abuse. If you

don't accept it, it becomes that person's problem, not yours. So you

have to disown it. If you act with discrimination in this way, you

will attain freedom from suffering.

 

Again, if your hand is cut, what is the use of pausing and analysing

how it happened—what type of knife caused the cut and so on—without

taking care of the wound?

 

If a person is bitten by a poisonous snake and just sits there,

brooding about the snake, death will come. Or let's say that someone

receives a snake bite. She rushes home, opens the encyclopedia and

tries to figure out what remedy to take. She will die before she

finally discovers that she needs a serum. When someone is bitten by a

snake, a serum is needed as quickly as possible.

 

When suffering comes our way, we should try to overcome it, rather

than weaken at the thought of it. Certain sages of old learned the

essential truths and applied them in their lives. If we heed their

words and live according to the scriptural guidelines, we can move

through any situation without faltering. Spiritual knowledge is far

more essential in life than worldly knowledge, for it teaches us how

to live in this world. For as long as we don't apply that wisdom in

our lives, we are travelling towards hell, both in this life and

hereafter.

 

Gurukulas teach people this spiritual wisdom—how to experience peace

in this world, how to lead a life without hardships. The spiritual

masters are the doctors of the mind.

 

Question – Aren't psychiatrists the doctors of the mind?

 

Amma – They treat the mind only when it loses its balance. A spiritual

master teaches us how to live in order to avoid any of that. This is

what gurukulas are for.