Pleasure is not the goal

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Posted by: " Ritu Arora " ritu.arora30 rt_arora30

Thu Nov 6, 2008 9:51 pm (PST)

 

Pleasure is not the goal.

 

Pleasure is not the goal of a man, but knowledge. Pleasure and

happiness come to an end. It is a mistake to suppose that pleasure a

goal. The cause of all the miseries we have in the world is that men

foolishly think pleasure to be the ideal to strive for. After a time

man finds it is not happiness, but knowledge towards which he is

going, and that both pleasure and pain are great teachers, and that he

learns as much from evil as from good.

 

....Good and evil have an equal share in moulding character, and in

some instances misery is a great teacher than happiness. In studying

the great characters the world has produced, I dare say, in the vast

majority of cases, it would be found that it was misery that taught

more than happiness, it was poverty that taught more than wealth, it

was blows that brought out their inner fire more than praise.

 

Sense-Happiness is not the goal of humanity. Wisdom(Jnana) is the goal

of all life. We find that man enjoys his intellect more than an animal

enjoys its senses; and we see that man enjoys his spiritual nature

even more than rational nature. So the highest wisdom must be this

spiritual knowledge.

 

With this knowledge will come bliss. All these things of the world are

but the shadows, manifestations in the third or fourth degree of the

real knowledge and bliss.

 

Only the fools rush after sense-enjoyments. It is easy to live in the

senses. It is easier to run in the old groove, eating and drinking;

but what these modern philosophers want to tell you is to take these

comfortable ideas and put the stamp of religion on them. Such a

doctrine is dangerous.

 

Death lies in the senses. Life on the plane of spirit is the only

life, life on any other plane is mere death; the whole of this life

can be only described as a gymnasium. We must go beyond it to enjoy

real life.