Beyond bondage

          “What was started to make my life better, made it worse than ever.”

The ordinary life is dull and boring. Nobody is satisfied with the way life is.  There’s just a preparation to live and no life in the moment. There’s competition, jealousy, fight, rage, anger, abuse and fake faces. No one wants to live such a life! Within everyone is frustrated, empty and dissatisfied.

So, we all want to experience beyond this mundane ordinary life. Some people are not courageous enough to go beyond, some people have hope for the future which is just like a mirage and it keeps them going, only to lead to the cemetery, and then there are some which decide to jump beyond this ordinary life, who decide to rebel. They are done with this lifestyle and want to experience something interesting. But they are groping in darkness and stumble upon to chemicals. Starting from smoking and drinking to drugs.

We are more knowledgeable and experimental than our previous generations and so to make life interesting, we start doing various things. But for how long can you play video games? How many movies can you watch? How many TV series can you see?  How much torrent would you download? Sooner, they get boring. Then, there’s a possibility to jump for chemicals. It spreads like fire, because one who gets addicted insists others to try. He needs a company.

You must have heard about the Punjab drug epidemic. 75% of Punjab’s youth is drug-addict. If not, go ahead and watch this and you’ll be shocked. A whole generation, treasure of the nation, is being lost in drugs. The usage is rampant in our society.

But what does one gets from drugs? Drugs loosens up the mind, one feels relaxed and in the present moment and can enjoy more in the activities. But what are the downsides? Let me draw a comparison with a lifestyle that I’ve been practising.

Let me share my observation of a close one in a rehab centre. I have seen the addiction building up over time, days of hangover and the impulse to do anything to satisfy the addiction.

Chemicals were consumed, and then came a falling back stage, the hangover. I’ve never see such ugliness and frustration in anyone’s life. On the other hand, let’s look at spiritual lifestyle where there’s no hangover. People who are deeply connected with the spiritual lifestyle don’t need any chemicals. Without any chemicals, we feel bliss. The peace and bliss is subtle, gradually grows and settles in you.  

Life becomes worse than the normal non-experimental people for drug-addicts. Gradually, they need drugs to function, to be in a good mood. They are always in a bad mood when they are not high. Slaves of the chemical! Depressed! Do you want to be slaves or liberated? How the body and mental level deteriorates is clearly visible whereas in spiritual living, body gets healthier and your mind becomes a master of moods, not a slave. There’s no empowering of impulses and mind doesn’t need a chemical to function.

In case of drugs, willpower disappears and you become a slave of your moods and impulses. Even if something convinced ‘him’ say, he knew leaving drugs was the right thing but there was no willpower to implement that. Momentary experience destroys the whole life. He lived for one thing and died for one thing and that is addiction!

There are hallucinations and experiences under the effect of chemicals. You can do anything when craving is there because you are no more. You might steal from sister, mother, home or anywhere because there’s craving and these are things which you will never do while you are in the normal state. Your conscious will tell you that stealing is wrong, but you’re helpless. Then, you will start living in guilt also. There is only love i.e. drugs, everything else doesn’t matter. And that is why the families of drug-addicts live a hell-life. On the other hand, spirituality brings freedom. Freedom from impulses and moods. You know what is right and you do that. In meditation, you encounter your true reality, there are no hallucinations. Relationships become beautiful. You start enjoying aloneness as well as togetherness.

Addiction is curse, an imprisonment. Spirituality is freedom. To stop this, people need to be given something that gives them the same feel as drugs. A new balanced way of living is badly needed so that we never think of going the chemicals way. A life full of meditation, creativity, love, celebration and wisdom is satisfying and brings bliss to the life. It has worked for me. Life has become beautiful, the spiritual way!

Watch: School of life