The Ultimate is realized through the Immediate.

‘Disclaimer: Spiritual overtones. Enter at your own risk.’

‘What is the meaning of all this?’

A thought, I believe, most of us have encountered at some point or another. All of go through those phases of boredom and ennui when each day seems exactly the same as the previous one. There seems to be no meaning in what we do and we all harbor fantasies/ideas about pursuing some activity that, we believe, has always been our dream. We all feel that urge to just give up everything and retire to a peaceful retreat somewhere. And coming from a culture where renunciation has a certain glamour attached to it, certainly does not help.

So then, what is the meaning of all THIS (whatever the ‘THIS’ may signify)?

I feel that whatever the ‘THIS’, it has no intrinsic meaning of its own. Be it life, a job, a hobby or a relationship, none of these have an inherent meaning. The only meaning they have is the meaning that we bring to them.

And the greatest meaning that any of us could bring into our lives, jobs etc would be to learn. Life is not just about its material aspects, which is not to say that the material dimension is not important. It is. We are all born into it and live through it. But, there is a dimension which moves beyond. To understand this and to use the everyday reality to realize that Ultimate Reality is the greatest meaning that any of us can endow our lives with.

Often, we crave for the sacred while condemning what we think to be profane. But in life there is no division. The profane is the sacred and the way to the ultimate is through the immediate. As I had read somewhere, before the lotus becomes a lotus it has to move through the mud. If a lotus seed avoids falling into the mud, it will remain a seed and will never bloom as a lotus.

So is the case with us. The mud is the world and we are all lotus seeds, with the potential to bloom. But for that to happen, we need to get down and dirty. We need to move through the world of desire and illusion, of expectation and frustration. Only then is learning possible and learning brings transcendence.

So we all need to bring our own meaning into our lives and if we are unable to do that then it is not Life that we should blame.