In English
When ego is awake, no wisdom can appeal
Consider this incident: A man suddenly loses his son and is in great grief. So a neighbour goes to him and tries to console and comfort him by various arguments and anecdotes. "My dear friend! Why is a man born? Why does he die? The reason why he was born also explains why he died. Birth means death. Fate plays strange games with us. We are but puppets in the show. What is the good of grieving over the dead?" He pours into the ears of the bereaved person all the (philosophy of detachment) he knows. But the grief continues as before until the man becomes aware of the truth himself, unaided. A few months later, the neighbour loses his son. Now the man who received all the a few months ago comes to him and repeats the same questions seriatim, He says that one lives only so long as one's (destined activity) lasts, and that one's life is. cut short when one has no more to atone for. It is all a question of paying off old debts. But these statements do not console the aggrieved neighbour, for the loss is entirely his. When ego is awake, no wisdom can appeal. The feeling, 'my son,' is the root cause of one's grief and another's calm. We build a house for ourselves and are happy it is 'ours.' When some one pastes a cinema poster on the wall, we feel 'our house' is tarnished and we even go to court to punish the offender. When the election time comes around the walls are disfigured by loud and loathesome slogans, and we quarrel with all and sundry for defacing 'our' walls. Some time later we sell 'our house' to someone and move off. After that, even if the house is bombed, we are not in the least worried. It was the ego that caused all the worry so long. How does this egotism get into our system? Is it a weed that grows in us and is cultivated by us until it destroys us root and branch? Where was this ego in the beginning? Where were we before we were born? Where will we be after we die? All our ideas and inferences are but products of the period between birth and death. When the girl you married was seriously iii as a child, you did not worry for she had not become 'yours.' We ourselves develop this attachment, as a cohesive and stablising factor in life. But we then allow it to grow into huge dimensions, till it hinders our spiritual progress. Cultivate love, not delusion. Love your wife and children and do your duty towards them as a husband and a father. But always hold on to the true values. Do not lose your sense of proportion.