Social Gatheka Number 5

Does happiness depend upon the condition in life or upon an outlook on life? It is a question which is very often asked and it is most difficult to answer. Many with philosophical knowledge will say, this material world is an illusion and its condition a dream, but yet there are very few who can make themselves believe it. To know a thing in theory is different from practicing it. It is most difficult in this world to rise above the effect that conditions produce. No doubt to rise above conditions there is only one thing that helps and that is a change of outlook on life and this change is made practical by the change of attitude.

In the language of the Hindus life in the world is called samsara. It is pictured as life in a mist. One thinks and says and does and feels and yet does not know fully why. If a person knows one reason for it, there is another reason hidden behind which he does not yet know. Very often condition in life shows a picture of captivity, often it seems as if one had to walk between the water and a pit. And to rise above conditions one needs wings, which not everybody has.

The wings are attached to the will, one is independence the other is indifference. Independence needs a great deal of sacrifice in one's life before one can feel independent in life. Indifference against one's nature of love and sympathy is like cutting one's heart asunder before one can practice indifference through life. No doubt once the will is able to spread its wings then one sees the conditions of life far removed, one stands above all conditions that makes man captive. The is no difficulty which cannot be surmounted sooner or later, but even if one has achieved something one desires in life there is something else in life that seems to be unfinished and so if one went from one thing to another achieving all he desires, the object of his desire will multiply and there will never be an end to one's desire.

The more one has to do in life the more difficulties he has to meet with. If one keeps away from the life of the world then his being here is purposeless. The more important the task the more difficult to accomplish it. And so every evening follows the day and goes on till eternity. For a Sufi, therefore, it is not only the patience to bear all things but to see all things from a certain point of view that can relieve him for that moment from difficulty and pain.

Very often it is the outlook on life which changes the whole life for a person. It can turn hell into heaven, it can turn sorrow into joy. When a person looks from a certain point of view, every little pinprick feels like a point of sword piercing through one's heart. If one looks at the same thing from a different point of view the heart becomes stingproof, nothing can touch it, all things which are thrown at that person as bullets drop down without having touched him.

What is the meaning of walking upon the water? Life is symbolical of water. There is one who becomes drowned in the water, there is another who swims in the water, but there is another one who walks upon it. The one that is so sensitive that after having one little pinprick he is unhappy all through the day and the night is the man of the first category. The one who takes and gives back and makes a game of life is the swimmer. He does not mind if he received one knock, for he derives his satisfaction from being able to give two knocks in return. But the one whom nothing can touch is in the world and yet is above the world. He is the one who walks on water. The life is under his feet, its joy and sorrow both.

Verily independence and indifference are two things which enable the soul to fly.