Sanatan Jyoti - Bharat Sevashram Sangha

ETERNAL LIGHT ♦ SANATAN JYOTI ♦ 2013into the same room when it is not dark but doesn’t have the light on either. This maybe a rough way of understanding the difference between Moksha & Nirvana.In our modern world & contemporary living we cannot but agree withBuddhism’s direct take on pain & beyond. As Buddhism continues to explore thecause of ‘Sarvam Dukham’ and finds it to be our endless hankering for what wedon’t have or cannot possess, this analysis too turns out to be such an honestadmission of a basic human folly that we can instantly connect with it. How we candeal with, control & overcome our errant desires by Right Speech, Right Hearing &Right Vision is then elaborated in the Noble 8 fold path & is understandable also.Hinduism delivers the same message in a roundabout, more suggestive oreven more poetic way, (though critics have often called it an attempt at escapism ordenial) when it says that most of life’s problems are created by ourselves due toMaya or the possessiveness we develop for animate & inanimate things around us.Control of body & mind (through Yoga & meditation) are thus advocated as ways offreeing ourselves from this predicament. If & when we are able to get to that stageof understanding Hinduism talks of pursuing the path of self realization leading toMoksha or complete unadulterated Bliss, Anandam.If Moksha & Nirvana are both ideals to be pursued & possibly attained & if thepurpose of philosophy is not only to explain how & why but also to provide a viableanswer to what if in human existence, then which concept delivers a more feasible &comprehensible answer? Is it the one that we can relate to with our contemporarylogicality or the one that requires a lot of intellectual skill & some imagination? Thisis a dilemma that has always haunted me.As my friend put it in a slightly different way, can we be happy going throughlife constantly challenging ourselves, ever struggling towards a Super Positive statewhere nothing is absent or does happiness lie in being realistic about the limits ofour thought & reach & still aiming for the best, knowing that that in itself is perhapsthe only Perfection?~~~18BHARAT SEVASHRAM SANGHA OF NORTH AMERICA, CHICAGO