Be Aware Of The Depression Of Success!🔗

Q: Swamiji, You talked earlier about the depression of success, which affects many people around the world. What if a young person has experienced this several times? Is there hope?

Please be very clear: Whatever you may have experienced is not depression based on success but depression based on failure. If you are still struggling to reach the material goals that you have set for yourself and you have failed repeatedly, then you have yet to experience the depression of success.

The depression of success happens only to mature people. It is a gift from the Divine and a luxury in life. I tell you, the depression of success is the ultimate luxury; all cannot afford it. To experience this depression you need two things - all your material needs must be fulfilled, and you need to have intelligence. Only when you have both, the external comforts and the intelligence to look beyond, will you experience the depression of success.

If you are depressed because of failure, it cannot be called depression. It is just failure.

There are people who come to me and say that when they came to the USA as immigrants, they had hardly any money, but they are millionaires today. They have everything that they always wanted, but now have forgotten why they wanted all this in the first place! Of course, the easiest answer to why you want wealth is to say that you want to be happy. But when you have amassed wealth far beyond your expectations, and still happiness seems far away, it should make you wonder why you worked so hard.

People keep acquiring, but possessions no longer bring enjoyment to them. There is no time for enjoyment since acquisition takes up all their time and effort. Then they experiment and keep changing all that they have, in the hope that the next possession may bring about happiness.

This happens a lot with modern day men and women. They change cars every year, homes every three years and their spouses every fifth year! And after all that, although the latest models should bring in greatest joy, unfortunately they don't feel satisfied.

In the vedic tradition there is no concept of divorce. There is no word in Sanskrit for divorce. It is not that our ancient vedic sages lived an unreal life and expected that there will be no marital problems. Their tradition was not based on changing the other person but changing one's own personality!

You can keep changing the objects and persons; there will be no end to it and no satisfaction either. With each change, your mind will demand more change. In French, I am told there is a saying: change leads to more change. Unless your mind changes you cannot reach satisfaction and fulfillment. It is this change of mind, this transformation, that the vedic tradition suggests and trains you for.

Depression of failure is easier to solve. Just work hard and smart. Focus on the present moment without worrying about the end result. This is what Krishna advises and it works. Non-attachment to possessions works just as well as non-attachment to people and relationships. It takes the stress out of your action. Instead of chasing deadlines and goals, you focus more on what needs to be done now, and make sure it gets done. This will solve your failure issues.

Giving up attachment to what you acquire and enjoying what you have in the present moment will solve your problem of depression of success.

Q: In many countries the death penalty has been banned as being inhumane. In others it is maintained as being essential to law and order. Which approach is correct?

In ancient Sumerian civilization the code of Hammurabhi declared: An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Some cultures still follow this logic. If everyone were to demand the next person's eye, soon the entire world would be one eyed at best!

Will it solve any problems? No.

Has the death penalty reduced homicidal crime rates anywhere? Statistics show otherwise. In fact, the most peaceful cultures are the tribal cultures in which all problems are resolved through mutual discussion and agreement. Courts of law, prisons and such other civilized societal solutions have not helped lower crime rates.

It has been established that meditation reduces crime rates. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Institute has done remarkable work in this field. They say that even if the square root of 1% of the population of an area meditates together, then in that location, mental attitudes change and crime rates are reduced. Experiments have been conducted successfully in Washington D.C. using this approach.

If a group of just about 10,000 people were to meditate together, they can bring about a beneficial change in the attitudes of people and in the environment. But this is too easy for most people. Our conditioning is such that we cannot believe such things can work. The human ego is violent by nature. We demand an eye for an eye, a body for a body. It is this inner violence that fosters crime. Rules and regulation, courts and prison cells can do nothing to change this. Violence cannot cure violence.

Transformation needs to happen within. No one can transform another person, especially by force. However, you can transform people by example. That is what Buddha meant when he urged his followers to light more lamps with the lamps that he had lit within them.

We have been doing meditation courses in prisons. Other organizations have also done this. We find that we are able to make a difference. Through the process of meditation, inner violence and negativities can be dissolved and genuine transformation can happen.

Instead of finding lasting solutions to the issue of why inner violence builds up and how it can be diffused, there is a lot of debate that goes on about how to execute death by law painlessly! When we condemn people to death by law we are still killing people. We are not in the enlightened state of Krishna to proclaim that the spirit lives on forever and therefore governments are free to kill in the name of justice!

Q: Swamiji, please comment on desires. Most masters recommend sealing of desires. How can this be done?

I can comment on desires but do not want to comment on what most masters recommend! I tell you honestly that sealing of desires cannot be done. Suppression will only lead to perversion and other difficulties. Transformation is the only possibility; suppression cannot be practised. Whether it is related to the senses, enjoyment, name and fame or anything, the more you suppress, the more you poison your system. All you can do is transform the desires. If you want this to happen, enter into meditation and let your energies be transformed. Except transformation, there is no other way to escape from desires. Just divert the energy and let it become pure. When you transform, you will have pure desire without it being directed towards any object.

Desire without object is energy. When your energy is attached to an object, it becomes desire and when the desire is detached from the object it becomes energy. That is why in vedic systems we call desire icchā shakti or desire energy. As long as there is no object, it leads you to bliss. When there is an object, it leads you to bondage. You can only transform or purify it through meditation. Never suppress it. Suppression only leads to more problems. Work for transformation, not for suppression.

Q: If the Self cannot be destroyed or harmed, it cannot be hurt. Why then do we feel pain and why does the body get hurt?

This was the question that in a way sparked off my spiritual quest!

When I was about ten, I went to listen to Annamalai Swamigal, an enlightened saint in my native place of Tiruvannamalai. He was giving a discourse on the great Vedantic truths and said that we are immortal and do not feel pain. That surprised me! I thought, ‘I have pain. If I am yelled at or if someone beats me, I feel pain. Then how can this statement be true?’ I already had a passion for the truth and the willingness to experiment to realise it. So I went home and cut myself on my thigh to check it out! It pained like crazy. I was scolded and taken to the doctor to be sewn up. It took something like thirteen stitches. The scar is still there! I went back to Annamalai Swamigal and asked why he told me there is no pain. He laughed and lovingly said, ‘Don’t worry my son. Your courage to test these truths will be enough to lead you to experience them.’ He then initiated me into a simple but powerful meditation technique that eventually led me to my first glimpse of the truth.

The body is the material aspect of the spirit; the body is matter and the spirit or Self is energy. The body is the shell of the energy or light of being. Body and matter perish, while the Self, the energy lives on. This body or body-mind is the collection of all our thoughts, desires, emotions and experiences. It is usually driven by our senses.

As long as we feel the difference between matter and energy, body, mind and spirit, we shall continue to feel the pain. When the understanding dawns that matter and energy are one and the same, that the Self is what drives the body-mind, then all the differentiation stops. You may still feel some pain in your body that is matter, but there will be no suffering.

This is why, when great masters like Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had cancer, they were still blissful; they had no suffering at all. Bhagavan used to say, 'Whose body is this?'

When the boundarilessness happens, as in enlightenment, when there is bodily pain, the awareness also happens that the body is mere matter; it is anyway perishable; there is something beyond that matter. Then there is no pain.

The next time you have pain, intensely focus on the pain. People normally advise you to divert yourself from the pain. That does not work; it returns the moment the diversion stops. Instead, focus on where the pain is.

Initially you will feel pain all over. When you focus, it will get limited to a certain spot. Finally it will reduce to a tiny spot. If you focus further, the pain will go away. The very attention you bestow on the body will provide the energy to eliminate the pain.

This is an excellent meditation. The focus that you give the pain will make you realize that you are more than the mere body. You will touch your energy base and realize that you are more than the body-mind.

You then enter the space that Krishna describes; you enter nityānanda, eternal bliss.

Q: If the body one takes is determined by what one does in the previous life, would it mean that evil persons like Hitler will continue to be reborn as evil persons? Is there no redemption for such people under this scheme of things?

One thing is certain; spirits of exceptionally ‘good’ people and exceptionally ‘evil’ people will have a more difficult time finding a suitable body than other more average spirits.

This does not mean that they have to continue with the same cycle. The cycle need not be always a virtuous or vicious cycle; it need not be one that constantly descends or ascends. Reversals are possible.

In Hindu mythology we have stories of many divine beings who are born as demons because of their mindsets, who after working off their vāsana become divine again. The great sage Valmiki who wrote the epic Ramayana was a robber. He was a ruthless killer who was transformed by the name ‘Narayana,’ (a name of Lord Vishnu) and while meditating upon that name was liberated. In Buddhist tradition there is the story of Angulimal, a dacoit who had vowed to kill a thousand people. He met Buddha and became a monk and a disciple.

Please understand that the creation of this mindset is not something that is destined. It is a choice we all have and it is a choice that all of us exercise knowingly or unknowingly. The problem is that most of us exercise it unknowingly. We let our mind drive us and form this mindset. We are like drivers who are driven by the car. But, we have a choice. We can take over and become the master of our minds. It may seem difficult initially but this is what the mind wants. Once you exercise control it becomes your valuable servant. You realize the unlimited potential of what your body-mind can do.

That is why in the true spiritual sense there is nothing that is inherently good or evil. It is all real only within a certain time and space. No one remains evil all the time and no one stays good all the time. We can rewrite our fate. Our destiny is in our hands.