Go back by 20 years and the video games available were Mario, bricks et al. Later, the games were upgraded and they became more interactive. Then there came games like Prince of Persia where human involvement increased; though both Mario and Prince of Persia were played using the same four buttons. Mario had only 8-10 stages; there were far more exciting levels. Next came motion sensors; today we have 3D games. You get into the game and feel that you are in real life. There may come a time when you will be able to put your consciousness into the character and be able to live in a virtual environment where you will feel pleasure-pain, death and birth. The knob and buttons being your five senses. In Mario, the player would collect gold coins; in this virtual game too, you will be busy collecting gold coins—better looks, bigger house, fancier car or a prettier girlfriend. You forget how many hours have passed. Then suddenly, the power goes off. You cannot retrieve the coins collected. You can use the coins within the game to buy the whole world but as soon as the game shuts down, reality sets in.
When the judge ordered Bhagat Singh to be hanged, he started laughing. He said, ‘What will you kill in me? Neither you are there nor am I. ” Today there is neither Bhagat Singh, nor the judge, nor the hangman, nor anyone else who witnessed the event. But we love and respect Bhagat Singh till date, implying that the energy remains while the body goes. He knew the way to get out of that game while the others were way too involved in the game to find out.
You live in the unreal world thinking that you have reached places, just like in war games there are one-star generals and two-star generals. But as soon as the game ends, you will meet the same end—the funeral pyre. Of what value will your rank or position be at that time? You are so involved in this unreal world that you have completely forgotten the reality. The sounds you hear are not the real sounds which you should be hearing; they are created sounds. The things that you see are not the real things that you should see; you are happy watching the simulation. You are in a game; in it you can put as many conditions as you want, but the moment the time allotted for your game ends or your soldier dies or your Mario falls, your score ends right there. It will not be carried forward to the next game—why you are under so much tension when you collect a lot of gold coins because you know that now you have only one life left. You started with three; two are gone in trying to collect the coins. When that last life also goes, you get a jolt, ‘It is all over, all the gold coins gone’. Then it flashes on the screen, “Want to play again?” And you say, “Yes”. Then starts another game with zero coins and you start collecting once again.
You must have observed that when you show off your gains to someone, the person may get jealous and if that very instant you make a mistake, the game gets over. You are disappointed but your friend is smiling. No one is happy seeing you gaining more coins. Those who are jealous do not realise that it is just a game. The one who understands this, knows the essentials of the game; he knows the exit route. When you see a child getting too engrossed in the game, you scold him and ask what he will do with those coins—you find it stupid. What you are doing in your real life is also just as stupid as that.
Understand what your life is, what the senses are and what the ‘gold coins’ are. Some energy somewhere has simulated this environment—what we call maya. Yet you have to play and play by the rules (of karma) in a detached fashion. Patanjali Ashtang Yog enumerates the eight limbs —yam, niyam, asan, pranayam, pratyahar, dharna, dhyan, samadhi. The yams are satya, asteya, aparigraha, brahmacharya and ahimsa; and the niyams are sauch, santosh, swadhyay, tapas and ishwar pranidhan. If you follow the yams and niyams, there is nothing or no-one that can touch you. You will still be playing the game, but will be away from it all; you will neither be involved nor engrossed in it, you will be detached and yet you will be enjoying it. You will enjoy the profit and the loss, a turmoil as well as celebration. People tell me that they have progressed on the path of yog, since they do not want much in life. A coin—whether it is iron, silver or gold—is only limited to the game. It is immaterial whether you want smaller things or bigger things. Come out of the game and for that you need to walk on the path in the correct way.
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