Our teenage son is a video game addict. Whenever he has free time, he is sitting at his computer playing some game or the other. I got talking to him about his addiction.
KK: Son, i see you playing the same games again and again. What you are doing is basically the same every time. In one of the games, you seem to be having a gun with which you are firing onto enemy tanks. Essentially, you are just pressing the up/down/ right/left movement keys and the Enter key on the keyboard. I wonder why it entices you so much. How is it that you don’t get bored?
Son: Dad, though the game is the same, it proceeds in a slightly different way every time i play it. I face different challenges and manage different scores every time. When i get a good score, i am happy and feel encouraged to play it again to better my score. Even when my score is less than the previous occasions, i still feel challenged to try again and do better.
KK: When one game is over, it asks the question, “Restart (Yes/No)?” and you seem to be clicking the “Yes” button to start all over again. When do you think you will have had enough of one game? Son:Probably when i get the highest score. KK: So, until then, you will be at it, right? Son: Yes, Dad. (All this while, my wife who is listening to this conversation interjects at this stage and then the dialogue between the two of us takes on a spiritual flavour. Our son being too young to appreciate spirituality, he continued playing his game.) Wife: I am sure you have a spiritual reason for saying all this.
KK: Yes. The repetitive cycle of life is also like a video game. The jivatma (embodied soul) that is born into this world with a body, is addicted to the game of life. It keeps playing the game again and again, by bearing different bodies, even in different life forms, to enjoy different pains and pleasures peculiar to each species. At every death, the jivatma mostly chooses to click the “Yes” button to restart the game of life, although he has a choice of quitting.
Wife: What would make a jivatma choose the “No” button in answer for “Restart Life (Yes/No)?” question?
KK: When a jivatma feels he has had enough, he will choose the “No” button. That feeling of having had enough is called vairagya. Unless and until one develops that feeling, one remains enslaved by the enchanting game of life.
Wife: And how does one develop vairagya?
KK: Vairagya is the first step on the path of spiritual evolution ultimately leading to liberation from this game of life. The role of a true sadhguru is crucial in developing vairagya to kindle the spark of craving for liberation in the seeker. As the seeker keeps fanning the spark by means of regular spiritual practice, the spark turns to fire and burns away worldly desires and attachments. Ultimately, the seeker reaches a stage where he is ready to click the “No” button in answer to the question “Restart Life (Yes/No)?” at the time of death. That is when the jivatma is released from the repeated cycles of birth and death to go return to the paramatma or super soul which is the source of entire creation and whose small part the jivatma is.
a note of my friend Raj Thaker on FB ... my salute to him ...
KK: Yes. The repetitive cycle of life is also like a video game. The jivatma (embodied soul) that is born into this world with a body, is addicted to the game of life. It keeps playing the game again and again, by bearing different bodies, even in different life forms, to enjoy different pains and pleasures peculiar to each species. At every death, the jivatma mostly chooses to click the “Yes” button to restart the game of life, although he has a choice of quitting.
Wife: What would make a jivatma choose the “No” button in answer for “Restart Life (Yes/No)?” question?
KK: When a jivatma feels he has had enough, he will choose the “No” button. That feeling of having had enough is called vairagya. Unless and until one develops that feeling, one remains enslaved by the enchanting game of life.
Wife: And how does one develop vairagya?
KK: Vairagya is the first step on the path of spiritual evolution ultimately leading to liberation from this game of life. The role of a true sadhguru is crucial in developing vairagya to kindle the spark of craving for liberation in the seeker. As the seeker keeps fanning the spark by means of regular spiritual practice, the spark turns to fire and burns away worldly desires and attachments. Ultimately, the seeker reaches a stage where he is ready to click the “No” button in answer to the question “Restart Life (Yes/No)?” at the time of death. That is when the jivatma is released from the repeated cycles of birth and death to go return to the paramatma or super soul which is the source of entire creation and whose small part the jivatma is.
a note of my friend Raj Thaker on FB ... my salute to him ...
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