Talks on the Gita -Vinoba 66

Chapter 7 PRAPATTI OR SURRENDER TO GOD 33. Bhakti Results In Pure And Unalloyed Bliss 7. Why is man so devoid of joy that he seeks and finds some sort of momentary and illusory joy in the dance of those lifeless figures? Evidently, there is no real joy in life; that is why people go in for such artificial amusements. Once I heard drums beating next door. On enquiry, I learnt that it was to celebrate the birth of a son. Now, what is there so special about it that it should be announced to the world with the beat of drums? People even dance with joy and invite singers to sing on such occasions. Is it not childish? It is as if the world is famished of joy. Just as in the famine people rush in a frenzy at the sight of a few eatables, they jump at the slightest opportunity like the birth of a child or a cinema or a circus show, because they are starved of joy. But is this true joy? Waves of music enter the ears and strike the brain. Different forms enter the eyes and strike the brain. The impact of such sensations is the only source of joy for the poor fellows. Some stuff their noses with snuff, some smoke tobacco, and the kick they get thereby is a source of tremendous joy to them. Their joy knows no bounds when they lay their hands on a cigarette butt! Tolstoy has written that a man may even commit murder under the influence of tobacco. It too is a kind of intoxication. Why does man lose himself in such pleasures? Not knowing the real thing, he is infatuated with the shadows. His pleasures are confined to those derived from the five senses. Had he got a sense-organ less, he would have thought that there are only four types of pleasures. If tomorrow a man with six sense-organs comes down from Mars, such people would feel dejected at the thought that they can have pleasure only from five sense-organs instead of six and envying the man from Mars they would exclaim, “What a handicap we human beings on the earth suffer from!” How can man, with just five senses comprehend fully the meaning of creation in all its aspects? Restricted to five senses, he makes his choices within those limits and derives joy from what the senses offer him. He considers the braying of a donkey inauspicious. But is it not possible that an encounter with a man could be equally inauspicious for a donkey? You think that its braying will spoil or harm something that you are going to do. But is it not true that you could also be causing harm to others? When I was a student at Baroda, a group of European singers once came to our college. They were good singers and were trying their best. But I, being thoroughly bored, was waiting for an opportunity to slip out. I was not used to listening to that sort of music. I could not appreciate it. Singers from our country may face a similar response in Europe. What is sweet music to the ears of one is just noise for the other. It means that the joy it gives is not real joy; it is an illusory joy. Until we experience real joy, such illusory joy would enthrall us. So long as he had not tasted real milk, Aswatthama used to drink water mixed with grain flour, believing it to be milk. Once the true nature of things is revealed to you and you experience the true joy therein, everything else will pale into insignificance.