Harmony Quote

Saturday, 13 June 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

“The senses have been conditioned by attraction to the pleasant and aversion to the unpleasant; we should not be ruled by them; they are obstacles to our path.”

– Bhagavad Gita

We are conditioned to like some things and to dislike others. There is not necessarily any logic to it – it is often just a matter of habit.

Take food for example. We like what we learn to like. In Kerala we have a particular kind of mango that is eaten green, when it is acutely sour. There is nothing inherently pleasant about this sensation; in fact, a detached observer would call it painful. But everybody likes it; everybody eats it; so you learn to like it too. And in the end, you cannot do without it.

Beneath all likes and dislikes is a basic compulsion of the mind to pass judgment on everything; “I like this, I don’t like that.” When this compulsion is rigid, it is rigid everywhere, with food, with philosophies and especially with other people.

So, when we free ourselves from a compulsive liking for sour green mangos, or chocolate cake or red chilies, the whole likes and dislikes compulsion is weakened. As a result, all our other likes and dislikes will have a looser hold on us, giving us greater freedom, which will affect even our personal relationships for the better.

(From ‘Words To Live By’ by Eknath Easwaran, founder of the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation,

copyright 2005; reprinted by permission of Nilgiri Press, P.O. Box 256, Tomales, Ca 94971, www.bmcm.org.)