“Never Eat Prunes When You Are Famished” (Murphy’s Law)...Prison in Paradise

“Why the humorous title?”, you might ask. I believe in warming my readers up before the cold sentences ahead. After reading The Fourteenth Teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, I am stunned by a crude reality. A truth that is so revealing, that I’m curious about why none of us ever realized it sooner. Krishna explains the obvious to us in four simple, yet powerful lines, when he states that “The fruit of good conduct is pure and untainted they say, but suffering is the fruit of passion, ignorance the fruit of dark inertia.” (Gita 14.16). I have defined the passion that was stated as the human’s love for material objects. From love relationships to a truckload of money, attachment only leads to pain because of the ease with which material stuff come and go. A great example of material stuff’s ability to move around is the recent drop of the stock market. Many people who used to have money, got used to having it, and their greed grew, which led to their ambition for more. This eagerness, as we all now, has led to much suffering worldwide. People who don’t get attached to material stuff don’t miss it when it’s gone.

Another very important analysis which Krishna has provided us with, is that of people’s lethargic attitude towards change. Habits are something that enslave people… No no, forget habits. Everything you do each day has been designed by your brain. It has given you a sense of comfort in which you find yourself at ease and without worry. This routine of doing certain actions and not doing others, is called the comfort zone, as mentioned in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. When people are in their comfort zone, they are reluctant to stray from it. They do not wish to wander into the unknown in which they encounter new feelings, experiences, and people. This is because the motivation needed for this is nonexistent. We are very comfortable beings. Why would we stray from path if are already comfortable in it? From this form of thinking, people live their whole lives in a small circle which they have created to enslave themselves to isolate themselves from uncalculated possibilities. This leads to ignorance, and to a certain extent, fear. The way in which Krishna explains it, I have come to believe that ignorance is the absence of the idea of God within a person’s way of thinking. It is much easier to simply believe in the proven dinosaur era, the evolution of man, and the creation of the universe having occurred during a period lasting millions of years, rather than the 7 day creation allegation which religion teaches us to be the correct one. We are in the comfort zone in which we are unwilling to stray from. All this does, is that it disables the mind of its capacity to accept other possibilities. It makes the mind stubborn and ignorant.

Ignorance (as defined by the Gita, and as commonly used), is not something we like to have. The problem is that although we don’t want it, we lack the will power to rid ourselves from it. We lack the motivation which would cause us to exit from our comfortable prison. For this reason, as people get increasingly comfortable in their new home, they start their life-long addiction which will ultimately lead to their ignorant death.