Because of the influence of beastly tendencies and impressions inscribed in its unconscious core (chitta) since earlier births, the human mind is usually attracted towards instinctive joys. Pleasures of sense organs set the basis of its amusement. People’s thirst for entertainment mostly revolves around fulfilling the greed of the tongue, carnal pleasure, sensual titillation, erotic imagination, sight of gorgeous scenes, watching physical beauty, and having luxurious comforts, etc. Lack of such pleasures or the force of mental lethargy and dullness, or some psychological complexes drive some people towards intoxication.
Cinema, TV, DVD-players and radio are by and large the most popular modes of amusement among the masses these days. However, even while ‘entertaining’ themselves via these mediums, people crave for lavish food and coziness for the body. Same is true in the case of hobby of tourism; so much so, that even while visiting the places of pilgrimage and offering customary rituals of worship, people often look for the most comfortable stay, and warm and tasty meals. Even their travel-kits are crowded with so many gadgets, as though they are arranging for a make-shift house. Thus in one form or the other, instinctive lust and sentient pleasures dominate one’s quest and feel of entertainment. But, as the thirst of sensual joys never gets quenched, none of these modes of amusement provide the real or lasting joy.
Many people enjoy relaxing idly. They eagerly await vacations and holidays. Even during the working days they look for excuses to have casual leave. Work appears a burden to them. They enjoy sleeping, eating and gossiping or watching movies in a cosy posture. Thought of duty or hard work puts them off. They often dream of getting relief from work and given a chance with somewhat reasonable lump sum or pension they opt for voluntary retirement. But once they are totally free from work, the joy of holidays begins to fade gradually. The same dull routine every day turns out quite boring. How much can one watch the TV and how much can one sleep on a routine basis? Monotonicity vexes their minds and non-activity rusts their alacrity and weakens their body part in several ways.
Physical activity is necessary for maintaining good health. Bedridden patients are also given physiotherapeutic exercise for some movement of their body parts. Without movement they would suffer from numbness and bed-sores. Physically handicapped persons are also taught special exercises for adept blood circulation and good health of entire body. If we don’t move our hands or legs for even a week or so, the muscles of these components will get stiffened. Movement and adequate physical exercises are also essential for proper digestion, respiration and blood circulation – functions that are fundamental to bodily health.
Prime difference between inanimate and animate world is activity. Mental activity is no less important than physical activity. Empty mind becomes a devil’s workshop. Untoward thoughts, haphazard imaginations and negative tendencies accumulate faster in an idle mind. Taking necessary sleep of 6 to 7 hours after hard work, and relaxing in between long stretches of thorough activity is fine but sleeping or lying down idly for the entire day is altogether different, it amounts to lousiness. Dreary and lethargic fellows are irritating burdens on the fellow beings. They live in a lacklustre or intoxicated kind of state, and are akin to being half-dead. In a state of sound sleep one can’t take care of one’s clothing, one does not even know whether one’s body is covered or not. Sluggishness of body and mind is worse, they turn one into a shameless, hopeless, cynical being. Prolonged laziness and insipidity result in fast mental and physical degeneration and drag one into the mire of self-deterioration.
Experiencing Entertainment:
Dullness is contrary to entertainment. Mental alertness and sensitivity is must to experience the real joy of any amusement. As such most of the world is made up of inert matter. Things by themselves can’t react and render any enthusing impact on us. Our sense organs can perceive only some properties of matter in their limited capacity. Then what makes us experience joy in material things? Experience is a faculty of the Consciousness Force (chetana); it is through this force that the mind feels and thinks while sense organs are only its tools. It is the individual self that feels joy, sorrow, repulsion, etc. with the help of the natural sensors of brain, eyes, tongue, nose, ears, genitals and skin.
Any facility, activity, interaction or experience becomes [1] entertainment only if you feel the pulse of joy in it. It is your emotional and mental conditioning, the level (state) and intensity of your chetan that feels this pulse. Your outlook is an expression of your emotional nature, a measure of your mental makeup. So the art of being happy or getting the joy of entertainment is basically the art of emotional fine-tuning, art of attitudinal refinement and being positive. The world around you is a reflection of your outlook. With broadening and illumination of your outlook you begin to see harmony in diversity. If you cultivate a temperament to see the good that dwells in everything in the world, in everybody you deal with, then there will be no dearth of happiness and enthusiasm in your heart. Positive thoughts will spark new energy and creativity in your mind and you will find yourself immersed in an ocean of joy and knowledge. The more you grasp and disseminate this enlightening joy, the wider and deeper would be its domain.
The light of bliss, the music of entertainment lies in your own self. The outer world and its activities are only mirrors or strings in which you see the glow of this light or play the melody of this natural music.
Shades of Outlook:
The famous anecdote of epic “Mahabharata” reminds us of this fact: Once Guru Dronacharya asked Yudhishthira and Duryodhana to count the number of good and bad people in their kingdom and nearby villages. Both of them obeyed the respected teacher and returned back with their counts after few months. Arrogant and cruel Duryodhana’s tally showed that everyone was bad whereas benevolent Yudhishthira found that everyone was good. Pretty flowers as well as wet soil and stinking pits of natural fertilizers exist in a garden. The humming bees fly and sit near the flowers whereas mosquitoes grow on the filth. Nature has kept its magic box open for us, it is up to us what we pick up.
Some philosophers describe the world as heaven where the divine beauty of the Supreme Creator is expressed in all living beings (e.g. A hymn in the holy Ramayana says “Siya Rama Maya Saba Jag Jani| Karaun Prañama Jora Juga Pani||”; meaning: I see Lord Ram and Goddess Sita everywhere in the world and so pay my sincere respect to everyone). Whereas to some others it is a replica of hell; they preach people to discard everything and leave this world. To a patriot the motherland is worth revering like God. But, a traitor does not mind selling his own country and ruining it for his mean aims. Saints and sages remain detached from the pleasures of the world, yet they do not want to leave it. For them the world is a platform for noble deeds, they live here for the service and welfare of all living beings. The same world appears different to different people as per their mentality.
If one compares himself with the most affluent and powerful people known to him, his own status will appear to him as penniless and downtrodden. On the contrary, if he looks at the less privileged and poorer section of the society, he would thank his own fortunes and will weigh greater value in whatever he has. In reality his status remains the same but just the way he looks at it makes a drastic difference to how he feels about it. Similar is the case of our reactions to everything we perceive and live with.
Any work or activity against one’s liking or choice makes him tired and bored in no time. Even a small task appears a huge burden and challenge if one has to do it against his will. Same exercise of Mathematics is a terror for one student and a mental boost for another in the same class. Prisoners in a jail do lesser work than labourers who work hard day-and-night to somehow raise their families. Still the former would be unhappy in the jail and eagerly await their release. In spite of lots of discomfort, and tiring journeys and activities people feel so energetic and cheerful during pilgrimages and on the occasions of wedding ceremonies of relatives and friends!
The same season of autumn is a period of loss for a potter, but of gainful opportunities for a gardener. The scene is reversed in summer. Neither of them can change the seasons. Only thing they need is to adapt and try their level best to acclimatize their activities. Nature offers abundance of resources and chances to us to be happy but nothing is stationary or perennial in its manifestation, or in the world we perceive. It is ironical that most of us instead of doing the simple task of adjusting our attitude want and attempt to mould the circumstances as well as the people around to behave as per our expectations. At times we even wish the cycle of nature to adjust to our convenience.
Change of circumstances and outlooks of others are not in our hands. But our own attitude and perception can be entirely in our grip.
One may doubt or mistake a thing kept in a dark place. But the light of tiny torch itself is sufficient to show its identity and wane out all suspicions. The feeling of unity, amity, togetherness, oneness, is like a beam of light which wherever projected will eliminate the haze of prejudices and misconceptions and produce illumination to show the possibilities of unalloyed happiness. Your torch is in your hands. You don’t need anyone else’s support or grace to light it. The keys to the heaven and hell of your life are hidden inside your closed fists. Its up to you which one you want to open.
Your mind gets tensed because of unchecked expectations, pressures of meeting demands and completing works beyond your normal capacity. Adversities and challenges of circumstances further aggravate it. This results in untoward consequences and health hazards like high blood pressure, anxiety, aggression, cardiovascular stress, etc. No amount of medical consultation and medication can help you unless you change your own outlook and see things as part of the plot of Nature’s drama in which you are only to play your role. Your name, fame, success, failure, status, etc. are all temporary like an act of a play. Have an outlook that shows you the lustre of unconditional joy. Then no amount of adversity or pressure will tense your mind. Such a positive attitude serves a great purpose of entertainment and is also most effective as a preventive remedy against all stresses.
Be Sporting:
Adopting a sportsman’s attitude will keep you full of optimism and creative ideas. It is in a way synonymous with a balanced and zealous state of mind. In simple terms, it means that you should face adverse or testing phases of life like a fellow player’s challenge on playground. You should just enjoy playing your game. The opponent may win sometimes but you would also get a chance to revert the situation some other time. Irrespective of who wins, it is the sheer joy of playing the sport which is primary. Life is also a play on the vast ground of the world. Do not lose hope and don’t get scared in any circumstance; just play your game with your best skills and zeal. This sportsman’s attitude will sustain the vitality and wit of your mind and thus help in finding best solutions to all the problems, all the hurdles on the way.
Usually one walks in forward direction. But as and when necessary, one may walk backwards, or turn towards the sideways too. Similarly, even though usually one makes favourable use of the circumstances and available resources, one should, if needed, also be able to adjust according to the circumstances and available tools. So many tiny creatures live in the depths of the sea. There also are many bigger ones who are ready to gulp the smaller ones at any moment. In spite of this danger the latter don’t leave the sea and live with their best possible defence. They have their own ways of surviving without fear. Peace, stability and relaxed state of mind are the nearest companions of fearlessness; they defeat all anxiety, suspicions and tensions.
Rabbits and deer’s also live in the forests where lions and tigers do. If they remained scared of the attack of the latter, the tiny animals would have lost all sleep and hunger and would have died of weakness. But as we all know, they do spend their life-span in as natural a way as they would do at a place without any violence; they run around, eat, play in their groups, reproduce, as per their natural system and in moments of attack of a mightier enemy, defend themselves bravely till the last moment. Are we the human beings, weaker than these tiny creatures that we can’t face the challenges at our level?
Rest assured of your inner strength and counter the adversities with bravery, face the challenges with the power of your wisdom. Make entertainment a part of your prudent attitude. Then everything will become a tool of your entertainment, every phase of life will be like a phase of game for you. Actors in a cinema or theatre change their costumes and roles as per the requirement of the play. Do they ever jump with pride if they get a role of their choice, or cry and give hopeless performance in case they don’t? If they do so, then they are not at all good actors. You should regard the ups and downs of life as different phases, different acts of the grand play of life. You simply have to perform your role – be that comfortable and as per your liking or not.
The wheel of Nature and activities of the world will continue with infinite possibilities and vacillating realities.
Have a balanced and sporting outlook to enjoy everything and every moment that you have with you. Let life itself be a mode of entertainment, full of all colours and shades.
Source: The Real Joy of Entertainment
