There was a man named Umesh who had a wife, a son, a friend, a servant, a neighbour and an acquaintance who owed him money. One day, Umesh suddenly died in the hospital. On hearing this news, the wife fell unconscious, as the sorrow was too much for her to bear. His son heard the news and though he did not fall unconscious, he became extremely unhappy and cried bitterly. Umesh’s friend was not as upset as his son, but he did shed a few tears. The servant did not cry, but he felt slightly sad. The neighbour also heard that Umesh had died but felt neither happiness nor distress. He told his wife who was cleaning the house, “Did you hear? You know our neighbour Umesh? He just died.” She also felt neither sorrow nor happiness, but following the rules of etiquette said, “Oh God! That’s terrible. His child is small and his wife is so young. Anyway, whatever God wills, happens!” After saying this she continued cleaning. The person who owed money to Umesh was dishonest, so he felt very happy when he heard the news. He thought, “Now I am free from the debt!”

Now suppose Umesh suddenly came back to life. Actually, he was only acting! Hearing this news, the wife fainted again out of happiness. When his son heard the news, he shed tears of joy. When the friend heard the news, he felt happy, but to a lesser degree than the son. When the servant heard the news, it was a great relief for him. The neighbour casually told his wife, “Did you hear? Our neighbour is still alive.” While continuing to clean the floor his wife said, “Oh, that’s good.” The person who owed Umesh money felt very upset because now his debt would still have to be paid.

Now the question arises: Is Umesh a source of happiness, a source of sorrow, or neither? If he is accepted as a source of happiness, then what is the degree of happiness? Would it be the level of happiness experienced by the wife, or the level of happiness experienced by the son, or a level less than this? Or would it be the level experienced by his friend or by the servant? Or it may be that Umesh is in fact a source of sorrow, as was experienced by the debtor. Or it may be that he isn’t a source of either happiness or sorrow as the neighbour felt.

Each individual’s experience was different. From this we can conclude that Umesh is neither a source of happiness nor sorrow. The degree of happiness each person experienced through him was directly proportional to the fulfilment of that person’s own self-interest. And that happiness was proportional to the extent of each one’s expectations of happiness from their relationship with him. Thus, people imagined Umesh to be a source of happiness to the extent their own desires were fulfilled by him. They naively thought that Umesh was the source of the happiness they were experiencing.

The conclusion is that a person derives happiness from an object that he himself mentally ascribes to but naively assumes that it is the object itself that contains happiness.

There is one important truth that requires understanding. If happiness isn’t experienced from any object, then sorrow won’t be experienced from that object, either. The experience of sorrow corresponds to the experience of happiness. Observe, when Umesh died, his wife experienced the greatest sorrow; less than her grief was her son’s grief; less than the son’s grief was the friend’s grief, and the one who felt the least grief was the servant. The neighbour, on the other hand, was indifferent, while the debtor experienced happiness. Now, it is evident that when a person experiences a certain degree of happiness from an object or person, he is bound to experience sorrow in the same proportion when separated from that object or person. In reality, there is no sorrow in any object. Whatever we experience is the result of our own beliefs.

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Source

The above blog is an excerpt from the following book authored by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj: Prem Ras Siddhant (4th Edition, March 2009); Chapter 5  – The Soul, Material World and Detachment, page 73.

To learn more about Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj’s literature, please visit –https://jagadgurukripalujimaharaj.org.in/his-profound-literature/
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