RUNNING AFTER OR RUNNING FROM?
Ever since we are born, we are either running after or running from something or the other. This “something” may change over time, but “running” continues unabated and invariably.
No matter what goals (material or spiritual) we may be pursuing, running after “more” is common to them all. Mostly, we want to have more of what we have and sometimes less of what we have. This syndrome to have more can be called “more-ism.”
This running after or running from continues until one discovers That finding which there is nothing left here to run after or to run from. Upaniṣads, the Indian wisdom texts, call it the Self (Ātman) or Brahman—the innermost Consciousness Principle that serves as a substratum of the individual (vayaṣti) and the Total (samaṣti).
How so? Because no one can run from one’s own Self. And the question of running after one’s own Self does not arise since we are the Self! Thus, all running resolves in the discovery of the Self. This discovery is of the nature of recognition of THAT which IS and does not entail any new acquisition; for our Self is ever-attained (nitya-prāpata). From the universal standpoint, Brahman, Upanishads tell us, is the Infinite (anantam) and complete (pūraṇa). How can one run from or add to the Infinite or that which is already full and complete (pripūraṇa)? The running ends when the truth of THAT is realized as “I AM.”
The Upaniṣads teach us that we are that pripūraṇa Brahman.
The Bhagavad Gītā sings the supreme benefit (param–lābha) of this discovery as follows:
यं लब्ध्वा चापरं लाभं मन्यते नाधिकं ततः I
यस्मिन् स्थितो न दुःखेन गुरुणापि विचाल्यते II
yaṃ labdhvā cāparaṃ lābhaṃ manyate nādhikaṃ tataḥ /
yasmin sthito na duḥkhena guruṇāpi vicālyate // 6.22
Having attained which one does not reckon any gain greater than that, and established in which one is not shaken even by the heaviest of sorrows.
In That alone there is the ending of running after or running from.
May we all be abundantly blessed to seek That!
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