No Sorrow Either Way

Sage Vasishtha

(Continued from this post)

The wise man who knows that all the objects in the world are unreal does not consider them objects of pleasure to be pursued.  He who runs after the objects created by his own mind surely comes to grief. This world-appearance has come into being on account of desire; it will cease only when desire ceases to arise (not when you turn against or hate it). When this world-appearance has been dissolved nothing whatsoever has been really destroyed.

If an unreal appearance has vanished, what does one lose? If it is utterly unreal, then how can it even be destroyed; and why does one grieve over the unreal loss? Or, if it were real, then no one could destroy  it or make it unreal; from this point of view this world is nothing but Brahman, the eternal truth. In which case, is there any room for sorrow at all?

Similarly, that which is unreal cannot grow or flourish; for what does one rejoice? What does one desire then? When all this is indeed the one infinite consciousness, what does one renounce?

That which was non-existent in the beginning, and that which shall cease to be in the end, is not real in the middle (in the present) either. That which exists in the beginning, and in the end, is the reality in the present, too. See that 'all this is unreal, including myself' and there will be no sorrow in you: or, see that 'all this is real, including myself' and sorrow will not touch you either.

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On a similar note are the teachings from the Gita.

Ref: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2

Knowing Him /the Self/ to be unmanifest, inconceivable, and unmodifiable, it is improper to mourn for Him.


In the alternative, even if you hold Him to be subject to constant births and deaths, there is no justification, O mighty armed, for your mourning for Him. 


For the born, death is unavoidable, and for the dead birth is sure to take place. Therefore in a situation that is inevitable, there is no justification for you to grieve.