Imagine staying in a closed room, like a prison. After some time the mind will get tired of sameness and enter into a tamasic dullness and indifference. Now if you change the walls of the prison, may be give some more objects then for a while it will take interest but after a while it will again feel boredom and sulk. Now imagine you are provided with a friend. It will engage you much longer sharing your stories, pleasure and pain. But again you will hit a ceiling. On the other hand if you have a library with different kind of books then you can sustain your interest much longer. This happens because mind is constantly seeking, wanting something or the other. It is running from one object to another flipping channels in search of some ultimate program that can engage it permanently. But since our life is constituted of finite and limited objects and persons, the mind gets tired of running around the same few objects. After a while it falls into a mechanical mode where one looks for some outer change to feel some joy.
But there is another possibility. It is to turn within in search of the Divine who by His very nature is Infinite. This opens doors to endless progress and each new discovery becomes a step towards something still higher, deeper and greater like an endless mystery. Besides as we thus discover new elements, new levels of consciousness within us our outlook and dealing with the same world and the same objects changes creating new possibilities of understanding and reacting. It is somewhat like going from one class to another going deeper into subjects, learning new lessons. This new lesson or subject becomes then a new base for action. That is why children keep growing fast. They have the urge to grow, to learn and do new things. Exploring each such new possibility means a new kind of growth, learning a new skill, developing some new capacity. But once you believe that now one has a degree and one knows everything then one stops growing and evolving and thereby declines eventually. It is this urge for inner progress that keeps us young and interested in life in new ways. But when we stop evolving and progressing, when we remain stuck in old habits and pattern of thought, feeling and behavior then we begin to degenerate, decline, lose interest and the joy of life.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
