The Million pound choice
Imagine this: A three year old child sits on the floor. You place 2 things in front of him: (1) A shiny £1 coin; and (2) A £1Million cheque. You tell the child: “You have a choice, between (1) or (2).Not both, only one of them. Free choice. Which one would do you want?”. What do you think the child would say? The shiny £1 coin of course! Why does the child choose this, in spite of the other option being MUCH more valuable? Hmmmm. Clearly, in the child’s mind, the coin has more value than the cheque. The child cannot clearly discriminate (i.e. no Viveka) between the 2 options.
You may argue: “Well, perhaps the coin IS of more value because the child can at least enjoy playing with it. The cheque is just a boring bit of paper, even if it’s worth one million”. This is simply not true. In fact quite the opposite – by choosing the million pound cheque he could have one million shiny coins to play with, not just one! One million times the fun! By choosing the million pound cheque you SEEM to give up (Tyaga) the coin, but do you really give it up? No, not at all, it is a false choice. There is no giving up the coin because the coin is ALSO included in the million pound cheque.
Why are we talking about this? This is an example my teacher used to give to illustrate the choice we have between the various Human Goals (4 Purusharthas, discussed last class) – choice between Sreyas (Moksha = Freedom) and Preyas (Artha, Kama, Dharma = Security, pleasure, good luck). This is choice all of us have to make in life, and is spoken of in the Upanishads (Katha Upanishad). Oh…so I have to give up pleasure, money, family….to gain Moksha? No! Moksha includes all these, just like the million pound cheque includes the one pound anyway. It is a false choice. If you think there is a choice, you just haven’t understood what Moksha is, that’s all. So what to do? Simple understand exactly what Moksha is, by studying what the Scriptures have to say about it. Then Viveka will come naturally. Then it is obvious that there aren’t 4 human goals at all. There is only 1. Moksha.
We should try to understand that even when we are pursuing a sense of Security (Artha), what we actually want is FREEDOM from insecurity. When we pursue pleasure, what we want is FREEDOM from unhappiness/boredom. When we pursue Dharma/Punya, what we want is FREEDOM from being subject to impurity. So what is common here? The pursuit of FREEDOM. What is FREEDOM ? Moksha. Freedom from all limitations of sorrow, pain, insecurity, impurity. So we all actually pursue Moksha, without even realising it. Shastra says you just need the Viveka (discrimination) to realise it. This is called “Purushartha Viveka” and this is the Viveka spoken of in Tattvabodha.
