TAKING THE EDGE OFF

What is the “edge?"  Stress.  Our lives are stressful.  Being engaged in the world, even casually, is stressful.  Even being a hermit, as some of us are, is a strain.  There is no escaping the edge.

There are, however, ways to cope with it.  Drinking martinis, going shopping, taking up boxing, returning to knitting, but surely, we say, there are better ways to deal with it than this.

Meditation is helpful, but who meditates 16 hours a day?  No, it seems like a complete change of mindset is needed. 
 
This is where religion comes in, having faith in something beyond oneself, in something greater than oneself.  This places all responsibility for the way our lives are going onto God usually, or onto the gods, so that we say, “It is God’s will that my life is as it is.”

Karma is another way out.   When our lives take a turn for the worse, or, for that matter, for the better, we say it is our karma at work.  Our past lives are responsible for how things are going for us.
 
A total change of mindset, though, is better, and better still, a full shift in consciousness.  In Vedanta this shift is called awakening. 
 
Awakening is not faith.  Awakening is a spiritual event brought about by conscientious spiritual practice.  Awakening is finding God, and finding God, as Ramakrishna said, is the purpose of life, and what could be more stress-relieving than fulfilling the purpose of life?