These three words are often used in our daily lives as synonymous , whereas they are in fact as different in their connotations as the proverbial chalk is from cheese ( I have never quite understood why chalk & not butter or peanuts or Peanut Butter are contrasted with cheese : but then who am I to question what I can not comprehend !!  ) .

Coming back to the question of Passion , Emotion , & Sentiment I give in to my temptation to  quote ( & not plagiarise ) from a post in Speaking Tree a few days back ( yes , I do have a blog there, regrettably in disuse rather like a bomb-shelter wherein I shall seek refuge one of these days  if / when the going gets tough !!   ) which  more or less sums up one facet of Vedanta thus : ( simplified internally for ease of my own understanding )

”  Entertain Passion but do not be Passionate ;

   harbour Emotion but do not be Emotional ;  

  respect Sentiment without turning Sentimental “

The above, practised over a period,  transforms character of :

•  Passion from personal to impersonal ,
• Emotion from selfish to unselfish ,
• Sentiment from preferential to universal

Does this mutatative philosophy make one indifferent & by extension irresponsible towards affairs of  one’s immediately proximate  world ?

Quite the contrary :  

—– ( it ) ” merely changes the quality of such feelings from sensual to sublime ”

In our daily lives , we come across challenges which we tend to circumnavigate unless their outcome , if confronted , could make a material difference to our self-serving goals. Opportunities are often wasted , unless these are directly  correlated to our own well being. Many , if not most , can not see beyond the two-dimensional self-serving picture. The larger picture , in the third dimension , is often blurred & leads to inertia & rationalistic indifference.

So far so good !! Quoting ( as opposed to plagiarising ) from a Speaking Tree blog , combined with my innate ability to waffle make a heady cocktail . Vedanta may well change the quality of one’s feelings from sensual to sublime , but at a more mundane level , certain external stimuli do in fact change one’s feelings from sublimity to the very coarse & sensuous . An effective way to contain & indeed reverse the phenomenon is to allow the moment to pass by without offering a conscious  resistance to its passage.

Every human passion/emotion/sentiment , at the end of the day , tends to be either contextual or interpretational. And the context & interpretation thereof largely gets shaped by one’s perception of oneself in a given situation.  Centrality of one’s being in the enormity of the Universe often does the mischief . And one begins to develop a delusion of every event & non-event in the universe having some sublime relationship to oneself. Universality of passion / emotion & sentiment then becomes preferentially introverted.

There is a method in every randomised kaliedoscopic formation of events & non-events . Each such formation offers a propelling force , a challenge , & an opportunity . One responds to this invisible force differently on different occasions. On occasions that one does get propelled forward the results can be quite overwhelming

As the old saying goes , it is all about taking an opportunity head- on the moment it makes its presence felt.

Unhappily , realisation such as above comes rather late in the day for many such as me . However , looking back at lost opportunities can only aggravate the already stagnated situation . I for one have decided to take each day as it comes , celebrate it in its entirety , & not waste a moment looking back in the rear view mirror : after all rear views can at best ensure safety on the road whereas taking the full frontal windscreen in one’s perspective leads to a movement forward .

I do not know why I am writing this seemingly serious drivel instead of my usual light hearted banter : something within me is forcing me to do so & my  fingers have involuntarily moved  to key in a serious piece of boredom : my profuse apologies but I could not resist the propulsion.

Cheers for now