Living in the present and also planning for future, is it not a contradiction?

  Learning to live in the present,” is one of the goals which a yogi aspires for peace and to chill the mind. When we talk about it, it means, we don’t allow our mind to brood over or lament about the past and also not unnecessarily worrying about future.

Most of the people have a challenge for having control over their mind and their mind fall into the trap of lamenting and worrying. These unfortunate people don’t live in presence which is reality and they continue to live in the unreal world.

So for such people, it has been advised, again and again, learn to live in now and use yours now in such a way that you will have eternal life, full of bliss and light in future.

Asato mā sad gamaya
Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya
Mṛtyormā amṛtam gamaya
Aum śānti śānti śāntiḥ ” (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.3.28)

From ignorance, lead me to truth,
From darkness, lead me to light,
From death, lead me to immortality,
Aum peace, peace, peace.

If currently, I am not in a good situation then I need to plan to come out of that mess. And we need to accept that we are in a mess right now. Being a yogi, one of the first lesson we learn that our body is not the right medium for long term enjoyment. And being in this material world our situation is very much temporary and full of many kinds of miseries like aging, diseases, heart breaks, death etc.

So a yogi finds the ways and means for coming out of this mess and also work for achieving long term pleasure.

Living in the present doesn’t mean that we don’t do any planning for the future. If someone has fallen down into the well then what should he do? Should he plan to come out or not?

We may say, I would prefer to enjoy in this well itself. Then the choice is ours if we do that we miss so many other varieties of fun which are available out of the well and are much better. So an intelligent person will use his presence to come out of the well and make his future bright. If currently I am sick then I need to take medication and avoid which is not good for getting my health back.

When it comes to Vedic philosophy, First of all, I need to understand that being in this material body means, I am sick. I need to come out of bodily consciousness and for that one has to restrict certain things which increase bodily consciousness. Enjoying short term pleasures increase bodily consciousness.

If we know that there is poison in the food, we don’t take food thinking let me enjoy this food now and live in present. Short term pleasures of this world have poison in them and this poison kills our desire to go beyond the bodily consciousness and to come to the level of pure consciousness which is filled with pure bliss.
These short term pleasures make us more attached to this world which is full of miseries.

So a yogi while living in the present doesn’t run after short term pleasures of this world rather uses his present for having an eternal, blissful life by going beyond bodily sensual pleasures of this world.