The Hindu : Miscellaneous / Religion : Quintessence of life

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Wednesday, Dec 08, 2004

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous - Religion

Quintessence of life

CHENNAI, DEC 8. Every person has a choice, to either be beastly or virtuous. It has been observed that the tendency of a snake is to seek its hole, turning to attack only when actively threatened. Man's life on earth is a journey towards spiritual fulfilment; to this end he should shun violence and progress towards God. Duryodhana embraced war like a cornered animal, not from a higher moral ground, whereas Bhishma accepted the same due to his inherent wisdom.

In his discourse, Sri Suki Sivam said beyond the extremes of cowardice and brutality there exists a state of equanimity, which should be aspired for. There was once a king who indulged in all the worldly pleasures to the hilt. One day, he decided to renounce everything and sought Buddha's help. Despite the doubts raised by other disciples, the Buddha granted the erstwhile king his wish who, immediately became an austere ascetic, until the Buddha said that one should pitch oneself in life like a finely tuned veena, neither too tight nor too lax. As a warrior when Arjuna shrank from waging war on his cousins for fear of causing death, Lord Krishna said that while what is obvious is impermanent, what is inherent is permanent. However, fear of death is a very humane emotion. Fear of death is intuitively felt, and scholars point out that unless one has died before such memory (from earlier births) will not be present. When a person realises that the milestones in life are also a death of a kind since what is gone past cannot be recaptured, then the ability to view the passing away in this life as nothing more than a routine affair.

The quintessence of life is to do one's duty without fear or favour. No one can try and successfully shirk his responsibility on earth. One may ask, given that any act will have causal effect, how can anyone escape thoughts of gain? A disciple once asked the Buddha what he gained from adopting such a way of life, and the evolved one replied that he did not gain anything but lost all the unnecessary things. One may further feel that such equipoise is not possible for all. A cowherd constantly complained about his cow, but when a sage pointed out that it was he who was tied to the cow and not the other way round, he had an inkling of truth. That we are bound by our duties is no fault of the deed, but our own since we are servants to our bodies rather than being master. How does one develop detachment? The faculty to discern the right from the wrong in any situation, and of sin from virtue, is essential.

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