Dear Devotees,
Please permit me to share some thoughts which
arose in my mind when I was re-reading Tennyson's Morte D'Arthur. The
following is a famous quote from that poem:
For what are men better than sheep or
goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God,
they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them
friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains
about the feet of
God.
Tennyson in "Morte D'Arthur"
We human beings have so much in common with
animals -- such as living in groups, caring for our off-spring,
building or choosing a place for residence (nest, lair, house etc), fighting
for domain over a group or area or a mate, eating, drinking, playing,
reproducing, health, illness etc. There is one major difference: in addition
to a pre-programmed brain and the limited intelligence of the animals, we
have a mind that has almost unlimited intelligence, is capable of
conceptual, abstract thinking and communicating our thoughts in words,
We are also endowed with the free will to
choose -- to use this mind-power either to indulge in the needs and
pleasures of the senses like the animals or to fulfil the minimum,
essential needs of the body and to seek the higher Self which resides within
us in the deep recesses of the heart.
It is in this context that the Seers of yore
--who saw with a sense of superior perception of the mind -- have prescribed
for our guidance the fundamental way of living our lives. And that is to
seek the four purusharthaas: Dharma, Arthaa, Kama and Moksha. It may be
specially noted that the inner two values Artha and Kama are sub-sets of
Dharma and Moksha: they are circumscribed by the two brackets Dharma
and Moksha .
Artha meaning resources (wealth) is to be
soughr through action within the rules of Dharma. Kama or desire/needs
should be such that it is directed towards non-attachment and freedom from
bondage (moksha). Leading one's life in this manner, we become true seekers.
Constantly working within the field of Dharma with the mind's eye firmly
fixed on the only true goal of life, namely, moksha, we shall receive His
Grace and be delivered from bondage. Every other way that we choose with our
"free" will results in the waste of this precious gift of the human
mind.
As Lord Yama told Nachiketas in Kathopanishad,
we have two choices:
We can choose preyas or pleasure and live the
ordinary life like 'sheep and goats';
or choose shreyas, the
highest good and become one with the Gods.
Thus stated, the choice in favour of the latter
is so clear. Yet, over centuries, humanity seems to be going the other
way.
May be, it is time for Shri Bhagawan to come as
an Avatara Purusha and save us.
Dasan,
Krishnaswamy M.K