24 January 2003, 12:01am IST
SADHU VISHWAMURTIDAS.
What is life? This question has been discussed and debated by the most sublime minds in each century. The answers they arrived at have been varied.
Here are a few examples. ‘‘A life without introspection is not worth living,’’ asserted Socrates around 400 BCE, while in the mid-1880s, evolutionist Charles Darwin spoke of ‘‘survival of the fittest’’. ‘‘Crush the infamy!’’ wrote French philosopher Voltaire in his effort to forestall the omnipotent Roman Catholic Church in Europe during the late 1700s. ‘‘Give me freedom or give me death,’’ was the cry of the Americans during their freedom movement. ‘‘We will fight till the last drop of blood of man and beast,’’ said Winston Churchill to the British people at the onset of the Second World War, and was told ‘‘Quit India’’ in return by Indians under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership. ‘‘Because it is there,’’ replied Edmund Hillary when asked why he scaled Mount Everest. ‘‘In ten years, we will put a man on the moon,’’ promised John F Kennedy at the onset of his presidency. ‘‘Make love, not war,’’ exhorted the hippies of the 1960s. The above are a fraction of the thousands of slogans, pledges, oaths and mottos mankind has chanted across continents throughout his-tory. Whose ideology is ‘correct’? Which maxim reflects the highest, most lofty truths? Which slogan can bear the test of eternity? Are there any peaks to ascend higher than Everest? Are there any planets to voyage towards beyond the solar system? Are there any worlds beyond ours? Are there any depths deeper than oceans, beyond the heart’s and the mind’s? Socrates was forced to drink hemlock, Darwin’s theory has long collapsed, the Roman Catholic Church has become more democratic, the British have quit India, Hillary has scaled Everest, America has put man on the moon, the hippies have made love. What next? A thousand more slogans and goals? A thousand more efforts and journeys? A thousand more struggles, undertakings and fantasies? Technology will continue to flourish and man might eventually succeed in harnessing all the resources of the universe. He might even encounter intelligent life forms in other parts of the universe, befriend them, and hopefully, strive for the common benefit of both species. But achieving one goal after another, realising fantasy after fantasy, a thoughtful person finally asks: ‘What is the end of this?’ The heart experiences no peace in the spinning maze of events that surround it. Mindless indulgence of desires only brings with it frustration, anxiousness and regret. Man searches for the zenith, yearning for a climactic, eternal joy that seemingly evades his every advance and remains tantalisingly out of reach. Where must man hunt if he wishes to fulfil this aspiration, this alluring, unrelenting dream? The outward search has gone on long enough. He must now turn and seek within, in the very core of his existence, where lies the substratum of consciousness which has made all materialistic pursuits and enterprises possible. The stream of consciousness we experience within ourselves throughout our lives ties together all events of physical existence like the silken string that holds together a necklace. In its realisation, man and woman will meet their journey’s end, the Omega point, a place of final rest and the dawn of a new existence in the divine self and the beautiful, blissful Lord within. As Lord Swaminarayan says in his Vachanamrutam sermons: ‘‘The human soul perpetually peers outward towards mundane objects of the five senses, but never looks inwards to see himself. Such a soul is the most ignorant and wretched of all.’’ Socrates wins.
(The author is resident of Shree Swaminarayan Temple, Mumbai; website: www.swaminarayan.org)
SADHU VISHWAMURTIDAS.
What is life? This question has been discussed and debated by the most sublime minds in each century. The answers they arrived at have been varied.
Here are a few examples. ‘‘A life without introspection is not worth living,’’ asserted Socrates around 400 BCE, while in the mid-1880s, evolutionist Charles Darwin spoke of ‘‘survival of the fittest’’. ‘‘Crush the infamy!’’ wrote French philosopher Voltaire in his effort to forestall the omnipotent Roman Catholic Church in Europe during the late 1700s. ‘‘Give me freedom or give me death,’’ was the cry of the Americans during their freedom movement. ‘‘We will fight till the last drop of blood of man and beast,’’ said Winston Churchill to the British people at the onset of the Second World War, and was told ‘‘Quit India’’ in return by Indians under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership. ‘‘Because it is there,’’ replied Edmund Hillary when asked why he scaled Mount Everest. ‘‘In ten years, we will put a man on the moon,’’ promised John F Kennedy at the onset of his presidency. ‘‘Make love, not war,’’ exhorted the hippies of the 1960s. The above are a fraction of the thousands of slogans, pledges, oaths and mottos mankind has chanted across continents throughout his-tory. Whose ideology is ‘correct’? Which maxim reflects the highest, most lofty truths? Which slogan can bear the test of eternity? Are there any peaks to ascend higher than Everest? Are there any planets to voyage towards beyond the solar system? Are there any worlds beyond ours? Are there any depths deeper than oceans, beyond the heart’s and the mind’s? Socrates was forced to drink hemlock, Darwin’s theory has long collapsed, the Roman Catholic Church has become more democratic, the British have quit India, Hillary has scaled Everest, America has put man on the moon, the hippies have made love. What next? A thousand more slogans and goals? A thousand more efforts and journeys? A thousand more struggles, undertakings and fantasies? Technology will continue to flourish and man might eventually succeed in harnessing all the resources of the universe. He might even encounter intelligent life forms in other parts of the universe, befriend them, and hopefully, strive for the common benefit of both species. But achieving one goal after another, realising fantasy after fantasy, a thoughtful person finally asks: ‘What is the end of this?’ The heart experiences no peace in the spinning maze of events that surround it. Mindless indulgence of desires only brings with it frustration, anxiousness and regret. Man searches for the zenith, yearning for a climactic, eternal joy that seemingly evades his every advance and remains tantalisingly out of reach. Where must man hunt if he wishes to fulfil this aspiration, this alluring, unrelenting dream? The outward search has gone on long enough. He must now turn and seek within, in the very core of his existence, where lies the substratum of consciousness which has made all materialistic pursuits and enterprises possible. The stream of consciousness we experience within ourselves throughout our lives ties together all events of physical existence like the silken string that holds together a necklace. In its realisation, man and woman will meet their journey’s end, the Omega point, a place of final rest and the dawn of a new existence in the divine self and the beautiful, blissful Lord within. As Lord Swaminarayan says in his Vachanamrutam sermons: ‘‘The human soul perpetually peers outward towards mundane objects of the five senses, but never looks inwards to see himself. Such a soul is the most ignorant and wretched of all.’’ Socrates wins.
(The author is resident of Shree Swaminarayan Temple, Mumbai; website: www.swaminarayan.org)