The Hindu : Hope is the essence of human life

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2003

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous - Religion

Hope is the essence of human life

CHENNAI MARCH 11 . Life does not run along a straight line; rather it is a journey punctuated by a series of ups and downs. He, who is able to accept the twists but maintains his equanimity, inspired by absolute faith, is bound to rise high.

This can be illustrated by the behaviour of two frogs, both of which fell into a vat containing milk. One gave up its efforts to save itself and hence perished. The other, undaunted by the expected calamity, was egged on by courage and so went round and round inside the vessel, frothing up butter and using it as a launch pad, jumped out and escaped unscathed.

The tendency in a man usually is to bemoan his fate. Often he may be heard to mutter, "I am tired of living". Even day-to-day (small) problems snowball into major crises. This outlook should be changed and hope is the essence of life and a man should use it for good. Lack of inspiration occasionally comes to haunt even eminent persons.

In the Mahabharata, the valiant Arjuna is seen losing this faith and his lamentations are those of one who is mentally exhausted. Krishna, God-incarnate, then urges him to shed his weakness and realise his true potential. In the Bhagavad Gita lecture, Sri Mitrananda referred to a comment by an eminent writer that Arjuna's psychological collapse is a natural human affliction but what impressed him was the turnaround brought by Krishna's advice, calculated to restore the former's faith. This confidence in oneself and the Creator form the basic premise in the case of an aspirant.

Mind, being a corollary of human nature, one's behaviour is dictated by his innate nature and by thought process. Sabari is an instance of one who was totally untutored in scriptural knowledge, but her faith brought her face to face with God in human form. Valmiki, who could only spell out "Ma-ra", went to compose "Ra-ma's" poem. The perplexed Arjuna wonders about those who have faith but no scriptural knowledge.

Explaining how among the humans some possessed shaky faith, some have this faith, but lack knowledge and yet some may have absolute clarity of thought born out of faith and knowledge, Krishna sums up "whatever be the nature of faith man possesses that verily he is". Man is but a sum total of his faith.

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