Spiritual health and material comfort

[Guest guest]

Dear members,

 

Here are some thoughts that crossed my mind while going through "list"

discussions on "Material wealth Vs Spiritual health" which elicited the

following from Sri. Mani:

 

"…to what extent should we try to build

wealth to live comfortably, and how should we define

comfortable, without falling into the trap of chasing

wealth?

 

My gut feeling is that the example of Sri Desika and other

gRhastha-s is not an ideal that is to be left merely for saints,

but something to which all true mumukshus should sincerely

aspire. Is this still practical? Could Desika have survived

today? (What few disciples he had certainly couldn't have

given him enough money to pay the rents in San Francisco!)

 

Mani"

 

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· I think Swami Desikan would have not only survived the present age (be it

San Francisco or Sri Rangam) but conquered it just as he did his own times.

Also surely, as a modern-day "AchAryA", he would have clearly shown us all

the way out of our terrible quandaries such as "Material wealth Vs Spiritual

health". How many would pay heed to him is, however, a matter of conjecture.

There is no doubt in my mind that far fewer people today might be willing to

follow Desikan's precept and example than they did during his times.

· If you read Swami Desikan's biography you will not fail to note the man's

utter fearlessness. Personally, I have never ceased to be awed (and envious)

of such absolute fearlessness. His fearlessness ("a-bheeti"), I think, was

the secret of his extraordinary "vairAgyam". Pelf and easy living, of

course, had no lure for him. But far more importantly, I think, penury held

no fear for him either. Most of us, if you think about it, would have no

great difficulty in suppressing our urge to hanker after wealth. Not many of

us can, however, remain undaunted by the prospect of being reduced to dire

straits in today's world … a world that has basically no respect for you if

you are not a personal tax-return filer, are not covered by a policy of

medical insurance and do not have a pension-cum-annuity plan to finance your

old age.

· Unlike us, I should think, Swami Desikan's sense of self-worth did not

need the prop of personal net-worth. It simply did not matter to him (nor to

his wife, that most wonderful lady!) that he earned his daily bread by

"Unchavrtti", that his home was a ramshackle dwelling in a by-lane of

Kanchipuram or that his wife could never strut around the social circuit in

Kanchipuram with a diamond necklace dangling on her bosom. (We all know the

story about how Desikan, on discovering beads of gold in the rice that his

wife was one day sifting, asked her to trash the precious metal filings

along with the chaff. She is said to have heeded his suggestion immediately

without a second's hesitation!) Desikan's wife seemed to have been as

fearless a soul as he himself! I think both shared an uncommon indifference

to their social standing. Obviously, they did not seem to really care for

what the world thought of them … where they lived, how they lived, what they

wore and who their friends were…

 

The quality of a "mUmUkshu's" marital relationship … of how husband and wife

mutually nourish and sustain in each other a certain fearlessness in life as

they go through its vagaries … that "quality relationship" certainly

determines the vigour of the "grhastA's" spiritual resolve and endeavour in

life.

 

· From his autobiography, we see that Swami Desikan was also not afraid to

tread alone on the "road less travelled" and to strike out on his own in the

face of detractors and denigrators. It was again a very rare sort of

courage. He was not a happy man while he lived in Kanchipuram, being

endlessly teased and oppressed by his peers there who never lost an

opportunity to scathingly run him and his work down. In Tiruvaheendrapuram

where he retired for 14 long years in a sort of "vanavAsam", he was often

the butt of his rivals' unkindness, jealousy, pettiness and vicious

mischief. In Sri Rangam where he spent the prime of his life, he was again

constantly pilloried by adversarial colleagues. The political turmoil of his

times shunned him to SatyakAlam where again he lived the life of a lonely

exile for more than two decades.

 

But through all those trying conditions of long and personal adversity,

Swami Desikan seems to have stuck steadfastly and fearlessly to the twin

core-values of "gnyAnam" and "vairAgyam"… to a life-style marked by "simple

living and high-thinking", by freedom from pecuniary or personal anxieties

of any sort….

 

No wonder they called him "gnyAna-vairAgya-bhushaNam"!

 

I think, Swami Desikan symbolised an idealist way of life transcending all

considerations as narrow as those that confound us in our times…such as

whether "material wealth" promotes or impedes "spiritual progress", for

example. Such questions are themselves founded in fear… and where there is

fear how can the spirit really advance… with or without "material comfort"?

 

adiyEn dAsAnu-dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Dear Sudarshan,

 

Thank you for a very insightful and thought-provoking reply.

 

I have one question, which is not directly related to this topic.

You write:

> [Desika] was not a happy man while he lived in Kanchipuram, being

> endlessly teased and oppressed by his peers there who never lost an

> opportunity to scathingly run him and his work down. In Tiruvaheendrapuram

> where he retired for 14 long years in a sort of "vanavAsam", he was often

> the butt of his rivals' unkindness, jealousy, pettiness and vicious

> mischief. In Sri Rangam where he spent the prime of his life, he was again

> constantly pilloried by adversarial colleagues. The political turmoil of his

> times shunned him to SatyakAlam where again he lived the life of a lonely

> exile for more than two decades.

 

Where do these stories of Desika harrassment come from?

I have read them in some recent secondary literature, but

in the oldest works, and amidst Desika's own words, I can

find nothing but contentment. In fact, in the bhagavad-dhyAna

sopAnam dedicated to Lord Ranganatha, Desika prays

that he may forever live in Srirangam, where great

rasikas live:

 

"rangAsthAne rasika-mahite ranjitA seshacitte..."

 

Is there solid evidence to the contrary (not rumor or traditional

stories which are part of oral tradition -- I have heard of those)?

>From all the ancient authorities, I only read of a Desika who

lived happily among fellow bhAgavatas.

 

Mani