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Source: The Hindu (http://www.the-hindu.com)

 

Shed vanity to get close to God

 

CHENNAI, MARCH 27. Even as power corrupts a man, possession of

excess of wealth, particularly by those who had so secured it by

chance or by illegal means, will make him arrogant and obstinate

little realising that it will vanish as quickly as it came. He

will claim that he had earned it by his own efforts, hard work

and ability and hence question others, as where from God had

provided any help. He will spurn sane advice, forget his past,

disown his relatives and friends and use unsavoury remarks about

all, quite oblivious to the fact that his antagonists are more

intelligent than him and are awaiting the chance to pull him

down. Mighty empires had crumbled and their rulers, who enjoyed

enormous regal paraphernalia, were, by quirk of fate, made to

walk on streets and drown in suffering.

 

The only way to escape from such situations, is to remain

absolutely humble and dedicate all one's possessions to God and

act as His agent. After all, God expects from those who are

attached to Him only a display of their total faith in Him and

not an exhibition of their vanity or extravagant and ostentatious

demonstration of their opulence.

 

Apart from such morals and warnings presented before humanity in

our sacred texts, the greatest lesson taught is about the

futility of presuming that God can be cheated or harmed. Those

who presumed that God could be destroyed by using their

ingenuity, were themselves seen crushed. The Mahabharatam

describes how Krishna (the Lord in human form) took the role of

an envoy of His devotees who had pinned their hopes on Him, to

settle the property issue amicably. He was aware that His peace

mission would fail but yet, He wanted posterity to know how all

steps were taken to avert a war. Several stalwarts advised the

haughty Duryodhana not to insult Krishna but come to terms with

his cousins amicably. Vidhura, with whom the Lord chose to stay

ignoring the lavish feasts arranged by everyone, told this

conceited man that his audacity would result in his ultimate

doom.

 

In his lecture, Sri K. P. Arivanandam explained how the foolish

Duryodhana even worked out a plan to trap Krishna in a pit

presuming that He could be slain by soldiers stationed therein.

Why not Krishna Himself cause his destruction, it may be asked.

One reason was that He had pledged not to resort to arms and

secondly, the Pandavas should do the job, wreaking vengence on

those who indulged in vulgar display of their positions when the

former stood helpless at one stage. Apart from His peace parleys

Krishna removed certain impediments as otherwise, His men would

have found it impossible to conquer their enemies in the event of

a war.

 

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