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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com)

 

Man has the choice to actualise his potential

 

CHENNAI, OCT. 29. Only human beings among the countless living

beings are endowed with a highly evolved intellect to exercise

the choice to evolve further and thereby realise their potential

spiritual nature. While all creatures can follow only their

natural instincts, man is blessed with discrimination to choose

between the two paths available to him. The first is the path of

``Pravrtti'' which indicates his natural inclination to engage in

the world by remaining centred in his ego ( feelings of ``I'' and

mine). This promotes his acquisitive tendency which is

responsible for fuelling his desires and greed. The other path is

termed as ``Nivrtti'' which literally means renunciation -

casting away of his lesser self to actualise his spiritual Self

(Atman).

 

It is apparent then that these paths indicate a certain

disposition of an individual to what life offers to him and how

he will exercise his choice - to better himself or wallow in the

quagmire of bondage. Without knowing the true blissful nature of

the Self, the majority of humanity out of ignorance are caught in

the whirlpool of worldly existence. They drift through life

unaware of the precious chance of a human birth given to them to

liberate themselves from the shackle of bondage. They miss the

wood for the trees in the short-lived pleasures of the world.

 

This is analogous to a child deriving joy from a toy elephant

made out of clay. It assumes the toy to be a real elephant and

its joy when it plays with it, and its sorrow when the elephant-

toy's tusk is broken, are very real. When the mother fixes the

damaged tusk the child is ecstatic to see its original toy. The

mother however sees only the clay though she panders to her

child's fancies. Man's predicament was similar to the child's as

he failed to behold the truth underlying the worldly phenomena,

said Sri T. G. Narayanaswamy in his discourse.

 

Due to ignorance the worldly joys and sorrows are experienced as

real by human beings as they fail to see the truth of their

relative nature. In the Yoga Vasishta, Sage Vasishta compares the

five senses to the sea turtle's four legs and head. When it

senses danger the animal retracts all of them into its shell.

Likewise man must learn to withdraw his sensory organs which are

responsible for involvement with worldly matters as they are the

source of his sorrows. It is only by renouncing sensory pursuits

that the human mind can develop the faculty of introspection with

which it can experience the subtler realms of the human psyche,

including ultimately the Self.

 

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