The Hindu Article: Hope is the essence of human life!

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Date:11/03/2003 URL:

http://www.thehindu.com/2003/03/11/stories/2003031100830900.htm

 

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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