The Gilded Cage

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Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanata Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

 

 

The Gilded Cage

 

 

 

We were on a visit to the zoo, and the kids were having the time of their

lives. They stopped in front of each and every cage housing different animals,

making faces at them. We stopped in front of the parrots' cage. The din was

deafening, with the parrots shrieking at the top of their shrill voices, annoyed

at the unpresentable human faces confronting them and calling to each other to

beware of the

 

noxious Homo sapiens. One parrot said to the other, "Look at their flat noses!

Aren't they real specimens of ugliness?"

 

The other replied, " Yes, indeed they are. And isn't it really funny, they think

we are in the cage, realising little that it is they who are eternal prisoners!"

 

 

 

More than the first bird's personal remark, it was the second one's impudence

that was more insulting, and we were stunned at a mere bird having the temerity

to abuse its human masters. Anger and annoyance bubbled in us and we were

contemplating all sorts of mayhem, when the truth of the bird's remark struck us

upon reflection.

 

 

 

Parrots have always been held out to be intelligent creatures. We hear of the

parrots of Mandana Mishra arguing among themselves about such advanced concepts

as "SphOta vAda". The parrots kept by Sri Kodai Nacchiar were endowed with an

equal measure of love for Sri Krishna and constantly kept calling, "Govinda,

Govinda". Even if She were to punish the birds by starving them, they still

cried out "Trivikrama, Vamana" etc.-

 

"Koottil irundu KiLi eppOdum Govinda Govinda endru

 

azhaikkum

 

oottakkodAdu seruppan Agil UlagalandAn endru uyara

 

koovum".

 

 

 

The Venkatesa Suprabhata Stotram speaks of the parrots of Thirumala rising very

early in the morning and singing a sweet wake-up call to the Lord of the Seven

Hills-

 

"ShukA: patanti Sri Venkatachalapate Tava Suprabhatam"

 

Srimad Rahasyatraya saram too recounts the tale of two parrots, one brought up

by Rishis and the other by bestial hunters, imbibing the qualities and habits of

their respective masters, demonstrating that conduct and character are more a

function of the company one keeps than of good or bad birth.

 

 

 

When the credentials of such parrots flashed in our minds, we felt that the

insult the bird in the zoo had hurled at us must indeed have an element of

truth. This set us thinking.

 

What a strange thing to say! We, human beings, in a cage! What a preposterous

idea! However, the more we thought about it, the more we started wondering.

 

 

 

What is the effect of being caged? It is the denial of freedom, of movement, of

action as per one's will and pleasure. Are we free? Are we our own masters? Do

we have the independence to act out our whims and fancies?

 

Do we have the freedom to determine how long we live?

 

And, after this life, do we have the right to determine where we go? Starting

right at the beginning, do we have any say in where, to whom and as what we are

born in this world?

 

 

 

The answer to all these questions is a resounding "No".

 

Those who think otherwise are merely deluding themselves about their imaginary

"freedom".

 

 

 

We have it on good authority that we are prisoners of Karma, dancing to its

dictates. The strong shackles of Karma bind us hand and foot, says Sri

Nammazhwar-

 

" thiNNam azhunda katti pala seivinai van kayittrAl

 

puNnai maraya varindu ennai pOra vaitthAi puramE".

 

If we appear to have a measure of independence, it is only to the extent of a

bird tied to a post with a piece of string-its degree of freedom is limited to

the radius of the string. It can never exceed its limits, try as it might-

 

"soothra baddha sakunim iva" .

 

We are but pet parrots in a gilded cage, confirms Swami Desikan in Sri DehalIsa

Stuti" leelA shakuntam iva mAm sva pada upalabhdhyai

 

Svairam kshipan duritha panjaratO guNasttham"

 

 

 

This world is indeed a huge cage, in which all Jeevatmas have been imprisoned.

Given that the true nature of the Atma is eternal bliss and boundless wisdom, it

is the continued imprisonment in this cage that robs us of our normal

attributes, makes us slaves to our faculties and makes us forget our original

stature and wisdom. This imprisonment is so debilitating to our spirit that we

first reconcile ourselves to it and then actually start liking it. Then there

comes a stage when we find this incarceration delightful and give up all thought

of getting out of the cage.

 

This cage, with its apparently golden bars and meshes, appears to us too

beautiful to be forsaken and the morsels of ephemeral pleasure that we are fed

occasionally make us long for more and more, totally oblivious to the

indescribable bliss that was ours once and that could be ours again, if only we

made the effort. Within the world, which is the bigger cage, there is a smaller

one, the human body, which forms the inner wall of the prison encircling the

Jeevatma. Even if the sentence in a particular cell comes to an end, it doesn't

mean an automatic release for the soul, which often leaps from the frying pan of

one body into the fire of another.

 

 

 

Our five faculties, the indriyAs, form our jailors, which ensure total and

implicit obedience to themselves-

 

"Avi thigaikka iyvar kumaiikum chittrinbam

 

PAviyEnai pala nee kAtti paduppAyO"

 

Laments Sri Nammazhwar, despairing at the hypnotic influence of these five

faculties, which make us abject slaves to them, ensuring our permanent captivity

in this body and mundane morass.

 

 

 

Are we then doomed to eternal internment in this Gilded Cage? Is there no way

out of this rigorous imprisonment?

 

Even persons guilty of the gravest offences have a limitation to their sentence.

Why not we, then? When are we going to walk free, with our feet rid of the

shackles of good and bad deeds and our head held high, shorn of the stigma of

being a permanent prisoner? Would we ever inhale the invigorating breath of

freedom? When would we become a free agent, free to act as we like?

 

 

 

The all-powerful Judge who put us in the penitentiary also gives us the

opportunity to redeem ourselves. Prisons are after all reformatories, meant to

bring errant humanity back on the twin rails of Sathya and Dharma. Once we learn

the lessons of our own nature, that of the Lord, the inalienable relationship

that subsists between Him and ourselves, and, above all, that the place we are

living in is a cage, however pleasurable it might appear to be, and is in fact

the root-cause of all sorrow-when we learn these lessons, the Lord

 

signs a decree commuting our life sentence and sets us free, once we adopt the

upAyAs of Bhakti or Prapatthi. We are freed forever from the vicious cycle of

births and deaths.

 

 

 

Free at last of our constricting bonds, we return to our natural abode, Sri

Vaikuntam, restored to our pristine purity by the purgatorial prison life. We

then become free as the air, our own masters for all practical purposes, but

subject to the overall supremacy of the Lord-" Sa SvarAt bhavati" says the

Upanishad, describing the bounty of freedom that greets us on our ascent to

Paramapadam. In addition to setting us free, the Lord also grants us a status

equal to Him ("niranjana: paramam sAmyam upaiti") in all respects (except, of

course, the power to sentence others to imprisonment and to dispense justice-in

other words, the power to create, protect and destroy-"Jagat vyApAra varjam").

We thus become full-fledged members of the egalitarian society of Sri Vaikuntam,

blissfully engaged in the service of the Lord, constantly drinking in His

matchless magnificence ("sadA pasyanti"). The Lord is as enamoured of our

company as we are of His and would never think of sending us back to where we

came from, even in the unlikely event of our wishing it ("puNai kodukkilum pOga

ottAn").

 

 

 

Thus, though all of us are indeed in prison, the keys to the prison gates have

been left with ourselves. If we prefer to stay in the Gilded Cage, immersed in

its passing pleasures, we throw away the keys and remain in fetters. If, on the

other hand, we choose to shake off the seductive influence of the five faculties

and appeal to the ever merciful Judge for a reprieve, He would throw the prison

gates open and allow us to walk free and tall, freed forever from stigma.

 

 

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana

Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dasan, sadagopan