Sacrifice and Renunciation
This is a new series where I would like to touch upon some of our belief's and the corresponding doubts / scepticsms. I hope this would generate a lively debate.
All of you must have heard about Shiv Khera. The gist of one of his quotes ( pardon me I do not remember the exact quote), goes like this:-
"when you find your fellow neighbour, being meted out injustice, and are unaffected by it, remember that your turn could be the next".
Coming to our beliefs: We believe, that every individual soul must strive / strives to evolve and ultimately merge with that universal soul in absolute "bliss". In other words the life's purpose is to find a meaning for it's existence, (in fact enquire into the purpose of creation itself) and realise oneself in "liberation". There are "n" number of modifications for this theme, and we will not go into that.
The very idea, -that one can be happy, let alone be in bliss, if his own kith and kin, the fellows in the neighbourhood, society at large, and the majority of people in this world, are poor, undernourished, uneducated, exploited, and with no succour in sight etc etc. - is apalling to me. In other words, is it not being selfish, if one is concerned with just his souls liberation alone, as the "belief" would seem to suggest.
Even Brahma after He completed his creation, seems was apalled at His creation, when he saw the entire repurcussions of what he had done, in all the yugas to follow. He therefore created Vashishta, and asked him to be a priest and guide all the kings in rightful /proper performance of vedic rites, (SOPs) and to the select few who want to transcend, the "gyana path" to liberation.
Vashihta remonstrated, that he was aghast, at being asked to do such mundane priestly job, but the latter, pacifies him and tells Him that after guiding Vishnu bhagawan himself, in thretha yuga, when He takes Rama Avathaar, he can be relieved. This guidance to Rama, in thretha, is the well known, "yoga vaashishta".
Coming to my scepticism; Brahma is apalled, Rama is in unease, Vashishta guides Him, and retires, but the other suffering multitudes, of whom there are many who are genuinely desirous of "liberation", with no proper "guru" or proper access to one, how do they ever hope to "realise". And how can the Providence be ever happy, if such inequities, and suffering abound. Can I be happy, if even a very few of my known/unknown fellow human beings are in misery. How can therefore liberating myself from the cycle of "births and deaths" without an apparent care for others be an elevating experience........... ?
So when a Madhuri talks about donation to Akshaya patra, or a Baba Amte devotes his entire life with all his family members, for upliftmaent of a village of lepers and downtrodden even when he is absolutely immobile etc etc., a feeling of "being overwhelmed" takes over.
It's "thyagam" only which liberates one, the vedas proclaim, "allah ko pyaree hai qurbani" says islam, and the above examples come in the realm of "thyagam" in some ways. Is this then a path to "nirvana"? Or can this be a more elevating path to "nirvana"?
More of this in the next
Love folks, let God be with you.
Vichu
(Note : Thyagam means sacrifice, by itself a conscious "act". So the Na karmana piece when it says "Thyage na eva" I feel a bit unconvinced, as this will also be an act. Vairagyam which on the other hand denotes, an absence of any attachment, appears more apt. In other words I wonder why "vairagyena eva" is not used instead of "thyagena eva" which would be more profound? I would then be happily priding myself that the vedas go one step beyond Qurbani, sacrifice to Vairagyam which is total absence of any attachment ..........)
Vichu Athan,
ReplyDeleteIn today's world, I admit it must be difficult to entertain thoughts of even Vairagyam (Vairagyena eva) without a simultaneous birth of "doubt" - Shamshayam.
Technolgy has enslaved our body and mind and transcendence of these, to quote a Vichiism is not impossible. It just takes a little longer.
How would Einstein tackle such a aoubt?
Much like he did with physics by a coining an Equation - V = mT^2 (or Vairagyam is equal to bodily mass times the square of your Thoughts)
Thus, you may be able to move mountains by merely thinking about them , albeit with a power factor twice that of a normal human being.
Such Vaigragyam also needs to be sacrificed before attainment of nirvana.
All of us are limited by our bodily mass and make up in thoughts to maintain the equilibrium of Vairagyam in our souls.
For those who have a penchant for inequality, Acharyal's advise of using the excess vairagyam in service of mankind should be an elegant reminder.
As for myself I am struggling and do need teh blessings of all elders till I am alive.
Pranam
Naresh
The striving towards liberation through a "Guru" seems divorced from our compelling urge to solve the world's problems. However it not possible to "solve" world's problems without knowing what you are and what the problem is with the world. As for finding a Guru, the Satguru is inside us and will manifest himself in physical form when we are ready. We have to be ready like the person who was being forcibly drowned by Bulen Shah and he just hit out at him and came out of the water to take a breath. Such readiness is rare and hence attending to the world's problems is a surer way for us to start our attempts at liberation. As achariyal said life will be fruitful if each of us did Eshwara Aaradhanai (contemplation on liberation) and Paropakaaram which is the alleviation of world's misery to out best capacity.
ReplyDeleteComing to Tyagam, it is a state of giving up and not a state of action. That is the reason that the vedic text quoted by you briefly states the various actions that we indulge in in trying to achieve immortality. Incidentally, it is Tyagena Ekay, Ekay denoting Oru Shilar in Tamil or "a few" in English.
Paropakaaram along with Eshwara Aaradhanai Jindabaad!!!
Thanks Cypress folks. I discern a collective hand from everyone in this response and feel happy, that there is an audience for a debate.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, the use of "Eva" over "ekay" was deliberate though wrong in every sense. It was merely to underline/emphasise the sense of english translations I had come across, namely, it is only thru renunciation that one is able to get there......kinds.
To make my point about thyagam being different from vairagyam induced renunciation, let me cite a few cases.
Annapoorni's devotion to duty towards Gulpa, virtually sacrificing all her personal desires/comfort, is perhaps "thyagam" ( but still a conscious act methinks) and if the upanishads proclaim that this is the route for "mukthi" she should just cruise thru, or she is there already.
Will someone in the high echelons of spiritual
order, just tell her that what she is doing is "eswara aradhanai plus paropakaram" and she is in the "path of liberation" as much as one who has read the upanishads backwards. In fact she is even better placed, as there is not even a trace of a pretense of "I know" kind of arrogance/vanity.
Take say Uma, her personal comforts have been sacrificed, without a tomtoming, in taking care of Naresh, and her two kids. Is she in the "nirvana path"?
Take chella paati, or perima, the former had no existence save as Lokanatha Iyer's wife. The latter had no desire other than Ambi's and his family's welfare. Pure unadulterated, "paropakaram", was what drove them.
Right or false?
If right, I would have been happy if any spiritual Great would have hinted this. If wrong, then the "vairagya" seems to be a more appropriate word, as detachment, would make all actions totally "void". ( For want of a better word, I am using this, and I hope, my chain of thoughts is understood), and seems to be one step ahead of "thyagam" as I have understood so far.
My apologies to Annapoorni and Uma and Chella paatti, and perima, if they feel that after elevating them to such super heights, I am dropping them off with my final paragraph.
This is a debate, or more aptly, my internal struggle to find answers to doubts. Every one of us, is in his/her own way, in a spiritual quest, and my pet phrase "social lubrication" with people of good thoughts is what I would prefer to call as "satsangham"; a very important step towards "realisation".
I will be happy if every one reads this. I will not be unhappy if no one reads it either. As this is all a part of a "learning curve" to borrow and be in sync with our times.
Love and let God be with us.
Vichu
I would say that Thyagam can be interpreted in the following ways:
ReplyDelete1. the simple act to giving up our comfort and devoting ourselves to the service of others, and
2. the deeper act of giving up all worldly pleasures and going to seek the ultimate truth like the Buddha.
We must, no doubt, do good to others (everyone, including the needy) as the sloka goes, "परोपकाराय पुण्याय पापाय परपीडनम्" to gain punya - and refrain from hurting others in any manner which leads to a sin.
However, once you have given up everything - total thyagam - in the quest for the ultimate truth, all suffering around ceases to distract you.
Ganesh
Ganesh
ReplyDeleteIn every one of your defenition of thyagam, you are giving the game away, by prefixing the word "act".
That's my point all along. every thyagam seems to be a conscious act!!!.
Sacrifice (thyagam) is to my mind different from renunciation with detachment. It's not my case that thyagam cannot include a meaning like a detachment induced renunciation, but there are other thyagams like all the cases I have listed, which are just "sacrifices" of self pleasures, for own kith and kin, but equally deserving "merit"
The usage of Thyagena ekay lends itself to intrepretation that these thyagams, are also "in" as the word has not been qualified. All I want to know is whether there is a specific word for detachment induced renunciation, something akin to "sanyasa yoga" which perhaps would have been more specific. Vairagyena ekay in the absence of any other word ( as per my knowledge) therefore seemed more apt.
Finally, your conclusion "- total thyagam - all suffering around ceases to distract you" is a bit unappealing to me; I can understand our own suffering or pleasure ceasing to be a distraction, but other people's misery/ suffering, if it does not have any effect of distraction,on us, I think its cruelly monstorous. Compassion, karunai, empathy etc are profoundly divine feelings, and service to them should indeed, be deemed to be divine. Hence my query as to why self effacing social service is not easily accepted as a path to "mukthi" as potent as upanishdic driven wisdom induced "moksham"?
Love
Vichu
Do I make sense?
Love
Vichu