Date:11/03/2003 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/2003/03/11/s...1100830900.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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