DIFFICULTIES—AN IMPETUS BEHIND UPSURGE
_ A P ANAND
Our life span is full of blockades; boulders, straight, circuitous in galore, lop-sided and smooth paths. Also having many miseries, upheavals, miracles, surprises, cheers/ wonderful times, triumphs, trials and tribulations- all depending upon our attitudes and ‘karmas’ (deeds). In spite of this sweet and transitory life, none intends to leave this world at his/ her own will. Our karmas prepare/ shape and lead us to our fate and destiny according to our experience based on will-power and thoughts. Also it is our environment that makes our ‘climate’. Good times are smooth and comfortable. They pass on soon and easily but bad times are always irksome and difficult to pass and are apparently lengthy. Sometimes we think as to why God has taken charge of our birth, death and fate leaving karmas to us when the end result is decimation of life in the world. Probably, these are His pranks/ fun frolics and we play in His hands like puppets. The world is the very creation/ prank or ‘Lila’ of God which looks like myth. Our history is replete with brave-hearts/ feisty spirits of sterling qualities who rose to formidable heights because they had tremendous perseverance and will-power. Here Swami Vivekananda saying applies to them, “I will drink the ocean and at my will, mountains will crumble up.” At the same time, those of weak guts will fall from grace; prove extinct volcanoes and some may be battered and pounded but still rise to the occasion on gathering courage. If one gains success after a protracted struggle, it becomes a remembrance, never to be forgotten. Those with emotions and attachments have, ultimately, brought tears in our eyes. In the same way ill-gotten money has brought us miseries and the hard-earned one with labour and sweat is sweet and also results in glory, pride and happiness. It seems that God chastises the wrong-doers and weak-minded with His hard hands. Someone has rightly said about the wise and brave people, “Efface your pride if you wish to reach the high pedestal of life like a seed which fructifies/ blooms after mixing with moist soil.” Those who break hurdles from their path with will-power lead to a great upsurge in life and their mind-set/ concept of failures breaks up for success. Those who dilly-dally are left out and suffer.
No one is perfect in this world. We get perfection after facing odds like a gem after it is polished. Success comes with discipline, diligence and single-pointed determination and also wisdom comes after undergoing sorrows. Besides, one’s strength comes with criticism. If you do not invite criticism, you cannot gain growth. We surge ahead in life with greater speed as the water speeds up its journey in the river after striking it with rugged rocks strewn on its way. As on the uneven road, one gets punctured off and on, in the same way we face unexpected miseries during our life. Likewise we can never attain godly knowledge without our self-
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affliction. Also failure is termed as a deferred success and not a permanent one. Even the snail reached the ark (ship in which Noah escaped the floods) by persevering. We also know the dictum about the race of hare and tortoise that slow and steady wins the race. From this we learn that a calm and steady person wins/ succeeds whereas the disturbed can neither succeed, nor govern his inner-self. Failure is also for those who quit in the middle of their efforts. We, always, require taking calculated risks. Never blame or pretend about circumstances and situations.
Apart from what is said above we have many other draw-backs. To achieve something, you have to forego your many unwanted desires. Gita (XII.12) says that renunciation from heart is superior to the physical one and it leads to immediate peace. It is also firmly believed that attraction is not the lust unless you start dwelling on it. Ego and attachment also cause bondage and a person devoid of these gets liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Is it not true that one of the reasons of Mahabharata war was bondage and attachment?
Small opportunities often bring luck if availed in time. Tragedies happen due to culmination of many factors in life. Ignorance is another cause of sufferings.
The perverted minds or evil forces work against the nature and mankind. The first atom bomb was tested for explosion at Trinity, 200 miles away from Los Alamos at 5.30 am on Monday, July 16, 1945 during President Franklin D. Roosevelt time. The purpose was to produce cheap electricity from the fission. Unfortunately, it was used for destruction in Japan at 6.45 am on Aug 5, 1945. Its impact was of 15 kiloton. It did bring a lot of human and material destruction but those whom God sided, remained unscathed. His might is right—which only works rightly.
India achieved independence very dearly in the year 1947. Some lost lives in the carnage/ massacre of communal riots and many went to gallows. Unfortunately, contrary to our dominant slogans of “Unity in diversity”, democracy and integrity, some self-centered and selfish people at the helm of affairs bifurcated the country into two parts, India and Pakistan, based on religion. Fie on us that we have, so far, not achieved for what we strived hard. This independence has remained a mere dream. We also recall the death story of the last Mughal
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King of India, Bahadur Shah Zafar. He died in Rangoon (now Yangon) on Nov 7, 1862 at 5 am due to heart stroke. After the revolt of 1857, he was sentenced to death and banished to Rangoon in the solitary confinement (a stable) due to his old age. Since he was a poet, he could express his harrowing feelings on a paper which was denied to him. Ah! Though he was a pacifist, he was labeled as figurehead of uprising against the British.
Even the Hindus and Sikhs faced the tyranny of Mughals who wanted to convert them to Islam. They fought tooth and nail against the heinous crime under the leadership of Guru Gobind Singh Ji (born at Patna on 5.1.1666) who lost even two of his own four children in the battlefield and two were embedded alive in the wall. Guru ji formed Khalsa Panth on a Baisakhi Day in 1699 at Anandpur, District Ropar (Punjab) to fight back in self defence. Guru ji became a martyr at Nanded (Maharashtra) on 7.10.1708.Many Sikhs were tortured and shamelessly thrown in the cauldrons containing boiling oil. Even this crime did not dither the bold Sikhs. They are still famous for their valour.
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of USA who was sworn in on 4.3.1861. He was a clear-hearted person, a man of grit and always fought for the civil liberties of the people and the atrocities perpetrated against them. He was a man of firm resolve but was shot down by an opponent while viewing a movie. His political life was tortuous and he did abide by moral character, spirituality, sense of righteousness, duty and consciousness.
During our recent times, Sir Henry Edmund was a mountaineer and man of passion, determination and acme of skill from New zealand along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay of Nepal climbed the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, of the Himalayas on May 29, 1953. The peak is 29035 feet above the sea level. This mountaineer had faced the failure thrice earlier. They say, in Hindi, “Nanak naam jahaj hai, jo chadde woh paar utre.”It literally means that by chanting Guru Nanak’s name is like a ship. The one, who rides, ferries across smoothly. In the same way, a famous runner, Milkha Singh not only believed in God but also was a man of hard work, will power and dedication. Though he did not succeed in his efforts in the beginning but in the long run his concerted endeavors brought fruit. He won many national and international awards and laurels for India.
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Alexander, the Great was from Macedonia (in ancient Greece and now a Republic country). He was a man of will-power but liked to usurp and attach other countries to his kingdom due to greed and pride. He conquered Asia Minor (now Turkey), Mesopotamia (now Iraq), Syria, Palestine, Egypt and reached India to invade it in 326 B.C at Hydaspes, near Jhelum (Now in Pakistan), tricked the then Raja Porus there but failed in his efforts and returned home.
Taking history from the golden pages of the yore, Jesus Christ whose followers are outnumbered in the world incarnated, as per holy Bible, on Sep. 11,3BC between 6.18 pm- 7.39 pm. It was the Day of Trumpets, at the New Moon of Tishri. Herod, the ruler of olden times crucified Jesus due to fear of his own authority. Lord Jesus resurrected later on. He was merciful and of great perseverance. He taught us to replace enmity with love.
Lord Rama was a person of propriety. He gladly accepted exile of 14 years from his father and abdicated the throne in favour of his brother, Bharta. Lord’s wife, Sita, daughter of Raja Janka, accompanied him to the jungles where both faced many problems. Sita was very pure to the core of her heart and faithful to Lord Rama. She was abducted by king Ravana of Lanka but could not dare to caste an evil eye due to her preservation of modesty. She was later on rescued by Rama with the help of his faithful servitor and devotee, Lord Hanuman, son of Pavan and mother Anjali. Lord Hanuman also helped Rama in bringing herbal plant of ‘Sanjivani’ for Lord’s brother, Laxmana from far off Himalayas to cure his ailments. King Janka was father of Sita. He was an example of what is believed that one who suffers while living is immortal. Attachment creates mental torture which is worse than death and total renunciation means to suffer while living.
Mira Bai was an arch devotee of Lord Krishna who liked nothing but him. She was immersed in his love, attachment, longing and remembrance day and night which her husband did not like. Once Mira Bai was sent a cup full of poison (spiked) for her to drink. She drank it in few draughts and nothing wrong happened to her. Lord Krishna was the Lord of lords who was endearing to all of ‘Dwapra era’. He (Lord Krishna) and his parents also suffered at the hands of his real uncle, Kansa. He was a Lord of multiple sterling qualities and was at the centre-stage of Mahabharata war. He was a friend and guide of Arjuna.
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Prahlada was the youngest of four sons of King Hiranyakasipu, King of ‘Asuras’ (devils). Asuras were always fighting with the ‘Devas’ (gods). Prahlada was firm devotee and believer of Lord Vishnu and always chanted His name whereas his father had pronounced himself as an authority of God and did not approve of his son’s activities. The father tortured his son to the maximum extant to turn to his father’s ways but it never worked. God protected Prahlada every time. Once Prahlada was ordered by his father to embrace a hot pillar to punish and decimate him. Prahlada followed the order, leaving results in the hands of God Supreme. The moment he
embraced the pillar, Lord Narsimha appeared out of it, saved Prahlada and ripped apart Hiranyakasipu.
Raja Bharthri was the ruler of Ujjain in the 1st century B.C. He received the kingdom from celestial god, Indra and the king of Dhara. He and his most beloved wife, Pingla, had no child. In Ujjain lived a Brahman who gave him a fruit of mortality. This fruit, from different hands, reached a maid, Lakha by name. She gave it back to the king who beheaded her due to her infidelity and ate the fruit himself. After this event the king abdicated the throne to his brother and himself became a mendicant. He was follower of Baba Guru Gorakhnath. The queen, Pingla, was given holy water by another saint and she got a son. The king had already renounced everything and had no attachments or desires.
Daropadi’s modesty was outraged and she was humiliated by Duhsasna in Kaurvas court. She was the chaste wife of five Pandva brothers. She was spiritual too and Duhsasna could not succeed in his diabolic designs. Ultimately, she was asked by Dhrtarashtra for some boons. She boldly demanded that her husbands be released from captivity and their weapons returned. Luckily, next morning her husbands returned along with Krishna. The Pandavas sensed the trouble undergone by Daropadi. They wanted to kill Aswathama, son of Guru Darona. At this juncture Daropadi intervened and did not advise her husband, Bhima for the crime as he was the son of their Guru. Daropadi was merciful, soft and true human being.
The atom and hydrogen bombs have capacity for huge destruction. These are man-made. There are other divine forces also opposing them. Divine forces always unite and protect the righteous people. Therefore, always have fear of and faith in God. Life is a journey full of ups and downs. It is also for our learning. Enjoy it and blossom inwardly as the Lord wills. If you walk
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with God, your heart will do spiritual exercise and be strengthened. Time passes away but it leaves deep imprint behind for a long time. Lord is also the Umpire of our fate. Heed the call of your wisdom also as Lord has bestowed us with brain and power of discrimination. Please think that an aero plane and a marine ship or boat work as per Newton’s third law of motion, “To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” and the same principle applies in our life also. E.Mail: anandpanand@yahoo.com Dated: July 25, 2013
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