Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
A DISCOURSE ON PEACE AND RENUNCIATION: A REVIEW OF TRADITONAL ETHOS by Dr Jernail S. Anand
I do not buy the idea that death can deliver you of all your problems and responsibilities. Such statements hold good in worldly terms only. Death, on the other hand, is a doorway to many possibilities which we have ourselves created while being alive. The greatest pity I feel for mankind is that they consider only life as worthy of living and debating, and death is considered and rejected from active human reckoning as a dreaded end to the journey. All this is born of the lack of training, or mal-training that we impart to our youngsters, who then, grow up with these complexes. Today, I am talking of two of these complexes which arrest man’s mind – Peace and Death.
OF HAPPINESS AND PEACE
Instead of Happiness, I have jumped to Peace. Because, happiness is a state of mind which is dependent on worldly projections. But peace has something to do with the emotional components of human life. Moreover, happy or not happy are transitory phases of life. Moment after moment, our state of mind keeps changing, and it is very difficult to keep track of man’s mind. So, the idea of Peace is central to man’s psychic and spiritual being.
I also tend to put together the idea of Truth and Peace as well. People who find out Truth, finally return to Peace. Look at the statue of Mahatma Buddha. You can see peace reigning on his face, in his eyes, and in his mind too. One more thing that comes to my mind is: if you can sit still, just reflect on reality, you may find truth, which will lead to Peace. ‘Still’ is the operative word here. Can we afford to remain ‘still’ in a world which demands so much activity from us, mental as well as physical? Stillness is an anti-clockwise movement for mankind and beyond my comprehension.
Jean-Paul Sartre is not off the mark when he says: “Everything has been figured out, except how to live”. This figuring out is perhaps at the centre of human failure to achieve a permanent state of happiness, and peace. The truth that we come across after reading scriptures, learning rhymes and listening to the lectures of spiritual gurus, if it satisfies us, we should be at peace. But, we are not. It shows the truth that we encountered was not absolute. It was only half-truth and we remained unconvinced. That is why, we are still searching for it. And the quest appears to be endless.
BUDDHA, AND THE SPELL CALLED TRUTH
It is too big a price for a man, for whom his body, his mind, his fantasies, his wishes, his desires are the real treasure at his command, if he has to give it all away. If this is the price of knowing truth and attaining peace, I think it is a losing bargain. What use is the knowledge of truth, and what use is the Peace if you have left Kapilvastu, if you have left your Yashodhara, and if you left your Rahul? Were they given to you by gods, to be abandoned in the pursuit of a spell called Truth?
And, there are hordes of people, who think that the only way to know the truth is to leave the world, to leave families, to leave kids to the care of elements, and go to forests, and there, meditate? What use is this knowledge, this light, for your family, for your people, and for yourself too, if you have reduced yourself to a LIVE DEATH?
Is this the command of gods, that men should renounce this world? If so, why they would send you here? It is the way of the escapist, the one who runs away from life. Is life so horrible? Is your body so dangerous? Is your wife so scary? You have father and mother. Don’t they deserve your care when they grow old? How can you just leave everything to itself, them to themselves, and discard your body, your desires, your passions, your possessions, and move into the forests? Do you remember, forests are meant for wild animals. Are you a wild animal to make your halt in a forest, thinking that you are unfit for the world?
If the forests are where knowledge resides, where gods revealed themselves to men, where you can meet truth, wisdom, light and ultimate peace, lions, panthers, deer and monkeys have been living there since times immemorial. Have they never encountered that celestial sight? I sense something is amiss in this philosophy of escape.
THE ESCAPE MAFIA
Escape. In search of god. In search of truth. In search of peace. Escape from your world. It is a coward’s way of dealing with existential truths. Brave people do not run away from the circumstances in which they are placed. Rather, they prove their mettle by fighting it out, and proving that nothing can check their march onwards. If you are born to this earth, you have parents, you have a wife, and you have parented a few children, only cowards leave this life to camp in forest, and quest for an illusory peace. Truth has nothing to do with such actions. And, if you can go back into centuries, and have some contrivance to see, you will not see even one person, who defied the commands of gods, and who left the world in search of truth, seated in heaven.
Gods cannot be hoodwinked. They cannot be bribed. They cannot be deceived with words, as these people do with masses. The world can be made to believe that those who leave the portals of their homes, for the forests, are ‘great’ men, who ‘live’ on ‘charity’ of the people who suffer in their homes. But not gods. Gods know the runners, the renunciates, the escape mafia are liars, who have given a wrong direction to human thought and spiritual folklore.
I am not comfortable with this idea of renunciation. It is the result of wrong training that a man considers this world worse than a forest, and human beings worse than wild animals. If you think of going up the mountains, and live in the clouds, better commit suicide and join your forefathers. What are you doing here?
The quest and realization of Truth puts us in a state of Peace. One way is to leave this world, and meditate on an invisible god, and then, come to some sort of conclusion that all is an illusion. It is very easy to say life is an illusion. Your birth is an illusion. Youth death is an illusion. Those who themselves turn illusion, talk of life like this. Man is not an illusion. Life is not an illusion. It is a part of a working ethics. A part of a living ethics of spiritual life. Gods have created this world. Those who renounce it, defy their diktat, and never find themselves at peace.
THE ULTIMATE QUESTION
How can we attain Truth and Peace while living in this world? This is the ultimate question before mankind.
Running away from life is a cowardly act. We must not forget that life is a gift of gods, and should not be denied. In fact, some people find life too challenging, and they take the easier route. Not to face the challenges, and keep away from action, which might bring them to the law of ‘Karma’ once again. Not doing anything, is also a ‘karma’ in the vilest sense of the term, and more dangerous, and fraught with graver consequences.
We must love this life. It will not come to us again. We have parents, who love us. We have brothers and sisters whom we love so much. And, then, a wife, however difficult she may, after all she is there to give birth to your progeny. No temptation can allure you to leave these people, and go to forests in search of truth. Perhaps, you have not been told, Truth itself is an illusion which was created by wise men, to keep you mentally absorbed, and always feeling inadequate. Truth is the creation and you are a part of creation. Everything is a part of the creation. This creation is the truth. We, each of us, is partial truth in ourselves. So, where is the need to run after Truth?
Now, let us come to Peace. Can you tell me what is noise? Noise is the disturbance of Silence. Can’t we re-arrange noise, so that it does not disturb silence. So, whatever disturbs you, needs to be rearranged. We need to change the patterns of our life. We have been born with certain givens. In them, and in their proper arrangement, lies Peace. Only we have to learn what to place where. In other words, if we can learn the art of arranging things, prioritizing them, and if we know, what is important, prize it, and what is not important, discard it… if we evolve this consciousness within ourselves, and we make changes in our enviros, it will do. Just think what is the difference between a Rakaan [a woman of sophisticated taste] and a Kudher [ill-mannered woman]? A ‘kudher’ woman has all the things a ‘Rakaan’ has, only the ‘Rakaan’ knows how to create an aesthetic charm in their arrangement so that it looks beautiful to the eye, and feels soothing to the soul. Finally, it is all a matter of arrangement. Let us start teaching the Art of Arrangement. It will usher in Peace in your life. No need to renounce anything. No need to run to mountains. No need to run to forests. Let us leave these areas for the god’s happy creatures, animals, birds, rivers and clouds and concentrate on our world, our villages, our cities, and stop man from acting wolf.
Author: Dr Jernail Singh Anand, President of the International Academy of Ethics, is author of 161 books in English poetry, fiction, non-fiction, philosophy and spirituality. He was awarded Charter of Morava, the great Award by Serbian Writers Association, Belgrade and his name was engraved on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. The Academy of Arts and Philosophical Sciences of Bari [Italy] honoured him with the award of an Honourable Academic. Recently, he was awarded Doctor of Philosophy [Honoris Causa] by the University of Engg and Management, Jaipur. Recently, he organized an International Conference on Contemporary Ethics at Chandigarh. His most phenomenal book is Lustus:The Prince of Darkness [first epic of the Mahkaal Trilogy]. [Email: [email protected] Mobile: 919876652401[Whatsapp]
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