Our Holy Scriptures are
studded with precious messages, which are in fact the research findings of our
great, enlightening spiritual scientist, whose laboratory was not confined to
certain set of tools or apparatuses but the entire cosmos residing in their
inner being. On diving inside, what all truths they discovered, they compiled
it in the form of sacred tests for the welfare of mankind.
Bhagwat says that
unlike animals and other species whose lives are driven solely by their
instincts, it is only a human being who has the faculty of decision-making and
is independent to make a choice of his actions.
Inspired by the great
revelations of the sages of India, philosophers like Leo Tolstoy also said that
one must live to attain the union with the infinite God’ and not just to lose
his life in the hands of death.
However, it is out
sheer misfortune that we fail to realize this golden opportunity and prove to
be big losers in the deal of life! Our state can be well compared to a man who
used to serve a holy man with great devotion. Pleased with his service, the
holy man gave him a philosopher’s stone, which could turn iron into gold.
Greatly delighted on receiving the philosopher’s stone, the man said that he
would make his fortune shine bright with the boon that was rewarded to him.
However, the holy man said that the stone will lose its power after six months,
when he will come and collect it from him. The man thanked the sage and took
the stone with him happily.
The
next day he decided to go to the market to buy large quantities of iron so as
to turn them into gold. But, on enquiring about the prices, he came to know
that the prices had just gone up from the previous day. “Ah! I am not a fool to
buy iron at such high rates. I have ample amount of time. So, it’s better to
wait for some days till the prices roll down. “Thinking thus, he went back.
After around a month, he again visited the market. But, to his utter surprise,
the rates of iron had further gone up. “It is not worth to buy iron at this
price. Let me wait for some more time.” And, he again went back. Month after
month passed and the prices kept rising. But, he was also stubborn not to buy
the iron till the prices fell down. Finally, the period of six months got over
and the sage came to collect the philosopher’s stone back. He asked the man,
“By now you must have made yourself truly rich with lots of gold in your
stores!” The man replied, “No! The prices of iron kept rising and I didn’t
waste my money in buying iron at such high prices.” The sage said, “You are a
fool! To save a little money, you made a bog loss to yourself. You could have
turned all of it into gold and become rich by now. But, now you have missed the
chance.”
In
our real lives, we do the same foolishness. God showered His immense grace on
us and blessed us with this human garb (which represents the philosopher’s
stone). Our soul, being covered with countless karmas and sanskaras, is like an
iron, which can be liberated (i.e. turned into gold) only through the medium of
the precious boon of the human garb. But, we keep postponing this task of
supreme priority despite knowing well that death is certain for each one of us.
According to the statistics, an average of 200,000 people die every day. And,
nearly 70 million people die every year. However, we while away our precious
time and breaths so leisurely as if we are going to live forever.
Thins
become even more surprising because, unlike the story where the man knew the
tenure for which he could keep the philosopher’s stone with himself, in our
case, no one knows when death will lay its icy hands on us. If one is healthy,
then that doesn’t mean that he will not die. Similarly, if one is young, then
also he can’t ensure himself to be relieved of death. There are lots of healthy
and young people who have died. Meaning by, death is certain and comes without
prior intimation.
Where
death is certain, there life is equally uncertain. Life is uncertain to the
extent that one cannot guarantee his life even till the next breath. However,
despite these facts, it is only a last minute realization, if at all, when a
man thinks that he has wasted his entire life. But, by then, it is too late. At
that time, he is left with no option but to repent on making such a big loss to
himself. The great scientist Newton, despite making several achievements in his
lifetime, was forced to say during the last moments of his life, “I was like a
boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a
smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of
truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
After
spending all our life in undergoing struggles to accomplish our materialistic
deals, we, in the end, leave the world barehanded to enter into the hole of
death. Just like an ant, which struggles all through its way carrying a feather
on its back, crosses all hurdles; but, when it finally reaches its hole, it is
forced to leave feather outside. the tragic state of affairs is that without
accomplishing the main purpose on acquiring the human garb, when a person
enters into the hole of death, he is forced to travel through a long and
extremely painful journey of births and deaths while taking different forms.
Which form, i.e. which specie he is sent to, is decided according to the karmas
he did all through his life. After all, the formula applies here too- ‘As you
sow, so shall you reap! This again has been testified by all our sacred
scriptures.
And,
in this manner, the rarest of the rare opportunities of human birth is lost
from our hands. Can you guess how rare it is to attain this garb? How bleak are
the chances of getting the precious human birth? A Buddhist philosophy
expresses it in the following manner:
Assume
that a blind turtle lives on the ocean bed and is able to come to the surface
just once every hundred years. On the surface of that vast ocean which spreads
in all four directions, a golden yoke floats. The yoke, in turn, is also
subjected to the blows of the wind, which keeps drifting it here and there. In
such circumstances, what are the chances of the turtle surfacing at exactly the
right time and that too in just the right place so as to put its head through
the yoke? Similar is the probability for a Soul to get the human garb-extremely
bleak. And, after losing it once, then for thousands and thousands of years, we
remain trapped in the vicious circle of births and deaths. This fact is well
depicted through the emblem of a snake eating its own tail, commonly used in
the iconography of Georgian and Victorian cemeteries. In fact, the term
‘vicious spiral’ was coined the USA to denote a process in which, after
proceeding around the loop, one ends in a worse position than before.
To
relieve us of this vicious and painful circle of birth and death while taking
different forms, Perfect Spiritual Masters descend for our rescue. They come
with the sole purpose of awakening a man from the deep slumbers of ignorance
due to which he becomes oblivious of his main purpose of life. They bestow upon
mankind the eternal knowledge of Self-Realisation (Brahm Gyan) and make him the
way to attain liberation.
Hence,
the verse of the Kathopanishad says that- One should realise God (by
attaining the Supreme Knowledge from a Perfect Spiritual Master) before his human
body perishes. Otherwise, the soul is forced to enter into a torturous journey
of taking different forms in different realms for many years together.
