Whither To

    It is said that once in the presence of Swami Vivekananda, Gurudev Ramkishna Paramhansa started groaning, Swami Vivekananda asked his Guru as to what was the matter. Gurudev said that across the river a land lord was beating one of his disciples and that he (Gurudev) could experience the pain felt by his disciple. In fact cane marks appeared on his back. That was the extent to which Gurudev Ramkishna Paramhansa cared for his disciples. While this may sound like fiction, a friend of mine narrated a similar episode recently. My friend’s Guruji resides in an ashram in Himachal Pradesh. Once on his way to the ashram my friend met with a minor accident and received a few cuts on his shoulder. However, he continued his trip to the ashram. While conversing        with his Guruji at the ashram, Guruji complained of some pain in his shoulder. On removing the loin cloth from the shoulder, to his utter surprise, my friend found similar cut marks like the one on his shoulder. Both the above incidents depict that when we care for others to that extent even the physical distinction between self and others vanish. If that is the degree of feeling one human being can have for another, image the pain undergone all the time by the Almighty God because of the sufferings of the disciples.

            During the last century there has been tremendous technological progress. Distances have shrunk; means of communication have never been so efficient and affordable; developments on the medical front are unimaginable; it is truly a space age where   Man is looking beyond the Earthy frontiers for creating new habitats.

            Along with the technological progress there have also been changes on the social front, but in which direction? In this age of the internet where communicating with someone across the world has never been easier, do we know who our neighbours are? Why is it that senior citizens are left alone to fend for themselves against criminals on the prowl? Are parents to be treated as use and throw commodities?

            Once an elderly gentlemen expressed his desire to his only son settled in the USA that after his wife passed away he felt all alone and would like to spend his last days with his son Prompt came the reply from the son that he had made arrangements for his father in an Old Age Home in a place near to his residence where his father could move in immediately.

            The family pattern over the years has gradually transformed from joint family to nuclear family to further disintegration in more developed societies where adhocism     prevails. The consequences are high divorce rates, children going wayward and taking to bad habits like smoking, drinking and drug abuse etc.

            Despite the phenomenal material progress, on certain aspects we have not been able to reorient our mindset. What kind of parents are those because of whom the backyard of a nursing home in Patiala is full of rotting female fetuses? Why this distinction between man and woman continues when a large majority of the populace worships the Almighty Goddess of Shakti.

            Despite all the progress we have not been able to overcome the barriers between caste and religion. Why is it that the dark side of man continues to prevail in the form of war and terrorism raising its ugly head from time to time killing hundreds of innocent people including women and children? Why have we come to accept such heinous crimes as a part of things happening around us. Why have we become apathetic towards such tragedies?

            Lord Ram is worshiped because he never forgot what his Dharma was. The day before he was to be crowned he readily give up the throne to fulfill the wish of his father and step mother. He sacrificed his marital life on the desires of his subjects. Dharma continues to play as important a role today as it did then. But how many if us realize what our Dharma is? When each one of us is conscious of what our Dharma is we shall be at peace with ourselves and with others and help in creating a better society.

           

Let us all strive to follow our Dharma and create a society that will truly reflect Gurudev Rabindernath Tagore’s verses :

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake