31 December 2001, 12:17am IST
J L GUPTA.
A homo sapien belongs to mother earth. he or she is born here and learns to survive on this planet, but harbours the illusion that he or she has conquered everything. a human being feels proud that he or she has scaled high peaks and fathomed the depth of oceans. with the modern-day inventions, we are able to fly like birds - faster than the speed of sound, swim faster than fishes and remain alive under water. man has even walked on the surface of the moon. but as human beings we are not at peace, neither with ourselves nor with the world around us. in fact, we are under tremendous stress in the present times. we are struggling with our inner selves at all times. if we look at our lives we find that we are virtually at war with the world around us. on the one hand, the world talks about globalisation and aims at a borderless world. on the other, we worry about petty personal gains. the only solution to this problem is that we need to work towards changing our mindsets. the buddha had said, centuries ago, that a human being can be free from the cycle of birth and death by the ‘renunciation of desire’. human desires can be fought and got rid off. a human being can, by repeated practice, bring his mind under control and can attain the state of liberation - from the negative thoughts and emotions of his being. however, to be liberated from these thoughts and desires, one must be aware of them first. by this method, misery can be put to an end, and real happiness can be attained. the world is becoming a dangerous place to live in, and this is despite all the claims of being civilised, of having evolved from the primitive to the modern man and from the cave man to the cultured being. many reasons can be attributed to this. a man longs to be the king of all kingdoms, but is too extravagant and idle. he desires that his writ should run through the whole world. but then he is lazy and lethargic. man can be meaner than many other species. we are more human than humane. we have negative qualities such as - anger, ego, envy, greed, hatred and jealousy, that we should consider suppressing. we have allowed these qualities to become our consuming passions. we think that we are mightier than most. we think we are capable of destroying anything by using our might, more effectively than the mythological demons, about whom we have read in our childhood days. today, human beings have acquired weapons of mass destruction which are capable of obliterating them and their kind from the face of this planet. as men we arm men. then we destroy people without arms. all this leaves us with the inevitable feeling of sorrow. then why are we giving vent to our anger? we let our wrath take over our senses. and we trust that it shall never burn us. we fight to satisfy our egos. the overpowering obsession of a man with himself motivates him, to grab everything and to fulfil his greed. today, wealth alone is the god of man. the malice in our mind never misses the mark. we fight to primarily prove our power. it’s true, we are indian. we pray, every morning when we wake up. but after that, we look for a prey throughout the day. it is also true that every prayer that an indian raises ends with an invocation to peace. ‘om! shanti, shanti’. which means, ‘god! let there be peace. peace everywhere’. then why so much of a cry for war? we need to be calm so as to be able to command. we must wage a war against anger, against hunger and against illiteracy. we must realise that rancour can never be rewarding. we must learn to rein in the feelings of revenge. we must learn to be content. ‘riches’ is not a bad word and poverty is not a curse. a person can be rich or poor, and his friends might be few, but, they would not be jealous of him, if they learn to be content with their own condition. to be happy, we must learn to forget ourselves. we should resolve to wage a war against the devils hidden in us. we should discover the god within us and learn to make peace with the world. we should spread joy amongst our fellow beings. this ought to be our ‘new year’ resolution - to satisfy the sinews of our soul.
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