6 August 2001, 12:43am IST
S H VENKATRAMANI.
We subconsciously believe that to be virtuous we have to suffer. right from childhood it is dinned into us that the straight and narrow path of goodness and virtue bristles with thorns. on the contrary, the path of sin and vice is a bed of roses. in school, we found that being a good student meant a lot of hard work and trouble. it meant sacrificing fun and play with friends. to fare well in studies, you had to pore painstakingly over ponderous tomes while your classmates were happily playing cricket on sundays.
In all our fables, saintly souls who demonstrated proverbial endurance on earth in the face of formidable odds made it to heaven after death. emperor harischandra showed fortitude in not straying from the path of truth in spite of the suffering he underwent; and the gods finally showered their blessings on him. dhruva prayed to maha vishnu standing on one foot in a spirit of total religious devotion. he chanted 'om namo narayanaya' for an eternity in his rigorous `tapasya',. lord vishnu finally appeared before the young boy and blessed him that he would shine forever on earth as the resplendent pole star. the unwritten message that we imbibe, deep down in our bones, from these parables is that we must necessarily experience pain and suffering to uphold certain moral values and ultimately merit heaven. pain is the price that we have to pay to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Is the prospect of a reward in some distant future the only incentive for us to do virtuous deeds? is the certainty of future punishment the only deterrent for us to desist from sin? after all, deep down in the centre of our being, we are scared of the final day of reckoning when god, the supreme arbiter, will dispense justice to each of us on his divine scales. but in reality, regardless of whether there is a cosmic system of dispensation of justice or not, virtue is its own happy and fulfilling reward, and vice carries within itself the seeds of its own punishment.
In the holistic buddhist perspective, vice and sin are themselves the result of a self-punishing and mistaken response to the challenge of human life. this response arises from a mindset that places the greedy, lustful or egoistic individual in a self-defeating conflict with the real world. we do not have to punish a child that thrusts its finger into the fire. one of the most powerful insights of buddhism is that you commit sin because you suffer from a delusion. it is this delusion which the upanishads and adi shankaracharya have called 'maya'. this delusion creates in the individual the sense of separateness of his self, distinct from the universe and nature or 'prakriti'. a sense of self separate from the fundamental flow of reality called the 'tao' of being. a delusion of human separateness which dante describes as infernal.
S H VENKATRAMANI.
We subconsciously believe that to be virtuous we have to suffer. right from childhood it is dinned into us that the straight and narrow path of goodness and virtue bristles with thorns. on the contrary, the path of sin and vice is a bed of roses. in school, we found that being a good student meant a lot of hard work and trouble. it meant sacrificing fun and play with friends. to fare well in studies, you had to pore painstakingly over ponderous tomes while your classmates were happily playing cricket on sundays.
In all our fables, saintly souls who demonstrated proverbial endurance on earth in the face of formidable odds made it to heaven after death. emperor harischandra showed fortitude in not straying from the path of truth in spite of the suffering he underwent; and the gods finally showered their blessings on him. dhruva prayed to maha vishnu standing on one foot in a spirit of total religious devotion. he chanted 'om namo narayanaya' for an eternity in his rigorous `tapasya',. lord vishnu finally appeared before the young boy and blessed him that he would shine forever on earth as the resplendent pole star. the unwritten message that we imbibe, deep down in our bones, from these parables is that we must necessarily experience pain and suffering to uphold certain moral values and ultimately merit heaven. pain is the price that we have to pay to enter the kingdom of heaven.
The bible clearly tells us that "many are called, but few are chosen". king harischandra's life and dhruva's personal chanting and meditation were in themselves not intrinsically exalting or fulfilling. they were the unavoidable painful means to a worthy end. we also subliminally believe that a sinner will have to pay for his sins in some distant future. every judas meets his nemesis. he who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind. the mills of god grind slowly, but surely.
Is the prospect of a reward in some distant future the only incentive for us to do virtuous deeds? is the certainty of future punishment the only deterrent for us to desist from sin? after all, deep down in the centre of our being, we are scared of the final day of reckoning when god, the supreme arbiter, will dispense justice to each of us on his divine scales. but in reality, regardless of whether there is a cosmic system of dispensation of justice or not, virtue is its own happy and fulfilling reward, and vice carries within itself the seeds of its own punishment.
In the holistic buddhist perspective, vice and sin are themselves the result of a self-punishing and mistaken response to the challenge of human life. this response arises from a mindset that places the greedy, lustful or egoistic individual in a self-defeating conflict with the real world. we do not have to punish a child that thrusts its finger into the fire. one of the most powerful insights of buddhism is that you commit sin because you suffer from a delusion. it is this delusion which the upanishads and adi shankaracharya have called 'maya'. this delusion creates in the individual the sense of separateness of his self, distinct from the universe and nature or 'prakriti'. a sense of self separate from the fundamental flow of reality called the 'tao' of being. a delusion of human separateness which dante describes as infernal.
According to buddhism, sin should intrinsically cause revulsion. not because the sinner will be consigned to the flames of hell after death. not that the state police will ultimately catch up with his misdemeanours. sinning should be innately repulsive because it originates from a failure to deal with the delusion of human separateness from the natural flow of being. therefore it is bound to lead to further unhappiness and suffering.
The way out of the suffering inherent in sin is to make ourselves fully and deeply attentive to the nature of what we imagine, in our delusion, to be the stimulus for our happiness. we will then perceive the real cost of our selfish striving for sensual pleasure, and the inevitable but futile craving to perpetuate it when it is fundamentally transient. as the young boy realises the nature of fire by burning his finger in it, we will then see, clear as daylight, what it is costing us to acquire wealth and luxury. we will then see the suffering that all sensual pleasure entails, and pluck out its roots.
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