It is amazing to discover the artistic and aesthetic Creation of the Supreme Being! How many creatures have been brought into existence by the Divine hand! Despite the enormity of numbers, each creature is dissimilar and different from the other! How is this possible? The trick is known to God Himself and not to anyone else! It is believed that all objects in the world fall under four categories each containing twenty one lakh species! Those born out of eggs like birds, snakes(21 lakh) are called ‘Andaja’.Those that come out of sweat or perspiration like the scorpion, bugs, lice, are termed ,Swedaja(21 lakh). Those that come out of earth, piercing its surface like trees, hills are named 'Udbhija’(21lakh). Those that come out of mother’s womb after a specific period like human beings and animals (21lakh) are called Jarayuja.
It is only the human being who has the power of discrimination between good and evil, pure and impure things, the real and the unreal, the eternal and the ephemeral. But unfortunately this rare power is very sparingly used! This results is his misery, suffering and despondency! What are the qualities of worldly, materialistic men? There are two classes of men, those only in name and those who thirst after God. The latter are the awakened souls. Those who are mad after ‘women and gold’ are ordinary men, men in name only!
According to Sri Ramakrishna different kinds of creatures have donned the garb of humanity! “Some are tearing wolves, others are ferocious bears and some again are cunning foxes or venomous snakes though they all look like men”. Just like the sieve that rejects the fine grains and keeps the coarse ones, the evil reject the good and retain the evil. A few create attachment somehow or other and are bound by it. They do not like or want to be free. A person without a family or relatives to look after takes a cat or monkey or a dog or a bird for a pet and fondles it. The boy is happy as long as he is free from all responsibilities. But soon after marriage burdened with heavy duties of family life all his joy disappears. Dejection, care and anxiety are writ large on his face! Is it possible to remain an unbridled boy always? Ordinary man can never resist the temptation for women and gold despite his innumerable sorrows and sufferings.
The worldly man is anti religious. He scoffs at prayers and religious societies. The heart of a sinful man is like curly hair that cannot be straightened. The worldly man is not affected by the advice of the pious like a nail that cannot pierce a stone. Forgetfulness, despite his intense suffering, is the characteristic of the worldly man. After his wife dies he marries again; his child dies but he forgets it soon. Parents, impoverished by the marriage of their daughter once again have children!The worldly man is a fish out of water! He is unfit for holy and religious service. He will not be interested in spiritual quest as his past karma will have a stranglehold on his activities! His prarabdha karma will come into effect! Once a yogi asked the king to sit beside him and meditate! The king refused and said that even if he remains with the Yogi he cannot meditate. His royalty and desire for glory and enjoyment cannot leave him! It may happen that a kingdom may arise in the forest as he is destined to enjoy!
Worldly persons perform pious and charitable acts expecting earthly rewards. It is useless to preach religion to such people! Theirs is ‘Purana Vairagya’ forgetting things as soon as they involve themselves in routine work! Like a fly that sits on an unclean sore and next on offerings to God, the mind of the worldly man rests on religious and spiritual thought for a while but soon returns to mundane and material things! Modern man is strongly rooted in things ephemeral and fails to see the reality! He is enveloped in the web of Maya or illusion that makes him consider the real as unreal and the unreal as the real! Until he understands this aspect of worldly life he cannot expect salvation or liberation! But a firm belief and faith in God and an earnest attempt to turn spiritual shall surely save him from total doom! Sri Ramakrishna has rightly warned the present generation so that man can mend and save himself from doom
No comments:
Post a Comment