A request and a disclaimer: Before you begin to read this blog, request you to first read the 3 parts of ‘Stroke in the canvas called ‘The Value of Values’. You may also choose to read the blogs on the values of amAnitvam, adambhitvam, ahimsA (the value of ahimsA is in three parts) kshAntiH, Arjavam, AchAryopAsanam, Saucam, Sthairyam, AtmavinigrahaH, indriyArthesu vairAgyam and anahankAraH though they are not a prerequisite to reading this value. The language and explanations used by pUjya swAmiji is so profound, that I wish I do justice by aligning my understanding to his explanation, as I parallelly try to relate it to day to day living.. Any error in the way I have blogged upon these values, is due to an error in my understanding alone.
janma-mrtyu-jarA-vyAdhi-duHkha-dosAnudarsanam is a sanskrit compound noun that means having an objective attitude towards life. This long compound noun seems complex as a whole but when broken into parts is revealing indeed.
janma – birth
mrtyu – death
jarA – old age
vyAdhi – disease
duHkha – pain (physical or mental)
dosa (pronounced as dosha) – limitations
anu – repetitive
darsanam (pronounced as darshanam) – seeing
It is a fact that birth (janma) and death (mrtyu) are realities of life. Everyone who is born has to die someday. Between birth and death, a few years may pass or many years may pass. If many years pass, then death happens when one reaches an old age (jarA) and with the old age comes certain limitations. Memory starts failing and we are not able to recall that easily; while some of us maybe able to recall what happened 30 years back but not what happened 30 seconds back. Mobility takes a setback as the limbs slow down, organs start feeling the age and some of them may just decide to call it quits.. and the list goes on..
Does this mean that it is only during old age (jarA) we have our limitations (dosAs)? Between janma and mrtyu, we are also afflicted by both vyAdhi (illness / disease) which could be big or small; and duHkhA (pain) which could be both physical and mental. Interesting indeed!! I always thought duHkha means sorrow but as I mull over the meaning of duHkha, I understand that sorrow is a fall out or the effect of pain. Hence pain seems to be a more befitting meaning.
Pain is of three types:
Adhideivika duHkha – which is the pain that we go thru’ due to the effect of the natural disasters that we face. The cause for this pain is one that we have no control over. This could be a drought, a flood, a storm, a tsunami etc.
Adhibhautika duHkha – which is the pain that is caused by the people and objects around me and in the world. This is a pain that we face from the external environment and one that is man made.. This could be due someone smoking around us, a noise pollution, an accident that kills many people etc.
AdhyAtmika duHkha – which is the pain that we directly face as an individual due to problems and situations in our life. This could be the loss of a loved one, an opportunity lost, a break in a relationship etc.
Every aspect that is detailed above is factual and is known to us.
So what now?
Is this value about how to handle these facts?
With all these limitations that we face which are facts of life, what do we need to focus on is what is of paramount importance.
With a smile on my lips and a twinkle in my eyes, I decided to poem the facts and the focus.. Read on..
If I take birth, I am sure to die,
The time period between my birth and death I can never be sure.
I can live upto my old age with my senses slowly slowing down,
or I may leave young, “much too soon” as many may say.
Nothing stops many an illness or pain from making its attendance,
birth and death, age, disease and pain are limitations I see repeatedly,
again and again and again and again,
Every limitation is also sure a reality, which has the capacity to bog me down.
In my hands however, inspite and despite these limitations,
is my free will to keep the purpose of my life, always in mind and sight,
looking at every situation that I experience objectively,
marching steadily and consciously in time, in pursuit of my purpose of life..
May 6, 2017 at 12:04 am
Very-well concluded.
Only point is, it is not just being knowledgeable of the ‘limitations’ of the said host of inevitability of embodiment, but having a ‘clear insight’ ( the word ‘anuDarSanam’ is not to be split into anu+DarSana, but read as a single word which will give a deeper meaning of ‘properly understanding’ (as the ‘defects’ being associated only with the body and not with the Self) and hence the Self not getting perturbed from carrying out our mission.
Now comes the question, why it should be properly understood? The same BhagavaTgItA (BG) in its very early stages, in its ch VI to be more precise, has categorically stated that the yoga or engagement of Self in the mission does not stop with the ‘bodily death’ and gets continued in the Self’s next ’embodiment’ and it gets embodied in a situation conducive for continuation of the yoga in its earlier embodiment.
May look bizarre, but since the subject draws its support fro BG, we have to see what its full view is.
Death or disease or old-age is not an impediment or Dosha or defect the Self has to cope up with to carry on with its yoga is the purport. This is because, the material body will get depreciated in its present form due to usage, but the energy is not destroyed or depleted. Yes, the material is also not destroyed, but it gets into Nature after usage and only from the same Nature the new embodiment is born. In other words nothing in the universe is destroyed in its true sense.
That is why Nature itself is called ‘Brahma’ even as the Almighty is addressed and so also the individual Self (or selves if one prefers to call it that way)