How old was Krishna and Arjun when the later gave the former a lesson on Yoag just before the Kurukshetra War? That would be any one’s guess. Probably Krishna and Arjun were of the same age group. Krishna treated Yudhistira as elder. When the Krukshetra war took place, Krishna was already in Dwarka, after having spent the childhood and adolosent period in Vrindavan. He must have been around 18 when he killed Kangsha. Then, he married and spent time in Dwarka as a potential leader of the Oligarchic Yadav Kingdom. Then he attended the Sawambar of Druapudi. Arjun won Draupadi but Krishna did not contest. So at that time Arjun and Krishna might have been between 19-22. Arjun spent lot of time in exile – 14 years. The Krukshetra war started after that. Krishna’s son fought bravely in the War. He must have benn around 15-16 years’ old. So, at the time of War Krishna and Arjun must have been in the age group 35-40. Not after too long a time after the War, Yudhisthir and his brothers went for, in a sense, real vanaprastha. So, Arjun and Krishna could have been close to 50 at the time of war.
Why am I concerned about their age at the time they were discussing Yoga? They were not children or in the prime of their youth. They have lived through much of their Gruastha. So, they were old. Old age is golden period for Yoga.
It happens that many start seriously thinking of Salvation, Self. Atman, God and Yoga when they become old. They might have been praying and worshipping God religiously with a view to living more peaceful, comfortable lives and face little problem with God’s blessings. But only few thought of death, after death, and salvation. But they worry about the constraints in the form of PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC DEPENDENCIES at that stage of life.
Certainly, with age and retirement from income earning activity, it may be a great problem to live life in Wanaprastha and Sanyas stage, unless, of course, one and in most cases, both husband and wife together, prepare for that life. The only preparation that is needed is complete submission to God. Old age is the most ideal and convenient stage for all this. Once a person or a married couple submits to God, by definition, they no longer rely on their limbs or income / wealth, they no longer fear ill health, disease, weakened limbs, senses, organs and approaching death: they no longer need to long for food and drink or clothes or even bed or shelter. In such a state, worries need not arise. On the other hand, persons who reach such a stage find food, drink, clothing, shelter, help, medicines, assistance, etc just flow to them even from quarters they had never anticipated earlier. God seems to take care of those who submit all worries to God and just become intensely keen to merge with God.
True, such persons are rare. What do the others do? Old age problems are bound to come and would have to be faced. There is no way out. One can only try to forget about these problems or bear with these problems by continuous praying to God for relief, protection and liberation, and by giving up ego, anger, opinion, expectations, desire and attachment to personal habits and tendencies of the past. Tolerance and endurance is the only valuable attribute of old age - the greater the tolerance, the better the life is. People do all these to various degrees and make their living better to that extent comfortable. Those who continue to try to manipulating others, emotionally or otherwise, to live more comfortably, almost always fail and suffer all the more.
There was an illiterate old man whom I knew would not go to a doctor even if he had fever for a few days. He would say that he had to bear the discomfort and pain as these are the result of his prior karma or fate. In old age, there is no way to do fresh Karma to avoid suffering resulting from past Karma.
I cannot do anything if I get lung or other cancer now having been a smoker for over 40 years. I cannot get back my perfect eye sight whatever I may do. My digestation ability powered by the micro-biological cells and atomic sub-particles within me, can only worsen: I need to adjust my food habits. I have to enjoy now a different life than when I were younger: the only thing that I can do is to prepare myself to tolerate or endure the old age physical and mental pain and suffering. I can only endure what I cannot cure. I can, if I so wish, simultaneously pray to God to forgive me, protect me and liberate me. I can look at diseases, hunger, suffering and death as God Himself. I can also stop thinking bad about others and stop criticizing others. If I do these, I hope God will take care of me through some means. Even if God does not, my suffering would reduce because of my higher degree of tolerance/ endurance and zero degree of disappointment with my situation.
Probably, it would have been easier for me to live Wanaprastha and Sanyas, had I realized all this when I was in Brahmacharyya and Gruhastha. That was the period when I could have started building up my capabilities to deal with Wanaprashtha and Sanyas, that is the period from when I should have learnt to give up anger, disappointment, fear, expectation, desire, greed and tendency of manipulating others: I should have learnt to pray to God with all of my heart rather than ritually, learnt to avoid smoking, spending away money and give up habits that would be difficult to give up later. I did not do much then. Fine, but it is better late than never. I try now and learn to live with weak / malfunctioning aids like eyes to see, hand and feet to do, ears to hear, mouth and teeth to eat, memory to recall, mind to think, hearts to pump, etc. I will do now whatever I can do to keep these going as long as they can to help me. Maybe one day God, if He exists and is capable, will finally take care of me. There are many people who suffer from birth until death at old age: can I be one fortunate enough to minimize that suffering at this old age. I do not know. But I can try. Sorry, I cannot preach any solution that I have not experienced as satisfactory.
If Arjun and Krishna had lives that ended pathetically after a phase of old age, great loss of relatives and friends, as perceived by common standards of evaluation, why should my life at this end-phase be any better? Rather, this is the time, if God allows my mind to work logically and scientifically and my heart becomes bereft of anger, ill-will and fear, my ego will progressively decimate to allow the Realized Self to takeover from me.
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