food for thought

अन्नदानात् समं नास्ति विद्यादानं ततोऽधिकं।
अन्नेन क्षणिका तृप्तिः यावज्जीवं तु विद्यया॥
annadānāt samaṁ nāsti vidyādānaṁ tato'dhikaṁ|
annena kṣaṇikā tṛptiḥ yāvajjīvaṁ tu vidyayā||

There is no gift as great as gift of food.  But the gift of education is even greater.
The satisfaction derived by  enjoying food is short- lived.  But education once imparted properly remains beneficial as long as the recipient is alive.

The ultimate thing that keeps a  being alive is food. In fact the food is given as a gift by nature, the ultraviolet rays from the sun, the heat, the carbon dioxide  chlorophyll and water, all being His own  free creation. The stronger living things either prey on the weaker ones or simply hoard the means of food using brutal force. Hunger, the lack of food was the real creator of history full of revolutions, battles and heroes.
To day starts the Holy month of Ramzan.. The message of Ramzan is a saga of control of resources and mindset through regulating the intake of food.  It is also a month of gift of food. During the daytime our muslim brothers and sisters fast, but they partake in the food during nights, and the hearty part of it is that they all ensure no human being who has fasted during daytime goes hungry during the night also. 

Of course the continuous physical existence is achieved by eating and digesting food. In fact all the living creatures somehow manage to get food at periodical intervals and if food is absent for a reasonably long time, they cease to live. (At this moment we have think of the mother...she supplies food for the foetus in her womb and after the child is born ensures that it is fed and kept alive, until it has learned enough skill to eke out its own food.. every mother does it even at the cost of sacrificing their own lives in the process.)
But mere exiistnce and a vegetation is achieved by this food.  But a meaningful existence will be in place only if the food for the brain, that is, vidya (education) is imparted. Here also every living being through some biological promptings which one may call intelligence, instinct, or by any other name  acquire some habits which sustain them and ensure their safe livelihood.  However, the human beings go one step ahead and learn things much more than what is required for an ordinary existence. The quintessence of knowledge which has been evolved through generations and kept pure through perhaps repeated process of evaporation and distillation lies with the guru...that knowledge when imparted to the disciple through education makes the world what it is for us the human beings.  We consider the faculty to impart and receive education as the mother intellect, and the teacher who is the medium of imparting the knowledge as the embodiment of God himself.

--
।श्रीकृष्णो रक्षतु।
|śrīkṛṣṇo rakṣatu|
Have a nice and happy day
with profound respect and warm regards
K V Ananthanarayanan
(kanfusion)
blog   http://kanfusion.blogspot.com/
त्यजन्तु बान्धवाः सर्वे निन्दन्तु गुरवो जनाःI
तदापि परमानन्दो गोविन्दो मम जीवनंII
let all my relatives abandon me, let the great people insult me, still I am in supreme bliss since my life  is GOVINDA alone.
Iकृष्णात् परं किमपि तत्वं अहं न जाने"I