Saturday, April 28, 2012

how to escape from eternal misery?

ईर्षुर्घृणी नसन्तुष्टः क्रोधनो नित्यशङ्कितः
परभाग्योपजीवी च् षडेते नित्यदुःखिताः॥७२
श्रीमहाभारते उद्योगपर्वणि प्रजागरणपर्वणी विदुरनीतिवाक्ये अध्यायः ३३

īrṣurghṛṇī nasantuṣṭaḥ krodhano nityaśaṅkitaḥ

parabhāgyopajīvī c ṣaḍete nityaduḥkhitāḥ||72
śrīmahābhārate udyogaparvaṇi prajāgaraṇaparvaṇī viduranītivākye adhyāyaḥ 33

Vidura, in his treatise on lifestyle as explained by him to his elder brother and king Dhritarashtra, enumerates six types of persons who are to live in eternal misery. 
He says  "  A jealous fellow,  a person who has developed cynisism about everything around him,a fellow who is not satisfied with anything he has, a fellow who get angry without much provocation, a fellow is suspicious about everyone and everything and a fellow who depends for his livelihood on the fortunes of others all live in permanent misery"


Jealousy is worse that any other mental or physical ailment.  A jealous person is always looking with unhappiness at the achievements and good fortunes of all others and in the process he has no time to enjoy the life which he is given as the great boon from God.  Jealousy of strong men have brought down the world many a times. Jealousy of mean persons has lead to the downfall of many good persons. In fact what is there in this world to be jealous of? When we see the world in a wider perspective of time, space and existence, we would see that both the rise and the fall of any person or institution is temporary in a wider canvass and  there is absolutely no meaning in feeling jealous of anyone. Time is a great leveler.


Some people develop cynicism and hatred for everything.  This attitude may be caused through past bitter experiences, or feeling of personal inadequacy to perform. Whatever may be the reason, such persons spread  uneasiness  and that attitude is often contagious.  The only person who can help a fellow out of such a state of mind is the person himself.  If the number of such persons in the society are considerable, we can expect disaster in the near future if it has not yet happened.

Some people are not satisfied or happy, whatever be their status in life regarding health, wealth and rank. They simply compare themselves with only those who are apparently in better state of life than themselves. If they just care to see the law of averages and realize that fate has never created anything as perfect and has not endowed anyone with perfect satisfaction, their life will be more comfortable.

 Another set of people are prone to get  angry for no reason.  Is it due to hormonal imbalance? May be.  Some say even good people run into rage for short period and then become calm and reasonable.  But the anger makes one blind, deaf and dumb, and above all thoughless.  He may wreak any damage, he may break things, break lives, and break the social order in such a rage if he is strong enough.   Extreme anger makes not only the angry person but also the innocent bystanders to suffer.

A set of people are born as doubting thomases.  While the optimist will try to see a small ray of light even at the end of an infinitely long tunnel of darkness, the man who is paranoid will see danger in anything and everything.  He will spend all life if self-doubt and  in doubt of the activities of all others around him.  If one gets a husband or wife of this class, lifelong misery is ensured.

A person with some self-respect will be eager to do some work and eke out his livelihood out of whatever he earns honestly.  But again there are a set of people who are simply parasites.  They are never ready to do any work for earning a livelihood, but will be keeping company with some person who is having some wealth and good fortune. Like the creeper coming down and getting crushed when a tree which supported the creeper falls, such fellows have to go down into misery, because one cannot be sure of the eternal good fortune of some other person. 

We have to steer clear of such attitudes if anything worthwhile is to be achieved in our lives.

--
।श्रीकृष्णो रक्षतु।
|śrīkṛṣṇo rakṣatu|
Have a nice and happy day
with profound respect and warm regards
K V Ananthanarayanan
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
लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु।
lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu|

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