AUM
WINNING LIFE’S BATTLES
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant, VSM
We
fight a battle a day. Sometime , we fight a
battle an hour or may be every minute.
I am not indulging in war mongering
at this point of time. What I propose to
write is not a treatise for a Kshatriya (warrior
class in the Hindu hierarchy ) for a modern war
either. It is what the common people like you
and I have to face every day throughout life.
Even an ascetic immersed in Ahimsa to his finger
tips also has his own life’s battle to fight.
It is the same story day after day all over the
world. Fighting battles of life is inevitable.
So, why not fight to win always and every time.
No one should look for an escape route after the
battle is joined but engage the enemy squarely.
Evil desires like avarice, greed for ill-gotten
wealth, lack of charity and coveting for what
is not yours are enemies within an individual’s
mind and body. These enemies have to be tackled
and defeated if the life has to go on smoothly.
Once engaged in this battle of life and death
in forsaking the evil spirit in us, we should
ask for no quarters and give none.
``Na dainyam,
Na palayanam,’’
is the main mantra given by Yogeshwar
Shri Krishna to all human beings fighting against
the enemy within and the enemy without. He has
said : don’t run away from your problems in life
and don’t beg the enemy for mercy. Steel your
nerves, strengthen your will power and you are
bound to win the battle of life. A person
should never underestimate the prowess
of the enemy within. ``Kaam, Krodh, Lobh,
Moh,’’ (lust, anger, greed and excessive attachment)
are the primary enemies that an individual must
defeat in order to advance towards his goal.
Ved, (celestial knowledge) the greatest gift of
God to man for guidance given at the beginning
of human creation, shows the pragmatic path. It
is through action and constant practice of the
action that an individual can beat the enemy at
this own game. One may follow the path of `Prarthana
(prayer) and Purushartha (action) to achieve
the aim of winning life’s battles. Pray to Parmatma
(God), who is addressed as Dev Savitah, in
the Ved meaning that He is the pristine and absolutely
primary source of inspiration. In order to steel
our nerves and strengthen the will power the first
step is to beseech Him for leading us to attain
purification of mind and heart. The Vedic word
for a blend of wisdom emanating from mind and
emotions emanating from heart is KET. May God
make my KET pious, may I be a do-gooder, may I
never ever think evil of the fellow man. Once
a man or a woman is pious – pure in mind and heart
– it would be a child’s play to forsake self-interest
and always think of society before self.
When the number of self effacing individuals in
a social set up rises, they form the backbone
of the forces of noble human beings
and collectively fight against the forces
of evil. In order to defeat the evil forces decisively
the forces of good must forsake narrow bigoted
dogmas and constantly endeavour to uplift their
spirits and morally be on a strong wicket. In
the wider sphere, at the national or international
level, the Vedic thought envisages creation of
an inspiring leadership. Leaders of society must
provide protection to people even while risking
their own interest. This is achievable, says the
mantra when a social set up or a nation evolves
a community of selfless teachers or Vachaspati.
The teachers will motivate the new generation
to walk on the Vedic path as was done by the ancestors.
Indeed teachers are great motivators. A forward
looking nation should pay adequate attention to
the requirements of teachers and give them due
respect so that teachers are themselves sufficiently
motivated to motivate the new generation. The
future prospects of a nation lies in the hands
of the youth who wish to excel in various walks
of life and are also patriotic. Patriotism is
handed down from generation to generation in the
form of stories and anecdotes of the Brave men
and women narrated by parents and grand parents
to their children and children’s children in the
form of bedtime tales of patriots. Inculcating
patriotism is a slow but sure process and pays
rich dividends to the posterity.
Let us read aloud the first mantra of the ninth
chapter of the Yajurved and then meditate to reach
the great heights as well as the unfathomed depth
:
DEV SAVITAH PRA
SUV YAJYAM PRA SUV YAJYPATIM BHAGAYA. DIVYO GANDHARVAH
KETPUH KETAM NAH PUNATU VACHASPATIRVAJAM NAH SVADATU
SWAHA.
Yajurveda 9. 1.
O God ,the great inspirer
and the luminous One! Kindly make our Yajna, yajna
which bestows on us prosperity, as well as its
promoter, the pure beings. Let our teachers, who
are masters of speech, make our battles of life
palatable to us.
The prime mover of
our action is the divine inspiration to act for
the good of the society In fact the prayer is
for seeking and imbibing inspiration. However,
it goes without saying that the soul or the Jeevatma
enjoys perfect freedom to act or not to act or
to act in a particular fashion. At the end of
the mantra the word SWAHA indicates that the aim
of winning the battle of life can be achieved
through forsaking self-interest. If and when an
individual rises above narrow personal and parochial
interests, he may say that well begun is half
done. The battle of life is half way through and
I as a Vedic warrior, am definitely on the winning
side. An enlightened individual will always keep
the interests of the society before those of the
self. Thus there will be no chinks in his armour
and the arrow of the enemical evil forces would
never be able to pierce the armour to injure the
body. Whose body is it? It is the body of the
man or the woman who is performing the Yajna and
consequently metaphorically speaking, he or she
is full of fragrance. It is the fragrance of the
good deeds which spreads far and wide.
Therefore,
the performer of the Yajna becomes a Gandharva
, that is , one who is full of fragrant thought,
fragrant emotions and ,of course, fragrant action.
To sum up one may say that human beings have not
only to cleanse the outer body but also the inner
self. This stupendous task may be performed by
reading and meditating on Ved mantras. For a Grihastha
or a family man who is ever short of time, the
best way to keep the rigorous schedule of making
both ends meet and keep the conscience clean is
to set apart some time for Sandhya, Havan, Bhajan,
Satsang and giving a part of the income in charity
to cover the unattended areas of religious obligations.
Where there is a will, there is a way. Give yourself
a positive signal that this goal is achievable
and YOU
will definitely achieve the goal.
May
Param Pita Parmatma, God Almighty, inspire you
to the high pitch where you win every battle of
life, today, tomorrow and everyday hereafter.
E-mail
: vedicupvan@hotmail.com
Telefax
: +91-120-4454511.
Phone : +91-120-4454622.
|
