In fact, the present acts like a traffic jam for human soul, and the future exerts a divided pull on mankind. Some people want to follow the red signal and move in a controlled manner. But, some impatient souls try to jump the red lights.
Dr. Jernail S. Anand
Ask a man what he finally wants. Invariably, he will say: wealth. Very few are wise enough to say: I want freedom from the cycle of birth and death. In other words, religiously inclined people will ask for salvation, while people who do not understand this life, will think only of a bulging bank balance. What is the greatest joy of this world? Again, a very common intelligence will say: travelling to western destinations, enjoying life with enough of wealth. As millions believe in such a life, I will sound insane if I call it a ‘stupid’ passion. This is how the world goes about, and if for me it is stupidity, wherein lies the wisdom?
Life offers us forked options. One option is the straight line, which underscores that we have a realization of our destiny, the purpose of our life, and we carry an understanding of what we are doing and how we are doing it. Such a person belongs to the ‘wise’ category who are, otherwise, very scarce. The reason for this scarcity is that there are no agencies which guide a growing young person in spiritual arts. In the past, this job was done by grandparents at home, teachers in the school, and religious men in the shrines. The present lot of young men, if they are going the whole hog after wealth, have a reason. They had no grandparents. The teachers in the schools were on contract, meant only to teach them how to pass examinations, in which question papers were often leaked, and in the shrines, the ‘godmen’ were too worldly ‘wise’. As such, we have a young generation bred on ambition and blind passion [which has replaced blind faith]. If they say, we want nothing but wealth, and if they have no higher thoughts, I experience no surprise.
Original Wisdom
Every person who is born to this earth, does not carry original wisdom. He has to be taught the essentials of living. But the great issue before mankind today is: who will and who can [in the present era of Google gods and Chatgpt] teach them what they should aspire for? That this world and its joys are not worth being aspired for. That man is not independent of the cosmic design. That he is helpless. That things do not happen as he wishes. That there are superior forces always monitoring not only his actions, but his thoughts as well.
World is no doubt full of thrills, but these thrills are not the final resting point of the argument called life. There are hardly one percent people who are aware of, and worried about, their destiny. This is perhaps the tragedy of this generation. People who have drifted from traditional wisdom are caught in the traffic jam of the present. They feel no qualms to jump the red lights and move ahead.
The Straight Line & the Circular Motion
The other way in which this life can be lived is the circular motion. A straight line marks the movement away from the starting point. But a circle has a different trajectory. The more you go away from the starting point, the closer you are to it. The beginning is also the end. These two ideas: the straight line and the circle carry the whole spiritual philosophy in a nutshell.
A straight line suggests a life which is not twisted. A man moves from the starting point towards the finish. A straight line means a life of honesty, goodness, and creating joy for others. By doing good deeds, man is able to get out of the cycle of life and death, and move to the holy realms. He will not have to return to this world, to carry on all over again the plus and minus of life, the hopes, the suffering and finally death. A wise man will say: he wants freedom from the cycle of birth and death.
But the circular movement of life signifies a twisted movement. People want romance. They want thrills. They want merry-making. And the cyclic movement does not take them far. They come back to the point of origin. Again and again, men will take birth and die. And this movement continues because they do not learn anything. A person caught in the cyclic movement, cannot easily step out of it. For, it needs lots and lots of hard thought and personal discipline.
The Traffic Jam
In fact, the present acts like a traffic jam for human soul, and the future exerts a divided pull on mankind. Some people want to follow the red signal and move in a controlled manner. But, some impatient souls try to jump the red lights. If it happens once in life, knowingly or unknowingly, you have entered the cycle of good and bad, and now, all your actions will bring you back to the point of birth again. But, following the lights is a straight movement, which only people who are trained in moral discipline follow. This is the happy humanity whose reckoning is very low. Hardly 1% in this world of billions of people, who have jumped red lights and joined the cycle of eternal joylessness. All the confusion that we find in the world, – the crime, the drugs, the scams, the underworld – has been created by impatient and ambitious men who have jumped red-lights. They have created problems for mankind and entered the non-stop circle of mass misery.
The Ethical Take
The ethical take of this article is: we should try to remain on the straight path. There are temptations to enter the cycle of mass misery, but they need to be resisted. How to distinguish the point at which the two road depart? That is the point of moral judgement where people err. The training in moral discipline should come from home, school and religious places. Can we strengthen these institutions in their role as bulwarks of eternal insight? Certainly, if we can put them beyond politicking, and if goodness replaces money as the ultimate passion of society.
Read: THE PARTIAL VISION OF REALITY
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Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, President of the International Academy of Ethics, is author of 161 books in English poetry, fiction, non-fiction, philosophy and spirituality. He was awarded Charter of Morava, the great Award by Serbian Writers Association, Belgrade and his name was engraved on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. The Academy of Arts and philosophical Sciences of Bari [Italy] honored him with the award of an Honorable Academic. Recently, he was awarded Doctor of Philosophy [Honoris Causa] by the University of Engg and Management, Jaipur. Recently, he organized an International Conference on Contemporary Ethics at Chandigarh. His most phenomenal book is Lustus: The Prince of Darkness [first epic of the Mahkaal Trilogy]. Email: anandjs55@yahoo.com
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