Once upon a time there was a man who desired to understand the beauty of moon and softness of its rays and the causes of these things. So he went forth and gazed in to the sky. Between him and the moon there was a lovely tree with delicate branch and tender leaves. Forgetting the moon, he began to examine the delicate branch and tender leaves and was lost in the thought of such delicacy and when he looked up again the moon had set.
The understanding of life is more essential than the mere superficial knowledge of the machinery of life, though one must be acquainted with this also.
To draw a parallel to this story by J Krishnamurthy, my thoughts permit me to analyze our own lives and value systems. Though the above concept is a subtle one, I am tempted to pour out my thoughts in a bit gross form.
We come to this world alone, naked and we leave this world alone (naked – but to observe the societal decency a cloth is wrapped). And whatever activities we undertake in the interval of these two events defines and is being summed up in last few days of our stay on earth.
We feel the urge to love – but we end up limiting this purest emotion to our own self, our spouse, and children and at most to some friends. We feel the urge to share – but we end up sharing with our little family – I, my spouse, my child. We feel the urge to expand our life, our intellect – but we end up contracting the same with undue reasoning and so called critical analysis.
End of all, we need and we dream of something divine and end up with something human. We aim for higher goals of life (love, care, share, expansion, realization) and dear Lord provides us with mechanisms (family, friends, kith and kin) but in the process we entangle ourselves so much with the mechanism that we tend to forget the real goal (The journey from truth to the higher truth). And unfortunately we realize this just few moments before the end of sojourn of this life and in retrospect we feel least useful, half fulfilled nay unfulfilled.
On the holy occasion of Vinayak Chaturthi, I pray for the grace of the lordto bestow on us the sensitivity of a poet, the ruthless intellect of a scientist and the soft heart of the beloved s.
