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Quote from Vishnu Purana
ekasminnapyatikrAnte
muhUrte Dhyanavarjite
dasyuBhirmuShiteneva
yuktamAkrAnditum Bhrusham
If one muhUrta is allowed to pass by without meditation [on Hari],
one must weep aloud as if one were robbed by thieves.
Vishnu Purana - 6.7.73
A muhUrta contains 48 minutes.
With what difficulty one gets this human life ! One is first born
possibly as a germ or some unknown microbe or some other living entity
that is possibly lowest in the scale of evolution. Through the process
of evolution, one goes through possibly the life of an insect; from
insect to worms; from worms to reptiles; from reptiles possibly to
birds; from birds possibly to animals; within animals, possibly from
cats and dogs finally to monkeys; and last of all a human being !
How many crores of years (possibly!) it might have taken before one
has got this human birth. How many times through our journey and
through our evolution have we spent our times eating (possibly preying
on other innocent creatures), flitting from tree to tree as a bird,
roaming and scouring jungles as animals, sleeping in forests and
drinking from ponds as other animals do ! And after such a long time,
through good fortune, we have got this human life !!
However, how easily have we forgotten the miserable lives that we
have spent and through what a good fortune we have got this human
life ! We can possibly find an analogy with our student days: what a
terrible struggle it was, studying days and nights to achieve our
target of a degree, a post-graduate degree or a doctorate ! However,
how easily one forgets those extreme days of struggle once one
gets a job and continues working for some years: all those days of
extreme strenous and sleepless nights, trying to keep awake to
get excellent credits in the ensuing examination - struggle and misery
so easily forgotten ! The difference between our situation and the
situation of the student lies only in that a student need not have to
(possibly!) struggle again (at least for that purpose), but a human
being may fall again to a lower form of life and would have to evolve
again, struggle again and endeavour every bit to win back his lost
kingdom !
The first step in our goal towards God realisation is to attain a
human birth (the subsequent being of course, inculcating a desire for
coming out of this entire process, and finally approaching those - the
devotees of the Lord - who have already gone through that !) The first
goal is a human life and clearly not an animal life. Don't we see the
poor people lying on the roads and eating whatever others throw for
food (at least in some third-world countries) ! Is that not exactly
the state of the animals and other creatures, leading shameless lives
on rotten food ? And how much more dignified is a human life, lived
well - and truly it is dignified, because that is the only platform
that one gets to endeavour towards the Supreme Lord ! It is indeed a
pity, and a pity to the very extreme, that after having achieved such
a wonderful human birth, we go down the scale of evolution once more !
How does one go down the scale of evolution ? Every living creature
in the pale of existence takes that form of a body that best suits
his state of mind and inclinations that he carries with him at the
time of death ! We can just see how well we can map human
characteristics to animal behaviour if only we watch closely these
nature films. For e.g., there are certain animals which like to eat
and eat and eat, and just keep on eating, as if their hunger cannot
be satiated. How much different from them are our human gluttons, who
keep munching and chewing something or the other all day long ! The
physical evolution or devolution that one follows through various
lives closely corresponds the mental evolution or devolution that one
exhibits.
The Lord has given man the Buddhi to do Viveka (i.e. to discriminate),
to introspect. What makes him different from other living beings ?
Where is this entire process of evolution and devolution going to lead
him to ? Alas, how, possibly eons after eons, we have been evolving
and devolving - from the smallest germs to (possibly!) the highest
humans and (possibly!) back to germs - without even understanding the
what and why of this whole process is all about !! If man does not
use his discrimination, what is the use of his remaining a man ? He
truly, therefore, devolves mentally and goes down the scale of
evolution again, down and down, possibly to the very lowest creature
in existence !
However, indeed extremely complex is this entire paraphernalia !!
Indeed, complex to the very extremes is this jugglery of an existence!
And truly, only the creator of this puzzle can help us unravel the
mystery ! And truly has he done so, again and again, whenever man has
forgotten what all these things are about: sometimes (very
occasionally) through his incarnations, and more often through his
devotees (who are the walking and talking temples of God !!) Alas, the
entire puzzle has been simplified for us out of sheer Grace of the
Lord and sheer Love of the devotees for the created beings so that
they need have to go through relatively less struggles than what the
devotees themselves have gone through !
One of the most glorious of such instructions are present in
the most glorious of all the Puranas that exist (and possibly all
scriptural texts) : The most holy Srimad Bhagawatam; and the easiest
path for the Yuga has been shown us by that most glorious, but
incognito incarnation of the Divine: Sri Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabho.
Love is indeed so sweet, and when the Lover is the very embodiment of
all sweetness, the Love becomes the very sweetest. Indeed the Lord
is the very Sweetest, and the most Lovable object on earth, nay, in
the entire gamut of existence, human and otherwise !! And this path
of Supreme Love has been shown us in such a simple fashion by that
Supreme Chaitanya Mahaprabho !!
There are many who simply deride a path as useless ! But he alone is
a truly rational man who practises a path and after having found that
the path is really uselss discards it and not before !! Come, O ye,
come and join in these offerings of Love - given in big measures at
every temple of the Lord ! And bask in his wonderful Glory and Joy !!
Shivkumar
