Reverses of life – Lets learn to face it – Brian Michael Hurll’s book on Reverses of Life is collection of poems. In one of the poem, he expressed:
- How fragile life is, no time, to borrow.
- Here today and gone tomorrow.
- No age limit on this rollercoaster ride,
- You’d better hope that fate’s in your side.
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Reverses of life – How true is this for you and I as well. Are we not in the same boat?
The other day my PhD student Ashish rushed to my office while crying. His cousin bother has committed suicide. He was the only son of Ashish’s Uncle and Aunt. He was inconsolable. I could only pat on his back and became a silent observer as he went through the life time emotional bond that he had for his brother.
Many years ago I was walking along the Juhu Beach. I met a person – Mr Verma – who is a businessman. But he has incurred a huge loss and thus was in a state of complete despair and hopelessness. Seeing me in dhoti and kurta, he begged for solace. I quoted a verse from Bhagavad Gita:
mām upetya punar janma
duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ
saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ
BG 8.15
After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.
I explained to him that he was born naked and didn’t bring a pie with him. After some discussion he agree that one day he would leave his body and with that everything that is connect with this body would be snatch away. When he would depart, he would carry nothing with him. He finally seemed to agree that what he has lost in his business is certainly NOT bigger than his life. May be it is an opportunity for him to invest on knowing life as it is. I handed over a copy of Bhagavad Gita As It Is by His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. I could observe a smile on his face as I bid adieu to him as I prayed for his spiritual well being.
The Ultimate Truth Of Life- The Reverses of Life
Sometimes many ask me what are these reverses of life. I am 54 now and in my growing up phase I have seen the life very closely. When I was lying on my sick bed at the age of around fifteen, my mother heard that her mausa (my maternal grand father) has expired. I could feel her piteous crying. She was torn apart – she want to rush to the residence of her mausa and be with her mausi ( my maternal grand mother). When I felt her dilemma, I suggested that I am feeling alright and she must rush for the cremation of her dear mausa.
During my childhood I had observed that her mausa was very affectionate and kind. He did this selflessly. He had by hearted the entire Odiya Srimad Bhagavatam and would recite apt verses according to different situations. When my mother left reluctantly with tears in her eyes, I felt internally very happy that I could empathise with her sorrow.
However, in this age of gadgets when young and old alike are hook into their smartphones, we hardly miss someone very close to us as he/she passes away. Attending funeral ceremony has become a show business. Heart to heart relationship is almost not seen in these days. So this kind of questions regarding reveres of life does not puzzle me. Still I have ventured to share with you this video to bring the point to your kind notice.
The world is always in a constant flux and the life will never proceed as per your expectation. As a student, a working professional, a family person, a leader, and so forth, you are bound to meet with both success and failure, happiness and distress, pain and pleasure. When you meet with failure, distress and pain, I call them as reverses as you do not desire them. Unless you know what life is, you will not be able to handle such situations.
You might have heard about the story of an IITian after completing business studies embarked upon a successful career in USA. However, the great economic depression snatched away his job. He struggled to put his professional career in order but could not succeed the way he expected. Thus one day he and his entire family was found committing mass suicide.
Is it not important that we are also trained to handle such situations?
This is where you will feel the need of Bhagavad Gita. This literature educates us in the science of life in a holistic perspective. We learn the goal of human life with clarity. Learn both spirit and matter. BIG picture and hence develop the ability to accept things as they are present to us from time to time. We can learn a lot from Vidura’s advise to Dhritarastra:
SB: 1.13.19 This frightful situation cannot be remedied by any person in this material world. My lord, it is the Supreme Personality of Godhead as eternal time [kāla] that has approached us all.
SB.1.13.20 Whoever is under the influence of supreme kāla [eternal time] must surrender his most dear life, and what to speak of other things, such as wealth, honor, children, land and home.
SB 1.13.21:Your father, brother, well-wishers and sons are all dead and passed away. You yourself have expend the major portion of your life, your body is now overtaken by the invalidity, and you are living in the home of another.
As said in Srimad Bhagavatam SB 10.14.58:
samāśritā ye pada-pallava-plavaṁ
mahat-padaṁ puṇya-yaśo murāreḥ
bhavāmbudhir vatsa-padaṁ paraṁ padaṁ
padaṁ padaṁ yad vipadāṁ na teṣām
For those who have accepted the boat of the lotus feet of the Lord, who is the shelter of the cosmic manifestation and is famous as Murāri, the enemy of the Mura demon, the ocean of the material world is like the water contained in a calf’s hoof-print. Their goal is paraṁ padam, Vaikuṇṭha, the place where there are no material miseries, not the place where there is danger at every step.