Spiritual Legacy and Message

By

Dr. R. Krishnaswamy and P. Sreenivasan

Sri Thyagaraja Swami emphasizes again and again, the need for high values and consistency in living upto those values. One is reminded of the saying that if men are measured in miles, there will be no difference between man and man. Only because we apply small and truly inconsequential criteria such as caste, religion, education, wealth, and color, we find men different from each other. Education, for example, reduces itself often to just academic education and not an improvement in the quality of the person. A highly educated person, is often unaffected or rather uninfluenced by what he has learnt. He remains ignorant though well read and one savant called this kind of person an ass that arrives with a load of books. There is hardly any one among us, who would like the whole truth be known about him. We tend to think, speak and act, in private, in a manner which would make us ashamed to admit these thoughts and words and actions in public.

We talk about God being always present in us and yet will not want God to see us when we are doing unacceptable things. We want God to see us only when we are doing unacceptable things. We want God to see us only when we are praying or doing something that we feel society will approve or applaud. How many of us pray for the suffering people of the world, the millions who have no food, no security and no peace? Floods in the Godavari renders homeless and starving thousands of people, thousands of fertile land, hundreds of homes lost and millions worth of personal belongings washed away. How many of us wept for the victims, leave alone doing something special to make their life worth living? We read such harrowing headlines and express a word of sympathy and go on to the next items on the newspaper. It makes no impact on us.; only because it does not personally affect us. If however, they are our people in the affected area, we are moved and feel pretty bad. Selfishness dominates our lives. Thousands killed in Bhopal is just bad news but just one cat of ours killed in an accident is tragedy and subject matter of lugubrious discussions for days on end. The near human qualities of the cat are discussed with feeling. All because the tragedy of Bhopal is beyond conception and the cat story is nearer you and yours. We tend to see the weaknesses of others and only the virtue of themselves and our off-springs and those we like. We do not pray that we should become better persons, free of the weakness which taint our lives. We do not pray and ask for the strength to speak the truth only and for the strength to think, speak and act in unison, what we call trikarna suddhi. We pray to partition God for favors, justifiable and otherwise. We pray that our mistakes and crimes should be unnoticed or if noticed, unpunished. We ask for things we are not entitled.

We contract with God that if such and such favor is conferred, we shall fulfill such and such prarthana We learn from early childhood that prayaschithas can absolve us of wrong doings, however often repeated. Mental control, patience, tolerance, compassion, or equanimity, we do not feel like praying for, as we feeld they are just academic qualities of no practical value. We forget that our enemies are not from outside but from within. "Kama Kridhamoha lobhamcha Dehe thishtathi thaskarah, gnana ratna apaharena." It is essential that one gets ride of these six weaknesses, i.e. kama, kroda, moha, mada, and mathsarya and replace them with Sama, Dhama, Uparathi, Thithiksha, Sradha, and Samadhana. Tranquility, forbearance, looking away from evil, ability to bear suffering willingly, understanding and dedication. Man, who is in a temper, a man who is deeply in love, one who is jealous, one who is in fear - each f them lose common sense and act unwisely. Therefore, man is his own enemy or friend. "Eduru thnane inkithamberigi," realizing that you are your friend or yur enemy is very important. The worst of these kayajathi or body-born enemies is Ego and then, possessiveness rathe or acquisitiveness and desire. These cause endless sorrow. The weak man who succumbs t temptatins harms himself but the man wh wears his virtue next t his skin and goes about with an air of superiority inflicts himself on others, showing off his virtues and thus lets his ego do him much harm.