TreeInTheSeed10
Good judgment, the Great Sakthi!
Sēvāratṉā
Doctor T.S. Narayanaswamy
Images: Aras.
Right Judgment as a great power!
Ādisankara in his Vivēka Sūdāmaṇi
explained sagacious wisdom and its use in accomplishing difficult tasks.
Sentient beings, other life forms and even insentient objects have
wisdom in them. Let us take a stone. It is inert. It can create many
powers. That truth, the stone does not know.
Flora is a notch above the insentient objects.
Understanding the five great elements around it, standing
anchored to the earth by its roots, yielding flowers, fruits, the flora
offers many benefits to the world. Floras have perception. Mimosa
Pudica (sensitive plant) have leaves, when touched, fold on its midrib.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Mimosa_Pudica.gif
Video
of the leaves of a sensitive plant fold on its midrib.
Color and fragrance are the power of the flowers. By them, the flowers
draw the bees, insects and butterflies, which help pollination and
production fruits, nuts…
The worm, insect, bird, and other faunas too have the wisdom.
The tiger on a prowl protects itself and hunts.
A proverb says, “A tiger, though hungry will not eat grass.”
புல்
= pul = grass. புலி = puli
= tiger.
Pul and puli (grass and tiger) are rhymers. That
shows the tiger’s wisdom and mental strength.
The wandering wild elephant eats only floras. They won’t touch or eat
the meat of the animals killed by the tiger and lion. That is elephant’s
discriminating wisdom.
Animals have intellect and discriminating wisdom. They do not realize
that intrinsic power themselves. That is why we say that animals have
only pentavalent intellect.
But man knows intellect and wisdom, had by him.
He travels with ease in the path
laid by intellect and the path pointed by wisdom. This is the sixth
power (sixth intellect) owned by man.
Three kinds of people.
Men endowed with six senses have three divisions: Animal-man, Man-man,
and Divine man. Animal-man is subject to desires and primal feelings and
lives for himself according to his impelled desires. The hunter, man or
beast (tiger or lion) does not empathize with the suffering of the
animal as the hunted animal is ripped apart for its flesh, which the hunter
does for the satisfaction of his palate. Likewise, to satisfy his likes,
man hunts down other people and fails to empathize with the victim’s
losses and difficulties. He belongs to the category of Animal-man.
Man-man satisfies his needs without the animal qualities, without
inflicting evil on others, and entertaining Dharmic thoughts. That
Man-man has good qualities, life goals and pursuits: self-confidence, a
sense of justice, pursuit of Dharma, healthy non-attachment, boldness,
selfless sacrifice, compassion… For his success and loftiness, these
powers offer great help. He will face difficulties in his Dharmic life.
He will come across
difficulties. He will seek and attain, without mental fatigue, remedial
means and ways.
The highest of the three categories of men is the Divine man. He
observes Dharmic justice in full measure in his life. He is bereft of
the six undesirable qualities: Lust, Anger, Greed, Delusion, Pride and
Envy. He is the highest among men for compelling reasons:
No dislike of anyone, friendship
to all living beings, compassion to all, empathy with the misfortunes of
others, Mental ability for forgiveness, Self-satisfaction,
Self-restraint… Sri Krishnar states in Bhagavadgita, “That man is a
divine man.”
To develop this Divine quality must be the aim and pursuit of man. The
divine qualities only help solve any problems in life and find good
outcomes. That is the transcendent supernatural power that a man can
desire for and exhibit.
Man-half; animal-half!
We all have animal qualities at least in a small part. The worst is
entertaining anger, impatience, fury, and revenge.
If we are caught in a web of difficulties, we think that we are not
responsible, we are blameless, and others are responsible for our
present predicament. The
problems will not give us trepidation, if we ask of ourselves of our
roll in the problems and we try to resolve the issues. Today, men live
in two worlds: Animal and Man. They themselves are responsible for
present predicament.
Realizing it, knowing what is right and employing them in resolving the
problem, half the problems will not afflict us.
Even if they come our way, we
can find a resolution.
Just think of daily events in a chaotic road.
On the road, a car and a motorcycle have a minor accident. Each
blames the other, “Hey you, do you have any brains? What kind of vehicle
are you driving? What is
the rush for?”
Because of it, both sides show rising anger and fury. They shout
obscenities against each other. Sometimes, they get down from the
vehicles and engage in physical fight and exchange of blows.
Barring all these exchanges, the vehicular damage to either
vehicle is minor. All this results in exhibition of ego, anger, mutual
blame, bad taste, loss of time, loss of petrol… The other vehicles,
unable to pass the quarrelling pair and their vehicles, back up and form
a long line on either side, causing a traffic jam and a standstill. And
now hear the angry honks from the backed-up cars.
Think about it. Now there is a problem where none existed.
We create it ourselves. Even big problems can be mitigated and
erased by a mere ‘Sorry or Forgive me.’
Once you think that you are the responsible party, many problems can be
nipped in the bud and erased.
The tree grows.
Problem, none that I know of.
Raghu was hanging picture frames on the wall. The son barges in and
says, “Appa, Priya is scratching our new car with a nail.”
Raghu in despair rushed out of the room to the outside, saw his daughter
with a nail in hand and slapped her on the face in anger. She lost her
footing, fell, hit her head on a rock and bled from the laceration of
the head.
Upset, the father scooped her up and took her to the hospital. He was
back home with his daughter with a bandage on her head and medications.
The daughter under the influence of medications fell asleep.
Raghu went out to inspect the
damage on the car. Priya
has scratched a message to her father, “Daddy, I love you.” When Raghu
read the message, his heart melted and he broke down in tears. His anger
she scratched the car dissipated. Raghu sobbed without control for
having hit his daughter in haste.
Yes… Problems, under certain circumstances are not problems.
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