TreeInTheSeed10

Sakthi Vikatan01 Apr, 2014

     

       

        

        

TreeInTheSeed10

Good judgment, the Great Sakthi!

Sēvāratṉā Doctor T.S. Narayanaswamy     Images: Aras.

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Right Judgment as a great power!

Ādisankara in his Vivēka Sūdāmai 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. Copy and paste in a browser to see the video of folding leaves.

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.