Date: 15-06-1995 :: Cl: Religion
Birth as a human being is rare to attain. It is the
result of good deeds performed in countless lives. All living
beings have many functions in common and what distinguishes man
from other creatures is his capacity to follow the path of
dharma( virtue) since his faculties are specially equipped for
higher pursuits.
All living beings perform actions only for the
preservation of their bodies, but man acts mainly with ulterior
motives and hence all his actions are ultimately motivated for
his own benefit and fulfilment of his desires. If his entire life
is wasted without utilising this birth for realising the ultimate
goal, by adopting the path of dharma it is futile existence.
Moreover there is no guarantee that one will be blessed with a
human birth again.
Man's ignorance about the privilege of his present birth
must be removed and his goal in life made clear to him. Suppose
an ardent student finds that a text-book which he needs for his
course is out of print and when he borrows the same from the
library he is told that he can peruse it only for one month, one
can imagine the seriousness with which he will study the text
within the short period which normally he would have taken to
complete in one year.
Likewise the scriptures tell us that this birth is very
rare to get and there is no certainty about the condition of our
future lives. So a lot of effort is necessary in daily life to
realise the goal of human existence (liberation) for which
adherence to dharma is of paramount importance. Man's life is led
on the path of what he believes in. Only when there is belief
that by adopting dharma one will be able to achieve higher values
(shreyas) in life, will he remain true to the goal.
In his benedictory address, Sri Bharathi Theertha Swami
of Sringeri Math said, scriptures classify human beings as
believers (asthikas) and non-believers (nasthikas) according to
their propensities. A believer in rebirth, karma (effect of good
and bad deeds) and existence of God is an asthika, whereas a
person who believes in leading a life of hedonism denies all
this. So we must only exercise the choice and make efforts to
follow the path which will be for our good.
With full conviction that the path of dharma will confer
merit we must perform the enjoined duties. Even the desire that
we should have a good comfortable life in the next birth must
motivate us to do only good deeds and the prescribed duties
according to our station in life. Gita also reiterates, ``Better
is one's own duty, though devoid of merit, than the duty of
another well-performed; for performing the duty ordained by his
own nature man does not incur sin.''
Copyright: The Hindu, Chennai, INDIA