A birthday gift for ourone trueSARATHI

 

 

 

STANDING amid a cloud of dust, feet too numb to go any further, mind fogged by the muddle of rights and wrongs, seeking answers of all the ‘whys’ of life and reaching at the inevitable ‘why me?’- we all have experienced that feeling of life slipping out of hand. Centuries and centuries have passed and yet so often do we stand with the bog under our feet, where once the great Arjuna stood – in the centre of the Kurukshetra - the war within as draining as the war without. A little Kurukshetra resides in each one of us, so does Arjuna and his dilemma. Each one needs a ‘Sarathi’, (a charioteer) to guide us through the wars within and to final victory. Just yesterday, we bowed and offered our humblest gratitude to our teachers, who held the candle high as we travelled through the darkness of ignorance. And today we rejoice at the birth celebrations of the greatest of all gurus – the Lord Himself. That candle of light of knowledge, as bright as the sun, has been held, preserved and passed on to generations, so that the journey becomes easy and takes a correct turn when it finds itself caught in the bog of life.

 

 

 

The knowledge that had lifted Arjuna’s fog is for all of us to clear our minds too. As the day progresses and the golden light turns into orange and then to grey and then to black, lamps would be lit and all of the day’s preparations will march towards fruition. Temple bells will toll, the flower decorations will spread their fragrance far and wide, so will the scent of incense sticks. Beautiful ‘rangolis’ will bedeck pathways as happy faces will walk past them for the celebration at the stroke of midnight. At the stroke of midnight, the sky will reverberate with “…Jai Kanhaiyalal ki.” The nation would rejoice and bow at the feet of Bal Gopal. Offerings of curd and butter would flow. Songs will be sung and people will dance in delight in the memory that once upon a time - Krishna – the Avatar of Lord Vishnu, walked upon this land and blessed it with His divine grace. The Lord lived a life as tumultuous as humans and showed the way to emancipation.

 

From a countryside cowherd to a valiant king to a great guru, he played many human parts and left a trail of sublime lessons for humanity to learn from. To a despondent Arjuna, standing confused in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, he revealed His divine form…He was “…the taste in the water, the light in the sun, the sacred syllable Om in the Vedas, the sound in the ether and the ability in man…the original fragrance of the earth, the heat in fire, the life in all living beings…the eternal seed of all beings, the wisdom of the wise, the power of the glorious…the love that is virtuous.” But as He walked the human path – the path of love and hatred, friendship and animosity, innocence and cunning, sacrifice and lust, prejudice and justice, creation and destruction, he also gifted this land some of its best attributes, some that has defined a nation and its people, some that have opened the doors of pure knowledge for the entire world. He is in the core of India’s spiritual journey, the music in her melodies, the love in her love stories, the grace in all her dances, the voice in her philosophies, the mantra for all her yadnyas and the continuous life-giving flow of her ‘Sanatan’ tradition.

 

So much of this nation’s unimaginable wealth is his creation. Like a true‘Sarathi’, he has added so much value to our existential worth. He is the one still holding the reins in the middle of our individual and collective Kurushetras. Throughout her ancient life, this nation has enjoyed uninterrupted civilisational continuity, decades and decades of prosperity and peace. But for some in-between periods of turmoil, the life has been friendly for calm contemplations. But the new world is bewitching. Technology is giving newer wings to humans as they soar higher and higher. The nation has eyes on many milestones and is heading towards those at great speed. The journey ahead is of progress and prosperity. As we march on that path, it becomes all the more necessary to remember the lessons, heed the advice and act in accordance with the laws of Dharma.

 

It would be helpful to remember that prosperity is much greater a challenge to values than adversity. It often covers a bog with silk. The wisdom of that Divine Sarathi will hopefully help us gain wisdom to decipher the mirage. For long, humans have opened their arms to the Almighty asking for their wishes to come true. Today, on his birthday, let us pray not for asking but for thanking Krishna for all the many seen and unseen gifts that he left for us so that we withstand storms of centuries. Let us give our dearest Sarathi, Arjuna-like undivided attention and follow the path for true peace and true prosperity and for true emancipation.