Vedoday 2050

By Dr Harish Chandra

Volume I, Number 2, December 2007

Welcome to the second issue of Vedoday 2050. We will maintain the format of the last month. The first part of the four-part e-magazine will have comments on a topic. Then there will be a short article by Dr Harish Chandra presenting the Vedic perspective on the chosen issue. The third part will include one Vedic verse with its meaning that is related to the issue. The last part will contain news on Vedoday2050 , if any.

Last month we mentioned that there is a definite upswing that the Vedic wisdom will encompass the entire humanity within the next four-to-five decades. The present age of science will help diminish ignorance. In this context we want to point out the collapse of communism in its very heartland although it was nurtured by a super power. The primary reason for its collapse was that it didn't recognize the needs of our spirit over and above those of our body and mind. According to the Vedic wisdom, the human life is the unique opportunity when our tiny infinitesimally small spirit can get to know itself (self-realization) and then the Cosmic Spirit of God.

Matter and Spirit

The human life is a wonderful opportunity to know the world around us in depth. We are naturally born with a sense of inquisitiveness that we want to know about everything under the sky and even what is beyond the sky. Though we know that we will never know anything to its complete detail yet we desire to know it as much as possible. The Vedic philosophy on knowledge covers all its aspects, such as, the origin of knowledge, its discovery, transmission, storage, retrieval, etc. Most remarkable thing is that it encourages us to seek to know the unknown from what is known, or so to say, to know the invisible thing from what is visible.

Hiraņmayena pātreņa satyasyāpihitam mukham

Yo-sāvāditye puruşaħ so-sāvaham

O-m kham brahma. Yajurveda 40.17.

i.e., the visible world is so wonderful. Most of us are lost into its lustre. But, if we are willing to probe further inward then we will find the yet-more-wonderful and the most lustrous truth. The beautiful visible world owes its beauty and even existence to the spirit that pervades through it. That entity has its primary name Om and is finer/subtler than the finest/subtlest and is infinitely great.

How much of the material world can we know and understand in a lifetime? It's like a drop in an ocean – what we know and what could be known. However, if we know the all-pervading Cosmic Entity then we can know and appreciate a larger fraction of the material world to a significant extent, particularly, how to benefit from the same.

An analogy can further clarify the point. A man can appreciate the physical beauty of his loving wife and remain contented with her body. But, if he can reach her heart and soul then he has enormous depth of love to explore, experience and enjoy. That makes the difference between lust and love and can change the nature and character of the conjugal life significantly. Likewise, we can merely eat, drink and be merry for some years and then die. On the other hand, over and above the body pleasures in moderation, we can get to know Him, too.

The Vedas Say:

Yo vaħ śivatamo rasastasya bhājayateha naħ

Uśatīriva mātaraħ. Ŗgveda 10.9.2, Yajurveda 11.51, 36.15, Atharvaveda 1.5.2

Its meaning: O Benevolent God! I seek pleasures of the life – one after another. There are a myriad of things for me to try. I will not be able to taste all the material pleasures and my sensual ability to enjoy will begin to decline one day. It's your benevolence that now I begin to know that the tastiest sap is with you and with nobody else. I must seek this pleasure and then get to know that all other pleasures are too inferior to what you possess. And, it is as easily available to me as is mother's milk to an infant.

Purport: The human life is different from that of all other species. One significant difference is that all other species reach a state of saturation whereas we humans are never quite contented. We always feel the need to obtain something that we don't have. This feeling of vacuum is so intense that many times we don't even know that 'something' but yet we continue to seek it. In its search, we keep on wandering for every tasty juice that we come to know of. Thus, for many of us, the life becomes a mirage-like experience – an endless journey without a destination! The irony is that the tastiest sap is very close to us, and indeed, is in our closest proximity. It is within our easy reach like mother's milk is to an infant. But, we seem to enjoy wandering and miss out the real beauty and purpose of the human life. Let us remove this curtain of ignorance.

Where Do We Go Wrong?: We lead one-sided life thinking that material things give us happiness. While material things are essential to certain extent, we must realize that they cannot give everlasting happiness. Their main purpose is survival. Once survival is taken care of, we must explore the purpose of the human life. There is no point in remaining focused on the material things; they are in such a large number and in large measures that they can exhaust our lifetime. So, we must balance the life. We must invest some time, money and energy in seeking spiritual truths. As we spend some time, money and energy on material advancement, we should do likewise every day for spiritual advancement and at every age. We should not wait for retirement for spiritual advancement. It should begin now itself for everybody irrespective of the age. Any age is the right age to seek nearness to the mother. The key is to live life holistically – for both material and spiritual advancement – abhyudaya and niśreyas.