Some worldly wisdoms

By Shantanu -
It is an age old wisdom of Hinduism and Buddhism that desire gives rise to anger, anger gives rise to hatred and violence and therefore downfall of the person. Therefore desire is the root cause of all evil, including suffering in life and the best recourse is to do your duty respectfully without desire for results.

Hitler had a desire, he wanted to the ruler of this world. He thought Jews were responsible for all the problems that Germany faced. His anger and hatred for Jews resulted in a catastrophic world war, which ultimately brought down Europe and imperialism.

Upanishads give a beautiful parable. You are on a journey, embarked on a chariot, which is your body. The fives senses are five horses which are pulling you in different directions. The harness is your mind to control your senses, the charioteer is the wisdom who can take you to your destination. Question is, whom do you trust and give control? If you give control to your senses, you'll run amok, directionless, and surely will end up in a ditch. Sadly this happens with many people, when they are angry or when they fall prey to temptations and lust they are basically giving in to their senses. Sensory fulfillment takes precedence over everything in a materialistic culture. On the other hand, giving control to mind is not enough, a harness is used for controlling horses, not for controlling your journey or destiny. Mind can also be wrong. Mind is fickle. Therefore, give control to wisdom, who is your charioteer, he can take you to the right path.
How to distinguish between mind and wisdom or how to install your wisdom on the charioteer's seat? That will be another blog.

Reason for this long "Abataranika" or animated conversation is, just saw a news that the IFS officer who was caught spying for Pakistan said that she did it on account of her hatred and anger against "arrogant" IFS officers. Needless to say she brought her own ruin upon her.And she is not alone, history is full of such instances where people gave reign to their senses and brought not only their own downfall but misery to countless others.
Sadly we do not learn, neither from ancient texts, nor from history.

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