| Canto 12: The Age of Deterioration Chapter 5: Śukadeva Gosvāmī's Final Instructions to Mahārāja Parīkṣit |
[From - http://vedabase.net/sb/12/5/6/en ]
TRANSLATION
The material bodies, qualities and activities of the spirit soul are created by the material mind. That mind is itself created by the illusory potency of the Supreme Lord, and thus the soul assumes material existence.
The physical bodies, qualities and actions of the spirit soul are the result of having a materially oriented mind; and it is mâyâ, the illusory potency of the Lord, that brings about the mind with the consequent material existence of an individual living being [through ahankâra, see also 2.5: 25, 3.26: 31-32, 3.27: 2-5].
The mind is causal to the bodies, the qualities and the activities of the soul; while it is mâyâ, the illusory potency of the Lord, that brings about the mind [through ahamkara] and thus the material existence of the individual living being[see also 2.5: 25, 3.26: 31-32, 3.27: 2-5].
[From - http://www.srimadbhagavatam.org/canto12/chapter5.html#Text%206 ]
An attempt to understand - by Bharat Bhushan
Why do people seem to remember only to keep score? I have had situations where people keep going back several years to remember what had happened ot others, through the actions by others. I feel pity, that they feel the need to carry that burden through their lives. What happens if they forget some of these events? Would they panic? When does one stop forgetting? Do memories serve to only add to hate and anger within oneself?
It is said through many a story-teller that Buddha was being requested by one of his favourite chosen disciples to recognise him as an arahant. Buddha refused to do so, while he repeatedly recognised many others as arahants. Finally, one the day previous to the one when Buddha had chosen to travel to a higher temple, the favourite disciple recognised himself and understood the distance that he had to travel in knowledge to become an arahant and confessed thus in acceptance to Buddha. The Most Enlightened One in turn declared that the disciple was finally worthy of becoming an arahant.
This is indeed a strange parable for modern times, but has much to do with the logic that people apply to understand the memories of events of several years gone by. They seem to think that they have understood the relevance of the memories with the events that are yet to unfold or are happening. They seem to think that their logic and reasoning is correct. This flaw in retaining extended memory over several years to utilise in hate and anger is unfortunate. But it does happen.
It recurs in several situations where people tend to meet up and congregate. Relatives meeting after many years in weddings or funerals, is a good venue to reconfirm anger, hate and enmity. Single families, living by themselves, may not face such situations, but then, in today's age of instant communications, the protection offered by distance and isolation would also be lost. Memory is a good thing, but to use one's own RAM and HDD to store hate and anger is very unfortunate.
7 January 2011
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