Learning to react

As a great admirer of Sikhism, my spirit was fired by the sturdy heroism of the Gurus. Especially Guru Gobind Singh Saheb's verse in Persi...

As a great admirer of Sikhism, my spirit was fired by the sturdy heroism of the Gurus. Especially Guru Gobind Singh Saheb8217;s verse in Persian, Chyunkaar az8217; huma hiltey dargujasht, haal ast burdeney8217;ba shamshirey dasht. Rough translation 8211; when there is oppression in the land, it is justified if you pick up the sword. Scholars, please do forgive and correct me if there is a mistake in the way I have written it. I took it down phonetically in my notebook long ago when an elderly Sikh gentleman from Raipur recited it to me, while we rattled down to Delhi from Bhopal on the Malwa Express. It was thrilling to hear the steady courage of conviction in those words, the stoic willingness to pay the price for choosing to behave in a certain way.

Moreover, beyond the magic of strong and noble sounds, this refusal to give in to larger forces really appealed, because it equipped you with a more active reaction than passive acceptance and fatalistic groans of, quot;This is my Brahma-lipiquot; or quot;Hai, meri phooti kismetquot;.

The other point of view that I had been weaned on was equally inspiring: that of Avvaiyaar, the elderly saint-poetess of the Tamil country, lauded today as Tamizh Taai8217; Tamil Mother. Her verses and aphorisms are drilled into you early. Avvaiyaar was a very namkeen personality, full of sharp retorts and sarcastic wit. She admired those commoners and kings who, despite the odds, tried their best to make their lives work. The story goes that she got so carried away with her own influence that Lord Kartikeya decided to teach her a gentle lesson and tricked her into sounding foolish.

The cross old lady promptly melted and in the end, both deity and bhakta went away mighty pleased with each other. But again, just like the Gurus so many centuries later, Avvaiyaar believed that God was on her side, no matter what trials came her way. Legend says she spoke from the womb to cheer her fainting parents who were fleeing a famine: Ittamudan yentalayil ezhudivitta Sivanum settaano? Is that Shiva who wrote my fate on my head, dead? Even if the most terrible famine prevails, the burden is His, Mother. Don8217;t be afraid.

And then, the stern code of the Dhammapada from the earliest Buddhist scriptures called Tripitaka or Tipitaka Three Baskets:

Conquer anger by love/Conquer evil by good/Conquer the mean by giving Conquer the liar by the truth
It all adds up in a very interesting way, if we think about it. There8217;s the Buddhist norm of Highest Behaviour in the Terai, there8217;s the heroic code of the South that is backed firmly by a belief in a great, benevolent force. And there is the martial spirit of the Sikhs in the North West, which we need not interpret literally as only a call to violence, but as a call to combat, with darkness and despair.

It8217;s a life code, no less, that is preached in different regions at different times in voices highly characteristic of their own milieus. But is it not fascinating, how all of them, to go by just these random examples, are deeply concerned with the nature of human response? It would seem that it is only by how we choose to react that we are distinguished as successful human beings.

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The power of great words that shape great thoughts is simply this: they help us live better. And by that logic, there is God in great literature too, wherever a life code is spelt out, like Ernest Hemingway8217;s description of courage as quot;grace under pressurequot;? Such words are no less holy than the revealed8217; words. Besides enjoying their beauty, we lucky people can actually use these moral messages in a practical way to make our own lives smoother and happier.