One Splendid Sun

One Splendid Sun

                 Early morning, reading news paper, relaxing on a chair seeping hot tea in winter is always a great idea. Our mood can swing for positive reading a fascinating story; we can get disturbed by news   of tragedy. The freshness we can draw from this morning ritual does not necessarily sustain but can be of help in gossip, discussion on political issues. Now a day even if the competition between architects of different scams and the investigation is won by thugs we are able to maintain our interest in the news related to corruption. Indeed it is in itself a big thing. Our news papers are overflowing with this plunder of national assets. Add to it the accidents, murders, dowry deaths, honour killings, discrimination it becomes so difficult to find a news motivating, inspiring. Some so called great achievements, to our disappointment later turn out to be manufactured. We in fact are content with the information we get. Even if inspiring news appears it is often lost in the chaos of unpleasant news.

              Yesterday was different, I was reading Lokmat daily. While turning the pages just saw a familiar face of Shri Vasudeorao Chorghade. He is a man of great intellect, has prodigious knowledge of Sanskrit, is well versed in our heritage of repository of spiritual texts. That was the spiritual section like speaking tree. The article was on the sun. It referred to the selfless spirit of the sun as interpreted by great Saint Dnyaneshwar and some other saint poets. It treats it as an entity performing duty every day with no desires, no expectations, returns for the services rendered never sought. It rises every morning, showers its divine light on the earth, gives energy to life, shines for the whole day, does not expect from the smartest creature on the earth any kind of appreciation, starts packing up in the evening, collects all its rays, and recedes slowly only to come back next day for duty. Just work, no aspiration for success, no expectation, no hope, just a responsibility shouldered with unchallenged integrity. Neither optimism of appreciation nor pessimism of neglect, just divine duty, perform and forget. Be at peace at the end and no dip in the zeal next day, comes with new vigor to shower its bounty. What an example of a role model for following the philosophy of Geeta. 

             As said in our philosophy just perform your duty, don’t get obsessed by the desire for outcome. Just do it, be at self tranquility, seek solitude in duty and leave everything to that Divine spirit.  In modern world when all of us are motivated by me and mine, when our world starts and ends at family, when we are accustomed to do everything for something in return which is often disproportionate to our services, when duty without desire is beyond imagination, when selfless service is a utopian notion and service without personal interest is a fool’s compliment, finding an example like this is next to impossible. Why example of the Sun then by saints? Is it the acknowledgement of human limitations that the personal peripheries we draw are impossible to cross? Is it that our worldly desires don’t let us search for the divinity in selfless service? And the truth is that our prayers, appeal to divinity, expectations of divine intervention are all for prosperity of me and mine. Then how we will be able to even touch the boundary of selfless service?

       The reality is that apart from some great souls nobody in this world has succeeded in rendering the service with no self interest, no desire for appreciation. But then what’s the problem in being driven by personal interest, desire to succeed? There is no problem, the difficulty starts when we get obsessed with the coveted success, begin encroaching upon rights of others, focus on end but lose morality of means, the trouble starts when we find it hard to digest the defeat, and when we lose mental peace just to achieve our goal. Can then we achieve our goals without this? May be or May be not but do we find tranquility and peace of mind when we achieve our goal or just feel lonely or just celebrate physically but find ourselves confined to solitude or lose peace for the next goal and fail to live moment of joy? Difficult indeed it is to find a straight question and a simple answer. But I am sure all of you will agree if we truly give our best and can detach from the desire of the outcome, we can enjoy our work, we can find our mind at absolute peace, neither fear of failure nor euphoria of success, and we are full of energy for the next step. Just a little thought on this, it is clear that we have a way but it’s really difficult to walk along, even think of it and my personal experience is, neither I try this out nor I want to try. 

       This philosophical interpretation apart, thinking about the sun is fascinating, inspiring and motivating. Sometimes we get up early morning and just feel boredom, low energy, want to skip the work.  There may be variety of reasons and we are extremely smart in building castles of justification around us when we want to escape the responsibility, I am not an exception. What about the sun, it never stops rising from the east. It is doing this from time immemorial. Relentless in efforts, undamped in spirit. Occasionally there are hurdles, the clouds blocking the sun from showering its energy on earth but it toils for the whole day, at the end stops its work only to resume next morning, to have a go next day, impassive  to the failures of the day. It’s really fascinating to look at it from this perspective.

        It does not differentiate. It does not understand the differences of black and white, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, does not understand what the caste is and has no idea how region and languages generate hatred. We are the most intelligent creatures on this planet may be the reason we are better at differing than seeking convergence at humanity. How funny is it? We always claim of being intelligent but unable to find a common platform of humanity, pain, suffering, sorrow and joy as well. We are at our best in dividing and worst at uniting. The sun knows only one action and that is of delivering service. Whatever may be the identity it will not search for the minute details, and then decide whether to shower that light or not. It just showers and showers tirelessly.

         It is always focused on its work, full of attention, no deviation from line of duty. What we all find hard to do, it does it naturally, without any fuss. For us it is an unending challenge to keep focus, we have more reasons to lose focus than point it on our goal. Obstacles, attractions, personal reasons, interpersonal relations, emotions, hatred, personal ambition, diversions of mind, temptations, lethargy, ….list is big enough. All contribute to the loss of focus but it seems the sun transcends all these human limitations, maintains unbelievable focus,… rises early morning, burns whole day, cools in the evening, gets back only to come back… and resume.

         The sun exemplifies the spirit with which we must approach our life, our goals. But a thought, a little aberration, what if all of us become just like the sun? Everybody focused, no diversions, no temptations, no differentiations, no desire, no expectations…nothing except duty. Won’t the world then be inert? Won’t it lose all the colours we are fascinated with? The fun, the good, the evil all add to the richness of our experiences. Will then all of us become mechanical? No it is not going to happen. Being focused means focused to responsibility and not devoid of emotions, it means emotional weaknesses don’t become impediments, we control our temptations. We are not driven by the obsession of success; we don’t encroach upon rights of others just to succeed.

        The sun only shows us how to detach from the desire, how to maintain peace and tranquility, how to remain focused, how not to differentiate. Understanding the sun, learning from it can only enrich our life. We won’t be losing our colours, we will only be making this world less struggling, less competitive, less discriminatory, more peaceful, more meaningful, full of service to humanity. This is not a sermon, not an advice, not  personal experience, but sharing, sharing of the firm belief that given the dominance of vices in me an attempt to follow even fractionally from the message radiating from the life of the sun can push me on a way that leads to humanity. The world then will always be good to me, complementing in my services and I will be a better human being.

           Next time when we experience heat in the summer and expect it to be little cool which is difficult, when we expect it to be little warm in the winter in the chilling cold which is not easy, don’t blame it, just remember the sun has nothing against us it is only adhering to the responsibility entrusted upon it by mother nature.  Appreciate the splendid sun, learn from it, respect it.