60. LONG MAY YOU LIVE !

60. LONG MAY YOU LIVE !

“Long life is the reward of the righteous; gray hair is a glorious crown.” Proverbs 16:31 

It is the Indian tradition to bless youngsters with long life. There are many religious formulas for conferring blessings on ceremonial occasions, and such blessings are legion; but the blessing of long life is the supreme benediction.

LONG LIFE ! 60,70.80....  

 How long is really "long"? There are different ideas. The Biblical age is taken to be 'three score and ten' ie seventy years. Yet all over the world, there is a fascination with the number 100. We read of people who have crossed a hundred, and some communities in obscure corners of the earth are said to live phenomenally long lives. There is a natural awe and respect, and some mystery and fascination, surrounding those who have lived a hundred years.

Indian religious tradition celebrates the completion of 60 years as a significant milestone in one's life. Even more honoured is the completion of 80 years which amounts to having witnessed a thousand moons! The real significance is not in the number as such, but in the wealth of experience and learning [wisdom?] that such a long life supposedly involves.. In the olden days when learning was oral and not through books and literacy so much, people who crossed such milestones were really pillars of society.

CENTURY OF LIFE

 However, Hindu tradition confers great honour on a life of hundred years. There is a famous Vedic prayer which expresses the earnest wish to behold the sun for a hundred years-sarada satam! [Here, the sun is not the mere physical sun, but stands for the Supreme. Asavaadityo Brahma: Brahmaiva ahamasmi]

Pasyema saradasatam
Jeevaema saradasatam
Nandaama saradasatam
Modama saradasatam
Bhavaama saradasatam
Srunavaama saradasatam
Prabravaama saradasatam
Ajeetaasyaama saradasatam
Jyokcha sooryam drusae.

QUALITY COUNTS!

It is to be noted that the wish is not for merely a hundred years of life- it expresses some definite images. We should be able to see and enjoy the sun for a hundred years; we should be able to enjoy with our relatives and friends; we should be happy for a hundred years; we should live with reputation/fame for a hundred years; we should be of sweet utterance for a hundred years; we should remain unconquered by evil for a hundred years- it is thus that we wish to live and enjoy the sun for a hundred years. It is thus not mere length of life but the quality stuffed into it!

This sentiment is stated in another verse in the Veda. 

ॐ भद्रं कर्णेभिः शृणुयाम देवाः ।
भद्रं पश्येमाक्षभिर्यजत्राः ।
स्थिरैरङ्गैस्तुष्टुवाग्‍ँसस्तनूभिः ।
व्यशेम देवहितं यदायूः 
।Om Bhadram Karnnebhih Shrnnuyaama Devaah |
Bhadram Pashyema-Akssabhir-Yajatraah |
Sthirair-Anggais-Tussttuvaamsas-Tanuubhih |
Vyashema Devahitam Yad-Aayuh |

Om. O Devas, may we hear with our ears what is auspicious.
May we see with our eyes what is auspicious and adorable
May we be prayerful, and may our bodies be steady.
May we thus dedicate our lifespan allotted by the Devas!

Here, the stress is not on the number hundred, but the essential quality of life- that we must be steady in our limbs, and our life must be one of dedication to the Supreme, seeing and hearing what is auspicious and noble. Thus should we wish to live whatever the lifespan that is allotted to us!

Thus we see the subtle teaching hidden in these common words; that life is valued for its quality, not mere length. Such a life is the result of some light, and striving. This sentiment is expressed beautifully by Ben Jonson in a famous poem:

It is not growing like a tree
In bulk doth make Man better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May,
Although it fall and die that night— 
It was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see;
And in short measures life may perfect be. 

CULTS OF LONG LIFE


However, popular imagination is taken up with the idea of long life.There are many cults with their lanes and bylanes which prescribe many novel ways to prolong life. There are many people in India who speak of yogis and siddhas who supposedly lived for hundreds of years. There were also some who were out to discover a potion that would ensure very long life, if not ward off mortality altogether. People still talk of "kayakalpam". Alas! none of them has survived, except in silly tales.
These days, there are also scientific speculations and advice on how to live to be 100 and beyond!

LIFE- ITS MEANING

But beyond this is the greater question of the meaning of life itself! This is a question peculiar to mankind. Of all forms of life, man alone is endowed with the urge to know. And the quest for knowledge ultimately leads to the great barrier: all life ends physically; "The paths of glory lead but to the grave", as Thomas Gray said. Do we stop here  and take it as the final truth or inquire if anything is beyond it? 

This is a question which Nachiketas asked of Yama; this is the question that troubled the Buddha. The first of the four noble truths is that samsara is dukkha. Dukkha is not mere sorrow or suffering- it is a state of restlessness, unease. How does it happen? It happens because of the knowledge that no matter how long  and how well we live, that life would end! But is that the end, really, finally? Buddha did not think so.
Image:museumangewandtekunst.de

And before him, Nachiketas did not think so. Nachiketas was not fooled by the offer of a very long life granted by Yama! He said, however long, it must end! So the real gift is the gift of knowledge of what lies beyond death! It is its secret that he wanted to pierce, the mystery he wanted to unravel. And the answer was that there is really no end. Transience is transcended. Mortality is conquered.Man is immortal. This is realised in the transformation of consciousness.Man the limited, individual being realises his oneness with All That Exists- the very Source of Life. 

IMMORTALITY

Thus seen, Life is endless. One lifetime is but an episode in the endless chain of Life! This is the secret behind the phenomenon of rebirth. The cycle of rebirth continues so long as one does not sight the Sun of Immortality, so long as one does not sense the secret of the Self! So, the real blessing of  long life is really to urge one to find this secret, which is the fount of Eternity. 

All great Sages and Saints have experienced this and sung it in song and hymn. At times some great poets have also glimpsed this.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: 

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, 

Hath had elsewhere its setting, 

And cometh from afar: 

Not in entire forgetfulness, 

And not in utter nakedness, 

But trailing clouds of glory do we come 

From God, who is our home: .........

Mighty Prophet! Seer blest! 

On whom those truths do rest, 

Which we are toiling all our lives to find, 

In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave; 

Thou, over whom thy Immortality 

Broods like the Day, a Master o'er a Slave, 

A Presence which is not to be put by; 

Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might 

Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height, 

Wordsworth. Ode: Intimations of Immortality. 1807

This is the truth of our being - that man is Immortal. So the Upanishad calls men "Amrutasya Putra: Ye children of Immortality". शृण्वन्तु बिश्वे अमृतस्य पुत्रा   'Listen Ye the children of Immortality all over the world!'

Thus long life really means recovering our knowledge of Immortality which we have forgotten.