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.

14.SING WITH SHAKESPEARE-8

14.SING WITH SHAKESPEARE-8

Three famous portraits of Shakespeare.By Brice Stratford (Own Work} via Wikimedia commons.

Shakespeare the poet


Shakespeare is mainly regarded as a dramatist. That means his plays are in the form of dialogues between characters, and at times soliloquies. However, most of his plays are in the form of poetry! Simply on the basis of the quality of his poetry, Shakespeare ranks as the greatest English poet.

His language as a poet is a very effective tool to convey ideas. More than that, he used the occasion of the incidents  in the play (story) to convey higher truths which go beyond the story. And these truths have a universal bearing, going beyond the characters in the play. It is this universal quality which endears Shakespeare to all of us. It is Uncle Shakespeare speaking those words, not an English dramatist of the 17th Century.

Each of his plays contains many lines worth memorising. We can pick memorable words from almost any page.  Many compilations of quotations from his works have appeared; though good in themselves, none has done full justice to the genius of Shakespeare. They are all fine scholars and lovers of poetry who made those compilations, but we need not go by their choice and tastes. As we go through his works and start underlining or highlighting the words and verses that appeal to us, we will make a personalised collection, and will realise how huge it turns out to be! 

School of life

Life in society affords opportunities for display of contrary and conflicting emotions. We are as easily provoked as pleased. Neighbours are not necessarily friends, nor are members of the same family  all overflowing with the milk of kindness . Brothers become estranged, and strangers close.
As Shailendra once wrote:

दिल की ज़ुबाँ अपनी है, दिल की नज़र भी अपनी
Dil ki zuban apni hai, dil ki nazar bhi apni
पलभर में अनजाने से पहचान भी हो जाए
Palbhar mein anjaane se pahchaan bhi ho jaaye
पहचान दो घड़ी की, बन प्यार मुस्कुराए
Pahchaan do ghadi ki, ban pyar muskuraaye
दो दिन की ज़िंदगी रंग लाए
Do din ki zindagi rang laaye
एक आए, एक जाए मुसाफ़िर, दुनिया एक सराए रे
Ek aaye, ek jaaye musafir, duniya ek saraye re
एक आए, एक जाए मुसाफ़िर
Ek aaye, ek jaaye musafir.

If we speak the language of the heart,  if we see with the eyes of the heart,
In a trice a stranger may become well acquainted; 
Two minutes' association may make us smile in love!
Even a short life may be colourful.
One comes, one goes, this world is like a travellers' hut!
One comes, one goes!

Society is the real school where we learn human virtues and values. Scriptures may tell us to love our neighbours or enemies, to turn the other cheek, to bless those who persecute us. It is easy to recite these verses in a temple or church. But we have to practise them on the street!

Many noble virtues

 We know mercy, kindness and forgiveness are  moral virtues advocated by saints and holy persons. Life in society provides the context for the cultivation and display of these virtues.Shakespeare writes about them in many places. In Hamlet, his hesitation to take revenge on his father's killers makes him even  consider suicide ! He contemplates whether it would not be better to suffer than to inflict suffering:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them

In Macbeth, we have Lady Macbeth  fanning his ambitions, but chiding him for his hesitation to kill, because he is too full of kindness:

Lady Macbeth:

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promis'd. Yet do I fear thy nature,
It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way.

The Merchant of Venice

We have one of the most loved passages in The Merchant of Venice where Portia, in the guise of a young lawyer tells Shylock about mercy:

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.

Therefore, Jew, 
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence ‘gainst the merchant there.



Trial Scene. www.shakespeare-online.com. Accessed: 17 April 2017
"Mercy is above this sceptred sway"

"mercy seasons justice"

Oh, what immortal lines these!

Justice v mercy

It is the very essence of Christ's teaching that Portia is touching here, For, in the so called Lord's Prayer, the prayer that Christ himself taught to his disciples, he said:

Forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive them that trespass against us.

We cannot expect mercy from God unless we show mercy to others. Hence our salvation lies in mercy, not justice.

For us of the Hindu persuasion, law of Karma ie justice is considered inexorable. We pray for mercy and forgiveness against the rigours of Karma. Buddhists believe that  Lord Buddha has forsaken his own Nirvana in order to help humanity, to the last man.

In this background, we can appreciate that Portia is here expounding a moral principle, and a spiritual quality, and not mere civic goodness.

As You Like It
There are occasions for us to show kindness, short of mercy, though the difference only seems to be one of degree! In "As You Like It " we have  Oliver recounting the kindness of his brother Orlando, from whom he was estranged.

A lioness, with udders all drawn dry,

Lay couching, head on ground, with catlike watch

When that the sleeping man should stir—for ’tis

The royal disposition of that beast

To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead.

This seen, Orlando did approach the man

And found it was his brother, his elder brother.

ROSALIND
But to Orlando: did he leave him there,
Food to the suck'd and hungry lioness?


OLIVER
Twice did he turn his back and purposed so;
But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,
And nature, stronger than his just occasion,
Made him give battle to the lioness,
Who quickly fell before him: in which hurtling
From miserable slumber I awaked.







 from: turtledove.wikia.com Accessed: 17 April 2017

What a beautiful verse we have here !
"Kindness nobler ever than revenge" ! 
This reminds us directly of the Tirukkural:
இன்னா செய்தாரை ஒறுத்தல் அவர்நாண
 நன்னயம் செய்து விடல்.      314

How does a man punish them that have wronged him? Let him do them a good turn and make them ashamed in their hearts. 
As Buddha said, hatred does not cease by hatred; it only ceases by love.


Measure for Measure
We have this short and sweet passage from this play:


No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Nor the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshal's truncheon,nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.
Thus we see that though Shakespeare is not a moral philosopher, he does not desist from upholding and advocating age-old moral precepts which have guided humanity, and which have universal validity.

10.SING WITH SHAKESPEARE- 4

10.SING WITH SHAKESPEARE-4

Body and Soul: traditional views

Life and Death- these are the ultimate questions. Like sunlight and shadow, they are two sides of the same phenomenon. Yet western civilization considers the subject of death taboo. In India we have no such fear or prejudice. In the Upanishads, we have the story of the boy Nachiketas who encountered Death and extracted from Yama, the Lord of Death, the secret of Life! We have the story of Savitri who argued with Yama and restored her dead husband to life, which is still celebrated as an annual festival by married Hindu women! In historical times, we have the story of the Prince Siddhartha who witnessed disease, decay, old age and death and meditating on them for a solution, became the Buddha, the Enlightened. Recently, we have the instance of the boy Venkataraman , who as a robust lad of 17 was seized by sudden fear of death. Not avoiding the subject , he boldly inquired into it according to his native light, and emerged as Ramana Maharshi! [Ramana-the conqueror of marana!] This tradition shows that the secret of life is embedded in the mystery of death .

The pre-modern world held definite 'knowledge' on the subject. It was more or less the same , with variations, across cultures all over the world. Very simply, it can be stated as under: 

• Man is an infinite being - Spirit; he continues beyond bodily death.
• What comes after physical death is even higher or more important than life in the world, here and now.
• The quality of that afterlife will depend on our actions in this life, and we would be judged accordingly. Life in this world is therefore a preparation for a higher life. [Hindus have the theory of karma accounting for rebirth.]
• People may live in heaven or be consigned to hell depending on their life here. [ Hindus do not believe in permanent heaven or hell. Man's ultimate destiny is Liberation- freedom from the cycle of birth and death.]

Modern uncertainty and confusion

Since the 17th century, with the rise of science, focus has shifted almost exclusively to life in the world, and the age-old higher truths are denied. But modern science or philosophy has no definite view or consolation to offer! All our attention is turned to the physical body and its comforts,in the name of humanism, though no method yet known to science can take away its perishability.

Psychosynthesis. Charles Smith.Bastyr University

Measure for Measure

We have several passages in Shakespeare's works reflecting on the question. 

In 'Measure for Measure', Shakespeare questions life and demolishes the general belief that it is  unmixed good! Here, Claudio is condemned to death, and the Duke of Vienna, disguised as a friar, consoles him that death may not be as unreliable as life!

CLAUDIO.
The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope:
I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die

DUKE VINCENTIO

Be absolute for death; either death or life
Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life, — 
If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,
Servile to all the skiey influences,
That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st
Hourly afflict; mere'y, thou art death's fool;
For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
And yet runn'st toward him still.

 Thou art not noble;
For all the accommodations that thou bear'st
Are nurs'd by baseness.

Thou art by no means valiant;
For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,
And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st
Thy death, which is no more.

Thou art not thyself:
For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
That issue out of dust.

Happy thou art not;
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get;
And what thou hast, forgett'st.

 Thou art not certain;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,

After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;
For, like as ass whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear's thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee.

Friend hast thou none;
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
Do curse the gout,serpigo, and the rheum,
For ending thee no sooner.

Thou has nor youth nor age,
But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
Dreaming on both, for all thy blessed youth,
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make thy riches pleasant.

 What's yet in this
That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
Lie hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

CLAUDIO.

I humbly thank you.
To sue to live, I find I seek to die;
And, seeking death, find life. Let it come on.

Here, the Duke is trying to argue that life is more threatening than death! Life ebbs out one day, only fools get attached to it! One may run away from death, but cannot avoid it! One is attached to life not out of nobility but base considerations. One is not brave, as one fears even the smallest thing in life! The best rest in life is sleep, but even that is disturbed. Yet, is not death itself like sleep? What are we but the food we have eaten? One is not happy, striving for all that one does not have! One cannot be certain of anything in life. Even if one is rich, it is like a donkey carrying a load, for one will have to leave everything when one goes! One has no true friends here, even one's children will consider one a burden, when one becomes old and ill! The body gets infirm, one cannot enjoy the riches. What is there in this that you call life? Life hides death, yet we fear death. Better to resolve once for all!

These arguments may not be taken as the absolute truth, valid beyond the immediate context.  They make a kind of sophistry, as the Greeks would call it, but  they do make some sense, to balance things!

Death and sleep

Shakespeare says that "the best of rest is sleep".  Sleep is indeed like each day's death! Thus in Macbeth:

the innocent sleep,

Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,

The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,

Chief nourisher in life’s feast.

In the Indian tradition too, death is regarded as a kind of sleep. Tiruvalluvar says:

Death  is like unto sleep; and life, that is waking after that sleep.  Kural,339

Our scriptures go even a step further and say that sleep is daily pralaya- that is dissolution of the universe, for in sleep we are not aware of the world!

Hamlet : To be or not to be !

The subject of death as sleep gets further consideration in Hamlet, in this famous passage:

HAMLET: To be, or not to be--that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--
No more--and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. 

To die, to sleep--
To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?

 Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. 

This is one of the most significant passages in the whole of English literature. Here, Hamlet is contemplating suicide. Life is so full of troubles; it looks better to die , which looks like no more than sleep. But then, we may get bad dreams and find greater misery there! " It is an undiscovered country." May be, compared to these unknown ills, the troubles we face in life are bearable!  So, when we think deeply we become a bit of cowards, "conscience does make cowards of us all", and cannot be certain of the action. Here, Hamlet is thinking or talking for all of us.

Edwin Booth, Hamlet 1870. By Andrew Smith

CC BY-SA 2.0

 To be, or not to be- life or death! The ultimate unresolved question of modern philosophy! Modern philosophy is no more than verbal jugglery and senseless speculation. Modern systems like existentialism  are in the end  plain nihilistic jumble. They make of man a finite being, without connections, alienated even from himself. What can such a system offer to man by way of advice or guidance to face life or death?

The old philosophies were all better. They considered man as a greater being than his body, grandly connected. He was not alone, though he was not aware of his connections! It was the duty of the philosopher, and function of religion, to remind him of his connections in the cosmos and show him a path to realise this fact in his life. This was the one practical end of all religions and old philosophies, whatever may have been their verbal formulation and ceremonial and other details. Shakespeare is such a universal  spirit that he cannot miss this point or mince his words. He reiterates the old view that the soul is greater than the body and does not die. This realisation  alone makes us conquer death!

From You Tube.

Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth,

[Thrall to]these rebel pow'rs that thee array,

THRALL TO

Due to a printer’s error in the earliest edition of the Sonnets, no one knows what Shakespeare intended for the first two syllables of line 2. The guesses editors have made over the centuries include “Thrall to,” “Hemm’d by,” “Fool’d by, “Foil’d by,” and “Feeding.”[Thrall to] these rebel pow'rs that thee array,

Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,

Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?

Why so large cost, having so short a lease,

Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?

Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,

Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body’s end?

Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant’s loss,

And let that pine to aggravate thy store;

Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;

Within be fed, without be rich no more.

  So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men,

  And death once dead, there’s no more dying then.

We spend so much time and bestow so much care on the body even though it lasts only a short time. The body is pampered in all possible ways, while the soul starves! Yet the body is eaten by worms in the end!  Is this supposed to be the destiny of the body? Rather, pay attention to the soul. This way, we may eat up death, which eats up the body! Once the immortality of the soul is realised, where is the question of death then?

Conquest of death

Sri Ramana Maharshi

This matter is entirely sidetracked by modern authorities in any field. The established religions are unable to assert themselves. In modern times, it is Ramana Maharshi who stated this clearly: that realising one's true identity as not the body, is the way to conquer the fear of death. This can be done theologically, by believing in God, and also by realising the formless Self or Absolute.[Care: this is not mere intellectual conviction but spiritual practice.] In the second invocatory verse to The Forty Verses on Reality, he wrote:

மரணபய மிக்குள அம்மக்கள் அரணாக
மரணபவ மில்லா மகேசன் - சரணமே
சார்வர்தஞ்  சார்வொடு தாஞ் சாவுற்றார் சாவெண்ணம்
சார்வரோ சாவாதவர்.

Those who are in fear of death seek refuge at the feet of the deathless, birthless Lord Supreme. Then their egos and attachments die.[ The "I am the body" idea dies: They no more confuse the body with their real Self.] Attaining deathlessness thus, they are no more afraid of death. [ In the earlier Invocatory verse, Ramana spoke of the formless Absolute.]

We do not generally  think of Shakespeare as a religious or moral philosopher. But here he states clearly the traditional wisdom that the soul is eternal, and identification with the soul is embracing immortality!
Is this not a happy and hopeful thought, as against the mournful  sophistry of  modern philosophers and scientists?
May their tribe decline!