In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhishmachaarya talking to Yudishtra about “Belief” and how fragile it is. He narrates a story in the regard to justify his stance. Bhishmachaarya talks about a king whose son had been killed, but the king still had the belief that his son would be back with him sooner or later. With this strong belief, when he goes searching for his son amidst the thick forest, he comes in contact with Sage Thanu and the others, who ask him some “uncomfortable” questions. Sage Thanu tries to explain to the king that once a person is dead, it is impossible that he / she comes back to this earth in the same physical form. But the king wasn’t in a mood to listen to this narrative from Sage Thanu. He builds up his own narrative by posing a counter question to Sage Thanu. The king says to the sage if that is the case, the entire concept of “belief” is wrong! The king asserts that the entire human life in this world revolves around belief, and what is wrong in believing that his son would come back to him?
This is exactly where all of us also get stuck with many things in life! For instance, we might develop a lot of love / affection over someone or something, and when that person / object goes completely out of our sight due to whatsoever reasons, we will never be able to digest the fact that we’ve to live without that person / object. Rather than coming to terms with reality, we still keep believing that someday in our lives, we will be able to meet that person whom we are missing, or we will be able to attain that thing which we miss so much! We spend years thinking of whatever we’ve missed, with the belief that we would be able to get them back! Of course, in some cases it might be possible, but in many cases it might not! Even in our daily lives, we plan a lot of things for the entire month ahead, or even for a year’s time. For instance, we plan long-term investments, save money for something that might happen after four to five years from now, etc. isn’t it? Upon what? It is only upon the belief that we would be alive until that time to enjoy the fruits of our investments, isn’t it? However, the fact of life is that, we never know if we’ll be alive the very next moment! All of us might have seen what happened recently in the Indian state of Kashmir – There were many tourists who had gone to a place called “Pahalgam” in Kashmir, in a bid to celebrate their holidays. However, from some corner of that place, there were a few Islamic terrorists who came and shot several tourists, out of which, 26 of them died on the spot! While going for the tour, did anybody anticipate such a disaster? So, the lesson here is that life in this world is extremely uncertain. Anything might happen at any time, and hence, we always say that we’ve to live our present moment to the fullest. Of course, all of us know all these “Vedantic” concepts, but we keep planning deep into our future, don’t we? Why do we do so? It is because of this same belief! 🙂
This is exactly what the king is asking Sage Thanu here – While the entire life is based upon belief, how can one claim that belief is very fragile in nature? For this, Sage Thanu replies thus, “Oh king! Yes! You heard me right! Belief is something which is extremely fragile in nature and can be shattered at any point in time. We’ve to be prepared for it!” As Sage Thanu sticks to his stance thus, the king is still not convinced. He asks back thus, “Oh Sage! Is belief more fragile than you? You seem to be extremely fragile with such a thin structure and body composition! Can belief be more fragile than your body?” For this, Sage Thanu laughs out loud and replies back thus, “Oh my dear king! Yes. I still stick to my stance. Belief is more fragile than me, and I can even prove it to you!”
Saying thus, Sage Thanu lists a few instances wherein human belief can be extremely fragile in nature. He continues thus, “Oh king! Now let me give you a few instances wherein belief is extremely fragile – If person “A” is promising that he would do something good to Person “B” and the latter is in this belief constantly – Some day, person “A” ditches person “B” for whatsoever reason and person “B” also knows this. Even then, person “B” still keeps believing that some day or the other, person “A” will do something good for him! This is how belief is fragile in nature – Even when a person knows that the other is ditching him royally, he still keeps believing that the other person will do something good for him some day! Can there be anything more fragile than this? Secondly, if person “A” forgets / not recognizes the help that he had obtained from person “B”, and deserts him during a critical way, and person “B” keeps thinking that person “A” would return his favour at some point in time, this is also a case wherein belief is extremely fragile in nature! Thirdly, if person “A” believes in person “B”, who is mentally unstable – This also shows how fragile belief can be! Fourth, if person “A” believes in person “B” who is extremely lazy in nature – This also shows how fragile belief can be! Oh king! If you believe in these kinds of people in your life, this belief that you have would be more fragile than me!”
Saying thus, Sage Thanu illustrates how fragile belief can be in this world! So for today, let us understand up to this point, and in the next episode, we shall continue this further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 