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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00051 Feb 2008

 
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Dear friends,

"Who is the ideal Man?" "What qualities does he
possess?" "How does he live?" "How does he behave?"
"What difference does he make to the lives of those
around him?" "What impact on the world does his
character leave behind when he departs?" 

These are perennial questions that have engaged the
minds of sages, philsophers and ethical reformers of
all ages and all nations and societies. The quest for
the "Ideal Human Being" is an endless preoccupation of
all societies and communities that seek greater
civilization. To be the "Ideal Man" or "Ideal Woman"
is truly one of the deepest spiritual aspirations of
the human soul. That in becoming the "Ideal Human" we
also somehow become gods is a very common but deeply
held belief; for, to become god or god-like is indeed
the true and ultimate aim of human existence.

In India, for centuries, the conception of the "Ideal
Man" has been enshrined in the personality of that
great hero of the "Srimadh Ramayana of Valmiki", Lord
Rama. He was an avatar on earth. But in the way he led
his life on earth and engaged with the world and dealt
with its affairs, Rama set real ethical and moral
standards -- through sheer personal example -- of how
every man ought to live and conduct himself during his
brief earthly sojourn. Emulating Rama --or in at least
striving to imitate him in one's own life -- is indeed
every Indian's measure of himself or of his true worth
as a human being. Even if one could never succeed in
realizing the ideal of Rama, it was nonetheless worth
the effort in life to die attempting it.

IN the Christian world, the "Ideal Man" is personified
in their great prophet Jesus Christ. Several centuries
after his time, his inspiration lives and captures the
imagination of millions of men of the world for whom
(as it was for Thomas A Kempis) the "Imitation of
Christ" is the one and only true or worthy aim of all
human existence. 

Likewise, every culture and every people has its own
conception of the "Ideal Man". The Buddha, for
example, continues to remain the "Ideal Man" for many
of the nations of the Oriental world. And so on and so
forth....

                     ***************

Ideals are inspiring no doubt but, alas, they are also
extremely difficult to realize. Which perhaps robs
them of relevance. Hence, it is quite easy to turn
away from Ideals just as easily as the fabled fox
turned away in disillusion from "sour grapes".

In India, it is very common to find people who will
argue that it is impossible for ordinary men of the
world to embrace or emulate the ideal of Lord Rama of
Srimadh Valmiki Ramayana. That ideal, that standard of
human behaviour is far too lofty, far too utopian, far
too unrealizable, they will say. Rama's conduct may
quite become an avatar on earth but how are mere men
like us to aspire to imitate God Almighty in mortal
form?! Impossible, they will say.. and perhaps rightly
so...

For such men who reject the ideal of Rama as beyond
human grasp, it is the "Bhagavath-Gita" that offers a
second, slightly less difficult ideal to consider.... 

IN the 18 chapters that the Gita unfolds, there are a
number of ideal "role-models" or human-templates
described for men to examine and choose from. There is
the "gnyAni" role-model, for example. There is the
"karma-yOgi" model. Then there is also the "bhakta"
ideal of man. There is also the ideal of the "sanyAsi"
described in some of the last chapters of the ancient
text. 

All these "Ideal Man" archetypes, the Gita holds up to
us, and exhorts ordinary men of the world to choose
wisely from -- as may well suit one's own temperament
and predilection -- and then to strive through life in
realizing them...

Amongst all such noble archetypes, the Gita however
singles out one very special concept of the "Ideal
Man" called the "stitha-pragnya". This is indeed a
very special, very extraordinary conception of Ideal
Manhood. In a remarkable chapter fully devoted to
describing this Ideal Man, in sparkling verses that
are profound and soul-stirring at the same time, the
Bhagavath-Gita describes to us how we can all aspire
to become "stitha-pragnya-s" and in the process end up
becoming "Ideal Men" of the world. It is a marvellous
concept and a glorius inspiration indeed.... this
Ideal of "sthitha-pragnya".

Let us explore briefly this great Ideal of the Gita in
the next few postings of mine.

Regards,
daasan Sudarshan MK             

Warm Regards,
Sudarshan

" A life is perhaps worth nothing; but nothing certainly is worth as much as 
life". 
(Andre Malraux)


      


 
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