| Arya – The Man Striving for
Evolution |
 |
By Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
ARYA is not a race or community.
He or she is an arya who has his sentiments,
knowledge and deeds given to goodness, love and purity; who
looks to peace, wisdom and immortality beyond everything
else as the fruition and fulfillment of life, in contrast to
anything external or material. The arya is not
satisfied with what he sees. He also wants to think of them.
He feels for them. He has an urge to determine his position,
his efforts, their manner and meaning. His mind and heart
want to express and radiate love, fellow-feeling. It is not
a show or semblance, but a vital sentiment flowing out like
the air he breathes. It begins to load him, ache his heart,
makes him heave under its spell.
The SENTIMENTS in him blend with his
quest, yearning. His curiosity stands allied with his
emotional facet. This is the marked fusion which will make
man greater, higher, abler and happier; later if not soon. A
mere thought or quest is not sufficient. It should be
aligned with the strength of sentiments, the power of
feeling.
The arya is always sober. He
detests rebellion. To rebel, he knows, is to hate. He hates
but hatred. The true arya is given to patience, and
forbearance. He never negates or derides. He can only accept
and compliment. The world is curious he knows, even
inexplicable at times. But what can he do!
THE WORLD is not his creation.
He is its. So, he can only accept it as his mother, his
father, his grandparents, nay, the one Supreme God, the
Infinite Father. He goes to God from the world and has
not come to the world from God. Through the steps of the
ladder does he reach the top, not from the top to the
bottom. Bottom first, and then alone the top. This is the
rule, the law, the truth everywhere. He, a seeker of Truth,
honours it, loves it, accepts it wholeheartedly.
WHEN the mind feels the load, the
heart is made to bleed unseen, when the intelligence begins
to wonder about the reality, then the seeking verily
germinates and grows. Until then it is just a show of
words, of oratory, the skill of experience, the ability to
dupe others.
The arya is our example, the
model man, the ideal human.
The people of this land struggle to
become aryas. The child in good families is told now
and then of this goal, this ideal, this sure need. The grown
up is asked to think of him. Through the books of religion,
through epics and mythology, the thoughts and deeds of the arya
alone are taught, exemplified, adored and sought as a
blessing.
Harishchandra was an arya.
Rama was one. Krishna another. Vasishtha was yet another.
Through them all, through several others like them, the
lesson of goodness, wisdom, and truth, of life made noble,
great and immortal, is the one story, the unique subject
discussed, debated upon and concluded without doubt.
THE PATH before the arya may
not be easy. He will have his risks, his ordeals, his
persecutions. But all of them he meets in his own hands, in
the hands of the object and ideal he cherishes, clings to
firmly. None he blames any time, not even the Creator.
If at all, he has only appreciation,
love, a sense of accommodation and acceptance for anything,
for all. With every moment, incident or accident, he is
determined to grow and he succeeds also. His failure can
never be due to another. When his beloved pursuit dies, then
alone can he fail. And that he finds is improbable.
This is the arya Sri Krishna
places before Arjuna (Gita 2.2) to evaluate the standard of
his (Arjuna's) conduct, of his thoughts and decision either
to fight or to retreat. The aryatva must inspire him,
guide his thoughts, instill in him strength, resolve his
will and ideal. But for aryatva, Arjuna's life would
be worth nothing great. It will be fully hollow, empty of
virtues and loftiness.
WEAKNESS is inborn in man. It is a
sure symptom of growing life. It has to be recognized no
doubt, but only to be overcome, gradually though not
suddenly. Weakness is to give man its caution! It should
sound the need, bestow inspiration to work for its redress,
to gain ample strength and resolve.
Yes, the presence of an opposite
helps one to gain its opposite. It should be precisely
so. Success of human life depends upon the discovery of this
unique mystery, this basic truth, this fundamental lesson!
Weakness is the opposite of strength. To find oneself weak
is surely to work against it, to eliminate it and gain
abiding strength.
DEATH must give the caution to win
the immortality. The mortal is one who needs immortality.
He alone can indeed work for it. Mortality first perceived
is what paves the way for gaining immortality later. If
mortality were not to be with us, immortality too could not
be thought of. One of these alone cannot exist; it does not.
TO EXIST, the one must be allied with
the other. The other should be equally so with the one. But
the allied ones are not friends, but enemies. They stand
against each other. To be against is, therefore, really
to be. It is to be the grand One, to be the Supreme, to
be the Real, the Transcendental. The two are really one. To
be known, to be dealt with, the two came to be. But what
became the two is really the One. To become, the One
gives rise to the tow.
The difference is visible no doubt,
but is only apparent. It is just on surface, never in depth,
never in the field of reality or the sphere of truth. The
surface is only superficial. At best it can denote and imply
the depth beneath. Without the beneath, the depth, can
surface be at all?
THE BAD is then to suggest its
opposite, the good. To be bad oneself is to be constantly at
work for being good, to need and desire the good. The bad is
the sure signal for its renunciation. It gives the call for
its own transcendence. Bad teaches man, compels him to
replace it, to overcome it, to be the master of it, to
work his way above and free of it.
Then will come the role of good. He
who has risen above bad alone gets to the good. He becomes
the noble the august man. But his task does not terminate
there. It brings in another need, a new ideal, a fresh
object to seek, gain and establish himself in.
THE GOOD too, like bad, is not to be
clung to in the end. The good should also be transcended.
It has to be clearly risen above while reaching the goal.
Then will come the grand victory, the most decisive
fruition, the ultimate fulfillment of human life. The
crowning of humanhood, the zenith earmarked for sound
thinking, the pinnacle of mind's civilization, the reward
for the great morality of man on earth, will be then and
then alone.
To be above good as above bad,
to be free of the involvement and concern for both, to
behold and contain the allotted redemption of man – the
intelligent mortal of the world – is the life lived face
to face with the Supreme Reality, the Ultimate Truth, the
invisible yet realizable presence called God. The grand
mystery of the entire creation, the unseen but not unheard
grand magic of the Creator, the mystic delusion enfolding
and conquering the human mind right before it begins its
existence in the world – all this becomes clear and
precise then. And that marks the final release of man, the
dawning of this supreme gracefulness which never waxes or
wanes but remains, and remains eternally to be the same as
long as life, experience and knowledge prevail for him.
The arya is the evolving
human, the man or woman standing on the path of
progress, committed to it wholeheartedly.
He eats, drinks, sleeps and acts no
doubt, but what he wants and cherishes to gain by all these
is to think and feel, to grow rich and richer in
understanding. He has the body like others, but his
strength is not in the body but in what dwells within it.
THE SPIRIT within the body is vital
for him. The body is its servant, a useful appendage
produced and preserved by nature. He thinks and tries
earnestly to follow his thoughts. He dissects thoughts,
sifts then clearly, then tries to select and distinguish the
good from the bad amongst them. He acts, but his aim is to
do so in strict pursuance of his thoughts. He is
determined to narrow the gap between ideals and actuals,
beliefs and behaviour, and if possible, make it nil.
By this very nature of his the arya
is destined to evolve, steadily and successfully, either
fated by accidents or led forcefully by incidents. CHANCE
may have a role in his life but he never stops to worry if
it will turn favourable or not. By the very law of Nature
and the force of Truth, chance cannot but befriend him at
every stage.
THE GEETA of Sri Krishna presents
this arya with his characteristic goodness, but not
without his typical problems, the initial conflicts of his
moral mind. The steps by which the arya is led
towards his destination, the virtues and skills he has to
learn and equip himself with, these and a lot more are laid
down and taught effectively throughout the contents of the
dialogue. One who reads it or hears it read, not merely
learns the true qualities of life but is also simultaneously
stimulated to practise his knowledge. The approach to
knowledge by learning as well as by a constant practice of
it in life's daily happenings is the unique compulsion one
finds in the Geeta. In this does the text become a living
book of practice as much as a Scripture of wisdom.
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