The Most Excellent Virtue

I would like to tell an Indian folk story and the question which Indian elders use to educate the youngsters.

As usual, the grandfather convened the youngsters and began to narrate the story as follow.

There was a city in which a king and his retinue lived. The palace was guarded by a soldier named Birbar. He has his wife, one daughter and one son to take care. Every night he used to take his sword and shield and go and mount guard over the king’s couch; and when the king roused from sleep, used to call out, “Is anyone in waiting?” then he used to answer, “Birbar is in attendance; what may be your commands?” Thus answered he whenever the king called out, and thereupon, whatever the king ordered to be done, he executed. To perform the duties of a servant is more difficult than to perform religious duties (so serving is the part of the life of believers.)

One day the weeping sound of a woman chanced to come at night-time from the burning- ground. On hearing it the king called out, “Is anyone in waiting?”

Birbar instantly answered “I am here; your commands.”

Thereupon the king gave him this order, “Go to the spot whence the weeping voice of a woman proceeds, and enquire of her the cause of her weeping, and return quickly.”

On receiving this order, Birbar took the direction whence the sound of the weeping proceeded; and the king also, after dressing himself in black, followed him secretly for the purpose of observing his courage.

Birbar arrived there. What he beholds in the burning-ground but a beautiful woman, lavishly decked with jewels from head to foot, crying aloud and bitterly!

Seeing her condition, Birbar asked, “Why art thou crying and beating thyself so violently? Who art thou and what trouble befallen thee?”

On this she replied, “ I am royal glory.”

Birbar asked, “Why art thou weeping?”

She replied, “Impious acts are committed in the king’s house, whence misfortune will find admission therein, and I shall depart thence; after the lapse of a month the king will suffer much affliction and die; this is the sorrow which makes me weep. Further, I have enjoyed great happiness in his house, and hence this regret; and this matter will in nowise prove false.”

Birbar then asked, “Is there any remedy for it, whereby king may escape, and live a hundred years?”

She replied, “If you will sacrifice your son with your own hand and offer it to the God, then the king will reign a hundred years precisely as he now reigns, and no harm of any kind will befall him.”

As soon as he had heard these words, Birbar went home, and the king also followed him. Birbar awoke his wife and related the whole story to her.

On hearing the circumstances, she roused the son but the daughter also awoke. Then that woman said to her son, “Son by sacrificing your life, king’s life will be saved, and the government, too, will endure.”

When the boy heard this, he said, “Mother! In the first place, it is your command; in the second, it is for my lord’s service; thirdly, if this body can be of use to God, nothing in the world is better than this for me; it is not right to delay any longer now in this business. There is a saying, if one have a son, to have him under control, - a body, free from diseases, - a prudent friend – a submissive wife – if these five things are obtainable by man, they are the bestowers of happiness and the averters of troubles: if a servant be unwilling, a king parsimonious, a friend insincere, and a wife disobedient, these four things are the banishers of peace and the promoters of misery.”

Birbar again addressed his wife to know that whether she is willing to give up the child.

She replied, “I have no concern with son, daughter, brother, kinsfolk, mother, father, or anyone, it is from you  that my happiness proceeds and a woman is purified not only by offerings and religious offices but her religion consists in serving and honoring her husband, no matter whether he be lame, maimed, dumb, deaf, blind, a leper, hunch-backed,- of whatever kind he be; if she perform any description of virtuous action in the world, while she does not obey her husband, she will fall in hell.”

 His son said, “Father! The man by whom his master’s business is accomplished – his continuing in the world is attended with advantage; in this, there is the advantage in both worlds.”

The four deliberating with one another somewhat in the above fashion went to sacrifice the boy. The king also secretly followed them.

When Birbar arrived the spot, paid his adoration to God, and joined his hands in supplication, and said, “O God! Grant by the sacrificing of my son, the king may live a hundred years.”

Saying this he struck such a blow with the sword that his son’s head fell upon the ground.

On witnessing her brother’s death, the daughter struck a blow with the sword on her own neck, so that her head and body fell asunder.

Seeing her son and daughter dead, Birbar’s wife struck such a blow with the sword on her own neck that her head was severed from her body.

Further, seeing the death of the three, Birbar, reflecting in his mind, began to say, “When my son is dead, for whose sake I shall continue in service? And to whom shall I give my salary, perks and other incentives king grants?”

Having reflected thus, he struck such a blow with the sword on his own neck that his head severed from his body.

Beholding the death of these four, the king said himself, “For my sake, the lives of his family perished: accursed is it any longer to govern a realm for which the whole family of one is destroyed, while one holds sovereignty; it is no virtue thus to reign.”

Having deliberated thus, the king was on the point of killing himself with the sword; in the meantime; however, God came and seized his hand, and said, “Son! I am well pleased with thy courage, and will grant thee whatever boon thou mayest ask of me.”

The king said, “God! If thou art pleased, restore all these four to live.”

God replied, “That shall take place.” And all four restored to life. After that, the king bestowed half of his kingdom on Birbar.

Having narrated the story, the grandpa said, “Blessed is the servant who did not grudge his life, and that of his family, for his master’s sake! And happy is the king who showed no eagerness to cling to his dominion and his life. Children I ask you this, - whose virtue, of those five, was the most excellent?”

The children looked each other.

Grandpa himself answered, “The king’s virtue. It behooves the servant to lay down his life for his master, for this is his duty; but since the king gave up his throne for the sake of his servant, and valued not his life as a straw, the king’s merit was the superior.”

In the Bible, there is a verse, Roman 5:6, for while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Such an example you can see nowhere else.

The Unity of Opposites

            How to find out the truth? We hear a lot of single line principles or verses in our everyday life. Sometimes we may feel that most of them are contradictory. It is the fact that most of them are contradictory, otherwise, they are not truth. What? Yes. The truth is “the unity of opposites”. Let us look into it in a little bit detail. 

             Let us begin with our daily life. What does a day mean? Is it only daylight? No, night is also there. A night and a day together make one day. We can see the unity of opposites here. What we can think about the existence of human race? It is also so if there are only males how is the biological reproduction of human beings and thereby the existence possible? So we both, two opposites, unite to make possible one truth. The man is not woman and woman is not man. In many areas, we both maintain opposite characters, but to make one perfect truth. In the 80s, when I was an ardent communist, I used to read scientific facts about humanity. Thus, I bought a book about sexuality written by the then famous Asian psychiatrist Dr. Santhakumar. He mentioned in it,” as a specialist in this subject, I would say equality between man and woman is not possible biologically because the woman and most of her characters are determined by two hormones known as progesterone and estrogen; and man and his characters are by the hormone testosterone. They produce opposite character but correlative. Never the both become equal in many areas.” If we go for details it will take pages of space. What I try to state is that one truth exists in the unity of two opposite facts. 

            The earth exists because of its bipolar characteristic. So many examples can be located from our daily life. This is true in the case of spiritual life also. Let us consider Bible and a great example of it, the dialogues between Jesus and Satan.

Look into the Book Mathew chapter 4

3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

The verses 3^rd and 4^th are opposites but together make the truth. 3^rd one itself is the word of God, but when we consider it alone, spirituality becomes the means of material existence. But when  4^th              is added together it becomes the truth. “Existence is material, life is spiritual”.

     6 and 7 are opposites. 6 alone, faith means to test God’s power. Verse 7 says it is not the matter of testing power. Both, “faith means not to test God but to trust”.

    Verse 9 and verse 10 becomes opposites in a different way 9 is not one quote from the bible but it is the verse of Satan ‘worship for wealth’. 10 worship and serve God. Both; wealth should serve us we should serve God. Otherwise; Satan is after us, we are after God.

  Isaiah very clearly informs us about it. Chapter 34

16 Seek and read from the book of the LORD: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the LORD has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.

  Means every verse has its mate, without it, the truth is not complete. Bible itself is the unity of opposites, Old Testament and New Testament. If we check New Testament, we can see that itself the unity of opposites, Gospels and Epistles.

So, the single part will not make complete truth, but with the unity of opposite part. So whether it is spiritual truths or material facts we have to check both sides to understand full truth. It is like a coin has two sides. Most of us often do not come to the whole truth because we always consider one-half, leave the other. I joined recently a Bible study group on facebook. Some believers are in this vicious circle; whether Jesus is God or son of God? If it so, how is it? Then who is God? To know such truth we have to go deeply using this correlation of opposites.

Does nerve system provide the perfect defenition for Mind?

I was referring practical psychology by EDWARD STEVENS ROBINSON  last week. In that book he explains the mind as the function of nerve system. The basic for this conclusion is that when a man subject to anesthesia his nerve system is affected and becomes unconscious. I thought that it might be true. And I continued reading. 

    Psychology divides organs into two group receptors and effectors. Receptors(sense organs) are those organs that receive stimuli from peripherals and send them to nerve center. When these stimuli reach the nerve center it produce some effect, they send some signals to some other peripheral organs, glands and muscles, and produce effects so they are known as effectors. When we consider these stimuli and their respective effects, it can be seen that these cause and effect are not the same in all individuals. This phenomenon determines the behavior and character to a great extend. How is it? If one person responds to some stimuli continuously in a particular way, it becomes a habit. The reason for that is a neural arc takes place in him. What is neural arc? It is specific route of sending one stimulus to nerve center and its result to effectors. That is why when dusts come to eyes we close our eyes, first we see dusts come, stimulus, and then signal goes to nerve center and as a result some signals from nerve center come to the muscles of eyelids to function it. 

     But in many cases these neural arcs can be altered and we can establish new neural arcs there by new habit can be established. This is the basic of most training and character building and all. But if we want to alter the existing neural arc we have to interfere in it deliberately. It’s a mental training, means our mind should interfere in it. Our mind controls the functions of our nerve system; internal functions are not easy to control so but possible. Here is the contradiction with what the book stated first. “Mind is the function of nerve system”, but here mind interfere in the function of nerve system. What we have to think about it? Anyway psychology is not succeeding in proving that mind is completely the product of the function of some physical organs. 

      Here the important of Chapter 3 of book Genesis in Bible prevails. Eve's mind couldn’t control her sense organs but sense organs controlled her mind and habits. That was the wrong she committed.