Sree Bhagwaan tells His dear disciple Arjun – “Either you will be killed in the battle and obtain heaven or you will be victorious and enjoy the kingdom. Therefore get up, O son of Kunti, with the firm resolve to fight!”
The message - While performing our duties we need not worry about success or failure. It is always a win-win situation for one who is sincere, focused and diligent in performing one’s duties. It was the duty of Arjun as a Kshatriya prince to fight, when challenged.
Many of us remain confused regarding one’s duties and sometimes even to assess or identify one’s duty becomes challenging. Under the circumstances one either fails to perform or goes overboard by overdoing, both are calamitous! We deprive the world around us of our cooperation and contribution by non-performance, negligence or under-performance of our duties. At the same time, we spoil the world around us by being over-indulgent, attached or passionate.
The Seers and Masters have provided the human society with a structured approach to a normal lifespan so that we individuals could learn about our duties & responsibilities at different stages of our life. According to our Shastras, considering the average human lifespan to be of around hundred years, the first twenty-five years of an individual’s life should be spent in educating oneself, in secular sciences as well as spiritual sciences, with complete dedication and focus, while observing self-control and celibacy - (Brahmacharya Ashram). At this stage of life, it is one’s foremost duty as an intelligent living being to engage one’s intelligence and creativity in learning, thinking, and understanding, exploring, inventing and discovering the world around and within.
The next stage of one’s life is to fulfill the duties towards the family and the society by sincere and wise application of what one would have learnt in student-life. This includes earning, acquiring, expanding, marrying, procreating, serving, supporting and so on for the next twenty-five years – (Grihasth Ashram).
Else, while going through the first twenty-five years itself, one would have already developed a
deeper insight into the subtler aspects of life by means of the spiritual learning's and hence would
move towards higher spiritual pursuits.
Such an individual need not pursue a family life and yet
would surely have duties to be performed towards the society by wise application of one’s secular and
spiritual learnings. This includes pursuing further the spiritual learnings and practises, earning
for livelihood, serving one’s country, serving the society, serving some human cause, motivating
others on the bases of one’s own spiritual learnings and experiences and so on.
One would have completed all of one’s obligatory duties within those twenty-five years of a house-holder’s life and hence is prepared to move forward to the next stage of twenty-five years or may be less! By now, one is expected to have grown out of one’s material desires and possessiveness to quite an extent. Life would have been a platform of learning from personal experiences for the individual who has handled oneself as well as one’s family for that long a period! The roller-coaster life is the best teacher, is it not? Now is the best time to start withdrawing from active participation in the network of activities and relationships that one would have somehow built up during past twenty-five years. This would compel one to recollect the spiritual learnings from the Shastras that one would have gathered at a young age. It would be one’s duty to recall the spiritual learnings, practice the scriptural injunctions diligently, advise and guide - if asked for - the upcoming generations on the basis of one’s life-experiences, offer selfless service and so on – (Vaanprasth Ashram)
But not all individuals grow out of their material attractions, mundane indulgences, possessiveness and attachments even after long twenty-five years of their worldly life! Instead of getting matured enough to command respect from the society as a wise elder, they just lead a miserable life, hankering for more, seeking attention, demanding respect, feeling lonely &lost and sometimes become even more indulgent and possessive than ever before! For them, the concept of Vaanprasth remains almost unacceptable!
After all, there is this “Law of diminishing returns” which is so appropriate for such individuals who would have lead their life being fully dependent upon worldly pleasures, running after small & big desires, pampering their ego in all possible ways and so on. But, for how long would these external objects be able to fetch happiness to the Subject “I”? One should have understood this irreversible “Law” much earlier in life. Anyway, sooner or later, when one realises this, then one slowly gets on to the path of withdrawal and ultimately understands about one’s duties as a mature member of the society.
And the last stage – Renouncing the worldly life due to growing completely out of mundane desires, (Sannyaas Ashram)! But then, would such an individual be living amongst the human society? Would such person have any obligatory duties to be performed? The Shastras have cleared such doubts too. It is the duty of each individual to practice to give up “I-ness” & “my-ness” in the last twenty-five years of a matured life and ultimately to renounce the conditioning of the superimposed “I”.
To drop the false identification with the world-of-objects, world-of-emotions and world-of-thoughts, and, to get back to ourTrueIdentity – the Self – is the ultimate purpose of the intelligent human life and hence, it is our foremost duty to think, feel and act in accordance to the fulfilling of this foremost duty of ours and win the ultimate battle of life!
All through life, one keeps facing the battle-fronts of the external world of circumstances and of the inner world of lower & higher thoughts. While fighting those battles of life, if one performs one’s duties to the best of one’s ability, then of course it is a win-win situation for him. This is why in SreemadBhagawadGeetaSreeBhagwaan tells His dear disciple Arjun – “Either you will be killed in the battle and obtain heaven or you will be victorious and enjoy the kingdom. Therefore get up, O son of Kunti, with the firm resolve to fight!”
Fight you must! Be a resolute!