Stray thoughts of Dr. Y. V. Rao-10
Dr.
Yerneni Venkateswara Rao
M.Sc., Ph. D
Retired Principal
GUDIVADA-
A.P
yernenivrao@gmail.comh.
B 2-38
A good conversational group is a
fertile ground for the spontaneous sprouting of many insightful ideas and
illuminating observations. Surprisingly, even the most mundane thoughts and
commonplace expressions acquire brilliant shades of excellence and present
themselves at their scintillating best to our utter amazement and infinite joy.
That the number, novelty and audacity of the ideas and thoughts generated
should indeed be the touchstone of the calibre and quality of the group and a
measure of the level of attainment of each of its sittings is too luminous to
need/merit mention. The subtle sense of humour and wit which find themselves
lacing the conversation , often
unconsciously as also the occasional sparkling repartee tinged with irony and
sarcasm sans ill will or malice makes such stimulating exchanges delightful and
delectable too.
The memory of those magical moments lingers on long after the group has
dissolved, staying ever fresh in the minds of the participants like the
mellifluous notes of a melodious raga or the fascinating scent of a fragrant
flower.
B2-39
I detest wickedness and loathe violence
but I abhor complacency and mental lethargy for, while wickedness and violence
negate life by making it ugly and unviable , complacency and mental lethargy
stultify life by reducing it to nothing more than a prolongation of death—by
far the most futile and cheerless prospect.
I fear nothing, not even death , for,
fear and death , particularly the fear of death ,sap life of its very pith and
savour and rob it of its very purpose thereby rendering life’s fulfilment a
distant dream never to be realized .
I desire nothing , not even nirvana or moksha , but I long to learn so I
may live for learning is living – living as a liberated soul, a jeevan muktha .
B 2-40
Our games are what they are because
life is what it is, full of triumphs and tragedies , successes and failures and
victories and defeats . They have evolved from life , like life, so they cannot
be otherwise than it. We play games to win but lose we will more often than
not. Yet, the fascination for play holds its sway undiminished, as surely as
life entices and ensnares even the most despicable destitute to go on living
exercising that ineluctable something that makes it impossible for him to quit
life in spite of overwhelming odds against its continuance . After all, isn’t
the ultimate objective of every game the same: to highlight the value of losing
with dignity and winning with magnanimity. By learning to accept defeat with
grace and equipoise and victory with humility and benevolence , so we may
imbibe , perfect and practise these virtues together with fortitude in
adversity and forgiveness in prosperity in the great game of life and live life
with equanimity, contentment , courage , hope and happiness?
A more obvious but an unequally important purpose of games and sports is
the development of latent talents and powers of both brain and brawn through
promotion of mental alacrity and intellectual prowess together with emotional
resilience and maturity on the one hand, and the athletic skills and physical capabilities,
while simultaneously concentrating on further honing of the already acquired
skills and abilities, soft as well as hard—an endless process. This calls for
provision of creative opportunities for skill generation , performance
enhancement and personal development together with conduct of sporting events,
both national and international, on a sustained basis. This is the only way
through which human society can keep itself healthy and strong and keep on
scaling ever newer peaks of excellence and perfection.
Since play involves the use of the mind and all the senses of a child,
essential qualities like mental agility and quick reflexes , analytical
thinking and concentration, rule mindedness and discipline, coordinated effort
and concerted action and physical
fitness and stamina, are imbibed by children subconsciously during play. In
fact, play time constitutes a sort of informal curriculum which needs as much
sensitive nourishing as the subjects taught formally in the classrooms. So
using play as a medium , parenst can creatively stimulate their children to
develop a wholesome world view, right approach to life, self esteem and
empathy, the hallmarks of a well adjusted adult. To the extent to which vital
values such as leadership skills, team spirit, right attitude, and
intergenerational interaction, respect for laws and obedience to elders, poise
and forbearance and character and conduct which can be inculcated and instilled
into young minds only through games and sports , are lacking to that extent,
the corporate life of the community as well as the individual life each one of
its members remains deficient and incomplete.
If there is one aspect of our national life that has been a victim of
grievous neglect for long and which is crying out for attention, it is the area
of athletics sports and games. It is high time that we, as a nation sit up, do
some hard thinking and set about doing what needs must be done on a war footing
and prove ourselves in the international arena a la China and south Korea to
name but 2 countries which have done exceedingly well in recent times in this
field.
B2-41
Self conscious goodness, humility and holiness
are but pale shadows of real goodness, humility and holiness , but when the
real are so rare, shouldn’t the shadows suffice as reminders of the real until
we graduate to the stage cultivating genuine goodness, humility and holiness?
B 2-42
The only compromise one can make with
life is to live life as it presents itself for moment to moment without
grumbling or grieving, and get on with it as best as one can. Seeking to change
life instead of learning to live it is a challenge that can be met with an
inspiring vision, infinite wisdom and extraordinary courage of conviction that
only a select individual, a favoured spirit and a compassionate soul can come
up with, once in a blue moon For, ordinarily, life running its even course is
too preoccupied and stubborn to adjust itself to suit anyone’s particular
predilections or prejudices, and too independent and majestic to dance to
anybody’s tunes, however high and mighty he may think he is.
After all, life is for living, living for
oneself and for others , in full awareness of the essential unity of life in
its manifold diversity. This , in fact, is what Gandhiji’s doctrine of
trusteeship , so dear t him, enjoins on all of us: every resource like mind,
money and muscle power at our disposal should be used not for self interest
alone but for the welfare of the society as well.
B2-43
Men are of two types: those that have
succeeded and those that have failed in life. Despite their minimal involvement
in whatever they do, some are greeted by success beyond their wildest dreams
while, in spite of their total dedication, careful planning and perfect
execution of every project they undertake , failure comes to settle as a
central fact of some other’s existence, which as a consequence will be full of
milestones with failure written on every stone/mile. Nevertheless, the former
believe that to rise higher or to sink lower in the scale of values and worldly
riches by bettering oneself in character and social status , or by diminishing
one’s stature through bad conduct or matters determined entirely by man where
as the latter assert that the whole thing is beyond man’s freedom and power of
action until Dame Luck switches sides entailing a reversal of their roles and
with it, their stance on what man can or cannot do.
Thus, the types persist though the persons and theatre change ; the
script stays the same though the actors switch places or exchange their parts.
B2-44
Every marriage is a celebration of yet
another successful outcome of Mother Nature’s perennial quest for its
perpetuation and a jubilation at the graduation of yet another young pair to
birthing and parenting so it may redeem its debt to her, for every birth is a
joyous declaration of the triumph of life over death, the inevitable
concomitant of life.
After all, nature has bred them at an enormous evolutionary cost.
Wouldn’t they fail to repay the debt and return the compliment if they do not
become parents in their turn when they attain physical and maturity to parent a
child by channelling their biological drive in socially acceptable and
religiously sanctified ways?
B2 -45(b2-28)
Every child is eager to get out of the
cocoon of childhood and grow up into an adult and face life on its terms. Of
course, wondering occasionally “ when I grow up, will I still be me?” a la
Dennis the Menace and ardently wishing that it be so and grow it will paying
for every step of its journey through priceless gems and precious
gold—innocence , inquisitiveness, spontaneity , truthfulness and freedom , its
natural endowments and innate resources. Somewhere along the process of growing
up, the majority of the children seem to lose even their peace and happiness,
which are intrinsically theirs and which they have enjoyed during infancy and
childhood as a matter of course. As they attain adulthood, many find themselves
constantly engaged in a restless pursuit of peace and happiness but mostly in vain, without ever realizing
that their failure owes its origin to their wrong attribution of what are
innate to them to external objects, factors and situations, which can never be
under their control—a simple case of someone looking for something all over
while all the while, it is safely locked up in his bosom. At the end of this
bumpy journey through adulthood to old age, when the time comes for counting
one’s gains and losses, the die will have been cast for most, and they stay put
with what they have , some with and some without regrets.
However, a few, a miniscule minority
dare to retrace their steps midway freeing themselves from the shackles /feters
of worldly riches and possessions , the dross that they have acquired in
exchange for the invaluable inheritance that every human baby comes into this world with, and with which it
sets out on its odyssey to adulthood and ripe age and succeed sometimes in
recapturing the magic of their childhood and regaining a part of the lost
paradise by staging a metaphoric return to childhood with its laughter and
playfulness intact. Through their willingness to change to undergo an inner
revolution , they make their life beautiful for it is an expression of joy and
not a vain pursuit of happiness.
But that rarest of the rare individuals scrupulously refraining from
treading the beaten track, and spontaneously stepping to the music which he
hears, ‘however measured or far away’, starts out on his unique path, not to
maturity , adulthood but to greatness and rightness in worldly wisdom and glory
in the spiritual realm, of which he remains blissfully unaware. The path he treads takes off from
childhood, passes through the soft, radiant luminescence of child like qualities
and terminates in sainthood—a pathless path of growth and evolution , an
ascendant path all the way. The childhood innocence, spontaneity and
truthfulness blossom in appropriate luxurience into fragrant flowers permeating
the atmosphere with their scent and, in the fullness of time, come to fruition
in bountiful abundance in the form of saintliness uplifting . ennobling and
sanctifying the very environment about him. Though he is apparently in the
world, in reality he is beyond it;
though he is from us , he is not of us, yet he is for us.
His life epitomizes the Upanishadic prayer:
सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिन: सर्वे सन्तु निरामया: |
सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चित् दु:खभाग्भवेत् ||
Sarve bhavantu
sukhinah
Sarve santu
Niramayah
Sarve Bhadrani
Pasyantu
Ma Kaschit
Dukhabhag Bhavet
(May all be happy, may all be free from
afflictions, may all be seen as good and auspicious and let no one have any suffering)
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