A four year old boy, Rahul, is playing in the park with his mother. He spots something red and sparkling at a distance. His attention is drawn towards it and he wants to find out what it is. As he goes closer, he starts to see that it is a soldier with a drum. Now he is excited and is so happy to have found it. He runs towards it. (DESIRE) Suddenly another child appeared from no where, picks up the toy and starts playing with it. Rahul is disappointed. He goes to the child and asks for the toy. The child does not want to share it. Rahul says it is his toy and he wants it back. The other child also says the same thing. The two boys get into a fight. (ANGER) Their parents come, break them off and take them to their respective homes.
On their way back, Rahul tells his mother that it was his toy and the other boy just took it away. His mother explains that the toy did not belong to him. He just happened to see it when it was left unattended. Rahul is not convinced. He feels he saw it first, so it belongs to him, and the other child lied about owning it. Rahul asks his mother to take him back to the park, but she does not agree. He starts nagging her, crying, and then throwing tantrums. Rahul's mother is growing tired of handling him and starts punishing him. This irritates him more. He explains that it is the other boy who deserves the punishment, not him. His mother tries to explain to him that he is not being punished for losing the toy. He is being punished for nagging her. Rahul still feels the punishment is unnecessary, as he will not be nagging her if the other child had just given him his toy back.(DELUSION)
Now, Rahul has undergone a lot. He has got himself beaten up and scolded by his mother, lost out on watching his favorite cartoon show, has got himself prohibited from eating chocolates for the next three days, and has started to develop a fever from all the crying and screaming that he has been doing. But Rahul has not realised the things he has lost, or what he has undergone. He surely knows he is not happy and his mother is not happy with him. But feels that none of this would have happened if the other boy had just returned his toy back to him.(ANNIHILATION)
Sometimes in life, we do not realize when we become this child. Krishna explains in two verses how one becomes deluded and destroys himself when we set our mind on acquiring trivial objects.
ध्यायतो विषयान् पुंसः संगस्तेषुपजायते ।
संगात्सञ्जायते कामः कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते ॥ (2.62)
dhyayato (thought/ focus) visayan (materialistic objects) pumsah (man/ soul)
sangastesu (union) pa jayate (win/ conquer)
sangat (union) sanjayate (come into existence) kamah (desire)
kamat (intentionally) krodho (anger) bhi jayate (win).
When the focus of a man gets set on materialistic objects, a desire is born.
This desire creates an anger to acquire or conquer it.
क्रोधात् भवति संमोहः संमोहात् स्मिृति विभ्रमः ।
स्मिृति भ्रंषात बुद्धि नाशः बुद्धिनाशत प्रणश्यति ॥ (2.63)
krodhad (from anger) bhavati (manifests) sammohah (delusion/ confusion)
sammohat (from delusion) smiriti (memory) vibhramah (loss/ error)
smiriti bhramsad (from memory loss) buddhi (intellect) naso (ruin)
buddhi-nasat (from ruined intellect) pranasyati (perish).
Anger deludes our mind and erases our memory.
Memory loss ruins our intellect. And without intellect, we are destroyed.
! जय श्री कृष्णा !
