Where fasting and feasting go together
By R. L. Singal

IT is generally believed, though erroneously, that Hindus were, and to a large extent still are, otherworldly, looking upon this world and its manifold bounties as maya (illusion), worthy of being renounced as early as possible, before the lethal tentacles of this bhavasagar (the world viewed as an ocean) hold him in bondage. Hindus are portrayed, particularly by some western writers, as extremely pessimistic with an unscientific temper, having no faith in the effectiveness of action and the capability of man to ameliorate his lot. Thus Hindu culture is depicted as a culture that negates life and does not show acceptance. It is viewed as a culture that denounces worldly pleasures as false and transient. That is why, it is believed that the bounties and charms of this earth should not lure us into their trap because their ultimate end is suffering.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The rich literature of the Hindus right from the Vedas onwards testifies to their intense love of the earth and its bounties, to their zest for life, their passion for beauty, their love for music and dance, sculpture, painting and architecture and their craving for health and longevity. The vedic rishi does not pray to God for early death and deliverance from life but for a boon of a long life of hundred years.

A culture that was other-wordly could not have produced classics on Vastu kala (architecture), samudrika shastra (the science of interpreting the various marks on the body of a person particularly on the face, the feet and the hands), theatre, poetics; certainly not on ayurveda (the Indian system of medicine) and sexology. The poetry and plays of Kalidasa do not advocate a philosophy of life-negation, rather they vigorously exhort acceptance and affirmation of life and its joys. When bowed down by the blows of cruel destiny that separated him from his beloved wife Shakuntala. Dushyant does not throw away his brush, paint and canvas (because it has been soiled by his flowing tears) and retire to a cave to sulk in sullen silence, but tells vidushaka (the clown) when the latter asks him "what next?"

The stream of Malini has to be drawn with a pair of swans relaxing on its sands,
and on both its sides have to be shown the holy hills at the base of the Himalayan ranges where the deer are squatting;
and I wish to draw underneath a tree that bears bark-dresses (of the hermits) suspended from its branches,
a doe that, on the horns of a black buck, rubs its left eye (when in heat).

— Abhigyana Shakuntalam

(VI. 17)

Kalidasa’s overriding concern with the bounties of life on this earth has an echo in the great Victorian poet Browning when he reminds us in Time’s Revenges: "There may be heaven, there must be hell, Meantime, there is our earth here "well!"

Even the most popular philosophical work of India to which millions of Hindus turn for succour, sustenance and support— The Bhagavad gita — does not exude an odour of passivity, submission and surrender even when face to face with a great crisis. When Arjuna’s intellect is completely paralysed, and he has decided to opt out of the race of winning the earth and its crown, the Lord chides and chastises him for his weakness and prostration and feelings of remorse and other-worldliness and asks him to stand up, pick up his gandiva (his famous bow) and vanquish the perpetrators of injustice (Chapter II. 37):

If you lose, you will enter heaven, if victorious,
you will enjoy the bounties of this earth,
therefore arise Arjuna, determined to fight.

How clear and unambiguous is the message. This earth is meant to be explored and enjoyed by man because it is a rare privilege granted to him. The paradise too is an abode teeming with comforts and luxuries, but only the valorous and virtuous can hope to enter its portals. After reading Lord Krishna’s exhortation to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, couched in the words quoted above, hardly any doubts should linger in our minds regarding the Hindu’s love of this earth and its bounties, as also the Lord’s approval of this craving of man.

Rather, the Lord urges him to take up arms and win for his pleasure and enjoyment either of the two — Paradise or the Earth because both are the repositories of life’s coveted prizes.

There is no doubt that the Hindus’s quest for spiritual realisation is persistent because he considered it as the supreme goal of life, and the concept of Brahman, the undying reality that pervades the entire cosmos (Whatever moves in this moving world, is pervaded by God — Isha Upanishada) is basic to his philosophy, but we must not forget that living blissfully too has been his pursuit since time immemorial as is evident from this prayer from the Atharva Veda:

May the wind blow us bliss,
May the sun shine bliss on us,
May the days be blissful to us
And night approach us blissfully,
And blissfully the dawn glow.
And again
May there be voice in my mouth, breath in my nostrils,
Sight in my eyes, hearing in my ears;
May my hair not turn grey or my teeth turn purple;
May I have much strength in my arms.

The Hindu’s entire corpus of literature, right from the Vedas of antiquity, the Upanishads, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the works of Bharata Muni, Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti, and Bhasa, right upto Panditaraja Jagannatha of the 17th Century, are replete with observations, suggestions, descriptions, and exhortations that betoken a dynamic culture, exalting activity over passivity and zest for life over moroseness and resignation.

Hindu seers wrestled with the basic problems of life and death, and dwelt at length on the ultimate goal and purpose of knowledge which is succinctly explained as self-real isation, the awareness that Brahm is not a separate entity, but that it resides within each individual consciousness — in the Atma. The latter is a part of the all-pervasive Brahm. That thou art, also "That I am" comprise the quintessence of the Upanishadic philosophy. The great exponent of Advaitavada, Shankaracharya too has unambiguously stated that Atma is Brahm itself and not a separate entity. Also predominant in their literature is the ethical tone, the concept of dharma which should direct and govern human life. The Rigveda emphatically says the wicked traverse not the path of righteousness. Manusmriti too declares: i.e. decimated dharma decimates society, whereas well-protected dharma protects it. Even Chanakya, the author of the Arthashastra, known for his strategies and ruthlessness wants the king to wield his sceptre effectively. According to him, in the absence of the sceptre-wielding king, the mighty swallow the weak. But he lays due emphasis on the king being just and humble. He says, "the king being the disseminator of dharma, should himself be free from the six passions of sex, anger, greed, vanity, haughtiness and overjoy."

The Hindu’s love and zest for worldly life, its graces and benedictions which have perennially fascinated and strengthened him, are evident from all our scriptures. His passion for enjoying life on this earth is as strong as his quest for the ultimate reality i.e. the Brahm, as also his concern for dharma. The repeatedly emphasised four goals of life — dharma, arth, kama and moksha — in our literature, precisely underline the same thing. These four goals present to us a balanced view and philosophy of life. And this exactly is the axle of our culture.