Happy New Year, dear readers. May 2025 bring our land and all of us abundant good fortune––health, wealth and happiness by the bushel. A new year, even if by an international and not Indian reckoning of time, is always a great calendar opportunity to make a fresh start with renewed hope and energy. Or so it seems to me.
In this regard, there is an old Indian story I like about leaving unwanted and unnecessary baggage behind. Two ascetics, one old and one young, came to a river bank. They saw a young woman flailing in the water. The young ascetic cast aside his vows of strict celibacy and not looking at, let alone touching, a woman. A greater force called humanity gripped him. He dived in and saved the young woman from drowning. Since she was too weak to walk, he carried her in his arms to the village nearby and handed her over safely to those who could take care of her.
The two ascetics resumed their journey. They crossed the river by hitching a ride with an obliging boatman, and walked many miles into the countryside on the other bank. The older ascetic was visibly disturbed and kept shaking his head and muttering to himself all the way. Finally, as dusk fell and they halted under a tree for the night, he burst out at the young ascetic, “What you did was very wrong. How could you, an ascetic sworn, hold a woman like that?”
The young ascetic was astonished. “I only did my duty as one human being towards another in trouble. Does not scripture teach us that it’s the human covenant to do so? And once I handed her over, I forgot all about the incident and moved on. I left her behind. But you, sir, seem to be still carrying her in your head.” The old ascetic was abashed at the plain truth of this and being a just and reasonable person at heart, thanked the young ascetic for pointing out the nature of true detachment, the ascetic’s avowed goal.
Doesn’t this story, taken from the legitimate lore of the land, tell us something? That as we enter a new year, we too should try to leave old grouses and grudges behind and go forwards with light hearts and baggage-free minds? It is not easy to do as genuine grievances do need to be addressed. But surely, we need not sweat the small stuff while taking steady steps towards addressing those genuine grievances?
Another story comes to mind, this time from the Ramayana. The Vanara Sena discovers, thanks to Jatayu’s elder brother, the old eagle Sampati, that Sita is imprisoned in Lanka across the sea.
Sampati’s backstory is a noble one. During their youth, Samapati and Jatayu, in order to test their powers, flew towards the sun. They soared higher and higher into the endless vault of the sky. Jatayu, with the bravado and recklessness of youth, outflew his brother and entered the Suryamandala, the orbit of the Sun, during high noon. Due to the sun’s blazing heat, his wings began to get scorched. Seeing Jatayu’s plight, Sampati flew above him and spread his own wings wide to shield his brother. As a result, it was Sampati’s wings that got burnt. He fell towards the Vindhya mountains and spent his life thus disabled.
But due to his merit, he found a protector in the sage Nishakara, who was performing tapasya in the lap of the Vindhyas. The sage looked after Sampati as his own child.
Sampati is said to have been enlightened with spiritual knowledge in the Vindhyas by this sage and others, who gently taught him to stop lamenting about his broken body, and wait patiently until he could fulfil a great role in history, which was to help Rama and the cause of justice. When Sampati’s moment came, he did not fail his destiny. He told the Vanara Sena where to find Sita because he could see her with his piercing, long-distance vision. As he spoke, his body began sprouting new feathers and by the time he finished speaking, his wings had grown back, as foretold by Sage Nishakara.
My big takeaway from this seemingly small story tucked into the grand epic is this: who knows what life has in store for us in the new year or in the years ahead? Is it not an emotionally healthier choice to believe in the best and live our days as cheerfully and decently as we can, secure in the hope that good things can and shall happen?
The only thing in our control is the nature of our response to calamities and situations. It seems to me that we can either make the best or worst of it. In that case, why not choose to walk the path of light and live as though only good has befallen us? It might even be true deep down, although it may not seem so on top sometimes. But perhaps we need to find and activate our inner strength to accomplish our potential.
The story of Hanuman in this very episode from the Ramayana points the way. Hanuman has forgotten his own incredible mental and physical powers because of a restraining order passed on him as a child for his overactive strength. While other vanaras say they can jump only this far across the sea, Jambavan reminds Hanuman of his hidden and unutilised strength. A startled Hanuman remembers his own capabilities and proceeds to jump the hundred yojanas across the sea to Lanka. So let us celebrate endings, for they precede new beginnings.
(Views are personal)
(shebaba09@gmail.com)
Renuka Narayanan