દયાહત્યા કે દયાપૂર્ણ મૃત્યુ – એક ચર્ચા

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આજના મારા લેખનો વિષય અનહદ ગૂંચવણભર્યો અને મુશ્કેલ પણ છે અને તેથી જ તેના કોઈ નક્કર તારણ ઉપર ન પણ આવી શકાય. આ એક લાંબા સમયથી ચાલી આવતી અને વિરોધભાસી ચર્ચા છે જેનો કોઈ અંત નથી, કેમ કે બંને વિચારધારાઓ પાસે પોતપોતાની પોતાના મતની તરફેણમાં અને વિરુદ્ધમાં સેંકડો દલીલો છે. અહીં મારા વાંચકો આ ચર્ચાના ભાગરૂપ મારા પ્રમાણિક પ્રયત્નને જોઈ શકશે, જેમાં મેં મારા પક્ષે પૂરી તટસ્થતા જાળવી રાખી છે અને ચર્ચાના સંભવિત પરિણામને મારી સંમતિ કે અસંમતિની કોઈ મહોર પણ મારી નથી. ‘દયા-હત્યા’ જેને અન્ય સારા શબ્દોમાં ‘અસાધ્ય વેદનામય દર્દથી પીડિત દર્દીનું શાંતિપૂર્વક મોત નિપજાવવું’ કહી શકાય. આ મુદ્દે ઘણાં વર્ષોથી વિશ્વભરમાં ચર્ચાઓ થતી આવી છે અને હું પણ અહીં અન્યોની જેમ આ ચર્ચામાં દાખલ થઈ રહ્યો છુ. મહાત્મા ગાંધીએ કહ્યું છે કે,’આપણું જીવન એ દીર્ઘ અને મથામણયુક્ત સત્યની શોધ માટે છે.’ મારા અગાઉના કોઈક આર્ટિકલમાં મેં કહ્યું છે કે ‘આપણે સત્યના કોઈ એક અંશ (A Truth) સુધી કદાચ પહોંચી શકીએ, પણ પૂર્ણ સત્ય (The Truth)ને પામવું તો મુશ્કેલ હોય છે.’

હવે આપણે એ સમજીએ કે આ પ્રકારની હત્યા કે મોત એ છે શું! મારા લેખના શીર્ષકમાં ‘દયા’ અથવા ‘દયાપૂર્ણ’ શબ્દો સામાન્ય છે; પરંતુ ‘હત્યા’ અને ‘મૃત્યુ’ શબ્દો ભિન્ન છે, જેમનો એક જ અર્થ ‘જીવનનો અંત આણવો’ એમ જ લેવાનો છે. મેં ઈન્ટરનેટના માધ્યમથી આ વિષય ઉપરની બે વ્યાખ્યાઓ તારવી કાઢી છે : (૧) વ્યક્તિના જીવનનો તેની વિનંતીથી ઈચ્છાનુસાર, સરળ અને પીડારહિત અંત આણવો, જ્યારે કે તે અસાધ્ય અને પીડાજનક રોગથી પીડિત હોય. (૨) ઈરાદાપૂર્વક પીડિત કોઈ વ્યક્તિના જીવનનો દયાથી પ્રેરાઈને અન્યો દ્વારા અંત લાવવામાં આવે..

 

આત્મા – સંક્ષિપ્ત અભ્યાસ

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મારા કેટલાક વાંચકોએ મારો અગાઉનો આર્ટિકલ “Inspired Knowledge (Intuition)” અર્થાત્ “સહજ જ્ઞાન” વાંચીને વિવિધ રીતે મારો સંપર્ક સાધ્યો હતો અને આગ્રહ સેવ્યો હતો કે હું એ જ વિષય ઉપર આધ્યાત્મિક કે તત્વજ્ઞાન આધરિત કંઈક વિશેષ લખું. મારા કોલેજ કાળના એક મિત્ર પ્રોફેસર વિનાયક રાવલ પણ મારી ઉપરોક્ત કૃતિના પ્રતિભાવ વખતે એ જ મતના હતા. ‘સહજ જ્ઞાન’ એ કેટલાક આધ્યાત્મિક મુદ્દાઓની સહજ છણાવટ કરતી વિશિષ્ટ શૈલીમાં લખાએલી કૃતિ છે, જેને લલિત નિબંધ કે નવલિકા કહી શકાય.; પરંતુ અહીં હું ‘આત્મા’ વિષેનો મારો સામાન્ય અભ્યાસ બહુ જ સંક્ષિપ્તમાં નિબંધ રૂપે રજૂ કરું છું. અલબત્ત, ‘આત્મા’ જેવા ગહન વિષયને ગાગરમાં સાગર સમાવવા જેવી અઘરી છતાં નમ્ર અહીં મારી કોશીશ રહેશે.

માનવજીવનનું પરમ આધ્યાત્મિક લક્ષ હોય છે કે ઈશ્વરને ઓળખવો. રવિન્દ્રનાથ ટાગોર લખે છે કે ‘માણસનું અંતિમ ધ્યેય એ જ છે કે તે એક ઈશ્વરને ઓળખે, જે તેની ભીતર જ છે, તે જ સત્ય છે, તે જ તેના આત્મામાં વસે છે અને તે જ આત્મા આધ્યાત્મિક જીવન અને પ્રભુના રાજ્યનાં દ્વાર ખોલવાની ચાવી સમાન છે.’ હજરત ઈમામ અલી ઈબ્ને અબુતાલીબ (અ.સ.)એ પણ એ જ ફરમાવ્યું છે કે, ‘જેણે પોતાના આત્માને ઓળખ્યો, તેણે અલ્લાહ (ઈશ્વર)ને ઓળખ્યો.’ માનવીએ વિવિધ પ્રકારનાં વિજ્ઞાનોમાં પુષ્કળ જ્ઞાન મેળવીને ઘણું બધું સિદ્ધ કર્યું છે, પણ પરમાત્મા, આત્મા, બ્રહ્માંડ, જીવન, મૃત્યુ વગેરે જેવા વિષયોના તાત્વિક રીતે સર્વસંમત એવા અફર નિષ્કર્ષ ઉપર આવી શકાયું નથી. અહીં ઉલ્લેખાએલા જુદા જુદા વિષયો પૈકી માનવીની બુદ્ધિ કે વિચારશક્તિની મર્યાદાઓ હોવાના કારણે ઈશ્વરને પૂર્ણ કે અપૂર્ણ રીતે પણ જાણવો કે સમજવો એ ભગીરથ કાર્ય છે. કોઈકે કહ્યું છે કે, ‘બ્રહ્માંડના નિશ્ચિત અને વિસ્મયકારક વ્યવસ્થાતંત્રને અવલોકીને, હે ઈશ્વર, તને જાણવા અને સમજવામાં મારી વિચારશક્તિ કમજોર પડે છે, ગોથાં ખાય છે. જ્યાં માંરી બુદ્ધિ અણુંના માપ જેટલું પણ અંતર કાપીને તારી નજીક આવવા મથે છે, ત્યાં તો તું માઈલો દૂર ચાલ્યો જાય છે.’ કોઈક ગુજરાતી કવિએ પણ કહ્યું છે કે, ‘માણસે વરાળ અને વીજળીને નાથ્યાં, પણ તેના મનને તે નાથી શક્યો નથી; તે ગ્રહોને પણ આંબી શક્યો, પરંતુ તેના અંતરથી તો તે અજાણ જ રહ્યો છે.’ ખલિલ જિબ્રાનનું આ જ મતલબનું વિધાન નોંધનીય છે કે, ‘એમ કહો નહિ કે મને નિશ્ચિત કે પૂર્ણ સત્ય (the truth)) લાધ્યું છે; અલબત્ત, એમ કહો કે મેં સત્યનો માત્ર એક અંશ(a truth) જ જાણ્યો છે.’

 

Soul – Its nourishment

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Previously in my Blog “Soul – A brief study”, we had discussed that human life is composed of body and soul. Soul is a creation of God without any matter and that also by His command or as His work. I apologize from my Readers to make the repetition of the above findings as you may perhaps think them sounding like a broken record; but it is necessary to link the same with our further discussion in the subject here.

God has created souls for some objectives which are expected to be attained by the human being. Here, we will have to leave these objectives aside as it is the independent subject and the same is not related here. Now, we should bear in our mind that soul has been provided a body in which it can dwell and attain its objectives. An efficient horse-riding is only possible when both the horse and its rider are efficient. The efficiency of any single cannot bring the expected results. Same way, the soul is a rider and body the horse. Conclusion is that both soul and body must remain healthy. It is said, “Prevention is better than cure.” Now, we have to find out the root cause which makes both body and soul unhealthy or sick.

Body and soul need nutrition and hygienic care. Biological sciences and spiritual philosophies have found out a conclusive finding of the same in the words ‘balance’ and ‘imbalance’. The root cause of sicknesses of both body and soul come under this theory and to say in a single word resulting from ‘imbalance’. The slightest imbalance makes the body as well as soul sick. We take an example of an athlete walking on a horizontally hanging rope. While walking on the rope, he maintains his balance. If he fails to do so, he immediately falls down. Similarly, the same thing happens in the cases of both body and soul, an unfair state of sickness resulting from any imbalance.

Before going further into the discussion of the titled subject in detail, we will have to drop here also the discussion of body aside as the researchers have provided us a lot of knowledge in this regard. Now, we will concentrate ourselves towards ‘soul’ only in this brief essay regarding its sickness, nutrition, care and cure.

Spiritual nourishment is the food of the soul. The principal sources of this nourishment are ‘faith in God’ and ‘moral disciplines’. When the soul becomes the victim of spiritual sickness coming from psychological disturbances and complexes, the above two main remedies come forward to help us to maintain the balance of our soul.

Above two remedies, faith in God and moral disciplines cannot be found out from any outward sources. They can be created from within ourselves. Moreover, their only creation is not sufficient, but we will have to make them strong by various means which have been shown in every religion on the earth. For physical fitness, the exercises are necessary. Likewise, the exercises of soul for its fitness are common in all religions. They are such as faith, morality, prayers or meditations, adoration, overcoming desires, contemplation over life and its objectives, utilizing the precious gift of reason favored by God etc.. To make our physique sound and healthy, some months or years are enough for result orientation; but to reach towards the spiritual perfection of the soul, the entire life may be insufficient. The life long efforts may bring the satisfactory results. Any imbalance of a second may make everything ruinous.

My attempt to discuss the above subject, which is very profound and delicate also, is like a drop in the ocean; but, I am sure, it may prove to be a “Light House” to some Readers who have not yet given any thought to such philosophical issues due to their busy occupancies in their worldly affairs. Human is a thinking being. Descartes has rightly said, “I think; therefore, I exist.” Every individual’s belief should be as the natural outcome of free thinking. Human differs from the rest creatures of the earth on the ground of its reason (intelligence) which is gifted by God. The logic of the reason alone is the guide to the right path of human life. After the creation by the God, the human has been left free to do whatever it likes. It is at liberty whether to uplift its own soul upwards or throw it downwards.

In brief, it can be said that human is empowered with capability of being a self made super human. Human is the sculptor of its own life. My Readers will understand very well what I mean to say with the picture of a sculpture presented here. The sculpture is titled as ‘Self made Man’; but the profound message behind it is to carve own self in a spiritual form, but not the least in a physical form. Our physique is already carved (created) by the God and the making of our own body is not in our hands. What we have to do is to carve (develop) our souls ourselves.

We should try to reach the summits of spirituality so that we can know the God and get His nearness. This is the only objective of human life and to achieve the same, the human should contemplate over to understand the mysteries of the Creator and His creations. A Hadith preaches the Believers in these words: “One hour’s contemplation is better than seventy years of adoration.”

May God guide us all to the truth and lead us to His divinity by purifying our souls with His mercy.

With regards,

– Valibhai Musa
Dtd. : 25^th August, 2007

 

Soul – A brief study

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Some of my Readers, having gone through my previous blog ‘,Inspired Knowledge’ contacted me by various means and requested that I may write some more Articles like that of appealing to spirituality or philosophy. Prof. Vinayak Raval, a friend of mine, was once of the same opinion after his review of this particular story. ‘Inspired Knowledge’ is written in a typical style as the debate of some philosophical issues; but, today, I am going to represent my study about ‘soul’ in the form of an essay in brief; rather it is like to fill an ocean into a very small earthen pot.

The supreme aim of human life is to know the God. Rabindranath Tagore has quoted, “The ultimate end of man is to find the One (God) which is in him, which is his truth, which is his soul, the key with which he opens the gate of the spiritual life, the heavenly kingdom.” Ali Ibn Abu Talib (AS) also said, “Whoever knew his soul, knew his Lord.” The man has acquired knowledge in various sciences, but the profound philosophy of truth regarding God, soul, universe, life, death etc. has not yet ended with any concrete conclusions unanimously. Out of various topics mentioned here, the knowing of God is rather difficult due to the certain limitations of the human mind. Somebody has said, “In knowing Thee, O Wonder of the Cosmos, the mind is weakened all the while; Whenever my reason comes a span closer to Thee, it surely flees a mile.” A Gujarati poet has also said, “Man has overcome steam and electricity; but he could not overcome his mind. He reached the planets, but could not reach his inner soul.” Khalil Gibran’s quotation in this regard is also significant: “Say not, ‘I have found the truth’; but rather, ‘I have found a truth’.”

My preamble is over here and, now, I start to step further into my subject of soul, today. The very first basic belief about soul, in view of many scholars and also religions, is that it is a creation. Creation is always dependent of the Creator. Here, I put an example thought out myself to go further into the subject. The example is of a wooden chair, a creation; and the carpenter, its creator – better to say ‘maker’ of the chair. The chair came into existence (formation) with the workmanship of the carpenter. He designed it and gave the shape or mode of the chair using wood. This is simply an example and, by no way, the carpenter can take the place of the Creator and also the chair of the soul. All the four are quite different with their respective pairs.

Let us go further some deep into the illustration. The chair is dependent of the carpenter. It came into existence from the wood and the work of the carpenter. The Creator is eternally in existence and the rest other than Him came into existence from non-existence as His work. Thus, the Almighty God is on one part and all the rest visible or invisible in the universe are on the other part on our thinking platform. They are known as the Creator and the creations respectively. Soul is also the part and parcel of His creations. Everything including soul is from Him. The carpenter made the chair from the matter (wood); but soul is created by the Creator without any matter (object).

Further, we divide our hypothesis into two possibilities how the God has created soul. (1) Soul might have been created by his order, commandment or authority. Here it is not to be meant as any utterance of any words as we do, but His will is sufficient for anything He wishes to do. (2) Creation of soul would have been His work or task. Here also any workmanship or labor is not to be understood, but simply to say that soul is His work, a created thing and not at all self-existent.

Here, I would like to clarify that the opinions regarding the subject in discussion may vary wildly according to some religions and philosophies and also extremely contradictory.  Some consider the soul as immaterial, while others consider the soul possibly having a material component. Dr. MacDougall has scientifically tried to establish that the soul has the weight of some ¾ of an ounce or 21.3 grams through his experiments on dying persons. The theory of the soul having material form and also weight has been discarded not only by religions bent people but also the scientists. Whatever the difference of opinion may be in this regard, but it is interesting that human has been trying to know the mystery of these philosophical issues for the numerous centuries or perhaps millenniums.

Now, we come to our track of the subject. Previously in my preface of ‘Inspired Knowledge’ I had put an equation to explain existence of Human with combination of body and soul. Here below, we will try to know about the functions of both body and soul specifically.

Let us take first body in debate. The properties (characteristics) of the body are mainly growth and decay. Body requires food and it is kept securely in stomach. Its next functions are digestion and removal of the waste through urine, stool, perspiration and air etc.. Food turns into blood which circulates in the body through veins. Thus the body exists living until death comes. Body is the house of the soul and when it falls down, the soul leaves it at once. Somebody has said in a poetic style, “Soul made intention of leaving. I said, ‘Do not leave’. It said, ‘What can I do? The house is falling apart’.” Now, where the soul goes is not our subject here and if God wishes we may perhaps discuss it separately later on.

Our discussion about body still continues. We tried to understand in general the internal system of body with functions of internal organs. Now, we shall see in brief the function of one more internal organ which is called brain in Anatomy. In terminology of spirituality it is called mind. Our brain (mind) is the assistant of our soul and the master of the body. This assistant may play a roll of either an angel (friend) or a devil (enemy) of our soul. Further to clarify, it can be said that the brain has five employees under it that can be named as eyes, ears, nose, tongue and finger tips. These are the media of sensations respectively; sight, hearing, smelling, taste and touch. When the brain experiences all these sensations, it can be said that the brain is in a state of animation or living; otherwise it is called as dead brain. Thus, the properties of the functions of brain are love and hate. My intelligent Readers can understand how our feelings of love and hatred lead us towards good or evil deeds.

Thinking, memory and knowledge are the vital functions of the brain. Immediately after these abilities of the brain, the two functions of soul start; and they are forbearance and dignity. These two positive virtues of soul work as the initial driving force to still superior advancement of spirituality which may be known as Divinity of the soul. It is named also the Tranquil soul and it is the highest stage of its perfection. This perfection can be acquired with good deeds. King Solomon has said, “Your own soul is nourished when you are kind, and it is destroyed when you are cruel.” Saint Tulsidas has also said in a verse,’ “Kindness is the root of Dharma (Religion).”

Let us go further. The soul of Divinity is now capable to have powers such as (1) To be immortal in morality (2) To get bliss in adversity (3) To find honor in disgrace (4) To be poor in riches; and (5) To have patience in woes. With these virtues, the soul achieves the most valuable state of faith as to accept the will of God and submit to His commands. This Tranquil soul conquers not only its worldly desires but also the desire of the paradise too. It becomes apart from temptation of Heaven and fear of Hell. In view of this Tranquil soul, the Heaven and Hell are also creations and its supreme goal is the Creator – to get His nearness and to have His mercy.

The theories invented by human minds regarding soul are many. Religions are many, but they all are unanimous in differentiating good deeds and evil deeds. The fundamental principles of all religions are the same. These common principles may make a new school of thought and behavior. This ideology may be named as ‘Humanity’. The motto of this ‘Humanity’ may be laid out as ‘Live and let live.’ The true followers of any religion are of the opinion of ‘self reform’. After the self reformation of own, they propagate for good and forbid to evil. Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) has said in a tradition, “To overcome evil with good is good; to resist evil by evil is evil.” The uplifting of soul depends on uplifting of the character. We are now approaching a global economy, a global culture. Now let us globalize this mission of ‘Humanity’ to establish Universal Peace. Souls of individuals make the soul of a nation; and souls of the nations make the soul of the universe. To make the universe glorious, the individuals will have to promote their souls towards advancement and perfection.

Summing up, this Article is the collective work of my own ideas, a little bit my inspired knowledge, memory of my reading in past in the subject and also the support of recently referred book ‘Journey to the unseen world’.

May God unite all humans in their various complexions, nationalities, races and lineages.

-Valibhai Musa
Dtd.: 3^rd August, 2007