Hiranyakashyapu of Kaliyuga
"Neither inside, nor outside; neither in daytime, nor night"
These boons asked by Hiranyakashyapu from Lord Brahma are one of our most vivid memories of the childhood stories we enjoyed. Whether watching it on TV or listening to it as a story, the appearance of Lord Narsimhadev to kill the demon Hiranyakashyapu without breaking even a single rule of his boon always gave me goosebumps.
However, this pasttime which is found in many of our Puranas is not applicable to one story alone. Somewhere, we are replicating the dualistic mindset of Hiranyakashyapu in all spheres of life.
"Either a person is mentally incompetent, or completely healthy. Allopathy is draconian, Ayurveda/Naturopathy is the best. Ayurveda is pseudoscience, Homoeopathy is best. Particular government is great, another one is devilish". Such extreme view points are becoming rampant nowadays stealing away the fluidity of our mind and making it more concrete. The result being because these views are extreme, people turn extremist in defending their beliefs leading to arguments and fights.
The modern-day Hiranyakashyapu mind tries to weigh the whole creation in just two extreme polar opposites. Like, Hiranyakashyapu tried to evade death by asking a boon based on a notion that everything consists of only two possibilities, similarly we try to fit everything in similar two compartments in our brain. We fail to realize that things can't be segregated into just extremes and such view-points are dysfunctional and dangerous at the end.
The very nature of Universe is a continuum. Infact, the appearance of Lord Narsimhadev in the above story is a proof to it. Lord Narsimhadev by not compromising a single condition of the boon and still annhilating Hiranyakashyapu demonstrated that the universe is dynamic and hosts a wide range of possibilities for every aspect.
All Indian spiritual paths talk about moving away from extremes of pain and pleasure, hot and cold towards equanimity( samatvam). Ofcourse, these standards are for spiritual aspirants; but can't we think of giving up our fanatic and extremist attitudes for our psychological equanimity?
Dr. Karan Mittal
MBBS, M.A ( Sanskrit, Clinical Psychology)
M.Sc ( Counselling Psychology), PGDCH.
Interesting!!
ReplyDeleteInteresting point of view, people fail to accept duality in one's behaviour or action or thinking how would they accept multipolar possibilities. In today's world multipolarity will destroy many individuals upbringing their belief don't you think
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! The scriptures teach Samatvam - equipoise; and they don’t only address people on spiritual path, the scriptures give principles to be adopted in day to day material life also.
ReplyDeleteSo true!!!!
ReplyDeleteHiranyakashyap of present time can also be people not accepting dual nature of a individual. a normal human being will always be biased towars one or another. Don't you think you should explore this expect of life
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