Of Haunting Hunger

Right from birth to death, hunger continues to haunt man in one way or the other; it’s a cog in the wheel of life

By Mukesh Sharma

No living creature can beat it. None can conquer it. It is invincible. It is master of all the forms of life. All are its slave. Each and every living being knows it and experiences it. Be it king or commoner, all serve it alike without question. Yet it is unquenchable. It is undisputed and unchallenged ruler of the living world. From tiny protozoan to huge mammals, all work for it. Like God, it is omnipresent and all pervasive. It is basis of life on the earth. Even mother Nature nourishes the world through it. Of course, its name is Hunger – the haunting Hunger.

The Haunting Hunger

 

All through millions of years, it is the hunger that has developed a simple monkey into a present day complicated man. It is the hunger that has taken a savage man from cramped cave to commodious castle, from ordinary house to spacious bungalow, from bullock-cart to space satellite, and surprisingly enough, from Adam and Eve to nearly 7 billion populace on the earth.

Hunger has amazing dualistic character. Hunger is life as well as death – a crying baby is born with hunger and a decrepit man dies with hunger for ‘heaven’ on death-bed. Hunger is love as well as hate  – hunger for more and more ‘my’ – my kids, my house, my money, etc. is ‘love’ and hunger for dislike is hate. Hunger is progress as well as regress – hunger for betterment results in progress and hunger for other’s possessions leads to regress. Hunger is knowledge as well as ignorance – hunger to know the secrets of nature is knowledge and hunger for ego-serving is ignorance. Hunger is devotion as well as distraction – hunger for goal is devotion and hunger for the gratification of senses is distraction. Hunger is a man as well as woman – hunger of a man for a woman-body is man, hunger of a woman for a complete man is woman. Hunger is God as well as human – hunger beyond self is God and hunger for self is human. Like the imagination of a mind, hunger can be expanded to infinity and can be shrunk to a size of an atom. Hunger is both constructive and destructive.

Through human perspective, hunger can be divided into four categories:

1.       Physical hunger

2.       Psychological hunger

3.       Intellectual hunger

4.       Spiritual hunger

Physical hunger can be described as a natural or biological hunger – hunger for food and hunger for sex. It is common to all animals including man. Food is first priority and sex is next. Food is must to live and sex for the furtherance of progeny – both essential for the perpetuation of life on the earth.

Psychological hunger is a distorted hunger emanating from unbridled desires. A man turns epicurean or hedonistic seeking sensuous satisfaction – wine, woman and wealth – an insatiable lust. Fire can’t be extinguished with fire. The uncontrolled ‘hunger’ for wine, woman and wealth has been the cause of the downfall and doom of wealthiest emperor/knight/regimes.

Intellectual hunger is the hunger for the knowledge of the secrets of nature; it leads to discoveries and inventions. Credit for all kinds of advancement in human society so far goes to intellectual hunger only. It is this hunger that has produced great many philosophers, writers, poets and scientists -  Aristotle, Shakespeare, Kalidaas, Albert Einstein, Stephn Hawkings –  the list is very long.

Spiritual hunger is the hunger for the knowledge of unseen and unknown super natural power so named God. What is God? Where does God live? How to meet the God? All these intriguing questions have been nagging man since the advent of man on the earth. However, this spiritual hunger has blessed the world with Lord Rama - God incarnate, Lord Krishna - God incarnate, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad and Guru Nanak; it has bestowed on timeless scriptures like The Upanishad, The Gita, The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, The Bible,  The Holy Quran, The Guru Granth Sahib.

Right from birth to death, hunger continues to haunt man in one or the other. Hunger is the cog in the wheel of life.

Overcoming Fear

Overcoming Fear

No one instills fear into you. It’s you who put fear in yourself. It’s your own perception. And solution to get rid of fear lies in you only

By Mukesh Sharma

Once upon a time, there was a notorious dacoit, Ragha. He was feared most in his area of operation. Once while passing by a village in the dead of night, he came across an empty house with a buffalo tethered to peg in the front yard of the house. Little away someone was asleep on the cot. The dacoit untied the tether to take away the buffalo. The sound of low of buffalo woke up the person. He was a young stout and sturdy boy of 16. He jumped to his feet and grabbed the tether. The dacoit tried to free it from the grasp of the boy but in vain. Soon dacoit realized that he was no match to the strength of the boy. Dacoit played a trick and shouted: “Be careful, save your life, dacoit Ragha is coming.” The moment the boy heard that, he left the tether and hurried inside the house. It was the fear of Ragha that defeated the boy not Ragha himself in person.

Crippling fear

Commenting on fear, Ralph Waldo Emerson says:

“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.”

Through the said story, fear can be defined as an exaggerated comparative self-perception of a situation, circumstances or an individual that weakens oneself against the other.

So and so is powerful neta, I am a nonentity. He is an IPS, I am an ordinary citizen. He is a big man, I am a small man. There are over five lakh candidates, I can’t make it to IAS. It is not my cup of tea. This kind of feelings  create a fear that declares one loser well before the event/happening.

No one instills fear in you. It is you who put fear in yourself. It is your own perception. Solution to get rid of fear lies in you only.

 Why does it happen so? Answer can be traced into your childhood. When a baby comes out of the womb of its mother, doctor taps the baby to make it cry. It is here that first seed of fear is sowed. Don’t go in dark, there is houa; don’t go near water, you will be drowned; don’t touch the dog, it will bite you; don’t talk to a stranger, he might harm you; don’t do this, God will be unhappy, and so on.

Needless to say, an Indian baby grows  up with fear; it’s life keeps shuttling between dos and don’ts. Thus fear further gives rise to different types of fear: fear of losing someone, fear of loss, fear of insecurity, fear of failure, fear of defeat, etc.

It’s natural for a  feared man to go for the retreat option – no fight,  no defeat;  no business, no loss;  no attempt, no failure like a pigeon that shuts its eyes and thinks that there is no cat.

Napoleon Bonaparte, a great conqueror says:

“Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”

Here is an interesting anecdote that reveals the true self of Napoleon:

Once Napoleon faced an impossible situation. His army was at the bank of a river which was in full spate. Napoleon wanted to conquer a country which was across the river and abutting the river there was a high mountain. To reach the enemy, the only option was to cross the river and climb the mountains and then descend on other side. And it sounded impossible. There was fear of drowning to death. However, Napoleon ordered to cross the river and the mountain in the dead of the night to catch enemy unaware. While crossing the river many boats capsized and sank. After reaching the other side of the river, Napoleon ordered to sink all the boats – no option to go back – no retreat. Then Napoleon addressed his army: “we have no option to get back now. To live, we must conquer. March ahead. Fell upon enemy like a tiger in this darkness and conquer the enemy”. And Napoleon humbled his enemy in no time.

Obviously, fear exists so long as there is retreat option, so long as there is an escape route. Once that option is not available fear ceases to exist.

Originating from mountains, a river has no option of retreat; its passes through many crevices and falls, terrains and troughs, hills and plains, Jungles and cities; it negotiates hundreds of  turns and  twists. Nothing distracts it from its path to goal. Nothing halts its onward march. And finally it meets the ocean.

There is solution beyond fear of problems. There is dream beyond the fear of distraction. There is profit beyond the fear of loss. There is success beyond the fear of failure. There is safety beyond the fear of insecurity. There is love beyond the fear of hatred. There is victory beyond the fear of defeat. There is life beyond the fear of death. Jack Canfield rightly says:

“Everything you want is on the other side of the fear.”

Nothing overcomes the fear like option less purpose and oneness of efforts to serve it. Nothing is impossible. Hope never dies and possibilities never end.