Birth as a Human Being Is So Precious
Having taken birth as a human being itself is a big thing. This is not just accidental.
Have you thought about this?
Why have you taken birth as a human being — not a fly or a bird or a dog?
Is it purely accidental? No, this has happened after having taken...
दुर्लभं मानुषं जन्म — a human birth is very, very rare.
Count all the birds, all the animals, all the trees, all the plants, all the insects, all the bacteria, all the viruses — how minuscule a percentage are humans among all these?
Can you imagine?
We can't arrive at a figure. We can only imagine that it is too small — very, very small.
So, you having taken birth as a human being is such a rare event in the universe.
Kalidasa says:
क्षणमप्यवतिष्ठते श्ववसन् जन्तुर्ननु लाभवानसौ
Even if a person has taken just one birth, lived for one moment as a human — still it is precious.
It is recognition — a statement of fact — that you have reached a certain stage in your progress.
Human birth is given to you with a purpose.
If you don’t recognize that and just while it away, what more foolishness can there be?
You wake up in a room in Switzerland. You don’t realize that you are in Switzerland.
Curtains are drawn.
You think it's just an ordinary place.
This is meant to be a surprise for you — but you don’t realize that.
You are not venturing out of that room.
You call on the intercom — food comes for you.
You watch TV.
You eat, drink, sleep, watch TV.
After a few days, you are back home.
Someone comes and asks you —
How was Switzerland?
What Switzerland?
You didn’t even know that you were in Switzerland.
You never bothered to go out and explore.
You spent the days eating, drinking, and sleeping.
If that was the purpose of the birth, then even animals do that.
They also eat, drink, sleep, mate, procreate.
Why are you alone given intelligence, ability to read, write, communicate, memory, power to think, draw conclusions and inferences, act upon them?
Self-control. Self-restraint.
Animals can’t do this. They only react to situations.
If another dog enters this dog’s territory, it has to pounce on it.
It won’t be able to think — why has he come here? Is he hungry?
Shouldn’t I give him some food?
Can an animal think like this?
You can.
But then why is this faculty given to you?
Can it be without a purpose?
While playing chess, good players can visualize so many moves ahead.
From the first few moves, they will know where the game is going.
Can a coconut tree do this?
Can a monkey do this?
Then why only to man?
Isn’t there a purpose?
Yes, absolutely.
But if you don’t realize this opportunity and behave accordingly, can there be a bigger foolishness?
Shastras say — after you die and then you regret:
'What a fool I have been.'
You may not realize when you are here.
Once you leave behind this world, then you realize:
'What a fool I have been. What did I do back there? Ate, drank, slept, mated, procreated — which every animal does.'
So did I live my life as a human being or an animal?
They regret.
This is what Shastra says:
दुर्लभं मानुषं जन्म तदप्यध्रुवम्
अध्रुवम् — you don’t know when this is going. It can be any time.
Shankaracharya left this world at 32.
What is the guarantee that you will live to be eighty or hundred?
Every moment from now on is precious.
There is not a single moment to waste.
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