Life doesn’t always go according to our expectations! Sometimes most surprising things happen at the least expected moment. Life is an amazing combination of both predictable and unpredictable events. If everything could be foreseen and goes according to our plans, life would probably be boring too!
A student who sincerely studies throughout an academic term can do well in the final exam that lasts only for a couple of hours. After coming out of the examination hall submitting the answer sheet, the student can’t go back to revise one’s answers. Life is also similar. As a preparation to face sudden situations in life where we need to maturely respond on the spur of the moment, we must associate with wise people, study divine scriptures and practice the principles of spirituality and morality diligently. Then even our spontaneous decisions or responses could be effective.
Flexibility in dealing with the unexpected is expected from all human beings to some degree. While leaving room for the unforeseen, we also need to responsibly plan things properly to the best of our intelligence. One needs to be diligent, and not negligent.
INSTANT RESPONSES – MATURE & IMMATURE
Circumstances are not in our control, but our response is. Problems often come unannounced. When we suddenly face a problem, how do we respond to it on the spur of the moment? A person’s sense of humor is worth appreciating when he or she cracks a lovely joke with perfect timing without offending anyone. Similarly, a person’s sensibility and wisdom are worth admiring when he or she spontaneously takes a wise decision in an emergency on the spur of the moment. But people who are impulsive in nature, and lack maturity often respond negatively in trying circumstances.
While there could be multiple alternatives to respond to a situation suitably, an impulsive person gives into circumstantial anger, envy, pride, and cruelty on the spur of the moment, and creates unnecessary troubles for oneself and others. One’s poor responses could be due to the heat of situations or lack of maturity. Even if one knows what is right and what is wrong, one’s weaknesses do not allow one to act aptly. The heart’s weakness is often due to egoistic pride, undue attachments, and unfair obligations.
The timeless holy text Srimad-Bhagavatam written by sage Vyasa presents several such instances of people spontaneously responding to sudden situations. Some of them resulted in positive outcomes and some negative too, depending on the sensibleness of people involved. In either case, they provide us great life lessons.
STORY 1: A HAUGHTY BOY & A HUMBLE KING
King Parīkṣit was the glorious descendant of celebrated Pandavas. Once, he went to the forest to hunt. Afflicted by thirst, he approached the hermitage of sage Śamīka and asked for water, but the sage was absorbed in deep meditation and didn’t respond. Offended, Parīkṣit placed a dead snake around Śamīka Ṛṣī’s neck and then returned to his palace. Upon hearing this news, Sringi, the five-year-old son of Śamīka, became very angry. On the spur of the moment, he cursed Parīkṣit to die in seven days. Parīkṣit was a saintly monarch and a great devotee and Sringi gave him a severe punishment for an insignificant offense. Sringi prematurely became a self-appointed judge, without considering the position of whom he was punishing. Later even Samīka Ṛṣī regretted the impulsive behavior of Sringi.
But Parīkṣit was mature enough to readily accept Sringi’s curse when heard of it from Gauramukha, a disciple of Śamīka. He took it as a reaction to his own act of insulting sage Śamīka. Although it was circumstantial, Parīkṣit didn’t justify it but took responsibility for it. He also saw the curse as an opportunity to renounce worldly attachments and take complete shelter of the Supreme Lord. Although a brahmana boy cursed him, without maintaining any grudge towards the brahmanas, he took shelter of another brahmana, Sukadeva Gosvami, and heard Srimad-Bhagavatam from him.
Through this incident, the Supreme Lord Krishna has descended in the form of the book Bhagavatam for the spiritual upliftment of humanity.
The arrogance and pride of being a brahmana made Sringi curse Parīkṣit on the spur of the moment. The maturity of Parīkṣit made him spontaneously respond to it with detachment and devotion.
STORY 2: A PROUD FATHER-IN-LAW & A TOLERANT SON-IN-LAW
Once all the sages, demigods, and other leaders of the universe assembled to perform a thousand-year sacrifice. Daksa Prajapati, the expert and chief progenitor, entered that great assembly and everyone except Lord Brahma and Lord Siva stood up in respect. Daksa offered respect to his father Brahma. At that time Lord Siva was meditating on the Supreme Lord. But seeing Siva not standing up to honor him, Daksa was enraged on the spur of the moment.
Daksa considered Siva to be his subordinate because Siva married Daksa’s daughter Sati and thus became his son-in-law. So, Daksa expected respect from exalted Siva. On the pretext of speaking about good manners and culture of respect, Daksa criticized Lord Siva as disrespectful, impure, unclean, mad, and the master of ghosts. He even cursed Siva not to have a share in the sacrificial oblations. He angrily left the assembly despite the requests of the members there.
Lord Siva remained tolerant of Daksa’s criticism and didn’t speak a single word in retaliation. And when the followers of Siva and supporters of Daksa began arguing and cursing each other, Siva silently got up and left the assembly showing his detachment.
Due to his deep-rooted envy and hatred for Siva, Daksa cursed Siva on the spur of the moment. But Siva was unagitated as he was detached and tolerant. Later Daksa faced the consequences of his poor mentality and misbehavior.
STORY 3: AN IMPULSIVE BRAHMANA & A FORBEARING KSATRIYA
King Ambarisa, a great devotee of Lord Vishnu, invited sage Durvasa to his home for meals on an Ekadasi day. Durvasa accepted the request and went to take bath but didn’t return for a long time. Concerned that the recommended time to break his fast was passing, Ambarisa took a little water before the arrival of Durvasa. When Durvasa returned, he understood by his mystic power that Ambarisa drank water. Durvasa became very furious on the spur of the moment and created a fiery demon to destroy Ambarisa instantly. Ambarisa spontaneously took shelter of the Supreme Lord and fearlessly stood facing the imminent danger. However, Sudarsana-cakra, the disc weapon of Lord Vishnu, burnt the fiery demon and noble Ambarisa was thus protected.
Sudarsana cakra then started chasing Durvasa who then fled everywhere in the universe including the abodes of Brahma, Siva and Vishnu. Finding shelter nowhere in the three worlds, Durvasa came back to Ambarisa and fell at his feet. Ambarisa felt so embarrassed to see the brahmana fall at his feet. He immediately prayed to Sudarsana to release Durvasa in exchange for his own spiritual credits. Such is the spontaneous compassion and forgiveness of a pure devotee.
The superiority complex of Durvasa Muni of being a sage and brahmana made him attempt to kill Ambarisa, a ksatriya and a householder, on the spur of the moment. But Ambarisa readily accepted the situation considering it to be God’s will and spontaneously forgave and prayed for Durvasa Muni when he came for protection.
STORY 4: A CRUEL BROTHER & A CLEVER BROTHER-IN-LAW
Kamsa loved his dear sister Devaki very much. On the day of her wedding with Vasudeva, Kamsa personally drove the chariot of his sister and brother-in-law. At that time, Kamsa suddenly heard a prophetic voice from the sky announcing that the eighth child of Devaki would kill Kamsa. On the spur of the moment, wicked Kamsa took up his sword to chop off the head of Devaki at once. He didn’t consider that she was a woman, his sister and the object of his affection. He was just concerned about his own life and didn’t even care for the reputation of his dynasty, and prepared himself to kill her in public, on her wedding day, in front of thousands of people. Selfish people can give up their love for relatives, but not material enjoyment.
Vasudeva, who was witnessing this, had very little time to think and respond. He had to immediately do something to save Devaki from Kamsa’s invincible sword.
Vasudeva was so wise and devoted to the Supreme Lord, that he spontaneously gave several arguments and suggestions to Kamsa not to be so cruel. Finally, he convinced Kamsa to spare Devaki’s life, promising him to bring her children to him when they will be born. On the spur of the moment, instead of becoming agitated, frustrated or hopeless, virtuous Vasudeva expertly negotiated with cruel Kamsa and pacified him with wise words and saved the life of Devaki. Such is the maturity of a devotee.
The selfishness of Kamsa made him so cruel that he wanted to kill his sister on the spur of the moment. The diligence and wisdom of Vasudeva made him speak timely words and save Devaki’s life.
QUICK DECISION MAKING
Decision making is an art and it’s a day to day necessity in life. Hasty decisions made on the spur the moment sometimes lead people into serious difficulties. Therefore, a general recommendation is to make diligent decisions after considering the issue from different angles. A well thought out decision with proper planning often gives supposedly good results.
Yet life presents situations where we don’t get an open-ended time to make decisions. At times, we need to make very quick decisions. The sensibility of such decisions depends on the maturity we acquire over the years and decades of experience. Our instant positive or negative responses to life situations are products of the impressions and conceptions that we carry in mind for a long time.
People who lack such wisdom and maturity fail to appropriately respond to situations and run into complications.
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