“A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth. “
– Ecclesiastes
Kabir – The couplet
?? ??? ? ???? ???, ??? ???? ? ??? |
??? ????? ?? ???, ?? ?? ?????? ??? ||
transliterated:
Dhan rahe na yauvan rahe, rahe gaanv na dham |
Kahe Kabira jas rahe, kar de kisika kaam ||
Translation:
Wealth does not endure, nor youth; village and holy space will also succumb to time |
Say Kabir, a good name will live eternal – go out and help someone in need||
My thoughts:
Solomon (in the book of Ecclesiastes) presents an interesting concept – that the day of death is to be celebrated rather than the day of birth. In expanding that thought, there is a different way of seeing the purpose of life.
When we come into this world, we have a clean slate – no baggage, unknown purpose and a clear lack of dependencies. By the time we are done with our life, we have all three, and perhaps a lot more.
In the process of living our life, we accumulate joy, pain, satisfaction, frustration, and a host of other conflicting emotional baggage. Death is the moment when we are relieved of this and we return to a state of peace and oneness with the universe.
This is also true for all that is a creation or construct of this material world. Commerce and wealth are part of only the material world – so also the house, the village, and our place of reaching out to a higher power (pilgrimage place, temple, church). The soul, God, the Maker, the higher power, are all omnipresent and omniscient. We, in human form, need to define material space – not the soul.
The true wealth of a good name, too, is eternal – who forgets the name of David, Ashoka, Mahatma Gandhi or Helen Keller? When we serve without thought for a result other than making the served satisfied, we receive a great wealth in return. When we do with result(s) anticipated, we may get some of the result – but none of the name.
We get exactly what we give – no more and no less.