The fifth part of the Chāndogya Upanishad recounts how the five senses argue amongst each other about who is the very best. Speech, Sight, Hearing, Thinking – each of them thinks it is superior to the other. To settle their disagreements, they turn to Prajāpati, the Lord of Creation. He says that the most superior among them is the one who, when he leaves, leaves the body in the most wretched condition.
The senses take the test. It turns out that not one of them is vitally important; the body is fine if one of them is missing. The lack of one sense or another may leave people deaf, blind, dumb or foolish, but they are still able to carry out their life purpose. It is only when the Breath of Life prepares itself for departure that great commotion arises. The senses become like wild horses, nervously tugging at the reins to which they are bound. They realize that the Breath of Life is the highest sense; it determines their fate.
But it is more than that. Speech realizes that the wealth it has is only thanks to the Breath of Life. Sight finds its foundation, Hearing, the fulfillment of desire, Thinking finds its home. The real wealth, the place and destiny of each of the senses is the Breath of Life.
In these times of uncertainty, the question arises as to what is driving our actions. Some leaders are entangled in the same schoolyard rivalry as the senses and ‘follow’ their I-sound. They are sensitive to their constituency and the threat of falling polls and popularity. Because it can harm their interests, they give a dubious or artificially positive impression of the actual state of affairs which bears its consequences.
Great leadership does not know self-interest. It sees the shared care and pain. Just as the coronavirus makes no distinctions and spreads pandemically across the earth, so should our guiding principle be all-encompassing. It takes courage and a big heart to think broadly. At a deep level there is no difference. At the deepest level the difference does not exist! The Isha Upanishad says: “He who sees all creatures in his Self and his Self in all creatures, does not shy away from That. And the Katha Upanishad says: “Whatever is here is also there. What is there is also here. He who makes a difference, goes from death to death.'(II.1.10) Moreover, ‘from death to death’ can be read as ‘from one unfulfilled tour to the next’.
What leads us? What do we follow? Does our sense of community stop at the border, with those that we count as ‘ours’? Or do we care just as much about faraway strangers? In focusing on our own problems, the gaze seems to turn away from other sufferings. While corona is constantly making headlines, locust infestations and refugee camps are suddenly pushed back to a narrow column in the back of our minds and our newspapers. Is there hardly room for that in our hearts as well?
May it be that when we look back on this time of crisis, the gnawing conscience doesn’t play up because of our looking away from what is really important? Let it be so that, despite all the threat and pain, we can rely on our humanness.
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