| Man possesses
self-conscious ness, the intelligence to look before and after, and vary his action
according to circumstances. It was Pascal who said "that the minute human being who,
knows he is crushed is infinitely higher than the unknowing mass, however vast, which
crushes him. "It is this knowledge, this power of discrimination which distinguishe
man from the animal. The great statesman and poet,Sri Nilakantha, Dikshitar
expressed this truth in a beautiful verse which means " If even after attaining the
position of being born a man one does not possess wisdom and discrimination then, it is
much better he be an animal as he will not then be subject to the controlling law of sin
". Jalaluddin Rumi, the famous Sufi poet said
"I died a mineral and became a plant. I died a plant and rose an animal. I died an
animal and I was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yes, once more I shall
die as man to soar with the blessed angels; but even from angelhood I must pass on. All
except God perishes. When I have sacrificed my angel soul, I shall become that which no
mind can conceive." |
