In the 2004 film Troy, the character of the brave prince Hector
uttered these memorable lines while exhorting his soldiers to fight against a
much stronger army.
All my life I've lived by a code and the code is
simple: honor the gods, love your woman and defend your country. Troy is mother
to us all. Fight for her!
In the same vein, in India we would say this, although somewhat
differently:
The code of our Sanatana dharma is 1. to follow our father and
guru, obey their orders, 2. to love and adore our mother, motherland, 3. to
respect all beings, all paths and 4. to seek refuge of, and surrender to God.
Hope you have noted the subtleties of the difference in attitude.
Couple of examples come to mind – one of the Rama with
the bow (Śrī Rāma or Rāma Dāśarathi) and the other the Rama with the axe (Paraśurāma).
Sri Rama obeyed the order of his father unquestioningly
and accepted to go the forest and that too just before he was to be coronated
as the crown prince. When he broke the news to his mother, she wept and ordered
him not to go. But he didn’t relent as the orders of father and guru have to be
followed. Yet he loved his mother. After killing Ravana, when Lanka lay at his
mercy and he could have ruled a much richer kingdom – he told Lakshmana –
I am not tempted by the rich allures of Lanka,
for mother and motherland are even above Svarga
And we know that he returned back to Ayodhya. On the way
when he met Rishi Bharadvāja, the only thing about his family that he wished to
know about were whether Bharata was ruling well and whether his mothers were
alive.
When he was unexpectedly asked to go to the forest, such
was the incredible twist of Fate – yet Rama accepted it with equanimity, for he
believed in surrendering to Fate and following one’s dharma – here dharma was
to obey his father and king’s orders. Rama was God incarnated himself, yet he
unflinchingly followed the dictates of karma. He showed us that one should
believe in a higher power and accept one’s fate without demur, yet not be
depressed, rather strive to do one’s dharma. Your job is to act, not to worry about
the fruit – to paraphrase the oft-quoted message from Bhagavad Gita.
Paraśurāma too loved his mother Renuka a lot, yet when
his father ordered to execute Renuka (we will not get into the reasons here),
he followed that order unquestioningly and killed his beloved mother. In accepting
the order, he both obeyed his father as well as surrendered to God’s will
(though he too was God incarnated). But when his pleased father gave him a
boon, Parasurama, unhesitatingly asked first for the life of his mother to be
restored.
As love for mother, so is love for motherland. India is a
nation blessed with deshabhaktas ever willing to sacrifice their life for the
sake of motherland. Almost every day we lose a fearless soldier or two in the
line of duty. They too follow the orders of the government and army, they too
love their motherland and they too surrender their lives to God. Hence we have
battle cries like “Raja Ramachandra ki jai” or “Durga Mata ki jai” or “Dada
Kishan ki jai” so on and so forth.
So to sign off: Obey your father and guru, Love your
mother and motherland, Respect every being and Surrender to God – that’s the
motto of this land called Bhārata
