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The Gilded Cage

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sadagopaniyengar • January 18, 2003 


                  
Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanata Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

                   The Gilded Cage

      We were on a visit to the zoo, and the kids were having the time of their lives. They stopped in front of each and every cage housing different animals, making faces at them. We stopped in front of the parrots' cage. The din was deafening, with the parrots shrieking at the top of their shrill voices, annoyed at the unpresentable human faces confronting them and calling to each other to beware of the noxious Homo sapiens. One parrot said to the other, "Look at their flat noses! Aren't they real specimens of ugliness?"
The other replied, " Yes, indeed they are. And isn't it really funny, they think we are in the cage, realising little that it is they who are eternal prisoners!"

More than the first bird's personal remark, it was the second one's impudence that was more insulting, and we were stunned at a mere bird having the temerity to abuse its human masters. Anger and annoyance bubbled in us and we were contemplating all sorts of mayhem, when the truth of the bird's remark struck us upon reflection.

Parrots have always been held out to be intelligent creatures. We hear of the parrots of Mandana Mishra arguing among themselves about such advanced concepts as "SphOta vAda". The parrots kept by Sri Kodai Nacchiar were endowed with an equal measure of love for Sri Krishna and constantly kept calling, "Govinda, Govinda". Even if She were to punish the birds by starving them, they still cried out "Trivikrama, Vamana" etc.-

"Koottil irundu KiLi eppOdum Govinda Govinda endru azhaikkum
 oottakkodAdu seruppan Agil UlagalandAn endru uyara koovum".

The Venkatesa Suprabhata Stotram speaks of the parrots of Thirumala rising very early in the morning and singing a sweet wake-up call to the Lord of the Seven Hills-

"ShukA: patanti Sri Venkatachalapate Tava Suprabhatam"

Srimad Rahasyatraya saram too recounts the tale of two parrots, one brought up by Rishis and the other by bestial hunters, imbibing the qualities and habits of their respective masters, demonstrating that conduct and character are more a function of the company one keeps than of good or bad birth.

When the credentials of such parrots flashed in our minds, we felt that the insult the bird in the zoo had hurled at us must indeed have an element of truth. This set us thinking.

What a strange thing to say! We, human beings, in a cage! What a preposterous idea! However, the more we thought about it, the more we started wondering.

What is the effect of being caged? It is the denial of freedom, of movement, of action as per one's will and pleasure. Are we free? Are we our own masters? Do we have the independence to act out our whims and fancies?

Do we have the freedom to determine how long we live?

And, after this life, do we have the right to determine where we go? Starting right at the beginning, do we have any say in where, to whom and as what we are born in this world?

The answer to all these questions is a resounding "No".

Those who think otherwise are merely deluding themselves about their imaginary "freedom".

 We have it on good authority that we are prisoners of Karma, dancing to its dictates. The strong shackles of Karma bind us hand and foot, says Sri Nammazhwar-

" thiNNam azhunda katti pala seivinai van kayittrAl 
   puNnai maraya varindu ennai pOra vaitthAi puramE".

If we appear to have a measure of independence, it is only to the extent of a bird tied to a post with a piece of string-its degree of freedom is limited to the radius of the string. It can never exceed its limits, try as it might- 

"soothra baddha sakunim iva" .

We are but pet parrots in a gilded cage, confirms Swami Desikan in Sri DehalIsa Stuti" leelA shakuntam iva mAm sva pada upalabhdhyai

Svairam kshipan duritha panjaratO guNasttham"

This world is indeed a huge cage, in which all Jeevatmas have been imprisoned. Given that the true nature of the Atma is eternal bliss and boundless wisdom, it is the continued imprisonment in this cage that robs us of our normal attributes, makes us slaves to our faculties and makes us forget our original stature and wisdom. This imprisonment is so debilitating to our spirit that we first reconcile ourselves to it and then actually start liking it. Then there comes a stage when we find this incarceration delightful and give up all thought of getting out of the cage.

This cage, with its apparently golden bars and meshes, appears to us too beautiful to be forsaken and the morsels of ephemeral pleasure that we are fed occasionally make us long for more and more, totally oblivious to the indescribable bliss that was ours once and that could be ours again, if only we made the effort. Within the world, which is the bigger cage, there is a smaller one, the human body, which forms the inner wall of the prison encircling the Jeevatma. Even if the sentence in a particular cell comes to an end, it doesn't mean an automatic release for the soul, which often leaps from the frying pan of one body into the fire of another.

Our five faculties, the indriyAs, form our jailors, which ensure total and implicit obedience to themselves-

"Avi thigaikka iyvar kumaiikum chittrinbam
PAviyEnai pala nee kAtti paduppAyO"

Laments Sri Nammazhwar, despairing at the hypnotic influence of these five faculties, which make us abject slaves to them, ensuring our permanent captivity in this body and mundane morass.

Are we then doomed to eternal internment in this Gilded Cage? Is there no way out of this rigorous imprisonment?

Even persons guilty of the gravest offences have a limitation to their sentence. Why not we, then? When are we going to walk free, with our feet rid of the shackles of good and bad deeds and our head held high, shorn of the stigma of being a permanent prisoner? Would we ever inhale the invigorating breath of freedom? When would we become a free agent, free to act as we like?

The all-powerful Judge who put us in the penitentiary also gives us the opportunity to redeem ourselves. Prisons are after all reformatories, meant to bring errant humanity back on the twin rails of Sathya and Dharma. Once we learn the lessons of our own nature, that of the Lord, the inalienable relationship that subsists between Him and ourselves, and, above all, that the place we are living in is a cage, however pleasurable it might appear to be, and is in fact the root-cause of all sorrow-when we learn these lessons, the Lord signs a decree commuting our life sentence and sets us free, once we adopt the upAyAs of Bhakti or Prapatthi. We are freed forever from the vicious cycle of births and deaths.

Free at last of our constricting bonds, we return to our natural abode, Sri Vaikuntam, restored to our pristine purity by the purgatorial prison life. We then become free as the air, our own masters for all practical purposes, but subject to the overall supremacy of the Lord-" Sa SvarAt bhavati" says the Upanishad, describing the bounty of freedom that greets us on our ascent to Paramapadam. In addition to setting us free, the Lord also grants us a status equal to Him ("niranjana: paramam sAmyam upaiti") in all respects (except, of course, the power to sentence others to imprisonment and to dispense justice-in other words, the power to create, protect and destroy-"Jagat vyApAra varjam"). We thus become full-fledged members of the egalitarian society of Sri Vaikuntam, blissfully engaged in the service of the Lord, constantly drinking in His matchless magnificence ("sadA pasyanti"). The Lord is as enamoured of our company as we are of His and would never think of sending us back to where we came from, even in 

Thus, though all of us are indeed in prison, the keys to the prison gates have been left with ourselves. If we prefer to stay in the Gilded Cage, immersed in its passing pleasures, we throw away the keys and remain in fetters. If, on the other hand, we choose to shake off the seductive influence of the five faculties and appeal to the ever merciful Judge for a reprieve, He would throw the prison gates open and  allow us to walk free and tall, freed forever from stigma.

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

Dasan, sadagopan

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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