Repentance Can Also Be Channelled

In his Bhaja Govindam, Adi Shankaracharya observes, “Childhood is lost in play and youth in dreaming of women with the result that old age has to be lost in repentance”. Pitiable brooding on what “might have been” arises on account of various aspects of one’s earlier life — be it lost opportunities, let down having had to be faced or decisions, which turned out to be wrong, besides also not equipping oneself in the fields dear to heart. 
An insight would, however, reveal, instead of such passive repentance, one can, instead, choose to channel creatively his regretful feelings, even when he knows it is too late for himself and that he has already “missed the bus”.

Having learned lessons through mistakes, he can help others pre-empt such errors; having missed opportunities, he can guide others in recognising and seizing them as they come; having been misled, deceived or led down the garden path, he can forewarn others, who seek the art of skilful and wise living; having damaged his health himself, he can counsel and teach on the importance of good habits and lifestyle.

Very importantly, having comprehended the huge potential for excellence in particular fields of human endeavour, he can point the way, inspiring those who seek, though he himself had drawn blank for want of timely action. He can sportingly thus live out, at least vicariously, all his dreams, through others who he had thus inspired. Thus he could rest in the feeling that he too had contributed.

Repentance and regrets over omissions and commissions of a dead past can thus, through adoption of a healthy approach and attitude, be a spur to creativity and to bringing out the potential in others and also often in one’s own self, though the field of activity now taken up may be different from one’s own past dreams. History of mankind would be replete with innumerable such instances and also of constructive sacrifices, inspired through such benign repentance.

The case of Annapurani is a case in point, in the manner conceived of by the legendary Tamil writer, ‘Kalki’ Krishnamurthy, in his short story, Kadithamum Kanneerum. She founds a service organisation for women and the underprivileged, motivated by the yearning that the factors which led to her repenting for what “might have been” in her past personal life, should never ever bind others in realisation of their dreams. Indeed, ‘dynamic repentance’ is also, thus, one of the means for leaving “foot prints on the sands of time”!

K VIJAYARAGHAVAN