The rich executive had just received a heart transplant. The cardiothoracic surgeon complimented himself for his success and newspapers ran stories about the difficult surgery. The scientific journals lauded his efforts and hailed him. The executive and his family profusely thanked the proud surgeon as he discharged the patient,
“You have a fresh lease of life. Go and enjoy life once again”.
Yet the doctor could foresee the man’s fresh lease of life leading to more heartaches and nervous breakdowns in others. And the man himself would suffer for although his anatomical heart had changed, his psychological heart was still the same, — bitter, critical, ready to find faults, full of ambition. The new physical heart wouldn’t rescue him from the prison of his feelings and emotions. Nature in her wisdom and compassion had decided to release him from this prison and give him a fresh start. But science had given him the illusion of power. So where then was the solution?
God above and within all things smiled.
“For thou, O Splendour, art myself concealed,
And the grey cell contains me not, the star
I outmeasure and am older than the elements are.
Whether on earth or far beyond the sun,
I, stumbling, clouded, am the Eternal One.” (1)
We can admire no doubt the achievements of our science. But we should also appreciate the greater wonder and miracle of our soul that changes our thoughts and feelings, heals us from within and without, turns disease into a means of growth and progress and makes death a passage to immortality.
Reference
1. Sri Aurobindo. Collected Poems. Pondi-cherry; Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1972, p. 44.
