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animals. I am the sacred peepal among all trees. I am the Ganga among all rivers. I am the Himalayas among mountains. I am Omkara among the Vedas. I am Indra among the gods. I am Bhrihaspati among the wise ones. I am even the force that directs a person to commit the mistake of playing dice. Playing dice is not a good thing, but the idea of doing it cannot arise without something operating behind you because a dead mind cannot think of it though this operative force is not responsible for your action. If someone commits burglary with the help of the light of the full moon, and without that light he could not have done it, you may say the full moon is responsible for the burglary. This is not so. The moonlight is a universal impersonal performance, and any action that is performed with the assistance of this light cannot be imputed to it. 114 Likewise, you should not condemn animals, even an ant. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, a touching message is given on this matter. Do not disturb an ant. It is not an insignificant creature; it is a whole being, and it requires as much assistance and compassion as an elephant. The hunger of an ant is not less than the hunger of an elephant, because hunger is an impulse that is commonly present everywhere. Therefore, you should calmly, cooperatively, compassionately, interfere not with the movements of these animals. People kill snakes. This should not be done. Snakes are not there to kill you; they have no such intention. You frighten them, and they react. If you look compassionately upon the minor species, even the ants, you should not say that you are wasting your time in activities of no consequence. Wonderful is the Upanishad that says these little ants and the birds, in their originality in the higher regions, will receive you with great love and affection. When the soul of an ant is operating above, it may give you the strength of an elephant, which you cannot understand. Nobody is an ant always. As I mentioned earlier, different things are of different statures in different space- time orders. Though in one space-time order it is an ant, it may not be like that everywhere. Therefore, there should be compassionate treatment of animals, human beings, guests, teachers who give you knowledge, and the gods in heaven. This is the concept of sacrifice in India. It covers everything that is required of you. What is the implication of all this teaching? It is a development of a universal view, which alone can be regarded as the means to your self-transcendence in the highest comprehensiveness of God-Being. You know Patanjali s Yoga Sutras. You know Narada's Bhakti Sutras. You know the thoughts of great Western thinkers. You know the message of Swami Sivananda. You know so many things, the knowledge of which has been imparted to you by different teachers of this Academy. All these should be brought together into a single attention and a collective knowledge which must help you. 115 In summing up, what you have gathered here is a new knowledge of the art of developing a comprehensive view of life, which is sometimes considered as the obligation of a judge in a court. The judge does not belong to any party. He is not interested in favouring this party or that party. He extracts the cream and the essence of the whole situation, and it is a wholesome judgement that the chief of dispensing law exercises. Likewise is this approach, this inclusive view of life. Whenever you think something, remember that there is a counterpart to it. Unless there is another thing which has incidentally been excluded from your thinking, there would not be a possibility of thinking it. There is no such thing as one thing. The one thing is an abstraction from a wholesome involvement, of which the person concerned is totally unaware. Wholeness does not mean only one particular kind of wholeness. It is a mental wholeness, a Gestalt, as they call it a total action of mind, vital energy, emotion, understanding, and will. When you leave, you carry yourself in an enhanced manner, achieving a larger dimension of your own self, and you go home as a different person altogether. Your face is brighter. The Upanishads mention a student who studied for years under a Guru, and wanted an initiation. For some reason or the other, the Guru never initiated, never cared for this student. He only told him, Take these cattle to the forest, and don't return until the number of cattle multiplies. Caring for the cows until they multiply takes years. The disciplined student accepted this instruction, and went to the forest. Poor person that he was, he tended the cattle. When years passed and the number of cattle increased from a few to four hundred, he thought the time had come for his initiation. The student said, Guruji, I have done my duty. Would you kindly initiate me? The Guruji said nothing, and went on a pilgrimage. The patni, consort of the Guru, was also surprised that the Guru was so careless. Again the student took the cattle to the forest. The gods knew how this boy was suffering. The divinities in heaven 116 appeared before him in the form of a bull, a burning fire, a flying bird and a swan. Jabala, they cried, I shall tell you one fourth of the truth. They described an aspect of the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |