literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org

Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

Our virtues can get us into trouble, but our troubles can get us into virtue.

In ancient India, there was once an ascetic, who labored all his life, in
meditation, in austerities, in order to free himself from attachments, and
attain liberation (salvation).

Compassion and regard for all life, and the alleviation of its suffering, is a
great virtue.

A baby deer (fawn) lost its mother, and wandering, hungry, passed by the
place of the ascetic. So he had compassion upon the fawn, cared for it,
and raised it. The ascetic became quite attached to the deer, and at the
moment of his death, his thoughts were concentrated upon the deer, and
not upon God.

This ancient story teaches two things. Our virtues can get us into trouble.
But, conversely, OUR TROUBLES CAN GET US INTO VIRTUE.

Such is the nature of duality.

The two greatest Rabbis of all time, in Jewish Tradition, are Shamai, and
Hillel. Of Rabbi Hillel, it is written that once a pagan came to him and
taunted saying, "I will adopt your religion, if you can teach me all of the
Law while I hop on one foot."

Rabbi Hillel simply, replied: "That which you find HATEFUL to yourself, do
not do unto others. THAT IS ALL OF THE LAW. The rest is merely
commentary."

Christian theologians of the last century, refer to Hillel's reply as THE
SILVER RULE, and boast that it is morally superior to the GOLDEN RULE of
Christianity: "DO unto others, as YOU WOULD HAVE them do unto you.".
They feel the Golden Rule is superior to the "Silver Rule" of Hillel, because
Hillel is a NEGATIVE commandment, forbidding us to do BAD things, while
the GOLDEN RULE is a POSITIVE commandment, encouraging us to do
GOOD THINGS.

But Hillel, and Judaism shows greater wisdom and humility. For the truth
of the matter is that, mankind is ignorant of the true nature of THE GOOD.
We can easily discern what is BAD or hateful to us, and we can refrain
from doing it. But, as it is writing by King Solomon in Proverbs: "There are
ways WHICH SEEMETH GOOD unto a man, but the END THEREOF IS
DEATH."

Jack Cornfield, an American Buddhist, in his book "Path with a Heart", tells
of his pilgrimage to India as a young man. Upon arriving, he encountered
a small crowd of beggars. He had some money in his pocket so he
thought to do a GOOD CHARITY, and cast the money in the direction of
the beggars. They all made a mad scramble for the small sum of money.
They began beating one another in the struggle. Then, their anger
became so great, that they turned upon Jack Cornfield and attacked him.
He barely escaped to safety.

A Zen Master once commented to me on the foolish nature of pigeons.
When you cast handfuls of corn to a flock of pigeons, they scurry to the
place where the corn landed, and struggle and fight with each other. But if
you cast another handful of corn in a different direction, the entire flock
will abandon the corn which still remains, and chase after the new handful.
And if you keep casting corn back and forth, to the left, to the right, to
the left and to the right again, the flock will frantically chase back and
forth, ignoring the bounty of corn which is already available. Human
nature shares something in common with pigeons.

(an E-mail Reply from India)

Please allow me the opportunity of recollecting this beautiful story which
appears in the Srimad Bhagvatam, the story of Jada Bharata. In the
previous birth, as a very good king he leaves his entire kingdom, wife etc
& goes away to the forest to attain self realization. He undertakes severe
austerities & he is very near to the ultimate goal.

Once when he sees a pregnant deer eating grass near his hermitage.On
hearing the roar of a ferocious lion in its haste to get away & out of fear
the deer drops its baby from the womb in a stream & runs away. The king
taking pity on the baby deer begins to tend to the deer. However it
begins to affect his spiritual life & he becomes so attached to the deer that
at the moment of death , he thinks of it & attains a deer's body in his
next life.

However because he was so close to his goal & due to the mercy of the
Lord , he retains knowledge of his previous life. As a deer, he sincerely
repents his foolishness & he keeps away from the other deer's, green
grass etc & satisfies himself by eating dry grass near a hermitage of
saints. He listens carefully to their talks & sure enough he attains a human
body.

He is known as Bharata & he is the youngest of 4 children. But he
deliberately acts dumb & mad , as now he is afraid of again falling .
Therefore he is know as Jada ('dumb') Bharata. After his parents death he
leaves home & lives as a madman in the forests. Once when a famous
king called Rahugana was passing through the forest on his palanquin &
one of his palanquin carrier is hurt & the other people find Jada Bharata &
ask him to carry the palanquin. Due to his elevated state , he refuses to
step on ants on the road & waits for the ants to cross the road , while
carrying the king. This angers the king & he gets down & starts chastising
Jada Bharata. Jada Bharata enlightens him about the spiritual nature of
the soul & in general about spiritual matter & the king realizes the great
nature of Jada Bharata & sincerely begs forgiveness.

There are many things to learn from this historical incident.

1) In Spiritual life there are many pitfalls, which one has to constantly
guard against. Especially in Kali Yuga it is advised to pursue spiritual life in
the company of saints (sadhu sanga) . There is a great possibility of
being diverted if one tries to pursue spiritual life in solitude. When there
are other people they can always caution us , when we are going astray.

2) It's almost as if the ancient Bhagvatam clearly sees the dangerous
trend being followed today of having pets & spending this precious human
life with them & leaving vast fortunes to them.

One who is not aware of the ultimate goal of human life may find this
thought offensive, because according to him he is simply showing
compassion (has not God said we should love all living beings ?). But
when we raise the question as to how can you then eat their flesh they
are unable to answer. The reason we keep pets etc is they primarily give
some pleasure to our senses & that is why we like them. Whenever a cat
purrs or whenever a dog comes & faithfully lick us or wags his tail, it gives
pleasure to our pleasure seeking senses. (maybe a false feeling of being
a benefactor, a saviour etc). This is not real compassion, because the
entire thing is based on the bodily concept of life. Gita 18.54 says that
when one realizes the Absolute he becomes equally disposed to every
living entity .

Real Compassion comes from saving the soul. There is a great need for
this today.

(a crude example - rather than feed a man everyday, teach him to fish ,
similarly give men spiritual knowledge rather than other material charity
etc. If even a single person attains his spiritual identity, it is greater than
all material charities put together)

In the Gita, the Lord clearly states that 'one who gives this knowledge (of
the Gita) to other devotees is most dear to me '. (18.71)

3) Also the Lords mercy is clearly reflected in the way he personal way in
which he handles the life of Jada Bharata. He gives him remembrance of
his previous life etc & ultimately he attains his spiritual life. This also
shows that the Lord is always there to help us, if we are sincere about his
shelter.

Thank you for inspiring me to remember the ever beautiful pastimes of
the Lord & his devotees.

Get your own free IRC Chat room