Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Guru whose Blessings were a Curse

The Guru whose Blessings were a Curse

The "Blessing"

Once upon a time, there lived a great Guru who taught Vedanta. This Guru
had a strange and disconcerting benediction. When besieged by those
devotees who sought worldly happiness or material remedies for their
suffering, she raised her hand over each supplicant’s head and solemnly
declared – “May you become materially destitute!”

This "blessing" frightened all, and angered many. “How dare our Guru
wish material destitution upon us?” they cried in fear, frustration, and
rage. Yet, those few disciples who understood its deeper significance
marveled at its profound wisdom.

Nature of this World

In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that this world is place
of misery where everything is temporary. An abode where no lasting
external happiness can be found and a realm of experience where birth,
death, old age, fault misfortune and unhappiness are guaranteed to everyone.

Each of us is engaged in two universal activities. Either we are
occupied in trying to increase our quantum of happiness in this world or
we are desperately struggling to somehow reduce our misery. Yet, the
Vedantic truth is that our very essence is bliss and the very moment we
try to increase it from an external source, our miseries begin.

Look within for Bliss - Don't look externally for Happiness

Vedanta and its ultimate conclusion - Love or Para Bhakti, direct the
individual to look within rather than without. The Upanishads instruct
us to seek the happiness that lies inside oneself, rather than worldly
joys that lie outside in the environment. Indeed all the Bhakti Shastras
ask the devotee to rest in a natural devotional bliss that is
causeless, rather than upon an artificial pleasure dependent on any
specific source.

Lord Krishna advises Arjuna, to remain a warrior without - but a sanyasi
within. Moving in the world always ready to act appropriately; yet
observing all external events and their implications, with perfect
internal detachment.

Worldly Happiness - a distraction for the Spiritual Seeker

Indeed, the true spiritual seeker sees temporal worldly joys and
happiness, as a distraction from the quest for the true eternal bliss
within. Contrarily, each affliction and sorrow is welcomed as a spring
board for a leap into the spiritual world within.
The Chaitanya Charitramrita describes how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was once
cursed by a Brahmin for starting the Sankirtana movement that adversely
affected their livelihood. “ May you be bereft of all material
pleasures” he cried out. On hearing this, Lord Chaitanya was filled with
ecstasy, and immediately began jumping, dancing, and singing, in
complete God intoxication.

On conclusion of the Kurukshetra battle, Queen Kunti is filled with deep
trepidation while awaiting her impeding coronation and a life of royal
happiness. In her impassioned prayer to Lord Krishna she begs “O Lord
may the miseries that I have experienced thus far, be repeated over and
over again, for then I will be sure to again remember and become lost
in You – forever free from the clutches of material illusion.”
None of us would have the temerity to pray to the Lord and ask for
miseries and suffering like Queen Kunti. Yet, really we do not have to
do so. Misery comes uninvited to us all. Have you ever prayed to God
for distress? Did you at any time go consciously looking for sorrow or
suffering? Yet, did anguish and grief not come to you, completely
uninvited?

Must we run from unsought worldly pleasures?

Yet, the flip side is also true. Worldly joys, pleasures, and happiness,
come to us naturally as a result of our Prarabhdha (Manifest Karma) by
the grace of the Lord.
Bhakta Pralhad tells his classmates in the Bhagavata Purana, “Why are
you struggling for happiness, my fellow Daityas? Did you ever have to
struggle to attain misery? Both come to us unsought, by divine arrangement”.

What should we do when material happiness or pleasures come our way
unsought? Should we reject them and run from the pleasures of the
senses? Must we cleverly dodge worldly occasions of happiness and live
in desolate austerity?

Krishna describes how the Sage of Steady Wisdom behaves in such
circumstances: “As the flooded ocean continues to welcomes rivers that
enter into it, the Sage of Steady Wisdom resting in divine bliss,
welcomes all worldly pleasures that come by divine arrangement. Yet,
when the rivers run dry, the ocean remains ever full with water, never
missing them. Similarly, the Sage of Steady Wisdom even in the severest
deprivation, remains ever blissful, never craving, seeking, or even
mindful of the absent sensual pleasures”

This article was edited and published in the SPEAKING TREE section of the TIMES OF INDIA newspaper.

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