This is the next line of "Sadhana Karu Pyare" series.
Continuing from the last issue...
vṛiksh se baṛhakar sahiṣhṇu bhāv bhī ho pyāre
sabako do sammān āpun mān jani chahu pyāre
Let us now study the second point: Become more
tolerant than a tree. A devotee must be more forgiving than a tree that
bears fruits. When someone throws a stone at the tree, it does not get
angry but in return, gives us a fruit.
Once, there was a powerful king in North-west India.
His name was Raja Ranjeet Singh. The famous Kohinoor diamond was owned by
his kingdom. Later, the British seized and took it away with them to
England. Raja Ranjeet Singh was blind in one eye. One day, a small
boy who lived in his kingdom was trying to hit a mango tree with a stone.
Unfortunately, the stone hit the king instead of the tree. The king
asked, "Who has hit me with a stone?" The king's servants pointed to
the boy. The king asked him to be brought to the court.
The boy's mother thought that her son would be now killed as
the king would sentence him to death. When the boy was taken to the king,
he asked the boy what he was doing there. The small boy replied that he
was trying to hit the tree to get a mango. The King then gave him a
basket full of mangoes. People were astonished and asked him, "You
did not get angry with the boy? He hit you, and why have you gifted the
boy with a basket of mangoes?" The king said, "If the stone had
hit the tree, it would have given him mangoes. Am I even worse than the
tree? After all, I am a human being and my behavior should be better than
the tree. If the tree gives mangoes in return, then I should at least
give a basket of mangoes."
This shows that it is the nature of a tree to be tolerant
and forgiving. Here, Shree Kripaluji Maharaj tells us to be even more
tolerant than a tree; to practice and apply this quality of tolerance in our
daily lives. Five hundred years ago, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji also
said that devotees should be more tolerant than a tree.
Since this is a material world, everybody is not a Mahapurush.
Everybody has three modes of Maya within themselves. Some have - Sattvagun,
quality of goodness, some have Rajogun, quality of passion, and some have Tamogun,
quality of ignorance. People will behave with you in various ways, and if
you are not tolerant, you will tend to get angry saying, "He is like this;
She is like that; He is very bad." By doing so, our mind will get
dirty and spoiled. Due to this reason, to keep our mind in a healthy
condition, we are being told to be tolerant.
There was a Saint named Ekanath. He wrote the 'Naath
Bhagavat', just as Jagannathji wrote the Bhagavat in Oriya. The 'Naath
Bhagavat' in Marathi is a suitable match for the highly admired Oriya
translation of the Bhagavat. Saint Ekanath was a very sincere and intense
devotee of Shree Krishna. There was an incident in his life which was very
unique.
Saint Ekanath used to bathe in the holy river Narmada in
Maharashtra. One day, after bathing, as he started to come out of the
river, a Pathan stood close by and looked very irritated. When the Saint
Ekanath came out, the Pathanspat on him. Saint Ekanath said, "Jai
Shree Krishna" and went back to the river to bathe again. When he
came out, the Pathan spat on him again. Even after this, Saint Ekanath
did not get angry or upset. He quietly went back and took bath again. As
soon as he came out of the river, the Pathan spat on him again. It had
now turned evening and this event had continued since morning. People
gathered around the banks to find out who would lose. As of now, nobody
was winning, neither the Pathan nor the Saint.
The Pathan finally lost patience and asked the Saint,
"Are you made of wood or stone? I spat on you so many times, but you did
not even ask me why I am doing this to you? You did not react at all."
Saint Ekanath replied, "Your actions have not harmed me. Instead,
you have acted as my well-wisher. Because of you, I took bath in the pure
and sacred waters of Narmada so many times. Then why should I get angry
with you?"
The lesson that we get to learn from this is that there are
many people in this world who will oppose us. But, if we learn to become
more tolerant, our heart will get purified.
So, what is the key to purify our heart? Find a person
who keeps on finding faults in you and criticizes you. Put a tilak on him
and keep him in the courtyard of your home. It means, respect the person
who keeps finding faults in you. Let him criticize and oppose you
continuously. Tolerate him patiently and silently. This will help
purify your heart at a very fast rate. This practice of tolerance is for
your own benefit. By becoming tolerant, you will speedily progress in the
spiritual realm.
Shree Kripaluji Maharaj tells in the next line, never to
look for any respect. Expecting to be praised is also a material
desire. It is called as bhaktijaat anarth, of impurity arising in the
heart due to devotion. The desire to be appreciated for practicing
devotion is a big disaster in the spiritual realm. When others praise us
for being a devotee, we start liking it and begin to expect admiration.
People start thinking what they should do so that people start respecting
them. "How should I get respect?" this becomes the primary aim
and, "How should I practice devotion?" becomes a secondary
thing. In temples, people donate appliances and get their names written
on them. Not just their name but, they also get their father's and
grandfather's name written on it! If we ask them, that you have given
Rs.1000, but why are you getting your name written on it? They say,
"We get our names written so that people should come to know that we have
donated money." What will they get by letting others know
about their charity?
The spiritual principle is the reverse of this:
ghitasya bhavet vṛiddhiḥ kīrtitasya bhavet kṣhayaḥ
If you do something good, there is no need to announce
it to the world. Only then you will get the fruit of your good
deeds. By telling others of your good deeds, their value gets
reduced. Once, due to this, the king of Heaven, King Nahush, had a
spiritual downfall. He was evil by nature. All the celestial gods
and sages wanted to get rid of him. Everyone decided to make him speak
about all his good deeds. They asked, "O King! What good deeds have
you performed in order to acquire the seat of Indra?" The king then
got excited and started narrating all his accomplishments. He said,
"I did this yagya; chanted these mantras; performed fasting for long
periods; and gave so much charity." As he kept saying them, the
pious results of his good deeds diminished. When the importance of his
good deeds ended, they told him that his tenure as Lord Indra had now ended and
he would have to leave. He had to leave heaven and come back to this
material world as a human being.
So the principle is - Do good deeds but never speak them
out. When the desire for seeking respect gets into our head, then the
feeling of devotion gets finished. We should always stay away from this.
.... To be Continued
No comments:
Post a Comment