Speaking Tree
08.01.2016
Editorial by Acharya Mahapragya
The sky keeps changing hues. Some changes are perceptible and others are smaller changes. A cloud moves a bit, the wind blows, the sun's rays get sharper, and then dark clouds fill the sky, it rains, it shines, it stands dark against twinkling stars and a bright moon. In a single day we see the sky changing so much.
Man too changes so many forms from morning to night... now happy, now hopeful, now low, now depressed, now loud, now quiet, now overcome by emotion, now lost in thought and so on. If one could maintain a diary of every emotion, thought process, one diary would easily fill up.
Everything is constantly changing. Not just our moods and manner but look at fortunes - Lakshmi as we call it. Fortune is now here, now somewhere else. Youth is ephemeral... someone who was very beautiful and young once may be haggard and old today. Every- thing about life is constantly changing; it is chanchal. What is nischal or eternal?
Dharma is eternal. I will not try translating dharma; it is more than religion, it defines your being. Now if we ask which dharma, we get into a fix. And then if we start naming it as Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Islam, Christian, Jewish and so on, we will get stuck.
That which cannot be got from matter or from money, that is called dharma. That is also veetaragatha or detachment. In fact, veetaragatha is more than detachment. It is healthy disinterest in the material world, not shunning it. Veetaragatha cannot be bought. When this attitude of disinterest in the material world increases, attachments will reduce and we can start living truly. We will then not be measuring our world through desire.
Once, a couple, deeply into meditation and spiritual pursuits, was walking from ullage to village when the husband found a heap of gold coins and ornaments on the road. How did it come there, he wondered. He quickly threw some mud on it so that his wife, who was following at some distance, did not see it and get attracted to it.
The wife caught up with him and asked, "What is that heap?" He mumbled something inaudible. "I know it is gold. Why do you hide it? It is you who has to evolve, not me. If you did not value it, you would not have covered it or feared that I would be tempted," said the wife.
So the first step towards veetaragatha is to know what to value and how much value to ascribe to what. How much value to ascribe to people, to material things and how to differentiate between them? Only the one who has the right attitude can pass by a heap of gems without being tempted. At this point we can venture to understand dharma. Once we know* the value of consciousness, matter will cease to matter. This understanding comes with an awakened chetna or consciousness.
An evolved philosopher said there are only three precious gems. They are water, grain and sweet speech. The first maintains life, the second sustains it and the third is essential to keep relationships. I wish to add a fourth: the breath. But for the breath, we would not be here to talk of values.
They make dharma which is nischal and leads you towards healthy disinterest in the material and towards purity of soul and therefore automatically towards nonviolence. Let us think along these lines to bring balance between consumption and restraint, between nomenclatures and true dharma.
(As told to Sudhamahi Regunathan.)