A Dog's Life

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Dear Members,

 

On A Dog's Life

 

Some members of my family strongly objected when I quoted Shriman Sadagopan

Iyengar and compared our lives to a dog's restricted life, in a spiritual sense.

Fortunately, to cater to their sensitive feelings, I remembered a sloka in

Kathopanishad that has an extended picturisation of life that might be more

acceptable even to such sophisticated minds

 

Who does not like to own an expensive automobile? In the ancient past, the

equivalent to a Porsche was a highly decorated chariot drawn by five

thorough-bred horses that only a commander of the army could afford to own and

drive in.

 

So Kathopanishad (1.3.3-4) starts suggesting that we might compare ourselves to

the owner of such a de-luxe chariot, sitting comfortably in the back seat, with

the mind as the driver and the the five senses providing the horse-power to move

the vehicle on the material pathway strewn with attractive objects.

 

aatmaanam rathinam viddhi

sharIram ratham eva ca

buddhim tu sArathim viddhi

manah pragraham eva ca

 

indriyaNi hayan ahur

vishayams tesu gocaraan

atmendriya-mano-yuktam

bhoktetyaahur manIshinah

 

"The individual is the passenger in the car of the material body, and

intelligence is the driver. Mind is the driving instrument, and the senses are

the horses. The self is thus the enjoyer or sufferer in the association of the

mind and senses. The Atman, the mind and the senses should be in unison. They

should not work in their own way, independently; that is, the activity of the

senses, the thoughts of the mind and the needs of the Spirit should be in

conformity with one another, so say the wise ones. "

 

In Gita Ch.VI Sloka 34, Arjuna describes the hopelessness of the situation when

the driver, the restless mind, obstinate and not consulting the intellect,

strays from the ordained path and the goal, and crashes due to its erratic ways.

 

cancalam hi manah krishna

pramaathi balavad drdham

tasyaaham nigraham manye

vaayor iva su-dushkaram

 

"The mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Krishna, and to

subdue it, I think, is more difficult than controlling the wind."

 

We can choose for comparison either name-brand breeds of costly canines,

thoroughbred powerful horses or Porsche cars. In the ultimate analysis, however,

there does not appear to be much difference between the leash holding the dog,

the reins controlling the horses or the steering-wheel of the car held by a

drunken, sense-driven mind. In any of these cases, we are not free agents but

continue to be mere slaves, moved hither and thither by the

kama-krodha-moha-madha-maatsarya-filled mind.

 

Such a lost soul has a simple advise from Krishna: maamekam sharaNam vraja

 

Dasan,

Krishnaswamy M.K