Caught in Eddies

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Remembered Upadesa Saram verses on how desire-driven activity can cause one's

fall (patana karanam) and hurdle in the path of progress (gati nirodhakam)

while reading the following parable.

 

Caught in Eddies

 

A worm fell into a river. It was dragged along by the currernt and soon got

trapped in an eddy. Round and round it went. Despairing for life, it struggled

to escape but in vain. After some time, primarily because of the very dynamics

of the flow, it found itself out of the eddy. Alas! even before it could savour

its respite, it was trapped in the watery grip of another eddy. Again, it was

spun around in circles. Its freedom from this eddy too was short-lived for it

got caught again in churning waters.

 

Its life would have surely ended but for the fact that a kind-hearted man beheld

its plight. He reached the spot where it was spinning in an eddy and gently

rescued it. He carried it to the bank and finally left it on dry land. The worm

realised that if the water level were to rise with the passage of time, it would

be in trouble again. So it moved away from the river and soon reached a safe

spot under a tree in the vicinity.

 

Man's plight in the cycle of transmigratory existence is akin to that of the

worm. People strive to obtain pleasure. The enjoyment they obtain motivates

them to endeavour further to obtain pleasure and avoid pain. Thus, a vicious

circle comprising activity and enjoyment sets in from which there is virtually

no respite. After death, a man moves on to another birth just as the worm

passed on from one eddy to another. Like the kind man of the example, the

Sadguru provides succour to the helpless man trapped in the cycle of work and

enjoyment and the cycle of birth and death. Having received the grace and

guidance of a Guru, it behoves a person to put in effort, like the worm placed

on the shore, and become a Jivanmukta, one liberated while alive.

 

-- 'Edifying Parables' of Jagaduru Sri Abhinava Vidyateertha Swami of Sringeri,

Pub: Sri Vidyateertha Foundation, Chennai.

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