transcending everything

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

Dasji´s cry has brought a lot of answers. Here I am not trying to analyse charts

or give any answer, but opening my thoughts on life and suffering.

 

On the one hand one finds explanations for misfortunes in the horoscope,

consoles by saying," You have to bear it - with fortitude- because it is your

fate!" YET WE CONDEMN others for their deeds. If it is so difficult for a

"good" person like Dasji to change his fate, is it easier for a "bad" person to

change his? You cannot convince Dasji to commit rape or murder. But how about a

person born as rapist and murderer? Can one convert him to be otherwise? Valmiki

was a robber, but rishis changed him to be a holy poet. But that too was perhaps

in his horoscope. Both Kalidasa and his commentator Mallinatha were illiterate

and ignorant, till Durga gave them enlightenment. But that too was perhaps in

their charts.

 

A week or so ago a terrible murderer and cruel raper of children escaped from

custodynear where I live and committed a murder. Is he "bad"? Is he too not a

manifestation of Brahman? I don´t have his chart, but that too is perhaps shown

in it! His own father warned the police: " He is a demon! he is out to kill! He

told me that when this lust to rape or kill suddenly comes into him, he cannot

control it!"

 

The crash in Taiwan, the deaths yesterday in Austria of mostly very young people

out for fun ....... Once I was near a mother whose child had died and was

being cremated. She said, "9 long months I carried this child in my belly. Now I

feel as if my womb is burning!"

 

My mother died as a result of fire. For years I had dreams of this - although it

all happened in my absence. I could not even attend her funeral and learned

about the whole tragic episode only a month later.

During the last few days i dream again and again, "dying" in fire. I feel a

burning in my loins!...My children are dying in fire..... and I am helpless.

 

All philosphy and even the Gita fails to give comfort! "Everything is You,

Jagannatha. but why, Oh Janardhana, this cruelty and pain? Are You sadistic and

rejoice in our sorrow? Are you masochistic and rejoice in our shared suffering?

Is this the only way You can remain aware of Yourself? Please help me to

understand! Why should I learn detachment? Why do you give me toys I should not

play with? Why did the Kauravas have to insult Draupadi? Why did Arjuna have to

kill his cousins? You tell me to forgive, but told Arjuna to kill! You admonish

us to be truthful, yet advised the Pandavas to use deception!

What is this lila? How can I ever understand this? I neither deny You nor

withhold my loyalty, but beg you for some explanation. Many of my fellow-men

and women give explanations. But I must know it from you!"

 

Each of us is that which he has chosen to be, for some reason, and plays the

role. Did Hitler hear the cries of his victims in his dreams?.........

 

The poet laureate Yeats wrote in his poem "yasmin":

"Then comes the gardener to reap the flowers,

and gathered flowers are dead, Yasmim!"

 

All passionate gardeners tend their flower-beds: they water and protect the

thorny roses, rip out the dandelion, clover, cowslip and buttercup, But all

these were made by God! Everyone of them is beautiful in my eyes. When the Great

Gardener comes to tend His garden, will he rip me out as a weed,

or leave me to grow?

 

Who am I to say what is weed and what is not? He who made the lamb made the

tiger, who made the trusting kitten and puppy made the venomous snake! Who am I

to judge over my fellow men and women, who only follow their own destinies? How

can I give solace, when my own heart bleeds?

 

There is perhaps only one sin: in moments of trial to deny Paramatman. And only

one virtue: in moments of trial to beg Him for help and understanding. The

understanding comes only through His grace, not from any learning!

 

Forgive me for this lament.

 

Mani