Satyopanisad

[Guest guest]

Swami! As we think of the way in which our life is going, we find it confusing

and disheartening. We also doubt if it is going in the right direction or not.

You are our only refuge. Kindly guide us.

 

You know mrdangam, the South Indian musical instrument, which like a drum, has

to be beaten on both the sides as you play. Your life is like a rat caught in

that mrdangam. If the mrdangam is beaten on one side, the rat runs to the other

side and, vice versa, as there is no way out for it. Similarly having been fed

up with this world, you think of God. When God tests you, you again drift

towards the world. Your movement between the world and God is like that of the

rat. This is not the proper way.

 

A small example. Two students competed with each other in a tournament of eating

bananas. One student wanted to eat the outer skin of every fruit first so that

he could finish eating the soft pulp part next. The other student planned to eat

the soft part first and the skin next. Accordingly, they started eating. The

first student having eaten the outer skin of every fruit first had his belly

full of that stuff and he could not eat any sweet pulp. So he was defeated, and

suffered from stomach-ache and indigestion. The second student ate a belly-full

of the pulp of every fruit and hence couldn't eat the skin of the fruits. So, he

too lost in the competition. All the same, he remained healthy.

 

Similar is the case with those people who are after worldly desires and sensual

pleasures. They will have to end their lives in misery finding no cure for

bhavaroga, the ailment of worldly attachment. This is equal to the condition of

the first student who ate only the outer skin of the banana first in the

tournament. But those who think of God are like the second student who ate the

soft pulp. They grow stronger in divine life.

 

Life should start from the point of dasoham, I am your servant. Fill its middle

with the relentless enquiry, koham, " Who am I? " End it with full awareness of

the identity of the individual self with God soham, I am God. This is the

correct way of life.

 

Man should realise that the happiness and peace he essentially needs are not

-present in this mundane world. A simple example. A person went to a hotel. The

bearer asked him, " What shall I serve for you " ? The person said, " I want idli

and sambar " . Then the bearer taken by great surprise, said " What Sir! Have you

not seen the board hanging over there! This is a military non-vegetarian hotel.

Sir! " Likewise, how can you expect items like Palav, Biriyani and Chicken in an

Udipi Brahmin vegetarian hotel?

 

In the same manner there is a board attached to this world, anityam asukham

lokam, " This world is temporary and full of misery. " How do you expect peace and

happiness in this world? That is why in the Bhagavad gita Krishna says, `mam

bhajasva' meaning, `Think of me or worship me or be immersed in me or surrender

to me'. You should lead your life in full knowledge of these facts.