CHINNA KATHA FROM BHAGAVAN’S DISCOURSE. No. 16.

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16 - An argumentative tendency

 

By reading many books and developing an argumentative tendency, it is

quite common today that young people get into arguments with others.

Once a young man aged 22 years went to Sankaracharya. When Sankaracharya

was giving spiritual lessons to his disciples he interrupted and asked

Sankaracharya if all human beings in this wide world should not be

regarded as equal since the same kind of blood flows in all of them.

Sankaracharya smiled at this young man and said that the blood flowing

in that youngster is hot and fast and so he was trying to push things

too far. It is not possible for man to distinguish between permanent and

impermanent things. One can adopt the notion of non-duality or advaita

in one's own thoughts and attitudes but it is not possible to equate

everything in the world in practice. The young man insisted that this

does not seem right. He stated that to him, the proper thing appeared to

be to treat all living being in the same manner.

 

Sankaracharya recognised that if this young man was allowed to go on in

this strain, he was likely to reach some absurd conclusions.

Sankaracharya decided at once to teach him a lesson and immediately

asked whether he had a mother. The young man replied that he had a

mother who was alive and that he respected her very much. He again asked

if the young man was married. The young man replied that he was married

and that his wife also had come with him to the ashram. Sankaracharya

then asked him if he had a mother-in-law. The young man replied that the

mother-in-law was quite hale and healthy. Sankaracharya again asked if

he had any sisters and the young man replied in the affirmative and said

he had two sisters. Sankaracharya asked if all these people were women.

The young man asked how it should be otherwise. Sankaracharya asked if

he regarded all of them as equal and was treating all these people in

the same manner and if in particular, he was treating his wife as mother

and his sister as his mother.

 

In this world of multiplicity one has to recognize qualitative and

quantitative differences. Each electric bulb is varying in power and

wattage. Therefore the light radiating from the bulb is not due to

electric current. The current is the same everywhere but the difference

arises from the bulbs with different intensities. God's power is like

electric power and our bodies are the bulbs.