Here is another one of my favourite reminiscences concerning Sri Bhagavan. This little gem appeared in the Mountain Path 1989, Pg 49, titled “Maharshi in our Midst …”. The anecdote was recorded by Sri M. J. Kalyanarama Iyer but originally related by Sri G. Venkatramier, a renowned poet and scholar, and a contemporary of Sri Ganapati Muni.
Personally, I have found this little instruction from Bhagavan enormously helpful. Every time I struggle with the mind, I remind myself of this anecdote and then feel as if Bhagavan is telling me to carry on regardless, to try harder to "duck under the wave" …
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“Maharshi In Our Midst …”
This happened during the early Skandasramam days. Sri Bhagavan is seated in His usual place on one side of the verandah. Sri Easwara Swami is seated nearby. Sri Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni is a little distance away while G. Venkatramier is seated near Him.
Venkatramier addressed Sri Bhagavan thus: “Whichever way one turns, one finds that the mind has to be subdued. We are told it has to be controlled. Can this really be done when on the one hand the mind is an entity not easily grasped and on the other one continues to have worldly worries?”
Kavyakantha moved his head slightly towards Venkatramier as if registering surprise that he should have chosen to enquire about something quite general.
Sri Bhagavan remained silent for a while and then said: “Hmm. A person who has never seen an ocean must make a trip to it to know about it. Standing there before the huge expanse of water, this person may wish to bathe in the sea. Of what use is it if, seeing the roaring and rolling of the waves, he were to just stand there thinking, ‘I shall wait for all this to subside. When it does, I shall enter it for a quiet bath just as in the pond back home?’ He has to realize either by himself or by being told, that the ocean is restlessness and that it has been so from the moment of Creation and will continue likewise till Pralaya (Destruction). He will then resolve to learn to bathe in it, as it is. He may wade into it by and by, and perhaps, through prior instruction, learn to duck under a wave and let it pass over him. He would naturally hold his breath while doing so. Soon he would be skilled enough to duck, at a stretch, wave after wave, and thus achieve the purpose of bathing without coming to grief. The ocean may go on and though in it, he is free from its grip.”
Bhagavan then added, after a pause, “So too here.”
4 comments:
The waves are always there on the surface and never stop. If one waits for the waves to stop, one has to wait for ever.
I guess only if we plunges in, we will get to be in the only place where there are no waves - *beneath* the surface, underwater. :)
Well said Ram.
There is another aspect about this anecdote that I find fascinating. If someone were to read the graphic description of the ocean and its nature, without knowing who the author was, they would immediately conclude that it came from a person who had personal familiarity with it; a person who perhaps had lived near a beach, or at the very least had many a dip in the ocean himself. But we know that Bhagavan had never been even close to any ocean or beach! Nor could He have, back in the early Skandasramam days, been exposed to any movie which depicted the ocean (nor, I believe, during the childhood phase in Tiruchuli or Madurai). Perhaps the only large body of water nearby would be the great Samudra lake, which would fill up during the rains and give an impression of vastness, though I doubt if it ever had any ocean-like waves.
And then, quite tongue in cheek, Bhagavan starts by saying, “A person who has never seen an ocean must make a trip to it to know something about it”! Even though He Himself had never made that trip ... !!
For me, this is then a small illustration of the infinite knowledge of the Self-realized Jnani ...
Best wishes
Dear Arvind,
I find this little gem so touching! I have just translated this article into my blog, even including comments which I also find interesting and enrich the episode. Please don't exitate to tell me if for some reason you find this innapropriate.
I miss your posts very much!...
Will write e-mail very soon.
Beijinhos
Dear Alma Gentil,
Thank you so much for the kind words! So sorry I have not been writing anything of late. Absolutely no problem at all in your picking up anything from here for your blog …
Take care
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