Me,
My Guru
On
Essence – Perception – Bhagavatam
Today
there was no Rahul to force me to ‘Bhagavatam’ class. Yes, it was a class. It
was not just one more discourse on Bhagavatam. It used Bhagavatam to teach us
‘inner’ and ‘outer’ management. Inner meant ‘how to deal with our nature and
heal it and transcend it’ and ‘outer’ meant people -management and
issue-management. We flipped in so many situations. She used Bhagavatam to
teach us to handle those issues. Otherwise, it was something that we all grew
up hearing and reading in India. We didn’t need to attend ‘a class’ for it. But
the way she took that story, elaborated points in it and applied it to our life
situations was very informative and also like ‘Tips on crisis management’. So
gladly, today I went to attend this class after enrolling for it yesterday.
Previously, I would feel the pinch whenever I had to pay the fees but not now.
This time even that thought didn’t cross my mind.
Not that,
I had ‘forgiven’ her or something. Dynamics of my relationship with her did
certainly change. For good or for bad, I didn’t know. But I felt more relaxed
and at peace and so I presumed that it was good that happened. Well, being
among the first few in the class, I sat in meditation. It was well past 1/2an
hour before I opened my eyes. Others had poured in and ‘she’ was in her place
ready to start.
But even
before she could start someone asked “Krishna stole curd, butter and milk. He
is a thief and called on too and yet he is called ‘God’. Rule for all is ‘marry
one and be faithful to that one’ and yet he had eight wives and yet glorified
as God. Forget about vanquishing enemies, he didn’t spare Ghatotgaja (son of
Pandava Prince Bheemasena) just to protect Arjuna from the wrath of Indra’s
weapon. He was master-manipulator. With these many qualities falling short of
divinity, how can one accept him as God? And why should he?”
She smiled
and taking the fold of her saree in one hand she started her explanation “I’ve
told this story many times before. So, it is possible most of you’ve heard it
from me before too. Others may have read it elsewhere. Yet listen carefully
once more because this story explains the point needed to understand here like
no other story.
In a small
town were five friends who were born blind. It so happened that they were taken
to a circus one day where they met an elephant. Wanting to know it, each one
went around it and touched it. Because, they were blind, they could understand
something or anything only with their touch and that feel.
One said
“wow, this elephant is so huge and round” he was touching its stomach.
The other
said “no, no. It is long, rough and soft”. He was holding its trunk.
“Ofcourse
not so!” exclaimed the third “It is thin and hairy”. That was the description
of tail that he was holding.
The fourth
one touched ears to give a totally different picture and fifth felt everyone
was wrong as he was holding on to its feet.
...contd...
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