Daily Offerings from Alokda

The Master shared many secrets of living. One of them was to be as a flower shedding its fragrance for all while drawing all its needs from the soil and the sun. “Be like a flower,” he would say, “open, frank, generous, equal and kind.” Or else sometimes he would teach the disciples to emulate the best quality in each creature, the faithfulness of a dog, the sensitivity of a cat, the swiftness of a deer, quiet strength of a lion, the purity and discernment of the swan, the concentration of the kingfisher and the perseverance of the crow. He would also teach through material nature saying that the language of God is everywhere. This was the Veda written through material objects as letters. Be as the mountain, firm and high, carrying the aspiration of earth heavenwards. Or be as the star, stationed high yet guiding man and showing him the direction and the path through stormy seas. Or else, be as the river, he would say, that knows its origin and the goal and rushes towards it circuiting through every obstacle on its way.

The disciples would thus learn through images of earth something which could be reflected in their own human nature. One day the subject turned towards how to know one’s own true nature. “Each one of us has something divine in us”, he said, “and it is our business to cultivate it and live according to it.” But he cautioned that there is also in each one something covering this true divine nature, diverting us from our true divine impulsion into lanes and by-lanes that were never meant for us, thereby, creating much confusion within the individual and the society. In the course of such a conversation, the subject turned to ‘Adhikara bheda’ or the distinction that needs to be made between different aspirants and seekers. It is for this reason that the Master was not in favour of a standardized practice to be given to one and all who came to him. To some he would ask to meditate, while to others he would assign a work, some he would ask to till the fields while to others he would ask to work in the kitchen. Yet others were asked to read and write or paint and draw while some others were even sent for a vigorous training in physical education. Each, therefore, had his own unique path through which one moved towards his self-development towards a higher spiritual evolution which he foresaw as the imminent future of man. The disciples unable to understand asked him as to why it was so. The Master replied that the ancient Indian Society was built upon this profound understanding that each individual is at a different stage of evolution and has his or her own unique calling. Not all can or should do the same thing, he stated, which was, of course, an obvious fact. It is this that was known as Adhikara Bheda, which was lost to the modern mind.

And then to illustrate he went on to narrate the Eklavya story from the Mahabharata.

“Do you remember how Dronacharya asked Eklavya his right-hand thumb as guru dakshina?”

“Oh yes Master,” one remarked, expressing his dismay at the injustice meted out to the apprentice by Dronacharya.

The Master smiled and explained the story thus.

“You see Dronacharya was the teacher appointed for the royal princes. In those days, the task of war was left to the Kshatriyas to avoid a large-scale conflict. It was the Kshatriya alone who could learn the various skills of war which sometimes involved high technology skills as were available in those times. It would be a disaster if this high technology of wielding powerful and devastating weapons, some of which were as good as our modern nuclear arms, was offered to all. Hence it was not made available to all and sundry, even if one could pay a fee. Hence, Eklavya was denied the right to study under Dronacharya. But you see he could have tried to find another teacher as Karna did. But instead, he chose to steal knowledge in hiding.”

“Master we can understand that. But still what was the need to take away his thumb and incapacitate him from using what he had already learned?” One among them asked.

“Don’t you know how the circumstances unfolded? There was a hound that was accompanying the entourage of Dronacharya. The dog smelt that someone was hiding and began to bark. Seeing him thus and worried about his identity and stealth being disclosed Eklavya shot a volley of arrows stuffing the mouth of the dog. What do you think of such a warrior if the actions of a man were a judge of things?” the Master asked.

One of them answered, “It was quite a cruel thing to do.”

“Yes, a cruel misuse of one’s prowess. No wonder Dronacharya felt it wiser to stay the errant warrior then and there, lest he become a menace for mankind.”

Then returning to the disciples, the Master remarked, “You see a Master is like a wide river that carries whatever enters in his flow. But then not all are ready to bear the shock of the journey. Hence some are accepted while others are not. People who do not understand the ways of a Master think he is being partial. But, in fact, even his rejections are simply postponements and are a sign of compassion and grace. The Master waits and prepares the disciple, even though, he is not yet part of the mighty spiritual current until they are ready and grow strong enough to bear the force and the flood of the Divine Force and the love and the intensity of His Light.”

Alok Pandey

The Master had just finished reading the Karna Parva (the book of Karna}. The story always carried a touch of sadness at the fall of a hero, an apparent inglorious death, in ways not befitting a hero. After all he was the eldest Pandava, who knew not his identity until the beginning of the war. He was trained by no less a warrior than Parashuram and, most of all, he was guarded by none other than the Sun-God whose child he was. Generous to a default, Karna’s only fault seems to have been standing by Duryodhana’s side and, thereby, helping the forces of adharma. But was it not in deference to his friendship and his promise to always be by the side of his friend Duryodhana? So, what was the reason for this strange fate that had punished virtue with a life of such ignominy? Though Bhisma too met an inglorious death and one that entailed great suffering, both physical and psychological, yet his fall was justified as if there ever was one person who could have stopped this war it was Bhisma. Instead, he chose to stand by his promise given to the throne of Hastinapur even if the dynasty was involved in adharma. The result was a bed of arrows at the hands of his most loved grandchild, who was aided by Shikhandi, the transwoman warrior. But Karna was simply following the law of friendship. Why should he have met such a death? The modern question was swirling in the heads of the disciples. For the men in the ancient times it was evident that the fate of a man standing by the side of adharma was a long-foregone conclusion. Even if he won for the moment as Shakuni and his scheming nephews did, eventually it was Truth that had the last stroke, satyameva jayate nanrtam, it is truth that wins and not falsehood. And Karna was surely standing on the wrong side of history. He stood with his shining armour to defend the indefensible and paid the price with his death. For the ancient mind this was clear. But the disciples were modern minded and demanded equal rights for everybody. They felt that destiny and God were unfair towards Karna.

The Master had seen this question brewing up in their mind. As was his way to address things often from examples of nature he pointed his fingers towards a storm that was brewing up in the far end of the sky.

“Look, how the storm is covering the sky and dimming the sun.”

The disciples nodded at the very evident phenomenon which they had often witnessed during this part of the year. But herein lay the difference between them and the Master. The Master saw in it a lesson of life that the wisdom hidden within Nature tries to reveal to us. But the average person saw only a natural phenomenon that can be explained by the laws of physics.

“Do you see how the sandstorm overpowers the mighty sun, even if temporarily? Of course, the sun remains untouched by it but its rays are unable to reach the earth in their fullness.”

The disciples had begun to notice the drift.

“So too”, the Master continued, “even the strong and the wise may be clouded by the storms of passion and ambition, lust and greed which may take block their intelligence and prevent it from making the right choice.”

The disciples were all ears. The Master continued, “This is what happened to Karna. Though high of birth and mighty in deeds, his stainless soul was clouded by his strong ambition to prove himself to the world that he is the greatest by defeating Arjuna. The chariot of his life began to be driven by ambition and had to meet its nemesis one day. He swerved away from Dharma as invariably ambition leads one away from the straight path of the soul. The result was that his journey ended abruptly, crashed as it were in the quagmire of ambition. Arjuna’s last blow, the fatal arrow only completed the work, hastening him back to his beautiful soul, in a way putting him on the right track preventing him from bearing the burden of adharma even more. In fact, Bhisma stopping him from the battle, Sri Krishna’s offer to him to switch over to the Pandava side was not only a ploy to ensure the safety of Arjuna who was an instrument of God in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, but also to prevent Karna from bearing the tremendous burden of defending the champions of evil and thereby himself becoming a party to it.”

Then pausing for a moment in deep reflection, the Master added, “Karna was saved by his own death. He was destined to die because of his choice. Yet had he died normally it would have been a miserable death, a humiliating defeat. He had to die because he was standing between the Lord’s Will and haughty, ambition-driven, lust-laden Kuru clan typified in the likes of Duryodhana. By dying the way he did, at least his name was saved. It was an act of Compassion of Vasudeva, the indwelling Universal Divine, the lover of all mankind and the friend of all creatures.”

“But still wasn’t his choice based on his feeling of gratitude towards his friend Duryodhana?” asked one.

The Master gently smiled and looking towards the sky where the storm had begun to clear up, he asked the disciple if he really thought so? The disciple stood perplexed as the Master answered.

“Would it not have been a better expression of gratitude if he abstained from the unjust war and thereby, possibly prevented it? Should he have not counseled his friend that this war would not only do no good for him but bring ignominy and gloom? He did not, even though being the child of the sun-god he well understood which side stands for the truth and the right. He did not because he saw in the war his one chance of proving himself in a mortal combat with Arjuna that he is the greatest between the two. If he was feeling gratitude for having been given a kingdom by Duryodhana to satisfy his ambition, an even better choice would have been to return back the kingdom and unburden himself rather than take his side in an unjust war. Have you not heard the story of Esau and Jacob wherein Esau loses his birthright bartering it for a pot of porridge to appease his hunger? It is just the same story wherein one loses one’s soul, the birthright, for the sake of satisfying one’s ambition by joining the forces of evil.”

“But was not life unfair to him, his being cast away by his mother at the very moment of his birth?” One in the group observed in a half-hearted voice knowing that this had little to do with Karna’s eventual fate.

“Yes indeed, if you look at life from a human perspective of fair dealings, life was surely unfair to Karna. But was it not unfair to the Pandava brothers even more? And what did the prince Duryodhana do with whom life was more than fair? So you see, the game of life is not fair and unfair but about the challenges through which we grow by making our choices. The greater the possibility, the more challenging is the dice. The greater grow wiser and stronger by the stroke. The weak succumb to their desires and choose unwisely. That in short sums up the story of Karna.”
The Master paused and the storm had begun to calm and the sun was shown more clearly in the eastern sky. The rays had begun to dance again upon earth and one looking at the rays imagined Karna’s soul uplifted towards the sun through his death shedding his burdened cloak upon earth.

Alok Pandey

The disciples sometimes wondered about the Master’s behaviour. He would gather all kinds of people around him even those who seemed worse than ordinary men. One voiced his doubt. The Master smiled as he replied: “Wouldst thou measure the worth of a seed by the thickness of its casing, the height of a man by the size of his shoe, the dimensions of his inner being by the girth of his belly? So too judge not the inner truth of a man by his outer behaviour nor measure his soul’s aspiration by his outer virtues. A great light may throw up a great shadow behind it. And a most ordinary looking shell may hide beneath its wings a rare invaluable pearl.”

The sceptics wondered why some disciples progressed faster than others. The Master pointed at a rich harvest and answered: “The souls that come to me are like a seed. I am the farmer who ploughs the soil and sows the seeds giving an equal opportunity of the light of sun and the rain of Grace to all. Some seeds however are afraid of the Light and fail to burst open. Other are over eager to draw the sun to themselves and get burnt out. Some, the rare few, trust my hands and the time taken for fruition and do not cling to the dark womb of safety. They are the happiest and the luckiest ones that throw the richest harvest.”

“How does one know that the soul has awakened?” asked another. The Master pointed at the early morning sun and observed: “How does one know that the sun has arisen? By a light that illumines our sight driving away the grey phantom shadows of the night; by the song of the birds that greet the dawn. By the rush of a joy that is full of glad peace and a stillness that carries happiness in its bosom. By the silver lining of hope that begins to appear from behind the clouds. By a scattering of the fog and mist and the warmth of a glow within the heart. By the feeling of an urge to grow and an invitation to work and progress. By discovering the love that binds the sky to the earth and all that exists upon it. By seeing the Fire and Light ascend to higher and higher skies. So too with the awakening of the soul one feels a growing peace and joy within the heart, one begins to see hope behind even the darkest appearances, there is birth of faith and aspiration and prayer. A warmth and sweetness and enthusiasm for Godward effort and the urge for progress. Most of all love is born, true love, in the human heart and there is a smile in every circumstance.