A real dharam sankat

Fri, Jun 13 01:40 AM

Shocked by my graying hair I began consulting doctors. After searching a lot in and around Delhi, I began treatment from a herbal doctor.

He asked me to procure ingredients from Old Delhi to formulate a lotion that would turn white hair to black. A senior person in office agreed to bring those items.

Next day the officer summoned me and recounted how all chemists eyed him suspiciously and even asked for his I-card to ensure he was not an inspector. One shopkeeper then whispered in his ear that the ingredient was elephant tooth powder and could be arranged at an exceptional price.

Vanity had led me innocently to an illegal market of wildlife products. I, who always advocated being kind to living beings was about to become a participant in the killing of elephants.

Spiritual masters repeatedly remind us that the human body, a cage of flesh and blood, is bound to deteriorate while the soul being part of Satchitananda (the Supreme, Blissful Being) is ageless and timeless. I consulted the Gita to see Sri Krishna's views.

He says, 'Just as the Self manifests in the body which passes from childhood to youth to old age, similarly will the Self pass into another body after the death of the present one' (2.13). The body undergoes changes every minute.

These changes have no connection with the Self just like a wave rising and dying in the ocean. These waves are manifestations of the water but they do not affect the ocean.

Similarly bodies are born and they die but the Self remains unaffected. And if the waves must die it is pointless to feel sad at their impermanence.

One must learn to live with this temporariness. Believing the wave to be Real is nothing but immaturity and ignorance.

It is the Self that is Immutable, Real, Changeless and the sole cause of Creation." I realise we judge people by external appearances because the body appears real to us while the Almighty seems unreal and so it's difficult to believe in God.

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