“Whom are you lamenting for when you yourself are pitiable? Why do you pity the poor when you yourself have now been made poor? While in this body that is like a bubble, how can anyone look at anyone else as being worthy of lamentation?” (Hanuman speaking to Tara, Valmiki Ramayana, Kishkindha Kand, 21.3)

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शोच्या शोचसि कं शोच्यं दीनं दीनाऽनुकम्पसे।
कस्य कोवाऽनुशोच्योऽस्ति देहेऽस्मिन् बुद्बुदोपमे।।

śocyā śocasi kaṃ śocyaṃ dīnaṃ dīnā’nukampase।
kasya kovā’nuśocyo’sti dehe’smin budbudopame

Friend1: Have you ever wished ill on someone?

Friend2: You are basically asking if I am a human being. I would hope so.

Friend1: Seriously. Think back to a time. Maybe it was yesterday or a week ago. Perhaps many years into the past.

Friend2: Was this a case of revenge? Hoping that some bad luck would come back the way of someone who was deserving?

Friend1: Yes, that could be one of the cases. You maybe had some proper justification. They did something wrong and you wanted them to receive the proper punishment.

Friend2: Okay, I can relate to that situation many times, as can most people.

Friend1: Was there ever a case when the revenge arrived?

Friend2: Of course. Too many times to count.

Friend1: And how did you feel?

Friend2: What do you mean? How was I supposed to feel?

Friend1: Did it make you happy to see the other person suffering?

Friend2: Oh. I see where you are going with this. An interesting life lesson, for sure. I definitely didn’t feel great. I was more surprised that the karma came back.

Friend1: Something you may only think about but never thought to be true.

Friend2: More like I thought it was true, but it was just interesting to see the events play out. Are you interested in getting revenge on someone?

Friend1: No, but I had a similar experience. I was dumbfounded that a specific person was doing so well in life, considering they didn’t deserve it.

Friend2: Why wouldn’t they deserve it?

Friend1: That was just my opinion. I know it was silly. Envy played a large factor. A comparison in terms of life situations.

Friend2: Assessing based on where you are compared to them?

Friend1: Exactly. Anyway, I bring this up today because that same person now had something bad happen to them.

Friend2: Oh, really? Are you happy?

Friend1: Not in the slightest. I feel doubly awful. One, I don’t think they deserved to have such misfortune fall their way. Second, I regret ever wanting something bad to happen.

Friend2: Do you feel as if it was your fault?

Friend1: Not that. More like I am disappointed in myself for falling so low as to be jealous of someone else. I should be better. I should know better.

Friend2: If you were a celebrity, you could use the line, “That’s not who I am.”

Friend1: There you go. I like that. What do we do in such cases? How do we resolve the issue, from beginning to end?

Friend2: Shri Hanuman makes the comparison to a bubble. In the Ramayana, he is speaking to a newly-turned widow, who is strongly lamenting the loss of her husband. Hanuman says that in this world in which we live, where every person resides in something like a bubble, no person is really poor or better off.

Friend1: Because the fragility is equal.

Friend2: Vulnerability to death. The bubble is the perfect comparison, because it can break so easily.

Friend1: Sometimes accidentally.

Friend2: And so fortune is the same way. Almost by chance, someone is doing well today, and tomorrow they are down on their luck.

Friend1: We know that it isn’t chance.

Friend2: Yes, there is the foundation of action and reaction. Work and consequence. The comparison to chance is based on the unexpected nature of the arrival, which is due to the influence of time.

Friend1: As everyone is living in a bubble, there is no reason to be envious.

Friend2: My bubble isn’t any stronger than yours. It may seem that way from time to time, but it’s not. Complete everything in this life. Finish the evolution of the soul’s travels through different bodies. Make this stint inside the bubble the last one. Reach for liberation, the release from the cycle of birth and death, with the subsequent travel a return to the spiritual body living in the eternal, imperishable realm.

In Closing:

That person finally earned,
After revenge for yearned.

Not feeling so great,
That now in desperate state.

Hanuman to bubble comparing,
That equally as vulnerable faring.

So in that short amount of time,
Way towards transcendence should find.

Categories: conversations

Tags: articles, god, hare krishna, hinduism, poem, poems, poetry, religion