The Most Practical Advice

By krishnasmercy on November 28, 2023 • ( 0 )

“Tulsi knows, has heard, and has understood that Shri Rama is an ocean of mercy because He made jewels and gold expensive, while keeping the most important things like water and grains inexpensive.” (Dohavali, 149)

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तुलसी जाने सुनि समुझि कृपासिंधु रघुराज।
महँगे मनि कंचन किए सौंधे जग जल नाज ॥

tulasī jāne suni samujhi kṛpāsiṃdhu raghurāja।
maha~ge mani kaṃcana kie sauṃdhe jaga jala nāja ॥

“You people have your head in the clouds. You live in this fantasy world that you have created for yourself. It is like you are so upset with how life turned out, you are so distrustful of everyone else, you are so hopeless about the future, that you decided to construct this parallel universe to live in.

“You are the good ones, you see. You are on the right track. You are protected. You are with God. The outsiders are out of luck. Since they do not join with you, since they are not members of your group, they are relegated to the track of constant suffering, defeat, torture, and misery.

“You know what gives the game away? You know how I can call your bluff? You expose yourself with the utter lack of practicality to your teachings. Everything is about body and spirit. The soul. The factor of time. The changing body. The Lord of the universe, the consequences to action, the different modes of nature, and so forth.

“I will admit that the theory is wonderful. You could immerse yourself in that study for an entire lifetime. Anytime something bad happens, you can find a verse from shastra to give the root cause for the event. The same with anything good that occurs.

“But you offer no practical advice. You cannot help anyone in their day-to-day affairs. For people living in the real world, how is shastra supposed to help them? What is some dusty old book sitting on the shelf going to do for me? What is poetry in an ancient language like Sanskrit going to teach me that will translate to some meaningful benefit? People are looking for results and all you provide is an escape.”

If the accusation is that the Vedic tradition is full of the highest philosophy which can be expounded upon, compared and contrasted, and studied at length, then the plea on the other side is “guilty.” The person wise to the tradition will readily admit to being impressed, blown away, and awestruck at the profoundness to works like Bhagavad-gita, Ramayana, and the many Puranas.

At the same time, the claim that there is no practical advice is simply not true. The aftermath of the Bhagavad-gita conversation was a bow-warrior participating fiercely in battle, with the intention of winning. The Ramayana history features one difficult decision after another. One person following their brother into renunciation, another person giving up a kingdom for their brother, another person cheating to have their brother killed, and another person joining a rival party to eventually kill their brother in a military conflict.

Someone like Shri Hanuman has to think on the spot, such as when transforming to the size of a cat or deciding to carry an entire mountain with him for the purpose of delivering medical treatment.

सूर्ये चास्तं गते रात्रौ देहं सङ्क्षिप्य मारुतिः |
पृषदंशकमात्रः सन् बभूवाद्भुतदर्शनः ||

sūrye cāstaṃ gate rātrau dehaṃ saṅkṣipya mārutiḥ|
pṛṣadaṃśakamātraḥ san babhūvādbhutadarśanaḥ ||

“At night, on the sun having set, Maruti [Hanuman] contracted his body. Becoming the size of a cat, he was a wonderful sight to behold.” (Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kand, 2.49)

A single verse from the Dohavali of Goswami Tulsidas provides the most practical advice. It is a conclusion any person can reach on their own, but Tulsidas makes sure to give proper credit. He will not remove the source from the picture. He is not envious of that creator, and so he puts the focus in the proper place.

The advice is in the form of a comparison. Look around. See what is expensive and what is not. See what is readily available and see what is hard to attain. See what requires extraordinary security measures and constant surveillance to protect and see what falls from the sky and can be plucked from trees.

Tulsidas substantiates the decision for worship of Shri Rama after hearing from others, knowing from personal interaction, and understanding through practical realization that the Supreme Lord is an ocean of mercy, kripasindhu.

The physical evidence of the mercy is in the form of grains and water. These are needed for life. Even when a person tries a special diet that excludes grains, the food that they do consume has a relationship to what grows in the ground.

Times change and the circumstances are not always the same. There might be a scarcity of food in a particular area, but the basics are typically there in large quantity. One household might have such an abundance of food that they can give in charity to those in need.

Gold and jewels, on the other hand, are expensive. This is nature’s way. No one can say that a government has created the discrepancy. The higher price by comparison has always been in place. This is the work of Shri Rama.

Gold and jewels are nice. They are produced by God, after all. It is just that they are not needed to continue life. We can go without. The human life is meant for tapasya. This is the verdict of shastra and the saintly people who live up to the standards.

From this one couplet a person can remember and appreciate Shri Rama for an entire lifetime. Any time that they have a drink of water. When they are eating flatbread, corn, rice, or pasta. When they do something basic and necessary, like eating or drinking, they can thank the Supreme Lord for the availability, and appreciate how through such abundance we can begin to understand the meaning of unlimited.