“How can that female swan who is accustomed to sporting with the king of swans amidst lotus flowers ever cast her eyes on a water-crow that stays amidst bunches of grass?” (Sita Devi speaking to Ravana, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 56.20)

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क्रीडन्ती राजहंसेन पद्मषण्डेषु नित्यदा
हंसी सा तृणषण्डस्थं कथं पश्येत मद्गुकम्

krīḍantī rājahaṃsena padmaṣaṇḍeṣu nityadā
haṃsī sā tṛṇaṣaṇḍasthaṃ kathaṃ paśyeta madgukam

“Listen, we love the eternal relevancy of shastra. There is that exercise where you open up a sacred work of choice, choosing a page at random. Go over the content. Study it for some time. Really contemplate the meaning. Something so simple might solve whatever problem was plaguing you that day. Whatever was bothering you previously, gnawing away at your sensibilities, making you lose sleep, will likely vanish. This is because shastra carries wisdom. It is more than regular knowledge. The wisdom applies to people of all backgrounds, all circumstances, and all age groups.

“At the same time, I see problems emerging today that no previous generation had to contend with. The most visible example is the anxiety caused by doomscrolling, infinite scrolling, or whatever the preferred term for the addiction to the smartphones. They make these short-form videos appealing for a reason. Those videos play on repeat so as to capture the attention of young people, who are otherwise full of energy. This content rarely has lasting value. It depletes the reserves, more than anything. If ever you are feeling too happy, too optimistic, and too forgiving, just spend some time on one of these apps.

“The problem I am noticing more and more relates to stuff. As in, too much of it. I don’t think previous generations had to deal with the same precisely because it was more difficult to collect stuff. Today, it is so easy. Just make a few gestures on the smartphone. Your items will arrive in one or two days, at your doorstep. After bringing it inside, the box it arrives in might go unopened for days. Perhaps the purchase was not that important. The stuff piles up so quickly that soon it becomes too much of a burden to try to straighten up. Rooms get filled with junk. You can barely open the doors. You might not be able to see the floor. There is one obstruction after another.

“How does this happen? I really want to know. How does someone avoid falling into this pit? I don’t know if shastra has the answer, either. People are swimming in a sea of meaningless possessions. That is how I feel, anyway. They make reality television shows dealing with this issue, I hope you know. Other people find it entertaining to see how much can be hoarded, but I find the whole situation to be sad and depressing.”

Indeed, shastra does have a solution. There are two principles at play. One is the lack of vairagya. The human being has the unique ability to voluntarily implement both jnana and vairagya. The dog cannot sit in a classroom and learn a new language, to apply higher principles to configure their way of living. They can be trained, for sure. To sit on command. To avoid dangerous areas. To fetch a ball. But they cannot contemplate why there is a ball to begin with and how there might be a better use of time.

Vairagya literally means the lack of attachment. Vairagya is necessary because the condition from the beginning of life is to develop attachments. To friends. To family. To home. Even to possessions. Vairagya is the wise approach because no matter how strong the attachment, the bond will eventually break. Time will eliminate everything. That stuff piling up in the closet does not travel with me to the next life. It does not carry forward, but something important does.

शरीरं यद् अवाप्नोति
यच् चाप्य् उत्क्रामतीश्वरः
गृहीत्वैतानि संयाति
वायुर् गन्धान् इवाशयात्

śarīraṁ yad avāpnoti
yac cāpy utkrāmatīśvaraḥ
gṛhītvaitāni saṁyāti
vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt

“The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 15.8)

My conceptions of life continue on. This is revealed in Bhagavad-gita. It is like the air takes on the role of porter, kindly bringing my baggage along. Those conceptions of life determined the circumstances for the next temporary stay. This means that more important than my possessions is the impact those possessions make. In other words, does the stuff make me happy or is the stuff just a side player, like a supporting actor in a dramatic production?

The reason the possessions increase is because of the illusion that more acquisition will lead to more happiness. This is the trap of bhoga. Tyaga is the opposite. Tyaga is the side of renunciation. We can study the case of Ravana to see how uncontrolled bhoga leads to degradation. That leader of Lanka had everything going for him. He was in a comfortable city, ruling without opposition. There were loyal attendants. There was ample opportunity for enjoyment. There was no health minister banning consumption. There was nothing stopping Ravana from enjoying.

Nevertheless, a wise person like Sita Devi compared that way of living to staying amidst garbage. Ravana was like the crow. It did not matter if the garbage was a lot or a little. Ravana was still in the wrong mindset. Further acquisition was not going to change the situation on the ground. Sita would rather stay with a swan. This is what she was accustomed to. She was married to the king of swans in Shri Rama, who was the prince of Ayodhya.

This shows the superior way to reach vairagya. Find a higher taste. Find something better. Keep an attachment that will last, that has meaning, and that can bring rescue from the pendulum of bhoga and tyaga. Shri Krishna references this principle in Bhagavad-gita, where He talks about seeing something superior, param drishtva. A person who has that higher experience no longer worries about keeping inhibiting possessions and experiences. They no longer have a taste for the inferior. They have found something exponentially superior.

विषया विनिवर्तन्ते
निराहारस्य देहिनः
रस-वर्जं रसो ऽप्य् अस्य
परं दृष्ट्वा निवर्तते

viṣayā vinivartante
nirāhārasya dehinaḥ
rasa-varjaṁ raso ‘py asya
paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate

“The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.59)

In Closing:

Found that exponentially superior,
Such that setting aside inferior.

Which otherwise gathering in pile,
In height approaching a mile.

Where the doors opening to fail,
Soon depression’s mountain to scale.

True higher taste in Rama to know,
Otherwise in garbage like crow.

Categories: questions

Tags: dailyprompt, hare krishna, life, poem, poems, poetry, ramayana