Aham Vaishvanaro Bhutva
Praninaam Dehamaa Ashritaha
Prana Pana Samayuktah
Pachamyannam Chaturvidham
I stay in all living beings as ‘vaishvanaragni’ or Digestive fire and digest all four types of food
Translation of the above verse in Gita obtained from MedIndia
I have been to that particular Hotel Saravana Bhavan a host of times. I enjoy my food there almost always despite the little hurried nature of that restaurant. No complains though because the quality of the food is pretty good. Almost always, my bill is around Rs. 100. Once I pay up, i quickly leave paying little attention to the mostly naked, smeared with mud bodies right outside the hotel. Lost in my own world, Ive been paying little attention to the fact that its the same digestive fire,
vaishvanaragni,
that is in me, which krishna identifies himself with, is in those bodies too! This fact struck me with great force recently. How blind have i been to this face for so long!While we happily feed the digestive fire in us with all the best things we can lay our hands on, when faced with responsibility of treating the digestive fires in others, the first reaction is 'do I have change'. Even if we have it, we start thinking what about the upcoming bus journey for which we may need it. Even while we are so unconcerned about the beggars hunger, if its a marriage in our house, we go about spending lakhs feeding our friends and relatives. There is a lot of pride taken on the size of the menu. What crap! Can we all change and realize that the food we take in, if we are to listen to krishna, is a divine offering. Can we realize the divine in us and see the divine in others, as either the
vaishvanaragni or otherwise?
4 comments:
I totally accept your context. But I want to add something... now a days its really tough to find the original beggars and beggar business men. sometimes similar to slum-dog millionaire.
Below is one incident.
I was in a traffic signal and a beggar came with a year old kid, the kid was hurt in her hand and legs bleeding, i was surprised to see that it was not fake blood... some how my heart(emotion) and mind fighting each other to offer or not-offer the money.
I came back home without offering, and spend some time thinking abt, "Is that the kid hurt by the person who carried her(definitely can't be her mother) just for increasing the money making - tricks?".
I generally owe money to beggar in only case he/she is too old, rest make me to analyse.
we just have to use the best discriminative power we can summon at that point da!
my point is that we are usually totally lost in our own lives, that we completely fail to notice the divinity in others!
Someone told me
"When in doubt, err on the side of compassion."
In my experience, I have seen its better not to give money to beggars - which means we have to give time. We have to purchase the food, medicines. For lack of the latter as we are rushing from point A to point B, we give money and feel better.
it need not necessarily be about feeling better.. there are always many perspectives! :)
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