God and the Elephant!

            Long long ago, really so long ago (!!), there was an ashram deep inside the forest of India. The Guru and his humble disciples were living there. The disciples were taking care of the ashram works when they are done with their day's lessons. 

               One fine day, a group of disciples were out collecting wood. As it was rainy season, the woods were wet and also as it was green everywhere than the usual, the disciples lost track and were walking along the path where a village was situated, in the circumference of the forest. Not knowing this, the disciples saw some dry woods and collected the woods relaxed, as they got what they were looking for. Everyone was discussing happily about the forest and their adventure whilst, one of the disciple, who was collecting wood, got curious and went, “shush! Are you people hearing that weird sound?” Everyone got curious and turned towards the direction where the sound came from. To their amaze, they were able to see the big old forest trees being rumbled and the ground was trembling like even the earth is afraid of what is approaching them! By the time their brain was trying to fight the fear of unknown and identify the unknown, they were able to see a huge, dark skinned elephant approaching them with all its monstrous power and fierce. With the chains around its neck and hind legs, it was clear that the elephant is used by the village people. By passing the charging elephant's trumpet sound, they were able to also listen to a thin voice coming from behind. A human voice! A mahout!! "That's a mad elephant on lose. You kids, run away from its path!” shouted the mahout with all the left over energy he had on chasing the elephant from the village.  
                 Every disciple on hearing the mahout ran away into the woods out of fear whilst one disciple stood, without moving. "Why are you running? Why are you afraid of the elephant? Guru said God resides in everything! God is in me, God is in you all. And so inside the elephant too! Why the god inside an elephant would would try to hurt the god inside me!? That's not how...Ahhhhhh!” even before the attentive and studious disciple could finish his statement; the fiery elephant struck him, threw him in the air like a feather and kept on running in his own way. The disciple went unconscious without even knowing that he was flying!
                 The other disciples and the villagers carried the injured disciple and took him to the ashram. The Guru bandaged the wounds with medicines. Days later, when the disciple regained his conscious, he was so confused that he asked for Guru to clear his mind and doubt. As Guru knew what happened from the mouth of the other disciples and the villagers, he went to the injured disciple, knowing what the question is going to be.
                  "Guruji, you told me, God resides in everything. So, there’s god inside me and also inside that elephant! Why would the God inside an elephant want to hurt the God inside me!??", asked the confused disciple. Smiling at the disciple, Guru replied, “Of course, God resides inside you and the elephant. God is also inside the mahout who was shouting at you to run away from the elephant. Why dint you get out of the way when he told you to??Why dint you listen to the god who was trying to save you??".

From a Life of Limited Self to a Life of Love!

     

Every one of us desires to be happy. Normally, that is what we seek to achieve. Yet, most people are immersed in some kind of suffering. If at times they do get small instalments of happiness in their lives, it is neither unadulterated nor abiding. Even if one does not seek suffering, it comes as an inevitable outcome of the very manner in which one seeks happiness.

Most seek happiness through the fulfillment of desires but such fulfilment is never an assured thing. Hence, in the pursuit of desires, one is also unavoidably preparing for the suffering from their non-fulfilment. Goaded by multifarious desires, most seek the pleasures of the world with unabated hope. But the enthusiasm for pleasure is abated by suffering, which often follows in pleasure’s wake.

Man is subject to sudden moods and impulses. Sometimes he is happy and elated, at other times he is very unhappy and downhearted. His moods change as his desires are fulfilled or frustrated. Satisfaction of some desires yields momentary happiness, but this happiness does not last, and it soon leads to the reaction of depression. His moods subject him to ups and downs and to constant change.

Complete detachment is one of the essential conditions of lasting and true happiness, for he who has complete detachment no longer creates for himself the suffering which is due to the unending thraldom produced by desires. Desirelessness makes a man firm like a rock. He is neither moved by pleasure nor by sorrow. He is not upset by the onslaught of opposites. The steadiness and equanimity which remain unaffected by any opposites is possible only through complete detachment, which is an essential condition of lasting and true happiness. The state of complete desirelessness is latent in everyone, and when, through complete detachment, one reaches the state of wanting nothing, one taps the unfailing inner source of eternal and unfading happiness which is not based upon the objects of the world, but is sustained by Self-knowledge and Self-realization.

Mere desirelessness, however, cannot yield positive happiness, though it protects man from self-created suffering and goes a long way towards making true happiness possible. True happiness begins when a man learns the art of right adjustment to other persons, and right adjustment involves self-forgetfulness and love. From here one realizes the spiritual importance of transforming a life of the limited self into a life of love.

When true love is awakened in man it leads him to God-realization, opening up an unlimited field of lasting and unfading happiness. The happiness of God-realization is the goal of all creation. It is not possible for a person to have the slightest idea of that inexpressible happiness without actually having the experience of Godhood. Real happiness which comes through realizing God is worth all the physical and mental suffering in the universe. Then all suffering is as if it had never been.

Even those who are not God-realized can control their minds through yoga to such an extent that nothing makes them feel pain or suffering, even if they are in a distressing situation. However, though yogis can brave and annul any suffering, they might not experience the happiness of realizing God.

When one becomes God, everything else is zero. The happiness of God-realization is self-sustained, eternally fresh and unfading, boundless and indescribable. It is for this happiness that the world has sprung into existence.

-Avatar Meher Baba