DOG CHEWING BONE ANALOGY IS THE RIGHT ONE
FOR CHASING AFTER WORLDLY PLEASURES
Namaskar,
Throughout His teachings Baba has presented us with various analogies
that shed light onto our journey on the spiritual path.
These following two analogies-- about the musk deer and the dog chewing
the bone-- contain golden nuggets of guidelines about how we should
proceed in our spiritual life as well as how we can avoid the missteps
of material cravings.
ANALOGY OF MUSK DEER
Baba tells again and again that we must not seek Him in the external
world, rather we are to seek Him within. In His discourses and in
Prabhat Samgiita He emphasizes this point repeatedly.
Always He warns us of the danger of looking for Him externally.
Dura't sudure...
By looking for Him externally, the sadhaka only pushes Parama Purusa
further and further away, beyond the grasp. Even then, in their dogmatic
worship, so many seekers and religious fanatics fall into this negative
cycle.
By worshiping idols, taking pilgrimages, declaring jihad, and following
so-called Mahaprayan, various people think they are doing things that
will enable them to attain Him. But this is not just not so. He is
within and they are going without. Their pitiful plight is just like
this analogy about the musk deer.
Baba says, "The other meaning of gandhacelika' is “sweet scented musk
accumulated in and around the navel portion of the musk deer.” The musk
deer lives in cold countries and looks ugly, but the hormone secreted
from its glands gradually accumulates in the navel. Eventually the
liquid portion evaporates and the remainder becomes hard, and the harder
it gets, the stronger its fragrance becomes. The female deer does not
have this musk scent. The male deer becomes so intoxicated with its own
fragrance that it goes berserk searching for the source of the smell. It
fails to realize that the source of the smell is its own navel.
Ultimately, after much running, the exhausted musk deer falls down
dead." (MVNS)
Just as the musk deer falls down tired and ultimately dead after its
failed pursuit of trying to find that aromatic smell in the external
world, the same is true of those idol worshipers and jihadists who seek
their god through external objects and displays. In the end they do not
get Him, and instead fall down tired or dead. Then in their next life
they get transmuted into rock, iron, or even stone.
So we should be sure that our approach is introversial and
psycho-spiritual, where we seek Him within. We must not run around
senselessly like the musk deer, as those religious fanatics do, not
knowing that that what we ultimately seek lies within. That is Baba's
teachings about the musk deer analogy.
ANALOGY OF DOG CHEWING BONE
In this next analogy, Baba shows us how chasing after temporary or
worldly enjoyments occurs at the expense of our own self, of our own
vital energy.
Baba says, "The situation is likened to that of a dog when it chews a
dry bone. The bone contains nothing – no marrow, no flesh, nothing.
While chewing that dry bone, its lips get cut and blood oozes out, and
when the poor dog tastes the blood, it thinks that it is tasting blood
from the bone, and licks even more. If you forcibly snatch the dry bone
from the dog, the dog will whimper, because it will feel that its food
is being taken away." (SS-21)
In the above analogy the dog is chewing its bone and getting nothing in
return. Rather it is depriving itself of its own life force-- its own
blood-- yet thinking that it is getting something very tasty in return.
Such is the fate of so many who chase after material things.
Those who drink liquor think that they are drinking the nectar of life
and getting so much happiness. But in fact they are not getting
anything, and their drunkenness is coming at the expense of their own
liver. That organ is getting destroyed by alcohol, yet the drinker
thinks that the alcohol is giving him so much joy.
Such a person is no different from the dog that is merely sucking on its
own blood when chewing the dry bone.
Then of course there are those who think that sensual / sexual pleasures
are giving them so much happiness in the world. But those escapades are
merely depriving a person of their own lymph which is the seed of
spiritual knowledge and bliss.
So again it is a losing scenario. The person thinks that in having sex
they are getting everything, when in fact nothing is gotten, rather one
is losing their own vital force.
And same is the case with so many things including sumptuous food,
money, prestige, automobiles etc. People mistakenly think that they are
getting an abundance of pleasure from this mundane world when in fact
they are getting fleeting joy, i.e. nothing at all, at the expense of
their own inner vitality.
The basic ideas is that in the mundane sphere we are always spending
something to get nothing. That is what dog and the dry bone analogy is
all about. That is what Baba is teaching us.
CAN ONLY GAIN FROM SPIRITUAL SPHERE
It is only in the spiritual sphere that we can get something. Only
through spiritual practice can we get lasting happiness. When the mind
rises up and feels His touch then nectar secretes from the pineal gland
and we feel a'nandam, or bliss.
In worldly spheres, our "happiness" comes from depleting our own
energies. In the spiritual sphere, our happiness comes by enhancing our
energy by receiving spiritual nectar.
That is the dramatic difference between mundane pleasures and spiritual
bliss.
BABA'S BLESSING
By His grace He has given us graphic analogies whereby we can clearly
understand His important life teachings and progress along the path of
Supreme Benevolence by seeking Him within and not wasting our time with
chasing after mundane pleasures.
Namaskar,
Subhash
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