The
Mother taking
Class in playground
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As
the elephant on the battlefield endures the arrow
shot from the bow, so also shall I patiently bear
insult, for truly there are many of evil mind in the
world.
It
is a tamed elephant that is led to the battlefield;
one whom the Raja rides. The best among men
is he who patiently bears insult.
Trained
mules are excellent, as also the thoroughbreds of
Sindh and the mighty tuskers. Better yet is the man
who has brought himself under control.
Not
by mounting one of these animals does one attain the
unexplored path, but by mastering oneself. By that
mastery one attains it.
In
the mating season it is difficult to
control the mighty elephant Dhanapalako1.
When he is chained he refuses to eat he yearns
only to be once more a wild elephant of the
forest.
When
a man is slothful and gluttonous, always sleepy
and rolling from side to side like a fat hog in
the mud-this fool is compelled to be born over and
over again.
Once
this mind wandered where it would from one thing
to another, according to its pleasure, but now I
shall master it completely as the mahout with his
goad masters the elephant, in rut.
Delight
in vigilance, guard carefully your mind.
Lift Yourself out of evil as the elephant sunk in
a swamp.
If
for company you find a prudent friend, who leads a
good life, who is intelligent and self-controlled,
overcoming all obstacles, do not hesitate
to set out with, him joyfully and courageously.
And
if you do not meet with such a friend, who leads
a good life, who is intelligent and self-controlled,
then' like a king renouncing a kingdom he has
conquered, or like a solitary
elephant in the forest follow your path alone.
It
is better to live alone, for one cannot take
a as a companion. It is better to live alone and dc
evil, carefree, like the elephant in the jungle.
It
is good to have friends when need arises. it is to
be satisfied with what one has. It is good, at the
hour of death, to have acquired merit. It is good,
leave all grief behind you.
In
this world it is a joy to respect one's mother, it
a joy to respect one's father, it is a joy to honour
the monks; it is a joy to revere the Brahmins 1.
It
is a joy to live purely throughout one's life. It
is joy to have a steadfast faith. It is a joy to acquire
wisdom. It is a joy to abstain from all evil.
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The
first verse gives some very wise advice: the war who has
been well trained does not start running away as he receives
an arrow. He continues to advance and bears the
Pain,
with no change in his attitude of heroic resistance. Those
who wish to follow the true path will naturally be exposed
to the attacks of all forms of bad will, which not only
do not understand, but generally hate what they do not understand.
If You are worried, grieved or even discouraged by
the malicious stupidities that men say about you, you will
not advance far on the way. And such things come to you,
not because you are unlucky or because your lot is not a
happy one, but because on the contrary, the divine Consciousness
and the divine Grace take your resolution seriously and
allow the circumstances to become a touchstone on your way,
to see whether your resolution is sincere and whether you
are strong enough to face the difficulties.
Therefore, if anyone sneers at you or says something
that is not very charitable, the first thing you should
do is to look within Yourself for whatever weakness or imperfection
has allowed such a thing to happen and not to be
disconsolate, indignant or aggrieved, because people do
not appreciate you at what you think to be Your true value;
on the contrary, you must be thankful to the divine Grace
for having pointed out to you the weakness or imperfection
or deformation that you must correct.
Therefore, instead of being unhappy, you can be fully
satisfied and derive advantage, a great advantage from the
harm that was intended against you.
Besides, if you truly want to follow the path and practice
Yoga, You must not do it for appreciation or honour,
you must do it because it is an imperative need of your
being, because You cannot be happy in any other way Whether
people appreciate you or do not appreciate you,
it
is of absolutely no importance. You may tell yourself beforehand
that the further you are from ordinary men, foreign to the
ordinary mode of being, the less people will appreciate
you, quite naturally, because they will not understand you.
And I repeat, it has absolutely no importance. True sincerity
consists in advancing on the way because you cannot
do otherwise, to consecrate yourself to the divine life
because you cannot do otherwise, to seek to transform your
being and come out into the light because you cannot do
otherwise, because it is the purpose of your life.
When it is like that you may be sure that you are on
the right path.
1 One who guards the
treasure.
1
The holy men; the men of wisdom.
1
August 1958
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