Amrit Dhara - Dhyanyogi Omdasji

Amrit Dhara - Dhyanyogi Omdasji

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Are you a Lizard?


The mind is very fickle and like the monkey, leaps from branch to branch and tree to tree. Like the leaping, long tailed one, our mind leaps about and is suspicious where there is no reason to be. It picks up fights with people around or even with our own self. It causes us great misery in our daily lives at home and at work place. We are unable to maintain steady relationships or good friendship. A steady mind with a purpose  to achieve and goals in life is essential for success in any field – including spirituality. Our mind is the cause of our hell and heaven. The story of Pitambar and Kishan teaches us great lessons regarding the mind:

Pitambar and Kishan were disciples of a great Guru. Both of them were beloved to their Guru and he showered his grace equally on both. But their thoughts, actions and karmas were different. At the end of their lives, it was declared Pitambar’s total karmas were extremely good  and that he would rule as an emperor for a thousand years but because of one misdeed, he had to have a short birth and live in the body of a lizard. Kishan karma’s resulted in the total of one day as an emperor and a thousand years in hell. Both were given a choice regarding which experience they would like to undergo first.

Pitambar chose to suffer for short time as a lizard and then rule uninterrupted for a thousand years as an emperor. So he became a lizard. Immediately he began to dart here and there in search of food. His mind was as restless and fickle as his tongue. So he moved around in many places catching and eating insects. In that short period of time, his mind changed many thousands of times and he committed endless sins by simply catching insects even though he was not hungry. As a result, all of his good karma got wiped out and he was doomed to many thousands of years in hell.

Kishan looked back on his life and was very sorry that he had committed many blunders. He yearned for a chance to redeem himself. So he chose to have a day as a King first and then suffer the thousand years of hell. As soon as he was crowned King, he gave orders for distribution of food and clothes for the poor in the land.  He sat with his ministers and gave orders for immediate execution of digging more wells, laying roads and build shelters for the travellers. Then he participated in a yagna conducted for the welfare of all his subjects. By the end of the day, he had done enough good karma to get an extension of the post of King for a hundred years. Kishan spent every day of his life as a King working for the welfare of the people and worshiping God for welfare of his subjects and kingdom.  His growing deposits of good deeds wiped out the thousand years in hell and ensured him a long and successful life as a benevolent monarch.

When our mind is fickle, we commit many blunders. Our judgement is not right and our decisions are not stable. We neither stick to our  values of ethics or principles but sell them to anyone who is ready to appease our ego with material things or with false sweet words. We are not true to ourselves or to anyone else. We don’t belong to our family or friends or guru or God. We distance ourselves away from the life of a decent human being with our fickleness. Let us not forget the fate of the lizard or the redemption of the man who performed good deeds in the short time allotted to him. Let us make our minds stable, determine our goals and be firm in our  value of ethics and principles in life.

Regular mantra japa and meditation and following of the teachings of the Guru stabilises the mind. Then we can wipe out the fickle aspects of our mind (as exhibited by the lizard) and bring out our divine nature. Living with steadfastness and purpose in life, we can achieve the goals of life  - artha, dharma, kama, moksha- earning of wealth in right way and fulfilment of desires and finally achieving salvation.

So check yourself out... are you a  fickle minded?