Constructive Anger -The Story of Tulsidas

There are times when anger can be constructive and creative too.  When you follow the path of yoga, you can become creative in the state of in anger.

In Vedic times there once was a man who was married at a very young age.  He was very much in love and so attached to his new young wife that he could not tolerate any separation from her. When one day she decided to visit her mother for a few days,  the young man missed her so much that blinded by his love and attachment to his young bride he decided to follow her to her mother’s house.

It was difficult journey; the monsoon had brought heavy rain, flooding the small streams and turning them into torrents of gushing waters. As he came to a wide river, he saw no boat with which to cross to and he decided to brave the currents and swim across. The current was powerful but he found what in his haste he took for a floating log, and holding on to it he was totally unaware that the “log” was actually a dead body floating in the river…

Eventually as he reached his mother-in-law’s house, late at night,  he could not wait to go to the door but wanted to climb up to his wife’s window expecting her to be happily surprised.  He noticed what he assumed to be a vine hanging outside the house and nimbly proceeded to climb up on what in fact was a large snake. But so besotted was he that he was totally oblivious of the reality of the situation.

Finally facing his wife he met with quite an unexpected reception.  Instead of kissing and hugging him for the show of his ‘great love’ his wife greeted him irritated and upset at this overabundance of devotion, and scolded him thoroughly.  “You risked your life to simply reach your wife, just gone for a few days?  You have that much attachment to me, to this bundle of flesh, that you overcame all these obstacles?  Well, if you had used only 1% of this energy for your spiritual attainment, you would be enlightened by now….!”

That was a shock!  The scolded husband was absolutely stunned by these words, and equally upset and angry.

“After all I did, all I went through to be with her, she does not even appreciate my love and devotion.  She does not deserve my love…” He was very angry indeed.  After some time however, when he had cooled down, common sense and awareness prevailed. For some time he pondered the words of his wife and finally he made the decision to do exactly as she had outlined in her scolding.  “Now I will make it my goal to become enlightened and I will only see her again when I have achieved this goal.” Such was his determination.

In the heat of the situation this young man had been angry enough to have killed, yet he was able to transform his anger into a positive force; he realized that he had been blinded by his love ever since his marriage, and that her harsh comments had actually helped him to truly ‘see’.

Thereafter he considered his wife to be his first guru and asked for her blessing to shift his obsessive love into a spiritual pursuit…  Thus this man once obsessed by the love for his wife truly became enlightened and has become known as the famous mystic poet Tulsidas and author of  “The Ramcharitmanasa”.



Dhruva

There lived in ancient India the powerful King Uttanpad, whose wife bore him a son, named Dhruva.  After some time the king’s attention shifted to another woman, so he discarded the first wife and son to marry the second, who also bore him a son.  Dhruva loved to sit upon his father’s knee, but the second wife objected strongly, saying hers was the only princely heir who could have that privilege. 

Confused and dejected, Dhruva pleaded with his mother, who told him it was true – he must forget his wish to sit upon the Maharaja’s throne.  She could see, though, that her son would not be satisfied with any explanation she could give.  So she suggested he take his problem to Lord Vishnu, thinking the request would be forgotten with the fervor of prayer.

However, the five year old Dhruva possessed exceedingly strong determination and ventured with unyielding faith into the forests surrounding the kingdom.

Years passed by filled with asceticism most uncommon for a small child. Finally he came to the ‘dwelling’ of Lord Vishnu and was met with much praise by Narada, the God’s servant. Narada also tried to convince the child to turn back; this was not the place for a young person and he needed to return.  But Dhruva was adamant.  He had set out to meet the Lord, he was here now and there was no turning back.  That was his test.  Narada initiated Dhruva, becoming his Guru. When after further sadhana and practice Dhruva finally reached the abode of Lord Vishnu, Dhruva wanted to offer praise, but did not know what to say.  Seeing this, Vishnu pressed His conch to the mouth of His speechless devotee, instantly granting him the boon of understanding.  This done, the young seeker lost all desire for meaningless power. Wisdom illumined the unreality of the world and he was enlightened.

However, he was told to return to the palace and take his place upon the throne; his wisdom would reflect in benevolent rule over the vast kingdom. He was bound to fulfill the karma created by earlier intention. 

Anything conceived before or during sadhana one must go through.  That is why Wise Beings do not wish for anything, but maintain a state of void, nothingness.  Accordingly, Dhruva had to become not only king, but emperor of India.  After leaving his body, he became ‘Lord of the Planets’ embodied in the Morning Star of the Milky Way – a symbol of firm, fixed purpose and perseverance.  Such is the power of will.



Lord Shiva and the Demon

 Many times people are confused about the manifestation of ’miracles’.  This is a story of how even genuine miracles can at times misfire:

A long time ago, in response to great austerities of a demon, the Great God, Shiva, offered him a boon.

“What do you want of me that you have worked so hard to please Me?” asked Shiva in benevolence.

The demon replied: “When I put my hand on the head of a person he should immediately be burned to ashes.”

‘Oh dear’, Lord Shiva thought, but granted the somewhat gruesome request, delighting the demon, who answered: “Right, you first!”

A shocked Shiva resorted to flight as the demon tried to touch His head. The demon’s motivation had had nothing to do with pleasing the Lord, but merely to gain the affections of Shiva’s consort Parvati.

As this little drama unfolded, another Divine Manifestation, Lord Vishnu, watched with great interest from behind a clump of bushes.  It was quite a sight, Shiva running here and there, the demon in hot pursuit, hand poised to incinerate the God of Destruction.

Vishnu decided that something had to be done; He had to intervene, and changing Himself into the form of Parvati, He confronted the demon in a rather seductive manner.

“Really”, She said, why bother chasing after Shiva when I am willing to come to you?  You are so attractive; there is no need to destroy Shiva.”

This pleased the vanity of the demon tremendously who approached Parvati with demonic lust.
“No, wait please”, She halted him, “whenever Shiva comes to Me, He performs his wonderful dance first.”

“But I cannot dance” said the demon dejectedly.

“Never mind, I will show you.” replied Parvati, and She began to teach him the movements of the Tandava, Shiva’s celestial dance of destruction, which involves placing one hand upon the head!

So the demon danced.  He danced the dance of destruction with all his heart and soul, and a small pile of ashes at the feet of Parvati was all that bore witness to the event.

In the meantime, from a safe distance, Shiva had watched the entire spectacle. The danger over He ventured forth to meet the admonishing gaze of Vishnu, now Himself again.

“Granting boons to demons, indeed!” reminded Vishnu.

Shiva may have demonstrated His powers with no other motivation than love, even toward a demon, but the result was disaster. It is a mistake to associate any kind of sensationalism with Divinity. The performance of miracles does not gauge the caliber of spiritual awareness in God or Guru.



Ashtavakra and King Janaka

King Janaka, mighty ruler of ancient Mithila, had a dream.  He dreamt that he was in a large forest, destitute and starving. Yet somehow he managed to find some plants and roots in the jungle and with great care was able to prepare a meager meal.  But just as he was ready to satisfy his hunger with the modest food he had prepared, a large bull stormed into the clearing where King Janaka had made himself comfortable. Within seconds the bull had devoured every last bit of the food.  The King cried in frustrated disappointment and at this point he woke up.

This dream puzzled him greatly and he wanted to know: What is the Truth? Who am I, am I the king in this palace, ruling a kingdom or am I this man lost and starving in the forest?

He wanted to find out.  He invited all the scholarly pundits from far and wide to give him the answer to his question – offering half his kingdom for a satisfactory reply.  Many came, after all there was the enticement of half a kingdom to consider, but alas, no one could find a suitable answer. 

Finally one man stepped forward, deformed in eight joints and because of that was named Ashtavakra, (Eight Bends).  All the other ‘wise’ men began to laugh and made derisive jokes at his deformities.  Ashtavakra looked around the assembly and said:  “I thought I was in the company of wise men, but now I realize that you are those who can only see the outside, the skin.  Since you have only recognized my deformed body and not my Self, I cannot believe that I am in the company of astute scholars who cannot understand that “although the river may be crooked, the water never is…”    

Then he moved on to the King and said:  “So you want to give me half your kingdom. How do you plan to do this - does it even belong to you? “ 

“But, yes, of course it belongs to me; I am the legal, bona fide king.”

“So you think it belongs to you; before you, who owned the kingdom?”

“My father.”

“And before that?”

“His father”

“After you?”

“My sons”

“So how come it was not yours before and will not yours be after you, yet in between you became the owner of the kingdom? “

The king had to admit that there had been a flaw in his thinking and that he was actually only the caretaker of the kingdom and that it did not belong to him. Ashtavakra had made it clear to him that he could not give what he did not own.

The king puzzled for a moment, then said:

“Alright, I’ll give you my body”

“Oh King, you are making the same mistake again, are you the owner of this body?”

“Yes, of course, I am the dweller of this body, therefore I own it, and everything is under my control.”

“And where was this body of yours 100 years ago and where will it be 100 years from now?”

Again the king had to admit that the body did not really belong to him either and that it was just given to him on loan by Mother Nature for the duration of a lifetime, after which it would have to be returned to Nature.

“Alright, said the king, “I’ll give you my mind”

“You think you own your mind; you cannot even control your mind. How can you give something over which you have no control? You tell your mind to do this and it does not even listen to you?”

In due course the king, quite defeated by Ashtavakra’s logic and wisdom, said:

“Oh Master, I really must it some give some thought to what is really mine… “

Eventually King Janaka realized that he was in the presence of a great Master, and asked to be accepted as Ashtavakra’s disciple to be taught the mysteries of the Self.

The essence of the dialogue between King Janaka and Ashtavakra is beautifully rendered in the Ashtavakra Gita.

You are the Solitary Witness
of All That Is,
forever free.
Your only bondage is not seeing This.



The Bread Thief

There is a small story to illustrate the kind of powerful energy that can see God in any creature. That kind of intensity is missing in today’s world.

There once was a High Being, who lived in the forest, tending a little shrine.  Every day it was his custom to cook delicious food, which he ritually offered to God in the little shrine where God was supposed to dwell. Allowing some time for God to have “finished the meal”, the food is distributed between the devotees as prasad, blessed food.  

One day the Master was intent on arranging the food with the utmost care, having prepared the vegetables and the roti. It is custom to add a little clarified butter, ghee to the roti for taste as well as to make the bread nice and soft and to add a touch of “purity”.  Everything was ready but as the Master went to get the ghee, a large dog came by, and, snatching the entire stack of bread, ran off with it. 

Well, the Master, in hot pursuit, ran after the dog, calling out:  “My Lord, please wait, please wait and let me put the ghee on the roti…” and thus continued running after the dog.  It was a long chase until, at the point of complete exhaustion, the Master finally collapsed.  And legend relates that God appeared to him in the form of the dog, telling him: “I am pleased with your dedication and devotion – no one has ever done that.”

It is at the height of devotion, that you may be able to truly “see”.  No matter what culture you live in, or what your concept of God may be, humans create a concept of some power greater than themselves.  If you have to create a concept of that power, which you might call God, why not create a concept which is beautiful and fulfilling, a concept whereby you can uplift yourself?