ARANI SERIES
Spark 33
Sunday, May 28, 2017
THE WAY TO HEAVEN, AND TO HELL
On his way back from a fierce battle1, a samurai warrior encountered a monk. He thought of getting a doubt cleared. This doubt had been bothering him for a while. The warrior began humbly, “Oh monk, which is the way to heaven, and which, to hell?”
The monk seemed to be deep in meditation; he did not respond. The samurai asked the same question again, louder, and a third time, louder still. His yelling almost shook the tree sheltering the monk.
The monk’s eyes flew open. “You stupid fellow,” he said, “why did you disturb my meditation?”
The samurai was furious. Who was this monk to call him stupid? He drew his sword, ready to kill the monk.
When he did so, the monk smiled and said, “That is the way to hell!”
The warrior stopped where he stood, and realized that the monk had been listening to him all along, and was now teaching him a valuable lesson. He put his sword back in its sheath.
“And that is the way to heaven,” said the monk.
Impulse control is a key component of emotional intelligence2, and a whole lot of spiritual guidance also emphasizes the need to “not dowhat comes to our mind without giving some thought to it”.
If Kathopanishad3 calls the two ways ‘the pleasant’ and ‘the right’ options, Geeta4 warns us not to be swayed by the suggestions and promptings of the senses.
We must begin with the ‘now’. In the context of the small choices that come to us – in thought, word and deed – we must tame our habit-based impulses and change our nature. Vulgar thoughts, harsh words and unkind actions try to emerge in us all the time; the good news is that we do have, in 7 out of 10 cases, the choice to proceed with themor to withdraw from them.
Let us act wisely in every 10 minutes of the window of the ‘now’ and let us build a different, robust future.
Swami Chidananda
(..in Dallas, Texas)
Notes:
1 The story is taken from HAPPINESS IS YOU, a book by Dr. Siddhartha B Gautam, published by Step Press (North Carolina, USA). Seewww.steppress.org/books
2 See elaboration on Impulse Control in the book THE EQ EDGE: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success by authors Steven Stein and Howard Book.
3 Kathopanishad – valli 2, mantra 1
4 Geeta – chapter 3, shloka 34