Hari OM
Story-day is for cultural exploration, puraanas and parables and finding out about leading lights in spiritual philosophy.
Gurudev, Swami Chinmayananda-ji, was a prolific letter writer. If a devotee asked of him, he always responded. Not always with things we wanted to hear. Gurudev's task (and that of any teacher's) was to steer the student in the true path of the subject studied. When someone had written to him lamenting their ability to keep to saadhana, he responded:
"Yes, when the going is smooth it is easy to be spiritual and steady in our inner peace. Then the outer world grins at us and we lose our balance and start living in old individualistic life seeking out security and selfish fulfillment. Whenever you make such slips, very carefully analyse and discover the source of the “fall”. Kama aesha – krodha aesha- Kama (lust) otherwise called as rage (krodha) is the source every time.
Even Ramaswamy Naicker will cry out “Govinda Govinda” when something sharp suddenly hits him- the old samskaara. So too we had been living so long at our ego level, that in unguarded moments we forget our higher nature, and due to our Samskaara we get perturbed… Never mind. Even a very good driver can bump into an unexpected pothole… not to bump into one is the best – but in long travels it happens…"
In this way, the taskmaster acknowledges frailty. That said, the expectation would be that one picks oneself up and again returns to the straight and narrow path, being more aware and ready for those 'potholes'!
