Kannada Article by Vidwan B G Anantha
English Rendering by M R Bhashyam
We are carrying many bad and ignoble (Anaatma gunagalu) qualities for a long time. Some would have come through our genes. These are not easily brought under control. They rebel saying "We have made this our home for a long time. After keeping quiet for so long, why are you trying to throw us out now?" Shri SriRanga Mahaguru used to cite an incidence about this.
An epidemic had broken out during his ancestor's time. As was the practice then, people used to leave their homes in the village, and live in fields. They would build temporary huts with coconut and beetle leaves and stay.
His ancestors had a jar full of tasty pickles in their hut. As days progressed, the pickles started vanishing faster than anticipated. One day as the family members were watching, an unknown hand crawled through a hole in the hut and was taking away the pickles. They ran and caught the thief. To their astonishment the thief said "I am taking these pickles since many days. Why are you shouting hoarse now?!" The thief was complaining against the house holder!! What it means is that we must make sure that bad qualities do not take roots in us for long. If they do, we must get rid of them cleverly. It is not easy to get rid of dogs and cats that we have reared for long. If they leave suddenly, we will also not be pleased.
If this were to be so, is it easy to cast away mental volitions that have made their home in us for a long time? We must bend our nature slowly with love, cast away the bad and slowly let the good characteristics (Aatma gunas) permeate into us.
There is a method for this in nature. We can understand this with an example. Let us assume that a thief sneaks into our home when we are asleep. The family head knows that the thief has sneaked in. What happens if the thief comes to know that the family has come to know about his presence? Does not the thief try to get away? The bad volitions that we have are similar. If they come to know that we are aware, they vanish automatically. It may take a little while though.
This is the capability of our mind. The ones we do not want will go away automatically. Those we want will come in and build nests. Hence it is important that we recognize the bad qualities that we have. Once we have identified, it is necessary that we are determined not to retain them. If we pray to the Almighty saying "kindly save me from these" it is certain that these will not stay for long. Let us perform this exercise on ourselves and succeed!
Note: The Kannada version of this article can be viewed at AYVM blogs.