Like a Thousand Suns: The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living, Volume II by Eknath Easwaran

Author:Eknath Easwaran [Easwaran, Eknath]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-03-21T04:00:00+00:00

Here Sri Krishna uses vajra, the thunderbolt, as a symbol of the power of selflessness, which cannot be broken by any other power on earth. In the Vedas, Indra, leader of the gods, carries the thunderbolt as his weapon; it is with the thunderbolt that he slays the cosmic demon. The story of how this weapon was made is a marvelous one. The gods were terribly distressed at the strength of the forces of violence in the world, so they went to Indra and asked him to conquer this violence and separateness. His strange reply was, “I must first have an invincible weapon, which can be made only from the bones of a sage who is pure and perfect.”

The devas searched far and wide for such a sage. They told many spiritual aspirants of their plight. “Oh, yes, the aspirants would say, “we would like to help you out. What can we do?” The unexpected answer was, “Give us your bones.” As it turned out, the aspirants preferred having their bones inside them instead, and so the search went on.

Finally the devas came to Dadhici, a simple, sweet figure who had come to identify himself so completely with all life that everyone’s suffering was his own. The devas confessed, “We are at the end of our tether. Violence is rising high on all sides, and we haven’t been able to get the weapon we need to stop it, for it can be fashioned only from the bones of a sage who is pure and perfect.”

“If you will accept it,” Dadhici reassured them, “my body is yours. You don’t have to look any further.” He sat down in meditation, united himself with the Lord, and shed his body so it could be used for the happiness of mankind.

This capacity to do anything to relieve the suffering of others is a sign of invincible power. We usually misuse the word power to mean the capacity to destroy another country, or race, or fellow creature. This is not power; this is a liability. Power rises from within us. The power that we have to forget ourselves, to subordinate ourselves to the welfare of the whole, is the only power that is real. As long as we have the desire and the resoluteness to contribute to life, we need not be diffident about our efforts to solve the problems that face us. The Lord tells us in this verse that he is Kamadhuk, the wish-fulfilling cow. This mythical cow satisfies desires that are for the general welfare, but if there is any personal taint in our wish, she will not grant it.

Because I come from India, people used to ask me if I consider cows sacred. I used to tell them, “Of course I do – and tigers, buffaloes, beavers, and Chihuahuas, too. All animals are sacred to me.” We are learning more and more about the nutritional advantages of vegetarianism, but I would say the more important point about not eating meat is that it makes for sound spiritual living, because it affirms the unity of life.

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