A Weekly Thought

[MANTRALAURA at DELPHI.COM]

sarevebhyo namaH,
  My time will be devoted to a personal
in-depth study of the "bhagavadgiitaa"
which I truly need with the help of my
swaami, but I'll try to post a verse or
two from prakaaraNa books once a week.
  The following is from pa~nchasashii,
Chapter IV, verses 60 and 60A (also found
in bhagavadgiitaa 2.62 and 63). The
thought echoes a problem that I have
unfortunately inherited from my family
upbringing and have had great difficulty
overcoming completely, although personal
study of the advaita vedaantan scriptures
and personal contact with compassionate
swaamis / gurus have greatly helped:

  "If a man dwells mentally on any object
of desire, he will become attached to it.
Attachment gives rise to a longing for it,
and the frustration of desire leads to
anger.
  From anger comes delusion, and from
delusion loss of memory. From loss of
memory comes the ruin of discrimination,
and from the ruin of discrimination the
man perishes."

  Whatever we desire, whether material
objects or just thoughts of how we personally
believe a situation should be handled (there
are many other examples I am sure others can
think of regarding different types of desires
we encounter), if there is any interference
between our desire and the final status that
we seek, that leads to our own frustration
which then leads to our anger. Even though
we know that we should only be an unaffected
witness of events, once anger arises, we forget
what we have been taught and react in a way
that we know is contrary to what is truly in
our hearts. (I think it could be compared to
temporary insanity!) Verse 61 tells us how we
can overcome our anger:

  "This tendency of thinking on objects may be
overcome by meditation on the attributeless
Brahman. This can gradually be done at ease by
first meditating on Ishvara."

. . .A time for healing . . .

OM shaantiH shaantiH shaantiH

dhanyavaadaH,
  Mantralaura