Dear Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Please find below and and attached an article from my new series:
“Lessons From The Goshalla”
This episode is called:
“Overcoming Monkey Envy”
Please distribute it electronically if you find it useful.
I welcome your feedback, as I would like to make this a regular writing contribution.
I am seeking an editor that I can send these articles to for editing before distribution.
I welcome any suggestions for such a devotee who could help with this seva.
Thanks very much.
Your servant,
ekalavya das
Lessons from the Goshalla: Overcoming Monkey Envy
This morning, I had a monkey on my back. Luckily, there were no bites and only a few scratches that I was able to treat myself with some homemade turmeric paste. A bite would have meant a visit to the hospital. At the end of the day, I was grateful for the experience, because it gave me a profound realisation.
The sun was shinning. I could tell it was going to be a hot day ahead. There was a large gang of monkeys chewing on the grass. The inner core of the grass is sweet like sugar cane, and we often get visits of groups of monkeys from all over Vrndavana to enjoy the grass.
Around 9 am, In Sri Vrndavana Dhama, at our Bhaktivedanta Goshalla, I was walking past our grass cutting machine that prepares the grass for our 364 cows to eat.
One small baby monkey was at a distance from his mother. When I approached him to pass by, he cringed in fear and began crying out for help. I was amused at how small he was, how giant I was, compared to him, and how my very presence involved fright in him. My amusement was soon dispelled, like the darkness in a room is immediately dispelled by switching on a bright halogen light.
Suddenly, there was a big monkey on my back. I wheeled around and the monkey jumped off scratching my back and drawing some blood. An entire tribe of monkeys with their teeth bared and making aggressive sounds, were only a few feet away, advancing in my direction with obvious intensions.
The local Bhaktivedanta Goshalla Cowherd boys quickly came to my rescue. They brandished plastic chairs over their heads and rushed at the monkeys while shouting at them. The monkeys retreated.
In retrospect, I released that the incident was due to my lack of knowledge of the dynamics of monkey culture. If you scare a baby monkey, all the monkeys in the tribe will attack you. Thus the baby monkeys are more dangerous than the mature monkeys.
In introspect, I realised that the incident was due to my previous karma, and also due to my envious nature. Most of us, despite our best endeavours for spiritual practice during this lifetime and so many previous lifetimes, still retain unwanted things in the heart like lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion.
I could understand by my merriment at the baby monkeys’ fright, that envy was still there lurking in my heart.
How to become free from envy?
In order to defeat an enemy, one must first learn to identify it.
A beautiful and deep Bengali song by Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur came to my mind. Here is the English translation:
1) I am an impious sinner and have caused others great anxiety and trouble.
2) I have never hesitated to perform sinful acts for my own enjoyment. Devoid of all compassion, concerned only with my own selfish interests, I am remorseful seeing others happy. I am a perpetual liar, and the misery of others is a source of great pleasure for me.
3) The material desires within the core of my heart are unlimited. I am wrathful, devoted to false pride and arrogance, intoxicated by vanity, and bewildered by worldly affairs. Envy and egotism are the ornaments I wear.
4) Ruined by laziness and sleep, I resist all pious deeds; yet I am very active and enthusiastic to perfrom wicked acts. For worldly fame and reputation I engage in the practice of deceitfulness. Thus I am destroyed by my own greed and am always lustful.
5) A vile, wicked man such as this, rejected by godly people, is a constant offender. I am such a person, devoid of all good works, forever inclined toward evil, worn out and wasted by various miseries.
6) Now in old age, deprived of all means of success, humbled and poor, Bhaktivinoda submits his tale of grief at the feet of the Supreme Lord.
For the full song with Purport by Srila Prabhupada please visit here:
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