Little but sweet
31. 'Patram pushpam phalam toyam,"
a leaf, a flower, a fruit, a little water, whatever it is, bhakti
makes the offering complete. The question is not how much to give,
but with what bhavana. Once I was talking to a professor about a
problem in teaching. We happened to differ. Finally he said,
"Sir, I've been at this job for eighteen years." When,
instead of convincing me, he cited his long experience, I said in
fun, "Sir, if for eighteen years a bullock is yoked to an oil
mill, does it become an engineer?" It is one thing to go round
and round blindly like a bullock and quite another to understand the
science of engineering. A man may carry for years the burden of
teaching and yet not understand the art of teaching.
The knowledge that a scientist can
acquire in six months, a porter cannot in eighteen years. The
professor might have grown gray teaching, but that proves nothing.
So also, there is no value in the quantity of the stuff you pile up
before the Lord. There, the question is not about size or shape or
price, but only about the bhavana; not what or how much we offer,
but how, in what spirit, we offer it. There are only 700 slokas in
the Gita; there are other works with as many as 10,000. But we
cannot say that because a thing is big, it therefore better. What we
should look for is the power, the energy it has. The number of
action in life is not important. Even a single action performed in a
spirit of dedication to the Lord will bring us the fullness of
experience. |
