Equal vision

Equal vision

SARVABHUTATMA BHUTATMATVAM


Every night Mahlsapathy used to feed a crippled bitch, and one day, having fed it, he said, "Go". But the creature did not stir. He took a stick and gave it a beating and then it howled with pain and ran away. That night when Mahlsapathy went to the Mosque and shampooed Baba's legs, Bapu Saheb, Dada Kelkar and others were with him. Baba said, "Arre, there is a bitch, sickly like me, in the village. Everybody is beating it." Then at once Mahlsapathy, remembering his behaviour repented his mistake.


Some may fancy that merely rebuking Mahlsapathy for mercilessly hitting a bitch for not moving out when told to go is a mere ordinary lesson in Ahimsa or fair treatment of brutes. But from the stand point of Baba's development of pupils, it is much more. Any one who is capable of hitting a bitch naturally thinks poorly of a bitch and highly of himself, and does not hesitate to injure a "lower creature". This is not merely a vice but evidence of Rajas Tamasa obscuring the soul's light – a very serious obstacle to theattainment of equal vision.


`Somatvam yogauchyate, Nirdosam hi samam Brahman Tasmat Brahmani te sthitah' (BG V-19) to the attainment of `Sarvabhutatma bhutatmatvam', that is, realizing God or the Self in every creature and paying reverence to it (BG V-7).


First, about equal vision, it will be noted that alike in the Bhagavat Gita and Krishnoddhava Samvada, (SB XI) samatva of Equal View is repeatedly stressed as a qualification for and a mark of the Jnani. If a man has realized Brahman (i.e., got Jnana), then all creatures are alike Brahman, and he treats them all equally and make no invidious distinctions between them, worshipping one, beating another, etc., Vidya Vinaya Sampanne Brahmane Gavi hastini Scuni chaiva Sevapakecha Panditah Samadarscinah (BG V-18). The want of samatva denotes a failure to rise above vulgar mediocrity; and beating shows the need for a great deal of effort to rise to heights of equal vision. Equal vision is sometimes considered a mere poetical ideal, which is not practical.


Many may think it not worthwhile, when they are in active life, when still living in the family, to aim at equal vision-samatva. But Baba did not take that view. Mahlsapathy was a family man, `grihasta' living with his family up to the last and died in the midst of his relations. Yet Baba raised him nearer and nearer to the level of equal vision, and the first step in that effort is to stop cruelty to animals. So his warning against the beating of the bitch must be viewed in the light of the need for achieving equal vision.


Higher steps are not achieved merely by stopping the beating of animals. Higher steps are accelerated by Baba's highest plank, namely, seeing of Himself or God in all creatures. Sarvabhutatma bhutatmatvam. That is Baba wanted his highest bhaktas to feel strong enough about his (Baba's) being God. They should feel his being in all animals and consequently God's being in all animals, a result which should be manifested by either mental or even actual physical worship offered to some animals at any rate.

Namdev's recognition of Vittal in a dog, after he had been trained by the Guru Visoba Kesar in equal vision and in the treatment of all objects as manifestation of God, has already been mentioned inprevious volume. Mahlsapathy was the best fitted to gain that faculty of seeing (Sai) God in a creature or to sing or feel with Kabir "Sabghata Atma Rama Govinda – Hari Bole Hari Bole Bhai". In the Bhagavata recognizing the difficulty of actual physical worship being offered to all creatures, the advice is given that the worship may be mental, and the stanza runs: -


Manasaiva etani hhutani
Pranamet Bahumanayan
Iswaro Jiva kalayo
Pravishto Bhagavaniti

This means, `Remembering the fact that all these creatures have an Atma or Soul and that the Soul is but the reflection or part of God, one should feel that God is in all these creatures, esteem them and worship them only mentally'.

It is not known whether Mahlsapathy, Chandorkar, or any other devotee actually did this worship as a sadhana when he met creature after creature or any creature or succeeded in feeling that God'sreflection, that is, God Himself in another form was in every creature. But this was evidently Baba's intention, and one might presume that some of the bhaktas of Baba did achieve a fairly high degree of progress in this sadhana.

One Lakshmi going to Baba's tomb, shortly after He passed away, was bemoaning his loss and prayed to him to show his form to her. As she was moving out, she met a serpent on her way. At once she cried out, `Baba, if you show me your form in this serpent shape, how am I to get on?' This is an interesting instance. If even a rustic woman, not presumed to know anything about higher culture or the higher sadhanas in the Sastras was able to recognize or treat Baba as being in a snake, surely other bhaktas of Baba may be presumed to have made some advance in this all important matter.

The great importance of this step of recognizing God in all creatures can be inferred from the fact that the lesson is repeated more than a dozen times in Bhagavad Gita and in Ekadasa Skanda of Bhagavata i.e.,Uddhava Gita. Naturally the utterance in the Upanishad `'Sarvam kaluidam Brahma', that is. `All this manifested Universe is God' cannot be achieved by one who fails to go even through the first step, namely, treating the living creatures in the Universe as manifestations of God.


Courtesy: HH Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji