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A Dog's Life

From the Bhakti List Archives

M.K. Krishnaswamy • January 25, 2003 


Dear Members,

On A Dog's Life

Some members of my family strongly objected when I quoted Shriman Sadagopan Iyengar and compared our lives to a dog's restricted life, in a spiritual sense. Fortunately, to cater to their sensitive feelings, I remembered a sloka in Kathopanishad that has an extended picturisation of life that might be more acceptable even to such sophisticated minds

Who does not like to own an expensive automobile? In the ancient past, the equivalent to a Porsche was a highly decorated chariot drawn by five thorough-bred horses that only a commander of the army could afford to own and drive in.

So Kathopanishad (1.3.3-4) starts suggesting that we might compare ourselves to the owner of such a de-luxe chariot, sitting comfortably in the back seat, with the mind as the driver and the the five senses providing the horse-power to move the vehicle on the material pathway strewn with attractive objects.

aatmaanam rathinam viddhi
sharIram ratham eva ca
buddhim tu sArathim viddhi
manah pragraham eva ca

indriyaNi hayan ahur
vishayams tesu gocaraan
atmendriya-mano-yuktam
bhoktetyaahur manIshinah 

"The individual is the passenger in the car of the material body, and intelligence is the driver. Mind is the driving instrument, and the senses are the horses. The self is thus the enjoyer or sufferer in the association of the mind and senses. The Atman, the mind and the senses should be in unison. They should not work in their own way, independently; that is, the activity of the senses, the thoughts of the mind and the needs of the Spirit should be in conformity with one another, so say the wise ones. " 

In Gita Ch.VI Sloka 34,  Arjuna describes the hopelessness of the situation when the driver, the restless mind, obstinate and not consulting the intellect, strays from the ordained path and the goal, and crashes due to its erratic ways.

cancalam hi manah krishna
pramaathi balavad drdham
tasyaaham nigraham manye
vaayor iva su-dushkaram

"The mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Krishna, and to subdue it, I think, is more difficult than controlling the wind."

We can choose for comparison either name-brand breeds of costly canines, thoroughbred powerful horses or Porsche cars. In the ultimate analysis, however, there does not appear to be much difference between the leash holding the dog, the reins controlling the horses or the steering-wheel of the car held by a drunken, sense-driven mind. In any of these cases, we are not free agents but continue to be mere slaves, moved hither and thither by the kama-krodha-moha-madha-maatsarya-filled mind.

Such a lost soul has a simple advise from Krishna: maamekam sharaNam vraja

Dasan,
Krishnaswamy M.K


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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