The nature of weeds
When I read the Madhurya Kadambini, I was encouraged to try and understand anartha nivritti better. Over the years, I have tried to understand some of the theoretical descriptions of anarthas through analogies and comparisons. One was the analogy of weeds.It was not until now that I realized what it meant.
At New Jagannath Puri, Nayana Manjari asked me to pull out weeds from the front lawn. As I started, I realized that I need a tool to loosen earth around the roots of weeds. So I proceeded to bring it. It can be compared to the tool of sadhana bhakti, the sadhan is the Mahamantra.
Once equipped, I slowly pulled out a delicate, little weed. Guilt rushed through me. I'm killing this living entity! Then I wondered why people remove weeds.
Weeds grow even without anyone planting them, take over, and consume the nutrition meant for the sown plant. Thus, they are undesirable. They are "anartha" or useless. And they are also anarth, in the sense that they are dangerous and can take over and vanquish the sown plant. Hence, it is not wrong to pull them out in the overall interest of the garden.
After I got over my guilt with reasoning, I realized that some of these weeds looked pretty. They even had beautiful flowers! I felt like this was reason enough to let them live. After all, the flowers would make the garden look pretty right? This was just like considering an anartha to be a good quality. But the fact remains that it has all the qualities of a weed and must be removed before it grows too strong and establishes itself firmly in an area.
Next, I realized that the trick is to loosen the earth first, prepare it, and then pull out the weed from the base. This ensures that the root is gone and regrowth is not a possibility. We must also go to the root of the problem or anartha we face in order to permanently remove it.
Most of the weeds were growing in the shade of larger plants and thus were able to hide under them. This shows that weeds can be hidden from our view in light of prolific plants, and we must have the eye to pick them out. Not only that, some of them were growing right in the middle of nice plants, and merged into them, appearing like the main plant itself. This trick of the weeds is difficult to catch, but with practice and an eye for it, one can pick out such weeds.
Every time a weed was pulled out, I cringed a little. It would make sense to conclude that when Krishna plucks out weeds from our hearts, it hurts. But eventually, after all the work is done, you feel pleasant.
Krishna, I've pulled weeds in your garden. Now please remove them from my heart, so that I can invite you to live in it.
At New Jagannath Puri, Nayana Manjari asked me to pull out weeds from the front lawn. As I started, I realized that I need a tool to loosen earth around the roots of weeds. So I proceeded to bring it. It can be compared to the tool of sadhana bhakti, the sadhan is the Mahamantra.
Once equipped, I slowly pulled out a delicate, little weed. Guilt rushed through me. I'm killing this living entity! Then I wondered why people remove weeds.
Weeds grow even without anyone planting them, take over, and consume the nutrition meant for the sown plant. Thus, they are undesirable. They are "anartha" or useless. And they are also anarth, in the sense that they are dangerous and can take over and vanquish the sown plant. Hence, it is not wrong to pull them out in the overall interest of the garden.
After I got over my guilt with reasoning, I realized that some of these weeds looked pretty. They even had beautiful flowers! I felt like this was reason enough to let them live. After all, the flowers would make the garden look pretty right? This was just like considering an anartha to be a good quality. But the fact remains that it has all the qualities of a weed and must be removed before it grows too strong and establishes itself firmly in an area.
Next, I realized that the trick is to loosen the earth first, prepare it, and then pull out the weed from the base. This ensures that the root is gone and regrowth is not a possibility. We must also go to the root of the problem or anartha we face in order to permanently remove it.
Most of the weeds were growing in the shade of larger plants and thus were able to hide under them. This shows that weeds can be hidden from our view in light of prolific plants, and we must have the eye to pick them out. Not only that, some of them were growing right in the middle of nice plants, and merged into them, appearing like the main plant itself. This trick of the weeds is difficult to catch, but with practice and an eye for it, one can pick out such weeds.
Every time a weed was pulled out, I cringed a little. It would make sense to conclude that when Krishna plucks out weeds from our hearts, it hurts. But eventually, after all the work is done, you feel pleasant.
Krishna, I've pulled weeds in your garden. Now please remove them from my heart, so that I can invite you to live in it.
posted by Lotus at 8/08/2014 12:28:00 AM
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