Amar Vani

Author(s): Amarmuni
Publisher: Sanmati Gyan Pith Agra

Page 28

HARMONY
13
Equanimity in Joy
Preachers and thinkers usually counsel us to keep our emotional equanimity in our sorrows and hardships. But should we preserve this mental and emotional equanimity only in sorrow, and not in joy? I feel that it is more necessary to preserve this equanimity in joy than in sorrow. There are innumerable examples in history to prove that. many great men have gone mad on account of their failure to preserve their mental and emotional equanimity in their joy and triumph. Ravana, Duryodhan, Kansa and Jarasandh. are some of the names belonging to this category of mad. men known in history.
Cause er Instrument
Man may have two temperaments. One may be the temperament of a dog and the other may be that of a lion. When somebody strikes a dog with a stick, the dog pounces upon the stick and holds it in his mouth. The dog believes that it is the stick that is striking him. But can the problem be solved by holding the stick and not the hand that moves it ? So long as the hand behind the stick is not caught, the movement of the stick will continue. The dog fails 10 understand this secret. The dog does not distinguish between the cause and the instrument. The case with the lion is different. When somebody strikes a lion with a stick or hurls a stone at him, he does not pounce upon the stick or the : stone. He pounces upon the man who strikes the stick or throws the stone. To the lion the stick or the stone has no significance. The entire responsibility lies with the man who wields them.
This analogy applies in the moral and spiritual sense aiso. The ignorant feel angry upon those who cause sorrow