Today’s thought – as 2008 winds down:
“We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential.”
– Ellen Goodman
And now, Kabir day 16:
The couplet, transliterated:
Kabira lahari samad ka, moti bikhare aayi
Bagula sama na janaye, hans chune chuni khaie ||
Translation:
Many pearls are cast ashore by the waves of the ocean |
The swan relishes them, while the crane ignores them ||
My understanding:
Here, the teacher Kabir is once again appealing to the greater intellect of man – asking us to properly use the reasoning and wisdom we have been endowed with as a race. The crane here is a reference to the animal kingdom
– without an understanding of value, the crane is interested only in the fish available for food, ignoring the pearls.
The swan (here representing the human race) understands the value the gems represent, and enjoys them in peace while the crane ignores them.
Man has been rewarded with the ability to reason, and the wisdom to recognize true value. Every day we are presented with the opportunity to better our lives and the lives of those around us, if only we paid attention. Instead of focusing only on our base needs, we need to expand our cognizance to include the minds and souls around us, and we can then get a better understanding of what we need to do to make both our immediate environment as well as the world a better place for everyone.
The simple animal is self centered not because of ego or short-sightedness, but because it knows no better than what its own senses tell it (here we are not speaking of the ESP of animals which is a proven fact, but rather the behavior of the simpler members of animal world). Man, on the other hand, is self-centered because of ego and the focus on the self. This is what Kabir is asking us to grow beyond, and feast on the manna of true knowledge that is all around us.