Try To Be Equanimous in Dvandvas!

You must have four virtues in your life irrespective of whatever caste, race, stage of life you belong to or whatever business, job or stage of education you are in.

The first virtue you should have in life in the tolerance towards all dvandvas or pairs of opposites, i.e., maintaining equanimity in opposite conditions such as pleasure and sorrow, honor and dishonor, adversity and prosperity, profit and loss, praise and censure.

Try to be equanimous in these dvandvas. Do not lose your patience even when faced with the greatest of adversities, nor be a slave to even the most favorable circumstances. No matter how great an opposition you may have to face, do not fall from your height of equanimity and wisdom.

Bring tolerance into your life and be equanimous in the face of dvandvas. Have patience during sorrows, adapt the virtue of renunciation during pleasures, nurture an optimistic outlook in the face of adversities and you will get the strength to trample over the circumstances coming in your life.

When engaged in worldly activities, be neutral, not yielding to emotionalism and do not be indifferent to spiritual pursuit. Let your heart melt. Just as when you add color to molten wax, the color spreads throughout the wax, whereby it becomes difficult to separate the color from the wax. Similarly, when you worship God, practice japa, meditation and selfless service, and remember and contemplate God, let your heart be melted like wax so that it is imbued with devotional love and your mind becomes one with God. But ironically enough, what we practically do is that we let our heart melt when engaged in worldly activities and keep it indifferent when engaged in devotion. At the time of satsanga your heart should be like molten wax so that it is dyed with the color divine.

Sant Kabirji has said:
‘My Master is the Dyer:
He has dyed my scarf;
He has removed the color black;
And dyed me with the madder color of devotion.
The color doesn’t fade on being washed;
It’s rather getting faster by every passing day.’

The real Dyer is verily the Supreme Self Himself. Sant Tukaramji too calls the Supreme Self as ‘Ranganatha’, i.e. the Dyer Lord. We should keep our heart melted during devotional practices, meditation and satsanga so that the Master, the Supreme Self, the Real Dyer, may color us in His color divine; and keep our heart indifferent when engaged in worldly affairs. This will make it easy for us to experience the higher spiritual state that is beyond dvandvas

One who desires profit, fears loss; one who desires for honor, fears dishonor; a respected man fears disrespect and a wrestler fears defeat.

Thus, everyone does have some or the other cause of fear. There is bound to be some or the other kind of fear in the realm of the body and the mind, but the art of making it to the region beyond all fears is that of transcending all dvandvas.

The second virtue to be developed in life is tolerance towards passions, i.e. restraint over fits of passion. At different times one happens to be overcome by a passion of love or anger or by a tendency to deceive or harm anybody. Suppose one is overcome by a fit of anger and abuses the other one; or by a tendency to deceive someone and avoids the other one under some pretext. Or may be he is overcome by a passion for violence and hits somebody with anything he could lay his hands on. But all such impulsive actions do fill one with repentance once the causative passion has subsided. A small mistake of his brings a life long grace on himself. Therefore whenever you are attacked by these passions, be careful and protect yourself from them. The passions of anger, deceit, enmity, lust, etc. are sure to attack you, but if you are cautious enough, you would remain immune to them. Reduce the momentum of past karma through new karma rather than increasing it.

The third virtue is being tolerant towards the progress of others, i.e. to take the progress of others in a good spirit. One generally feels a sense of jealously or displeasure on seeing the elevation of another. The one who attains elevation is happy, but due to the lack of this third virtue in our life, we are agitated seeing his elevation. We should take recourse to knowledge such times.

We can see that even in nature, all the trees do not grow or bring forth flowers and fruits in the same season. They grow and flourish according to their respective seasons. This orderliness lends its characteristic beauty to nature. All the trees and plants flourishing in the same season will not provide any joy. The beauty and glory of nature lies verily in its diversity.

We should be glad to see others flourishing in our neighborhood. We should rejoice and encourage ourselves thinking. This is his season to flourish, I shall wait for mine.

On seeing others elevation and strength, we should of course make all efforts to elevate ourselves and increase our strength but in no case should we ignite the fire or jealously, which is but bound to burn the very roots of our own elevation and inner strength. For a tree with its roots on fire, cannot flourish. Similarly, if we burn our hearts with the fire of envy on seeing the elevation or prosperity of others, it will reduce the possibility of our own elevation, because jealously is such a fire as does invariably destroy our own potentials. Hence we should inculcate in us the virtue of being tolerant towards the progress of others.

The fourth virtue is being tolerant towards the views of others. It is not expectable that all should act according to your view. If you chant ‘Jai Jai Siyaram’ or ‘Allah Ho Akbar’, it isn’t necessary that all the people of the world will do the same thing, it is simply not possible in the first place. The beauty and sweetness of nature lies verily in its diversity.

There are millions and millions of human beings on earth, but every face differs from the other in one respect or the other. There may be similarity among some regarding their diet, name etc. but still there is bound to be some or the other difference or diversity among them. This has been going on since time immemorial. Hence one should not become a religious bigot or a fanatic. There will be people who hold views and have thoughts that are opposite to that of ours as well. The bigoted one who isn’t ready even to see or meet and talk with a person who holds a view opposite to his, remains utterly miserable. Even he, who insists on everyone agreeing with him, remains ever miserable. As is the way of the world, at times it will be the wife, who will have the final word in a manner, while at other times it will be the husband, daughter, son or neighbor. Or at sill other occasions, the Lord will even make the enemy get his wish fulfilled.

“Mundey Mundey Matirbhinnaa”
‘Different minds hold divergent opinions.’
When there are so great a variety of minds, it is only natural that there would be diversity in views as well. Hence make your heart so capable as to accept all circumstances and doctrines (of others) easily enough.

If these four virtues are developed in life, the heart will become so pure that like Sant Kabirji, the constancy of our peace and Self-bliss will not be broken even while engaged in the different activities of the world.

Kabirji says in one of his couplets that even while eating, drinking and being engaged in the activities of the world, he is ever engaged in meditation on the Lord.

Yogi Gorakhanathji says, ‘Nath says He is always with him who while eating and drinking does not allow his mind to be captivated by it’

You too should eat, drink and live; but see that it doesn’t in any way disturb your peace, bliss, joy and equanimity. The main cause for the mind getting defeated, is the absence of these four virtues in life. Hence strive to cultivate these four virtues in your life.

One who has cultivated these four virtues in his life, remains happy in the midst of enemies and friends alike, in heaven or in hell, in prosperity or in adversity, in Massourie or even in a desert. One who has a disposition contrary to these four virtues will be miserable even amid friends.

Without these four virtues, a sadhu is not worthy of being called a sadhu nor is a human being worthy of being called a human being. In the absence of these, we are bound to be degenerated to the category of biped beasts. The more deeply we assimilate these four virtues in our life, the more will we progress from humanity towards divinity and then rise even above divinity to attain Brahmanhood (Absoluteness).

So long as you don’t cultivate these virtues in your life, fear, troubles, obstacles, disquiet, complaints and pains will continue to prevail in your life and in the end, death will come to you as the biggest pain. Hence, adopt these virtues to let your life reverberate with the melodious music of equanimity, dancing and humming to the tune of which you may make the journey of your life into a divine mission for realizing the very Bestower of life.

It is not in your hand to change the circumstances of nature or the writ of Destiny; but it is verily in your hand to keep your heart immune to their effects. You do what is within your capacity and God will do His own part. It is within your hands to adopt these four virtues and protect your heart from the changing circumstances of nature. If you do that, God has the ability to manifest Himself in your heart and He will do it.