Transcript
2 Disciples of Gautama A Case-study for students of meditation
© Puneet Srivastava, April 2015
What may we learn from these 2 disciples of
Gautama for our meditation?
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1 picked Gautama’s hand
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1 was handpicked by Gautama
1 is known for his boundless joy
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1 is known for his sorrow
1 mostly walked the road
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1 lived long with Gautama
1 was feared all his life
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1 was loved by all
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Both are said to have attained Nirvana…
1 before him, so said Gautama
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1 after Gautama
1 ferocious bandit, Angulimala
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1 was ever polite, Ananda
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What type are we?
Or somewhere in between the two?
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Angulimala the ferocious wished to kill a 1000th time.
He saw a monk.
This shall be an easy kill. He thought.
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He ran, yet he could not catch his hunt.
He tried again…
Yet his powerful hands fell short.
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‘Stop monk stop!’ He finally cried.
‘It’s you who’s running,’ said the monk, ‘I stopped long ago.’
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Those words and the bandit fell in Gautama’s feet.
In that moment the killer who wore his victim’s fingers around his neck died.
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A new entity was born out of him.
Yet meditation didn’t come to him.
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His past as a killer would haunt him every time he closed his eyes.
Master told him to not give up. And he did not.
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Then one day someone said, ‘you look as divine as your teacher.’
That day Master asked him to be a wandering monk.
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‘Go out and see the world anew,’ the Master said.
So now he walked the roads.
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Many years passed. No one heard of his past.
But then one day, someone made out.
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‘Hey that’s Angulimala, the bandit. He is back, disguised as a monk!’
‘Kill him before he kills us!’
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The sound went like a roar.
In the rain of stones, the monk was beaten and bruised.
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Somehow he crawled and reached his Master.
Covered in blood, yet locked in boundless joy.
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Master asked, ‘are you angry with them?’
‘No,’ said the man, ‘like how I was once, even they didn’t know what they were doing.’
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Saying this and smiling, he passed away as a free man in the lap of the Master.
Thereafter Gautama told all to be as free as Angulimala.
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That day Ananda was in deep sorrow.
It was the day after Gautama left the world.
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Folks thought Ananda was sad because the Master was gone.
‘Don’t mourn the departure of Gautama,’ they all said to him.
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‘He left for where we all must go.’
Ananda heard them and replied, ‘I am not sad for Gautama.
Brothers my sorrow is for myself.’
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‘Look at my fate.
‘I am the one who lived the most with Gautama.
‘I am the one who heard all his sermons.
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‘I am the one who he talked to in private.
‘I am the one who kept it all in my memory.
‘I am the one who shall recite it now to everyone.
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‘And look at my fate.
‘In this time Master became a Buddha and is now gone…
‘While I am still the same old Ananda.’
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‘No change to me could come.’
Ananda thereafter locked himself in a room. For seven days he didn’t come out
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On the eighth day when he emerged,People were left aghast.
It looked master had returned in form of Ananda.
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But Ananda cleared all the air in a moment
‘I am your old Ananda,’ he said, ‘and now I tell you what Master left with me for all.’
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These 2 disciples of Gautama…
One a bandit who killed indiscriminately…
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Other a noble soul who spoke not a harsh word;
They represent two extremes of human nature.
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We are perhaps somewhere in between.
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The point is meditation can come to all.
However, not by itself!
We must put a conscious effort.
No matter who or what we be: Siddhartha, Ananda or Angulimala!
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Further, for the one who has put in the effort,
Success is assured: Says the Master!
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This much for the basics & if the interest is to know more… check this:
Little Soldier in the big war of life
Story of a Meditation Technology
PREVIEW & BUY(Click here)
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Gratitude:
To my revered teacher Swami Amartyananda
and the message of SDM:
Satsang Disciplined Life
Meditation.
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