Inn of Madness

V

I am trying to explain very clear and straightforward facts. Because of earning food for the stomach through the name of religion, so much misunderstanding has been born. If four drunkards can sit together and enjoy each other’s company, then why not four devotees from different religions, for the purpose of Love and understanding? It might be said here that the former have some kind of intoxication, but the latter have none.

Kabir Sahib explains it this way:

that a hansni once sat in a field of kodrai – kodrai is a rather inferior grain. The farmer saw the hansni and started to chase him with his stick.

So, Kabir Sahib observes:

This poor ignorant farmer does not know that the hansni never eats grain, but lives on pearls.

So, Masters never come to take from worldly people.

Now listen carefully to Kabir Sahib’s hymn:

“In the inn of the body, the jiva-traveller is staying; but why so enrapt in this madness ?”

The body is like an inn, and we are travellers in this world for but a few days. The senses or outgoing faculties through which the worldly impressions enter are firmly attached to this inn or house. The eyes alone absorb 83 percent of all impressions. The ears take in 14 percent, and the remaining 3 percent is distributed among the other senses. When we sleep, we dream of the impressions we have received in our everyday awakened state. As can be seen, our lives are very superficial; we have never taken a dip into our real self.

What is the purpose then of this inn-like body? Its purpose is to enable us to know our True Self and to realise God. If the soul does not do this, then?

If the life fades away without gaining the benefit, the advent of birth is wasted.

Lord Buddha said the same thing: that within human life the Truth can be realised.

Who knows when one will again receive the blessing of human birth? It was given for a definite use – so why get intoxicated with sense-pleasures? What will be gained this way? You go on seeing the world’s play, but the craving for more and more is never satisfied. The ears are always listening to the world’s tune but are never contented with it. One thinks one is enjoying these sensual pleasures, but it is not so. The sense-pleasures are enjoying you.

In the Puranas (ancient Hindu scriptures) it is related that the god of food complained to Lord Vishnu that he was tired of the people eating him mercilessly.

Lord Vishnu advised him,

Those people who eat you more than they need, well, you eat them up.

Over indulgence in food leads to degeneration of the physical organs. Indulge the senses only as much as necessity demands; do not create gluttony as a habit. If everything is used in a controlled manner, all things will be helping factors instead of doing harm. For instance, there is a certain poison which when taken in infinitesimal doses builds up the physical strength like a tonic; but when taken in large doses, it kills. All the pleasures of the senses were given for man to work through – but in perfect control. This house or inn was given for only a few days so that it should be put to the utmost advantage, but we are destroying it fast.

There are five senses of knowledge and five senses of karmas; and if only one sense gains control, what happens? A moth, for example, is governed by the eyesight, to the extent of burning himself to death in the heat of a flame or bright light. Fish, on the other hand, are governed by the sense of taste; and although happily swimming about in the water, yet they will rise to the angler’s bait – only to be caught on the hook and die in agonies of torment, flapping around on the earth. The large black bumblebee has a very strong sense of smell, and through this easily loses his life to a certain tropical flower that has the ability to close its petals over any insect entering within it.

The sense of hearing is overpowering in the deer. I do not know if you have spent any time in the forests, but I have seen a deer jump forward as much as twenty yards. Even the fastest horse cannot catch this fleet-footed animal, and yet he is easily caught. Deer hunters play a certain tune on a special drum, hearing which the deer is drawn helplessly towards it in ecstasy of that sound, until he quietly lays his head down upon the drum and, of course, is captured. He spends the rest of his life imprisoned in captivity.

In the male elephant the sense of touch is very strong, even though he has the strength to uproot huge trees with his trunk. I once lived in the jungle for four or five months and saw how they prepared to catch the elephant by digging a large pit and covering it with leaves, and then placing a female elephant nearby. When the male scents the female, he loses all caution and rushes toward her and falls into the pit which lies in his path. He is then starved for many days until it is possible for men to handle him and remove him. He then spends his life in captivity. So, you can see that when even a single sense out the five is ruling, it can bring death or slavery. What then is the condition of a being who is slave to all five senses?

Your whole life is being wasted and finally you will be withdrawn from the world – you have to leave this body – even if you have no knowledge of when that time will come. The great emperors, the learned intellectuals, famous philosophers, and even God-realised People – where are the bodies of all these persons now? They have all left the scene of action, and we must also leave sometime; there is no exception to the rule.

If only the thought remained uppermost in mind:

Who am I? Where am I going?

This could change the very pattern of our life. Just think for a moment: if you received a notice to tell you that you had to leave town tomorrow, how would you spend today? Would you not prepare yourself to? The time for leaving the body may already be fixed, but it is not known to you. It may come at any time.

Kabir Sahib says,

Become virtuous; repeat the Naam; tomorrow may never come.

What to speak of tomorrow; we have no guarantee of the very next minute! The breath continues to return to the body and the man remains there – but if it does not come back? Try to see what is sustaining it, for alone it is just a mound of matter that we carry everywhere.

The friend (body) is enlivened as long as the companion (soul) is there; then the companion leaves, it is worthless matter.

When the soul leaves the body, four brothers pick up the inert form in a hurry and rush it to the cremation ground. No one wants to keep it for long. But, those with right understanding see the facts in true perspective. It is no new philosophy. Those who made the best use of the human birth and freed the soul from the rule of mind and senses gained knowledge of the self and also experienced the Lord, and for them there is no return to this world of action. But, coming and going is not finished for those who live only and always at the sense level, whether their actions be good or bad.