Runu Zunu Bhramara in context of substance abuse

 

Runu zunu runu zunu re bhramara

Part of my role in Preventive Medicine is counseling patients who use harmful substances like tobacco and alcohol. Driving home the point that they are spending their hard earned money and family’s resources on something that is destroying their health and inviting dangerous illnesses like organ damage and cancers, that’s what my role entails. This week I saw one such patient whose family came to seek help because he would listen to nobody.

As I was thinking about him I was again reminded how certain individuals are more vulnerable to come into the clutches of alcohol and/ or tobacco than others, how these substances by themselves have the potential to make people dependent on them and what can prevent people from such a path of self destruction. Reflecting on those questions my mind glided on to one of Dnyaaneshwar’s poems.

Apart from the big texts Dnyaaneshwar authored, he is also credited with short poems that convey bhakti and jnaan yoga in just a few verses. The language is very soft and sweet. 

I have previously written about this particular one as it is one of the better known of his poems. It is a delightful poem with a deep spiritual message. Today it occurred to me how this is also very pertinent in the context of practical problems in life and specifically the issue of addiction and self destruction.

 Many of you must be familiar with it.  

Runu Zunu Runu Zunu Re Bhramara.

Dnyaneshwar, fondly known in Maharashtra as Maaooli ( माऊली) , in this poem likens the human mind to a beetle. 

Bhramara is a beetle. 

Runuzunu is the poetic description of the buzzing sound of the beetle.

It buzzes non stop when it goes around from one flower to another in search for nectar. The only time it remains quiet is when it lands on a flower and sucks at the sweet nectar.

There are striking similarities between the human mind and a beetle.

Our mind is never still. It keeps fleeting from one object to another, one thought to next. The garden of life has abundance of objects of various kinds. The mind seeks pleasure from these sense objects. Indulging in food and drinks, music, reading books, visiting scenic places, smelling fragrant flowers, enjoying company of loved ones. 

Wherever there is pleasure, the mind runs there. 

Some pleasures are less harmful than others. In the Bhagwad Gita Shri Krishna has made a statement that the affinity for or aversion of any person towards a particular object is predetermined by Mother Nature. While I may like and indulge in garlands of mogra , its fragrance may give a headache to my family. My friend may love cats but I may be allergic to them. The same object may have a different effect on two people. Each person may therefore turn to a different object for a pleasurable experience.

For someone pleasure may come from working 24/7, another person needs to be constantly in front of the TV, a third person may get a kick out of the stock market, fourth one from the gym, fifth one like the gentleman I saw, alcohol becomes the source of pleasure for the mind.

From each pleasurable experience arises a sense of satisfaction. The satisfaction the mind draws from each experience is however momentary. A short lasting taste of that satisfaction becomes the reason for constant seeking for more pleasure. Between two successive moments of satisfaction is a variable interval that consists of unhappiness, incompleteness, a sense of being unfulfilled.

These people unknowingly get into the cycle of obtaining satisfaction and preventing the sense of emptiness. Their mind doesn’t realize how the respective object or situation has enslaved them. The mind has surrendered its freedom to the object, yet falsely believes that it is the master of its destiny.

And while this mind is fleeting from one thing to another it doesn’t remain quiet. It is constantly buzzing like the beetle. It is talking about its own good and bad life experiences, its momentary joys and sorrows, successes and failures, honors and humiliation. Like a parrot it keeps narrating the same story that it is most familiar with, which is its own story. The ego has wrapped this mind around its little finger. So all it knows to talk is in the language of the ego.

It has never known anything beyond. 

When a little kid from a small village becomes the first person to leave for the city or a guy from the big city makes his first journey in an airplane to see another part of the globe, they see new wonders out there and come back to their folks and describe what they saw, how impressive it was and wish their friends and family to experience these things outside of their small world. 

The saints have similar desire for the people around them. 

They have been in the shoes of the ordinary people and experienced the joys and sorrows brought by living in the physical realm. They have felt the power, good and bad, exerted by their surroundings. Their mind has been exposed to the call from various temptations. 

They have however been blessed to rise above the confines of the perceptual world and experienced a much superior level of existence. Their compassionate hearts are naturally inclined to bring the same rich experience to other people who are tossing continually between happiness and sorrow and therefore unable to find peace. They have seen firsthand how lives get better and meaningful once the mind transcends the physical experience and finds a different source for its happiness.

In this poem Maaooli gently nudges the mind to give up its habit of trotting from one sense object to another and continually singing the tune of its own ego. He implores the mind to shed these weaknesses and faults and turn itself in one pointed, unwavering devotion to the lotus feet of the Lord.

Anyone who has delved into meditative practice would know the benefits it confers upon the mind for that duration. The constant turmoil, worries of day to day life are put aside and mind settles into a quieter state and emerges refreshed. In that temporary state neither is there the compulsion for achieving pleasures nor the discomfort of previous disappointments and failures. Mind experiences rest. 

But then it goes back to old habits. Because that’s the life it has always seen and known. 

Even the least harmful of worldly pleasures will ultimately bring misery because they are bound by time and space. A man who is miserable when not working will inevitably be miserable when he is forced to not work for any reason. Old age, illness ,disability, or such unforeseen circumstances may compel him to stop working. As long as the source of your happiness is tied into something outside of you there is going to be risk for sorrow and regret. In some cases the sorrow may be limited to just that person. More often than not, however, the sorrow extends to a lot more people around him or her. That’s collateral damage but the ego never acknowledges it. 

Here the mind will ask, are you saying I should not seek happiness? Are you advising me to forego the little pleasures I have in my life ? 

No. The saints want happiness for all. They want them to seek pleasure. But such pleasures that will have no expiration date and no collateral damage. 

What kind of pleasures are you talking of ? Show me what in this world meets the criteria you have laid down. I am grounded in reality and everything I see or know about, you are calling it filthy, undesirable. 

No one has ever told the mind that like a lotus, it can stand in the dirt but keep its head above the water. It doesn’t need to seek joy from the dirt. All this time it thought that the dirt holds the fragrance. Little did it realize that the fragrance it perceives under the water is indirect. The flower above the surface hold the real fragrance. 

Unlike the many particles of dirt on the under surface where it seeks fragrance, the lotus above is a single undivided entity. Once it latches on the lotus it will automatically cease to wander in search for fragrance( pleasure) here and there. It will become steady( nischalu). And with the steadiness will come peace.

And what about the dirt?

It still stands grounded in the dirt. 

What does that mean ? 

Everything will remain the same around you. You still eat, go about your work, sleep, interact with friends and family, watch a good movie, listen to a good song, take a road trip to a distant destination. But you no longer do it as a compulsion or source for your joy. If circumstances take away any or all of these privileges from you, you will not be affected too much for too long. You will not be miserable. You will continue to derive the fragrance from that flower that stands above the water surface.

This fragrance emanating from the lotus is steeped in divine beauty, purity and auspiciousness and incomparable to anything else. Once the mind gets a taste of it it will never return to lesser things. Just like once you taste sugar you never forget the taste. Similarly a mind that has risen above the sensory experience will never forget the brand of joy that exists there.

Here the lotus metaphor is employed by Dnyaaneshwar as the lotus feet of Vitthala, the Heavenly Father,  the Lord of Rakhumabai. Our existence is connected to this Supreme Being. The plane of this divine consciousness transcends human mind and intellect which are normally only aware of the world in the physical plane. The existence of the lotus below the surface of water in this metaphor refers to this plane, the physical world. The divine consciousness that transcends the physical body and sense organs is symbolized by the lotus above the water surface.

Thus in these verses Dnyaaneshwar wishes for the mind to be turned towards these lotus feet, the transcendental truth that pervades all existence, so our life gains a better direction and more meaning. We refrain from a life of self destruction and avert hurting others in the process. 

May you attain the highest joy and peace by devoting yourself in the service of the Lord of Rukmini( Panduranga or Vitthala) is the wish expressed by Dnyaaneshwar Mauli in this timeless poetry.

Listen to this song in the divine voice of Lata Didi and contemplate on its meaning. You will feel the pulse arising from Dnyaaneshwar’s heart. 

रुणुझुणु रुणुझुणु रे भ्रमरा ।

सांडीं तूं अवगुणु रे भ्रमरा ॥१॥

Oh constantly buzzing beetle,

I call on you to drop your shortcomings. 

चरणकमळदळू रे भ्रमरा ।

भोगीं तूं निश्चळु रे भ्रमरा ॥२॥

Find and take refuge at the lotus feet( of Vitthala)

And attain lasting steadfastness there.

सुमनसुगंधु रे भ्रमरा ।

परिमळु विद्गदु रे भ्रमरा ॥३॥

Immerse yourself in and fully enjoy the divine fragrance of the lotus feet. 

सौभाग्यसुंदरू रे भ्रमरा ।

बाप रखुमादेविवरू रे भ्रमरा ॥४॥

Realize that Vitthala, the Lord of Rakhumai, is your  ultimate abode of wealth, good fortune and everything that is beautiful and desirable. So seek refuge there.

Runu jhunu runu jhunu re bhramara

Runu jhunu runu jhunu re bhramara

Runu jhunu runu jhunu re bhramara l Sandim thum avagunu re bhramara ll

Charana kamala dalu re bhramara l Bhogi tu 

nishchhalu re bhramara ll

Sumana sugandhu re bhramara l Parimalu vidgadu re bhramara ll

Sowbhagya sundaru re bhramara l Bapa Rakhumadevi varu re bhramara ll

Today was my moment for “ saandi tu avagunu” ( drop your ignorance moment) . I was gently reminded that such selfies where the saree is not seen properly is not permitted in the rules of SS. The admin had kindly tolerated it for the recent posts but it was time to upgrade my technical skills. 

Let me tell you the level of my ignorance was from finding the timer for the camera. To be fair to me, a nephew who is a professional photographer took at least 5-10 minutes to find the timer on my phone.

 Ok, so now that half the battle was won, next was clicking the actual photo. I was almost as excited after the first click as I was when I passed by MBBS exam !! No second takes. What you see here are single clicks for each of the two poses. 

Saree is a batik on mulberry silk from West Bengal. Close up in comments later.