Sarva Khalvidam Brahma !

 

Bit my tongue eating salad at lunch yesterday!! Ouch! It hurt ! 

The site nags even this morning! Enough to remind of that first piercing pain. 

Oh well.

The first thing that came to mind when it happened was that line from Muktabai in one of the Taatiche abhang.

जीभ दातांनी चाविली।

कोणें बत्तीशी तोडीली? ॥

Who knocks out one’s teeth when they bite the tongue ? 

A nine year old giving a dose of wisdom to her older brother ! I wish she was playing around at Mumbai airport when I retorted to the staff to just keep me there forever after the fiasco they created about my backpack! 

To give the context to this line, the young siblings Nivrittinath, Dnyaaneshwar, Sopandev and Muktabai endured a lot of hardships after the passing away of their parents. They were ostracized by the hardliners and subjected to cruel persecution at every turn. One day Dnyaaneshwar was over the edge when a priest lashed out at him for no good reason. He couldn’t take the insults anymore and locked himself inside the home in anger. When repeated calling from the siblings failed, Muktabai, the youngest of them began to address the issue in philosophical language knowing that this was the only way Dnyaaneshwar would understand. What emerged from her mouth at that time is a beautiful treatise on Bramha Vidya, the knowledge of Brahman (The Universal Truth )as well as the markings of a saint.

Sarva Khalvidam Brahma !! All this is Brahman! 

This Vedic mahavakya from the Chhandogya Upanishad sums up the philosophy that Muktabai is using to convince Dnyaaneshwar to overcome his grudge. 

If everything is God then who do you get upset with ? Who do you retaliate against ? 

It couldn’t have been driven home better than with the example of biting one’s tongue! The teeth are ours, and so is the tongue! One part caused hurt to the other. But what’s the point in retaliating? The hurt will come back to the same person! 

The deeper implications of Vedic wisdom are of practical use. If only we have the maturity to apply it in our lives!  Little do we think when we are subjected to inconvenience. But somewhere along the way we need to rethink our responses to everyday stressors. 

For now, my vulnerability at the airport and yesterday’s inadvertent biting of my tongue have drawn me to pay heed to Muktabai. More about her teachings some other time. 

Saree is a simple cotton from Odisha with checks and stripes in black, white and grey….much like life is.