So many roles to play

Apr 7, 2010, 12.00am IST
JAHNAVI SHANDILYA.


Among the fundamental questions we tend to ask ourselves at some point in our lives is: “Who Am I?” Ramana Maharshi asked the seeker to constantly question himself as a way of exploring deeper truths and to come to a better understanding of them.

Who are you? Jiddu Krishnamurti answered thus: “When you call yourself an Indian, a Muslim, a Christian, a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, religion, political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.”

While discussing what J Krishnamurti had to say on the subject of identities, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at a satsang held recently in Rishikesh, offered the following insight: The process of evolution is moving from somebody to nobody and from nobody to everybody, realising one’s true identity, Brahmn, the all-inclusive and all-pervasive. Masters all along, even after achieving the highest, have chosen to play limited identities well. Rama was called Maryada Purushottam, Krishna was Yogeshwar, and Dwarkadheesh , and Buddha as a bhikshu meticulously followed the sanyas dharma.

An individual cares for his immediate family and as part of society shares love and affection with neighbours. For a master, the family is the whole world. An avatar, a sadhguru, skillfully fulfills individual as well as universal roles, without any conflict. Playing a limited role is in no way in conflict with the universal role. Though Krishna was a Yadava, he also was Devakinandan. Arjuna tells Krishna in Chapter XI: “He Krishna, He Yadava, He Sakha.” Krishna fulfilled the role of a son, a Yadava leader, sakha to Arjuna and guru to Udhava.

A master is unattached to any identity but still presents an expression appropriate to desh, kal and patra or space, time and situation. For example, a Times of India marketing person may be reading every newspaper in the house, but while doing his job promoting his paper, he has to claim Times of India is the best. If he says every paper is the same then will he be doing justice to his job? When Arjuna wanted to let go off his kshatriya identity and live in the forest, it was Krishna who insisted that he has to keep his kshatriya identity.


Remaining universal inside and assuming identities and roles outside relevant to the situation is the skill of a gyani which each one of us has to cultivate. An incarnation or avatar is remembered by the role played. That is also how the ten incarnations of Vishnu, the Dashavatar, have been beautifully portrayed. Janak performs a limited role as a king externally but internally, nurses a thirst for the unlimited, which makes him a grand seeker before Ashtavakra. A disciple like Janak is rare indeed. A guru's job is to bring everybody to play Janak’s role -- skillful in performing their duties and having a yearning for the highest knowledge. A sadhguru is totally detached, established in Advait, universal in being, at the same time his expression is based on desh, kal and patra -- place, time and situation. Universal in being, nischay, and yet effortlessly fulfilling different roles in the world (vyavhara) is the skill of a Master.