(Photo Courtesy: Tumuluru Kumar)
Unfortunately, man is fast losing steadfastness in spiritual pursuits. Learn from the poor little spider this lesson of inflexible determination to succeed. It struggles again and again, in spite of repeated failures, to fix the basic threads of its web, so that it can weave it taut and strong. Man, however, loses heart at the first disappointment, either foregoing faith in God or incensed with Him and applying for a writ against Him. (SSS Vol. 15)
It is said that during the Kurukshetra battle which lasted for 18 days, Vyasa had his mind torn with contrition, for the contestants were both of his lineage. So, he could not cast his eyes on the fratricidal carnage! One day, he was so overcome by remorse that he hastened beyond the bloodsoaked plain, where another day s holocaust was about to begin. Hurrying along, he saw a spider scurrying forward on the ground! ‘Why so fast?’ inquired the sage; the spider ran off the road, climbed up an ant-hill by its side and from that eminence, it replied, ‘Know you not that the war chariot of Arjuna is about to pass this way! If I am caught under its wheels, I am down.’ Vyasa laughed at this reply; he said, ‘No eye gets wet when you die! The world suffers no loss when you are killed! You leave no vacuum when you disappear!’ The spider was touched to the quick by this insult. It was shaking with rage. It ejaculated, ‘How is that? You are a bloated sage! You feel that if you die it will be a great loss, whereas I will not be missed at all. I too have wife and children whom I love. I too have a home and a store of food. I too cling to life with as much tenacity as you folk. I have hunger, thirst, grief, pain, joy, delight and the agony of separation from kith and kin. The world is as much in me and for me, as in and for human beings and others.’
Vyasa hung his head and moved on in silence, muttering the line, ‘samanyam etat pasubhir naranam’ - for man and beast, these things are common.’ But, he told himself, ‘Enquiry into the Ultimate, yearning for beauty, truth and goodness, awareness of the underlying unity, these attributes of Wisdom are the unique treasures of mankind,’ and went his way.
Through this wisdom, man can see the indwelling God in the spider and in every being that exists within the bounds of space. The receptacle may be different, but the Divine content is the same. The taste of sea water will be saline whether you test a truck-load, a bowlful, a potful, or a sip or a drop on the tongue! The taste of the Divine can be experienced in the atom or the cosmos, the friend as well as the foe, the virus and the Universe. (SSS Vol.9)