How should we evaluate the flute, that little piece of wood,
which, when put to the lips of
Krishna and surcharged with the
breath of divinity, gives out notes so sweet and powerful that
they charm the entire creation? Consumed with jealousy, the gopis
are full of complaint and treat the flute as if she were a
co-wife. Lucky and fortunate is the flute, for it is forever in
the hands of their lord, and is pressed to his adorable and
precious lips, the nectar whereof it could eternally taste. And
as we have seen, they wonder how the flute came to be so favored.
The question is relevant, for how does it happen that some people
are so favored by god that they share his grace and become
instruments of fulfilling his design, that through them he does
his work, makes them his messengers and prophets? The flute
provides the answers. It tells us how it came to receive this
favor. It was a piece of bamboo and it was only because of good
fortune that it received the lord's grace. Yet what was the price
of this grace? This piece of wood had to, in the first instance,
accept separation from the parent-tree, allow itself to be
hollowed and her bosom to be riddled with holes. Willing to
suffer all this, the physical pain of being emptied, of being
hollowed out, in the faith that one would be united with God, to
bear the cross joyously, is the first condition of the Lord's
service. Obviously, hollowness indicates complete lack of I-ness,
the total surrender of one's ego. Not until have we wholly taken
this I-ness out of ourselves can we be regarded as fit
instruments for the Lord and his music. The same is true of every
devotee, for the simple definition of bhakti, of adoration - a
definition that cuts through all literary and religious
pedantry - is complete unalloyed surrender to Him.
The insignificant little piece of wood, the flute, therefore
becomes not merely the bearer of the magic notes of heavenly
music but also, allegorically, the teacher of a great lesson-the
first lesson in the Religion of Love : unconditional surrender
and complete willingness to suffer.
Reference:
Lal, Kanwar. The Religion of Love: Delhi, Arts and Letters, 1971.
Paintings
times since 2nd Oct, 2008
