Transform Poison into Nectar

 

Photo Credit: Lakshmanjoo Academy

Transform Poison into Nectar

The very first foundations of a life of spiritual endeavour are love of oneself and spiritual harmony. This will definitely confound the reader, because we have always been advised to suppress something within us. In reality, there is nothing within us that needs suppression – each individual has certain drives that need to be harnessed, not extirpated, certain forces that need to be awakened and loved, not suppressed. They should be controlled and directed along the proper course. But those who consider them hostile can never be successful in transforming them. A man of understanding can transform even poison into nectar, but one who has no understanding whatsoever is sure to turn his nectar into poison.

If we have visited any farm, we would have noticed that there are putrefying things that emit a foul odour kept in a heap, this is used as fertilisers. When this smelly fertiliser is spread around the farm and fruits and flowers blossom from the trees, then the whole area is filled with a fragrance, a wonderful aroma. This very smelly fertiliser has transformed and become fragrant – that is nature – the fertiliser has nourished the roots and stems of the plants, trees and has been transformed!

What we understand as ‘smell’, is nothing but an undeveloped form of fragrance. In music, a discordant note is nothing but the undeveloped and disarranged form of the harmonious notes that blend so well in perfect music.

There is nothing in human life that needs to be shattered to pieces, but there is much in human life which should be transformed, sublimated, and elevated. Human beings possess certain powers which are intrinsically neutral – not good, not bad. They assume the form in which these powers are utilised. What we call sexual potency, the power of passionate lust against which religious leaders have waged a relentless war, when transformed, evolves itself into a divine force as it elevates one from body consciousness to soul consciousness. This is the primordial creative power, and what it is competent to do depends on how we use it.

What it can be, does not depend on it alone but on our understanding and on the art of living our lives. Once transformed, does it not attain the nature of the self-realised individual! This power of lust and blind passion when transformed becomes peace, calmness, and inner silence. It is just a question of transformation!

In our life the process of creation is of far greater importance than the process of destruction. If we understand this clearly, the question of a struggle with the Self will hardly arise, for the creation of the Self is possible only in an atmosphere of self-love.