Shabari ke Ber: Discovering Intentions

In Indian mythology, there is a short story about Lord Shri Ram and Shabari. Shabari gave Ram berries (ber) which she had already tasted.

Since Ram was a god, he was clear about Shabari's Intention. What if one is not a god?
How a person can be so sure about someone's intentions?

Generally we all go by faith. This faith is generated in several ways - the amount of
interaction with the person, one's own experiences etc.

These things are mostly fact-driven. For example, if I think with my logical mind, then the first question that comes is, “Why should the person give me tasted ones?”
and get irritated.

Then if we go by empirical mind which learns by its neural network, then we might give the person the benefit of the doubt. But then again, this mind also has some data as input from one's exposure to life.

Then how can one be as sure about someone’s intention as Ram was if we don't want to use a fact-driven method.
Ram's certainty came from his perfection being a god. And certainly it is difficult (but not impossible) for us to be perfect like Lord Ram. We have to make out people's intentions based on what we have despite our imperfection.
This is what we usually call a gut feel, mostly not influenced by any data and fact ( i.e. exposure of life ). But how dependable is one's gut feel?

I believe that there are varying degrees of imperfection. And with time, we can reduce the level of imperfection and move further along the scale towards perfection.

In my childhood, my Granny had talked to me about the concept of “Manasa Vacha Karmana” based on old Indian literature (Ved and Upanishad). “Manasa Vacha Karmana”
talks about doing what you say and say what you think -in effect having your thoughts, talk and actions in harmony. As people become more capable of brininjg their thoughts, words and actions in sync, they become closer to perfection.

I also remember a song from Shankar Mahadevan (aka Shankar Ehasaan Loy) “Heart and Body; Mind and Soul”, which explores a similar concept. This is more elaborated “Manasa.” Here the idea of 'manasa' is divided into three - Heart, Soul and Mind.

I believe these three are not mutually exclusive and feel that each element has it's own attribute; Heart – Emotions, Soul - Gut feel, Mind – Beliefs.

Beliefs are based on our exposure of life. Emotions can be situational. A gut feel, on the other hand, is independent and absolute.

Our beliefs are more susceptible to change based on our expanding exposure to life. For instance, while discussing social issues with my friend, we talked about whether it is right to avail the services of Red Light District.

My friend argued that it is as simple as paying for a service and availing it. If we go with this logic, it seems that there is nothing wrong in it. This logic begins and ends with the individual.

As we discuss the issue with a group, we see that there are several other issues that play a factor in deciding whether this(my friend’s) argument is right or wrong. For example,

1. Should there be any difference between hiring a car and hiring a person to fulfill one's desires?
2. Often, the hired person does not opt to provide this service, and is often pushed into it because of financial or social circumstances.
3. One way or another, this creates friction in the family and society.

So in this case it is possible that exposure to others' ideas changed my friend's beliefs. So, as our exposure expands,we can get better and better at a logical level.

With the possibility that our set of beliefs is changeable, it becomes more difficult to practice “Manasa Vacha Karmana” and keep your thoughts words and actions in sync. However, as we understand ourselves better and are able to keep these three elements more and more in sync, we will be further along on the road to perfection.

Let me link this to start of this article. More the sync, less the imperfection and a person's gut feel (like Lord Ram’s about Shabari’s Ber) becomes more reliable with it.
It is individual’s choice to continue to work on reducing the percentage of imperfection. And it is also imperative that one is at least able to maintain the percentage of perfection one has achieved, to avoid dissatisfaction.


Comments:
I feel there are few approaches to keep Heart and Body; Mind and Soul in sync one can choose to start with soul – like “Budhdha”, soul and heart – “Kabeer”, Or can choose to go by mind and body – Like “Swami Vivekanand”.
Above are two extremes, most of us choose to be in between i.e. mix and match of two extreme or philosophy. ‘ll try to elaborate about these philosophies in future articles.