Letter # 17: Watermelons - Good & Bad"

My daughter, Nishi, wrote to me, "I have been reading your spiritual newsletters with interest. What a rich world of philosophies there is to explore!" My student in psychiatry, Dr. Khokhar, tells me that he relishes these letters over a cup of coffee each morning, and when he doesn't have time, he'll come and read them later. One person said that they're worth a million dollars to her. Thank you all for giving me inspiration. Others want to opt out of receiving them, and I respect that decision.
I’ve tried, and am always trying, to live the message of Guru Nanak – work, share with community, and meditate on God’s name. For me sharing is not only that of material things but also of spiritual ideas. I love that kind of sharing. In the last few months I’ve had the exciting pleasure of spending time with Maharaj Tarlochan Das Ji and his companions. An extraordinarily dynamic young man with a deep love for spirituality and humanity, Maharaj-Ji has given time from his busy schedule to give spiritual discourses to my family and friends. This is true sharing on his part. We discuss the wonders of God, talk of all kinds of topics, laugh, and enjoy vegetarian food. You might be interested to know that food is also linked to spirituality. Vyasa, the ancient spiritual sage of India, mentions in his compilation of the Bhagavad Gita, a spiritual discourse, that Lord Krishna gave the following advice about food: “Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasant to the heart.” (Bhagavad Gita 17.8 as translated by Srila Prabhupada).
I love juicy food. Keeping this in mind, I thought we would share some nice juicy fruits with Maharaj Ji and his entourage. I went into a country farm market in Richmond BC, where I live, and carefully selected the best looking watermelon. Heavy and with no blemishes, it glowed a nice shiny green. You know, I try do that to myself also – keep clean and shiny, be well dressed, and look nice. We are usually attracted by physical appearances. Let’s get back to the watermelon. After a heavy day and evening of spiritual discourses with many people at four different houses in the Vancouver area of BC, Maharaj Ji and his companions arrived back home exhausted at around 12.30 am. Standing in our kitchen, he saw the watermelon and asked a devotee, who’s a chef, to carve up the fruit for all to enjoy. The chef saying his prayers to make the food holy (“prasad”) sliced it open, effortlessly, chef style. I'm amused over his name also having the word Prasad in it – Das Ajudhya Prasad. He diced up a few pieces. As soon as Maharaj Ji saw the cut fruit, he recognized it’s true nature. The colour of the flesh was dullish, not shiny. This makes me wonder about looking inside myself, at the substance of my soul. If I cut my conscience open is it pure, is it fresh? After tasting a piece or two of the watermelon Maharaj Ji condemned the fruit. Likewise, I think that God would condemn me for the rot in my soul. To continue the story, I tasted a few watermelon pieces. I noticed that some pieces were fresh and some stale. That’s a bit like us humans, isn’t it? We have good and bad in us, all at the same time. That night, some of the company ate of the untrustworthy watermelon whereas others didn’t. And so it is with me, some like my company and some don’t. But most of the watermelon was dumped into the garbage. My question to myself is, “What can I do to stop myself from being dumped by humanity and by God?” How can I be a good human watermelon? Which brings me back to the message of Guru Nanak: work, share with community, and meditate on God’s name. That’s what I can do. That’s what you can do. That’s what we can all do. Such conduct would be indeed be “wholesome and pleasing to the heart”.


God Bless; Allah Hu Akbar; May The Forces Of The Universe Bring You Harmony; Hare Krishna; Radha-Swami; and Nanak Naam Chardi Kala Tere Bhane Sarbat Dha Bhalla.

I wish to express my gratitude for your comments, which inspire me to carry on writing. Please forgive my fallibilities in presenting this material. Also, feel free to send this message on to someone that you might think would like to receive it. If you do send it on, my only request of you is that you send it as it is, in its entirety, and to not alter or modify any of the text, references or authorship information. Thus you will help to give credit or liability to where they are properly due.

Jas Bhopal
Copyright© 2007
“Practicing goodwill makes for a good life."
Tel: 604 273 6641 (also for fax on request)

http://jasbhopal.com/

References: "The Holy Bible" Online version; "The Koran" as translated by SV Mir Ahmed Ali 2005 ISBN 0-9761870-0-0); "The Bhagavad Gita As it Is" as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN 0-89213-268-X; The Srimad Bhagavatum as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN0-89213-259-0; "I Am That. Talks With Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj” ISBN 0-89386-022-0; The Dhammapada ISBN-10:1-84483-344-5; The Sacred Sukhmani ISBN 81-7205-098-4; Wikipedia.