Letter # 77: "Earthenware"

While driving up Gilbert Road in Richmond BC towards Vancouver Airport, I've often noticed a display of large earthen pots for sale in a large fenced yard. Made with care, they are of varying shapes and sizes and beautifully coloured. The earthen pot makes for powerful metaphor.

Lord Brahma prays, “My dear Lord, who are always fully independent, this entire cosmic manifestation arises from You, rests upon You and ends in You. Your Lordship is the beginning, sustenance and end of everything, like the earth, which is the cause of an earthen pot, which supports the pot, and to which the pot, when broken, finally returns.” [SB 8:6:10]
Isaiah proclaims: "...O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. [64:8]
What comes from the earth will go back to it; so will our bodies. While some of our objects might survive as curios for future generation, those generations' artefacts, in their turn, will also be impermanent. If that is the case, then what is permanent?

Master of the neti-neti meditation, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj cuts to the core of the matter: "... you must question your most inveterate beliefs. Of these the ideas that you are the body (pot) is the worst. With the body comes the world, with the world ... fears, religions, prayers, sacrifices, all sorts of systems - all to protect and support the child-man, frightened out of his wits by monsters of his own making. Realize that what you are cannot be born nor die and with the fear gone all suffering ends." ["I am That" p302].

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© 2008
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.