shounuh orhass kah(vehrcheen sounchuh hahsnee) ghertah muzzgeet baduhn eever guh sheereh

When the dog arrives at his last moment, he goes and pisses all over the mosque’s outer wall

I personally experienced the sense of this proverb. I once met a hindu man that was known as a guru and teacher.He had a small following of students that he taught yoga and philosophy. He was married to a much younger and attractive American woman. He was in his late seventies and she was in her late thirties.We became friends and began to meet each other and talk about yoga and philosophy. On one occassion the subject of Indian gurus and their divinity came up. I made a statement that America is famous for coming out every year with many new models of cars and India is famous for having a new and different incarnation of God everyday. He didn’t like my statement and expressed his disapproval of it. We went on to another subject. He mentioned that he had read the Bhagavad-gita translated and with the commentary of Gandhi. I was familiar with Gandhi’s commentary. I said, “Gandhi claims in his commentary that the main subject of Bhagavad-gita is nonviolence. This is absurd as the Bhagavad-gita is a conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna. Krishna convinces Arjuna that he should fight under the order of the Lord and without any personal goal or hesitation. He should fight to please the Lord and protect the principles and integrity of dharma or the righeous path of God’s will.Gandhi’s claim that Bagavad-gita is a treatise on nonvilence was nonsense and unfounded. He simply took this great work of spiritual instruction and crassly gave his own interpretation to serve his political purpose. I said Gandhi did not have to use the Bhagavad-gita to expound his own philosophy. But he inappropriately misinterpreted Bhagavad-gita to serve his own selfish purpose and the end result was a mess. he caused the massacre and misery of many thousands of Hindus who were expelled from the western territories of India which later became known as Pakistan He taught nonviolence and he was ironically violently assassinated.

My friend remained silent and then quickly excused himself and stopped talking to me. Five years later a lady with a large hat that mostly covered her face followed down a public street. I noticed her but did not pay too much attention. She was definitely following me. Finally, I turned around and looked at her. She lifted the hat somewhat. I could not recognize her. She spoke in a soft ans weak voice. She introduced herself as the wife of the old yogi and said she has bad news for me. Her husband had died and she felt very devastated and sad. I expressd my condolences. She then narrated how her husband’s health deteriorated due to his diabetes and gradually he became blind. The blindness really angered him and he became sullen and resentful that God had gievn him so much misery. He lost confidence in himself and blamed God for his inability to enjoy his life with his young wife. She said he began to curse God and reject the Bhagavad-gita and the traditional teachings and practices that he taught to his student for so many years. She saw this horrible transformation in him. Finally, her husband
s sister came from Indias and took her brother back to India to die with the family without asking the wife to accompany them. She was heartbroken and I felt she could tell me because I would understand her pain. I tried to comfort her all the while my mind wastrying to comprehent what she told me.

This is a true story that illustrates perfectly the above proverb. Gandhi also claimed to be a follower of Vedic dharma, but on several occasions he made outrageous statements that proved his understanding and following were very superficial. He once said that he did not believe that Krishna or Rama existed as historical persons. Yet, he used the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna’s dialogue with Arjuna, to promote his own philosophy of nonviolence. On the last day of his life, it is reported that he was very disgusted with the deterioration of India’s political and social events so quickly after the departure of the British. Many people were killed and India was split apart and there was massive social unrest. The political leaders were all selfishly manoevering for their own benefit and the great goals that Gandhi had espoused were becoming just parlor subjects and not political reality. He was even warned about going to the political rally that he was scheduled to attend that day. There was information that there could be an assassination attempt. Yet, he went anyway and was assassinated.

My yogi friend who died blaspheming God and the book of God shows the fault in superficial following of religion without having deep understanding and commitment to the teaching. Job was rudely tested by the will of God and he somehow resisted turning against God in his hours of trial and misery. My yogi friend and Gandhi failed where Job, Jesus, John the Bapthist and many others have succeeded.