God does not make mistakes

[Vidanjali]

This morning I was watching my guru's daily livestream on twitch. We're watching Hindu scriptures depicted via an Indian TV show from the early oughts & Swamiji provides commentary giving spiritual insight into the events and characters in the storyline. 

 

If you're reading this and know little to nothing about Hinduism, here's a very brief primer. Vedanta is the mystical philosophy of Hinduism. Vedanta purports that Truth is One and is spoken of in countless ways. Hindus believe God is One - absolute, indivisible & all-pervading. That Absolute is called Brahman and is also refered to as The Self. The many Hindu dieties represent various aspects of God and are meant to help the spiritual aspirant to learn, reflect, and be inspired to emulate. The demons depicted in Hindu scriptures represent various negative qualities present in the personality - impurities which the aspirant endeavors to sublimate by self-effort and surrender to God's grace. 

 

That said, in the series we've come to the story of demons, Shumbha and Nishumbha. They represent "me" and "mine", respectively. I've heard Swamiji tell the story of Shumbha and Nishumbha many times as they also appear in the scripture devoted to worship of God as Mother & each year in October, the 9 day festival of Mother worship, called Navaratri, is celebrated at Swamiji's ashram.

 

Me & mine relate to ego and attachment. Today, Swamiji framed me & mine in the context of self-doubt and doubting the world. Egoism or self-doubt means you are identified with the mortal personality and body, whereas your true identity is The Divine indwelling all.

 

In terms of doubting the world, Swamiji humorously said, you think God got a headache one day and didn't create the right way. I found this quite fascinating, to think of mine-ness or attachment in terms of doubting the world. When you assign the label "mine" to anything, you imply that there is also "not mine". That which you call mine is dear to you; you identity with it. Conversely for not mine - at best you are indifferent about it & at worst you hate it. Such is the trap of attachment - attachment and hatred go hand in hand as you also develop hatred to some degree towards whatever you perceive as a threat to that you've identified as "mine".

 

Broadly speaking, the label "mine" is assigned to parts of creation. Conversely, "not mine" is assigned to other parts of creation. Every being does this all the time to some degree unless you are enlightened. And there are those who assign "mine" to parts of creation they consider acceptable, and "not mine" to parts they consider unacceptable. Certainly this is related to points of view which consider certain groups of people, including transgender people, as inferior, wrong, or evil. This is due to ignorance.

 

In today's message, Swamiji imparted that those free of ignorance see all of creation expressing the glory of God. God is all-pervading or omnipresent. That is easily said, but deeply profound and not so simple a point of view to attain because in so doing one must also see all seemingly adverse situations also as God's glory. This is accomplished progressively by spiritual practice - by learning, deep reflection, developing trust and faith, and constant surrender by seeing your body-mind-personality as God's instrument.

 

I am sharing this message as I am aware many trans folk struggle, internally and/or externally, with the idea of God having made a mistake. Here are some clips from today's livestream in case you're interested.

 

About "me-ness" called ahamta:

https://www.twitch.tv/1391ijimaws/clip/ProtectiveBetterSpaghettiHassanChop-CycVSKmub2HU9XKJ?tt_medium=mobile_web_share&tt_content=clip

 

About "mine-ness" called mamata:

https://www.twitch.tv/1391ijimaws/clip/FantasticBlueNostrilPeanutButterJellyTime-b3Bmo10LmukqGi_X?tt_medium=mobile_web_share&tt_content=clip

 

God doesn't make mistakes:

https://www.twitch.tv/1391ijimaws/clip/AnimatedRelievedLadiesOMGScoots-Ojk5Y-rPndUS7AWX?tt_medium=mobile_web_share&tt_content=clip