Dedicated to Sri Sarada Devi

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"Holy Mother" painted by Swami Tadatmananda

Used courtesy of the Vedanta Society of Southern California

http://www.vedanta.org




Dedicated to Sri Sarada Devi
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Which wolf do we feed?

The tribal teaching stories recognize that power can be used in either beneficial or anti-social ways, and that its use is a personal choice that will affect the world. Here is how the Cherokee explain it:

One evening a Cherokee elder told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside of people. "That battle," he said, "is between two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

"The other wolf is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith."

The grandson sat there, thinking about this for a while. Then he asked, "Grandfather, which wolf wins?"

The grandfather replied, "The one you feed."

Point by point this wonderful story corresponds to the ethical, moral, and psychological teachings of India — and in fact of most if not all religions. Notice the list of negative qualities, and how it corresponds to Vedantic teaching. We have the "six passions," sometimes called the "six crocodiles" that lurk in the stream of our consciousness: lust, anger, greed, pride, jealousy, delusion. Or the "eight fetters" itemized in Tantric teaching and cited by Sri Ramakrishna: hatred, shame, fear, distrust, pride of family, pride of caste, calculation, and deceit. The qualities identified as positive or negative are universal to human experience. Like Vedantic teaching, the Cherokee story identifies the problems of human existence and also their antidotes, and then it says that the rest is up to us. It is we who have to do the work. Which wolf do we feed?

Source: Native American Spirituality: A Vedantic View by Devadatta Kali Jaya

Location: U.K.