Swan and mosquito

Swan and mosquito.

You might be wondering what is the relation between these two?  Really
there is no relation or similarity between them, but there is
something to learn from them.

According to the imagination of ancient Indian poets (kavi sankalpam),
a swan can separate the water in a mixture of water and milk and drink
only the milk leaving the water behind. We do not know whether anybody
has done research and proved otherwise. So let us take this capability
of swan as real. Now what we have to learn from the swan is to take
what is good or "sat" from this world in front of us and leave behind
the "asat". In a mixture of milk and water milk represents the "sat"
and water used to adulterate the milk is the "asat".

All three gunaas (satwa, rajo and thamogunam) are present in everybody
even though percentages of these gunaas are different in different
persons. Depending on the percentage of the gunaas predominant in a
person, he/she becomes satwaguna pradhaani, (Predominantly satwa guna)
rajoguna pradhaani, or thamoguna pradhaani.

Ancient scriptures tell us to be like swan only assimilating the good
from around us. How is it possible? Krishna says that the best way to
accept the good is to be with sajjanaas or good people. So there will
be very little to reject because sajjanaas are made up predominantly
of satwa gunaas. Saatwikaas or sajjanaas are those who lead us to the
Sat-chit-anandam. Swan likes the company of saatwic lotuses because in
spite of being born in muddy water, lotus always likes Vishnupaadam
and prays Sun from morning till evening to give her petals a chance to
adorn the the feet of the Lord!  As we can see, lot of the lucky lotus
petals reach the feet of Vishnu or Devi or Siva in different temples.

Now what about the mosquitoes?

Let us watch a mosquito near the full udder of a cow. A calf is
drinking the milk and milk is overflowing. Mosquito looks at it and
flies around the cow, calf, and the fresh milk, humming a tune to
himself for some time. Then he thinks of the great taste of the blood
under the skin of the cow and without a moment of hesitation bites
through the cow's skin to suck off the blood. This shows that,in spite
of the abundant availability of rich milk, mosquito likes only blood.
For getting the blood, he was ready to hurt the cow when milk was
readily available. So ancient scriptures tell us that some people are
like mosquitoes rejecting the good and going after undesirable things
and cause suffering to others.

In Malayaalam there is a verse

ksheeramullorakitin chuvattilum
chorathanne kothukinnu kauthukam

means even near the udder filled with rich milk, mosquito likes only the blood.


May Guruvayurappan bless all us to be like a swan with the power of
discrimination and not like a mosquito.