Dattatreya and the Ocean

Rewritten and planned by Babak Kardan

In the past, different sages took different spiritual paths to find the Truth. Of course, even though they may have followed different paths outwardly, the same human values, the same inner wisdom, dawned in all of them. Take, for example, the sage Dattatreya. He was very unique, in that he did not have a human being as a spiritual master or guide. Instead, for him the whole universe was his master: the five elements and all the forces in nature. They guided him and taught him the crucial lessons of life. Dattatreya had the necessary qualities to learn these lessons. Here is one of these lessons.

One evening, Dattatreya was walking along the sands near the ocean. He was walking, deep in meditation. His mind was very calm and quiet, and he could perceive everything around him with clarity and insight. As he walked, Dattatreya watched the waves, how they would reach the shore and spread out on the sand, before silently going back into the ocean. Then, he noticed the waves had brought some small pieces of wood to the shore, leaving them back on the sand.

“How selfish is this ocean”, Dattatreya thought to himself, “a few pieces of wood, even these the ocean won’t keep, but it throws them out onto the shore”

Just then, Dattatreya heard a voice! It was the ocean, speaking to him!

“Why do you think I am selfish, Dattatreya?” asked the ocean. “Just because I am not letting even a few pieces of wood defile me? O wise man, can’t you see that if I let even the smallest speck of dirt to stay in me, then I will no longer be pure and clean? If I allow any piece of dirt to stay in me, then more and more will follow them, and it will soon become impossible for me to get rid of them. So I am always vigilant, and I make sure that in every moment of my life, I don’t keep anything impure inside myself.”

As in a flash, all at once, Dattatreya realized his wrong thinking. He understood the importance of the ocean’s action.

“But of course!” he thought, “If I let even a single negative or bad thought stay in my mind, then I have lost my purity of mind. I will become weak, and then more and more negative thoughts will come and stay in my mind. So I must follow the example of the ocean, and always be vigilant to watch the thoughts that come into my mind, and never let the negative ones stay in me. As soon as they arise in my mind, I have to remove them, just like the ocean removes even the smallest piece of dirt. Only then can I be pure. When my thoughts are pure, only then will my words and actions be pure too. And only when all three are pure, will I always be content, happy, stable and unchanging like the ocean.”

Dattatreya was so thankful for this lesson that he fell on his knees and bowed down before the ocean, in gratitude for such a valuable lesson.

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Questions:

1. In what frame of mind was Dattatreya when he noticed the waves on the shore? Why do you think it is valuable for us to always have such a frame of mind?

2. When the ocean spoke to Dattatreya, he didn’t get upset or angry at the ocean. He didn’t try to defend himself. What quality does this show Dattatreya had? How did having this quality end up being beneficial to him?

3. Can we also take such lessons from nature? What qualities do we need, within ourselves, in order to understand our “life lessons”? How do you think our lives will change by going through these lessons in our lives?