Keep It Simple

There is a Chinese fable about an official who offered his men a drink in a jar. Unfortunately, there was only enough for one person, so his men agreed to compete to see who could draw a picture of a snake in the shortest time. The quickest person to finish would be the winner.

The competition started and in a matter of seconds one man was done. Seeing that others were still drawing, he decided to add a few strokes to his drawing to improve it, instead of just saying that he won.

When he looked around again, he realized that someone else had already submitted his drawing and was declared the winner. At the same time, another comrade burst out in laughter and held up his paper shouting, “Look at his drawing! A snake with feet!”

The moral of the story is: sometimes doing all that is required for the task is all that is necessary. In other words, keep it simple. The man only needed to draw a snake and win the jar with the drink. But perhaps he became distracted, or overconfident and overeager, and played around a little more with his drawing thinking he could make it better. Ultimately, he drew a snake with feet. So he lost the drink and became the subject of ridicule.

Keeping tasks simple is harder than we think. A simple activity like drinking water may be delayed by looking for a particular glass or bottle or jug we prefer. This does not mean that some tasks do not require greater attention, thought or effort for improvement. It is just that we seem to have developed a habit of overthinking and overanalyzing everything we do, to the point that we make small, simple tasks more complicated than they need to be. Another example is how, while working on the computer, we find ourselves reaching for our phone to check for messages and notifications. These subconscious habits distract us from our real work.

On the spiritual path, one simple task assigned to us by the Master is to do our simran – simply repeat the five holy names of the Lord sincerely and continuously. The Maharashtrian saint Chokha Mela explains this task:

Sitting in stillness, O God,
I’ll meditate with body and mind.
Remembering the Name –
this alone is the essence,
so easy, karmas come to a halt.
Repeat the Name continuously,
no other method.
So easy this mantra, the saviour of souls
who sail it across the ocean of existence.
I was told a simple secret, says Chokha:
call upon God continuously.
_{Many Voices, One Song}

However, this is when our thoughts keep straying, our eyes keep flickering, our noses keep itching, our legs start tingling, and our sense of hearing becomes so acute that we can hear the minutest sounds from across the street. Or we strain to keep our concentration at the eye centre and become discouraged when we are not able to see lights or hear the sound within. This is when, due to distractions or overthinking we, like the man in the Chinese fable, add ‘feet to the snake’. Maybe we change the time and place of our meditation, keep changing positions, ask about other techniques to help with repetition, and constantly worry about how far we have reached on the path within.

Our duty is simple. Close our eyes and lovingly do our simran. The author of Living Meditation wrote: “There is beauty in simran – in just doing it. Concentrating in simran produces a beautiful, simple joy. We must first learn to settle the mind in simran, and stay there, enjoying the practice with gratefulness and humility.” Everything else will fall in place on its own.

So let us just keep it simple. Inspired by the poem of Saint Chokha Mela, let us focus only on the task of remembering and being with the Lord and master by repeating the five holy names in peace and quiet. This simple act of obedience is in itself a spiritual accomplishment.