Ocean Guru - Equanimity

Krishna: "(his voice carrying the rhythm of waves) Have you contemplated the ocean, Uddhava?"

Uddhava: "I have stood at its shore. It seems endless, eternal."

Krishna: "That very quality is its teaching. Observe: countless rivers flow into the ocean. The Ganges, the Yamuna, streams from every mountain — all pour their waters into the sea. Does the ocean rise and flood the land?"

Uddhava: "It does not. It remains at its level."

Krishna: "And in summer, the sun draws up vast quantities of water. Clouds form, rain falls on distant lands. Does the ocean shrink, become less?"

Uddhava: "It remains as full as ever."

Krishna: "This is equanimity perfected. Gains and losses, inputs and outputs — they occur constantly. But the ocean's nature remains unchanged. It is neither elated when rivers flood in nor depressed when waters evaporate out."

Uddhava: "Because of its vastness?"

Krishna: "Because of its fullness. The ocean knows itself as complete. Rivers adding to it cannot make it more complete. Water leaving it cannot make it less complete. The additions and subtractions are real, but they don't touch the essential nature."

Uddhava: "How does this apply to human life?"

Krishna: "The wise soul, knowing its true nature as infinite consciousness, receives the gains and losses of life with equanimity. Praise flows in like rivers — it doesn't inflate. Criticism evaporates like water to sun — it doesn't diminish. The Self knows itself as already full."

Uddhava: "This seems difficult when difficulties feel so... diminishing."

Krishna: "It feels diminishing only to the ego, which measures itself by external events. The Self cannot be diminished. When you identify with the ocean-nature within you, the rivers of praise and the evaporation of criticism become surface ripples on an unaffected depth."

Uddhava: "What of joy and sorrow themselves? Do they cease?"

Krishna: "They continue, but as waves on the surface. The ocean has waves — it is not waveless. But the depth remains still. The realized being feels joy and sorrow, but there is a stillness beneath them that remains untouched. Surface and depth coexist."

Uddhava: "The ocean also contains countless creatures."

Krishna: "And remains unchanged by any of them. Whales swim through, small fish dart about, plants grow on the floor. The ocean hosts everything without being defined by anything. This too is teaching: be spacious enough to hold all experiences without being defined by any."

Uddhava: "Can one become this spacious through practice?"

Krishna: "Through recognition. The ocean doesn't practice being ocean — it simply is. Similarly, your true nature is already vast, already complete. Practice removes the identification with the small pond of ego. What remains is what was always there: the ocean of consciousness."

Uddhava: "I am the ocean pretending to be a river."

Krishna: "Pretending to be a single wave, even. When the wave knows itself as ocean, fear of disappearing ends. Waves come and go; the ocean remains."

(The distant sound of the sea seems to reach them, carrying its ancient teaching across the land.)