Snails of the Earth

One day, a man heard a knock on his house door. As he opened the door, he saw a snail. “Why are you here again?” The man asked the snail. The snail replied, “Six years back, I had knocked at your door and you threw me away that time. I want to know why you did it to me.” It is interesting to know that all the past six years, this little snail was on its’ march back to the house, burning with fury over the injustice that man did to it. A snail generally is a creature that has a coiled shell that is large enough for it to retract completely into. Those without shells are called slugs or semi-slugs. A snail according to Greek traditional belief symbolizes rebirth. Usually we refer to this creature to describe a slow and inefficient process. Since they feed on a wide range of agricultural wastes, they are helpful to humanity. In many parts of the world, snails are used as food. How much a snail is useful or how they live were not the problems that troubled me. What that disturbed me was the mere truth that the snail was spoiling half of its’ life span or rather all the pretty fruitful years of its life travelling back to the house burning in anger. I asked myself, ‘was not me the snail?’ I understood that I mostly live on past hurts and injuries. Whoever comes to me, I see them through lenses of conditionings. Whatever happens in my life I judge them through the many filters in my mind. Past ….. past …. Past…., it is in the past that I mostly live.

Living in the past is not an effortless process, I know. It is not a dream of the future that makes any head heavy but thoughts of past incidents. Thoughts are heavy especially if that are of anger and grief; they make our heads hung with weight. The scientific truth is that we spoil most of our body energy reserved for growth, over sustenance of subtle cerebral activities. It is said that a peaceful mind can think better than a worked up mind. A thoughtful mind is much more damaging to one’s existence. Why not we live in the cool and serene state of now? Years back when Swami Sachidananda Bharathi (Indian Thoughts, Patron) initiated Dharma Bharathi School of Forgiveness and Reconciliation (DBSFR), I didn’t know that forgiveness and reconciliation was that crucial in human growth. Now I dream and wish a life with a mind absolutely clear of a painful past. 

Joseph Mattappally