Keep Advaita within the heart while eating waffles

The cubs were eating their waffles and remembering the lesson Mum Lioness had given them the day before on manners ... though luckily Mum Lioness had not taken the whole thing too far and had added that if one has ever made maple syrup, or is born to a lioness who has made maple syrup, one is fully entitled to lick the place clean, though never in front of visitors who are unfamiliar with this unusual rule.



But still, the cubses did not like their freedom being curbed at all ... so Tirucub hit upon what he thought was the perfect retort. "If all is one, why does it matter how we eat our waffles?" And then he added a little self-enquiry twist at the end, just in case his first argument was not enough to bring Mum Lioness around. "And who minds?" he asked, hiding a pleased smile behind a sticky paw.

Mum Lioness did her best to explain ... but a little while later, Tirucub teased Arunacub, who could not bear any sort of teasing and raised a small toy in his paw to create the impression that he might have to throw it at Tiru if the teasing went any further.

"Don't!" shouted Tirucub dramatically. "If you throw that, you are throwing it at Bhagavan."

"No I am throwing it at YOU!" countered an impassioned Arunacub.

"All is the Self," said Tiru, comfortably strolling back and forth in front of Arunacub's raised paw, knowing Arunacub would now be unable to throw the toy. Tirucub stretched and purred a little to show how VERY relaxed he was.

At this point Mum Lioness felt she had to try to explain the first part of verse 39 of Ulladu Narpadu. "Keep advaita within the heart. Do not try to carry it into action," she told them firmly. The cubs forgot their argument and began to pepper her with whys and but what abouts.

"The ego is crafty, and will work this to its advantage," explained Mum Lioness."Who is suddenly saying All is One when not getting its way?"

"The ego?" said Arunacub.

"Yes," said Med Tiger, who had been listening at the cave entrance and noticing that little Omcub had only eaten a few tiny nips around the edge of his waffle which was nicely droozled with syrup. (He hoped his association with Mum Lioness would qualify him to lick the Om plate after he had tidied up the leftovers.)

"Only the Sage can put Advaita into action, because He is egoless ... isn't that what Lakshman Sarma told us?" Mum Lioness asked Med Tiger.

"Exactly so," said Stripes.

"In your cases," Mum Lioness said to the cubses, nudging Spotty between her paws so he could eat off her plate, "you must try to behave impeccably and not justify wrong deeds but suddenly pulling out the All is One card."

"Impeccably?" said Om, liking the sound of the word but not having any idea what it meant.

"Is that something birds do a lot?" asked Arunacub. Before Mum Lioness could try to explain the meaning of the word, Aruna and Om collapsed into a sticky chuckling heap on the cave floor. Repeating the word impeccably would set them off into a fresh burst.

Mum Lioness was laughing just as hard, which gave little Spotty a chance to finish her breakfast.

"Isn't it night time in your cave?' asked Tirucub, watching Spotty so eager to eat breakfast.

"Perhaps," said Uncle Stripes, "but we regard syrupy waffles as the ideal bedtime snack."