Butter in the Milk

Value: Truth

Sub-Value: Discipline, Devotion

Pushpa Art Gallery

The young daughter had gone from her city-dwelling to her native village for the first time.

At night before retiring to bed, her mother opened a pot with cow’s milk in it and poured a little buttermilk. The girl asked her mother, “Mother that was buttermilk; and why have you mixed it with milk? The milk may be spoiled!” “Child,” answered the mother, “that is the way to to get the butter out of milk.”

‘But where is butter in it, mother?” It is in every drop of the milk dear, but you cant see it now. I will show you in the morning.”

In the morning, the daughter saw that the liquid the night before had become solid overnight. Her mother put a churning rod into it and started churning the curd vigorously and a thick layer started to float on the surface of the curd. Then, she gathered it, the butter, all up and presented it to the astonishment of the daughter.

The mother explained, “The addition of buttermilk curdles the milk. Milk is transformed into curd. Then you have to churn it. By this process, the butter, which was all pervasively hidden in the milk, is obtained. At first, you were not able to see it because it was hidden.”

“From where has it come now? From the milk only. Therefore, understand now that it was there all the time. It awaited the process of churning to reveal itself to your great joy.” The daughter too followed the same process and got the butter for herself.

Similarly, when we question, “Where is God?” and the answer is given, “He is everywhere!! He is within each one of us; we don’t know what does that means and how do we realise it?”

Learning

Just as the mother explained to the daughter about getting butter from the milk; a guru is necessary to explain how to realise God within us.  A Guru guides us that through regular sadhana and learning from our daily experiences of lives is akin to churning of good and bad. And through constant churning, we will, one day see the butter, that is, the light of Divinity, the God within waiting to reveal Himself.

(Adapted from- Parables of Sivananda)

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