A Subhashita in English

[Sahasranama]

A bee goes from flower to flower to collect pollen for making honey, while a bluebottle takes food from anywhere.
The wise man purifies himself in all the sacred rivers, while the fool even baths in the sand of the desert.

[sanjaya]

That's a very good illustration of the case against universalism.

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté sanjaya,

That's a very good illustration of the case against universalism.

How so? Can you help me understand your assessment?

praṇām

[Chris]

A bee goes from flower to flower to collect pollen for making honey, while a bluebottle takes food from anywhere.
The wise man purifies himself in all the sacred rivers, while the fool even baths in the sand of the desert.

That's a very good illustration of the case against universalism.

namast� sanjaya,




How so? Can you help me understand your assessment?

praṇām

I take it to mean that we can take from many dharmic sources (the flowers), but we should not be undiscriminating like the bluebottle. Again all the sacred rivers (dharmic sources) are beneficial whereas the desert sand is not.

It is promoting a limited universalism, where you can take from many traditions but not feel obliged to treat all equally - i.e. we don't need to say that eternal hell is as true as dharma, samskara and moksa or that a Muslim temporary marriage (Nikah mut�ah) is as good as a life-long bond in spiritual growth.

Personally I would say that all the sacred rivers are purifying, but when one has a home on a river why trudge through the mud to bathe in another? (Yes, other dharmic beliefs are good, but when you find one grow in it rather than trudging between many)