Sweet as Sugar Cane: Righteous Indignation and the Nose of Surpanakha
In the morning satsanga of September 30, 2026, Swami Jyotirmayananda taught that the grace of Rama turns even agitation into a blessing, and read Surpanakha and her brothers Khara and Dushana as the desires and disturbances that sadhana sublimates.
Swamiji opened with a meditation on the glory of the Self. I am not this transient body, a blend of five elements, and I am not subject to the miseries that arise from body and mind. Inspired by Guru and God, the seeker realizes the Self as Satchidananda. The head becomes a shining sun that dispels the darkness of delusion. "My heart has become the Kalpaka tree that grants absolute fulfillment." And the seeker is a drop of sacred water from the lotus feet of God that turns into the sacred Ganges.
With that, Swamiji returned to the story of the Ramayana.
Blessed by Rama
Lakshmana is blessed by Rama, Swamiji began, and it is a mutual relation. When a devotee is blessed in this way, a subtle, divine change takes place within the mental process. Outwardly one may seem to be the same personality. When a challenge comes, one may become very excited. It may even appear that one has lost one's mental balance. "But you have not lost your mental balance."
He compared such a person to sugar cane. The skin is hard, but when one tastes the cane it is very sweet. "So your personality becomes like a sugar cane." Behind the anger and agitation, grace begins to shower.
When a person is not blessed and the mind is agitated, everything one does makes one tumble into the cycle of birth and death. But for the one who is blessed, even a sharp gesture becomes a source of grace. "It's called righteous indignation." That indignation never becomes unrighteous, and whoever is scolded by such a person becomes blessed. So it is when the Guru scolds a disciple: the more scolding one receives, Swamiji said, the more a divine vision is awakened.
Sadbhavana and Durbhavana
Swamiji then drew a subtle distinction between sadbhavana, a good and pure disposition, and durbhavana, an ill disposition. With sadbhavana, one recognizes one's mistake quickly and soon becomes free of it. "Correct your mistake and you progress." Durbhavana does the opposite. It makes a person more and more dull-witted.
For the welfare of the world, he recalled the prayer sabko sanmati de Bhagavan, which asks the Lord to grant right understanding to all. Sanmati, he explained, is the state in which one's insightful vision becomes sharper. Without that blessing, one is led by kumati, wrong understanding.
The Nose of Surpanakha
Turning to Surpanakha, Swamiji offered a subtle insight into the mystic story behind her. She is the sister of Ravana, part of a whole family that includes Khara and Dushana, and in Swamiji's reading she was married to dushta buddhi, the wicked intellect. Hers is a negative personality, and she is drawn toward vishaya, the objects of the senses.
Looking for a match, she comes to Rama, who is totally different from dushta buddhi. When Rama does not accept her, she turns to Lakshmana, and Lakshmana cuts off her nose.
The nose, Swamiji explained, stands for subtle desires. When one is led by such desires, the nose becomes very active, always going after something. Cutting off that nose opens the gateway to Khara and Dushana, and to their sublimation.
When Surpanakha saw Sita, she had never seen anyone so beautiful and gracious. Yet her mind misrepresented that first meeting, and Swamiji noted how easily she could speak lies. The most gracious and glorious personality was negated by a mind dominated by mala, impurity.
Everyone, he said, has the potentiality to become supremely gracious. But people ignore it and turn to "eat, drink and be merry," and the nose constantly goes after one object or another. Each time the nose is cut, the gateway opens for the demons to be sublimated one after another.
Khara, Dushana and the Straight Spine
Khara, Dushana and Trishira are three demon brothers. Khara, Swamiji explained, means a discordant, disturbed atmosphere. A roof should give comfort, yet through a hole in the roof comes air carrying a foul smell, and that is Dushana. When this happens, all three of thought, word and deed become polluted. Seeing this leads to their sublimation, and it opens the gateway to the sublimation of Ravana.
Swamiji then gave the subtle meaning in terms of the body. The subtle channel is the spine, where the sushumna is, and the chakras along it can create disturbance of their own, their own Khara and Dushana. "But the cure lies in the chanting of OM." With it, the chakras come to be in their right place and work the right way. That is why, whenever one receives physical training or health instruction, the first thing one is told is to keep the spine straight. And then, Swamiji said, chant OM, and that one OM removes all these troubles and obstacles.
I Am All This
The mind that goes after a multiplicity of things, Swamiji taught, meets many troubles, and they all have different faces. But when one asserts, "I am all this," everything comes under a divine peace. The mind is filled with ecstasy, and the thoughts that were creating trouble fade away. The entire agitation of the mind is replaced by stillness.
Seen in this way, no one is a demon. The same world that was terrorizing becomes divine.
The satsanga closed with a prayer for the shower of the grace of God over all, the Om Tryambakam mantra, and the prayer sarve bhavantu sukhinah, sarve santu niramayah, sarve bhadrani pashyantu: may all be happy, may all be free from illness, may all see what is auspicious.
Terms in This Satsanga
- Satchidananda - Existence, Knowledge, Bliss; the nature of the Self named in the opening meditation.
- Kalpaka tree - the wish-fulfilling tree; in the opening meditation, the heart that grants absolute fulfillment.
- sadbhavana - a good and pure disposition, by which one quickly recognizes and corrects one's mistakes.
- durbhavana - an ill disposition, which makes the mind dull.
- sanmati / kumati - right understanding and wrong understanding.
- vishaya - the objects of the senses.
- dushta buddhi - the wicked intellect, Surpanakha's husband in Swamiji's reading.
- mala - impurity of the mind.
- sushumna - the subtle channel within the spine.
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