What is Sweet?
Lord Muruga asks, What is sweet?
Great saint poetess Auvaiyar answers (in a poetic verse), "Solitude is sweet, sweeter is worship of Lord, sweeter than that is the company of the Guru and still more sweet is the abiding in the Self day and night."
Solitude, the state of awareness, alertness, and oneness, is sweet. Often solitude is considered as spending the time alone with the nature, but it need not be always. One can experience the solitude in every activity. Solitude is the oneness of body, mind, and the environment. You are alert, aware, and consciously accepting it. Hence living in (and as) solitude is sweet.
Still sweeter is the worship of Lord, why? In practical life, some may harm us or cause evil to us, or we may cause evil to others as the part of our duty. But being centered at love, accepting the pain, focusing the duty, and devoting the results to the lotus feet of Lord, one experiences the nectar of love. So trusting and worshiping the Lord is sweeter.
However, this requires a self-effort, but if someone can guide in this path, will make better. Getting a company of Guru will make this possible and that is sweeter than all. In Hinduism, there is an order or priority of salutation – Mother, Father, Guru, and Lord. Like the seed requires the appropriate ground to sprout, a soul (with characteristics) require appropriate field to manifest itself. Since the Mother has the role of carrying and feeding, she got the first order of salutation and next the Father.
But what is the use of mere existence in this world. A Guru, who knows the path truth and guides the destination to the Lord, is given the next salutation. Hence getting a company of such a Guru is sweeter. Still, what can be sweetest in this world, if one can live the entire life under the guidance of the Guru. Like the sweetest experience of a baby in the mother’s womb, one experiences the Guru’s guidance while staying in this earth’s womb.
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