Harmony In Marriage Harmony In Marriage | Page 108
Harmony in Marriage
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becoming miserable, but rather to acquire the experiences of
this world; is this worldly life real or not? Is there happiness in
it or not? This life is specifically meant for obtaining the basic
meaning. Have you arrived at its meaning?
The relationship between a man and a woman is like that
of a mill owner and the ox that turns the grinder. In India, there
are small oil mills in the villages, where the ox is made to go
round and round turning a mill, crushing and extracting oil from
the seeds of a castor plant and other oil producing seeds. Parts
of the ox’s eyes are covered to restrict his vision in order to
facilitate the process of repetitive walking in circles around the
mill. The husband represents the bullock and the wife represents
the bullock-master that runs the oil mill. They go around and
around. The half-blinded ox thinks he must have covered a very
long distance after a day of walking, but when his blinders are
removed, he realizes that he is right where he started. Then
what does the ox-master do? He feeds him a piece of oil cake
and pleasing the bullock so that it starts working again.
Similarly, the wife feeds her man a piece of handavo (savoury
bread made from rice and lentils) and the husband eats
peacefully and the whole labour of life resumes early the nex