Bhakthadasi

1/29/09 Here is an interesting story from Mahabharatha, also this is a very meaningful story.   Dronaachaaryar is the Guru of both Kauravaas and Pandavaas. After their Gurukula Vidhyabhyaasam or school education, they were all ready to walk into real life. In those days teachers never asked for anything in return for teaching children. They considered it as a previlege and a blessed opportunity to pass on divine knowledge to the next generation. Dronaachaaryar also was not different from that. When they were about to leave the ashramam both Yudhishtira and Duryodhana came to take leave and they respectfully asked Dronaachaaryar to suggest something he really wanted as Gurudakshina from them.   Dronaachaaryar thought for a while and called Yudhishtiran first and told him:  "Dear Prince Yudhishtira, as Gurudakshina, I would like you to do something for me. In this village thousands and thousands of peoeple are living. Can you go and se...

1/27/09 We all know that there are two Lakshmis of opposite qualities who visit and go or visit and stay in all households. One thing is sure that both Lakshmis  cannot be present in one household  at the same time.  But surprisingly both the Lakshmis  can exist in one's mind  because there are several people in this world in whose house Dhanalakshmi (wealth) stays and even after knowing that they have enough resources to lead a peaceful life,  they still experience the effect of Daaridryalakshmi's (poverty's) presence in their mind. This means that they are never happy with what they have and it is called Manodaaridryam or mental poverty.  Even though Daaridyalakshmi exits out of their house at the arrival of Dhanalakshmi, some people save the image of Daaridrya Lakshmi in their minds and experience poverty. Vice versa also is rarely seen .( A perfect example of this type is Bhagavan's classmate and dear friend Sudama or Kuche...

1/20/09   Last weekend I was fortunate to attend a Naaraayaneeyam discourse by respected Shri Shankara Pilla organized by the Kerala Hindu Society. Mr Pillai is an ardent devotee of Guruvayurappan and the discourse was saturated with Bhakthi. His knowledge of the scriptures are commendable and it was an experience. I want to share this story he told during the discourse.   There is a temple situated between Trivandrum and Kanyakumari at a place called Shucheendram. It is a very big temple and there is a really big idol of Hanumanji in that temple. It is made of a single stone and is very tall. As a child, I have seen priests using ladder to do abhishekam. There is a special offering called "covering the idol of Hanuman with butter". For that offering,  the whole statue will be covered with butter and then all the decorations will be done on the butter. The surprising fact is that even at the height of summer, all day the butter will not melt.   Some...

1/26/09 Abhinava Ajamila's plan of remembering Lord and chanting His naamam at the last moment of his life was not successful because he never practiced remembering Lord.  Bhagavan told in Bhagavad Gita " Anthakaale  cha  maameva smaran" meaning "you have to think of me (all your life and)  also  at the time of leaving this body". That word  cha  has very deep meaning. Bhagavan could have said "anthakale maameva smaran". He purposefully added that small word  cha  to tell us that we have to think of Him through out our life, and  also  at the time of death. And what is the upaayam or trick to be able to think of Him at the last moment of our life? All life we have to train ourselves to think of him or we should practice "Niranthara smarana".   Sree Ramakrishna paramahamsar advises us to imitate Bhaktha Prahlada and not Ajamila. He says  "Imitate Prahlada and start remembering him from...

1/25/09 This is a story of a person who imitated the old Brahmana, Ajamila, who was not a satwic person and still got salvation by uttering "narayana" in his death bed. According to the story of Ajamila in Bhagavatham, he was a very pious brahmin.  He married a pious woman and had children and led a very dhaarmic life taking care of his old parents, wife and children.  A few years later, unfortunately he fell in the net of Maaya that showed up in the form of a "kulata" or prostitute and led a life filled with bad karmaas. His last son was named Narayana and he was very fond of this boy who was born to him in his old age. In his death bed when he saw the  assistants of Yama, out of fear, he called his son "narayana". Becasue of his past pious life, he had still some good vasanaas left in him. So he could utter Bhagavan's name at the end and Bhagavan's assistants came and saved him from the Yamadoothaas. So according to this story if we ar...

1/21/09 Respected Bhagavatha Shri Shankarapillai told one real life story during his Naaraayaneeyam discourse. This happened about 5-7 years ago and I feel it is worth sharing with all of you.   There was a woman in that village or town who made her living by making and selling sweets like Jilebis, Laddus, Mysore pak etc. In addition to her excellent cooking skills, she was a very sincere devotee of Guruvayurappan. Every time she made sweets for her clients, she would offer a few to Guruvayurappan before she packed everything for them. To put it differently, she offered the sweets to Bhagavan and made it a prasadam before delivering to the customers.   One day, one customer who had to fly to Dubai the next afternoon, gave emergency order for some jilebis and laddus. Poor "maami" accepted the order and she had to get the necessary ingredients in the late evening. Some how she managed to make all the sweets by next day morning. She had to hurry up to pack the who...

1/24/09 Just imagine a wall clock in front of us. There are three needles: one showing the seconds, one showing the minutes and another one showing the hour.  The second hand moves every second and we can see that with out any effort. Now look at the minute hand. We can see it moving only once in a minute. So we have to actually wait and watch 60 movements of the second hand before we see the minute hand moving once. Now unless you are there exactly at the time when second hand and minute hand finishes the sixtieth second of the 60 th minute, you cannot see the hour hand moving. It moves only once when minute hand moves 60 times and second hand moves 3600 times. So it is very hard to see it moving because the motion is very slow. Great spiritual seekers have compared the second hand to our body, minute hand to our mind and the hour hand to Jivaathma.  When the body performs several small saatwic deeds, (for eg:60), mind gets elevated to a little higher spiri...

1/23/09 Like the well known Bheeshma Ekadashi, there is one Ekadashi which is known as Bhima Ekadashi or Nirjala Ekadashi. The story of Bhima Ekadashi is very interesting.   One day all the Pandavas and their mother Kunthi Devi had the shock of their life. When they got up in the morning they saw their dear brother Bhimasena, who  was stronger than the strongest and braver than the bravest, lying unconscious in his room. They brought cold water and sprinkled on his face and did all first aid treatment they knew.  After a few minutes he slowly opened his very tired eyes and looked at everybody. He was not able to talk. So with his hands he touched his stomach to say that he was very hungry and pointed towards his mouth to signal that he wanted to drink something immediately. They ran to the kitchen and brought what ever was made for breakfast for the whole paraphernalia and kept in front of Bhima. Bhima started eating and by that time...

1/22/09 As per Hindu scriptures, humans can be classified according to their goals they entertain. There are four purushaarthaas: dharmam, artham, kaamam and moksham. Dharmaartthi is seeker of virtuous or righteous path, arthaartthi is seeker of wealth, kaamaartthi is seeker of desires and mokshaartthi is seeker of freedom from the cycle of life and death or seeker of moksham. Now let us go to the story of a rare mokshaartthi.   Once a watchman came to see Kanchi Chandrashekahara saraswathi or Maha Periavaa. This man did not know much about Periavaa or his greatness. He happened to pass by the Kanchi Ashramam and saw several people visiting Swamiji So he also stood in the queue for darshan of Swamiji   He saw that everybody had some grievances or complaints about life or people around them and they were praying for Swamiji's blessings to get relief or to solve the problems. His turn came and he asked Swamijil whether Swamiji  could give him moksham. Swamiji...

1/19/09 An interesting story.   A crow was sitting on a tree doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow sitting and doing nothing (it was actually meditating on Sarveswaran) and asked him:  "Dear crow, can I sit like you and do nothing all day long?"   Crow answered in as many few words as possible: "Yes."   So the rabbit sat on the ground below the same tree and sat there doing nothing, thinking about all the things he could think except about what he wanted in his life and why he was sitting like the crow. When he was building big and strong castles in the air, a fox appeared from nowhere, grabbed and devoured the rabbit.   When he was dying, he asked the crow: "Why did'nt you tell me about this risk?   Crow thought:  "Poor rabbit! I forgot to tell him that if he wanted to to meditate all day, he had to rise and sit on a high plateau above all his desires".

1/18/09 A few lines from a poem by an unknown author:   "When you run so fast to get somewhere You miss half the fun of getting there When you worry and hurry through your day It is like an unopened gift thrown away Life is not a race, do take it slower Hear the music before the song is over."   Questions and answers based on these lines.   What is our destination? Which route we have chosen? (Surprisingly answering these solves all the problems in our life. Do we have time to think and answer the question? Are we not too busy meeting deadlines?) What is the most precious gift from God other than manushya janmam or being born as a human? ( the gift of a pure virgin day everyday!) Where are we throwing the unopened gift? (into the trash called Bhoothakaalam or past from which we can never recover that. As soon as we trash it, it is gone for ever) If it is not a race, what is life? (Let us answer this with another question: Is ...

12/21/08 I happened to read an article by His Holiness Kane Maharaj of Puna and he explained the meaning of Radha in a very nice way.  Water flows from higher to lower level and in Sanskrit, it is called Dhaara. When we reverse the letters of Dhaara written in Sanskrit or Malayalam or in several other Indiam languages,  we get Raadha.  That stream which flows from lower level to higher level is called "raadhagathi". Radha Rani's love flows from a lower level to the highest level or Krishna level and merges with Him. Since her love or devotion is flowing upwards, she is called Radha.  All devotees whose devotion flow upward towards Krishna and join Krishna become Radha. Bhaktha Meerabai and Aandal became Radha. All devotees are following the Radhaagathi or path of devotion and will become Raadha and join Krishna, in this life or in several lives. Sreekrishnaarpanamasthu. Two addendums that throw more light on this 1. Dear All, In fact ...

1/17/09 Nature of  Jaganiiyantha  or  God  is existence-knowledge-bliss or sat-chit-anandam   Nature of  Jeevan  is dependent. It is the one with no nature of it's own. It acquires the nature of what is close to it.    Nature of  Jagat  or  world  is jadam or dead (Anruthajadaswaroopam or not real and with out divine energy).   Imagine all the three in one line and note that Jeevan is in the middle and can move in either direction: God World   So when Jeevan moves closer to worldly life and gets immersed in the material universe, it acquires the nature of the material Universe which is not real and live (anruthajadaswaroopam). Universe is unreal and Jeevan starts believing in the unreal and starts living in the unreal subjecting oneself to all the sorrows and transient pleasures. Jeevans of most of the ordinary people like us have acquired this nature of  material world. ...

1/15/09 This story is from Vaman purana. Once there lived a Kshatriya who hated all Brahmins. With the hate in his mind he died and was reborn as a rakshasa or demon. He was extremely hungry and was wandering near the hermitage of a sage. The sage was chanting Vishnu Panjara sthothram and the demon moved forward to attack and devour him. Becasue of the power of the Vishun panjara sthothra, the demon could not advance forward enough to grab him. The sthotra was acting as an armour and he could not touch the sage. Demon waited for several months and when the sage opened his eyes, he saw the weak and hungry demon waiting for him. He asked why he was waiting and who he was. Then the demon said that he actually came there to kill and devour him, but he was very impressed by the power of the manthra the sage was chanting. He expressed his respect for the sage and asked him how he could transform into a good man and what act of atonement he could perform to erase the sins he had committ...

1/14/09 Who is a thyagi ?  Renunciation of the fruits of action  is called thyaga and one who abandons the anxiety for the fruits of actions is a real thyagi. The meaning of the word Thyagam is usually used as "sacrifice"  and then the definition can be rewritten as "one who sacrifices the fruits of action is called a thyagi" .   Who is a sanyasi ?  Renunciation of all the actions with desire  is sanyasa or one who abandons all actions with desire is a real sanyasi . A sanyasi even abandons the actions, not just the fruits of action.   As per Narada Bhakthi sutra, with god's blessings a thyagi progresses slowly to a sanyas i because when fruits of actions are abandoned, one becomes a real karmayogi and slowly all his activities will be turned towards contemplating God.   And Bhagavan assures:   ANANYASCHINTAYANTHO MAM YE JANAH PARYUPASATHE THESHAM NITHYABHIYUKTHANAM YOGAKSHEMAM VAHAMYAHAM" ...

1/13/09 Even before discussing about the four types of jnaanis and two types of Jnaanam, let us read what Ramana Maharshi said about Jnaanis:  the apparent distinctions between jnanis exist solely in the eyes of those ajnanis who look at them."  Also "Brahman can never be an object to be known".   So an  Ajnaani myself, I am trying to explore the four terms used for Jnaanis.   There are two types of Brahmajnaanam or Knowledge about Brahman. One is called Brahmavishaya Jnaanam and the other one is called Brahmaakaara Jnaanam.   Brahmavishaya Jnaanam : This stage is attained when all the acitivity or vritti of the mind is utilised for contemplating Brahman. There is no activity happens in the mind other than contemplating Brahman. This is possible only when the chitanya of brahma reflects in the intellect. A jnaani at this stage is called a  Brahamvid.  Brahmavid realizes that brahma alone is real and this world is unreal ...

1/12/09 Lord Siva's another name is Megha vaahanan, meaning one whose vehicle is cloud. Of course we have heard His more popular name Nandi Vaahana. Now let us see how Lord Siva got this name. This story is explained in Vamana Purana.   Lord Siva led the life of a yogi or sanyasin. Realized souls did not like to stay in one place for a long time because neither they had any attachment to the place and people around them nor they wanted to establish any attachment to the place and people around. When the story happened, Lord Siva was staying in the open valleys of Mandara parvatham with Sati Devi. Summer was about to begin and Sati Devi expressed her concern to her husband about living in the open valleys of the mountain. Siva explained to her that he did not want a permanent abode and was happy to live as a mendicant. Sati Devi could not say anything against His wish and kept quiet.   After the summer, monsoon came and it was extrem...

1/11/09 There is one more story illustrating the greatness of Vasishta Maharshi. As mentioned earlier Viswamitra was very proud of his power of penance or thapassakthi. Vasishta believed in the power of satsangam and naamasankeerthanam. One day there was a discussion about the effect of both tapas and naamasankeerthanam among the sages. Visamitra could not agree with Vasishta and he wanted to know the truth from Mahavishnu Himself. So he suggested that both Vasishta and himself should go to Vaikundham and get the ultimate truth about this from Bhagavan Himself. Vasishta agreed and they went to Vaikundham and prostrated before Bhagavan.   Bhagavan greeted them and asked the purpose of their visit to Vaikundham. They explained their argument in detail and requested Bhagavan to enlighten them with the truth. Bhagavan is very clever and did not want to hurt neither of the sages. So he told them to approach Uragaprabhu or lord of snakes Aadishesha or Anantha. Anantha was...