Bhakthadasi

  One day, a teenage daughter and father were walking together. Their topic of discussion was God. The teen age daughter said that she did not believe in things that she could not see. Emotionally balanced and patient father did not say anything against the young blood's belief in "chaarvaaka matham".   That night was a clear one and lot of stars decorated the beautiful sky. Father and daughter were standing on the courtyard and were enjoying the crisp night with the blue star studded sky. They talked about everything under the sun arguing and agreeing about many things. Next morning, after the sun rise, father took his daughter again to the courtyard and asked her: "Daughter, do you believe that stars exist, even if you cannot see them now?   Daughter was perplexed because the previous night, standing under the canopy of  star-decked sky, they had such a  long discussion about stars, big dipper, comets etc and this question seemed meaningless. Anyway,

This is about a conversation between Brahma , Prakruthi or Maaya, Sanat kumaaraas and Saptharshis before the actual "srushti" or creation of ordinary humans. Earth is already formed from the Pancha bhootaas. It is important to note that Vishnu Bhagavan did not take part in this conversation. After he created Maaya and Brahma, he wanted to be only a witness.   So Brahma told Maaya and others: "I am going to create the first couple by dividing myself into two and then continue creation of  men and women through them. Vishnu Bhagavan's chaithanyam or power will give praanan or life to them and He will stay as witness for their actions. Now I do not want them to know the source of their power until they search for it through intense devotion and penance. Bhagavan gave me permission to hide Him where I think is the best place. So where can I hide that Paramaatma chaithanyam? What is your opinion?" So one of the saptharshis said: "what if we hide Him at

We have noticed that Narada Muni never stays in one place. He was not like other chiranjeevis like Vyaasa Muni, Hanumanji or any other devotees and Rishis. He travels constantly in the universe chanting the namaas of Lord. There is a story behind Narada Muni's continuous world travel. The story starts with the second Daksha prajapathi who was the son of Prachetas. Daksha prajapathi married a woman called Aseekni. But they did not have children for a long time. So they did tapas and Brahma appeared and gave Daksha a boon for getting samkalpa puthraas or maanasa puthraas twice. This means that he can pray and wish twice to get sons and they will be created by Brahma through samkalpam and not through Daksha's wife. They came back to palace and Daksha prajaapathi prayed and and did samkalpam for sons to be born. Then immediately he got ten thousand sons who were called Haryaswaas. They were born in their youth form.So Daksha told them to go to the forest and do tapas to increase

One day a man called Viswas went to a barber shop to cut his hair. The barber Aviswas  was a very friendly person and entertained his customers by talking to them about  various topics while cutting their hair. This time he started talking about God to Viswas. Aviswas said: I do not believe in the existence of God. Then Viswas asked the reason for his statement. Then Aviswas said: Sir, you just look at the world. Nothing is fair. I see many people get sick, so many people are poor, so many people are suffering. If God existed, how can He allow these things happen? If He is all powerful, can't He make a world with no distress or disease? Viswas thought for a while and when Aviswas finished cutting his hair, he paid him and came out of the barber shop. He started walking and he saw a man with long hair and untrimmed beard. After a few more steps, he saw another person with long beard and somewhat long unkempt hair. He walked back to  Aviswas's barber shop and showed Aviswas th

Kanchi Chanddrasekhara swagigal often quotes two  words of wisdom uttered by Lord Rama to show how foolish we humans are to go after transient pleasures even though we know that death is around the corner.   1." A frog is being swallowed by a snake. Even though it knows that it is going to die in a few minutes, the frog puts out his tongue in the hope that it will catch some flies or insects flying around. Similarly, a man is being swallowed by the serpent of Time or Kaalam, but he is still running after transitory sensual pleasures instead of remembering me ".   2. "A dog bites a dry bone thinking that there is some meat there. It goes on biting and during the intense biting, he bites his own tongue or hurts some part of his  mouth and starts bleeding. Stupid dog thinks that the blood is coming from the meat of the bone and bites the dry bone more and more. Similarly man foolishly thinks that happiness lies in external objects and runs after those, with out

If we make any mistake in chanting the naamam or Bhajans, will there be adverse effects? There are many different opinions about this. One opinion and explanation I read, appealed me and I would like to share that with all of you. Sishya or student asked Njaanananda Saraswathi: What if I make a mistake when I say my prayers? Is it enough to say samasthaaparaadham? Guru said: Whether you are saying prayers or samasthaaparaadham, your sincerity is that matters. Imagine a small baby learning to talk. Mother tries to teach him to call father as "acha", "appa", "dad" "pithaji" etc. Child tries his best and often comes up with some sounds, sometimes similar or sometimes not even similar. When the father listens to that, does he ever get angry at the child for not pronouncing it right? Never, instead, he is happy that he is trying and able to recognize and call him and he waits with love and patience .for that day when he can say it right. God is our

I was reading a book called The Hindu Mind and the author's explanation gave me food for thought. So I would like to share the same with all of you. He says destiny and free wiill can be connected using an equation S= ExWxD, where S stands for individual success, E for individual effort, W for for Divine will and D for destiny or effect of prarabdha karma. So success is possible only with our effort E, God's blessings or will W and if the effect of our prabdha karma is favorable. God;s blessings is a must in any situation. Let us look at a few scenarios. As per the equation: 1. Even if our prarabdha karma D is favorable, if effort E is zero, success S will be zero. 2. Even if  we put in all effort E , if the effect of our karma D is not favorable, then also success S is zero. 3. Now effort E is superb, karma D is all positive, Success S should be proportionatley big. Now in all the three cases, the effect of God' blessings can change the situation. Nothing is impossible

Svetaketu asked his knowledgeable father : if God or God' power  is the cause of all this world, why do we not see Him? Why do we not feel that ? His father replied: Dear son, you are seeing Him and you are feeling His presence. But you are not realizing that it is Him and his presence. Let me tell you an example. He took a lump of salt and asked Swetaketu to put that in a little water in a vessel. It was night time and father said that they would look at it in the next morning. Next morning he asked his son to take the  lump of salt from the water. Son looked at it and said the lump was not there. So father asked him to taste the water from the top, bottom, and sides. He tasted and he said it was salty wherever he took the water from. Now father said: you know the salt was dissolved. You could not perceive the salt now with your eyes,but you could taste it. So also in this body of ours and in everything else in this world,He is present. But He is beyond senses and you cannot r

I have read two stories about the birth of Sukadeva, one is in Mahabharatha-Santhiparva and the other one is in Skanda purana   1.  Vedavyaasa did thapa to please Siva Bhagavan and He gave Vyaasadeva the boon of begetting a blessed son. Vyaasa deva was doing homam and an apasara lady came there to distract his mind. His mind was agitated and even though she did not embrace the apsara lady his masculine energy fell into the sacrificial fire. When the homam progressed, a child was born from the divine fire and that was Sukadeva.   2. According to Skanda puranaa, Vyaasamuni married Jabali's daughter (I am not sure about the name, I think it is Pingala) and Sukadeva  is her son by Vyaasamuni. Suka remained in the womb for 12 years and only after Krishna assured him that he would not be affected by Maya, he took birth. Vyaasamuni had to bring Krishna from Dwaraka to convince Sukadeva in the womb.

This is a story of a scorpion and a sage and helps us to look in to our own nature. Even though the story itself may sound unbelievable, lesson we can learn is profound. Once a few saints were walking on the banks of river Ganga and they noticed a scorpion struggling to get out of a whirlpool formed out of foam from a big water fall. Every time it tried to get away from the thick foam, it went back deeper. Seeing this one saint got into the water to save the scorpion from the foam trap and with his bear hands took it and kept away from the foam. While holding it, as a scorpion would do, it stung him on his hands and he wriggled with pain.  But soon after saving it from the foam, it some how went back  to the same place and started struggling for it's life. Again the saint tried to save it and he was stung several times. Finally he held it and brought it in his hands and left it on the bank. It happily crawled to safety.  Other saints were watching this and they we

I heard this story from one of my friends and thought it was interesting and worth sharing with like-minded people.  One foreign traveler wanted to visit the hermitage of Buddhist monks in the Himalayas. He had heard about a Buddhist monk who remained with out sleep for several years and because of deep meditation, he did not need any sleep. This traveler was very excited to see this superhuman monk and took the trouble to travel a long distance, walking and riding on a donkey.  Finally with the help of some other Tibetan helpers, he reached near the cave of this monk. Traveller sincerely thanked God for giving him an opportunity to meet such a spiritually evolved soul. An English speaking monk took him inside to meet the great monk and told the seeker to ask what ever he wanted to ask him.  Then humbly our traveler-seeker told: "Respected monk, please advise me how I can advance in my spiritual journey." Monk said something in Tibetan language and th

I read this story in a magazine  and found it interesting and  hence sharing with all of you. "Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and choices today! This is a story of an elderly carpenter who had been working for a contractor for many many years. He had built many beautiful houses but now as he was getting old, he wanted to retire and lead a leisurely life with his family. So, he goes to the contractor and tells him about his plan of retiring. The contractor feels sad at the prospect of losing a good worker but agrees to the plan because the carpenter had indeed become too fragile for the tough building work. But as a last request, he asks the old carpenter to construct just one last house.   The old man agrees and starts working but his heart was not in his work any more. He had lost the motivation towards work. So, he resorted to shoddy workmanship and constructed the h

According to Vyasa Bhagavan, the five fortunes or soubhagyams of a person who practices Sanathana Dharma are: 1. Mahabharatha Paaraayanam -Reading of Mahabhaaratham 2. Himaalya Darshanam- Seeing or darshanam of Himalaya mountain 3. Ganga Snaanam- Taking a dip in River Ganga 4.  Sreemad Bhagavathashravanam- Listening to the stories of Sreemad Bhagavatham 5. Bhagavad Gita Patanam- Learning Bhagavad Gita. May Bhagavan bless all of us with these panchasoubhaghyaas and attain the greatest fortune or soubhagyam of reaching Him.

This is an inspirational Aesop's fable. Sat kadhaas or stories are like satsangam. So Vivekananda says to read them over and over again. A little frog was hopping around the farmyard. He was looking for good things to eat. He found wonderfully juicy flies, crunchy spiders, mosquitoes, and it landed in the milk shed hopping after a cricket. The cricket hopped up onto the side of the milk container. So, the frog also followed and sat on the edge of the container. From there cricket jumped across the big pail to the window sill. Frog followed to catch him alive. Alas! it fell into the milk in the pail. It was filled half way with fresh milk and the farmer had forgotten to take it with him inside his house. The level of the milk was too low or the height of the pail was too much for the frog to jump and reach the side and then jump out of the pail. Poor frog, kicked, kicked ,kicked and he could not climb out. Then he swam around in circles until he was exhausted. Again tried to kick

  This is a prayer to Ayyappa bhagavan. This is a sloka with very interesting meaning. I do not know who the author is.   Slokam is   उमामहम मातरमाह्वयामि पत्न्य: पित्रुर्मातर एव सर्वा: कथं नु लक्ष्मीमिति चिन्तयन्तम शास्तारामीडे सकलार्था सिध्यै:   umaamaham maatharmaahvayaami patnya: pithrurmaathara eva sarva: katham nu lakshmeemithi chinthayantham shaasthaarameede skalartha sidhyai:   For sakalaartha siddhi I bow to that Saastha, who is in a dilemma about how he will address Mahalakshmi. Ayyappa bhagavan thinks: I can address Parvathi Devi as "mother" because usually father's wife is considered as mother. But my mother is actually Mahavishnu (in the Mohini form). Now Mahalakshmi is my mother Mahavishnu's wife! So how do I address her?   Ayaappa's doubt is genuine because his parents are Siva and Vishu in Mohini form. So Parvathi is his father's wife and he finds no problem to call her mother. But he laments that there is no wor

I really liked this American Indian story and thought it s worth sharing.. "An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life . . . He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil---he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego. The other is good ---he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too." They thought about it for a minute, and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win, Grandfather?" The Elder simply replied, "The one you feed."   This story and the last one sentence gave them enough food for thought for their whole life!

I happened to notice something interesting. Usually Anga pooja is to think of each limb or organ of Bhagavan or Devi and do pooja to each of the limbs or organ. But instead of Anga pooja, Emperor Prithu (because of whom Bhoomi got the name Prithwi) did Anga Archana. This means he imagined each of  his own limb or organ as a lotus or kamalam  and did archana or offering of those lotuses at the Lotus feet of Bhagavan. (This is different from Anga Pooja which is the worship of Lord. Anga Archana is offering ourselves organ by organ at the feet of Lord.) Given below are the small manthraas that can be used to offer all angaas and finally ourselves at the feet of the Lord. It is said that when we have ailments of any specific part of our body, we can offer prayer specific to that part and do archana. Repeated chanting of the particular naamam and archana with real flowers or sankalpa pushppam (imaginary lotus flowers) is very auspicious to cure the ailment. What given below is for V

Let us look in to why Ganapathi Bhagavan never got married and prefers to remain as a bachelor by choice.   Like all children, Ganapathi Bhagavan also was a mischievous child. He had lot of energy and was very playful. One day after playing with his brother Subramanya swami for a long time, he was tired and was resting for a while. At that time a kitten came to play with him. Even though he was tired, he did not want to disappoint the kitten and played with him for some time. Then he wanted to take rest and the kitten was in the best of mood to play. So he was bothering him too much and Ganapathy Bhagavan was irritated and angry and in his anger, he scratched the kitten on his face. He was very scared and ran for his life crying.   After some time Ganapathi Bhagavan was hungry and went to his mother for some food. He saw that his mother Sri Parvathi's face had several scratches and blood was oozing out of them. He was very upset and asked   " Mother, what happe

Swan and mosquito. You might be wondering what is the relation between these two?  Really there is no relation or similarity between them, but there is something to learn from them. According to the imagination of ancient Indian poets (kavi sankalpam), a swan can separate the water in a mixture of water and milk and drink only the milk leaving the water behind. We do not know whether anybody has done research and proved otherwise. So let us take this capability of swan as real. Now what we have to learn from the swan is to take what is good or "sat" from this world in front of us and leave behind the "asat". In a mixture of milk and water milk represents the "sat" and water used to adulterate the milk is the "asat". All three gunaas (satwa, rajo and thamogunam) are present in everybody even though percentages of these gunaas are different in different persons. Depending on the percentage of the gunaas predominant in a person, he/she becomes sa