Extreme Devotion – Karaikal Ammaiyar – 2

She gave up her all for devotion

The twists and turns of life cannot be predicted. The road of life goes smoothly and suddenly we are jerked and jolted and sometimes even break a bone or two.  Generally, we all feel that we are very good and must be rewarded for it. We have our own plans and blue prints for  the expected reward. Yet when Divinity rewards, it may or may not match our blue print. Most devotees fail to  accept this point. Their ego is not able to understand or take in the shocks of life.  They are so self centred that they are unable to see the more vast and more grand plan of God for their soul. They only see that their particular desires are unfulfilled and indulge in blaming and slandering God. They stop their bhakti and worship.

In response to her prayers , grace descended on Punithavathiyar when the mango manifest in her hands, not once but twice. Her husband was convinced of her genuine bhakti. He also felt that she was a divine being and he could not live with her anymore as his wife. So he decided to leave her and go away. He quietly went away to another city. He earned well there and got married to a merchant’s daughter and lived in comfort and luxury. When a daughter was born to him, he named her after his first wife Punithavathiyar as he considered his first wife to be a divine being and his guru. In the meantime, his friends and relatives came to know of his new life in another city and they decided to compel him to receive his first wife as she was pure and had done no wrong to her husband.

When all reached the residence of the husband in the new city, he went to receive her with his second wife and daughter. He fell at her feet with the greatest reverence and said: I am your servant and you are my Guru and Family Goddess. All that I have today is due to your grace and blessings. Poor Punithavathiyar was utterly confounded by this salutation and worship. She asked her husband why he behaved in this manner. He explained that he saw her work a miracle and that she was a divine being. So he worshipped her and named his daughter after her.

Punithavathiyar heard these words and pondered over it. She prayed to Lord Shiva, her Supreme God saying: I took care of this body and beauty for sake of my husband. Now take away the burden of this flesh and give me the form and features of those who attend on You and praise and worship You.  I seek nothing in life but You. Immediately, her beautiful and graceful form transformed. Her flesh dried up and she became an old woman and as thin as a skeleton. She had turned into one of the ganas or spirits who surround Lord Shiva. The Gods sent a rain of flowers on her and blessed her. All her relatives offered her their respects and departed in awe and respect. She was named Karaikal Ammaiyar in respect of the village she came from.

Now freed from all worldly obligations and attractions and desires of the flesh, she was entirely focussed on her love for Lord Shiva. Having assumed the form of a gaunt old woman, she lived in the wild jungle of Alankadu. She wrote many sacred poems which were heard and appreciated by the Lord Himself and they are sung even today. There are very few devotees like her. She willingly gave up her beauty, youth and grace and took on an ugly and undesirable form so that her attraction for the world would drop completely and she would be immersed fully in the bhakti of Lord Shiva. This is a lesson for us in the modern world, where so much attention is paid to external form and beauty. The Lord only sees our inner beauty and light – our bhakti and longing for Him and blesses us.

(continued in the third blog)

Extreme Devotion – Karaikal Ammaiyar – 1

The mango  manifested in her hand!

Women all over the world have been able to balance their homes and their spiritual life. They have a blend of strength and tenderness which enables to manage their material and spiritual lives well. Their devout service to husband, family is full of love and God blesses them with extraordinary grace. They are examples for us to emulate and follow. Their lives teach us wonderful lessons on how to cope up with the twists of fate and karma. Karaikal Ammaiyar was an extraordinary Shiva Bhakta. Her unparalleled devotion to Lord Shiva brought about unusual changes in her life. Her love and surrender to Lord Shiva was so deep that she could accept the changes in her life with grace, embrace the turns and twists that life took and move onwards and upwards towards God.

The story of Punithavathiyar is given in the Periyapuranam – the collection of lives of great devotees of Lord Shiva. She was born in a very rich trading family. Her father was a sea trader and had international contacts. But he was a great devotee of Lord Shiva and performed tapas to get a child. A girl was born to him and named Punithavathiyar or the pure one. She had natural love for Lord Shiva and from her early days spent time in singing about the glories of Lord Shiva and worshipping him. When she attained the age of marriage, she was married to another rich trader’s son called Paramadattan.  Paramadattan was a good man and also a devout believer of God. He was a good husband and encouraged his wife in her bhakti of the Lord.

Punithavathiyar and Paramadattan had a good life.  He loved  wealth and earned well. She was a devout hindu housewife who did her duties well, fed the devotees of Shiva as service to the Lord and did her daily worship of the Lord. One day her husband entertained some businessmen who gave him a present of two mangoes of a superior variety. He asked his servant to carry the mangoes home and leave them with his wife. Punithavathiyar received the mangoes and as was her custom and habit, she washed them and offered them to Lord Shiva in her pooja or worship room. Soon afterwards, a holy man came to her home seeking alms. He was a Shiva devotee and was singing the name of the Lord. Punithavathiyar welcomed him in her home. Since she had no cooked food ready, she offered him boiled rice and one of the mangoes sent by her husband, which she had offered Lord Shiva.

At noon, her husband came home for lunch and had his meal. He ate a mango along with his meal with great relish. It was very sweet and delicious. He asked that she bring him the other mango too as he wanted to have it. Punithavathiyar bowed her head in dismay and went to the puja room. She prayed to Lord Shiva to protect her from her husband’s anger as she had given away the precious mango without seeking his permission. As she prayed, she felt a mango materialised in her hand! Offering a quick thank you to the Lord, she rushed to serve the fruit to her husband.

The second fruit was a divine blessing from the Lord. It was incomparably sweet and different from the first fruit the husband ate. So he asked her from where she got the fruit. As Punithavathiyar never hid anything from her husband, she told him the truth. He scoffed at her and said that he too was a Shiva devotee and the Lord never blessed him in this way and that she was telling lies. He asked her to pray to Lord Shiva and get him one more fruit.  Punithavathiyar’s faith in Lord Shiva was total and she stood there in full surrender and with folded hands and prayed to the Lord: Give me one more fruit, else my words have no value to my husband. At once another fruit manifested in her hands and she gave it to her husband. As soon as he touched it, it disappeared! Her husband understood that his wife was a divine being and therefore he felt could no longer live with her as his wife. A new twist came into the life of Punithavathiyar. Her bhakti and the grace of Lord Shiva left her in this unusual crossroads of life.

(continued in the next blog)

Meditation with Motive

It is rare that we worship or do spiritual practices without a motive.  We have endless motives for our worship. We need food, clothing, shelter and protection and once these basic desires are fulfilled, we go in specifics – we need husband, wife, children, home, furniture, school admissions, the latest gadgets, electronics, more friends, more popularity, power, increased salary packages, foreign holiday, savings, properties etc.  We pray and bargain with God. We offer bribes in form of prayers, offering of flowers and sweets at temples, worship, meditation, reading of holy texts and other promises. In return, we seek the fulfillment of our endless list of demands which are regularly updated. God is loved always for His Gifts and rarely for Himself. 

It is also right that we seek the blessings of Divinity to fulfil our needs. Divinity keeps granting our desires in hope that someday we are tired of the gifts given and seek the Giver. When we practice smaran,  japa, meditation and other practices, these purify our being.  We are slowly changed and a day comes when we are transformed. At that time, our list of priorities changes and we do not seek the original goals with which we started our practices. We seek to love God for sake of loving Him. This is one such story of Buddha and his cousin Nanda:

Once,  Buddha was requested by his father King Suddhodana to visit the city of Kapilavastu. Buddha went there with his group of monks. The Palace of the King was very busy with the preparations of the marriage of Prince Nanda, the step brother of Buddha. Buddha went to Prince Nanda’s house for alms and handed over his alms bowl to him. Then Buddha walked out without taking back the bowl. The Prince carried the bowl with the alms and went behind Buddha as it was disrespectful to return the bowl to Buddha. The bride of the Prince ran after him asking him to come back soon. At the monastery, the Prince became a monk.

Nanda the monk was not happy moving around with Buddha. He was discontent and did his  duties half-heartedly. He did not find any pleasure in the life of a monk. He wanted to go back to the palace and marry and return to the life of a householder. He kept recalling the words of the princess begging him to come back soon. Buddha knew of this and through his supernormal powers enabled Nanda to see beautiful damsels of the heavenly regions. He told Nanda he could have one of them if he worked hard and practiced the Buddhist Dharma. Other monks ridiculed him saying he was a hireling who practised Dharma for sake of a beautiful girl. Nanda was very ashamed of his weakness. Unknown to others, he practised Dharma diligently and eventually attained Enlightenment. Then his mind was totally free from all attachments and there were no lustful thoughts in him. This was foreseen by Buddha from before and hence he helped him attain it.

Most of the monks who knew Nanda and his desires, asked him how he was doing. He replied that he had no more attachments to the life of a householder. The monks felt that Nanda spoke lies. So they informed Buddha about Nanda. Buddha gave a sermon in which he explained that nature of Nanda had changed. Previously his mind was like house with bad roof where rain waters leaked into the house. Now his mind had developed and was like a well thatched home where the rain waters fell down but did not leak into the house. From the day Nanda was shown the heavenly damsels by Buddha, he worked hard to overcome the cycles of birth and death and attained enlightenment.

We can also train and transform our mind through SitaRam Mantra, meditation and the teachings of the Guru. Then the worldly desire and attachments will fall off us and not leak into our minds and lives. We may start with motives when we meditate, but ultimately the love of God will overtake us and show us the Light.

Need to overcome ego

Ego – the identity with self and the feeling of being separate from others is called Ahamkar in Hinduism. It is the sense of individuality which makes us feel separate from all creation and the Creator. The individual is made up of physical, energy, mental, karmic impressions of past, the higher intellect and the soul. The light of the soul is covered by the karmas and thoughts. Hence the individual identifies himself with the body and not the soul. He knows yet he forgets that the body is perishable. It can sicken and die at any time and the soul which is a spark of God is immortal. Our pre-existing thoughts and bondages take over our physical and mental self and create the illusion of separation. This is ego. The ego takes over charge of self and the gap between self and others in this world and between self and God keep on increasing with passage of time. Creating and widening duality by which we are made separate from others and God is the work of ego.

The entire cosmos is pervaded by Brahman or Divinity. Nothing exists apart from God and all is but God. Every part of creation is God and His Magnificence. The warp and woof of all life and universe is God. Ego does not recognise this fundamental truth. Ego makes us feel separate from all others. So we believe that we are the ones with special qualities and abilities which enable us to earn more wealth, possess more objects of desire, be more powerful, separate, distinct and unique from the rest of the creation. We indulge in a variety of activities which are geared towards strengthening and sustaining our ego and think of ourselves as the doer of action. When we identify ourselves with our bodies, thoughts and actions, we create the cycle of karma and we are born repeatedly till we learn the truth of our soul, God and the Oneness of all Creation. 

The ego makes us believe that we are doing action and are responsible for our actions. So we perform our actions for sake of fruit of actions. When we do so, we bind ourselves to karma and more karma and are reborn again and again in the endless cycle of births and deaths to fulfil our karma. We bind ourselves to this mortal life and forget our Divine nature. All actions are performed by us by our inherent nature. Due to ego we believe that we are performing the action. The dilemma of going to war or staying away was faced by Arjun as he was overcome with ego and delusion and forgot his real Divine nature. Sri Krishna explained to him that the men in the opposite side of the field were slated for death due to their karma and Arjun was merely doing his duty as a Kshatriya prince who was fighting for dharma. When Arjun was able to detach himself from his ego, he became an efficient fighting machine and though he killed many thousands of soldiers, the taint of killing did not touch him as he did not see himself as the doer of action.

In order to perform to our maximum potential in this life, we need to let go of ego and offer our actions to God and also the fruits of our actions to Him. We should accept the results of our work as prasad or blessings from God and move on. Such an approach to life is called Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga is one of the easy ways to overcome ego and receive Grace of God as we perform karma or work daily and we do not need separate time for spiritual practices. Karma yoga is spiritual practice at every moment of life when we do our work. By Karma yoga we can dissolve our ego and the sense that we are performing action and we are responsible for the results. By doing so, we break the cycle of karma and that of birth and death.

Depending on how we approach our ego, it can be of great help or a hindrance in the path of our progress in our lives. When we overcome our ego either by bhakti or by karma we can live in peace and in balance. Pain, sorrow, happiness or success does not affect us and we are in perfect peace and balance. We see all as divine blessing and there is no sense of doership.  We become free from desires and attachment. In such a state, grace of God descends and we are able to leap over the separation and see all as one and merge with the Light. Let us start our work of dissolving the ego at once with the regular practice of mantra japa of SitaRam and meditation and following the teachings of the Guru. 

Practise What You Preach-2

I observe the utter lack of practice in all fields of life around me while people only preach. We must understand that true power in words come not by speaking them eloquently but by the power of inner experience and conviction. And when we only preach and not practice, our words have no power or value. We also mislead others and inevitably we will get caught and are exposed as frauds. Each time we speak something, we are judged by all around us and when our behavior does not match our speech and advice, we are found wanting and criticized. Even a small two year old child has the intelligence to point out to its parent: But you do not do as you tell me to do!

When we are at study or home or at work etc, practicing what we preach is important. In the path of God, there is NO other way but to practice what we preach. Else we are mere talking texts which do not have the sweetness and flavour of Divinity. When we are a teacher or guide or a monk, we need to take special care in practicing what we preach so that we are above reproach. Any teaching is done ONLY by example of practice and not by mere words. And at some point of life or other, we also teach others by our example of practise. The following story set in times of Buddha speaks of the importance of practicing what we preach:

A buddhist monk was an eloquent preacher. He preached to others not to be greedy but be content with what they had even if it was less. But he did not practice what he preached. Once he went to a village monastery and gave extremely inspirational discourses. The villagers were so impressed that they asked the monk to stay at the village for the vassa – the three months of rains when monks stay in one place. He asked them how many robes would be gifted to him at the end of the vassa and was told only one. So he decided to find a more suitable place.

Before the monk set out for another monastery, he left a pair of his slipper behind ‘to book’ his place for the vassa. At the next monastery, he found out that the monks would get two robes for spending the vassa. So he left his staff there to book his place. At the third monastery, he understood that the monks would receive three robes. So he left his water bottle in this place. Finally he reached a rich monastery  where he learnt that the monks would receive four robes each. He happily spent the vassa here and at the end of the three months collected the four new robes. Then he went to the earlier monasteries and collected his share of robes and his personal items which he had left there for booking his place. Then he returned to his own monastery.

On the way back, the greedy monk saw two other monks arguing about how to divide two robes and an expensive blanket between them. They were unable to find a solution and they were looking out for a third party to arbitrate and settle the matter between them. The monk said that he would willingly help them and render service unto Buddha by doing so.  He distributed one robe to each monk and took the rich blanket for himself as payment for his trouble. The two monks who were cheated by the greedy monk were very unhappy and complained to Buddha about the first monk. Buddha sent for the monk and reprimanded him for his behaviour.

Buddha said: If you want to teach others, teach yourself first. Practice and experience what you preach and then teach.  Establish yourself in what is right and proper and then teach others. Your character and behaviour should be clean and pure. None should complain about you. You should be a benchmark to all. So let us practice what we preach. Let us practise the SitaRam Mantra and Meditation daily and follow the teachings of the Guru. Then our words and example will have power to influence others in a positive manner.

Overcoming Anger through Kindness

Anger is a part of us. We get angry when things do not go our way or when people do not react the way we want them to. All of us have to face frustration, hurt feelings and unhappiness in life and we react with anger. We also face opposition and criticism and we are unable to take them constructively. Then we react with irritation and anger. Anger is a natural expression when we feel violated, attacked or injured.

In itself, anger is neither good nor bad. It is simply an expression of emotions. We are frightened of anger as we are not taught to cope up with it in a constructive manner. Anger is a positive emotion which helps us to survive during times of stress.  It gives us strength to fight back when attacked or when we face injustice or flee from the dangerous situation.  We are generally scared of anger as it leashes out violent, unpredictable behaviour where we cause heavy damage to others and to ourselves. We become destructive and then we justify our terrible behaviour and take it out on a parade. We take pride in anger and vengeance. 

When we were young and got angry, we were punished for it. The elders shouted at us and made us stand in the corner till we cooled down. No one taught us to deal with anger in the right way. So we learnt to suppress anger. Bottled up anger is destructive and affects our digestion, heart, blood pressure and immune system. Suppressed anger has negative effects physically and mentally. One of the best ways of facing anger is accepting that we are angry and replacing it with positive emotions of forgiveness, understanding, compassion and love.  We learn not to suppress our anger but overcome and replace it with positive emotions which heal us and make us whole. The following story set in times of Buddha teaches us this important truth:

A young girl was a devout follower of Buddha. She followed and practiced his teachings in her daily life.  She also used to prepare the alms food for Buddha and his monk followers. At the right age, she was married to a good man and went to her husband’s home to live. She was not happy in her new home as she spent all her time taking care of her husband’s home and his needs and had no time for doing service to Buddha. She complained to her father about it. Her father felt sorry for her and sent her some money. The girl consulted her husband for hiring a servant maid to help her with the household work and take care of her husband while she cooked food and served Buddha and his monks. The husband agreed and the girl hired a maidservant. 

As days passed, the girl was busy and happy cooking food and serving Buddha. Once the husband passed by and seeing her busy smiled at her affectionately and went off. The maidservant became very angry at this loving behaviour of the husband. She forgot that she was only a servant hired to take care of the master and that she was not his wife. In a fit of rage and jealousy, she picked up a pot of hot boiling butter from the stove to pour over the wife. When the girl realised what the maid servant was about to do, she said: If there is only love in my heart for my maid servant and all mankind, and if I have no ill will towards my servant, let the butter not scald me. As the maid poured the boiling butter from the pot over her mistress, it rolled over off her body like drops of cold water. The other attendants in the room caught hold of the maid and started hitting her. But the girl ordered them to stop at once. The maid realised her foolish behaviour and that she was in no position to be jealous of her mistress. She sought forgiveness from the girl. 

Later when Buddha came to know of the happenings, he praised the girl for conquering anger by loving forgiveness. He also taught everyone that abuse should be overcome by non abuse, selfishness by generosity and lying by speaking the truth.  The truths taught by Buddha are fundamental to all paths. Let us practise them along with our SitaRam Mantra Japa.

The Impermanence of Beauty and Body

We are souls in a human body. Our base identity is that we are a spark of the Divine Light, a shard of the Universal Soul. When the soul is enveloped in a human body with emotions and gunas, it develops desires and performs actions. These actions lead to further desires and attachments. In the desire to experience all that the world has to offer, the soul which is enveloped in the human frame forgets its original identity and begins to believe it is the body. Attachment to the body and considering the body to be our primary identity, we enter into cycles of pain and attachment due to the impermanence of the body and its beauty.

It is essential to maintain our body. We must eat nourishing food, exercise, keep our bodies clean and neatly dressed. Nowadays the focus is more on the appearances, for the sake of appreciation and not for the sake of health. When our body is young and healthy it is beautiful. As we grow older, the beauty fades, the strength of the body decreases and sickness and disease take over the body. The body and its beauty are short lived. We spend our entire life time focussing on our body and not our soul. In the end, the soul leaves the body and the body is burnt or buried under the ground. When we understand the mortality of the body and the immortality of the soul, we develop detachment to the body and its desires and this helps us in attaining self realisation. There is a story in the life of Buddha which illustrates this truth:

Buddha’s foster mother was Gotami. Her daughter was Princess Janapada Kalyani. She was very beautiful and hence nicknamed Rupananda. She was engaged to be married to Prince Nanda, a cousin of Buddha. One day it dawned on her that most of her family had renounced home and become monks. Siddhartha, her elder brother, who could have become a Universal Monarch, had become Buddha. Her mother Gotami had become a monk. Rahul the son of her elder brother and Prince Nanda too had become monks. Now she was all alone in the palace. She also became a monk because of her attachment to her family and not out of conviction of the path.

Rupananda had heard about the talks given by Buddha from the other monks. Buddha often spoke of the impermanency of the body. She was afraid to meet Buddha as she thought he would disapprove of her good looks. But the others in the monastery always praised Buddha and his uplifting talks. So one day she decided to go with the other monks to hear the lecture of Buddha. 

When Buddha saw her, he understood that Rupananda was extremely attached to her beauty and body. He wanted to help her break that attachment. With his Siddhis or supernatural powers, he created a vision of a very beautiful girl of sixteen who sat next to him. Only Rupananda could see her. When she saw the perfection of beauty and body of the girl, she felt like an old crow seated next to a swan. As she was watching the girl, the girl began to age. She became an adult, then a middle aged woman, then an old lady and finally a very old lady. Rupananda observed the gradual loss of strength and beauty in the body of the girl as she grew old and aged. She understood the continuous process of change and decay.  Meanwhile, the figure next to Buddha had become extremely old. The old woman could no longer control her body function and was rolling on the ground. Finally she died and her body got bloated and blood, pus and maggots oozed out from her body. Rupananda understood the truth of the impermanence of body and beauty and the true nature of the body.  She learnt further under the guidance of Buddha and attained nirvana.

We see everyone grow old, fall sick and die around us. Yet we live in the fallacy that we will be young, strong and beautiful till the end. When reality dawns on us, it is too late. Our body or mind does not respond to the spiritual practices and we die in pain and ignorance to be reborn again and again in the endless cycles of birth and death. We must let go of the attachment to the body and move on to the immortality of the Soul and God. The SitaRam mantra, meditation and teachings of the Guru help us in realising the true nature of our body and soul.

Teachings of Kaka Bhusundi

The Illuminating Dialogue between Bhusundi and Garuda

Kaka Bhusundi the great devotee of Sri Rama lived the latter part of his life in the form of a crow. Though born in Ayodhya, he had no love for Sri Rama and was cursed by Lord Shiva for his arrogance and lack of respect towards his Guru. He lost his human birth and was born as a lazy and fat python and then underwent many thousands of births in lower forms. Due to the plea of his Guru on his behalf, Bhusundi retained his memory of past lives and was able to easily don and cast off countless bodies before he was finally born as a brahmin with great love for Sri Rama. His spiritual journey spanned over many lifetimes and his love for Sri Rama gradually increased. He was then given the human body. He was born as a brahmin with an overwhelming love for Sri Rama. 

The Uttarkand of Sri Ramacharitamanas gives a very interesting and informative discussion between Bhusundi the crow and the celestial eagle Garuda. Initially Garuda asks Bhusundi that when he was an enlightened sage, how was it he was still in the body of a crow. Bhusundi gave Garuda his life history spanning many thousands of births and how he finally evolved into a spiritual being with utmost love for Sri Rama. Garuda seeing the high levels of knowledge, wisdom, experience and bhakti in Bhusundi decided to ask him some pertinent questions on the doubts he had about jnana and bhakti,  the relation between them  and also the differences between them.

Bhusundi replied that there was no difference between jnana(knowledge/wisdom) and bhakti. Jnana was one of the paths of reaching God and so was bhakti. Both of them were equally effective in steering the soul in the right direction towards God. Where a person was full of jnana, bhakti would inevitably reside in his heart and where bhakti was manifest in full, wisdom or jnana would manifest in the person. For example, we can see this in the instance of Sri Adi Shankara. He was a great jnani and later on when jnana peaked in him, bhakti flooded him and he wrote many beautiful compositions on the Supreme Shakti which was full of bhakti. Great saints like Tukaram, Meerabai and others walked the path of bhakti and when they were completely drowned in bhakti, they rose to the heights of jnana or wisdom. There is a close and intimate connection between bhakti and jnana and when one quality exists in full force, the other one will also manifest in all its majesty.

Bhusundi the crow compared jnana and bhakti with male and female qualities. Jnana- wisdom, dispassion, yoga and realisation are masculine. Maya and Bhakti are feminine. Even a strong and resolute man will succumb to the charms of a woman unless he is extremely determined and goal oriented. A woman will never succumb to another woman’s charms. Maya never succumbs to the charms of Bhakti, and where Bhakti exists, Maya will not be present. Bhakti is a royal princess and Maya is called a mere dancing girl. Bhakti is beloved to Sri Rama and where there is no Bhakti, Maya presides. When a man develops Bhakti, Maya cannot touch him. When a man is enmeshed in worldly attractions or Maya, Bhakti will not come near him. Maya is terribly jealous of Bhakti as she will not come near a man who has developed strong devotion in his heart as she cannot influence him.

The strong relation between bhakti and jnana will always exist and they do not exist apart from each other. One leads to the other. Understanding this, one must follow the path in which he has ruchi or taste. Only the path of approach is different in jnana and bhakti and on the way they merge into each other and flow in a strong united current towards the goal of enlightenment. The great Kaka Bhusundi is said to be alive even now, chanting away the Rama Nama and speaking endless of the glory of bhakti and Sri Rama. When we do the japa of SitaRam and meditate, we flow with bhakti and end up with jnana.

Kaka Bhusundi – the great Crow devotee

There are many great devotees of Sri Rama – Hanuman, Vibhishan, Shabari, Guhan, Kabir and others. One of the bright names which shines in this list is that of Kaka Bhusundi.  The glory of bhakti, the greatness of Ram Nam and  divine wisdom are all given in the story of Kaka Bhusundi in the Uttarkand of Sri Ramacharitmanas.

The life of Kaka Bhusundi is given in the last part, sloka 106, of Sri Ramacharitamanas. Kaka Bhusundi was an enlightened Sage in the body of a crow. Kaka Bhusundi answers the questions and doubts of Garuda, the celestial eagle, who is the vehicle of Lord Vishnu. Kaka Bhusundi is a great bhakta of Sri Rama and teaches all the birds the story of Sri Rama and about bhakti yoga. Through the eyes of Kaka Bhusundi we have a vision of God – Sri Rama, who lived as the ideal man – Mariyadapurushottam. Hearing the highest levels of wisdom and the enchanting and uplifting story of Sri Rama from a crow, the celestial Garuda asked Kaka Bhusundi about himself. Then Bhusundi narrated his life story:

Bhusundi was born in Ayodhya but had no bhakti or love for Sri Rama. He used to soundly abuse servants or devotees of Sri Rama. He was a devotee of Lord Shiva and thought of himself as better and superior to others. He met a saintly Guru who gave him the Shiva Mantra and also the teachings and wisdom of the path. Because of his arrogance, he did not get up and prostate to his Guru when his Guru entered the temple where Bhusundi was doing japa. So Lord Shiva cursed him to become a python as he was lazy and stupid. His Guru pleased Lord Shiva with a beautiful hymn -  ‘Namami shamishana nirvanaroopam’, and sought to mitigate the curse. The Guru never curses the disciple. Lord Shiva Himself punishes those who disrespect the Guru. Lord Shiva said that Bhusundi had to suffer the curse and live one thousand subhuman births and live in lower life forms but he would have awareness of his past births and would be born in Ayodhya as a great Rama Bhakta. The words of Lord Shiva came true and Bhusundi lived through all the lower life forms and was finally born as a Brahmin in Ayodhya. He had deep love for Sri Rama and moved from hermitage to hermitage in the forests hearing the Rishis speak of the greatness of Sri Rama and  Rama bhakti.

Finally he met Sage Lomasa who was a great scholar and sought guidance on how to behold the Lotus Feet of Sri Rama. The great Sage recounted some of the virtues of Sri Rama and gave a long lecture on the Formless God. The Formless did not appeal to Bhusundi who wanted to behold the enchanting form of Sri Rama with his own eyes. So he asked him again to teach him about the One  with Form. The Sage spoke of the story of Sri Rama again but emphasized the worship of Formless. Bhusundi could not accept the discourse of the Formless and argued with the Sage. The Sage again repeated about the Formless and Bhusundi argued. Finally the Sage got angry with Bhusundi and cursed him to become a crow as he was self opinionated like a crow and did not trust the words of the Sage.  Bhusundi took the curse joyfully and fixing his thoughts on Sri Rama flew away. When the Lord saw his devotee had received another curse he confronted the Sage and explained to him the greatness of Bhusundi and his bhakti and asked him to rectify the curse. The Sage then called Bhusundi and gave him the mantra of Sri Rama and meditation on Sri Rama as a child – a form which was beloved to Bhusundi. He recited the Sri Ramacharitamanas to Bhusundi and blessed him with a depth of devotion by which Sri Rama would ever reside in his heart. The celestial voice of the Lord endorsed the blessings.

Bhusundi came back to his own ashram and continued in the form of a crow for twenty seven cycles of creation. He remained there always singing the praises of Sri Rama and the Rishis and others took the form of birds to join him in his devotion. Each time the Lord takes the Avatar of Sri Rama in Ayodhya, Bhusundi goes there to enjoy the spectacle of his childish sports. Again enshrining the image of the child Rama in his heart, he returns to his hermitage. Bhusundi told Garuda that he loved the form of the crow as he got the mantra and knowledge of Sri Rama in that form and  enjoyed endless devotion of the Lord in that form. By the power of his bhakti he attained the Lord.

Vengeance is Self Destructive

Vengeance is inflicting harm on another as we are harmed by them or we feel that we are harmed by them. We like to insult or injure those who harm us. The actual harm may have not taken place. Most of the time it is perceived harm or hit to the ego. The passion for revenge is very strong. It overtakes our logic and reasoning and we lose all sense of decency and goodness. Only the goal of vengeance stands in front of us. Our thinking gets twisted and we have a peculiarly self destructive logic which tells us that our need to hit out and destroy the others is right thing to do. We feel shamed by someone and we want to get even. Vengeance is creating pride from shame. This appeals to our ego and we indulge in vengeance. But vengeance never pays and in the end we suffer terribly. The story below teaches us about the boomerang effect of vengeance:

There was a Queen who was very devoted to Buddha. She feared going out and paying him homage in public as she felt her husband, the King would not approve of it. So the Queen and her ladies in waiting made holes in the walls of their living quarters so that they could watch Buddha and bow their heads in respect as he passed by. The Queen and her ladies in waiting were ardent followers of Buddha and practised his teachings. They meditated daily and lived in mindful awareness. The King had another wife who was very different in her thinking. She hated Buddha. Once her father had offered her to Buddha in marriage and Buddha had flatly refused. She felt terribly humiliated and wanted to take revenge on Buddha. She had decided that she would make Buddha pay dearly for his refusal.

The second wife’s chance came when she discovered that the Queen and her maids were followers of Buddha. She went to the King and uttered lies about Buddha secretly meeting the Queen behind the King’s back. She showed the King the holes in the walls as proof. The King summoned his Queen and questioned her. He was satisfied with her answer and let the matter drop. The second wife  was enraged and decided to avenge herself by hurting the Queen even if she could not hurt Buddha. So she told the King that the Queen was plotting to kill him. Then she hid a snake in his flute. When the King picked up his flute to play, the snake came out hissing,  ready to strike at him. This convinced the King that the second wife was right. He ordered that the Queen and her ladies in waiting should stand in a line against the wall and shot poisoned arrows at them as punishment. He tried very hard to kill them, but the arrows magically moved away from their mark and none were harmed. The King realised that the ladies were pure and innocent and hence were not hit. He sought forgiveness from the Queen and he allowed the ladies to invite Buddha and his monks to the palace for a royal meal.

The second wife was extremely frustrated. She plotted again. She asked her uncle to set fire to the Queens quarters while all the women were inside. The building went up in flames. The Queen and her maids were meditating at that time. They recalled the teachings of Buddha and continued their meditation  and succeeded in reaching higher levels of spirituality before they died. The King suspected his second wife and tricked her into admitting her fault. He declared aloud: Whoever has done this is my saviour. I now can sleep in peace. All these days I feared that my own wife would murder me. Now I am finally free of that fear! The foolish second wife immediately revealed her part and the role played by her uncle in the death of the Queen and her maids. The King showed great delight and invited her entire family to the palace to honour them. When they all came in, they were put to death. 

When Buddha came to know of the Queen’s death along with her attendants, he said their mindful meditation took them towards Nirvana  while the second wife and her uncle would suffer many lifetimes of hell for their vengeance. Understanding, forbearance, compassion and tolerance take us on the royal road to God and vengeance pushes us deeper in the karmic hell of our own making.

Self Transformation vs Self Improvement

Today is the age of self improvement and self-to-do acts by which we improve ourselves. We have the pop culture screaming tips for self improvement. There are thousands of little pamphlets, literature, books, websites which teach self improvement. We are taught to improve ourselves physically, mentally, financially, our sex life, work life etc. Every topic under the sun is discussed and we are taught how to improve ourselves. Rarely anyone talks about self transformation. Self improvement makes changes in our lives but we are still in stress and not happy. There is something essentially lacking in self improvement. That is why we need to go for self transformation.

We all begin with small changes in our lives – self improvement. We make changes in our habits which enables us to eat the right foods suitable for us and exercise in a better way which leads to improved health. We learn tips and tricks to have better retention – mnemonics. We attend music and other classes which keep us entertained or help to hone our existing skills. We go for short courses which improve our selling abilities and marketing techniques. We study newer and better methods which enable us to  enhance our income, get a second and third income too. All of us love self improvement and are at it in some way or other. Yet it does not keep us happy and peaceful. Something is missing despite all our efforts. We are never rich enough, never healthy enough, never powerful enough and never smart enough to impress those we want to.

There is a lot of difference in self improvement and self transformation. Self improvement scratches the mere surface of our being. It is doing surface patchwork and repair. It is mere cosmetic touch up. Self transformation is a complete internal change which includes complete changes in our emotions, attitudes and habits. It is taking total control of self and being responsible for changes in ourselves. It is a process by which we get in touch with the divinity within us. It means not just trimming but also cutting and hacking away any negative behaviour, attitudes, habits, attachments which stand in the way of our process of reaching the inner light.

When we start on self transformation, we start on the greatest adventure of our life. We have to be alert at all times. We never know when ego, attachment, self defeating approaches, ‘poor me’ attitudes creep upon us and capture us and imprison us in depths of material distress. We work at ourselves in the most terrible conditions where our attitudes and mental tendencies are always at work to defeat us and the people around us also do not encourage us in our self transformation. Here we have to take responsibility for our lives and actions and not wait for a book to teach us or someone to give us the exact formula by which we reach the Light.

Self improvement as we see in changes in diet, exercise, smile, being positive, etc. is not the end. It is a part of self transformation. If we focus only on self improvement, we will always have the feelings of helplessness and inadequacy as we are unable to cope up when tossed in the stormy seas of emotions, non fulfilment of expectations and desires. It does not give us the peace, balance, compassion needed to face and overcome anger and hostility when others do not agree with us and battle with us. Superior running skills, a better memory, ability to combine colours in a better way while painting, etc. do not help us to cope up with the ups and downs of life and steer the boat of life in stormy seas.

Let us regain our heritage of divinity. We are not humans living an earthy existence. We are sparks of divinity on a human sojourn. Let us work on self transformation and go back home. We are blessed to be in the sanctity of a ParamGuru.  Let us make full use of the opportunity and blessings bestowed and regain our immortal selves.

Self transformation – the Eagle

Self transformation is chipping away the unwanted parts of us which stand in the way of realizing our divine nature. We have a short life of less than a hundred years. We spend our entire lifetime in growing up, education, earning our trade, amassing wealth, marrying, raising a family, fulfilling social and other obligations. And then we die. Very few of us think of self transformation. We have barely time to exist and survive. We have endless desires and we spend our time chasing them till we are forced to leave the body and death overtakes us. The unfulfilled desires are our karma which place us in situations where these desires can be fulfilled. We spend countless lives running the same trip of fulfilling desires, earning and existing and there is no end to it. Also there is change in our attitude, knowledge, wisdom or actions.

Self transformation is going within ourselves and finding ourselves. It is chipping away the useless unwanted parts of ourselves which we have accumulated in this lifetime and other lifetimes which form layers of veils over our soul and hides the light of soul within us. It is coming out from the incredible darkness that we live in into the transforming light of our soul. It is the awareness that there is more to ourselves than our body and mind and the false identity we have created for ourselves in this world. 

We carry heavy burdens from our past – of guilt, pain, stress, unworthiness, anger, hatred and limiting beliefs. We have to get rid of our old memories and habits. Only when we shed the burdens and pains of past we can move in greater freedom and freshness. Like the snake sloughs off its old skin and moves out in fresh new shiny skin, we must also slough off our pains of past and move on with renewed freshness and zeal in life. It is a struggle for the snake to slough off its tight covering but it is essential for its survival. Similarly, when we shed past pains, habits and attitudes, it is like tearing of our nails or skin. But the result is a changed perspective and habits which are disciplined and help us in walking the path of self transformation and towards God. There is a fable about the powerful eagle which illustrates this change:

The eagle has the longest life-span among birds. It is reputed to live up to 70-80 years. When it is in its forties, its long and flexible talons can no longer grab prey during its hunting.  Its powerful and sharp beak becomes bent.  Under such conditions, the eagle has only two options: die or go through a painful process of change which lasts about 150 days or five plus months. The eagle retreats to its nest in the mountain top. There it knocks off its beak against a rock till it falls off. This process is not for the cowardly. Then it has to wait patiently till a new beak grows back. Then it uses its new beak to pluck out its talons. This is equal to ripping out our nails without anaesthesia. Then it waits again for the talons to grow again. After the new talons have grown strong, it plucks off its old and aged feathers. Then it waits again for new feathers to grow to on its body. After five months of self inflicted pain and growth of new parts, the eagle is now ready for its extended new life which lasts for thirty more years.

The story of the eagle may be a myth. But it teaches a very important lesson. Change is essential to survive. We have to remove the old and unwanted part of ourselves to change. This process is painful and is a self inflicted operation without anaesthesia.  Only when we shed the unwanted, we can live a new life which helps us to live up to our inner potential. Our reality is that we are sparks of the Divine. Unveiling our inner divinity is self transformation and it is worth every bit of pain we undergo. Let us make a strong intent to walk as per the guidance and teachings of the Guru and race towards the Light.

Self Transformation

We are divine beings living out a human existence. The eternal, immutable spark within us is the soul. The soul is a spark of the Endless Divine Light. The endless Universe and all countless variety of creations in it are made up of this glorious Light. The Light within us- the soul – is covered by layers of desires, karma, the elements and the pull of the senses. These layers that cover our soul make us forget our Divine Nature and get us entangled in the material world. We live our lives in an incomplete manner, unable to rise to the heights which are our actual potential and nature. We amass wealth, name, fame and power. Yet we feel incomplete and yearning for something more. Clearly, the activities that we perform in our day to day existence of earning our food, clothes and other necessities of material existence are not sufficient to bestow on us the deep peace and love that we yearn for. Peace and love cannot be found in the external world. They are a part of us. They are the qualities of the soul. The journey that we take in finding our real nature and unveiling the hidden qualities of light and love within us is self transformation.

Self transformation is patiently chipping away at the layers of ignorance, habits,  self destructive tendencies that we have formed over the years in order to realise the Light of the soul within us. It is like performing a live operation on ourselves without anaesthesia and steering the work according to the results. It requires hard work and extreme determination. We are totally accountable for ourselves and have none to blame for our failures. It can be scary as we uncover terrible ugliness of vices like intense anger, uncontrollable lust, vengeance, attachment, pride and ego within ourselves and have to work patiently at changing them. As we transform ourselves, we break free from all these vices and false attitudes. We uncover the Light of the Atma or the soul within us and are linked to the Great Love and Power of the Universe. We become conscious of our timeless nature and the terrible feelings of inferiority, helplessness, discouraging attitudes leave us and the immortal wisdom of the Universe guides us.

The journey of self transformation is one of sheer beauty and joy of life. The timelessness of life, the vastness of divine light, the endless love and peace become a part of us.  Though we live in this world, we are not defeated by it. We become like the lotus flower. The lotus grows in murky waters. It smiles in sheer beauty and joy at the sun. It is a bright colourful spark in the dark and dirty waters of the pond where it grows. It is clean, shining and fragrant. The mud and filth around it are not able to touch it or contaminate it. It is pristine pure. Yet it lives in the pond and derives its sustenance from the filth of the pond. It is a prized offering at the feet of the Lord. Self transformation makes us and our lives a worthy offering to Divinity. 

Our inner world determines our outer world. When we are permeated with the divine light, our light lights up the world around us. There are extensive ups and downs in life, disappointments and pains. But we never lose track as we carry our own inner light with us and this light shows us the way in life. We do not stumble and fall down in any situation. The inner wisdom and knowledge open up and show us the right way out. Most of us live in darkness and with many disappointments. We are not aware of who and what we are. We identify ourselves with this perishable body and its ailments, lack and shortcomings. Our lives are full of endless pains and disappointments.

Self transformation is easily possible when we are guided by the Guru. When we sit in his presence and absorb power and peace through his vibrations, changes take place within us.  The Siddha mantra of SitaRam, meditation, following of the teachings of the Guru and his guidance helps us in chipping away all the unessential qualities in us and finally reveal in full glory the blazing light of the Divine Essence within us. Let us live as children of God and not beggars of earth!

Little drops matter

Nature teaches man  to do good. It brings home this lesson in  an effortless manner. The sun shines daily on the clock and gives light and heat, the cool winds blow, trees grow and give flowers and fruits, the plants grow and bless us with vegetables and greens, animals give us milk. The list is endless.  Mother  Earth and  Nature teach us lessons on giving without seeking rewards. We are used to receiving these gifts and grace from our birth and we rarely ponder on the lessons they teach us. Let us look into them with awareness and learn about the blessings of giving.

Man is a spark of God. We are souls having a temporary human existence. It is our basic nature to be loving, compassionate and helpful. We give of ourselves and our things spontaneously as children. As we grow older, we learn to restrain ourselves. Expectations and ego come into play and we question our need to give. We wish to give when someone is watching and praises us. We do good  acts only when we can earn huge good karma. We postpone our goodness and wait for occasions when we can give large charity or donate in such a way that our name is eternally glorified. And in waiting for the right moment, our lives are over and nothing is done or gained. This incident is a lesson from Buddha about doing small acts and collecting goodness throughout our lives. Every drop of goodness matters!

Once, Buddha and his monks came to a particular neighbourhood. One of the men who lived there liked to do charitable acts. When he heard that Buddha had arrived with his monks, he invited them to his home for a meal. Being kind hearted and generous, he wanted everyone to have a share in the merit of the offering food to Buddha. So he invited all his neighbours to join in the offerings, even his rich, miserly and selfish neighbour. The day before the great event, the kind man went around and collected happily whatever food his neighbours wished to contribute towards the meal for Buddha and the monks. The rich miser saw him going around and cursed him. If the man did not have enough means he should not invite Buddha over for a meal. It was not right to invite a great person like Buddha and then go begging for provisions from all.

When the kind neighbour came to his door, the rich miser donated a little salt, honey and butter. The kind neighbour accepted them gladly and kept them aside from other provisions which he had collected in charity. The rich miser was confused and wondered why his miserly contribution was purposely kept aside. He thought that his kind neighbour was trying to humiliate him by showing everyone that he had given a small contribution. So he sent one of his servants to investigate. Back at his home, the kind neighbour took the things that the rich miser had given and divided them among the pots of rice, curries and sweets in order to enhance their flavour. When the servant reported his findings to the master, the rich miser still doubted his neighbour’s good intentions.

The next day was the day of the feast. Buddha and his group had arrived and were ready for food. The rich miser was also present and had a dagger hidden under his coat. He planned to kill his neighbour in case the man planned to make shameful remarks about his miserliness. After all the food was served on the plates and before the meal began, the kind neighbour bowed before Buddha and said: O Noble one, the food offered to you here is not just from me alone. It is contributed by all the people in the neighbourhood. Everyone has given something, large or small but each person has given with faith, love and generosity. So bless us that we all gain equal merit.

The rich miser was ashamed of himself when he heard his kind neighbour speak and seek blessings for all. He realised that he had committed a great mistake. He fell at the feet of his neighbour and sought forgiveness. When Buddha heard the words of the rich miser and learned the reason for them, he said to all the people there: Do whatever good you can every time you can. Do not wait for the right time to do a big good. Make a habit of doing small good deeds regularly and in the long run they will accumulate and become big.

Let us not waste our lives waiting for the perfect time to do a big good deed. Let go the thought that small good deeds do not matter. Let go the feeling that little things do not matter. Just like a bucket is filled with water drop by drop, we must be wise and accumulate goodness little by little by doing good whenever we can. Let us start this journey of doing goodness to self and others by chanting SitaRam, meditation and following the teachings of the Guru.

The Restless Mind

The very nature of the mind is restlessness. It cannot stay in one place for long or hold one thought for long.  For every thought which appears, there are comments, judgement and associations. Thinking is a continuous activity. The mind jumps from one thought to another and gives us no rest from morning till night. Like clouds in the sky or waves in the ocean, the thoughts appear and disappear and it is a ceaseless activity. All the thoughts that pass through our mind do not affect us. We get affected when our ego is hit. Then the mind whirls and creates a tornado of restlessness within us. Our mind spins endless thoughts, judgement, adjustments and a variety of probable scenarios: How dare he insult me; What does she think of herself? Where I am not respected, I will not go; If he speaks thus I will reply so, etc.,  etc.

We have an inbuilt filter in our mind which chooses the types of thoughts or subjects to brood upon. We are not born with this filter but we acquire it over the years with the kind of books we read and the company we keep and the subjects that we are interested in. That is why some people are obsessed with football or cricket or fashions and others could not care less about such things. This filter is built day by day by our actions, suggestions, teachings and influence of others. We can ultimately choose our own filter. So let us learn to build our filter wisely and strengthen it daily. Here is a little story which tells us of the restless mind of a young monk:

Once, there was a young monk who stayed in a village monastery. He was gifted two robes by someone. He decided that he would offer one of the robes to his uncle who was also a monk in the same monastery as he respected and loved his uncle. When he presented the robe to his uncle, the uncle refused to accept it as he already had a robe and did not require one more. The young monk’s ego was hurt and he took it as a personal insult. Anger raged in him and he wanted to quit the monastery rather than live with arrogant people like his uncle who were a disgrace to monkhood. He planned to quit right away but could not. Just at that moment, his uncle asked him to fan him as it was very hot. The young monk obeyed and fanned his uncle out of sense of duty and habit and not out of respect or deference.

As the young monk fanned his uncle, his mind was restless and wandered about. He planned on what to do after he left the monastery. First he would go and sell the extra robes. Then with that money he would buy a she-goat. The she-goat would give him many more goats. He would sell all of them and have enough money to get himself a pretty bride. After some time his wife would get pregnant and give birth to a healthy son. Then he would take his wife and son to the monastery and show off to his uncle. He would drive the cart carrying the child. His wife would not like it and argue with him. He would insist on his own way and she would pull the child off his lap. The child would slip and fall down and be run over by one of the wheels of the cart. He would be so upset that he would yell at his wife and beat her soundly. At this point in his day dreaming, he was so excited that he accidentally hit his uncle on the head with the fan.

The old monk was advanced spiritually and could read his nephew’s mind.  He scolded him: You have every right to beat your wife but why do you need to beat this old monk? The young monk was stunned at his uncle’s ability to read his mind. He felt very ashamed and wanted to run away. But instead, his loving uncle took him to see Buddha. When Buddha came to know of what happened he spoke to the young monk gently: It is the nature of the mind to wander about restlessly and think of things which have not taken place as yet.  It is best to live in the present and concentrate on right living now. Over come your ego and self importance. Work hard and be diligent. Free yourself from greed, hatred and delusion.

Our mind has the ability to wander about far and wide. It is very restless and leaps to past and future. When we overcome these things, we will be free from the bond of temptation.  Let us build a filter of SitaRam and the teachings of the Guru. When our mind is preoccupied with Divinity, then it is possible to overcome the restless mind and live in peace.

Tapas – Bhasmasura

Tapas or austerities performed by focusing on the Lord always give results. There is an exact mathematical law – the law of karma which dictates that when we perform actions, we get proportionate results. The more intense and focused the tapas is, the greater are the results.  When intense austerities are performed, Divinity has to bless the person with the boons of his choice. The law of karma is inexorable and relentless. Only when we lack knowledge and understanding we ask silly questions :  Why does the Lord give boons to demons and asuras who misuse them and cause problems and pains to mankind. The answer is: the demons have performed intense tapas and hence were suitably rewarded and when they misused their boons and blessings, they were also suitably punished. The law of karma operates eternally and inevitably and is the same for all.

Many a times, men as well as demons go on an ego rampage. They think they are far cleverer than God and try to outsmart and outwit Him. While seeking boons for their tapas, they put across seemingly strange and impossible conditions in order to become immortal. Immortality is the basic nature of Divinity and not His creations. The demon Hiranyakashyap sought that he should not be killed by  neither man or animal or gods, or by any weapon, not during day or night, not inside home or outside and not on land or in air. Divinity outwitted him and he was killed by Lord Narasimha who was neither man or animal, by tearing open with claws – not  a manufactured weapon, at time of dusk which is neither day or night,  sitting on the door way – which is not in the home or outside, by placing him on the lap – which is not on ground or in the sky. We see now the story of another such greedy egoistic demon called Bhasmasura who tried to outwit Divinity and become Almighty. Greed and excessive desire  always meet a gruesome end!

Bhasmasura was a demon who was a devotee of Lord Shiva. Once he performed long and intense tapas for many thousands of years chanting the name of Shiva. His focus  on the Lord was intense and his determination to win the Grace of the Lord was fierce. With no thought for food, water, shelter, heat, cold, rains, storms, winds, rest, comforts or luxuries, he sat still in tapas. He had overcome physical needs, desires and emotions and was totally focussed on the Lord. Finally Lord Shiva appeared in front of him and blessed him. The demon being evil and cunning by nature sought a unique boon that when he placed his hand on anyone’s head, the person should be reduced to ashes! And he sought to test the boon immediately by placing his hand on Lord Shiva’s head! And what happened after that was a Divine play or Leela of the Lord.

Lord Shiva ran swiftly to escape Bhasmasura and the demon chased him. The Lord ran through Vaikunth to catch the attention of Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu understood at once the Divine Play of Lord Shiva and took part in it. He took the beautiful and seductive form of Mohini and appeared at point in the hills when Lord Shiva passed by and the demon came panting after him. Seeing the lissom form and the seductive smile of the beautiful Mohini, Bhasmasura forgot Lord Shiva. Lust overcame him and now his current mission was to win over the beautiful lady and make her his own.

The beauty introduced herself as Mohini and Bhasmasura informed her about himself,  his tapas, the chase and his desire for her. He was mesmerized by her graceful form, her movements of limbs and eyes and expression. Mohini said that she was a dancer and wanted that her partner also join her in her dance. As they danced together, Mohini  placed her hand on her head and Bhasmasura copied her. He was reduced to ashes instantly! His boon was his curse. No one can think of cheating God and win that game!

There is a Bhasmasura in all of us and we always think of ways to outwit karma and Divinity. Intelligence, logic, calculated planning – nothing works before God. The only way of winning God is by extreme bhakti and surrender to God. So let us be regular in our spiritual practices, the SitaRam Japa and increase bhakti and surrender to God.

Evade Danger and Be Safe

We have been blessed with sufficient intelligence and discrimination to know and understand the presence of dangers and temptations in life. Sometimes, we are able to evade the dangers and be safe. Most of the times, we walk willingly into the temptations and relish them. We know those dangers and temptations are not good for us. Yet we are egoistic and selfish. We have no control over our senses and we relish the temptations of the senses. We indulge in them even though they are harmful for us.  Even a child is aware that certain behavior is not safe for him and can get him into trouble. Yet at times he indulges in hitting others or seizing toys or throwing food away or snatching the food of others as it is fun and he enjoys tormenting others. He gets away with it sometimes and most of the times he is punished – by words or a slap or being kept alone in the corner. He loses friends and his mother or teacher is not happy with him. He knows what kind of trouble he can get into, yet he gives in to temptation.

Drugs, drinks, casual sex, wrong foods, pornography, mindless shopping – the list is endless. We know our weak points and we must take steps to protect ourselves from falling into the traps of desires and dangers. When we know that a particular friendship or a situation will surely lead us to our weak point and we will succumb, we should take care not to enter into such a situation.  Each of us have different weaknesses. For some, drinks are a red zone and for others it can be casual sex or pornography or drugs.   We must learn to identify our weak zones and plot carefully to avoid them like the wise trader in the following story:

Once there was a prosperous trader. He travelled long distances in order to sell his goods to his customers and please them. He had good relationship with his customers and they were faithful to him. As the years passed, he grew wealthier. The news of his increasing wealth reached the ears of some robbers and they plotted to attack his carts and seize the fine merchandise and whatever money he was carrying. The trader was a clever man and each time he somehow managed to escape their traps.

Once the trader was travelling on a particular route and he found that some monks were going to travel in the same direction. He invited them to accompany him and promised to take care of all their needs. No one was aware at that time that the robbers had planned to ambush the caravan and rob the trader of all his merchandise.  Just as they were about to enter the forest, the trader felt uneasy and suspected something was wrong. He set up a camp at the edge of the forest for a few days and stayed there. One of his spies informed him of the robbers’ plans and he decided to cancel the trip for the safety of the monks and his merchandise. Accordingly he informed the monks and they started moving back to the village for safety.

The robbers had their own spies and the trader fed them wrong information about his destination. They lay waiting on that road for the merchant to come. But the merchant took another route and reached a safe place. He stayed in that village and did not move out for several days. When the monks came to know that the trader had made new plans, they decided to cut short their trip and return back to their monastery. When they arrived there, they told Buddha about their cancelled trip, the wealthy trader, the robbers who tried to loot him several times and how he evaded them each time. Buddha replied that the trader was a wise man and he knew the dangers of his journey by virtue of his experience. When the trader came to know of the impending attacks, he evaded them and escaped successfully.

Our life too is a journey which is filled with dangers at many points. We are all experienced enough to know where and how these dangers attack us. Like the trader we too must take evasive action and save ourselves endless miseries and sorrow. The wise do not add certain and definite discomforts to their lives. They evade and overcome such sorrows and dangers and move on in life. Let us follow and practice the teachings of the Guru and learn to evade the sorrows and temptations of life. The SitaRam Mantra and meditation will help us in this.

Detachment

Sri Krishna teaches us simple and effective lessons on attachment and detachment in the Bhagwad Geeta. He says that the bond of desire that we have with the external world and its things is attachment. Attachment is formed through our gunas or qualities  of satwa, rajas and tamas. Satwa is pure, reveals the truth and is free from the vices of mind. It binds us with attachment to happiness and knowledge. Rajas which is full of passion and intense desire binds us through intense action. Tamas which is darkness and crudeness binds us through recklessness, lethargy and sleep. Our five senses of touch, sight, smell, taste and hearing play an important role in formation of attachments. We get attached to certain tastes, smells, sights etc through our senses and are unable to do without them. We identify ourselves with the objects which give us pleasure. When such objects are withdrawn from us or they are damaged or taken away or someone has better things than us, our ego is hit, we get angry or we are extremely grieved. Attachment gives birth to anger, grief and delusion. We have to understand that attachment to possession, people and also the fruits of our work give rise to more karma and the cycle of karma is endless. If we wish to overcome this painful cycle of births and deaths and karma, we need to develop detachment. 

Detachment is possible through intense pain, knowledge and wisdom and is a result of going inwards through meditation and contemplation. Meditation helps us to detach ourselves from sense objects and their lures which hold our mind and senses enthralled. We need to experience and identify ourselves as the eternal soul and not the body with its sense organs and thoughts. Only then it is possible to go beyond the driving rage of desires and sense cravings. This story about an army officer and Buddha teaches us the same:

Once, a king faced unrest and rebellion in his kingdom. One of his army officers dealt with the matter successfully and the problem was resolved. The king was pleased and grateful to the officer and as a reward gave him costly gifts and a dancing girl to please him.  The army officer relaxed and enjoyed himself for several days. He had the best foods and wine and the dancing girl was very beautiful and graceful. She went out of her way to please him and eventually he fell madly in love with her.  One morning he went to the river to take bath. On the way he saw Buddha and his disciples going to the town for seeking alms. He bowed to Buddha as a sign of respect and went on his way. Buddha smiled and remarked to one of the disciples: This officer will come to see me today and after I have preached to him, he will attain full enlightenment and then die. Today this officer will attain nirvana.

The officer had no idea about the prediction made by Buddha. He had visitors and entertained his friends and enjoyed himself fully. They all ate well, drank and watched the beautiful dancer twirl and swirl for their pleasure. By evening, the dancer was exhausted and collapsed and died. The officer was shattered with grief. He wept inconsolably and then recalled that Buddha was camped nearby. He went to Buddha to get some comfort and relief. Even when he sat in front of Buddha, tears were pouring down and he was weeping badly. Buddha told him that he had shed a great deal of tears in his previous births and what he was suffering now was nothing compared to the sum total of his past sufferings. Buddha asked: Is it not time to stop? You are full of sorrow as you have lost the object of your desire. Desire is the root of all sorrows. Get rid of desires and you get rid of sorrow.

At the end of Buddha teachings, the officer was totally detached and beyond desires, senses and the mind.  His mind became pure and free from hatred, greed and delusion. He attained enlightenment immediately.  And as Buddha predicted, he died within a short time.  When we go beyond desires and attain detachment from all vices, our being is filled with Light of God. Let us work for this by following the teachings of the Guru and do the japa of the SitaRam Mantra and meditation.

He danced for his Master!

Extreme Guru Bhakti – Bulleh Shah

The search for Guru is an eternal search in the life of a soul moving on its journey back to Godhead. When the material yearnings and desires are fulfilled to a certain extent, there is dissatisfaction within and a yearning for something more in life. That yearning is for the exclusive love of God. To attain knowledge of how to attain this exclusive love, one needs a Guru who has already walked the path successfully and is ready to guide those who are yearning for it. Bulleh Shah, the great Sufi mystic was one such person who was born in a very rich family and had everything to suit his tastes in life. Yet there was in him a deep inner yearning which made him walk the spiritual path and seek a Guru to show him the Light.

Bulleh Shah came from the illustrious lineage of Prophet Mohammed. He belonged to the Syed family. He was born with a golden spoon in the mouth. He was extremely intelligent and well versed in scriptures. He had memorized them well but had not experienced them. The deep yearning in him to be enlightened made him experiment with many practices and ways.  Consequently he developed some spiritual powers or Siddhis.  He was not satisfied with his life and the yearning for oneness with Divinity increased as the days passed.  His thirst for God was acute and only real experiences of Light could satisfy him.  So he continued searching for a Guru. And when the disciple is ready, the Guru comes. This is a great blessing of the Universe.

One day Bulleh Shah heard about Inayat Shah who had attained the Light. Inayat Shah belonged to a low caste. He was a gardener. In those days, people of higher castes did not mix with those of lower castes. Bulleh Shah’s thirst for God was so acute that this fact made no difference to him. So he went in search of Inayat Shah. Inayat Shah was busy planting onion crop. His back was towards Bulleh Shah. Bulleh Shah did not have the courage to hail him or disturb him. He wanted the Master to turn and notice him. There were some mango trees where Inayat Shah was working. Bulleh Shah closed his eyes and remembered Allah for a minute. When the mangoes rained down from the trees, Inayat Shah turned and saw a man standing behind him.

Inayat Shah said: O thief, why do you make those mangoes fall? Bulleh Shah was surprised and looked around to see if there was any other person besides him. There was no one else besides them both. Bulleh Shah replied: If you are asking me, then see, I do not have any stones or sticks in my hands. I have not made those mangoes fall. The Master said: You are clever. What do you want? Bulleh Shah fell at his feet and said he was searching for God and wanted him as his Master. The Master said: Why are you falling below? Look upwards towards at me. Bulleh Shah looked at Inayat Shah. There was tremendous love, compassion and power in the eyes of the Master. Bulleh Shah simply fell in deep love with him.

Bulleh Shah’s love for his Master was exceptional. His eyes always thirsted for the sight of his Guru. He was always near his Master drinking him in with his eyes. His love for his Guru was so intense that it made his Guru angry. The Guru asked him to leave his house immediately. Bulleh Shah could not bear to be away from his Master. He went away in agony. He wished to find a way by which he could please his Master and be with him at all times. He talked to many people to learn about the likes and dislikes of his Master. He was told by someone that Inayat Shah loved to watch dance. So in order to please his Guru, Bulleh Shah went to a prostitute and learned dancing. He became proficient in it and came to his Master as a dancing girl. Such was his intensity of love for his Master. Bulleh Shah was an example of extreme guru bhakti. Inayat Shah graced Bulleh Shah with the secret of spiritual insight and the Knowledge of God.

Those of us who are blessed to have already found a Guru should always do everything possible to please the Guru and obey the Guru. By doing so, many karmas are wiped out and Grace descends by which we are lead to the light. Let us do our SitaRam Mantra and meditation by which we get the grace of the Guru.

Do not return one wrong with another!

Our thinking and reactions to situations are influenced by our levels of consciousness. Consciousness is awareness. Much depends on with at what levels of awareness we live, think, speak and act in our lives. Most of us live our lives in a mechanical manner. Our responses are habitual or influenced by the pains and experiences of the past. Our responses to most of the situations are automatic and we do not think and respond. We just give knee jerk response. Generally speaking, we return good for good and bad for bad. Many a times we give a bad response for good things spoken or done to us. And it is very rare that we rise above our automated thinking and return good for a wrong done to us.

How can we change or alter our responses? We know that our responses are habitual and conditioned by past experiences. So we must learn to live with awareness and watch how we react in any given situation. When we watch ourselves and our thoughts, we gain a level of control over our responses.  A time tested method of changing our responses is doing mantra japa and meditation. Mantra japa releases vibrations which changes our patterns of thinking and empowers our will to overcome past conditionings. Regular meditation brings us in touch with our higher consciousness or super consciousness and we develop intuition and heightened mental clarity.  At such levels of thinking, the problem and solution are not seen as two different things. Solution is a natural outflow of the problem. We pick and chose our responses from a different plane of thinking and understanding. Spiritual leaders, Gurus, Avatars teach us by example how to think and react differently. Every religion in the world teaches the same: Do not return one wrong with another. This is the story of Buddha – of how he reacted when wrong was done unto him:

Buddha had many devout followers. One of them was the wife of a brahmin.  Initially, the husband was very happy that the wife was following the teachings of Buddha so well. As her faith and devotion in Buddha increased, the brahmin began to feel jealous. He decided to meet Buddha and ask Buddha a tricky question that Buddha would not be able to answer. This would diminish the value of Buddha in the eyes of his wife and she would leave Buddha. So when Buddha was sitting in a public place, he asked him: What is it that must be killed so that we may be able to live in peace and happiness? Buddha replied: In order to live in this way, we have to kill anger. Anger destroys peace and happiness. The reply of Buddha inspired the brahmin so much that his anger melted away. He joined Buddha’s group and became a monk. Eventually he became enlightened.

The younger brother of the brahmin was furious when he heard of the transformation of his brother. As Buddha was finishing a public discourse, he went to him and rained abuses on Buddha. Buddha sat quietly until he had finished. Then he asked the angry man: When you serve food to a guest and the guest goes away without eating anything, to whom would the food belong? The man was caught unawares and replied: To me, I guess. Then Buddha said: Like the guest, I also do not accept your insults. So the insults belong to you. The brahmin was speechless and he realised his folly. Like his brother, he too became a monk in Buddha’s group.

The other monks who had witnessed this meeting were full of admiration for Buddha’s ability to teach Dharma to even those who heaped abuse on him. When questioned, Buddha replied: I do not return one wrong with another!

Buddha answered his opponents and abusers from a higher level of consciousness.  The problem has its own inbuilt solution and Buddha was able to access the solution due to his enlightened state of being. We too can access the higher states of consciousness by regular japa and meditation. The reply to a wrong is never by another wrong!

There is no escaping Karma

Karma is the moral law of cause and effect. The law of karma has been referred to many times by all religions of the world. All religions speak the truths such as: You reap what you sow; do good and get good; evil begets evil etc. There is huge inequality in the world today. Some are born rich and others  are in extreme poverty, one is the son of a prince and another is one of several children of a beggar;  some are healthy and others are born sick; a few are born with huge talents of music, painting and other abilities; some are born saints and others are criminals from young age; some are idiots and others are born geniuses. Such disparity and differences makes us wonder if there are errors in the plans of creation and if God is in His senses when He goes on with His job of creation and maintaining the world. Else why should some be cursed from birth and others blessed from the moment they are born? Are there accidents happening everywhere?

No. The blueprint and the working of the Universe show great precision and intelligence. Everything happens for a reason and the laws by which the Universe operates are mathematical and exact. We reap what we sow.  Every action has an equal reaction. And all the goodness and miseries that we see around us are created by us. We are wholly responsible for who and what we are. Our actions of this lifetime and previous lifetimes come back to us in our genetic blueprint and DNA coding creating our miseries and blessings in life. Let us see the life of the mean butcher to understand the operation of the law of karma:

Once, there was a butcher who was very mean and wicked.  He relished his job of slaughtering pigs and selling the pork as it gave him ample opportunities to torture the pigs before killing them. To him, the sweetest sound in the world was the squealing of pigs in pain and torment. He never had any good thoughts nor did he do any good deeds in his life.

Time passed by and the butcher fell ill. He became very sick and suffered terribly before he died. He lived alone and there was no one to take care of him or check on him. He crawled around for days in agony, squealing and grunting like a pig being slaughtered. His home was near a Buddhist monastery where Buddha and his monks had come for a visit. The monks heard the painful squeals from the home of the butcher and assumed that the butcher was doing his daily slaughter of pigs for selling at his shop. They all shook their head in disapproval but no one did anything as it was a regular occurrence. The screams and painful moans kept coming for many days and suddenly stopped one day. The monks were sorry and pained at the thought of so many animals suffering terrible pain before being slaughtered.

Buddha overheard the monks discussing amongst themselves. He said: O monks, the butcher was not slaughtering pigs. He was ill and in great pain. He had no one to take care of him and he suffered for many days squealing in pain and torment, very much like the pigs he used to torment before he slaughtered them mercilessly.  The butcher’s bad karma finally caught up with him. Today he died and he is reborn in a pitiable state of existence. Dear monks, be careful of what you do in life. When you do evil, it rebounds on you like it did on the butcher. There is no escaping our evil deeds. We suffer in this lifetime due to our evil deeds and we also suffer in the hereafter. There is no escaping the suffering in both existences.

There is ONLY one method of overcoming and wiping out karma from our lives. That is by doing tapas. When we are sincere and do the spiritual practices of japa and meditation given by the Guru and follow the other teachings, we create sufficient divine vibrations by which we burn out negative karma. Long, intense, sincere tapas brings about divine grace which is the panacea for all the material and spiritual illness. So let us do our regular tapas to redefine our lives.

Detachment – the results of Bhakti and Surrender

We have discussed deep love for God which is called bhakti. We have also talked of surrender or sharanagati which is living as per the will of God. When deep love and surrender of God fully manifest in us, the result would be Vairagya or detachment.  Detachment gives great courage to meet any emergency or problems in life. Moha is attachment to desires, objects and people. It is getting attached or involved in such things beyond desirable limits. The mind is entwined in the object, desire or person even though it should not be. Discrimination screams warning within and sounds endless bells telling us to keep away. Yet the mind is entwined in tastes, touch, fragrances, sights, etc. When we are attached to the world and ourselves in this way, we suffer endlessly. We need to live in this world, enjoy it, be in it and not be drowned in it. That is possible when we have detachment. Only when there is detachment,  will we be able to see and face reality and get the wisdom for reaching the Eternal Light.

The story of Mohajith is a good example of the highest type of detachment. Mohajith was a Prince who had deep desire for enlightenment. He went to the forest and sought a great sage for guidance in the spiritual path. The sage asked him his name. When the name was told to him, he asked if he had overcome moha or attachment as his name indicated. Moha means attachment; Jith means to conquer.  The one who has conquered attachment is Mohajith.

The Prince said that not only he, but also everyone in his kingdom had conquered Moha. The sage was surprised at the statement and decided to test it out. He took the robes of the prince and soaked them in blood and rushed to the Palace Gate with the terrible tale of the horrible murder of the Prince by some robbers in the jungle. The maid saw the robe and acknowledged that it belonged to the Prince. But she refused to rush in and break the news to the Royal Family. She said: He was born, he died. There is no urgency that I leave all my regular work and rush to the King and Queen. I will inform after I finish my daily work.  

Finally the sage managed to get an audience with the King and announced the terrible tragedy to him.  The father of the Prince was unruffled when he heard the news. He said: The bird flew off the tree. It now takes rest in the bosom of the Eternal. The Queen was also calm. She said: Life on earth is like staying in an inn. Men come and go. They stay at the inn for a night and in the morning go away in their different paths. Relatives and friends in life are with us for short period of time. Each one has to go his own way when it is time for him to go. The wife of the ‘dead’ prince was also not affected by the painful news. She said: Husband and wife are like two pieces of wood drifting down a flooded river. They float near each other for a short period of time. When the current moves swiftly, they move apart. Each piece travels to the ocean at its own speed and time. There is no need to grieve over the parting of ways. It is rule of Nature that those who are born will die and those who meet must part.

The sage was very happy to see that the prince’s claims were true. There was one test left. So he went to the prince and said: When you were away, the neighbouring enemies attacked the kingdom and enslaved it. The prince took the news calmly. He said: All life is impermanent and flimsy.  It is here now and has to go. Please guide me to reach the Infinite- the Imperishable.  The sage taught the prince and the prince learnt effortlessly. Detachment helps us to balance the ups and downs of life and move in equanimity and peace. Let us make effort to cultivate bhakti and surrender to get detachment as reward. The SitaRam Mantra will help us in achieving these qualities.