Selfless Devotion vs Anger

Bhakti or Devotion to God and Guru brings sweetness in the character of a person. God is love. When we love God with all our might and being, His love fills us. The sweetness of the love of God and Guru is very alluring and addictive. Those who have tasted that love will never let go of it. Those who don’t know the sweetness of Love of God will search for that love in human relationships. Love in human relationships is a reflection of Divine Love but shaded with imperfections of expectations. Love for God or bhakti gives strength to us and protects us. The immeasurable strength of the Universe backs us when our bhakti is selfless. We must be thankful to God for His blessings and gifts given to us.  We must love God for the sake of God and not for the gifts He showers on us.

Anger comes from Ego. When expectations are not fulfilled and when importance is not given to a person, he becomes angry. When a person enjoys blowing up all incidents in life to larger than life proportions, he wants to portray self as great. He makes small incidents larger than life and becomes angry and puffed up with egoism and unwarranted self importance. He feels slighted and insulted for no reason and his anger becomes boundless. This ultimately harms him only. Consider this story from the Bhagavata  Purana:

King Ambarisha belonged to the lineage of Sri Rama. He was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. He was truthful and a good king. He performed a yagna and  pleased Lord Vishnu with his worship.  The Lord blessed him with the protection of His Sudarshan Chakra ( a weapon of matchless accuracy and power in form of a disc with saw teeth).  Sudarshan means good sight or right vision. The blessings of Sudarshan or good vision blessed the kingdom of Ambarisha with peace, prosperity and security.

King Ambarisha undertook the Dvadashi  Vratta or fast. This vratta required that the King fast on the day of ekdashi or 11th day of moon and break the fast on dvadashi or 12th day and feed all the people.  As the time for breaking the fast approached, Durvasa  Muni (Sage) arrived and was given a royal welcome with all honours due to him. The King asked him to be his royal guest after the breaking of the fast. Durvasa Muni agreed and asked the King to wait till he had his bath and returned.  The auspicious time for breaking of fast arrived but Durvasa Muni had not returned.  The King could not eat or drink without offering food to his honoured guest.  Sage Vashishta who was the royal Sage in the court suggested that the King could break his fast by taking  a tulsi leaf and spoonful of water which had been offered in worship to Lord Vishnu. The King broke his fast in this way at the right time and waited for his guest to arrive and serve him food.

Durvasa Muni  was famed for his ill temper and anger. He arrived when  King Ambarisha had just broken his fast and  he was very angry. He felt insulted that the King did not wait for him to come. He felt that the tulsi leaf and water taken by the King was equal to eating food.  The King was not supposed to eat anything before offering food to the guest. How dare the King insult a Great Sage like him?The King’s explanations fell on deaf years. In rage,  Durvasa Muni pulled out a strand of hair and created a demon from it. He ordered the demon to kill the King.  The King simply folded his hands and sat in surrender in front of the idol of Lord Vishnu in the temple. The Sudarshan Chakra swirled out from the idol and attacked the demon and killed him. Then the Chakra began chasing Durvasa Muni to kill him.  He ran and tried to hide but the Chakra chased him relentlessly. He has nowhere to go. So he ran to Brahma Lok and sought protection from Lord Brahma. Lord Brahma refused to protect him.  He said that the Muni had angered Lord Vishnu and he could not save him. The Chakra continued chasing the Muni and he ran to Shiva Lok and fell at the feet of Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva also refused to help him citing the same reasons.  Finally tired and worn out and having no place to run and hide, Durvasa Muni rushed to Vaikunta and  fell at the feet of Lord Vishnu and sought protection. The Lord said he could not call back Sudarshan Chakra as the Muni had wronged Ambarisha who had selfless love for Him. The Lord advised him to seek forgiveness and protection from Ambarisha.   Durvasa Muni had no choice but fall at the feet of the King  to protect himself from certain death by the Sudarshan Chakra.  King Ambarisha held no anger or grudge against Durvasa. He was filled with compassion at seeing such a great Muni running for his life. He prayed to Lord Vishnu to recall the Sudarshan Chakra and saved the life of the Muni.

Selfless love or Bhakti for God grants us the highest level of protection in the Universe. When the Grace of the Supreme blesses us we get the Sudarshan or good vision. Then anger, insults, slights and misbehaviour of others have no place in our lives. We are loving and compassionate towards all. We are guided to right action and right speech. We have abundance in our lives and Grace of the Supreme.

Nandanar - Ardra Darshan

Tomorrow is the day of Ardra Darshan. It is the day of full moon in the month of Paush of the Hindu Calendar. It is the longest night of year in India.  At the predawn time, when the Celestial Star Thiruvadari/Ardra  rises in the skies, worship is offered to Lord Shiva in all Shiva temples in South India. This is also the day of redemption of Nandanar, a saint of South India. Nandanar stands for utmost devotion and faith in Lord Shiva and the overwhelming mercy of the Lord on his devotees. 

Nandanar was a saint born in South India. He was born as untouchable and worked as labourer in the paddy (rice) fields of his master who was a Brahmin.  Nandanar was a hard worker and laboured tirelessly for his master but his master never reciprocated the loyalty shown by Nandanar. Daily the master used to supervise the work of Nandanar and speak of the greatness of Lord Shiva and His Miracles. Hearing about the Compassion and Love of Lord Shiva day in and day out, Nandanar developed bhakti for Lord Shiva.

Nandanar developed such intense love for Lord Shiva there were no other thoughts in his head and heart but Shiva Shiva Shiva. It was his intense desire to visit the temple of Chidambaram. He used to ask his master regularly for permission to visit Lord Shiva at Chidambaram Temple. And his master always refused. Once he pestered his master so much that the master got fed up and told him to harvest the huge fields in a single day and after completing the task successfully, he could go to visit Chidambaram.

Nandanar was shattered as it was humanly not possible to fulfil the task. He cried out to Lord Shiva for mercy. He was immersed in his prayers to the Lord and did not notice the passage of time. The next morning when he went to the fields, miraculously all the rice was cut and bound in sheaves and stacked neatly! And the Brahmin was forced to permit Nandanar to visit Chidambaram Temple!

As Nandanar proceeded towards Chidambaram, he saw a Shiva Temple. As an untouchable, he was not permitted to go inside. Standing at the door he tried to take darshan of the Lord within. He could not see the Shiva Lingam inside as the statue of Nandi was blocking the view. Nandi is a bull and he is a great devotee of Lord Shiva and has the boon that he would always be standing in front of the Lord in the direct line and vision of the Lord.   Seeing the misery of Nandanar and his eagerness for darshan, Lord Shiva asked Nandi to move aside and permit Nandanar to have darshan.  And stone image of Nandi moved aside and Nandanar could have darshan of the Shiva Lingam inside the sanctum sanctorum. Till this day, Nandi is in off centre position in this temple.

When Nandanar reached Chidambaram, he was not permitted to enter the temple as he was of low caste. The Brahmins of the temple told him that only if he bathed in fire, he would be pure enough to enter the temple. Nandanar built a roaring fire and entered it. As he came out, he was transformed into blazing golden light. He entered the temple and had darshan of the Lord. His longing for Lord Shiva was so much that he merged into the Shiva Lingam and become one with the Universal Consciousness of Shiva.

Nandanar and his bhakti for Lord Shiva have been immortalised in all Shiva Temples. He is one of the 63 Nayanmars – great devotees of Lord Shiva who are worshipped in all Shiva Temples as most blessed by the Lord.  Nandanar teaches us that what matters is not our birth status, education, wealth or position in society. What matters to God is how much we love Him. May SitaRam increase your bhakti and you be blessed like Nandanar. 

Fear is Key to Improvement

Man is generally good, dutiful and loving towards his family. He cares for himself, his relatives, society and nation. He tries to do what is expected of him. 

When it comes to improvement in self and self transformation, man knows what is good for him but he will rarely act upon his understanding. Even making changes in lifestyle for sake of health is very difficult as habits are very set and the mind set refuses to change. He knows that exercise is good for him, yet he will find it difficult to go for regular walks. Even when the doctor gives a warning regarding taking care of health and control over food, man still finds it difficult to change himself. It takes repeated pain and damage for man to notice that he must change himself. Sometimes it takes threat of death for him to change his habits and mindset. Fear is one of the keys to being good! 

In our relationships with friends and family fear again is the key factor to good behavior and change for better. We fear losing the love of our parents, brothers, sisters, husband, wife, lover, friend etc. Many of us often do right things so that we please them and not because we want to do the right thing. 

In the spiritual path too we all know what is good for us. We still find it difficult to change our habits, our mindset and our thoughts. Most of us know there is a God out there but have not experienced Him. So foolishly we feel that what He does not know won’t hurt Him. Or that it won’t hurt us. 

Only when one has great love for God and Guru, do changes come in self in a voluntarily manner. The love received from God and Guru is incredibly sweet. The fear of loss of Grace and such wonderful love makes us walk the straight path. Fear that if we don’t change and improve may cause pain or anger to Guru/God or loss of grace & love makes us walk the straight and painful path of righteousness. The fear we have of Guru or God increases our love for Guru and God. It makes us a better disciple, follower and bhakta. 

Fear and Bhakti are connected! And this definitely leads to improvement in self and life. 

Fear is a factor of self improvement!