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.

Rewards of Guru Bhakti

When a disciple obeys and serves his Guru with trust and faith, the blessings which flow as reward from the Guru are enormous and life transforming.  This incident is about a disciple of a very famous Guru who had great love for his master and served him implicitly. It is a perfect example of the transformation of a disciple through Grace of the Guru.

Adi Shankara is one of the greatest Gurus of India. He is regarded as a minor incarnation of Lord Shiva. Adi Shankara was born in order to revamp Hindu Philosophy and Religion. Shankara had four disciples - Sureswara Acharya, Padmapada, Hastamalaka and Trotakacharya. This is the story of Padmapada.

Padmapada’s original name was Sadananda. He was the first disciple of Shankara. He was a great Guru Bhatka. He was very loyal and faithful to the Guru and extremely obedient. He did all the chores given to him with a smiling face. As compared to the other disciples, he was rather intellectually dull. The other disciples made fun of him and sometimes made him do their share of work too. But he bore it all willingly and cheerfully. Shankara was aware of all the happenings and knew that the others teased and tormented Sadananda.  He waited for the right opportunity to teach others the true worth of his obedient student and blessings of willing Guru Seva (service to the Guru)

Once, Shankara and his group camped at the banks of the River Ganges. Sadananda as usual was doing chores. He had finished washing the clothes of the Guru on the other side of the river bank. He had put them out to dry and was waiting to gather the dry clothes and bring them back to the Guru. Suddenly there was a flood and the waters rose overflowing the banks of the river. Shankara was worried about Sadananda. He called out to him to come back at once. Immediately Sadananda picked up the dried clothes and ran on the waters of the river. He did not notice that the waters had risen in the river. When he ran over the waters of the Ganges at the command of his Guru, he did not think of anything but his Guru’s call.  As he took a step, a lotus rose from bottom of the waters to support his feet. His attention was so much focussed on his Guru that he did not feel the touch and support of the lotuses beneath his feet. He crossed the river safely and reached his Guru. All those who watched this rare feat of devotion and love to Guru were wonderstruck at the miracle which had just occurred.

When Sadananda offered pranams to his Guru and gave him the dried clothes, the Guru asked him how he crossed the flooded river. Sadananda did not even turn to look at the lotuses in the water. He replied that just taking the name of the Guru helped him to cross the ocean of samsara or material world. Crossing a mere river was easy!  Then Shankara showed him the lotuses which had sprung up to support his feet as he had walked on the waters. Shankara blessed him and renamed him Padmapada. (Padma means lotus, Pada means feet). The blessings of the Guru flooded Padmapada with divine knowledge and wisdom. The transformation in him was astounding. He became the cleverest disciple of Shankara. He wrote a great treatise called ‘Prajanam Brahma’ meaning Brahman is knowledge. He was appointed head of Govardhana Matha in East of India.

Implicit obedience to Guru and cheerfully doing seva or service to Guru brought blessings to the dull Sadananda and he became Padmapada. The ParamGuru is truly greater than the ParasMani or Philosopher’s stone. The Philosopher’s Stone turns iron and lead into gold. But its touch cannot create another Philosopher’s stone. The Guru is greater than the Philosopher’s Stone as he transfers his own powers and qualities to the disciple and creates a wise knowledgeable man.