Kartavyam - Doing one's duty

Most of our epics and scriptures emphasize on the aspect of doing one's duty "Kartavyam" at all times during our life. Here is a story of two brothers, which brings out this aspect of Kartavyam through all its characters.

There were two brothers by name Shankha and Likitha who were sages and lived in their own Ashramam on the banks of river Bahudaa. One day, Likitha came to meet his elder brother Shankha and as he did not find Shankha on his Ashram, he sat on a nearby mango tree. He started eating a mango from the tree without getting permission from his brother who takes care of the tree.
Shankha returned to his Ashram and found his brother Likitha eating mango from the tree. He immediately told Likitha,
"Likitha, one should not take others property or things without their knowledge & permission. Even though I am your brother, you should have asked my permission before eating it. Go and see King Sudyumna and ask him to give punishment for this wrongdoing of yours according to Dhanda neethi sastram."
Likitha went immediately and saw King Sudyumna. The Kind welcomed him and offered him a seat. Likitha explained to King the reason for his visit and asked him to give punishment to him according to Dhanda neethi sastram.
King Sudyumna told him, "Oh muni kumara (young sage), you are undertaking penance for the welfare of others. How can I give you punishment for such a petty act?"

Likitha replied, "All the scriptures and my brother has emphasized on doing our duty and should not deviate from it on any case. So please give me the punishment for my act according to the sastram."
Hearing Likitha's words King ordered his men to cut-off his hands.

Likitha after getting his punishment visited his brother Shankha's ashram and Shankha was happy to see his brother and told, "What you did is really good. One has to adhere to elder's words. Go and take bath in river Bahudaa."
Likitha went and immersed in Bahudaa river and to his surprise he got his hands back. He met his brother Shankha and asked," Brother, if you are so powerful to get my hands back, you could have given me punishment for my act. But why did you send me to the Kind, instead?"

Shankha replied, "Sages duty is to observe penance for the welfare of the society and not to punish. King,being the protector of his people, has the right to punish wrong acts. So I asked you to go to the King."

This story was told by Vyasa Bhagawan to Dharmaraaja  when he was worried about killing his relatives in the war. Bhagawan Vyasa quoted this story to tell King's duty is to protect his people by giving punishment to the wrong acts and hence Dharmaraaja need not worry.

This story shows how important it is to adhere to elder's words though it is harsh and also the importance of doing only our duties.

Source: www.moralstories.wordpress.com

Sabari patti (granny) and her Guru-bhakthi

Today, July 15,2011 in Hindu calendar marks Ashada month's(June-July) pournami (Full moon day). This day is celebrated as Guru Poornima also known as Vyasa Pooja. It is believed that Sage Vyasa completed writing Four Vedas (Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana Vedas) today. Today is considered auspicious to do Guru seva and start initiation from our Guru to learn our desired Vidya (art or knowledge).

All of us, especially kids like to be with our grand parents. Today we can listen to a granny's story and her bhakthi (devotion) towards her Guru.

There was a old granny called Sabari who lived in Sage Matanga's ashram (hermit). Her daily routine was to clean the ashram, decorate it with flowers and collect fruits from the forest, chant Lord Rama's name and by the end of the day, distribute the fruits to the children in the ashram. She did this every single day and one day a child asked her ,"Oh Granny, why are you decorating the ashram with flowers everyday though no one is coming to your home? You are also taking pains to go to forest to collect sweetest of sweetest fruits, but by the end of the day giving it to us, though we have never asked you for fruits"

She caressed the child and told, "Oh, vatsa (my son), I am looking forward for Rama who is the embodiment of love and an avatar of Lord Vishnu. My guru Sage Matanga has asked me to chant Rama Nama all the time and has blessed that he will come and meet me one day. As I do not know on what day he will come and meet me, I am decorating my home everyday to welcome him and collecting fruits to offer him. By the end of the day, I give the fruits to you kids, expecting Rama to come next day."

The kids got interested on Sabari's explanation for her act and asked, "Is that so granny?? Can you tell me how Rama will look like, so that we can search him if he is nearby our ashram?"

Sabari granny replied, "My intelligent son, I have not seen Rama myself. As my Guru told me, I am sure he would visit me once and I will be blessed to see him in person."

The kids laughed at her and told, "So, you do not know who is Rama, have not seen Him once, but collect fruits for him and decorate your house to welcome him! It seems you are getting mad..". Saying this the kids ran away.

Sabari lost in thoughts of her early life. She used to wander around the forest and eat animals by hunting them. While she was wandering, she reached the Sage Matanga ashram and found it to be very peaceful. She could feel that the environment is so conducive that she did not want to wander anywhere. She thought she could stay there by performing some cleaning duties in the Ashram. Later Sage Mathanga noticed her and consented her to be in the Ashram and do cleaning seva. From then on, she used to wake up early, clean the ashram premises, help collecting things for Ashram's activities. One day, Sage Matanga called all his Sishyas (disciple) and told that time has come for his Jeeva Mukthi and he would like to bless his sishyas and told them to ask for their boons.

His disciples came one by one and asked for attaining siddhis, mastering Vidyas, gaining popularity, gaining health and wealth etc. At the end was Sabari and when Sage Mathanga asked her on what she want, she replied, "Oh, Guru. I do not know what I want, for all these days I did not find any needs for me. I found peace and happiness in serving you. I am sure you will know what I would need, so please bless me with what I should be doing rest of my life."

Sage Mathanga was happy on her unparalleled devotion towards him and told, "Sabari, Rama the son of Dasaratha is none other than avatar of Lord Vishnu. Chant Rama Nama for the rest of your life and one day Lord Rama will come and meet you and will bless you."

Sabari from that day was chanting Rama Nama, decorating her house for his arrival and collect fruits to offer him. It has been 12 years and then one day, kids came running towards her and told,
"Granny, two persons have come to meet you. They are very beautiful and we think it should be Rama, the one you have been waiting for all these days."
On hearing this Sabari felt very happy and came running to welcome them. She could not believe her eyes and was astonished on seeing the beauty of Rama and Lakshmana. She washed their legs and offered seat. She then offered the fruits she collected from the forests. Lakshmana noticed that those fruits were already tasted and asked Rama not to eat them. However Rama told that Sabari wanted to ensure that the fruits are tastier before she can offer and so she tasted it. He continued, that he was moved by Sabari's devotion towards Him and would like to taste the fruits.
Lord Rama born on King's lineage has always been giving things from his hand and this was the first time when he got something from others. Sabari felt blessed on their presence and Lord Rama bestowed her Jeevan Moksha.

This is the story of granny Sabari's Moksha. People may laugh at our faith and beliefs but, Sabari granny proved that her belief in her Guru's words, blessed her with a Moksham in the presence of Lord Rama himself.

During this Guru poornima day, let us all pray to God to bestow us a Guru for us, for only he knows what we want and could show us a path to achieve it.

Listen to our beloved M.S.Subbulakshmi's devoted Guru-Bhajan "Guruvara Deejo"

Feel the presence of God in all activities

This is a short story from the life of Saint Namdev.

Saint Namdev was a great bhaktha and used to sing many abhangas on Lord Vittal. One day, Lord Siva appeared on his dream and told,
"My son Namdev, you are a great devotee yet you need to learn something."  Namdev was happy seeing Lord Siva and asked, "How can I learn it?".
Siva told, "Go to my temple near by your home and meet another bhaktha Vitoba from whom you can learn it" and then disappeared.

Namdev went to the nearby temple and enquired about  the presence of a bhaktha by name Vitoba. While he was roaming around he saw an old man sitting on the ground placing his legs on Siva lingam statue. Namdev thought how disrespectful was the old man to keep his legs on Siva lingam. The priest came there and introduced Namdev to the old man and told Namdev that the old man was Vitoba.

Namdev got puzzled over Lord Siva's statements and thought on what he could learn from an old man who was so disrespectful! Vitoba saw Namdev and told, "Namdev, great to see you. I am very old that I cannot move my limbs and legs away. Can you please move my legs to a place where there is no God".
Namdev was happy that atleast now Vitoba realized his mistake and asked for help and moved his leg away from Siva lingam. But to their surprise, a Siva lingam appeared on the place where Namdev placed Vitoba's legs and this happened whenever he moved Vitoba's legs to a new place.

Namdev, the saint, now understood his mistake. Though he was a great devotee, he did not realize the presence of God in everything and Lord Siva made him realize it through Vitoba. He also felt bad, for his demeaning thought on Vitoba.
Thereafter Saint Namdev, felt the presence of God everywhere.

In order to inculcate this mindset of perceiving and feeling the presence of God in everything, our Hinduism has certain practices in our every day life. Like considering books, music, arts, toys, tools, pencils etc as Godly forms. We have so many Gods each of them being the presiding deity for a particular activity (health, wealth, knowledge, enjoyment etc). By praying to the presiding deity of a particular activity, we implicitly feel the presence of God in that activity.

For example, before eating we can pray deity Annapurna for bestowing us that meal and ask her us to grace with strength. By slowly practicing this, we will acquire the bhavam of seeing God in every activity.
So let us start all our daily activities by praying to the presiding deity.

We have to carefully understand this story otherwise might get mislead.  By critical analysis of the story, we might say "Let me keep my legs over Lord Krishna's statue like Vitoba did!" Yes, we can but what is our intention behind that act is very important. The intention or bhavam makes the difference. If we do that act just for fun or showing being intelligent to draw similarities, then it is of outright disrespect. However, if you share the same bhavam of Vitoba, the bhavam of seeing God in all beings (yes, that include those you dislike!), then indeed you are a great bhaktha like him. And, it is for sure a Siva lingam would appear from his feet for such a great bhaktha as well!

Let us hear this abhang of Sant Namdev and seek his blessings