Re: manobodhaH - 17

From the Bhakti List Archives

• March 16, 1998


> %shloka
> ##
> jano muuDhabhaavena shochatyapaartha.n
> kshaNenaiva bhaavyaM bhavatyeva nityam.h |
> bhavet.h karmaNaa svena putraadiyogo
> vR^ithaa khidyate tadviyoge.alpabuddhiH || 17||
> ##
> %verse
> ##
> manii.n maanavii vyartha chi.ntaa vahaate.n .
> akasmaata hoNaara ho{U}na jaate.n ..
> ghaDe bhogaNe sarvahii karmayoge.n .
> matiima.nda te.n kheda maanii viyoge.n .. 17..
>
> %versemeanings
> Vain is the worry one carries in the mind;
> Unexpected, the inevitable comes to pass;
> All experience is shaped by actions past;
> Misery the lot for the dim of wit, disjoined from the truth of mind .. 17..

Hi shree

This message appeared to me a little too final, in that the actions of
the past result in current grief.

i would like to put forward a cancellation theory for this :

There was this lady who used to be doing seva for Tulsidas. She used 
to clean his house and keep his pooja items ready and do sundry such 
work with great devotion. 

She had one grief in that she had no children. So one day she asked 
Tulsidas, who was in the habit of speaking with god, to ask god whether
she was destined to get a child in this birth.

Tulsidas asked the lord about this in his next conversation and the
lord replied, due to past karma in this birth that is one thing she
will not have.

This Tulsidas duly conveyed to the lady who was sad but duly accepted it
as her fate.

Then one day to the same town came a great devotee of Lord Hayagreeva.
The normal offering to this lord is fresh cucumbers. On the day this 
great Bhagavatha was in town none could be found in the city. 
This lady(who was doing seva for Tulsidas) heard of it. Her business
was to grow and sell cucumbers, so she collected the choicest among the 
cucumbers and put them in a basket and took them over to this
Bhagavatha.

This great devotee was extremely pleased that he was able to offer
his lord the choicest of fresh cucumbers, he offered some money to 
this pious lady which she promptly declined saying that she was 
glad to be of service to such a great Bhagvatha. He was pleased with 
this devotion and so he blessed her saying "May you be the mother of a
handsome boy".

This lady duly gave birth to a beautiful baby and arrived with the baby
to Tulsidas for the naming ceremony. Tulsidas was surprised as to how 
she could have begotten a child when the lord himself had told him
that she was, due to her past karma, destined to be childless.

The lady then narrated the incident of this Bhagvatha and how he had
blessed her.

Tulsidas then asked the lord as to how this could have happened.

The lord replied saying "Tulsidas, you only asked me and I told you
about her destiny, but this other devotee of mine without so much as
asking me blessed her to be the mother of a beautiful baby. How could
I allow a word of my true bhakta to go false and therefore I had to 
change her destiny".

The moral of this story is that with the blessing of a true bhagavatha
even destiny is changed.

This story also tells us the importance of a Guru who is the truest 
Bhagavatha for all of us.

More later

love

srini