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PRAKRITAM AZHAGIYA SINGHAR (PART 12)

From the Bhakti List Archives

Ramanbil • December 9, 1998 


PRAKRITAM AZHAGIYA SINGHAR, 
MY ACHARYA, FRIEND, PHILOSOPHER AND GUIDE (PART 12)

Dear Bhagavatas,
Presented below is Part 12 on the above subject being excerpts from my talk
during the 600th Anniversary Celebrations of Ahobila Matam held at New York
during the first week of September 1998.
Dasoham
Anbil Ramaswamy
=============================================================
In my last post, I wrote about the special concern Swami had for me because of
my slovenly understanding. From this, I am tempted to conclude that in such
circumstances, even stupidity has its own virtues and at times pays its own
dividends!

SWAMI'S SENSE OF HUMOUR
· Not a day would pass without our Swami narrating some anecdote or other that
would help to illustrate, illuminate and sustain interest. Most of them would
be garnished with subtle and appropriate humor to drive home the point
indelibly. We would therefore, flock looking forward to have a new treat
everyday. One remarkable thing is that any such anecdote once told would never
be repeated ! You will be surprised at the perennial source of wit and humor
punctuating his talks. Let me share with you a few of these.

· ABOUT ASTROLOGERS: 
An astrologer was approached on behalf of two patients who were terminally ill
with a prognosis of certain death. The astrologer gave two pieces of stone
chipped out of a rock and asked them to be tied to the wrist of each patient. 

When one of them recovered, the astrologer claimed his prediction that he
would recover and stand ' like a rock' had come true; When the other patient
died he explained how his prediction that the other patient would die as if
'stoned to death' had also come true. 

This is a classic example of quibbles indulged in by these cheats.

· ABOUT CROSSING SAMSARAM:  
There lived in a village an old couple. The wife was a devout Hindu. She used
to go to the temple and attend a religious discourse there every night but the
man was not so devout and he used to remain at home. One day the lady fell ill
and wanted to take rest. She asked her husband to go and listen and report
back the gist of that night's lecture. She went to sleep. 

But, at dead of night, she suddenly woke up and was startled to find her
husband repeatedly jumping over her from one side to the other. She asked him
what he was doing. Replied the man "I am sorry that I did not attend the
lecture earlier. Tonight, the lecturer said that one can get 'Moksha', if one
jumped over 'samsara'". 

The word  'Samsara' also means 'Wife' besides its natural meaning of cycle of
births and deaths. He mistook the word 'samsara' to mean his wife and was
therefore doing the jumping exercise!. 

This is definitely not the way to achieve Moksha. Moksha can be reached only
when a person is Karmafree (i.e.) when there is no backlog of causes playing
into his present state. In principle, that he has learned to attune himself
absolutely to the cosmic pattern as it is at that moment so that there is no
kind of stress or conflict between what is taking place within his individual
monadic field and what is happening in the Universe.

· ABOUT A FOOLISH KING: 
Once some thief broke into the house of a villager. The Villager complained to
the King. The King ordered an enquiry and wanted to hang the person found
guilty. 

The thief was caught and brought before the King. But, he pleaded that he did
not break into the house. Because the mud with which the house was built had
not yet dried up, it fell apart on its own. 

The King then called the mason who built the house. He pleaded that because
the potter had made the pot bigger than the standard size, it contained more
water than was necessary to water the bricks laden with mud. 

Then, the King called the Potter. He pleaded that as he was making the pot a
lady was going hither and thither distracting his attention and therefore he
could not make sure of the correct size.

The lady pleaded that the washerman to whom she had given her clothes for
washing did not return it on time and she had to walk up and down to see him.

The washerman pleaded that when he went to the river, a mendicant was sitting
on the stone used for beating clothes and that repeated requests to move away
were not heeded by the mendicant. Hence, the delay.

The mendicant was deaf-mute and therefore could not defend himself. 

So. the king ordered hanging the mendicant!

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