PRAKRITAM AZHAGIYA SINGHAR (PART 12)

[Guest guest]

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

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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!

 

(To Continue)