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Source: The Hindu (http://www.the-hindu.com)

 

God's grace and compassion

 

CHENNAI, JAN. 22. Many people who feel aggrieved when confronted

with problems or difficulties, imagine that God is unkind to

them. A deep study of the scriptural text, the Bhagavatham,

reveals how God had been extremely merciful to all. It brings out

the deep faith that two characters had reposed in Him, accepting

which He had reciprocated by saving them on many occasions.

Though born in affluent circumstances and steeped in wealth, the

two were subjected to several trials which they withstood because

of their total belief in God's compassion and grace. The sons of

one of them were repeatedly protected from numberless perils,

like being administered poison, pushed into a great

conflagration, made to face an encounter with a cannibal, undergo

forest life and face deadly effects of powerful weapons. But the

chain of misfortunes never made her lose her morale as she held

on to God's feet.

 

The other was about to be shamed in a public assembly by evil

forces, abducted by one, solicited by a passionate warrior and

was forced to work as an attendant. More than everything, her

five children were mercilessly killed by a ruthless person but

even then though he could have been destroyed easily, she pleaded

for his release as he was the son of her husband's chief tutor in

archery. Can there be a more glorious and magnanimous person than

her? The former was Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, and the

latter, Draupadi, their wife. The final act of the Lord was to

save the only child in the womb of Arjuna's daughter-in-law which

was being burnt by a red-hot missile aimed by an enemy, by

ordaining its protection by Holy Discus.

 

Sri Krishna Premi, in a discourse, dwelt on Kunti's prayers to

the Lord extolling His qualities and describing how He had

extended His help to the Pandavas, when they faced several

dangerous situations. ``May calamities befall us at every step

through eternity because it is during adversity alone that we are

blessed with Your sight, which eliminates our re-births. You are

open to the perception of only those who have nothing to call

their own. You are the only wealth of those who have no sense of

possession. None can know what you intend doing when you are

`acting' like an ordinary human being. No one is ever dear or

loathsome to You, though men alone think of You in times of

adversity. Your appearance and actions in the sub-human species

as well as among men, sages and other creations are mere sport.

You have come to this earth to perform acts fit to be dwelt upon

by the tormented souls. Your devotees hence constantly listen to,

sing and repeat to others and contemplate on Your stories and

rejoice''.

 

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