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

 

Merit of listening to God's glory

 

CHENNAI, MARCH 3. The potency of the Divine names which embody

the infinite auspicious qualities of God is such that it is

capable of transforming an individual totally. Even if a person

does not show inclination to engage in devotional activities like

listening to the exposition of the scriptural texts (Sravana)

which describe the glory of God, if through merit earned in

previous births he listens to such discourses he develops a taste

for spiritual life and soon evolves into a great devotee of God.

 

An incident is related about King Janamejaya, who succeeded

Pareekshit, to illustrate this truth. As prophesied, Pareekshit

died of the snake Takshaka's bite. Janamejaya was naturally

enraged that his father had met with such fate and he performed a

sacrifice to wipe out all snakes, especially Takshaka, but he was

preempted from doing so, as the king of snakes had drunk the

nectar which had made it immortal. So Janamejaya abandoned his

idea of revenge but was nevertheless very unhappy.

 

Sage Vaisampayana happened to visit him once as he sat brooding.

The sage had mastery of the scriptures and also was blessed with

eloquence about which he was rather proud. He wanted to discourse

on the Mahabharata composed by Vyasa with great elan but the king

did not want to listen. After great persuasion that he should at

least listen to one verse, the king agreed thinking that he would

be able to dismiss him quickly. But the verse he related only

made him curious to know what happened further which led to the

sage relating the entire story of the Mahabharata by which time

Janamejaya had become totally engrossed in the narration and had

developed devotion.

 

He wanted the sage to expound all the texts that he knew and soon

Vaisampayana was exhausted and also could not match the interest

the king had developed after listening to the Lord's exploits and

inimitable traits. In the process it was Janamejaya who stood to

gain for he had become a great devotee and the sage was also

humbled, said Mukkur Sri Lakshminarasimhachariar in his

discourse. Immense is the benefit of Sravana because it elevates

both the person who listens to the Lord's glory and the one who

expounds it.

 

If the benefit of Sravana is so much one can imagine the exalted

mood of devotion when the expositor was a sage like Suka who was

always immersed in the bliss of spiritual experience and the

listener was King Pareekshit, who had sought him to attain

liberation within the seven days time he had at his disposal when

he was cursed to die of Takshaka's bite.

 

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