Guest guest Posted October 9, 2002 Report Share Posted October 9, 2002 A story of Shiva, highlighting the inherent deep wisdom underlying his apparently innocent demeanour for which he is so lovingly called Bholenaath. Parvati, the consort of Shiva once got curious that among the countless bhaktas of her lord, who was the most devoted. Upon being so questioned by her, Lord Shiva smiled and said that presently there were two who were on an almost equal level, one very rich and other a poor brahmin, and as it was due time to give them a visit, why not she join him in the tour to karmabhoomi(this earth of ours). o both of them in a disguise of mendicants(Jogi and jogan) proceeded first to the rich fella. The merchant was a very devout bhakta of Shiva and his free time was spent in the beautiful Shiva temple in his courtyard, doing pooja most of the time. The twosome happened to arrive at his gate just at the time of his special pooja and called out for alms. The merchant was 'too busy', but in accordance to his standing instruction, the 'beggars' were given a couple of blankets and some food and then shooed away when they asked for the darshans of the benefactor as he was busy appeasing Shiva. Parvati was not too happy, but Shiva " the giver beyond compare " , simply blessed his devotee with a thousandfold increase in his wealth; Bang! Just like that. Now they proceeded to the other devotee, the poor brahmin. This brahmin was quite old and his wife had passed away, neither did he have any progeny. For his livlihood he just had an old cow whose milk he used to consume and sell the rest; thus just managing to scrape through. He was just biding his time till his death happily repeating Shiva's name. Upon the arrival of two athitis(unexpected guests), he fed them with what little he had deciding to go hungry for that day. Shiva also gracefully accepted as alms, the only tattered blanket he had. The " mendicants " departed from the brahmin's door quite satisfied. After covering some distance, Parvati was curious and asked the Lord, why did he not bless the poor brahmin. " Ahh, I just forgot my dear " , replied Shiva, " May the brahmin's cow die " . Shiva has a thousand names signifying his varous aspects; the word Shiva meaning as " the one who is beneficial to all " . So, Shiva just would not do harm to anyone. In the story. Shiva himself tells that the two of his most closest bhaktas are the brahmin and the rich merchant over and above millions of others. & lt;period & gt; THE REST OF THE STORY IS A RUSE TO HIGHLIGHT TO THE READER HIS EXISTENCE IN DUALITY. Shiva who is equanimity incarnate does not recognize differences created by the mind like rich-poor, good-bad behaviour, high-low, good-bad luck, etc. SHIVA ONLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE CLOSENESS OF THE BHAKTAS TO HIMSELF. As the PRIME cause of pain for any bhakta is the distance between himself and his diety, what to say of the two highly 'ranked' bhaktas. This pain in advanced stages morphs into pleasure involved in serving the " IMAGE " of the diety, probably the stage of the two bhaktas. BY HIS BOONS SHIVA HAS ONLY SHOWERED HIS INFINITE GRACE ON BOTH THE BHAKTAS BY CUTTING OUT THE SHORTEST PATH FOR THEM TOWARDS THEIR PRIME GOAL OF MERGING WITH SHIVA. The rich man already well entrenched in the luxuries of life can only progress at the earliest by having his few remaining vain desires being fulfilled. If the rich man was to lose his wealth he stands to further get enmeshed in maya. Shiva in his innocent love with bhakta also wants him to come to him as early as possible, hence the boon of a thousandfold increase in wealth. Jai bhole baba, whose third eye(non-dualistic view) is always open ! As for the poor brahmin! What would have happened if he was blessed (cursed to be more accurate) with wealth? The brahmin just on the verge of giving up everything to merge with shiva would rediscover maya and get enmeshed! The shortest path for the brahmin to Shiva was indeed by the death of his sole possession, " the cow " . Now the dualist in us will re-analyse the story like this: The brahmin will indeed be the " first " one to end the painful distance between himself and his araadhya diety due to his " better " treatment of the guests. The merchant also blessed will take a " while " . But let us all rise above these comparative tendencies of the mind and attain the non-dual " BHOLA " eye of Shiva. The whole bank of knowledge existing in this universe may be discarded for such a piercing INNOCENCE. May we all by the grace of Shiva tear asunder the dualistic viel and open our 'third-eye'. Jai BholeBaba ! Om namah sivaya Om namah sivaya Om namah sivaya Om namah sivaya Om namah sivaya Love baba Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 9, 2002 Report Share Posted October 9, 2002 Many thanks for your wonderful parable! It takes something like this to remind me that the goal is to get closer to the Source (God), and to cast away anything that keeps me from that. Sri Janaardana Kalianandaswami Garu wrote:A story of Shiva, highlighting the inherent deep wisdom underlying his apparently innocent demeanour for which he is so lovingly called Bholenaath. Parvati, the consort of Shiva once got curious that among the countless bhaktas of her lord, who was the most devoted. Upon being so questioned by her, Lord Shiva smiled and said that presently there were two who were on an almost equal level, one very rich and other a poor brahmin, and as it was due time to give them a visit, why not she join him in the tour to karmabhoomi(this earth of ours). o both of them in a disguise of mendicants(Jogi and jogan) proceeded first to the rich fella. The merchant was a very devout bhakta of Shiva and his free time was spent in the beautiful Shiva temple in his courtyard, doing pooja most of the time. The twosome happened to arrive at his gate just at the time of his special pooja and called out for alms. The merchant was 'too busy', but in accordance to his standing instruction, the 'beggars' were given a couple of blankets and some food and then shooed away when they asked for the darshans of the benefactor as he was busy appeasing Shiva. Parvati was not too happy, but Shiva " the giver beyond compare " , simply blessed his devotee with a thousandfold increase in his wealth; Bang! Just like that. Now they proceeded to the other devotee, the poor brahmin. This brahmin was quite old and his wife had passed away, neither did he have any progeny. For his livlihood he just had an old cow whose milk he used to consume and sell the rest; thus just managing to scrape through. He was just biding his time till his death happily repeating Shiva's name. Upon the arrival of two athitis(unexpected guests), he fed them with what little he had deciding to go hungry for that day. Shiva also gracefully accepted as alms, the only tattered blanket he had. The " mendicants " departed from the brahmin's door quite satisfied. After covering some distance, Parvati was curious and asked the Lord, why did he not bless the poor brahmin. " Ahh, I just forgot my dear " , replied Shiva, " May the brahmin's cow die " . Shiva has a thousand names signifying his varous aspects; the word Shiva meaning as " the one who is beneficial to all " . So, Shiva just would not do harm to anyone. In the story. Shiva himself tells that the two of his most closest bhaktas are the brahmin and the rich merchant over and above millions of others. & lt;period & gt; THE REST OF THE STORY IS A RUSE TO HIGHLIGHT TO THE READER HIS EXISTENCE IN DUALITY. Shiva who is equanimity incarnate does not recognize differences created by the mind like rich-poor, good-bad behaviour, high-low, good-bad luck, etc. SHIVA ONLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE CLOSENESS OF THE BHAKTAS TO HIMSELF. As the PRIME cause of pain for any bhakta is the distance between himself and his diety, what to say of the two highly 'ranked' bhaktas. This pain in advanced stages morphs into pleasure involved in serving the " IMAGE " of the diety, probably the stage of the two bhaktas. BY HIS BOONS SHIVA HAS ONLY SHOWERED HIS INFINITE GRACE ON BOTH THE BHAKTAS BY CUTTING OUT THE SHORTEST PATH FOR THEM TOWARDS THEIR PRIME GOAL OF MERGING WITH SHIVA. The rich man already well entrenched in the luxuries of life can only progress at the earliest by having his few remaining vain desires being fulfilled. If the rich man was to lose his wealth he stands to further get enmeshed in maya. Shiva in his innocent love with bhakta also wants him to come to him as early as possible, hence the boon of a thousandfold increase in wealth. Jai bhole baba, whose third eye(non-dualistic view) is always open ! As for the poor brahmin! What would have happened if he was blessed (cursed to be more accurate) with wealth? The brahmin just on the verge of giving up everything to merge with shiva would rediscover maya and get enmeshed! The shortest path for the brahmin to Shiva was indeed by the death of his sole possession, " the cow " . Now the dualist in us will re-analyse the story like this: The brahmin will indeed be the " first " one to end the painful distance between himself and his araadhya diety due to his " better " treatment of the guests. The merchant also blessed will take a " while " . But let us all rise above these comparative tendencies of the mind and attain the non-dual " BHOLA " eye of Shiva. The whole bank of knowledge existing in this universe may be discarded for such a piercing INNOCENCE. May we all by the grace of Shiva tear asunder the dualistic viel and open our 'third-eye'. Jai BholeBaba ! Om namah sivaya Om namah sivaya Om namah sivaya Om namah sivaya Om namah sivaya Love baba Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 10, 2002 Report Share Posted October 10, 2002 om sri ganeshaya namaha. it was a nice story. i have a question regarding it. lord siva could have given the poor man riches and still save him from being dragged into maya. or could have taken away the riches of the rich man and still have him as a devotee. this might be a silly question, but my point is whatever happens in this material world is according to gods wish. if we are carried away by the maya then it is also gods wish.we do not have power on the circumstances we are in, only god has. and if he wants then he can change it. it is said that whatever happens in our life( the things that we do every day) is already pre written by brahma. if we do some mistake isn't it already written by god. there isnt anything that we do is not written by god. then why call it a sin. i do understand that whatever god does is for own good, its just sometimes that i dont understand his ways. i do not want to hurt anyones feelings or belief. all these things are very complicated and i just wanted to clarify. some one please clarify these doubts. bye, srilakshmi ALAGHARU Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos, & more faith. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 17, 2002 Report Share Posted October 17, 2002 Namaste It all depends on how you view yourself. If you view yourself as an indiviual enity, then your reward is pure sorrow and suffering. If you know that you are the one true nature of all existence, you will not suffer. People will think that you are suffering, but it will have no effect on you. This is the work of Mother Kali, She removes the darkness. Through our Mother Kali liberation is quikly gained. Hold on to Mother's feet. This world is Her Lila. Lord Shiva is consciousness and Mother Kali is that consciousness put into action. Love baba , srilakshmi alagharu <salagharu> wrote: > > om sri ganeshaya namaha. > it was a nice story. i have a question regarding it. lord siva could have given the poor man riches and still save him from being dragged into maya. or could have taken away the riches of the rich man and still have him as a devotee. > this might be a silly question, but my point is whatever happens in this material world is according to gods wish. if we are carried away by the maya then it is also gods wish.we do not have power on the circumstances we are in, only god has. and if he wants then he can change it. > it is said that whatever happens in our life( the things that we do every day) is already pre written by brahma. if we do some mistake isn't it already written by god. there isnt anything that we do is not written by god. then why call it a sin. > i do understand that whatever god does is for own good, its just sometimes that i dont understand his ways. > i do not want to hurt anyones feelings or belief. all these things are very complicated and i just wanted to clarify. > some one please clarify these doubts. > bye, > srilakshmi ALAGHARU > > > > > > Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos, & more > faith. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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