Narayana Prasadam

[Guest guest]

!! Sri Rama Jayam !!

 

Sarve Bhavantu sukhinaha ... Sarve santu Niramaya ....

Sarve Bhadrani pashyantu ... Ma kashchid dukhabhaag bhavet

 

This year, I start with a story reconfirming how a prapanna of 'Narayana' should

view suffering in this Bhava samsara sagara !

It was the time when Sri Rama was on the shores of the samudram during the

preparations for the cross-over. Having supervised the bridge construction for

long, Sri Rama wanted to take some rest. Hence He removed His bows and arrows

from His shoulders, dropped them on the ground and lay Himself for some time.

When He got up and took his bows and arrows from the ground, He was shocked to

see some blood on the tip of one of His arrows. The Ocean of Compassion that He

was, He immediately knelt down on the shore to find the source of the blood. He

found to His sadness a small frog in great pain, with blood oozing out from its

back and with its tearful eyes looking at the form of Sri Rama. Thereupon the

Ocean of Mercy asked, " Dear frog, I am extremely sorry to have caused you this

pain unknowingly. May you please excuse Me. But why is it that you did not cry

out immediately when My arrow fell on your back? I could have immediately

removed your suffering. " The little frog said " Sri Rama, whenever I am afflicted

by the threefold suffering that is natural to all embodied beings in Samsara, I

am used to crying out to you as 'Hey Rama, Ocean of Compassion, Refuge of the

refugeless'. When the arrow dropped on my back, I was about to cry out in the

same manner when I chanced to look up to see what had hit me. But when I found

that it was You who had inflicted upon me this suffering, I took Your arrow-hit

as Your prasadam and silently withstood the pain. " Moved on hearing the response

of the frog, the sole Refuge of the Universe found tears welling up in His eyes.

And with His sin-destroying hands He caressed the back of the frog with great

affection just as He had caressed Prahlada eons back.

 

May this learning shape all our new resolutions this year.

 

Wishing you all a very auspicious New Year !

 

Hare Krishna

Hare Rama