Namasthe- Stories of Vasishta 6

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Dear all, There is one more story illustrating the greatness of Vasishta Maharshi. As mentioned earlier Viswamitra was very proud of his power of penance or thapassakthi. Vasishta believed in the power of satsangam and naamasankeerthanam. One day there was a discussion about the effect of both tapas and naamasankeerthanam among the sages. Visamitra could not agree with Vasishta and he wanted to know the truth from Mahavishnu Himself. So he suggested that both Vasishta and himself should go to Vaikundham and get the ultimate truth about this from Bhagavan Himself. Vasishta agreed and they went to Vaikundham and prostrated before Bhagavan.

 Bhagavan greeted them and asked the purpose of their visit to Vaikundham. They explained their argument in detail and requested Bhagavan to enlighten them with the truth. Bhagavan is very clever and did not want to hurt neither of the sages. So he told them to approach Uragaprabhu or lord of snakes Aadishesha or Anantha. Anantha was surprised at Lord's plan of sending these sages to him for an answer. But Bhagavan looked at him and showed the green flag to go ahead and answer the question the way he wanted. Anantha thought for a moment and Bhagavan's idea dawned on him.

 Visvamitra asked Anantha: " Lord of snakes, can you tell us which is more powerful, tapas (penance) or naamasankeerthanam and satsangam? "  Ananatha said: Dear sages, in this state, I cannot answer your question. You know that I am carrying the universe on my head and it is really heavy. I cannot think clearly when I have such a heavy weight on my head. So if you can carry this for a short while, I will try to think and answer your question. Please come forward and I will transfer this on to your head slowly. Visvamitra was very confident and proud of his power of penance and moved forward to take the universe on his head. Anantha slowly kept a tiny portion on Visvamitra's head and by that time Viswamitra started crying with pain and he could not withstand even the weight of that tiny portion of universe. He struggled for sometime to withstand the weight, but almost fell down sweating profusely and gasping for his breath. He moved back to where he was standing and then Anantha asked Vasishta whether he wanted to come forward to carry it.

 Vasishta prayed Bhagavan and said: " Let the limitless power of Bhagavan's naamam and satsangam bless me  with enough strength to carry the load of the universe. " Then he moved forward and Anantha slowly transferred the universe on to Vasishta's head. Chanting Bhagavan's naamam loudly and continuously Vasishta withstood the weight with out any difficulty. Now Ananatha said: " Poojya Visvamitraji, Vasishtaji and all others who came here to know the correct answer to their question, I hope now you know the answer with out my telling. "

 Bhagavat Naamam is Bhagavan Himself and it is as powerful as Bhagavan Himself. Satsangam enriches the devotion among the devotees and there is nothing more powerful than naamasankeerthanam and satsangam " .

 Visvamitra paid obeisance to Bhagavan, Ananatha and Vasishta Maharshi and apologized for his arrogance.  Sreekrishnaarpanamashtu. Regards and prayers savitri