Letters from Sri Ramanasramam 3

[Guest guest]

23rd November, 1945

 

(3) QUARREL BETWEEN UMA AND MAHESWARA

 

This afternoon, while Viswanath was sitting near

 

Bhagavan along with other devotees, Bhagavan was somehow

 

reminded of an old widow and began to speak about her as

 

follows: (I afterwards learnt that she is the younger sister of

 

Muthu Krishna Bhagavathar who received Sri Bhagavan with

 

kindness and gave him food at Kilur Agraharam.) " That good

 

lady not only gave me a hearty meal, but also, with a loving

 

heart, gave me a parcel of sweetmeats offered as naivedya

 

(offerings to God) to the household God, saying, 'My dear

 

boy, keep this with you carefully and eat the sweetmeats on

 

the way.' She came to see me twice while I was in Virupaksha

 

Cave and used to say, 'My dear boy, look what a state you are

 

in! Your body is golden and you do not even wrap a cloth

 

round it.' " When he spoke in this strain about her motherly

 

affection, I could see that Bhagavan was overflowing with love.

 

His voice was choked with emotion. That sight reminded me

 

of the saying that the heart of a Jnani is as soft as butter, and

 

once more of the old saying, 'bhakti poornathaya Jnanam' (The

 

culmination of devotion is knowledge).

 

Sometime back, while reading that portion in Arunachala

 

Purana where Gautama was extolling Amba, Bhagavan's eyes

 

were flooded with tears, his voice faltered and he put the

 

book aside and sank into silence. Whenever any incident

 

full of love takes place, or whenever passages saturated with

 

bhakti are read, we often see Bhagavan thus overwhelmed

 

with emotion. As one goes on observing, one gets confirmed

 

in the view that prema and bhakti (devotion) are merely

 

different aspects of jnana (knowledge).

 

 

 

About a week ago, a story appeared in the magazine

 

Hindu Sundari under the heading 'Paachikalu (dice). It seems

 

it was taken from the Skanda Purana. Once, even Parvati

 

and Parameswara succumbed to the quarrel-mongering of

 

Narada. 'Lakshmi and Vishnu play dice, so why not you?'

 

said Narada, and egged them on to play. Parvati was

 

enthusiastic over the idea and persuaded Siva to play dice

 

with her. In the game, Siva lost and Parvati was puffed up

 

with pride and spoke slightingly of him. That is the legend.

 

After reading it, Bhagavan, his heart full of bhakti, asked

 

me, 'Have you read this story?' When I said, 'Yes,

 

Bhagavan,' he said with a voice choked with feeling, 'The

 

holy festival which is annually performed here on Sankaranti

 

day, deals mainly with this quarrel between Uma and

 

Maheswara.'

 

You know, every year, the divine marriage festival is

 

celebrated here and during those days, if anybody were to

 

speak about the festival in Sri Bhagavan's presence, Bhagavan

 

would usually remark with great feeling, " This is the

 

marriage festival of Father and Mother. " You know the lives

 

of Mahatmas are full of peculiar incidents. They express in

 

their faces whatever rasa (feeling) is appropriate to the

 

occasion. But what can one say in the presence of the all

 

pervading vijnana rasa which integrates all the other rasas?

 

~~~