Shabari's episode in Ramayana teaches lessons for Life

[Guest guest]

Ramayana is the first spiritual and inspirational story a typical Indian

(Hindu) child listens from his/her mother or from the grand parents. I think

there is no need to explain the past times of Lord Sri Rama. But sometimes

we need to recall a specific event from those kinds of epics to evaluate or

understand the real life situations. Following below is such an example.

 

Being the Supreme God�s incarnation himself, Lord Sri Rama to fulfill his

father's order under awful circumstances, set out on his journey of 14 years

of exile from his kingdom Ayodhya along with his queen Sita and his brother

Lakshmana. To add much to his troubles, the demon king Ravana abducted Sita

during the absence the two brothers. Then both the brothers went in search

of the queen Sita. On the way they fought with a demon 'Kabandha' and after

killing him they came to know that this Demon was once a Gandharva and

because of his arrogant behavior he was cursed by some sages. After his

death in the hands of the Lord, this Demon regains his Divinity and suggests

them to go to 'Vrishyamukaparvath' where King of the Apes Sugriva lives with

his fellow beings. On the way to that mountain they visit the house of

Shabari an old woman. And the story continues with many more events!

 

What we can learn from the episode of Shabari is this. Shabari was a Great

Devotee of the Lord Sri Rama. When both the brothers went to her house she

offered some fruits after tasting them. Lakshmana first hesitated if Rama

can accept an offering already tasted by someone and even signaled the same

to him. She did it without any second thought but only with divine bliss in

her heart that the Lord is in front of her. And Lord Rama continued eating

those fruits as he is much interested in the devotion of his devotees and

not in the rituals or formalities.

 

Now let us observe the message behind this small extract from Ramayana

containing Shabari's episode.

 

The first thing is that whenever a poor or a needy person asks you, you have

to give those items which you can use for yourself. For example, most of the

people who are selfish in these days give the beggars those items which are

of no use to them, like the left out food of the previous day. The good

eatable items will be kept in their homes and spoiled items will be given to

beggars and consider that they are doing a nice thing in helping the poor.

In Upanishads, it is said that a Beggar is to be treated like the Supreme

God Vishnu. This is because the poor man has no greed, no wealth, no

selfishness, no ego, and so his mind will be pure.

 

So, if you are really good then can you give those items to others which you

don't prefer to eat? Here Shabari has done completely the opposite and it

was a very good thing - by tasting each fruit and giving only the sweet

fruits to the God. It may be perceived as a wrong doing by the orthodox

minded fellows but it is the intention of the people that is more important

than the action in the first place and the actions are finally required to

justify our intentions and the action can�t be avoided.

 

Generally the mediocre nature of the human being is that if any good result

occurs because of his work he takes it for granted and attributes it to his

intelligence and if bad result for his effort occurs due to any reason he

thinks that it is his fate and blames the God attributing Him responsible

for this. But they don�t think God is responsible for everything. I have

seen in my experience many persons who pray to God, saying something like,

" God please excuse me for this sin " . You must come out of this blind and

irresponsible belief that praying God will abolish all your sins. You are

responsible for that sinful act and you should be courageous enough to face

the result of such an act. Why the blame game with the God. No one wants to

attribute the fruitful results to God. In this case if you observe properly,

Shabari has given only the sweet things to God but not the wasteful things.

You have to attribute every good deed to the God and you should bear the

sin, so that you may feel ashamed of your deeds and will never do that

sinful act again.

 

From now onwards try to follow this principle in your life and you will

definitely get the bliss in moving along the good path to reach God.

Remember in life the words of Swami Vivekananda, �God never gives what you

want in your life, but God always gives what you need in your life.

 

So always keep thanking God for what you have and accept whatever comes in

your life as God's gift for your own improvement. Judge your actions

everyday during meditation to keep yourself under control and try to live a

divine life free from anger, jealousy, hatred, revengeful attitude,

selfishness and any other bad quality. Also remember that Swami Vivekananda

has coined another phrase, " Service to Humans is Service to God "

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram