Satsang with Maa - Heavenly!

[Guest guest]

Namaste ALL esp Srini,

Imagine--a satsang with Maa and only 5 people in the room. What a

blessing for you and your family...and what a huge blessing for this

cyber satsang that you were kind enough to share your story. The big

lesson as you said, "So we should be very careful when we perform our

actions; she (Maa) also said that we should do every action with

great respect. Also, we should not be judgmental of others.

Dhanyavaada (thanks)!

and especially kind of you to include meanings for words that might be

unfamiliar to some of us readers!!!

-

ammasmkd

Sunday, September 19, 2004 3:10 AM

Jai Maa!

Dear brothers and sisters,My worshipful prayers at the lotus feet of

our most beloved Maa and Swamiji!A few months ago, my wife and I had

the great good fortune to be at Devi Mandir. One evening, when we

were there, we had a beautiful treat when Maa gave a satsang about

Lord Ganesha. She told us the story of how Lord Ganesha was created

and came to have the head of an elephant. Latha already has related

that story. One thing I remember from Maa's telling was the

following:When Goddess Parvathi became angry with Lord Shiva for

cutting of the head of their son, She became "Kaala Raathri", one of

the nine names of Goddess Durga. So fierce was Her anger.The other

story that she related, that I had not heard about, was how Lord

Ganesha came to have a little mouse as his Vaahana. The story had a

moral that Maa shared with us and I wish to share that moral with

you.The story first (as my feeble mind recalls it):Ages ago, there

lived a wise sage named Vamadeva. He performed a lot of sadhana in

his ashram. One day, another sage visited him and asked if he would

be interested in going for a dance in Devaloka where Lord Indra and

other celestials lived. Vamadeva was not interested in watching the

celestials dance, as he was more interested in his sadhana and

initially refused the invitation. But his sage brother persuaded him

and Vamadeva reluctantly went to Devaloka.In Devaloka, the dance had

begun and the Gandharvas (celestial beings) were dancing with Apsaras

(female celestials). Vamadeva noticed that one Gandharva was looking

at another Apsara in a impure way (Maa described this as a "silly

attraction"). The Gandharva's name was Kraunch. Vamadeva became

furious with Kraunch and cursed him that the latter would be born as

a mouse on earth. Now, Kraunch also became furious and said that "OK,

I will be a mouse", but I will visit the ashrams of all the sages and

create trouble there. And so it came to be. Kraunch as a mouse went

around different ashrams and caused trouble for the sadhana of the

wise sages. Once Kraunch was in the ashram of the sage Parasara. The

latter out of desperation prayed to Lord Siva to relieve him of this

"difficulty". Lord Siva appeared and seeing what was going on, said,

"This is a problem for Lord Ganesha". So Lord Ganesh appeared in Sage

Parasara's Ashram and addressed the Mouse"Hey Mouse! Why are you

causing so much trouble". To which, Krauncha related the whole story.

Hearing this, Lord Ganesha asked Kraunch if he wished to become his

"vaahana", or vehicle on which Ganesh could travel. The mouse readily

agreed. What a divine blessing to be Lord Ganesha's vehicle.End of

story.From the web, I dicovered that this story can be found in the

Ganesha Purana, an upa purana that is 400 verses long.Moral: Maa

said, "Karma is very subtle. Because of that single impure

thought/look that Kraunch had/gave he had to face so much trouble. So

we should be very careful when we perform our actions. She also said

that we should do every action with great respect. Also, we should

not be judgmental of others. There were just five of us in the room,

so it almost felt like personal advice for me. Work and family are my

two big problems and here was Maa telling (a) how to do my work - with

respect, and how to relate to my family members - not judge them. What

a great blessing!Privately, Maa told my wife in a separate

conversation that "She (Maa) loves Ganesha".I bow down again and

again to our beloved Gurus. What Glorious lives they lead! Infinite

is their compassion. I seek their blessings that this life becomes

pure and beautiful.with love and prayers,srini