Sunday, February 8, 2015

GITA 1.24.

GITA 1.24
The Gita by Sri Gitacharya is very important for every one's life. Our life will be uplifted, if we follow every tenets of Gita. Peace will prevail and we will know how to live mutually helpful to others. We are studying slokas 24 and 25 of Chapter 1 of Gita. As required by Arjuna, Sri Krishna parked the chariot in between the two armies, in front of Bheeshma and Drona, without caring for others, who were watching. Sri Krishna then told Arjuna to look at the Kuru clan members assembled to fight.  Thus Sri Krishna obeyed the order of Arjuna. Here a noble quality of the Lord is exhibited, which we, as devotees, should realise. 
A subordinate can work for a proprietor, but it is impossible for the proprietor to obey the orders of his own employee. But in the case of the Lord, that situation also can be realised. If we approach Sri Krishna with bhakti and love, He will treat us as His equal and after sometime, even place us above Him!  
We should remember we are lecturing from the house, where Sri Periya Nambi lived.  Here an anecdote is narrated.  Peria Nambi, who was still in the grahasthasramam had Sri Alavandar, a sanyasin, as his guru and Sri Ramanuja, another sanyasin, as his disciple. Once Ramanuja, who had about 700 sanyasins and about 12,000 grahasthas as sishyas ,was coming around the temple streets. At one place Periya Nambi, his guru appeared and suddenly, prostrated to Ramanuja, his sishya, when all Ramanuja's sishyas were watching. One would have expected Ramanuja to hurriedly rush towards his acharya and stopped Periya Nambi or Ramanuja also should have returned by prostrating to his guru, Periya Nambi. Ramanuja did neither and moved as usual and reached his ashram. Some sishyas were aghast at seeing this scene and asked Ramanuja why he did not do either of the possibilities and turned a blind eye. Ramanuja explained that if he had acted either way it would have shown that he ha recognised the falling at his feet by the Acharya and actually he never wanted such an action. So he was indifferent to that action.The same sishyas went to Periya Nambi and questioned as to why he fell at the feet of his own disciple. Came immediately the reply from Periya Nambi: to him Ramanuja appeared as his guru Sri Alawandar! So, great persons do not mind offering respects, when they see very noble persons, even if they are juniors to them.
In Srimad Bhagavatham, Sri Ambareesha tale is told. Ambareesha observes ekadasi vratham and on next day dwadasi, after performing pooja he completes the vratham by taking food. Once on such an occasion, on the dwadasi day as Ambareesha was performing pooja, sage Durwasa arrived and after offering swagatham, Ambareesha, the Ikshwaku king requested him to take food with him and help him to complete the vratham. Durwasa agreed and said he would finish his bath and come for food. But the sage wantonly delayed to test the king. The king waited and seeing that the sage had not come and also noting that in the next very few minutes dwadasi thithi would end and if he did not take food before that all the ekadasi vratha efforts would go in vain, Ambareesha consulted the pundits and took water, though that was not a food yet it satisfied the conditions for the vratha.  Durwasa was waiting for this and he immediately arrived at the spot and accused the King of inviting a guest and taking food before his arrival.The king's explanation went unheeded and Durvasa as usual in his anger cursed and he created a demon to devour the King, who respectfully, with folded hands, accepted the punishment. But earlier Sri Vishnu in appreciation of His devotee's sincerity, had placed His Sri Sudarsana Chakra [Discus] in the custody of Ambareesha for protection. Now when the Durwasa created Demon was coming near the king, Sudarsana could not remain idle at the injustice and so the Chakra reduced the demon to ashes and started chasing Durwasa. Scared , the sage went all over to Sri Paramasiva and Sri Bramha for help and all expressed their inability. Finally, he went to Sri MahaVishnu reclining on the Serpent mattress and wit Sri MahaLakshmi seated by Him, and appealed to withdraw His Chakra. For this Sri Vishnu replied that He could not do anything and it was better Durwasa surrendered to Ambaresha for redress. At that time He said," I am Bhaktha paradheena", meaning He is bound by the wishes and orders of His devotees. Durwasa went back to Ambareesha and fell at his feet and he was saved. Here, in Bhagavatham it is told that just like a husband is enslaved by a dutiful Pathivratha wife, so is the God, a slave to His devotees. Therefore, anyone can control others by sheer love. 
This is what Sri Krishna also did. 
                                                         (continued)





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