Hari Om
Often in life, people always want to analyse and assimilate all the information in very situation without accepting a situation as a positive blessing and seeing the silver lining to every outcome and enjoying the present.
This story of the young devotee is one such example, where a devotee of Lord Krishna was able to educate many learned scholars.
Manu, the young devotee was on a pilgrimage for numerous days and was heading towards the holy town of Vrindaban. On reaching his destination, on the other side of the river he heard a group of people discussing with raised voices. As he approached them, he realised it was a group of scholars arguing about where life began and where we have all come from since the beginning of time.
Each one had their own point of view and a vehement belief, stubborn to prove their argument. They used beliefs, scriptures and quoting God to prove all their points.
All of a sudden, a shrieking crow flew from one of the palm trees under which the men were standing. At the exact same moment, a large tal fruit fell on the ground before them.
The group of scholars were completely startled. While one proclaimed about what a coincidence it was, the others were convinced by how random events take place at once. One scholar started arguing – Everything is often a result of something else. Nothing was by chance. The tal fruit clearly fell to the ground because the crow tried to land on it.
The third scholar however, mocked them by saying that all the conclusions were mere guess work. Gravity made the fruit fall. This in turn resulted in the bird flying away. Each convinced he knew best.
Manu, on hearing all these exchanges was left very amused. He stepped forward and said I have been listening to all your view points. It is surprising that such learned men are unable to come to an agreement over such a modest matter. He offered to dissolve this argument with a very simple thought process.
Then he said – do you all agree that not even a blade of grass moves without the mercy of the Lord. The scholars immediately nodded their head in agreement. Both instances, the bird flying away and the fruit falling down were caused by the will of the Lord. Manu, then dipped the fruit in the river and washed it then he said to the scholars – the all-powerful Divine Lord accepts fruit, water, flower and even leaves when they are offered with love and devotion.
He then broke open the fruit and offered it to Lord with prayers.
He then distributed the prasad among the scholars and said it is more rational and sensible to do something more positive in the present than to indulge in arguments about the past.
The scholars were thoroughly surprised by the young man’s knowledge and thinking. They agreed that as long as an individual knew his purpose in life, the method or reason in which they came into existence didn’t matter.
They agreed that one should not argue over trivial matters. Our only duty is to serve the Lord with love and devotion.
Manu by his example has shown us that the main purpose of life is to remember the glories of Lord Krishna and not to waste our valuable time over meaningless speculations.
We must always meditate on the Supreme Personality of Godhead by constantly thinking of Him (anu cintayan) while diligently carrying out our prescribed duties.
Constant thinking is possible only when we relish the taste of the nectarian sweetness of His association in the form of sadhana (chanting, reading, writing etc) and service (cooking, cleaning so on).
Krishna is our life force and Krishna should be the center of all our activities.
In BG 8.8 Lord Sri Krishna says
abhyaasa-yoga yuktena cetasaa naanya-gaaminaa
paramam purusham divyam yaati paarathaanucintayan
“He who medidates on Me as as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his mind constantly engaged in remembering Me, undeviated from the path, he, O’ Partha, is sure to reach Me.”
In the above verse, Lord Krishna explains the purpose of our life. i.e the process and the goal to be reached. Lord Krishna stresses the importance of remembering Him and explains us how to do that.
The word abhyaasa yoga is very significant in this verse.
This Bhakti yoga is not just a mental speculative process rather it is a process which is full of activities, engaging our body, mind and intelligence in the service of the Lord round the clock. The word ‘abhyasa’ means practice.
That is why all elevated acaryas are constantly hammering us with the instruction – “Put into Practice”.
The mind is very fickle and therefore it is necessary to constantly engage the mind. To think of the Lord and fill it with positivity.
One very profound example is often given that of the caterpillar, that thinks of becoming a butterfly and so is transformed into a butterfly in the very same life.
By applying the same principle, if we constantly think of Krishna, it is assured that at the end of our lives we shall have the same bodily constitution as Krishna.
GF’ Blessings.
