google4901728675332ebe.htmlNarada, a great adept in music and the supreme exponent of ragas and raginies (the tunes and melodies in Indian music) was once persuaded by the flatterers to believe that he was a perfect master in them. So he went about listing to such praises everywhere, and even modestly repeated these certificates to gods and men.
Krishna watched this growing infatuation and wanted to put a stop to it. So he said to Narada, “Great sage, Siva and Parvati have heard of your perfection in music and want you to give an exhibition before them.”
Narada was highly elated. He set out the next day with Sri Krishna and proceeded to Kailasa to meet Siva and Parvati. On the way they saw a big place where several maidens of exquisite beauty were weeping and wailing. All were mutilated in one way or other. One had a eye missing, another an ear, a third an arm, a fourth a breast, a fifth a leg a sixth an eyebrow and so on.
“O Krishna,” said Narada, his whole heart bleeding for these fair maids, “which wretch has done this horrible mutilation?”
“Go and ask them.”Said Krishna
So Narada asked them, “what this place and who are you, fair sisters, and who has done this horrible thing to you?”
“Oh!” said they,” this is the place of music, and we are the ragas and raginies. A wretch called Narada has mutilated us on his Veena (Indian lute).”
Narada became ashamed. He saw Krishna smiling. “I shall break my Veena and play no more,” said he.
“Oh, no,” said Krishna, “go on playing, but realize your imperfection and tried to remedy them. Don’t believe idle flatters and think you are perfect.”
“All right, I have learnt a lesson. Please make my excuse to Siva and Parvati. I shall play before them when I have mastered the art a little better,” said Narada who had become a sadder and wise man.
NARADA’S PRIDE IN MUSIC
BHIMA’S PRIDE OF STRENGTH
Bhīma, the second elder of Pandava brothers was very proud of his muscular strength. He believed that none could excel him in all the three worlds.
One day, Krishna took all the Pandava brothers and their wife Draupadi to heaven for sightseeing, leaving Bhima to come by himself, since he had nothing to fear from gate keepers, owing to his known ability to defeat them. Krishna took all the five in, and both the gate keepers kept quite on seeing Him.
When the party had seen everything worth seeing in Heaven, Draupadi remained Krishna that Bhīma had not still arrived.
“Perhaps, he has already killed the poor gate keepers” suggested Krishna.
Coming outside they found that gate keepers are sleeping at their posts, and poor Bhīma, with his club, getting sucked into the nostrils of one or other of them at every inspiration of theirs and being pushed out again at each expiration. The gate keepers were not so much as aware of his prescence.He there!
Poor Bhima looked a miserable sight. Krishna saw that he had been sufficiently humbled, took pity on him, woke up the gate keepers, and released him from his agony.
THE KALKI- THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WICKED
By Hindu mythology, it is believed that Lord Vishnu’s 10th incarnation will be Kalki.
At the end of the Kali age, when Adarma is predominant, and Vice has the upper hand, and Virtue has disappeared, and men have become demons sunk in every form of debauchery, vice and wickedness, and are eagerly destroying one another, Vishnu will appeared as Kalki or Kalkin on a white horse, blazing like a meteor, and with a flaming sword, and mow them down in millions, as a farmer cuts down the weeds pitilessly to prepare the way for the new crops.
No one will be spared on the score of rank or creed or sex, the only test for the survival being Faith, Virtue, Charity and Love.
PRIDE OF TRUTH
Kausika was a great sage, very proud of his habit of always speaking out the truth, whether the matter was great or small and whether the result was good or bad. So he called himself as Kausika Satyavadin, the speaker of truth. One day, when he was doing penance in his forest grove, he saw a traveler fleeing in panic and hiding in dense bush in the neighborhood. There were hundreds of bushes all round, and tracking him out would have taken hours.
A dozen robbers also came to the spot in ten minutes, aimlessly searching for the man everywhere; up the trees, and in the pits, and along the footpaths. Then they saw Kausika and knew him at once.
“Reversed Sir” said the chief of the robber” did you see a traveler go this way? You are famous for speaking the truth at all costs. Speak”
Kausika thought, if I speak the truth, these cruel men will kill the poor fellow. But, why should I utter a lie and sacrifice the principles of life time for his sake? And he told the robber chief, “There he is, in the bush.” The robbers pulled the traveler out, killed him despite the sage’s entreaties, and took away all he had.
When Kausika died, instead of being sent to heaven, as he had expected, he found himself in hell. Indignantly he asked Yama, the God of Death “Why am I here?”
The lord said,” You have been condemned to thousand years in Hell for your telling the robbers the hiding place of the traveler and letting him to kill.”
“What” said Kausika,”Why should I condemn for speaking the truth?”
“You should not deviate from truth,” said Yama, “If he is enough strong to prevent injustice. God can always speak truth as He is powerful to prevent its consequence. Else, he must refuse to speak the truth and take the justice. Where was the necessity for you to be so truthful about that poor man’s hiding place, knowing, as you did, that they would pull him out and kill him, and that would be powerless to prevent the deed? You should have remained silent and taken the risk of being killed yourself. The robber might never have found the man at all. For the sake of your vanity, you spoke the truth, and this is the punishment. None but the brave can utter the truth always,”
Kausika was then sent back to hell.
THE STORY OF NIRSIMHA – HALF LINE HALF MAN
Hiranyakashibu was the king of the Daityas. The Daityas, though born of the same parentage as the Devas or god, were always at war with the latter.Sometmes they waxed and drove all the Devas from the Heaven, and seized the throne of the god and ruled for a time. Then the Devas prayed to Vishnu, the omnipotent lord of the universe, and He helped them out of their difficulty. The Daityas were driven out, and once more the god reigned.
Hiranyakashibu had won the boom from Brahma, the God of Creation that he will never be killed by a man or animal or any existing creature, on heaven or earth, in day or night and inside or outside of the house. Now he conquered the Devas and himself on the throne of heaven.
He declared himself to be the god of three worlds- the middle world inhabited by men and animal; the heaven inherited by Devas and the nether world, inhabited by the Daityas. He proclaimed that there was no other God but himself, and strictly enjoined that the Omnipotent Vishnu should have no worship offered to Him anywhere.
Hiranyakashibu had a son called Prahlada. He showed his infancy to Vishnu. The king of Daityas, fearing that the evil he wanted to drive away from the world would crop up in his own family.
He made over his son two teachers called Shanda and Amarka, who were very stern disciplinarians, with strict injunctions that Prahlada was never to even hear the name Vishnu mentioned. But there is no use.
To clear themselves, the teachers told the terrible fact to the King that his son was not only worshipping Vishnu himself, but also spoiling all the other children by them to worship Vishnu.
The monarch became very much enraged when heard this and call the boy in his prescence.He tried by gentle persuasions to dissuade Prahlada from the worship of Vishnu and taught him that he was only God to worship. But it was no purpose. The child declared again and again that the Omnipresent Vishnu, Lord of the Universe, was the only being to be worshipped-for even he, the king, held his throne only so long as it pleased Vishnu.
The rage of the King no bound, and he ordered the boy to be immediately killed. So the Daityas stuck him with pointed weapons; but Prahladha’s mind was so intent upon Vishnu that he felt no pain from them.
When his father, the king, saw that it was so, he became frightened but, roused to the worst passion of Daitya, contrived various diabolical means to kill the boy. He ordered him to be trampled underfoot by an elephant. The enraged elephant could not crush the body any more than he could crush a block of iron.
Then the king ordered the boy to be thrown over a precipice, and this order too was duly carried out; but, as Vishnu resided in the heart of Prahlada, he came down upon the earth as gently as a flower drops upon the grass. Poison, fire, starvation, throwing into a well, enchantments and other measures were then tried on the child one after another, but no purpose.
When the king found to his horror that all mortal means of getting rid of the boy who was perfectly devoted to his enemy, the God Vishnu, were powerless, he was at a loss to know what to do. The King again brought before him and tried to persuade him to listen to his advice, but Prahlada made the same reply.
He put him again under the charge of the teachers, Shanda and Amarka. But those teachings did not appeal to Prahlada and he spent time in instructing his schoolmates in the path of devotion to the Lord Vishnu.
When his father came to hear about it, he again become furious with rage, and calling the boy to him, and threatened to kill him, and abused Vishnu in the worst language. But Prahlada still insisted that Vishnu was the Lord of the universe, the Beginning less, the Endless, the Omnipotent and the Omnipresent, and as such, he alone was to be worshipped.
The king roared with anger and said: “You evil one, if your Vishnu is God omnipresent, why did he not reside in that pillar? “
Prahlada humbly submitted that He did do so. “If so, “cried the king, “let him defend me; I will kill him with this sword.” Thus saying the king rushed at him with sword in hand, and dealt terrible blow at the pillar.
Instantly a thundering voice was heared, and lo and behold, there issued forth from the pillar Vishnu in His awful Nirsimha form- half lion, half man! Panic- stricken, the Daityas ran away in all direction.
Man-Lion, neither man nor God nor animal, and seizing the terrified Hiranyakashibu tore his rectum and pulled out his entrails with its claws. Thus he died without any weapon also being used against him. All his boons proved broken reeds in the end.
The God, in Nirsimha form consoled the weeping Prahlada and his mother. He blessed Prahlada and disappeared. Then the Gods headed by Brahma installed Prahlada on the throne of the Daityas.
LORD BUDDHA
By Swami Vivekananda
In every religion we find one type of self-devotion particularly developed. The type of working without a motive is highly developed in Buddhism. Buddhism is one of our sects. It was founded by a great man called Gautama, who became disgusted at the eternal metaphysical discussions of his day, and the cumbrous rituals, and more especially with the caste system. Some people say that we are born to a certain state, and therefore we are superior to others who are not thus born. He was also against the tremendous priest craft. He preached a religion in which there was no motive power, and was perfectly agnostic about metaphysics or theories about God.
He was often asked if there was a God, and he answered, he did not know. When asked about right conduct, he would replay, “Do good and be good.” There came five Brahmins, who asked him to settle their discussion. One said, “Lord, my book says that God is such and such, and this is the way to come to god.”Another said, “That is wrong, for my book says such and such, and this is the way to come to god”; and so the others. He listened calmly to all of them, and then asked them one by one, “Does any one of your books say that God becomes angry, that He ever injures anyone, that he is impure?” “No, my Lord, they all teach that God is pure and good.” “Then, my friends, why do you not become pure and good first, that you may know what God is?”
He was the only man who bereft of all motive power. There were other great men who all said they were the Incarnation of God himself, and those who would believe in them would go to heaven. But what did Buddha say with his dying breath? “None can help you; help yourself; work your own salvation.”He said about himself, Buddha is the name of infinite knowledge, infinite as sky ; I, Gautama have reached that state; you will all reached this state; you will all reach that too if you struggle for it.” Bereft of all motive power, he did not want to go to heaven, did not want money; he gave up his throne and everything else and went about begging his bread through the streets of India, preaching for the good of men with a heart as wide as the ocean.
He once said to a King, “If the sacrifice of a lamb helps you to go to heaven, sacrificing a man will help you better; so sacrifice me.”The king was astonished. He stands as the perfection of the active type, and very height to which he attained shows that throw the power of work we can also attains to the highest spirituality.
The life of Buddha shows that even a man who does not believe in God, has no metaphysics, belongs to no sect, and does not go to any church, or temple, and is confessed materialist, even he can attain to the highest. We have no right to judge him. He reached the same state of perfection to which others come by Bhakti- love of God, Yoga or Jnana. Perfection does not come from belief or faith. Talk does not count for anything. Perfection comes through the disinterested performance of action.
THE STORY OF SATYAVAN & SAVITRI
This story is taken from India’s great epic Mahabharata. During the forest life of Pandava brothers, great sages come to see the brothers and narrated to them to make them bear lightly the burden of their exile.
There was a king called Ashvapati. The king had a daughter called Savitri, who was so good and beautiful. When she grew old enough, her father asked her to choose a husband for herself. These ancient Indian princesses were independent to choose their own princely suitors.
Savitri travelled in distant regions and seeing different prince, but not one of them could win the heart of Savitri. They came at last to a holy hermitage in one of the forests in ancient India were no animals were allowed to kill. The animals lost the fear of man- even the fish in the lakes came and took food out of the hand. Not even the greatest empire could pass by the hermitage without going to pay homage to the sages.
Now it happened that there was a king, Dyumatsena who was defeated by his enemies and was deprived of his kingdom when he was struck with age and had lost his sight. This poor old, blind, king, with his queen and his son, Satyavan took refuge in the forest. Savitri came to this hermitage and saw Satyavan, the hermit’s son and her heart was conquered.
When savitri returned to her palace, she said to her father about Satyavan, the hermit’s son. On hearing this father consulted the sage Narada; he declared it was the most ill-omned choice that was ever made. The king then asked him why it was so. And Narada said, “Within twelve months from this time the young man will die.”
Then king was started with terror and spoke, “this young is going to die in twelve months, you will become the widow: think of that. Desist from your choice, my child, you shall never be married to a short-lived and fated bridge groom.” “Never mind father; do not ask me to marry another person and sacrifice the chastity of mind, for I love and have accepted in my mind that good and brave Satyavan only as my husband. A maiden chooses only once, and she never departs from her troth.” When the king found that Savitri was resolute in mind and resolute in mind and heart, he complied.
Then Savitri married prince Satyavan, and she went from the palace of her father into the forest, to live with her father into the forest to live with her chosen husband, and help her husband’s parents. Though Savitri knew the exact date when Satyavan was to die, she kept it hidden from him. Also she kept her as virgin.
Thus their lives went on until the fatal day came near, and three short days remained only. She took a severe vow of three nights penance and holy fasts, and kept her heart vigils. Savitri spent sorrowful and sleepless nights with fervent prayers and unseen tears, till the dreaded morning dawned.
That day Savitri could not bear him out of her sight, even for a moment. When her husband went to gather usual herbs and fuel, she also accompanied her. Suddenly in faltering accent he complained to his wife of feeling faint, “My head is dizzy and my sense reel, dear savitri, I feel sleep stealing over me, let me rest beside you for a while.”
In fear and trembling she replied, “Come, lay your head upon my lap.” He laid his burning head in the lap of his wife, and ere long sighed and expired. Clasping him to her, her eyes flowing with tears, there sat in the lonesome forest, until the emissaries of death approached to take away the soul of Satyavan.
But they could not come near to the place where savitri sat with the dead body of her husband, his head resting in her lap. There was a zone of fire surrounding her, and not one of the emissaries of death come within it. They fled back from it, returned to king Yama, the God of Death, and told him why they could not obtain the soul of this man.
Then Yama came, the God of Death, and the judge of the dead. He was the first man that died – the first man that died on the earth- and he had become the presiding deity over all those that die. He judge whether, after a man that has died, he is punished or rewarded. So he came himself. Of course, he would go inside the charmed circle, as he was a God.
When he came to Savitri, he said, “Daughter, give up this dead body, for know death is the fate of mortals, and I am the first of mortals who died. Since then, everyone had to die. Death is the fate of man.” Thus told Savitri walked off, and Yama drew the soul out.
Yama having himself of the soul of the young man proceeded on his way. Before he had gone far, he heard the footfalls upon the dried leaves. He turned back. “Savitri, daughter, why are you following me? This is the fate of all mortals.” I am not following you, my lord,” replied Savitri,” but this is also the fate of women, she follows her love take her and the eternal law not separating loving man and faithful wife.”
Then said the God of Death, “your answer pleased me, ask for any boom, expect your husband life”
“If you pleased to grant a boom, O Lord of Death, I ask that my father in law may be cured of his blindness and made him happy.”
He granted and again travelled with the soul of Satyavan. Again the same footfall was heard from behind. He looked around.” Savitri, my daughter, you still following me.”
“Yes my Lord; I cannot help doing so, I am trying all the time to go back, but the mind goes after my husband and the body follows. The soul has already gone, for in that soul is also mine; and when you take the soul, the body follows, does it not?”
“Pleased am I with your words, fair Savitri. Ask another boom of me, but it must not me the life of your husband.”
“Let my father in law regain his lost wealth and kingdom, Lord, if you pleased to grant another supplication.”
“ Loving daughter,” Yama answered, “this boon I now bestow, but return home, for living mortal cannot go with Yama” And Yama pursed his way.
But Savitri, meek and faithful, still followed her departed husband. Yama again turned back,” Noble Savitri, follow not in hapless woe.”
“I cannot choose but follow where you take my beloved one.”
“Then suppose, Savitri that your husband was a sinner and has to go to hell. In that case goes Savitri with the one she loves?”
“Glad I am to follow where he goes, be it life or death, heaven or hell, “said the loving wife.
“Blessed are your words, my child, pleased am I with you, ask yet another boom, but the dead come not to life again.”
“Since you permit me, then, let the imperial line of my father-in law be not destroyed; let his kingdom descend to Satyavan’s son.”
And then the God of Death smiled. “My daughter your desire fails the death, here is soul of your husband, he shall live again. He shall live to be a father and your children also shall reign in due course. Return home. Love has conquered Death! Woman never loved like you and you proved that even I, the God of Death, am powerless against the power of the true love.”
THE STORY OF VALMIKI, THE AUTHOR OF RAMAYANA
Valmiki is the author of one of India’s epic Ramayana. There is an interesting story behind him.
There was a young man that could not in any way support his family. He was strong and vigorous, and finally become a highway robber; he attacked persons in the street and robbed them. With that money he supported his father, mother, wife, and children. This went on continually, until one day a great sage called Narada was passing by, and the robber attacked him.
The sage asked him,” Why are you going to robe me? It is great sin to rob human being and kill them. What do you incur all this sin for?”
The robber said,” Why, I want to support my family with this money.”
“Now” said the sage, “do you think that they take a share of your sin also”
“Certainly they do”
“Very good, make me safe by tying me up here, while you home and ask your people whether they will share your sin the same way as they share the money you make.”
Then the man accordingly went to his father and asked,” Father, do you know how I support you?”
He answered,” No, I do not “
“I am a robber and I kill persons and robe them”
“What! You do that my son? Get away! You outcast!”
Then he went to his mother and asked her,” Mother, do you know how I support you?”
“No “she replied
“Through robbery and murder.”
“How horrible it is!” She cried
“But, do you part take in my sin?” asked son
“Why should I? I never committed a robbery.” Answered the mother
Then he went to his wife and questioned her, “ Do you how I maintain you all?”
“No “she replied
“Why, I am a highwayman, and for years have been robbing people; that is how I support and maintain you all. And what I now want to know is, whether you are ready to share in my sin. “
“By no means. You are my husband and it is your duty to support me”
The eyes of the robber were opened. “That is the way of the world –even my nearest relatives, for whom I have been robbing, will not share in my destiny.”
He came back to the place where he had bound the sages, unfastened his bonds, fell at his feet, recounted everything and said “Save me! What can I do?”
The sage said, “Give up your present course of life .You see that none of your family really loves you, so give all these delusions. They will share your prosperity; but the moment you have nothing, they will desert you. There is none who will share in your evil, but they will all share in your good”
Then the sage taught him how to worship. And this man left everything and went into a forest. There he went on praying and meditating until he forgets himself so entirely that the ants came and built ant-hills around him and he was quite unconscious about it.
After many years had passed, a voice came saying, “Arise, O sage!”
Thus aroused he exclaimed,” Sage, I am a robber!”
“No more robbers,” answered the voice, “a purified man, and your old names gone. Your meditation is so deep and great that you didn’t remark the ant-hills which surrounded you, hence your name will be Valmiki-he that was born in the ant-hill.” So he came a sage.
And this is how he becomes the poet. One day he was going to bath in holy Ganga, he saw a pair of doves wheeling round and round and kissing each other. The sage looked up and was pleased at the sight, but is seconds an arrow whisked past him and kills the male dove. As the dove fell down on the ground, the female dove went on whirling round and round the dead body of its companion.
In a moment the sage the poet become miserable and looking round and, he saw the hunter.”Thou art a wretch,” he cried, “without the smallest mercy! Thy slaying hand would not even stop for love!”
“What is this? What I am saying?”The poet thought himself,” I have never spoken in this sort of way before.”
And then a voice came: “Be not afraid. This is Poetry that is coming out of your mouth. Write the life of Rama for the benefit of the world.” And it was after that he wrote the beautiful Ramayana, The Life of Rama.
INDIA’S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD
By Swami Vivekanaada
I am grateful to the land of the West for the many warm hearts that received me with all the love that pure and disinterested souls alone could give; but my life’s allegiance is to my motherland; and if I had a thousand lives, every moment of the whole series would be consecrated to your service, my countrymen, my friends. For to this land I owe whatever I possess, physical, mental and spiritual; and if I have been successful in anything, the glory is yours, not mine.
What a land! Whoever stands on this sacred land, whether alien or a child of the soil, feels himself surrounded by the living thoughts of the earth’s purest sons, who have been working to raise the animal to the divine through centuries, whose beginning history fails to trace. The very air is full of the pulsations of spirituality.
This land is sacred to philosophy, to ethics and spirituality, to all that tends to give a respite to man in his incessant struggle to the preservation of the animal, to all training that makes man throw off the garments of brutality and stand revealed as the spirit of immortal, the birthless, the deathless, the ever blessed the land where the cup of pleasure was full, and fuller has been the cup of misery, until here, first of all, man found out that it was all vanity.
Here, in this ocean of humanity, amidst the sharp interaction of strong current of pleasure and pain ,of strength and weakness, of wealth and poverty, of joy and sorrow, of smile and tear, of life and death, in the melting rhythm of eternal peace and calmness, across the throne of renunciation!
Here in this land, the great problem of life and death, of the thirst for life, and the vain and struggles to preserve it only resulting in the accumulation of woes, were first grappled with and solved. This is the land where alone religion was practical and real, and here alone men and women plunged boldly into realize the goal, just as in other lands they madly plunge in to realize the pleasures of life by robbing their weaker brethren.
Here and here alone the human heart expanded till it included not only the human, but birds, beasts and the plants; from the highest gods to grains of sand, the highest and lowest, all find a place in the heart of man, grown great, infinite. And here alone, the human soul studied the universe as one unbroken unity whose every pulse was his own pulse.
Ay, a glorious destiny, my brethren, for as back as the days of the Upanishads we have thrown the challenge to the world: “Not by progency, not by wealth, but by renunciation alone immortality is reached.”Race after race has taken the challenge up and tried their utmost to solve the world riddle on the plane of desire. The question has yet to be decided whether peace will survive or war; weather patience will survive or non-forbearance; whether goodness will survive or wickedness; whether muscle will survive or brain; whether worldliness will survive or spirituality. We have solved our problems ages ago, and held on to it through good or evil fortune, and mean to hold on to it till the end of time. Our solution is unworldliness- renunciation.
This is the theme of Indian life work, the burden of her eternal songs, the backbone of her existence, the foundation of her being-the spiritualism of the human race. In this her life course she has never deviated, whether the Tartar ruled or Turk, whether the Mugul ruled or English.
And I challenge anybody to show one single period of her national life when India was lacking of spiritual giants capable of moving the world. But her work is spiritual, and that cannot be done with blasts of war trumpets or the march of cohort. Her influence has always fallen upon the world like that of the gentle dew, unheared and scarcely marked, yet bringing into bloom the fairest flowers of earth. This influence, being in its nature gentle, would have to wait for a fortunate combination of circumstances, to go out of the country into other land, though it never ceased to work within the limit of its native land. As such every educated person knows that whenever the empire-building Tartar or Persian or Greek or Arab brought this land in contact with the outside world, a mass of spiritual influence immediately flooded the world from here.
Mark my words, this is but the small beginning, but things are to follow; what the result of the present work outside the India will be I cannot exactly state, but this I know for certain that millions , I say deliberately, millions in every civilized land waiting for the message that will save them from the hideous abyss of materialism into which modern money worship is driving them headlong, and many of the leaders of the new social movements have already discovered that Vedanta in its highest form alone can spiritualize their social aspirations.
