Sunday, November 27, 2005
NARADA UPADESHAM - SEARCH THE DEER
Once upon a time, there lived a group of people called PRACHETHA'S. They were of royal heridity. They abandoned their royal luxuries. They lead a simple life. They were following the path of BHAKTHI. They were headed by a noble leader by name PRAACHEENA PARHICIS. The leader was a true devotee of BHAGAVAN. They performed vigorous meditation for thousands of years, to attain salvation. Their prayer was heard by BHAGAVAN. BHAGAVAN came to their place as NARADA BHAGAVAN (SATHGURU). PRAACHEENA PARHICIS prostrated on to the lotus feet of NARADA BHAGAVAN. He asked to sage NARADA, "O! Reverred seer! Please explain me about the nature of this life. Where does it goes? What should be the aim of this life? I humbly seek your blessings on this."
To this, sage NARADA narrated a story as follows.
" There was a beautiful park. It was covered with beautiful flowers all around. There lived a pair of deers. The deers enjoyed their life happily in the park. They were roaming freely in the park. A dhole (a kind of wolf) was living in the park. The dhole use to prey at other animals. It grew fat as days rolled on. The dhole saw the deers. The dhole was carefully following the deers. It was waiting for a suitable time to prey at the deers. The deers were unaware of the following danger. The deers continued their happy marching, as usual. The dhole was calmly following the deers.
At that time, there came a hunter. He saw the deers. He took his bow and arrow. He aimed at the deers. He was following the deers carefully. He waited for a suitable oppurtunity. When a suitable time came, he shot at the deers, without any delay. The arrow pierced the body of the deer. The wounded deer is here. Search it, without any delay."
Sage NARADA concluded the story and asked PRAACHEENA PARHICIS to search for the deer, in his place. On hearing those words, PARHICIS was astonished. He searched for the deer in all directions. His eyes rolled on from one end to another in search of the deer. He never saw any deer in the park.
He asked sage NARADA, where is the deer?
To this, sage NARADA replied, " YOU ARE THE DEER". PRAACHEENA PARHICIS requested sage NARADA to explain the meaning of the story, in detail. Sage NARADA explained the meaning of the story as follows.
" You represent the male deer. Your wife represent the female deer. The pair of deers were enjoying their life happily in the park. The couple enjoys a happy married life, as the deers. The years rolls on quickly. People remain unaware of the rolling days. The time chases each and every one. The CHASING TIME is represented as dhole.
(dhole is a kind of wolf with body in red colour and tail in black colour. The colours red and black symbolically represents the raising sun in the morning and the enveloping cloud of dark in the night.)
The raising sun snatches 12 hours from the life span of each and every one. The raising moon takes another 12 hours from the life span. The rolling days and nights snatch the life sapn of human beings. The time follow each and every body, unknowingly. The dhole was chasing the deer, silently. In the same way, passing days decrease the life span of each and every one silently. But, surprisingly people imagine their life to be immortal. Each passing day, makes a man to march towards his destiny, just like the marching deers in the story.
The suitable time is allocated for each and every one. When the time comes, the hunter makes no mistake in taking the life of human beings. The hunter represents YAMA DHARMA RAJAN ( a celestial DEVA who snatches the life of each and every one as per the divine account). YAMA DHARMA RAJAN does his duty without any partiality. He never follow favouritism towards any body, in the matter of death. He remains neutral in his judjements as per the divine wish of BHAGAVAN. The hunter preys at the deer. His aim never fails. In the same way, as per the divine account, YAMA DHARMA RAJAN snatches the life, without any mistake. The human life goes like this. This is the meaning behind the story."
Our life moves fast. We are living in a fast world. In the same way, the rolling days also moves rapidly. We usually get carried away by unwanted worldly distractions. The distractions are seemingly powerful. They make us forget the entire world. During the hours of entertainment, the time moves fastly. The passing moments make us immobile and lethargic. We delight our self fully during the hours of entertainment. When our life is caried under the waves of worldly distractions, we forget our hidden divinity. Our meditation loses to worldly distractions. The hours that had gone will never come again. Let us be careful of utilizing it, to our own benefit.
Half of the life goes in sleep. During the growing years, we remain unaware of PUNYAM and PAPAM (Punyam - fruitful actions. Papam - futile actions). We remain unaware of righteousness and evil things. Many golden years of life vanishes from our scene, unknowingly. While leading a family life, most of the time we spent it for our material benefits. There also we lose many golden years in our life. After a certain period of time, the diseases come in to paly. The sufferings caused by them make us depressed. The worries and sufferings take much of our life time.
During the old age, physical stamina gets drained out. We become weak in mind and body. The bodily actions gets restricted. Rest of the life goes in the dreamworld of worries and lost oppurtunities. Man leaves the world with unfulfilled wishes. The wishes in the form of mental cravings becomes a bridge to rebirth. This cycle of birth and death continues. Man gets trapped in the MAYA of birth and death cycle.
During the childhood, he spents most of his time in playing. During adolescence, he spents much of his time in sensual affairs of romance. During the old age, much of his time goes in the state of depression. Man should search for one more thing namely BHAGAVAN to attain salvation from this cycle of birth and death.
The ataining of BHAGAVAN pacifies the mental cravings. The divine nectar got through BHAKTHI pacifies all mental cravings and he remains a true embodiment of divine happines. He becomes one with BHAGAVAN, in this material world it self. He attains a supreme state of divine happiness, namely KAIVALYAM.
( Kaivalyam - enjoying the divine happiness of MOKSHAM (liberation) prevailing in the divine abode of BHAGAVAN namely VAIKUNTAM, in this BHOOLOKAM (material world) it self, without leaving the human body).
The human birth reaches the ultimate goal of MUKTHI (liberation) through BHAKTHI (devotion). Devotion brings in liberation. In the story, sage NARADA came to the place of PRACHETHA'S as a SATHGURU. His preachings as a SATHGURU guided them to salvation. Following the principles of SATHGURU, the PRACHETHA'S did unswerved devotion. The pure devotion devoid of selfishness made their life, a blissful one. They reached the divine abode of BHAGAVAN after leaving their material body in this world.
We are fortune to have our SATHGURU - POOJYA SHREE SHREE AMMA, in our presence. Our Guruji Amma constantly preaches about the glory of time. Let us accept the preachings of our SATHGURU and lead a divine filled life. Let the blessings of our SATHGURU lead us to salvation from the cycle of birth and death. Let the divine nectar of KRISHNA BHAKTHI through RADHEKRISHNA NAMA JAPAM, purify our heart. Let the glory of SATHSANGAM and SATHGURU be spread always.
JAI SHREE POOJYA SHREE SHREE AMMA...
JAI SHRE RADHEKRISHNA SATHSANG KI JAI...
RADHEKRISHNA... RADHEKRISHNA... RADHEKRISHNA...
(concluded)
