Tag Archives: Karma

What is your choice?

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by in Katha Vidya, Knowledge

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Have you wondered if you really had a choice in things? Have you been deluded by people saying you always have a choice? Do you feel that you never had a choice in things you did? Well this post is for you.

A saint was once asked to share a message to the people in front of him. He narrates a story with a beautiful message at the end.

There was a man in south india who wanted to pursuit spirituality. It is a age old habit to go to the forest to pursue it. Where they would look for a cave to sit and meditate. So the man went to the jungle positioning close to village. He sat there and started chanting. When he got hungry he would come back to the village. In the night, he noticed there was a fox with both front legs were severed. But the fox was still well fed and healthy. Now nature does not kind to any kind of incapability. If you loose your legs you loose your life. But this fox has lost its life but well fed and healthy.

The man was surprised but ignored it and continued with his meditation. In the night he heard a lion’s roar. He saw the lion bring in a big piece of flesh to the fox. The fox had its dinner. He couldn’t believe this. The lion feeding the fox. This is a miracle. He thought this is a message from the Divine. What is it? What is it? The next day the same thing happened. Now he thought the God was surely sending a message to him. Then he came to the conclusion that the message was – even a crippled fox is being fed by the Lion. You fool, what are you going to the village for food. Just sit here and the food will come and fall on your lap. So he simply sat down. one day, two day, Three days he sat. Nothing happened. By the seventh day, he was groaning nearing death.

Another yogi was passing by and he saw this man. The yogi asked him if the man was ok and the man told him -” You please tell me. A divine message came to me. I went by the message and I became like this.” The yogi asked what the message was and the man explained to him – “See there is a crippled fox. Everyday the lion comes and shares his food with the fox. Is this not a divine message to me?”. The yogi looked at him and said – “Definitely! This is a divine message to you. But why is it that you chose to be like the crippled fox rather than the generous Lion?”

Every situation, no matter what point of life you are in, the existence gives you the freedom to sit here joyfully. Even if you are going to die tomorrow this moment, you can sit down here and be joyful. This freedom is given to all of us. This is the greatest compassion by the existence given to us. Either you make use of it by making the right choices or chose to be frustrated, or miserable or depressed. You have the right to be joyful and not depressed. Nobody is stopping you. It is just a choice. Whether you suffer this life or experience it joyfully, it is absolutely up to your choice. Yes, there are situations where it looks like you are not in control of it. But at that given moment, it is your choice that determines which way the events will follow. Take a moment every time

Now how do we make the right choices? That is for a separate blog post 🙂

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Welcome once again!

22 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by in General

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First of all, I want to apologize for the long hiatus before coming back. Thanks to all those who waited and have been waiting. I was thinking of what might be my first post after my long break. I couldn’t come up with anything better than to share what i gained during the long break and why I had to share it. My last post was about Guru poornima last year which is july 2013. Which means it has been a break of almost 6 months with out a post. So getting straight into what I had to say.  

Here are the 3 main things that I wanted to share

There is more than one truth – I had to undergo many agonizing moments with many people. Proving my self and convincing of my intentions all the times. Have you been through arguments where both the parties think they are doing the right thing? Then you know how it feels. I had to suffer this with many of my close friends. I always would introspect on why couldn’t they understand my point of view and how to make them realize what I was doing. It would just sap my energy levels pondering on these things. Then one fine day, I was listening to a talk and listened this sentence – Evolution is to realize that there is more than one more truth! I realized that every body thinks what they “know” is the right. Once you understand the depth of this, it gives you such peace in you. The situation will remain but you will act differently. It might probably save you from disaster like it did with me!

Karma exists, I know it and you should too! –  I have read a lot and heard about karma and how it comes a full circle to you. Lot of theories and lot of experiences in small ways. But recently i was hearing to a friend who went back to India and discovered a lot of things about past lives and things like that. How every event in one’s present life has reasons beyond this present life and beyond one’s fathoms! It was mind blowing in different levels. I could only imagine what effects all the emotions that we hold onto will bring. There is so much power in not holding onto your negative emotions. Remember to forgive and to let go! You will thank me later 🙂

You become whom you hate : There were a lot of things that I didnt like in many people. But there was this one person that I didnt like anything about. The more I thought about that person’s qualities, the more angry I would become. Only later did I notice that I started imbibing more of the same qualities I hated. The more I let go the more easier it became for me. So dont hate anyone – it only magnifies the same quality in you!

Now that I have said it all out, You can expect more stories, more fun stuff and surely more knowledge from Sri Sri 🙂 Welcome one and all!

Karma of Karna

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Katha Vidya, Stories

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I love reading stories. I think stories are the best form of parting knowledge and wisdom to anyone. One of the ideas I had for this blog was to tell the untold stories from the hindu mythology and its interpretations. I was asking a friend of mine to start a blog to tell stories of with her take on it when I realized that I dont have any stories in my blog. So here is a beautiful unknown story from my favorite epic – The Mahabharata; favorite subject – Karma; favorite character – Karna or Radheya.

His story is a unique one with topcis like friendship, dharma, compassion and charity moulded together. he was known for his charity through out the Mahabharata. He kind of sacrificed his life even before the war just for his friendship towards Duryodhana by giving away his “born with” armor and earrings. Though he knew that his side would loose the war, he still fought for his friend on the wrong side. I read somewhere that he had a blessing that anyone who read about true story would have a special liking for him. He was a HERO, the most powerful one, the bravest and yet the most tragic warrior of the Mahabharata. He was the son of the Sun god, Surya. Not many know about the real story of Karna- who he was in the previous life, how did he get the armor and why did he have go through so much of pain. It is a fascinating tale which is very closely tied to the birth of Lord Krishna and Arjuna. Read it below and enjoy!

Long long ago(my favorite line in any story!), even before the Mahabharata, there lived an asura(demon) named Dambhodbhava. He wanted to become immortal and so prayed to the Sun god, Surya. Pleased with his penance, Surya appeared before him. Dambhodbhava asked Surya to make him immortal. But Surya couldnt grant this boon since anything, anyone who was born on this planet will have to die. Surya offered him to ask for something else instead of immortality. Dambhodbhava thought of a different way to gain immortality and came up with this request.

‘My Lord! I want to be protected by a thousand armors! The thousand armors can be broken only by someone who performs penance for a thousand years! Whoever breaks my armor should die immediately!’

Surya was horribly worried. He knew that Dambhodbhava had performed a very powerful penance and that he could get the entire boon he had asked for. And Surya had a feeling that Dambhodbhava was not going to use his powers for good. However having no choice in the matter, Surya granted Dambhodbhava the boon. But deep down Surya still admired Dambhodbhava for the devotion with which he prayed to him.

Immediately after getting the boon from Surya, Dambhodbhava started wrecking havoc on people. People were scared of fighting with him. There was no way of defeating him. Anybody who stood in his way was crushed by him. People started calling him Sahasrakavacha [meaning one who has a thousand armours]. It was around this time that King Daksha [the father of Sati, the first wife of Shiva] got one of his daughters Murti married to Dharma – one of the ‘Mind’ sons of Lord Brahma, the God of Creation [It is said that Lord Brahma created his mind sons or Manas putras from his thoughts].

Murti had also heard of Sahasrakavacha and wanted to put an end to his menace. So she prayed to Lord Vishnu to come and help the people. Lord Vishnu pleased with her appeared before her and said

‘I am pleased with your devotion! I will come and slay Sahasrakavacha! Because you have prayed to me, you would be the reason for slaying Sahasrakavacha!’.

Murti gave birth to not one child, but twins- Narayana and Nara. Narayana and Nara grew up in the ashrama surrounded by the forests. They enjoyed praying to Lord Shiva. The two brothers learnt the art of warfare.The two brothers were inseparable. What one thought the other was always able to finish. Both of them trusted each other implicitly and never questioned the other.

As time went on, Sahasrakavacha started attacking the forest ares surrounding Badrinath, where both Narayana and Nara were staying. As Narayana was meditating, Nara went and challenged Sahasrakavacha for a fight. Sahasrakavacha looked at the calm eyes of Nara and for the first time since he got his boon, felt fear building inside him. He said nervously, ‘I can be killed only by performing penance for a thousand years. You cannot….’ Nara looked at Sahasrakavacha and spoke with you. ‘I have not done any penance….My brother Narayana is doing it for me! And instead of him, I come to fight with you!’

Sahasrakavacha faced the attack of Nara and was astounded. He found that Nara was powerful and had indeed got a lot of power from the penance of his brother. As the fight went on, Sahasrakavacha realized that the penance of Narayana was giving Nara strength. As Sahasrakavacha’s first armour broke he realized that Nara and Narayana were for all purposes one. They were just two persons having the same soul. But Sahasrakavacha was not too worried. He had lost one of his armours. He watched in glee as Nara dropped dead, the minute one of his armours broke!

As Nara fell down dead, Narayana came running towards him. By his years of penance and pleasing Lord Shiva, he had gained the Maha Mritunjaya mantra – a mantra which brought back dead to life. Now Narayana took the fighting with Sahasrakavacha while Nara meditated! After thousand years, Narayana broke another armor and dropped dead while nara came back and revived him. This went on until 999 armors were down. Sahasrakavacha realized that he could never beat the two brothers and ran away seeking refuge with Surya. When Nara and Narayana approached Surya to give him up, Surya did not since he was protecting his devotee. Nara cursed Surya to be born as a human for this act and Surya accepted the curse for this devotee.

All this happened at the end of Treta yuga. [In Hindu mythology there are four yugas – the Satya Yuga, the Dwapara Yuga, Treta Yuga and the Kali Yuga. Each Yuga steadily results in the deterioration of human values with the worst in the Kali Yuga. At the end of each yuga, nature starts afresh.] Immediately after Surya refused to part with Sahasrakavacha, the Treta Yuga ended and the third Yuga started. To fulfil the promise to destroying Sahasrakavacha, Narayana and Nara were reborn – this time as Krishna and Arjuna.

Due to the curse, Dambhodbhava and Surya together were born as Karna, the eldest son of Kunti! Karna was born with one of armours as a natural protection, the last one left of Sahasrakavacha. As Arjuna would have died if Karna had had the armour, Indra [Arjuna’s father] went in disguise and got the last armor of Karna, much before the war began. As Karna was actually the monster Dambodbhava in his previous life, he led a very difficult life to pay for all the sins committed by him in his past life. But Karna also had Surya, the Sun God inside him, so Karna was a hero as well! It was Karna’s karma from his previous life that he had to be with Duryodhana and take part of the all the evil things he did. But the Surya in him made him brave, strong, fearless and charitable. It brought him long lasting fame.

Karna

THere are many many stories about Karna in the Mahabharata which are heart rendering, touching but also sometimes evil and wrong. This was because of the conflict of the qualities of a deva, Surya and asura, Sahasrakavacha in him. This reminds me of the conflict in all of us. Sometimes we do good but sometimes we take to the other side. Everyone has got these both qualities inside them – the godly qualities and the animalistic ones. How we tame the animalistic qualities and let our good ones spread determine how “good” we are. The other thingI got from the story is no matter what the situation is there is always a way out – sometimes it takes just one to get there and sometimes two- like Nara and Narayana.

The one question that was unanswered for me was -how did Sahasrakavacha die in the first place to be reborn? He still had one more armor to go and was protected by Surya! Well, I couldnt find this answer anywhere.

I hope you enjoyed reading this long story of Karna!

Thanks to http://hindumythologyforgennext.blogspot.com/ from where I was able to read this story!