Story of Rama

Rama to be crowned

Dasaratha, the King of Ayodhya, decided to install his son Sri Rama as the Crown Prince. All the people whole-heartedly accepted it. The whole of Ayodhya went into rapturous joy. Singing and dancing, all were discussing about Rama becoming the King.

While the whole world was happy and celebrating, there was darkness in one chamber. It was Kaikeyi’s. She is the second wife of Dasaratha.

Kaikeyi Passes the Evil Message to Rama

Rama got the message that Dasaratha wanted to meet him. So he hurried to Kaikeyi’s Apartment. He sensed the tension in the silent chamber. Rama saw his father. Beside him Kaikeyi stood like an evil spirit.

Rama prostrated at the feet of Dasaratha. Then he moved towards Kaikeyi, who moved away from him like an insane person. The king did not speak a word. His eyes were shedding tears and remaining shut. He just said “Rama” in a broken voice and tears escaped from his eyes.

Rama was confused. He said to Kaikeyi, “Have I done anything to annoy my father? Or is he unwell? I should not ask this – did you both quarreled?”

Kaikeyi said, “There is nothing wrong with you. He wanted to tell you something but he dare not. Therefore, I will tell you. Long before, your father gave me two boons. Last night when I asked him to honour it, he was not ready.”

Rama wondered at the harshness of Kaikeyi. There was so much malice in her tone. She said “Rama, if you can fulfill your father’s promises. I will tell you what I asked him for”.

“Why do you ask me? I will do anything to keep my father’s word. I will honour it – whatever it may be”.

Kaikeyi said “I want Bharatha to be crowned, instead of you. You should spend fourteen years in the forest, dressed like a rishi”.

Rama Agrees to Honour His Father’s Words

Without a moment of hesitation, Rama said,” Yes definitely I will go to the forest. Why is there such a conflict over this? Please send messengers at once to bring Bharatha. I am happy to see Bharatha crowned.”

Kaikeyi said in a cold voice, “Leave that to me. When Bharatha comes, you need not be here. As long as you are here, your father will not crown Bharatha. The sooner you leave, the better it is.”

Dasaratha swooned. Rama sprang to him. Now Rama’s eyes were full and he said quietly, “Father, you have not understood me. You could have asked me yourself. I would have gone happily then. It pains me that you have doubted my love for you. I will go at once. I will not come back for 14 years. I just want to see my mother Kaushalya and convince her that this is not a tragedy but a divine order. For me, the god’s grace has unfolded in this manner.”

Then he touched Kaikeyi’s feet and quickly walked out of the room. Behind him, he heard his father break down calling “Rama” several times and sobbing like a child.

Lakshmana Gets Angry

Lakshmana who accompanied Rama became angry and hot tears came out of him like a river. Rama just put his hand around his shoulders and consoled him.

His face became more radiant. There was no sorrow and no disappointment on his face now. Determination and the will to do anything vibrated through him. He became more handsome.

Rama Consoles His Mother

Rama explained everything to his mother Kaushalya, who spent the whole night in prayer. Kaushalya broke down and said, “Rama when you were born, I thought Gods have blessed me.  I never enjoyed the love of your father.  I was neglected by him. Since then you are the light of my days.  I cannot live without seeing your face, Rama.”

Her frail figure shook with sobbing.  Her lip was uttering “Rama, Rama”.

Rama’s Mother Bless Him

Finally, she accepted for Rama’s departure and blessed him. “In all the fourteen years of your life in the forest, be sure that Dharma (the divine order) and Satyam (truth) will always be with you. You will always be surrounded and protected by them and the Divinity”.

Rama prostrated to her and left her. Lakshmana then shouted, “I will not allow this.  A king should think of what is good for the kingdom and not what suits his favorite wife.  I will just kill him as well as Kaikeyi.”

Rama remained silent. He let him vent his grief, knowing it was sorrow that was expressed as anger and threat.

Rama Explains Speaks About Total Acceptance

You know about Vairagya (determination). We sat at Guru’s feet and learnt. We should implement in life, what we learnt.  Love for me should not resort to violence.  Violence is never Dharma.

You have to help me by letting me go in peace. Anger and grief will make us stagnate.  When we just accept the Divine order, our life is taken care of by the divine. Divine order is the one, which makes our destiny.

It is not that Mother Kaikeyi is evil or that she hates me.  Only that Divine order uses her, even against Kaikeyi’s own nature.  Do you know she is the most wounded of all!

Calm yourself. When disappointment strikes you, think with your intellect and not with your burning emotional part.  What is next?

Accept everything that comes to you. When you accept, you will find innumerable ways to live and do things.  While resisting, all the life doors are closed.

Acceptance is nothing but surrendering.  Surrender! Surrendering alone can allow divine to work for you.  When divinity takes care of your life, you are the most fortunate.

How to attain Peace and Harmony

Whether you agree or disagree with me, just observe what happens around you. Whatever is happening right now is what you need at this moment, because every scene in the drama of life is preparation for the next scene.

Only person without an ego

This is a continuation of the post, “Ego is not tiny”: http://wp.me/p3dhkD-2k

Naran

How one can be without an ego? Unless you shed your identity, you cannot shed your ego. There is only one person who was without an ego. He was Lord Krishna.

He accepted to be the driver of the chariot (in the battle field of Kurukshetra war). We don’t know the difficulties of a driver of a chariot.

In the midst of the war, while fight is going on, you cannot give instructions to the driver, ‘Hey turn left here’ and so on. In the war, Arjuna was sitting above him. How Arjuna did convey the messages to Krishna?

He will place his leg on the left shoulder of Krishna, if the chariot has to be turned left and on the right shoulder, if the chariot has to be turned right.

If you become a chariot driver, will you accept it? However, Krishna accepted it. That is the nature of Divine beings.  He did his work as a charioteer with full devotion.

Running the chariot is Karma Yoga for him. Running it with devotion is Bhakti yoga for him. Because he rode it with so much of dedication, he attained the supreme knowledge (Gnana) in driving the chariot.

That’s why His Gita is Bhagavad Gita.

When the war was over how did Arjuna behave?

That’s the difference between the lord and human beings.

After the war, he told Krishna, ‘I am the warrior. Will you please get down first?”

That’s the protocol in the war.  Krishna replied to him, “War is over. You get down first”.

Arjuna got down first and then Krishna did. The moment Krishna got down from the chariot, it burst into flames. Had Krishna followed the protocol, what would have happened? Arjuna would have been killed in the flames.

TINY is the switch word which fully describes Krishna.

Related Blogs

Switch Word from Lord Krishna: http://wp.me/ptUKY-3J

Meditation on Lord Krishna’s relationship with Khusela:  http://wp.me/p12byb-4N

Harmony is wanted: http://wp.me/p3FS2t-3V

Not getting any results

Jyothi

Regarding the solutions you had given me earlier.  I did as you said but had a lot of problems with friends and looks like I cannot even talk to her anymore!! Why Naran?

I kept the paper with me and wrote whatever you said and chanted “FIND DIVINE ORDER” throughout too.  I don’t know sometimes I wonder if I am doing something wrong or if these words work at all!!

I am also chanting Ambika Slokam, “FIND DIVINE job COUNT NOW DONE” for a job and getting nowhere with anything. Is there any switch words for getting a job and getting friends? I chant WATER VIOLET too whenever I can.

Please can you guide me? Am I doing something wrong? I also chant “FORGIVE LOVE THANK YOU”. I read a lot of the posts and chant a few things that relate to my situation.

When will the words work and produce results Naran? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Naran

There is nothing wrong in your doing.

The only problem we all face is when we want something we hang on to the result so intently that we don’t allow the divine to work and fulfill our desires.

Chanting is the tool. The mind should be on chanting and not on the end result.

One should understand that human beings cannot achieve anything with his own limited knowing.

One should just wish and release it to the divine field for completion.

Your constant worry or anxiety prevents your wish to enter the divine field.

Release all your anxiety and just chant.

When you stop worrying you are detached from the result. This detachment is necessary to understand the work of the divine. That means one detaches to surrender (SAMARPANAM) and prays for the fulfillment.

What is prayer?

Pray, “Oh DIVINE! I ASPIRE, DETACH and SURRENDER. FULFILL if it is THY ORDER”.

Jyothi, Relax! There is time for everything.

Related Blogs

How to handle your karma: http://wp.me/ptUMq-1k

Bank on your dreams:  http://wp.me/ptUDl-6U

Old slippers can bite

From the class, “Mind-Body DEMYSTIFIED Part II”, Oct 19th, 2013

Naran

“New slipper will bite” – says a Tamil saying.

However, a lady who can speak only Telugu told me otherwise.

Girija went to a local temple, leaving her old slippers outside the temple premises, when she stood  before the deity, praying, a thought appeared in her mind whether her slippers would be safe; another thought flashed saying, “they will be; who will take these old chappals”.

Strangely, when she returned from the temple, she found her old slippers missing. So, she had to walk a bit under the hot sun, searching for a shoe shop, where she could buy herself new slippers.

Surprisingly, she found her slippers in the entrance of the shop.

I just wanted to tell you here, she could talk to inanimate objects.

She heard her slippers saying, ‘You left me unsafe, thinking I am too old to be stolen. See what I had done for your callousness. Do you understand my value now?”

So, we need to learn to respect inanimate objects also. For example, we throw the container after using all the remedies, without even saying thanks to the container. Don’t do that.

Next time, say thanks to the container or for the matter whatever stuff you use and then dispose them.

Related Blogs

Dialogue with disease: http://wp.me/ptUHD-1u

The Energy Factor: http://wp.me/ptUHD-W

Do you know how to surrender?

Client

I tried every other thing that you suggested to move to Singapore but things did not work out.

I understand that God has his own way of doing things that is always for my highest good. Now, given our situation, even though we want to move to India, a part of me tells me to leave it to God and let him guide us.

How do I go about leaving things to God and wanting events to unfold according to Divine will?

Naran

Chant or write daily 51 times:
“I align with the part of me which surrenders and accepts Divine order”.
“I release the part of me which wants to control any event, resisting the divine order”.

Read the related blogs –

To SURRENDER is to win the battle of life: http://wp.me/ptUDX-2T

Head above the Day-to-day Concerns of life: http://wp.me/ptUDX-1f

I love to take control of my life

Naran

1. Reflect on your life.
2. Find in what situation you blamed others. Forgive them.

Who is the controller of your life?

Is it me? You cannot control your life. If you fall down you will have to go to the hospital. I do not have control. Then what is the meaning of this statement. When I surrender to the Divinity only, I will take control of my life.

Let us go deeper now. I am not the doer and Divine is the doer. This we will accept lovingly.

Here we have to cultivate the habit that you are not the doer. What happens when I am the doer? Everything will be wrong then. But everything goes right when you think that Divine is the doer. When you think that Divine is the doer, there will be surrender.

A tendency to blame others

We always have the tendency to blame others. We say, “I didn’t have proper sleep because my wife always disturbs me,” When there is no power supply we blame the government. When I am hurt in an accident, we say, “I was properly walking but that auto fellow came and hit me”.

In ordinary life, for each and every situation or event we will be blaming others. Who is spoiling me in my life? When you blame others you have to remember that he is also not the doer. Nobody is responsible for this.

When I am not the doer we happily accept that. When your work is blocked or delayed, the divine is waiting for the right time and he is the doer. When you bring this thinking you can take control of your life.

“My Mother is the cause of my husband’s death”, a case history

One mother and daughter are there. Daughter is married and more than 45 years old, living in a foreign country. About five years back her father expired. The mother has three daughters and all are away.

Mother used to disturb the daughters telling that somebody has to come and look after her. In their caste only the daughter has to look after the mother it seems. I asked the daughter to cut the cord (between the mother and her).

One day, the mother asked the daughter, “Suppose if your husband dies, whether you will come back to me”. The son-in-law died after three months. From then on the daughter could not forgive her mother at all. Whenever she sees her mother she becomes angry. But that lady is a philosophical lady.

The daughter came to me and told that even after taking the Bach Flower Remedies Holly and Willow she could not be alright. I told her that Holly and Willow say to you that you have to change your attitude.

When you say that you are not the doer, then you think that your mother is also not the doer. Keep chanting. “I am not the doer, she is not the doer and Divine is the doer”. After chanting this for one hour her heart became lighter. For the next two days she was chanting this and she became completely alright.

Till such time you are blaming others you are not in control of your life. So, whatever may be the problem, think that the Divine is the doer! The problem will be solved automatically. Then only you can take control of your life. 

Why can’t I be happy?

Client

I had been trying out all the mantras and switch words you had suggested to me. I had been religiously taking the remedies you had recommended. Yet I am not seeing the results I want.

I still don’t have a good job.  My marriage is in shambles. Neither my parents nor my in-laws are happy about me.

Luckily, I am yet to have kids. Otherwise, I am afraid they will be cursing me too.

My simple question to you is, “Why can’t I be happy and lead a satisfactory life-like others?”

Sorry! I am feeling very skeptical here and feeling much disappointed too.

Naran

A Few questions to you first

What is “Thanks”?

What is “Acceptance”?

Why should we accept everything totally – whether what is happening in our life is to our liking or not?

When I am lucky…

I want.

I pray.

I get what I want.

I thank the Divine.

But I forget to pray for others who have not got because of my getting.

When I am not lucky…

I want.

I pray.

But, I am denied.

I feel sad or angry instead of thanking for not getting what I want.

In other words, I am resenting the gift to someone.

This sadness of anger over my not getting is truly resenting others and denying the Divine Order by violating the quantum law:  “All is one. One is all”.

Why can’t I be unhappy, when I fail, you may ask?

When I resent or feel sad, I cannot receive when my turn comes (yes! it comes to you one day for sure).

Therefore, when I am denied, I accept and thank god for giving to someone.

I thank God, because my prayers got someone what he wanted.

Denial to me is a gift to someone who needs more than me.

So I Thank the Divine

Let me feel happy about it.

Let me accept it.

With OPEN HEART and QUIET MIND, I ACCEPT and THANK the DIVINE for anything and everything in my life.

I thank when I receive.

I thank when I am denied, while others receive.

So I Thank the Divine in Advance, for one day, my wants will be fulfilled, my prayers will be answered, and I will receive the gifts I desire as I have understood today that my acceptance and attitude of gratitude at any stage will get me everything, when my turn comes.

Goal is to find harmony and happiness

“Arise Awake and Stop Not Till the Goal is Reached” – Swami Vivekananda

Who is to be blamed if there is no harmony within the family?

In any situation, when one finds oneself opposed, confronted, misunderstood, blamed or being overthrown,  one either feels angry or feels  depressed  or worried.

What is to be tackled here – your mind or him? Everybody wants to change the other person. What is the hidden situation here?

If you want the other person to change, should you not think about changing yourself?  Without ourselves changing, we cannot change others.

If there is disharmony then both are responsible for that and both have to change. This is simple logic.

How to purchase the harmony I seek in my life?

1. Ask a simple question to yourself.  What do I want?
2. What emotions or thoughts I need to have so that I can achieve what I want?
3. What behavior of mine or my action will take me – move, towards this goal?
4. On the other hand, what state of mind will take me away from my goal – my anger or forgiveness, my worry or my endurance (giving love in spite of not receiving), and my sadness or my fortitude?

If you are 100% sure that your anger or resentment or longing for love, care, affection can take you to harmony or the desired goal, you can have anything.

But once you decide (Itcha Sakthi) that only my endurance or forgiveness can achieve my goal then take the appropriate action (Kriya Sakthi) that is conducive to the goal of harmony, love and understanding.

In other words, your thought, your expression, and your behavior should be conducive towards your goal.

If you think that forgiveness, love and gratitude can achieve this, bring them in your thoughts, expressions and behavior.

The disadvantages of being in a state of victim

The only thing that may interfere in your progress is your ego.

A state of mind which cannot achieve what is desired is a state of victim.  Having known that this victim state cannot achieve, why do you hang on to it?

• Not knowing that my state of mind prevents me from achieving my aim is the first blunder.
• Having known that a particular state of mind – victim mentality, cannot achieve what you want and doing nothing about it is the second blunder.

Once you come to know that forgiveness alone, endurance alone, kindness and gratitude alone, can achieve what you want, then go all out for that, with full of courage and moral will.

This is what I meant when I said “BRING IN INTERNAL CHANGE”.

We may fail in the course of time. But don’t be upset over failure. Failure is just a reminder to correct our attitude and move forward.

Art of Reading Divine Messages

Understand the messages with the help of Bach Flower Remedies

Take Bach Flower Remedies VERVAIN and HEATHER to understand those messages.

Put the pills of Vervain and Heather in a bottle of water.  Take it with you.

Visit your neighboring park and with a research attitude note down all the words that you hear.

Sip the water now and then.

All words that you have captured, will give you a beautiful meaning to your life.

Alternatively, go to a temple and listen to the conversations that are going around.

Do this exercise, once in two months.

There are always three view points to an event

An event can be in the form of an incident or a conversation that we overhear or behavior of a person that we are attracted to and notice.

For an event, there can be three different viewpoints about it.

One is ours. When we analyze from our viewpoint, then it will be termed as a judgment about the event.

When we analyze from other man’s point of view, then it will be termed as an understanding of the event.

Finally, the third perspective would be the viewpoint of the divinity that’s expressed through the event.

The last viewpoint is the subject of our discussion.

Why we need to know divine messages behind an event?

There will be a lesson waiting for us, on how we should think and act, so that our journey moves towards divinity. To do that, we have to observe our life as a third person.

These divine messages also can come from children or sometimes even at the sight of a bird or an animal.

Do a bit of an analysis

If we listen dispassionately to a conversation that falls into our ears, there will be a divine message waiting for us.

Though, we have to do a bit of analysis and dig that message out.

Do that by asking the question – what is the divine message waiting for me here to be unraveled?

Analyzing like this is nothing but a form of meditation.

This helps us to go deeper within one self, making the mind travel within.

In general, the mind has the tendency to go out. But this exercise helps us to take it the reverse direction.

Therefore, a dispassionate observation is a must for us to follow.

Let you be guided by divine messages every day in every way

Divine message guides us in every way.

Daily seeking the message of God and keeping a Spiritual Journal is necessary.

This will help us to understand the messages delivered by god and direct us in various ways during the course of our lives.

I will save you at any cost

A great man of prayer was once surrounded by floods.

On the previous day, god appeared in his dream and said “When the floods arrive, I will come and save you.”

Now his house was about to be submerged in the water.

Soon after a boat man appeared and offered his services. Though, the great man refused the offer, expecting god to come and save him.

The floods were rising further and except for him all his neighbors were saved.

After some time, another boatman came and offered his services.

Once again the great man refused it. He did the same for the third boatman too.

Eventually, he was drowned.

He met the God after his death and asked him why he was not saved from the floods, as he was promised in the dream.

God replied “I sent the boats thrice, but on all the three occasions you refused.”