Story: 2 eagles and call for
freedom!
One day a female eagle was flying
over a place where some hens and chickens were living. At that time the eagle
was pregnant and because of some shock, her 2 eggs fell down from her stomach.
One hen went and sat on top of first egg and started incubating and thus slowly
developing motherly affection for that eagle's egg. In course of time, the baby
eagle came out of the egg, but was looking very ugly. The hen on seeing the
ugly baby thought of killing the baby, but one wise hen advised her to wait and
see how it grows. The baby eagle slowly grew wings and became very strong and
outgrew the other chickens. Now all the chicken and the hens felt complete
protection as no other preying animal approached the chickens.
One day the eagle told the hen that
it had a deep craving to fly in the air. But the hen discouraged the vulture by
saying that if it tries to fly, it will fall down and that it is an unnatural
thought. Hence the eagle continued to live amongst the chickens, completely
forgetting its natural identity. Finally this eagle die his misfortunete life.
Another egg was having similar
destiny but much more fortunate situation. He also grow up with chickens at
another place.
One day, a brahmana came to this
second place and saw that the eagle which was supposed to be the King of the
birds was living in a very incompatible environment feeding on chicken stool.
The brahmana, out of great
compassion for the bird, took the bird to the top of the building and threw the
eagle, hoping that it would open its wings. But the eagle had so much forgotten
its original identity that it fell down with a bang.
The brahmana who was greatly grieved
looking at the sad plight of the eagle, was very much determined to remind the
eagle of all its power.
He forced the eagle to look at the
Sun and slowly the eagle started making the sound of real eagle. Although it
was very painful in the beginning, the eagle slowly started gaining strength
and started to soar to great heights in the sky. Eagle never wanted to return
to his old life with chickens.
Moral of the story:
The above story is an analogy, which
points to the position of the living entities. We have forgotten our
Atma-jnana, the knowledge of the soul, and we are living a life under the
clutches of the material energy just like the eagle, which lived in the world
of the chickens.
Many of us are ignoring call for
freedom from our own hearth and end there life's very miserable as eagle with
chickens.
But some by unknown good fortune,
come in contact with saints who gives us the awakening call , "O living
entity! How long will you sleep in this condition on the lap of the illusory
energy?" Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, out of great compassion for the suffering
living entity calls out,
"enechi aushadhi maaya
naasibara lagi
hari naam maha mantra lao tumi maagi"
hari naam maha mantra lao tumi maagi"
"I have brought the medicine to
awaken every living entity from perpetual sleep. Please receive the Holy name
of the Lord, the Hare Krishna Maha mantra and awaken."
In Katha Upanishad 1.3.14 it is
said, "Uttista, jagrata, praapya varan nibodhata"- "O living
entity! You are sleeping in this material world. Please get up and take
advantage of your human form of life."
In this way when we hear the clarion
call, to look up to the Krishna Surya - Krishna Sun, then the memory of our
original identity comes forth and a sweet feeling of yearning to be with the
Lord arises within our heart on seeing the deities, hearing Srimad Bhagavatam,
chanting the Holy names of the Lord and engaging in other devotional services.
We, being the marginal energy of the
Lord, have a valuable jewel with us and that is the Svatantra ratna - The jewel
of freedom to chose to be with the internal energy of the Lord or be lost in
the external energy. Every day morning we have this freedom of choice with us.
'Will I chant Krishna's names with love and attention or will I cause my soul
to be entrapped in miserable awkward conditions of life?"
Let us not misuse this greatest
jewel of independence and free will. Let us pray to the Lord,
Agne naya supathaa raaye asmaan
visvaani deva vayunaani vidvaan
Yuyodhy asmaj juhuraanam eno bhuyisthaam te nama-uktim vidhema
- Sri Ishopanisad Mantra 18
Yuyodhy asmaj juhuraanam eno bhuyisthaam te nama-uktim vidhema
- Sri Ishopanisad Mantra 18
"O my Lord, as powerful as
fire, O omnipotent one, now I offer You all obeisances, falling on the ground
at Your feet. O my Lord, please lead me on the right path to reach You, and
since You know all that I have done in the past, please free me from the reactions
to my past sins so that there will be no hindrance to my
progress."
progress."
Story
from Ramayana: Sita - devi tells story of compassion to Hanuman!
In the Ramayana, we find that after
Ravana was killed, Sri Hanuman went to the Ashoka vana to meet Sitadevi and
inform her of the good news of Sri Ramas victory.
Srimathi Sita was extremely
delighted on hearing the news and asked Hanumanji to ask for any boon he
desired.
Sri Hanuman was full of anger
against the deamoness who were guarding Sita devi because they were always
causing trouble and fear to her. So he wanted Sitadevis permission to kill
them.
Mother Sita exhibited her unlimited
compassion and magnanimity when She said that those Raksasis were simply and
helplessly working under the instructions of the evil Ravana as his servants
and it is not right to punish them. At that time, she told the following story.
Once a hunter in the forest tripped
and fell down while hunting a lion and lost his weapons.
The lion then started chasing the
hunter.
The hunter ran and he climbed upon a
tree.
On the tree he could see that there
was a bear sitting. The man was completely helpless and he took shelter of the
bear requesting the bear to spare his life.
Meanwhile the lion came to the
bottom of the tree and instigated the bear to push the man down so that they
can both eat the man.
The bear refused saying that the man
has taken shelter of him and hence he would not push him down.
After sometime the bear started
sleeping and the lion told the hunter, I am feeling very hungry. So you push
the sleeping bear down from the tree so that I can kill and eat him and you can
be relieved.
The ungrateful hunter, so much
concerned about his own life, pushed the sleeping bear.
The bear somehow woke up while
falling down and caught hold of a branch of the tree and was saved.
The lion told the bear that even
though the bear tried to save the hunter, he was so ungrateful as to push him
down. Hence the bear should now help the lion by pushing the hunter.
The saintly bear replied that great
souls never have the inimical attitude towards others and it is their nature to
be compassionate even if the others are of a bad nature. Thus the bear stood by
its principles and did not harm the hunter who was greatly ashamed seeing the behaviour
of the bear.
Moral of the story:
In the Srimad Bhagavatam we find
that saintly Vidura gave good counsel to his brother Dhritarashtra and asked
him to get rid of Duryodhana , the source of all trouble.
Hearing this, Duryodhana insulted
Vidura very badly calling him a spy, infidel and he desired that Vidura be
immediately put out of the palace. Thus being pierced by arrows through his
ears and afflicted to the core of his heart, Vidura quit his brothers palace
and went on a pilgrimage.
Dhritarashtra could not speak
anything against his son.
It is unimaginable for any other
person who has been subjected to such an insult to come back and do good for
such a brother. But we find that Mahatma Vidura came back after having already
adopted the renounced order of life, just for only one purpose and that is to
deliver his elder brother.
Srimad Bhagavatam 1.13.14 says,
kancit kaalam athaavaatsit sat-krto
devavat sukham
bhraatur jyesthasya sreyas-krt sarvesaam sukham aavahan
bhraatur jyesthasya sreyas-krt sarvesaam sukham aavahan
Thus Mahatma Vidura, being treated
just like a godly person by his kinsmen, remained there for a certain period
just to rectify the mentality of his eldest brother and in this way bring
happiness to all the others.
Such is the compassion of the great
souls for all the conditioned living entities who have turned their faces away
from Krishna. It is what the compassionate spiritual master does for all of us.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna
Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
PS: I humbly request all the
devotees to please forward and share this
moral / instructive stories they hear so that everyone can be benefited by hearing about Krishna and his dear devotees.
moral / instructive stories they hear so that everyone can be benefited by hearing about Krishna and his dear devotees.
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