World Wide Web

|| Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||

Aum Namo Narayanaya 

I trust that we have all had a wonderful weekend and really looking forward to the ensuing week with much excitement at what it may offer. What really surprises me of the week that comes is that it heralds the month of August. This really signals as they would say in aviation terms the beginning of the descent. Before we know it the festive festoons and jingles will make their way into the public arenas and we will be counting down to 2012.

Pause for a moment to recall the advent of 2011 to the current day, can we vividly with detail lay an account of what we have done or achieved in these months. If we reflect upon the resolutions we made, how many have we ticked off as completed successfully.

I am reminded of this wonderful story:Once Lord Vishnu and Narada were walking in the garden when  the Lord feels very thirsty and requests  Narada to fetch some water.

Narada goes to a nearby river to take some water. Suddenly he hears from a tribal person shouting “Please wait, don’t take that dirty water, I have pure, distilled and cool water in my house, Please come to my house and accept my most humble seva”.



Sage Narada



 Narada is pleased to get pure, distilled, cool water and therefore, goes to the  house. While offering water to Narada, it suddenly strikes to the tribal person that it is sin to offer only water, without offering any fruits to a sage; hence the tribal person requests Narada to wait for few minutes so that he will bring some fresh fruits from the forest. Narada feels happier for the hospitality of the tribal person and agrees to wait till the tribal person brings fruits from the forest.

 Within few minutes, the tribal person brings some fresh fruits from forest and offer to Narada along with pure, distilled & cool water. Narada with full happiness and contentment eats the fruits and drinks the water and expresses his gratitude to the tribal person.

 Before leaving from the tribal person’s hut, he sees the daughter of tribal person and falls in love with the daughter of the tribal person. Narada expresses his willingness to marry the tribal person’s daughter. The tribal person feels very much excited to hear that Narada is interested in marrying his daughter and immediately agrees for his proposal and performs the marriage of his daughter with Narada Muni at the very moment.

 In due course, Narada Muni is blessed with a son also. Now Narada Muni is fully engaged in his daily busy schedule for earning livelihood for self, family, son, brother-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, etc., ploughing fields, cultivating farm, etc., Narada Muni has no time to breathe, Forgot about remembering SRI HARI, who is waiting in the garden for Narada Muni to return with the water.

 One day, Narada Muni hears a big sound in river. On enquiring, he comes to know that his son has fallen in the river. After sometime, he again hears big sound and he comes to know that his wife has jumped into river to save her son and she too is drowning. Then immediately, Narada comes out of his hut and try to rescue his wife with his Tambura (Narada’s musical instrument) and finally Narada also falls in the River. When Narada is about to drown, he remembers his lord SRI HARI and starts shouting NARAYANA….NARAYANA…NARAYANA….

 On hearing the shouting NARAYANA….NARAYANA…NARAYANA….Lord Sri Hari pats on the shoulder of Narada(who is holding water in a vessel) and asks WHAT HAPPENED?

 Then Narada realized that what all happened is just a dream, but not in reality.

If we reflect on the year that past we can’t but empathize with the situation that Sage Narada found himself in .We are so caught up in the trappings of this world chasing the transient joys we totally forget and deviate from the goals we set. Life will pass us by without achieving any goals and when the reality hits us it will be too late to recover or make amends.

In a similar fashion we also have forgotten about our true journey of life which is self realization.   Caught up in this world wide web of desires and transient joy, we have forgotten the eternal joy and bliss that is within all of us. That we are Amritsya Putra( eternal children of God). That in essence we are pure bliss and that everything else is but Maya (dream), as experienced by Narada.

Let us remove ourselves from this web and begin our journey back to bliss (our original destination) is my sincere prayer. I also take this opportunity to wish our Muslim brothers and sisters a blessed Ramadaan fast.