॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Srimad Bhagavatam - snippet 2- Sunday, 27 August 2023 - How to speak with God?
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When I can speak with Bhagavan face-to-face, what do I say?
In this snippet #2, I want to discuss how we are able to experience the grace of Bhagavan in the most immersive way when he grants us Darshan. (By the way, for sometime now, I have stopped capitalising the pronouns referring to Bhagavan because I think it robs the words of the intimacy they should convey.)
Anyway, when we have Bhagavan's Darshan, in a Supreme Person form, as Bhagavan Vishnu or Shiva or Bhagavati Devi, how do we respond? First of all, this Darshan is not a chance encounter. There is our intense Tapas and Bhakti which results in this Darshan. When it does happen, we are surely going to be overwhelmed. This is what happened to the five-year old Dhruva!
Dhruva, deeply insulted by his step-mother and father, was encouraged by his mother to go and ask the Lord for justice. He was, by the grace of Sage Narada, able to go and perform the most intense Tapas, while chanting the Maha Mantra ॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Then the Lord came and gave him Darshan! Dhruva was unable to speak until Bhagavan himself opened up the floodgates of his faculties by touching his cheek gently with his Shankha. At once, Dhurva burst into his famous prayer योऽन्तः प्रविश्य... Please read the blog.
Now did Dhruva ask, "How come I was insulted? How can I get justice?" No! Indeed he said something altogether different.
"Those who seek a higher life in exalted Lokas are also bound to fall back into rebirth."
"Oh infinite Lord, bless me that I associate with Bhagavatas, and develop constant Bhakti, and serve You. I shall surely get liberated thus, and I hanker to hear Your glories always. A Bhakta is at once freed from attachments to things and people as "I" and "Mine"."
It is a different matter that Dhruva had to live out his accumulated Prarabdha Karma and become a king etc. But in the end, he reached Bhagavan and became the Pole Star, the epitome of constancy of faith!
The second example, again of a small boy, who got to speak face-to-face with Bhagavan, is that of Prahlada. Prahlada, although a very young boy, is considered the foremost Bhakta in Sanatana Dharma. When Bhagavan came as Narasimha Avatara, he tore his devilish father to pieces, and saved Prahlada. It took a while for the world to calm down the Lord as he was most most enraged at the way Hiranyakashipu tortured and tried to kill Prahlada, his devotee. Therefore if ever you think you are good and true and someone tries to harm you, pray as ardently as Prahlada, and Narasimha will SURELY SAVE YOU.
What then were Prahlada's words? Please read this:
Some excerpts:
I consider even a man of very low birth. a man born In the caste of dog-eaters, who has offered his mind, words, hopes, objects of desire. and vital energy to the Lord, as immensely superior to a Brahmin possessed of the twelve qualifications mentioned above but is still indifferent to the Lord's holy feet. This is because the former purifies even his tribe, while the latter has only pride as his asset and not purity.
The Lord, who is self-fulfilled by his own inherent bliss, does not solicit the worship of ignorant man for any purpose of his own. He accepts it only out of concern for the welfare of the worshipper. For, whatever offerings are made by people to the worshipful Lord return as his blessings to themselves. Just as the beauty that a face derives from adornments only goes to beautify its reflection in the mirror.
O Lord! Sages generally concern themselves only with their own salvation. They strive for it in solitude, without any thought for the salvation of others. But I do not desire salvation for myself alone, abandoning all other creatures to their miserable condition. I find no shelter other than Thee for these creatures caught in the travails of Samsara. (So if Thou art pleased to save me from Samsara, I am willing to accept it only on condition that all my fellow sufferers too are saved.)
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These two are some of the best examples of prayer. From little boys when they got the Darshan of Bhagavan!
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