There was a great saint in Kerala some 500 years ago, Bilvamangala by name. He would call on Lord Krishna and Krishna would appear. Such was his devotion and sâdhana.
One man who suffered from stomach ache heard about this and he pestered Bilvamangala to find out from Krishna whether it would end or not. Bilvamangala agreed and when Krishna appeared next, he asked him the question. Krishna replied, "When the rolling stops, it will cease". The unfortunate man interpreted it to mean as, "When he stopped rolling in pain". But he got desperate, because he had perforce to roll in agony of that ache. So he left Kerala and wanted to go to some holy place to meet some holier persons who would procure for him a more satisfying answer. Bilvamangala told him that he had to suffer this trouble due to his prarabdha; that is, the result of his activities in previous births. Bilvamangala understood "rolling" to mean "rolling from birth to birth".
On the road to Kasi (a holy place) which he took, the man came to a free feeding place run by a pious lady, Kururamma by name. When she saw him hungry, she spoke to him kindly. He told her that he had decided to drown himself in the Ganga for he was told that there was no way to escape the consequence of his past sins. Kururamma called him a fool. She gave him the holy mantra, "Gopî Jana Vallabha Namaha" (name of the Lord of the Gopîs) and asked him to repeat it. She said the name would cure him completely. The poor man uttered it when the attack occurred next and he was surprised to find that the pain had gone! Yes gone! Even though he pounded his stomach, it did not return.
He finished his pilgrimage to Kasi and returned to Kerala and fell at the feet of Bilvamangala, who enquired about his ache, the ache with which he had to live, for it was earned during his past lives. When the man replied that it had disappeared, Bilvamangala called on Krishna and asked Him to explain what He had meant by "rolling"; he thought it to mean rolling from one birth to another and acquiring good and evil. The sick man took it to mean rolling in pain when ache comes upon. But Krishna had meant rolling in this objective world, this prakriti and its challenging phenomena and rolling His name by the tongue.
When the man lived in the name of God and had no other thought, the rolling had ceased; the name and the chain of destiny can not exist together. Prarabdha will melt away like fog before the sun when Namasmarana is done. This was a revelation even for Bilvamangala.
(From the Divine Discourses of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba)
No comments:
Post a Comment