Bulaava from God
Some time back, I heard Jinji, mentioning about Umashankars intrepretation about the importance of temple / holy places like Sringeri, visits. According to him, these visits, had more to do with the dieties being pleased to see His bhakthas, coming all the way to see Him, than the other way around. For instance when one visits Balaji shrine, presumably, to ask for a boon, or to make the promised offering etc, and you find that you hardly have a few seconds for a darshan, one need not fret really, as its the Lord who is happy to see you, and it takes him next to no time to see you there in front, and He is pleased period.
Indeed a fine thought, well worth pondering, regardless of a regret, that if He is so omnipotent/omnipresent, why does He have to await my physical presence, in His shrine, if my devotion is unblemished. And since it does not in any way clash with my pet theme of a good social lubrication, being a sine-qua-non, for evolution, and these places with their teeming people with mainly good thoughts (at least at these shrines) provide a very positive energy flow, a kind of "satsangh", I was quite impressed with this theory.
In tune with providences penchant for being a spoiler whenever there is this euphoric feeling about something, comes the next belief; namely a visit to such shrines are not easy for one to undertake. One must get an "invite" or "bulaavaa" in Hindi. This caveat literally puts cold water to any feeling of comfort, as not being in the habit of any such visits even occasionally, this almost tells me that there are no "invites" from Him at all for me. In other words in His scheme of things, I have no place; I cannot go to Him without this "invite" and without being physically there, I have no chance to give Him any happiness by seeing me, in person. I am just left with the option of doing "jay jay vittal"!!!!!
There is no gainsaying the fact, that I can hardly imagine a single devotee to any of these places, who is undertaking a visit for "liberation". There are innumerable anecdotes, of devotees, who invariably talk about miracles all pertaining to purely temporal matters. And the "bulaavaa" crowd like say a Anil Ambani , or a Abhishek/Aishwarya is not ones idea of inspired lots.
Does it then mean
(a) for any temporal gains/happiness, the "bulaavaa" is an important criteria
(b) His happiness to see you there is His comfort that one is not seeking "liberation" and therefore quite happy to see you in person
(c) only in the rarest of cases, He sends you an "invite" when you are in mood to transcend the mundane/temporal, as these are not necessary at all?
Ponder it over folks. I would love rejoinders.
May God be with us.
Love
Vichu
As you can see poor, ignorant me is being drawn inexorably into this blog (!).
ReplyDeleteI must say I completely disagree with young Umashankar. It seems faintly funny to me that God gets happy to see us taking the trouble to go to a temple ( somewtat egoistic and simplistic ?).
Many goons like Amar Singh make helicopter trips to temples........I will bet my life that God will be much more pleased with a social worker performing selfless service ...even if he never once steps into a temple.
Going to a temple has much more to do with our need to make a connection..........
And if God is indeed waiting for us to come to temples so he can be pleased with us......I will lean towards agnosticism, thank you very much.
On the "Bulava" bit - yes, there are bulavas issued ( based on my understanding). The Bulaavas are , certainy not to make a trip to the temple (!) but to rise above one's mundane existence - seek higher truths/ serve laregr causes.
ReplyDeleteWhat do I have to say? "you have arrived baby?"
ReplyDeleteBulaava bhashyam is beautiful. Keep it up.
Love
Vichu
There were two quotes that crossed my mind -
ReplyDeleteFor satsangh -
Jo rahim uttam prakriti, ka kari sakat kusang,
Chandan vish vyapat nahin, lapte rahat bhujang.
and for bulavaa (from the past) a sense of deja vu conveyed by the song -
Guzara hua zamana, aata nahin do bara,
Hafiz Khuda tumhara.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThe original quote attributed to me was I think said by Pujya Shri Rameshbhai Ojha. Not that I stand any less by it :).
That said, the evolved one sees the Lord everywhere, and does not need to undertake a visit to a temple!
A quote by Mahatma Gandhi is apt here - he said "If you cannot find God in the next person you meet, it is no use searching any farther!"
Regards
Shankar