Conquered by the naked.

 It was in India that Alexander met the only men on earth he couldn’t conquer.

The yogis. Greek historians traveling with the feisty commander brought back  a record of what they encountered:

In the woods, lying on a bed of leaves, Greek soldiers stumbled across a  Brahmin sage named Dandamis.

Alexander was intensely curious about the fabled  wisdom of the Holy men of India.

He sent Dandamis a message:

“Alexander, Son of God and Lord of the Earth, invites you into his presence. If you come, you will be richly rewarded. If you don’t you will die.”

Dandamis was not impressed. “There is only one King”, he answered,”The one  who created light and life. He’s the only King I obey, and He abhors war.”

Dandamis continued:

How can this Alexander be the King of Earth as long as he remains subject to the King of Death ?

And what can he offer me when my mother the Earth already  supplies and provides everything I need ?

I have no possessions I need to protect, so I sleep peacefully at night. Alexander may kill my body, but he  can’t touch my soul.

Tell Your King that at the time of death each one of us will be asked to account four our actions in this life.

Ask him how he’s going to explain the  agony of all those he has so painfully murdered and oppressed.

Your King can tempt those who crave gold. He can terrify those who fear death.

But we Brahmins care for neither. Go tell Alexander he has nothing I want and that I cannot see him.

When Alexander’s men brought back the sages reply, and he herd Dandamis’s  answer, he admitted that he, the conquer of the great world, had been
conquered by a naked old man.

Giridhari.

 In Brindavan lived once a Brahmin called Giridharlal.

He was known for his Bhakti, Vairagya kindness and respect for the Sadhus.

Everyday he prayed to the Sadhus.

He wore anklets and danced and sang playing ‘Tumbura’.

He sang Kirthanas of God and stole the hearts of young and old alike.

One day, when he was praying to Gopalakrishna in the temple some Sadhus who had come there asked him to sing and dance the Rasaleela of Krishna.

Giridharlal was in a fix. He couldn’t say no to such great Sadhus. Their anger would drive him to hell.

But his anklets and Tumbura were at home.

It would take some time for him to go and fetch them.

How best should he react? God showed him a way out.

As everybody was watching, he got from the sky shining anklets, Tumbura Tala and Pithambaram. He accepted them with utmost reverence and devotion. The Sadhus wondered at his Bhakti. They praised him for the blessings showered on him by God.

Then Giridharlal wore the silk dhoti tied the anklets to his feet, held the Tumbura in his hand and sang and danced Rasaleela.

The Sadhus were watching with deep interest. Giridharlal also sang the Rasaleela and was engrossed in it.

Then the Lord saw to it that the people gathered there witnessed his Rasaleela in Krishnavatar time. The Sadhus and Giridharlal were filled with joy. Then God put an end to his leela and vanished.

The Sadhus were so thrilled there prayed to him in many ways and then prayed to the Lord too.

Oh God Nobody can praise your leela.

Not even Adisesha or Saraswathi or Brahma.

In such a case how can we after all ordinary human beings praise you? You should bless us with your great kindness. Then Giridharlal took them to his math, offered them food and ate after them and spent time in listening to stories of God.

One day, a Viragi came there. Giridharlal gave him a warm welcome offered Pranams to him and washed his feet and drank that tirdham.

The people in the town objected to it.

They said Giridharlal could not be a true Brahmin since he served a Viragi from a cemetery.

Giridharlal said that that Sanyasi was a devotee of the Lord Vishnu.

Moreover it doesn’t befit them to insult a great man.

Then they challenged Giridharlal, If you have powers to identify him as a great man, then you provide life to a dead body. Giridharlal accepted the challenge.

One day they took him to a dead body, Giridharlal prayed to Krishna in various ways and then looked at the dead body. He woke up as if from deep sleep and went round Giridharlal.

Then the people pleaded to Giridharlal to forgive them. He took it as the leela of God.

The people prostrated before God and asked him to teach them how to be blessed, by God and how to be liberated from life. Giridharlal taught them Krishna mantra and asked them to recite it.

He said; treat everything as a manifestation of God. Develop Jnana, Bhakti and Vairagya and control your Indriyas.

Use your Indriyas for the good of others do your duty sincerely and leave the result to God.

Pray to Sadhus and accept that Tirdham Prasadam.

Then you will be liberated from life and you will experience Sat Chit Ananda! They prayed to him and left.

Giridharlal continued his prayer of God and transformed many people into Bhaktas, visited many holy places and finally attained Moksha.

Giridharlal helped his disciples to attained Moksha.

Scorpion dharma

 One day a sadhu went to the river to bathe.

There he noticed scorpion struggling in the water.

Scorpions cannot swim and the sadhu knew that if he did not save the scorpion, it would drown, therefore carefully picking up the scorpion, the sadhu rescued it from drowning and was just about to set it down gently on land when the scorpion stung his finger.

In pain the sadhu instinctively flung his hand and the scorpion went flying back into the river.

As soon as the sadhu regained his composure from the sting he again lifted the scorpion out of the water.

Again before he could set the scorpion safely on land, the creature stung him. This drama went on several minutes.

A hunter watched as the saint carefully and gingerly lifted the creature out of the water, only to fling it back in as he convulsed in pain from each fresh sting.

Finally, the hunter said to the sadhu, “Forgive me for my frankness, but it is clear that the scorpion going to continue to sting you each and every time you carry it to safety.

Why don’t you give up and just let it drown?”

The sadhu replied, “My dear child the scorpion is not stinging me out of malice or evil intent. Just as it is water’s nature to make me wet, so its scorpion’s nature to sting. He doesn’t realize that I am carrying him to safety. That is a level of conscious comprehensions greater than what his brain can achieve.

But just as it is the scorpion’s nature to sting. So it is my nature to save. Just as he is not leaving his nature, why should I leave my nature?

My dharma is to help any creature of any kind-human or animal.

Why should I let a small scorpion rob me of the divine nature which I cultivated through years of sadhana?

Srimad Bhagavatam following 2 verses 3.1.15 and 16 teaches us how Vidura controlled his insult from Duryodhana without uttering a word in return, he just left the palace accepting it as Krishna’s
benediction. Duryodhana said,

ka enam atropajuhaava jihmam
dasyaah sutam yad-balinaiva pushtah
tasmin prateepah parakrtya aaste
nirvaasyataam aashu puraac chvasaanah

“Who asked him to come here, this son of a kept mistress? He is so crooked that he spies in the interest of the enemy against those on whose support he has grown up. Toss him out of the palace immediately and leave him with only his breath.”

sa ittham atyulbana karna baanair
bhraatuh puro marmasu taadito ‘pi
svayam dhanur dvaari nidhaaya maayaam
gata-vyatho ‘yaad uru maanayaanah

“Thus being pierced by arrows through his ears and afflicted to the core of his heart, Vidura placed his bow on the door and quit his brother’s palace. He was not sorry, for he considered the acts of the external energy to be supreme.”

Chaliya.

 There used to be a Baba (saintly person) in Mathura who performed arcana of his shalagrama-shila with great love.

He did not have complete knowledge of the various limbs of arcana, but whatever arcana he performed, he did with love.

He had taken a vow to bathe in Yamuna every day during brahma-muhurta, and to worship his shalagrama with Yamuna water only.

Once, on the amavasya (new-moon day) in the month of Mägha, the cold winter month from mid-January to mid-February, it rained the entire night and a heavy cold wind blew.

On that pitch-dark morning he had no idea of the time because no stars were visible in the sky.

He woke long before the brahma-muhurta hour and set out to take his bath.

Although Yamunas waters were as cold as ice and he was shivering due to the extreme cold, he nevertheless took bath just to maintain his vow.

He then started back for his home, carrying the Yamuna water for his worship.

He faced severe difficulty because of the dense darkness, heavy rain and the weak condition of his shivering body.

He was anxiously wondering how it would be possible to return home to worship his Deity when, suddenly, he saw somebody holding a lantern coming towards him.

As the person came closer, he saw that it was a young boy carrying a blanket on His head to protect Him from the rain.

Coming close to the Baba the boy asked, Baba, where are you going?

When the man told Him where he lived, the boy said, I am also going that way. Come with Me and I will take you to your house.

He started walking with that boy and reached his house very quickly.

Just as he was about to enter, he thought,Let me ask this boy His name.

But what a wonder!

The Baba could not see Him anywhere.

He looked all around but there was no trace of Him.

Standing there like a stone, he lamented, Alas! That chaliya

Bakula as tooth brush.

 How did the unique bakula tree in the courtyard become known as the Siddha-bakula tree?

Every morning the Pujaris offer three twigs of a kumbhatua tree as toothbrushes (danta-kastham) to Jagannath Swami, Baladeva and Subhadra.

One day before the offering, a twig was missing so the Pujari substituted a twig from a bakula tree to use a toothbrush.

That bakula twig was given to Mahaprabhu as Maha-prasadam.

Gauranga came to see Haridasa and planted the maha-prasadi bakula toothbrush in the garden.

Soon the tree grew up luxuriantly and provided soothing shade to everyone.

Haridasa used to perform his Bhajana under this tree.

After the departure of Haridasa Thakura, a devotee named Srila Jaganantha Goswami used to perform Bhajan here.

One day the king’s officers came to cut down the bakula tree which was stout and straight; ideal for making the wheels for Jaganantha’s chariot.

Jagannath Goswami told them about the Supreme sancity of the bakula tree, which was planted by Mahaprabhu and used as the Bhajana sthali of the revered namacharya Thakura Haridasa.

When the king’s officers returned the next day to take the tree, they observed a miracle.

Overnight, the main trunk of the bakula tree had become petrified; as hard as rock.

The rest of the tree was completely hollow, bent over and winding here and there like a snake. It was of no use of them.

Unlike a normal living tree, this phenomenal bakula tree has no middle portion; it only has outer bark.

According to botanical principles the tree should be dead, yet it is thriving beautifully.

Any person or even an object like a bakula twig that is intimately connected with Lord Jagannath, Gauranga Mahaprabhu and the namacharya Haridasa Thakura will surely attain perfection and perform miraculous deeds.

The bakula tree had attained perfection, and from that day on it became famous as the Siddha-bakula tree.

Every year on Chaitra Sankranti (April), which is the day that Mahaprabhu manifested the bakula tree, the locals celebrate a festival called Danta-kastha-ropana Mahotsava, “the festival of planting the wooden toothbrush.”

The devotees bathe the Siddha-bakula tree with 108 pots of water and sing many bhajans glorifying Gauranga Mahaprabhu and His devotees like Thakura Haridasa.

Siddha Bakula ki Jai! Namacharya Haridasa Thakura ki Ja

Wings.

 Once there was a sage named Galava and he had to go on a urgent and important mission.

He spoke to his friend Garuda, the Great Eagle, who offered to fly him to his destination.

After they had flown a long distance, Galava said to his friend that he now felt that there was no need to travel to that destination.

So he asked Garuda to return.

Garuda said, ‘There is a hill on the sea coast ahead; we will rest there, have some food, and return.’

Descending on the hill, they saw a woman, Shandili, who had on her face the glow of some ineffable energy because of her performing austerities.

They saluted her most respectfully; and she offered them food, wholesome and satisfying, and, there on the earth, they both fell into deep sleep.

When Garuda awoke, he saw that his wings were severed from his body, and without them he looked like a lump of flesh.

It seemed to be some kind of punishment.

The sage asked Garuda, ‘Did you think anything offensive about the woman?’

Garuda said, “I just wondered why should this ascetic woman live in this forsaken place in the midst of a hill performing austerities?

There are so many Holy places of pilgrimage and she should be staying there.”

Then he realized that wherever the saintly persons or Vaishnavas live, that is the place of pilgrimage and we should never think that it is a condemned place and for this offensive thinking, he lost his wings.

Later he sought forgiveness from Shandili and got back his wings.

Moral of the story:

In Srimad Bhagvatam 1.13.10, King Yudhistira glorifies Sri Vidura saying:

bhavad-vidhaa bhaagavataas / tirtha-bhutaah svayam vibho
tirthi-kurvanti tirthaani / svaanta-sthena gadaabhrtaa

“My Lord, devotees like your good self are verily holy places personified. Because you carry the Personality of Godhead within your heart, you turn all places into places of pilgrimage.”

Hymn on Narasimha.

 Followed by Suresvaracharya and otherdisciples, Sankara moved southwards.

In course of time, the party reached Srisailam hills in Andhra Pradesh.

In those days, there lived a sect of religious fanatics called the Kapalikas, who believed in human sacrifice.

One day Sri Sankara was sitting deeply immersed in meditation.

At that time, a Kapalika came before him.

He woke up Sankara from his meditation and told him that God Kapali would appear to him if he sacrificed either the head of an emperor or the head of a great Sannyasin.

Sankara was amused. He smiled and said that he had no objection whatsoever to surrender his head.

He would come to the temple of Bhairava at midnight without the knowledge of his disciples.

Overjoyed that his wishes would be fulfilled, the Kapalika got busy with the preliminary rites of worship before the human sacrifice.

Man proposes, but God disposes.

Sankara got up from his bed at midnight and left for the temple of Bhairava.

Padmapada sensed some danger to his Guru. He earnestly prayed to Lord Narasimha to protect his Guru.

Padmapada ran to the spot and with the mighty strength of a lion snatched the sword from the hands of the Kapalika.

He then jumped on the Kapalika and tore him to pieces.

Sankara saw Lord Narasimha before him and was overjoyed.

He at once composed a thrilling hymn on Lord Narasimha.