VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, KARADIYUM KURANGUM BY SRI KARUNAKARACHARIAR

 

VIJAY TV BHAKTHI THIRUVIZHA SEASON 12, KARADIYUM KURANGUM BY SRI KARUNAKARACHARIAR

The second programme was Karadiyum Kurangum by Sri Karunakarachariar who is well known for the sprinkling of humour in his discourses.

Ms. Sumathi introduced Sri Karunakarachariyar stating that the topic Karadiyum Kurangum usually is about Jambavan and Hanuman, but with Karunakarachariyar one can never be sure. It could be something totally different too.

It was different though the moment we saw the programme list my sister, Jayashree and I knew for sure it was the story of Srimathi Parinayam which we have heard from our Thatha many times!

Ms. Sumathi went on to explain why Sangeetha Vidwans were called Jambavans. Once Narada went to Jambavan’s place and at the entrance, he could hear lovely music. He did not want to disturb Jambavan and waited for him to complete. After sometime, to Narada’s surprise Jambavan came from outside. Narada asked him about what was happening inside and Jambavan simply stated that in the morning, the saptaswaras cleaned up all his musical instruments and ensured perfect condition! Such was Jambavan’s authority on music!

Karadiyum Kurangum story goes like this

Ambarish was a king from Ishvaku Vamsam (ancestors of Lord Rama). His mother had prayed that her son should not ask anybody other than Narayana for anything. A great king, Ambarish was ruling well. One day, pleased with his prayers, Lord Indra appeared before him and asked him what he wanted. Ambarish said he had everything he wanted. Lord Indra insisted that he ask for some thing and Ambarish explained how his mother had prayed that Ambarish did not ask anything from anybody except Narayana. An angry Indra threatens to attack Ambarish with his vajrayudha. That’s when Lord Narayana gives Ambarish his Chakrayudha to protect himself. Such was the king’s devotion for Narayana.

Years rolled by and Ambarish had a daughter named Srimathi. The very beautiful Srimathi was devoted to Lord Narayana and wanted to get married to him.

One fine day, Narada came to Ambarish’s court along with his nephew Parvathar. Ambarish welcomed them and asked them to bless his daughter for a good bridegroom. Smitten  by Srimathi’s beauty, Narada calls the king aside and suggests that Ambarish gets Srimathi married to him. Taken aback, the king requests for some time. Parvathar takes the king aside and makes a similar request that Ambarish gets Srimathi married to him. Again, not knowing what to do, Ambarish requests for some time to think it over.

Finally, Ambarish comes back saying that as both the Rishis like her, he will have a swayamvaram conducted for his daughter and whoever she chooses can get married to her.

The swayamvaram was to take place a week later and meantime, Narada goes to Vaikundam. When Mahavishnu asks him about his visit, he requests for a boon that the moment Srimathi looks up at Parvathar his face should be like a monkey. Mahavishnu grants the boon.

Later Parvathar goes to Vaikuntam and asks Mahavishnu to make Narada look like a bear the moment Srimathi looks at him and gets the boon granted.

On the day of swayamvaram, the beautiful Srimathi holds a garland and walks forward. The moment she goes near them she screams “kurangu” and “karadi” and faints.

Though Narada and Parvathar know the reason for the other appearing like an animal, they join hands and try to blame the king. The king wakes his daughter up and makes one more attempt. Again she screams “karadi” and “kurangu” but smiles at the place between the two Rishis and garlands the handsome man with bow and arrow standing in the middle. The next moment, Srimathi vanishes.

Now really angry with the king, the Rishis curse him that he is caught by the darkness called “thamas”. The chakrayudha again comes to the rescue of Ambarish and scared by the chakrayudha, thamas turns back and follows Narada and Parvathar. Not knowing what to do, they run to Lord Narayana. The ever smiling Lord, welcomes them.

Finally waking up to the fact that Srimathi was devoted to the Lord and she vanished after garlanding somebody, the Rishis conclude that it was Lord Narayana who Srimathi garlanded.

They curse Lord Narayana that he takes the thamas on Himself and when He is in trouble, He will have to take the help of karadi and kurangu.

The Almighty accepted the curse and says He will use it in one of his avatars – Rama Avatar. Thus in Rama avatar, He was caught by thamas that he forgot that he was God and lived like a human being and was helped by Hanuman and Jambavan in Ravana samharam!

Sri Karunakarachariyar listed out the morals in the story as below

1. A mother should pray for a child like Ambarish’s mother
2. Don’t ask anybody other than God for anything
3. God helps such men who pray to Him
4. Even Maharishis can slip
5. Be careful while making a wish – never ask anything negative, be positive
6. Sincere prayers are always granted
7. A bhakta is always saved
8. Even the Almighty accepts Maharishi’s curse
9. Mind is a monkey and its hold is like a bear’s!

TV Programme - Bharathathil Dharmam - III

One more episode of Bharathathil Dharmam

For anything to be successful, teamwork is important, and in the team, each and every member’s part is of significance irrespective of whether he does the most menial task or the final execution. This was the teaching in Bharathathil Dharmam on 11 August


As usual the example given by Sri Velukkudi Krishnan was very endearing

Vanara sena is building bridge across the Indian Ocean to reach Lanka. The monkeys as groups of fours carry huge boulders and drop them in the water. The squirrels wish to do the cementing job and they drench themselves in the sea, run to the shore, roll on the sand so that a good quantity of sand sticks to their bodies and then come and use the sand to cement the boulders. Rama is watching this. In between, the squirrels try to order the monkeys around to work faster. Hanuman sees this and asks the squirrels why they are ordering around on top of coming in the way when monkeys are working busily. One squirrel boldly replies, “yes we are the ones to order as we are the masons doing cement work and the monkeys are the labourers carrying boulders”. Hanuman sees the squirrel’s dedication and says, Rama karya will be done very easily with such help

Maha Deeksha I - part 2

LAYERS OF MIND
Mind has two layers
Conscious mind – processes 2000 bits of information in a second
Unconscious mind – processes 400 crore bits of information in a second

Conscious mind
This stores the day-to-day things like name, address, numbers etc

Unconscious mind
Unconscious mind stores all the forgotten things (by the conscious mind) and the negative emotions
Anything that has happened in one’s life – important or unimportant, big or small, positive or negative - is stored in the unconscious mind
The unconscious mind is compulsive, repetitive and destructive

If you do not want to see your inner truth, all the junk becomes unconscious mind
If you do not see your inner truth it becomes
a) Guilt
b) Fear
c) Negative thoughts
d) Financial problems,
e) Health problems
f) Relationship problems and
g) Karma

If somebody says you are a coward, you do not like it and the mind tends to find faults with the person who said that. You should see inside yourself and understand that may be you are a coward. The moment this is done, cowardice goes away from you and you become courageous. When you look within yourself and understand you are a coward, it does not make you feel inferior but makes you come out of that quality and become courageous.

There is only one mind which is called the Ancient Mind. All the thoughts we get are actually stored in the collective conscious mind and we just tune into one of those thoughts. The thoughts we have are not ours.
For example, people in Hastinapur still have the qualities of Duryodana.


GOD
If you believe in God, you just pray to him
If you have faith in God, you are sure that you will get whatever you ask
If you are discovering God, you are ready to do anything for God
Example for discovering God – Once Hanuman noticed that Sita had Sindoor on her forehead. As he did not know what it was, he asked Sita. Sita was not sure how to explain, so she just said that she wears it because Rama likes it.
Rama was sitting in meditation and when he heard a loud noise as though somebody jumped. He opened his eyes and saw Hanuman fully covered with Sindoor. Rama asked Hanuman about this and he said, “Sita said you like it, that’s why I applied it all over my body”.
Such was Hanuman’s love for Rama.

PROBLEMS

Problems are different from sufferings
There are two types of problems
1. real problem
2. created problem

If one has a health condition, it is a real problem
Because of the health condition, if he starts thinking that people will ill treat or ignore him, it is a created problem

REAL PROBLEM
Real problems have solutions

1. Take decision – that you are going to come out of the problem
For example, most of the time, people do not want to come out of the problem. Unless you decide that you want to come out of the problem, you cannot go to the next step
If you have health condition, you should decide that you want to come out of it. If you have a financial problem, you should decide to come out of it

2. Acquire knowledge or skill – to solve it
For example, in the case of a health condition, find out how it can be treated. In case of financial problem, find out how you can solve it – ways and means – business or loan or job etc

3. Face the risk – there is always a risk when you try to solve the problem
For example, in the case of a health condition, there is always a risk that treatment may not work. In case of a financial problem, there is always a risk that your business will not work out.

CREATED PROBLEM
Created problems do not have solutions.
The mind only creates these problems which actually do not exist.
Mind is a businessman, it does not do anything without profit
1. Created problem becomes a habit leading to imbalance in personality
2. Created problem makes you move away from the real problem leading to the real problem being unresolved
3. Yath Bhavam, Thath bhavathi – the feelings you have when you have created problems will convert it into a real problem.

90% of man’s problems are created
One should have awareness of the created problem to come out of it.

FOUR THINGS THAT INFLUENCE ONE’S LIFE

1. Vaasthu
Vaasthu is a very familiar term nowadays and is followed by almost everybody.

2. Relationship
We have already gone through the importance of relationship and its influence on
one’s life in part I.

3. Karma
Karma is nothing but “as you sow, so you reap, but many times over” – meaning when you do something good, it returns to you manifold and when you do something bad, again it returns to you manifold.
This is not God’s punishment, but the Law of this Universe.

4. Pithru
Pithru means one’s ancestors. It is very important to have the blessings of one’s predecessors. We have to pray for the moksham of all our ancestors so that they attain moksham and give us their blessings.
This exercise can be done anytime one feels that he has a problem in his life because of the lack of blessings of any particular ancestor.

God’s Grace

God’s grace comes either as a solution or dissolution to your real problems
If you have a financial need for something, the solution will be to give you money and the dissolution will be to remove the need.

Prayer
One must pray to God for your needs as below:

1. Clarity – about what you want
a) you should really want it
a) you should not ask for it for the sake of competing or in comparison with others
b) see your inner integrity in your need
c) focus on the solution and not on the problem
for example if you need money, ask God for money and don’t keep on saying, I don’t have money, which will create only that situation where you will not have money

2. Visualisation with emotion
a) Imagine the solution
b) Imagine as if it has already happened
For example, if you are praying for a job, imagine you already have the job

3. Detailed description
- describe your need in detail
For example, if you are praying for a car, imagine as though you already have the red coloured, maruti zen which has all the facilities you want (a.c, stereo, tv etc etc) and you are driving it with your family sitting with you

4. Surrender
- pray in detail as above and surrender to God

5. Gratitude
- Thank God for giving it to you. You should have enough faith in God to thank him immediately after praying for it even before God actually grants your wish