"Sir, Do You know Malayalam??"

After a day of work, I was very tired. As usual I kept the earphones of my iPod and started walking back to my house. The player setting was in random. The songs were coming randomly. I started feeling very happy as all the songs that came up were my favorites.


I was walking at a brisk pace through the crowds in front of travel agency when an old, looking, weak, person came in front of me and asked “Do you know Malayalam”. I stopped for a moment and told him that I don’t know Malayalam. I was a bit surprised, as generally the question should have been “aapko hindi maalum hai sir”. But this was different. I started moving forward. Then when I turned back, I saw him going to other people standing there and asking the same. I felt like he is in a big trouble and he wanted help. His face reflected that. It made me to walk back and I asked him of what he wanted.
Then it was a story of suffering that I could hear from him. It was that he had come to Bangalore looking for a job. He is the only person to support his family. But unfortunately, he couldn’t find any job here. He wanted to return to his native and he wanted some money to buy ticket.


That moment, my brother’s story went through my mind. He had lost his purse while he was traveling from his college to house. He didn’t have a single penny in his hand. So he had to ask or literally beg from others to get some money to reach the house. The only thought that I had was if it was my brother or my father in his place and I was a stranger to him, then what would I expect myself to do. So he asked me two hundred rupees. I initially thought why 200. Then he told that he already has 200 and if he includes this, he will have the correct money for the tickets. So I thought there need not be any second thought if you are helping someone and I gave it to him.


Is the story over? No. Not yet.
On the way back to my home, I was getting mixed feelings. Whether I have done something good or whether I was cheated? I called my parents and they told me that I am cheated and consoled me telling that it’s just first time and it was because of my ignorance. But the doubt was still in my mind. I told about the same to my friends and even they told me give Rs 20 maximum. Never more than that. Still I was confused.


It took one complete day for my mind to be clear. It was next day when I went with one of my friend for shopping when I found the same person walking there. I don’t know why he did not recognize me, but he came to me itself asking the same old question “Do you know Malayalam”. That’s it. It was the end of the story. My reply to him, something of least importance but the significance of this incident, very huge.


A normal person who has the mind to help others during their bad times, after such an incident, would refrain from that. A person who really deserves help would be left without any, due to such cheat people. A country which was the abode of people like Satyavadi Harischandra, Mahatma Gandhi etc is now a place where it is difficult to believe even a single person. I have no idea why people rely on lies to make money. A person, in today’s world can earn his living by telling truth and doing genuine things itself, may be he can’t have a luxurious life. Something that I always think is what these people get after cheating others, probably, money to buy a bottle of alcohol. But during their final stages of life, they will regret for what they have done.


So for any deed we do we should think when we are in our final stage of life, and we retrospect, we should not feel we have done something wrong. As that would be a time when we will realize that there will not be a second chance in life.

Lakshmi.. Sab aapki Maaya..

Let me start this by praying to Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of money and richness. The number of people who are becoming devotee of Lakshmi is increasing at a very huge rate. Yes, the demand and desire for money is increasing like anything. Be it in any way, people want to make money. Is it the influence of Kalyug or is it because everyone is loosing their basic values?? No, I don’t have an answer for it.
Fed up by seeing all these, I decided to go to temple and pray and calm my mind. Rather than going to a temple where Laksmi sits and complaining about money, I thought I will go to a Siva temple and pray for that. It was a temple in Ernakulam. I told all my problems to him and prayed to him that I get a job and lots of Laksmi(money) come to me[probably, effect of Kalyug, I also wanted money].


Everything was over and we were waiting for the prasadam. I was waiting for chandanam that they give. I had a habit of collecting and taking it to home so that I can put it on my forehead, every time I go to college. The poojaris gave a pinch of chandanam. I was very sad seeing the amount. I didn’t get any flowers. But my friend Hari was little richer than me. He gave poojari Rs.2. I was surprised to see that he was given some flowers and bit more chandanam. I looked around to see if there is any board which says that you have to pay Rs.2 to get the actual prasadam. Then something happened which was better than this. Aswin, another friend of mine, who was very rich then, gave Rs.10 to the poojari. Then I saw the prasadam coming in a banana leaf, which had lots of flowers, chandanam and my favorite unniyappam.. I thought, Lakshmi’s effect has started coming in siva temple also. “Devi Laksmi, sab aapki maaya..”.


Now I have started working and have started making money. Mere paas bhi Lakshmi aane lagi hai.. I am a person who loves going to temple. So for one of my holidays, me and my brother went to another temple. It was a huge queue to enter the temple. We could just see the deity’s prathishta and we were pushed out. Its told that you have to suffer a lot to see the god. I thought, in Kalyug, standing in queue for hours and getting pushed might be similar to that suffering and seeing god finally would be the reward for the suffering, a simulation of total life.

Again it was the time of prasadam. My brother and I went to that place. It was written in bold letters that receipt is required for the prasadam. Then the experience of Shiva temple came to my mind. Sometimes the effect of Lakshmi would have come here also. I will just try out. I took Rs.10 from my purse and gave it. No receipt and bills were asked for, I got the prasadam directly and easily. But my poor brother showed his hands there and just got the blessings from poojari ( no idea if it was blessings or words like “Ek bhi paisa nahin laaya, phir haath kyun faila rahi hain”). Again “Lakshmi Devi, sab aapki maaya”.

As a child, my immunity power was a bit less. I was always getting diseases. And as I have three very devotional ladies in my life (my mother and two of my grand mothers), I have many offerings to god, to complete. Fortunately, those offerings are not easy also. Since I am also a bit afraid of god, I don’t compromise on these offerings. So to just start one offering which was 21 days of bhajan in a temple, I was off for a one week holiday. I thought I will complete it in installments. I had to be in temple from morning to evening and eat the food that I get from there. It was the peak time and numbers of devotees coming were too much. The mini simulation of life had started. I was in temple for less time and in queue for more time. I thought, god is everywhere, so I will do my prayers in queue itself. But every time I reach near the prathishta, I see some people who directly enter to the temple without any queue. I thought probably they would be some privileged people or VIPs. I was a bit confused whether here also “Laksmi teri maaya” had started. But I could not confirm it then as I was pushed from behind and the queue had to move.
Majority time of my day went in queue to see the god and a bigger queue for food. All the people in that place, if there is a strike or some other problems comes there for food.


Now its night. I was sitting and reading bhagavatham, a book that I bought from there. I then saw many people, taking long stick to light the lamps surrounding the temple. I was very excited. I thought, finally, I can do something for god. I can light the lamps in his temple. I also went. The person coordinating this gave me a lighted stick and asked me also to join. I was very happy and did that. It was very hot, but I loved doing it. I went completely around the temple and lit the lamps. This was the last thing of the day. It was called Sheeveli. Then I would leave preparing to stand in queue next day. The routine in the night continued for three days. Third day, the person who used to give me the sticks to light the lamp called me and told that I have to give some money to that person (Amount not specified). I was a bit sad. Then understood that the effect has come to that temple also. The privileged people going into the temple without queue became privileged because of money and nothing else. The privilege level that you have increases in direct proportion with the money that flows from you hand to the devaswom peoples pocket.


These things happening were not at all right. Are the people standing in the queue fools to stand there and watch these things? Are the people who stand for long hours and get the receipt fools to see someone directly giving money and taking prasadam? I was thinking, at least in a place where it is told that god exists, people should not do it. Then I heard in a preaching that there are different types of Bhakthi. One among them was rajaswa bhakthi. Example for that is a person who tells, “You are now in front of god, please don’t use bad words.” Then as I mentioned, it should not be done just in temple but it should not be done in any other place. Money is important, but there are right ways to earn it. If people believe in something that is told in budhism, which is “We do not take anything from this world when we go, wise are the one who does not have anything of their own”, then there will not be this problem.



Meanings: Kalyug = It’s the period when Vishnu will be taking his 10th incarnation. It’s the time when Kali prevails in the world. Prasadam = Its something that you get from the temple, which has sandal, flowers and some sweets. Chandanam = Sandalwood paste. Poojaris = Priest Prathishta = Deity’s idol

Happiness..

Happiness is an emotion in which one experience feelings like satisfaction or intense joy. This is the definition that one can find about happiness. But then, how do you get such an experience? That is, how do you become happy?

For me, when I was in school, getting good marks in exam would have made me happy. When I was in college, getting a good job would have made me happy. Now when I am working at a place, the amount of money that I earn is making me happy. So to make it very clear happiness would be an emotion that you get when your desires are fulfilled.

Happiness is something that everyone likes. It’s an emotion that everyone would want to have. The next question would be how can you be happy always? Is there any way to satisfy all your desires? There will be many desires of yours which will not be satisfied even if you try for it. It would give results, but then, might be late which will make you sad. ‘Sadness’ is another emotion without which we would have never known the good feeling of happiness.

Happiness depends on a person’s perspective, the way in which he looks towards his life. As its told in Buddhism, desire is the cause of misery. So if you do not have any desire, then you can be happy. But as a normal human being its very difficult to live without having desires. If you do not have any desire, then you might find your life meaningless or purposeless. Here you have a contradiction. What next? You have a desire and you want to be happy. But if your desire is not satisfied, obviously you are unhappy. So what can be done is change the way you look at your desire. The happiness that you get by satisfying a desire is always short lived.
I needed a bike… I get a bike... I am happy… Now I want a car… I am sad, I don’t have it and I have no means to buy it… So when you consider life, expect this to happen always. So if one desire is not met, the only thing that you have to think is, the happiness that I would have got from that would have been for very short time, and obviously I am going to get a bigger desire.

Now going to perspective, if you are sad you can be happy. Just consider sadness as mere emotion. If you are a person believing in god, then you can take this emotion as something which helps to remind you about god. Because generally it is during sadness that we remember god. So you should be happy that the sad emotion that you have gave an opportunity for you to think about almighty god which in turn is good for you. Another example that I can give about the changing perspective would be, not to think that you will be happy if you are desires are satisfied or mould your desire in such a way that its about something selfless. Let it be something like, I am happy when the child who begs everyday in front of the temple gets one time good meal. This would give you some purpose in your life and also it helps to make you happy which is not short lived. Another way of being happy is to change the way in which you look at life in adversities. An example for this would be, T A Edison calling his wife to show her a once in a life time seen, which is his factory caught in fire and turning to ashes. It was an adversity, but the way he looks into it is different.

The happiness that we get from the worldly things is always short lived. At the end of life when you retrospect your life, then you will find that, you have not gained anything significant after a long life. The things about which you were sad were of least importance for you. So whenever you are sad, put yourself in a position of an old man thinking about his past life, and think how much importance you will have then, for the incident that made you sad now. Finally as its told in Bhagwat Gita, "Everything happens for good in your life", so just believe in this and happiness is yours.

P.S. Read at your own risk