Events in Life May Not Always Go the Way We Want

Uttanka kept on reminding his Guruji that 'I want to give you guru dakshina before I go home.'
Finally, Guruji said, 'Ask your guru patni, if she needs something get it for her.'
Guru patni said, 'Get me the ear ornaments that the queen of King Pausha wears.'

Uttanka went, asked for them.
She happily gave.
It was very rare that some noble person would come on his own and ask for something.
Normally, you have to chase them if you want to give them something.

There are several references: during yajnas, the kings give a lot of dakshina to the mahatmas who conduct them — gold, diamonds, cows.
As a matter of duty, they accept, but most of them leave all that behind telling the king,
'Use it for the welfare of the people.
What will we do by carrying all this money around?'

So here a tapaswi, satwik brahmachari has come asking for something.
'This is my luck. My fortune.'
She immediately handed over the kundalas and said, 'Be careful.
The king of serpents, Takshaka, has an eye on these.
He will try to snatch them from you.'

Uttanka said, 'Don’t worry. Takshaka will not even dare to come near me.'
See the confidence — confidence in his mantras, confidence in his power, which he has developed by observing dharma.

Be clear, chant mantras crores of times.
They will work only if you are a sadachari — you are honest, kind, not greedy, not violent.

He expressed his gratitude to the queen and also to Paushya.
'I am so pleased with what you have done.'
Paushya said, 'I have a request.
I am seeing a noble soul like you after such a long time.
I want to do shraadha for my forefathers.'

This system is there in our dharma.
If you want to offer something to God or to your forefathers,
You can invoke them onto the body of noble satwik people and feed them.
It is as good as you have offered it to the devata of the forefather.
While feeding them, the devata or the forefathers will be present in their body.
It is similar to how you do invocation or prana pratishta in an idol or kalasha and worship that.

This is the principle of Shraddha.
Getting a satwik person to act as a seat for devatas or forefathers is very difficult.
An ordinary person — his mind, his sookshma shareera — will be so much filled
With thoughts, desires, prejudices, fears, anxieties, that the devata or forefather will not be able to enter only.
They will not have any place to sit in his sookshma shareera.

They should come and occupy the sookshma shareera for that much time.
Someone can sit on a chair only if it's empty, right?
If the chair is stacked up with so much stuff, how will you sit on it? Or even if someone else is sitting on it?

These noble souls like Uttanka, they do not have an ahamkara.
They do not have strong identities —
'That I am so and so, this is my name, this is my status.'
For them, their own body is like a vehicle or a chair.
They can easily get out of it and make someone else sit there.

That’s why the dharma gives permission to conduct shraadha whenever you find such a person —
Provided that person agrees and obliges.
You don’t have to see the tithi or anything.

Paushya requested. Uttanka agreed.
But Uttanka said, 'You know I am in a hurry. So I cannot wait for long.
So whatever food you have ready, bring it.'

As Uttanka sat down for taking food, he found a hair in that food.
And the food was cold.
Seeing this, Uttanka said, 'Do you know the result of this — serving impure food to a noble person?
You will become blind.'

Don’t even think that Uttanka cursed him.
Paushya should have checked. He didn’t bother to. He had eyes, but he didn’t bother to look.
Then what use are the eyes?
That’s why Uttanka said, 'You are going to be blind.'

Paushya became agitated, the Kshatriya that he was.
He said, 'This food is pure. You are just making a false allegation. So you will also become childless.'

See, Paushya was a dharmik person, so he also had certain powers.
Uttanka said, 'First of all, you served me impure food.
Whom have you served? Your own forefathers.
I am not consuming this food — it is your forefathers who are consuming food through my body.
I am not the beneficiary — they are the beneficiaries.
You didn’t bother to check the purity, and on top of that you are cursing me for obliging your request.
Come and see for yourself.'

Paushya saw that there was hair in the food and it was cold to the extent of being stale.
He realized that the food was cooked by women who had let their hair loose while cooking.
This is another point: ladies, please do not leave your hair unbound while cooking for puja or Shraddha.

Paushya apologised and asked Uttanka to do something so that he doesn’t become blind.
Uttanka said, 'My words will not be futile.
But since now you repent, you will become blind — but then regain your vision.
Now, you also withdraw your curse from me.'

Paushya said,
'Noble people like you — your words at times can be harsh,
But your heart would melt easily like butter.
But we rulers are just the opposite.
We speak very softly, but our hearts are very hard.
My anger towards you is not going.
I still have anger towards you.
So I am unable to withdraw my curse.'

See how well those people understood their own minds.
Uttanka said, 'Before you cursed me, you said I made a false allegation.
But that was untrue.
Your curse was based on this untrue statement.
So your curse will not have any effect on me.'

Saying this, Uttanka came out of the palace.
See — the way people behave is totally unpredictable.
See how it started — all about dana and dharma.
Then it ended in mutual curses.
Small events — they don’t go where we want them to go.
There is some other master plan at work.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi