Remedies Work, but Not Always When Needed

Uttanka of Mahabharata was a very good shishya. An ideal shishya.
He served his guru very well, without selfish motives.
Learned his lessons very well.
Developed discretion as to what is right and what is wrong.

His guru was happy and satisfied with him.
Uttanka never even committed any sin, knowingly or even unknowingly.
Unknowingly because such people never venture into grey, risky areas.
They follow the path set by wise elders. They never take risk. They don’t get into adventures.
They don’t go for off-the-road adventures. They knew very well that off-the-road adventures can distract you from your goal.
They know that the purpose of life is emancipation of oneself, growth of the self, progress of the self.
They don’t have to win accolades like in a TV adventure show.
They don’t want to win a bungalow or 1 crore prize like in a TV adventure show.
Their goals are clear, their path is clear, the path is the path set by the wise, experienced elders.

Even then Uttanka has to meet with challenges.
The ear ornaments that he was carrying to present to his guru patni, they get stolen by Takshaka.
Is this the result of his past karma? Maybe, maybe not.
That’s not the point.
How he faces it is the point.
He chases Takshaka to Naga Loka, prays to him to return them to him.
Takshaka doesn’t listen.
He uses his influence over divinities, Takshaka’s seniors in the heaven, to force Takshaka to return them — even that doesn’t work.

But in the process, Uttanka realized that help is coming from unexpected quarters.
This help was coming because of his virtuous living so far. That Uttanka realizes.
For people who live virtuously, in times of trouble help comes from unexpected sources.

At that time Uttanka sees in Naga Loka two women weaving a cloth.
That cloth was being woven out of two kinds of threads — black and white.
He also saw a wheel with twelve spokes being turned by six boys.
Then he also saw a noble man and a horse with him.
The meaning of these we will see later once the story is over.
Earlier also we have left a few mysterious scenes like this.

Uttanka realizes that the noble form was Indra and says a praise addressed to him.
Indra becomes happy listening to the praise.
You know why every time these people say a praise whenever they meet a divinity or one divinity meets another?

In the IT, when a server and a client have to establish a secure connection, there is something called a handshake.
They exchange information between themselves to establish a secure connection.
Or how do you log into your bank account using a login ID and password?
You send them, the bank server acknowledges it, and then your connection is established.
These praises also work in the same way.
After the praise is said, the one to whom it is addressed invariably says, ‘I am happy with your praise, your stuti.’
That means the secure connection is established between the two.

Here Uttanka is in trouble.
He didn’t look for Indra.
Indra came on his own because of the dharma and punya that Uttanka had done in the past.
He didn’t start doing a punya karma now to propitiate Indra and get help from him.
That will take years.
Then he won’t be able to get the kundalas to his guru patni within the stipulated time of four days.

So the takeaway — keep on generating punya throughout, even when everything is fine and normal.
Keep on generating punya and keep it in your bank account.
It will come useful when you are in trouble.
When you are in trouble and then try to generate punya to solve it, it may not work.
This is why a lot of remedies don’t work.
They will give result.
Everything takes time.

If you are tired and weak due to starvation, then take food.
You don’t get energy as soon as you put food in your mouth.
It has to get to your stomach, get digested, then get absorbed in your body.
Then you will get back energy.
Everything takes time.

In the same way, all remedies give result, but not necessarily when you want them.
Or when the result comes much later, you may not even recognize that to be a result of the remedy.
A person loses his job. He does a remedy.
For the next six months, he is jobless.
Then he gets a job.
He thinks that the remedy did not work, it did not help.
He thinks that the job came on its own, or just on his merit.
This may not be correct.
But for the effect of the remedy, he may have stayed jobless for another 3 years — or for lifetime.

So it is wisdom to keep on doing good things even when everything looks fine and you feel that you are on the right track and nothing can go wrong.
If it can go wrong for someone like Uttanka — as virtuous and intelligent as Uttanka — it can happen with anyone.
And only your past virtuous deeds come to your rescue then.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi