Power of Promise and Love for Mother

Power of Promise and Love for Mother

You all know Adi Sankaracharya;

We do not try to understand the delicate lessons taught by the preceptors;

At the most we erect temples, make them IDOLS, like the stone GODS and continue to do all the nonsense we feel like doing in the name of Guru/God;

A glimpse into the life of Sankara ( it is a brilliant name and I love it)

Sankara was filled with the spirit of renunciation early in his life. Getting married and settling to the life of a householder was never part of his goal in life, though his mother was anxious to see him as a gruhasta. Once when he was swimming in the river, a crocodile caught hold of his leg. Sankara sensed that he was destined to die at that moment, and decided to directly enter the fourth Ashrama of sanyas right then. This kind of renunciation is called Apata sanyas. The crocodile released him when he thus mentally decided to renounce the world, and Sankara decided to regularize his decision by going to an accomplished guru. To comfort his anxious mother, he promised that he would return at the moment of her death, to conduct her funeral rites, notwithstanding the fact that he would be a sanyasi then.

Meanwhile, Sankara heard that his mother was dying, and decided to visit her. Remembering his promise to her, he performed her funeral rites. His orthodox relatives would not permit him to do the rites himself, as he was a sanyasi, but Sankara overrode their objections, and built a pyre himself and cremated his mother in her own backyard. After this, he once again resumed his travels and the noble mission.

I am interested in 2 things:

1)   Sanka, though a saint, followed his Swadharma…means –self law of duty

2)   When he realized he was going to die premature, he took up sanyasa –renunciation-so that he could serve the society before the final retreat( DEATH)

Dharma cannot be rigid, as rigidity makes one narrow minded and stubborn;

Dharma allows our mind to think, discriminate, choose and act accordingly. We cannot simply shut down our mind in the name of dharma.

However wayward thinking does not help, hence when it comes to dharma, we are taught to think in a way that helps us increase our faith in God without getting superstitious or compromising our intellect.

Dharma does not asks to brainwash ourselves and others in its name.

Mere parroting does not help.

An ounce of practice is thousand times better than tons of theory.

Sanskara demonstrated the above and continues to be an inspiration because of that

27/6/15