ANANYAS CHINTAYANTO MAAM
YE JANAH
PARYUPASATE
TESHAM NITYABHIUKTANAM
YOGAKSHEMAM VAHAMY AHAM
Srimad Bhagavad Gita , a scripture written by Rishi Ved Vyasa,
is an enchanting description of the journey of the soul from darkness to
light. Arjuna’s charioteer in the
Mahabharata epic, is none other than the
Supreme Lord Krishna himself. During the
course of the famous Kurukshetra battle being fought between the Kauravas and
Pandavas, Arjuna is bewildered at the thought of fighting his own kinsmen.
Krishna reveals his virat rupa, his all pervasive cosmic form, his divine
manifestation, to his dear friend Arjuna.
It is during the course of the battle that Arjuna receives this
confidential knowledge from the Lord, performs his true kshatriya dharma of a
warrior and is victorious.
This is verse number 22 of Chapter 9 in Bhagavad Gita. The Lord tells Arjuna to take refuge in Him,
to constantly remember Him in exclusion of all other thoughts. For those people
who are fixed in devotion to Him,
meditate on His transcendental form, the Lord provides what they desire while preserving everything they have.
There is a short narrative to exemplify the
thought behind this verse. Once upon a
time there lived a poor Brahmin with his family. He was a devotee of Lord
Krishna and was particularly fond of
reciting verse 9.22 as expounded above.
Begging for alms, he
would constantly remember the Lord and recite this verse. However, he continued
to remain in abject poverty. One day he was absolutely distraught at seeing the
plight of his hungry children. So much so that his faith was shaken and he
thought that the message in the phrase
‘vahamy aham’ is improper and should be deleted. So, he picked up
his ‘Gita’ and struck three lines across
the phrase with red ink.
Then he proceeded
to beg alms for his family. After a
few hours of his leaving his hut, there was a knock at the door. To the
utter surprise of his wife, a young very attractive boy had brought a cartful of grains, lentils,
fruits and vegetables. His smile touched
her heart and he said “Maiya, Your
husband wanted me to give them to you.” When he bent down to place the bags in
her hut, she was aghast to see three red ugly bleeding marks on his back.
Surprised, she asked him, what happened. To this, he responded by saying that “
your husband whipped me with his lash because he did not believe that I wanted
to deliver these goods to you”. Angered
by her husband’s untoward behaviour, she told the boy to wait so that she could
get something to clean up his wounds. But, when she came back, the boy was
gone.
When the Brahmin
returned home empty handed , he saw his wife in the kitchen preparing meals.
Surprised, he questioned her. She said,
“you only sent bags full of grains, lentils and all. But, tell me why did you
whip that young boy. The three lash wounds on his back were bleeding when he
came to deliver the food to me.” The Brahmin was taken aback saying that he had
not got any alms so how could he have possibly sent the stuff. He had never met or requested any young boy to
deliver the cartful of food to her.
Suddenly, it dawned on
him to check verse 9.22 of Gita. The three
red lines which he had inflicted on the words ‘vahamy aham’ were gone. He fell
on the ground with tears in his eyes.
“You are fortunate”, he told his wife,” for the Lord has blessed you
with his darshan. It was none other than Shree Hari himself who brought us
food. The three wounds you saw on his
back were the three red lines I struck across the phrase ‘vahamy aham’ in verse 9.22 of my Gita. See they are gone
now.”
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