In the previous episode, we had witnessed the culmination of the Govardhana instance, wherein we had worshipped Bhagawan Bala-Krishna as Bhagawan Govardhana-Giridhari. As this comes to an end, in due course of the previous episode, we had commenced witnessing an important point that pertains very much to our modern day as to why we should visit these important places atleast once in our lifetime. We had witnessed in these lines that it is important for all of us to prioritize our spiritual journey along with all other daily routines, job, family commitments, etc. In fact, many of us have this narrative today – If someone invites us for a spiritual “Yatra” to visit and worship Mathura, Govardhana Giri, Ayodhya or some place, we would immediately reply thus, “Oh! I’m quite young for all this! Let me retire at the age of 58 or 60 and let me think of all this after that!”
We’ve to understand one important thing here – Nobody knows how long we are going to live in this world. Given the present pandemic situation of COVID-19, life has become so uncertain for many unfortunate families who are losing their beloved ones to the disease. Of course, I’m not trying to scare anybody here, but given the uncertainty factor of our life, even without the COVID-19 pandemic, we never know what is going to happen to us next minute. Hence, if we get an opportunity at this present moment to visit holy places where Bhagawan has lived and played during His incarnation, we should grab the opportunity with both our hands, and not postpone it any further. This is one way of looking at things. The second way of it is that, even if we’ve to wait for the age of 60+ to start going on “Yatras” and if we’re alive also, our physical body is bound to face lot of problems. For instance, we might become diabetic, or we might have other comorbid conditions that might not encourage us to travel at that point in time. Moreover, if we go for all these “Yatras”, the normal scene today is that, out of 100 people touring in a group, almost 75-80 of them would be above the age of 70. They would struggle to walk and climb steps at this age. If we’ve to visit Mathura and these areas during summer, it is going to be extremely hot. Whereas, if we’ve to visit Badrinath and other places, they are all amidst the Himalayas and we would have to climb steps, walk amidst steep slopes, etc. amidst the freezing cold. If we’re 70+, how would we have the strength in our body to do all these? Many people do it in their 70’s, but the risks and dangers involved are extremely high. Hence, if we look at it in this angle too, we should make sure that we grab our opportunities when we’re young and fit.
Moreover, there’s a third angle to this point – Now that all of us (or many of us) are into high-paying jobs and we too in turn have huge career ambitions in life, we should think for a moment what I’m going to say – The more and more we rise up in our career, the lesser and lesser is our peace of mind and time for ourselves and for our spiritual growth. We should keep reminding ourselves time and again that the very purpose of this human birth according to our Sanaatana Dharma is to attain “Moksha”. Of course, I’m not saying that all of us should resign our jobs tomorrow itself and start doing penance. The point here is that, we should be able to balance our professional and spiritual requirements equally.
I shall narrate a simple example to drive home this important point – Once there was a shopkeeper of a small shop in a city. Everyday his routine is to open the shop at 10 AM, go on till 2 PM, close the shop for lunch, have a nap till 5 PM, re-open the shop at 5:30 PM and go on till 8-8:30 PM and finally to call it “close” for the day. In many parts of our Bhaarata Desha (India) we might see this as a common practice for many shop owners. Once there was an Englishman who visited this particular shop to buy something in the afternoon. He was surprised that this shopkeeper closes the shop after 2 PM for the next three hours. This Englishman asks the shopkeeper thus, “Oh shopkeeper! It’s surprising for me that you’re wasting 3 hours of your productive business time. Do you imagine how much business you are losing during this time?” The shopkeeper asked the Englishman calmly thus, “Oh! So what? I’m happy with whatever business I’m doing during my working hours of the day, and I’m happy by napping in the afternoon during the hot time. This gives me a lot of peace of mind and I’m satisfied with whatever I have!”
Upon hearing thus from the shopkeeper, the Englishman laughs at him and replies thus, “Oh fool! You do not know how much you’re losing! If you’re earning more money, you can expand your shop and make more business, isn’t it?” The shopkeeper politely asks him back, “So what?” The Englishman replies back, “So what? If you get more money, you can open one more shop in the next area and make more money!” The shopkeeper calmly replies thus, “What next?” The Englishman replies, “Next, you can expand your shop and set up multiple retail outlets all across the city! Your money inflow would be very high!” The shopkeeper again asks the same question thus, “What next?” The Englishman now says thus, “Oh! Then you can expand your brand to many other places in the state and maybe also all across India! You would become very famous!” The shopkeeper was unfazed by all this and again calmly asks, “What’s next?” The Englishman replies again, “Oh! Then you can expand your retail outlet across various countries like how Wallmart, Carrefour, etc. do! You would be one of the world’s most influential businessmen!” The shopkeeper again asks, “What next?”
Now the Englishman says, “Oh! Then you can build many “Villas” and perhaps you can even own an island in some remote location! You can build a magnificent palace for yourself!” The shopkeeper asks again thus, “So what? What next?” Now the Englishman says, “Oh! Once you have your own island and villa, you can go there and relax whenever you want!” Now the shopkeeper replies thus, “Oh wow!! It is the same thing that I’m doing here at this moment, isn’t it? I’m relaxing whenever I want to! What is the big difference between relaxing here and relaxing at an island?” 🙂
This might be funny for us to read through, but there’s a lot of meaning to it – Going behind money is fine. But if we start living our entire life for money, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy many other things in life. If we’ve to enjoy the experience of being connected to Bhagawan Bala-Krishna, we should make it a point to take some time off our routine, go to Mathura, Gokula and Vrindavan and be there for sometime. Only then we would be able to really enjoy whatever we’re reading here! So for today, let us understand this important point and let us wait till the next episode to witness the next important “Krishna Leela” as narrated by Sage Paraashara! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 