Guest Treatment & Response - One small episode from Raamayana

గురు బ్రహ్మ గురుర్ విష్ణుః గురుర్ దేవో మహేశ్వరః

గురు స్సాక్షాత్ పరబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః

శుక్లాం బరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం

ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్ సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే

శ్రుతి స్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం

నమామి భగవత్ పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం

ఓం నమః శివాయ

When Hanuma started off to Lanka from Mahendra giri parvatham, in search of Sita Maata, he encountered quite a few hurdles (good and bad). He overcame all of those in an extremely tactful manner and these incidents have lots of lessons to learn.

Long long time ago, mountains used to have wings. This means that they could fly and settle down wherever they want. This was found to be very problematic as people used to face problems because of this flying nature of the mountains. So, Lord of Devalokam, Indra, started clipping the wings of all the moutains. He could cut the wings of all the mountains except one - Mainaaka parvatham. This one has golden peaks and glitters wonderfully. Knowing that Indra is clipping the wings of all the mountains, this moutain gets scared and just forgets to use its wings to fly to a safer place. What is our strength today could become our weakness on one day. Hence we should never throw our weight because of our strength/ability/expertise, as that same strength could become our weakness or it would not come to our help when we actually need it. Seeing this, Vaayu devudu (Lord of Winds) offered to help Mainaaka.

So, he takes the mountain and drops it in the ocean. Mainaaka goes to the bottom of the ocean and settled there on top of a big entrance. This entrance was used by the Raakshasaas to enter earth from Paatalam every day. Indra knew about the presence of Mainaaka on the seabed. Realizing that Mainaaka has blocked Raakshasaas entrance, Indra leaves Mainaaka there as he knows that Mainaaka would not attempt at coming out, fearing him.

When Hanuma flies over the ocean, Samudrudu (Lord of Oceans) tells Mainaaka, "You should offer guest treatment to Hanuma for two reasons.
1. It was Hanumas father (Vaayuvu) who had helped you retain your wings. Its Payback time now.
2. More importantly, Hanuma is going on Raama Kaaryam. So, it would be a great thing to offer help on anything related to Raama Kaaryam.
So, even if it means that Indra cuts your wings when you come out of water, you should not bother. You come out of water, ask Hanuma to rest on your mountain. Ask him to have some fruits and honey, rest for a while and then continue his journey to Lanka."

Hearing this Mainaaka comes out of the water and requests Hanuma to rest on his mountain, have some fruits, honey, get some rest and then leave.

Hanuma promptly touches Mainaaka and says, "I am extremely happy with your guest treatment. Kindly dont stop me now. You can consider that you have given all the fruits, honey etc to me and that I have eaten all of those. I am extremely satisfied. I took an oath that I would leave like Raama Baanam to Lanka. And an arrow doesnt stop in between to take rest. It will keep going until it hits the target. Hence kindly let me go."

Once Hanuma leaves with that wonderful response, which leaves Mainaaka very happy, Indra appears. But Mainaaka doesnt bother about fleeing. Indra informs Mainaaka that he is not going to clip his wings because Mainaaka has offered to help some one who is on Raama kaaryam.

Will post the list of all of those who got benefited because of small contribution to Raama Kaaryam, soon.

Never shirk away from Atidhi satkaaram (Honoring guests) and never disappoint hosts. When something is offered to you which you dont like or which you cant consume then, you should touch it once and mention that you have taken what they have offered and explain why you cant take it then.

సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు

PS: There could be typos and other mistakes in telugu and english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.