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
Once upon a time there used to be a person by name Sundara Murthy. Sundara Murthy’s family was a middle class family. Sundara Murthy led a very normal life and once he reached his early twenties his parents wanted to get him married. They found a suitable bride and decided on the date of the marriage. On the day of the marriage everything was going smooth till an old man arrived at the marriage venue. He had a long hair, pretty old person, looked very poor. He had a long beard as well and both his hair and beard were unkempt. He came inside and went straight to the mandap (place within the hall where the marriage is conducted). He started talking to the groom.
“You come with me. You are my slave. You can’t get married now.”
Everybody was shell shocked. They thought that some mad guy has entered the hall and started blabbering. But his voice, authority and his conviction could not make people dismiss him without responding. The groom just dismissed his statements and said in anger.
“I don’t know who you are. How can u call me my slave? Please leave this place.”
But the old man insisted that the groom is his slave and he better go with him.
Then the elders intervened and asked him about the basis of his statement. They thought that would be an easy way to dismiss the old man.
The old man pulled out a document from his bag and mentioned that the document is the proof for his statement.
He said, “Your great grandfather has signed an agreement with our family stating that your family would be slaves for us for multiple generations. Here is the proof.”
The elders looked at that document and were surprised as it indeed stated so. The groom could not tolerate this anymore and he grabbed the document and burnt it.
The old man did not give up and said that he needed justice and wanted to go to the king. The groom was not worried about it as he had burnt the evidence. He accepted that and they all went to the king.
Surprisingly before the king the old man pulled out a very similar document. The groom was shocked. The king ordered the groom to go with the old man. Sundara Murthy did not have an option and he went with that old man. The old man was walking in the front and Sundara Murthy was walking behind. The old man went inside a Siva temple. He entered the Garbha Gudi (main part of the temple, where the deity is) and did not come out. Sundara Murthy waited for some time for the old man to come out… After that he went inside and did not find the old man there. Suddenly it dawned upon Sundara Murthy that it was Lord Siva who came in the form of an old man and directed him away from marriage and towards him. After that Sundara Murthy became a great Siva Bhaktha.
In his previous janma, Sundara Murthy was a great Siva Bhaktha. But he was drawn towards two women during that life. So God did not let him waste his efforts in the following janma.
Please don’t misinterpret that getting married is wasting one’s life.
It is very important that we do good things, however small they are however insignificant they seem to be in terms of output. There is a record keeper, who tracks everything and he will ensure that none of these go waste. All these are carried forward across janmas and results are awarded accordingly. This is true of bad deeds too. So they should be avoided and good deeds should be taken up.
సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు
PS: There could be typos and other mistakes in telugu and english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.
