Deities at home

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 lived a person in a village. He was a pious person and used to perform his Daiva pooja every day. He used to have the small deities’ moorthis from his fore fathers, which he kept in his pooja room. He would perform Abhisheka every day at home and do the special poojas to the appropriate deities on the festival days. Rama pooja on Sri Rama Navami, Vinayaka pooja on Vinayaka Chathurthi etc.

His life was pretty normal and smooth without any major problems and he was contented in life.

One day his wife made Vadas and those were offered to the lord as part of the regular pooja. One guy used to come to help this family in certain works (servant maid). So after finishing the Nivedana, the wife gave two vadas to the servant. The guy ate those happily.

After some time the servant came back to the owner’s wife and asked her for one more Vada. She refused saying that they done have any more vadas in their house to offer him. The servant insisted and the woman went on refusing with the same reason. After sometime the servant said, “You still have 23 vadas in your house. Why are you saying that you don’t have any vadas? Please give me one more.”

The woman went inside the kitchen and counted and there were exactly 23 vadas. The woman brought one outside and offered it to the servant and asked him, “How did you know the count of vadas present inside the kitchen?”

The servant said, “Don’t bother. Just ignore it.” Saying that he left the house.

Later the woman told her husband about the incident. The husband was surprised. He called the servant later in the evening and asked him again.

The servant did not give any specific response and left.

The man could not sleep the whole night. He wanted to get to the bottom of this incident.

Next morning when the servant came for doing his regular work, the man raised the same question. After insisting for quite some time, the servant responded.

“From my forefathers I got one mantram. I keep reciting that every day, certain number of times. With that, I have this ability of talking to the adhishtaana devatha of that mantram. In fact it’s a raakshasi and not a devatha. I can ask some questions and I get answers whispered in my ears.

So, I asked it about the number of vadas present when your wife said that there are no more vadas.

That’s when I got an answer of 23.”

The man was shocked. He felt, “I have been doing these poojas every day and that too for more time than this servant. But so far, I don’t have any powers. No mantra Shakthi.”

He told the servant, “Please teach me that mantram. I will also recite.”

The Servant told him the mantram and the man started reciting that mantram every day. After some 8-10 days, someone knocked on his door. The man opened the door and there was a raakshasi outside the door. The man was shocked and asked her who she was.

“I am the one for whom you have been reciting the mantra all these days. I want to come in and stay with you. But you have to throw all the deities you have in your pooja room outside. I can’t come in if they are present in this house.”

At this juncture, there are two ways in which one can think. Lets look at the way which the man did not think.

“I have been praying god for such a long time. So far I could not see god. Forget about seeing god, I did not get any powers so far. What is the point praying God every day like this without any output? I recited this mantra just for 10 days and I am about to get special powers.”

With the above thought one can discard the deities inside and destroy oneself.

Now look at what the pious man thought.

“So far I have been thinking that the deities in my house have been doing nothing to me. There are so many raakshasis and evil spirits around who can come inside with or without our efforts. But they are not able to get inside my house because of the presence of the gods inside my house. These gods have been protecting me all along without my knowledge. What more special powers do I need?”

With that thought process, he asked that Raakshasi to leave and shut the door. From then onwards, he continued his poojas normally.

Its important that we pray the gods who have been coming to us from our forefathers, in the form of the small moorthies, as they have been prayed all along. They will fulfill your wishes as long as you take care of them. One need not fear the Gods as they won’t cause any harm. Worst case, they might not cause good if we don’t take care of them continuously. But they are not sadistic to take revenge on us J So one should not be God fearing. Instead one should be God loving.

సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు

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