గురు బ్రహ్మ గురు ర్విష్ణుః గురు ర్దేవో మహేశ్వరః
గురు స్సాక్షాత్ప రబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః
శుక్లాంబరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం
ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే
శ్రుతిస్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం
నమామి భగవత్పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం
ఓం నమః శివాయ
Whenever we abide by dharma and do good deeds, God tests
that character. That’s more of an opportunity for us to stick to our character,
which would not only fortify our belief but also get us a long-lasting fame.
There have been multiple such instances in the past and let’s touch upon couple
of those in this post.
We all know about the great “Daana Karna”. He got
the title “Daana” because of his character of giving anything that’s asked. He
would not think twice before giving away. So one day, Indra (Arjuna’s father),
came in the guise of a old poor brahmin. He asked Karna for alms. Karna told
him to seek anything he wanted. The Brahmin asked him for his kavacha and kundalaalu.
These are things that Karna was born with, as he was born to Kunti with the
blessings of Surya Deva (Sun god). Karna knew who it was. Despite that, without
flinching, he cut the kavacha and kundalaalu from his body and handed them to
the seeker. The most important point to note here is lack of expectation on the
part of Karna.
Right after that, Indra takes his original form and
grants Karna a weapon. The power of this weapon is that it could kill anyone on
whom it is launched. Karna always wanted to kill arjuna and his ambition in
life was just that. Just by virtue of sticking to his character, Karna could
get a weapon with which he could potentially achieve his life ambition. So, God,
in the form of devathas, tested Karna and gave him an opportunity to achieve eternal
fame. This made Karna the famous “Daana Karna”.
There used to be a famous king by the name Sibi Chakravarthy.
He was also very famous for his Daana gunam. One day, Indra and Surya devathas
decided to test his character. Indra took the form of an eagle and Surya a
pigeon. The eagle started chasing the pigeon and both of them flew into the palace
of Sibi Chakravarthy. The pigeon started speaking and asked the king to save
her. The king was shocked to see a talking Pigeon. The eagle told the king to
release the pigeon so that it could have its meal. The king was once again
shocked to see a talking eagle. Before he could question that, both the birds mentioned
that they have some boon by virtue of which they can speak human language.
The Eagle said, “Its natural for an eagle to eat a
pigeon. You know Dharma and you should release the pigeon so that I can have my
meal.”
The Pigeon said, “I am seeking refuge with you.
Please save me and I don’t want to be killed by that eagle.”
Both the birds were right. The king said to eagle, “You
let me know what all food you want and I will be able to provide you with that.
But please leave the pigeon.”
The Eagle responded, “For me, there is nothing that
tastes better than raw flesh. So allow me to have my food.”
The King thought for a while and said, “Instead of
pigeon’s flesh, let me offer my flesh. I will give you flesh from my body,
which would be of equivalent weight of the pigeon.” The eagle agreed to that. The
king took flesh from his thigh and put that on a scale with the pigeon being on
the other side. How much ever the king tried to cut flesh from his body, it
would not match the weight of the pigeon. After a while, the king put himself
on the other side of the scale, thus offering himself to the eagle. The
devathas took their original form and said, “Your fame will be eternal. You
will be known as long as there is life on earth.”
When you look at the above two incidents, it’s very
clear that one should not lose the character when faced with a
testing/challenging situation. We should treat that as an opportunity to
fortify our character rather than wilting under pressure and do something which
would be contradictory to our character.
సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు
PS: There could be typos and other
mistakes in telugu and english, kindly pardon me with big hearts.
