Faith in God

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 a pottery maker used to live in a small village near Srikakulam. This guy used to make his livelihood by making pots, more importantly used to sell them at a price with appropriate profit to ensure that the basic needs of his family are taken care of without being greedy. He was a great bhaktha of Lord Siva. In the same village there used to be a very old temple of Lord Siva. He used to go there frequently as well.

The couple was not blessed with a child for a long time. One day, the husband prayed for Lord Siva and took a vow that he would make a nice pot for the Lord, if Lord Siva gives him a baby boy.

Lord Siva blessed him with a baby boy few months later and the couple was extremely happy. With great dedication and gratitude, the husband started working on a pot. After few days he finally made a nice looking big pot and he was very happy with that and decided to give that to Lord Siva.

One fine day he took that big pot to the temple and wanted to put it inside the Garbha Gudi. He realized that the pot he made was bigger than the width of the door opening. He tried different ways to get the pot inside, but the pot was too big to be taken inside. After spending quite some time in trying to get that inside, he gave up. He became upset that Lord Siva was not accepting his gift. He left the pot outside the door and went to his home. He brought his new born son to the temple and put the baby in that pot. He looked at Lord Siva and said, “If you don’t like my gift and will not accept it, I will also not accept your gift. You take back your gift and after that I will take back mine.”

Saying this he left the kid in the pot and left the temple and went home. When asked by wife he told her that he returned Lord Siva’s gift as Lord Siva did not accept their gift.

When the couple woke up in the morning, they heard a baby crying outside their house. They opened the doors and saw their son at their door step. The husband picked the baby and went inside. When the wife asked him as to how the baby came back, the husband responded, “Lord Siva must have accepted my gift and took it inside and so gave our child back to me.” He did not even bother to visit the temple immediately to verify. Not surprisingly, the pot moved to a place behind the Siva linga in the temple by the time the priests opened the temple in the morning.

Even today, that pot is still present in the temple behind the Siva linga and it can be very easily observed that the size of the pot is bigger than the door opening. People who do not have children should drop something (I forgot what) in that pot with a sincere wish, coupled with faith, and they will be blessed with children.

This place is Sri Mukha Lingam in Srikakulam district. This is also called kotilinga kshetram. Apparently around one crore of siva lingas are present within a radius of some 8 or 10 km of this Sri Mukhalinga Kshetram.

సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు

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

Sentence Framing and the order of speaking

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 goes to Lanka in search of Seetamma, after searching everywhere and not finding her anywhere gets disappointed. But then decides to search all over again with renewed determination and with a simple change of his mental set up, he immediately finds her under the sisupa vruksham in Ashoka vanam.

He gets down the tree and realizing that she is under great stress with no trust on anyone asks her the following question, knowing fully well that she is seetamma.

“అమ్మ! నువ్వు దేవతలకి చెందినదానవా? యక్షులకి చెందినదానవా?, గంధర్వులకి చెందినదానవా? వశిష్టుడు మీద అలిగి వచ్చిన అరుంధతివా? అగస్త్యుడు మీద అలిగి వచ్చిన లోపముద్రవా? నీ పాదములు భూమి మీద ఆనుతున్నాయి. కనుక నీవు దేవతా స్త్రీవి కావు. నీలో రాజ లక్షణాలు కనపడుతున్నాయి. క్షత్రియ వంశానికి సంబంధించిన ఒక రాజు ఇల్లాలి వని అనుకుంటున్నాను. నువ్వు కాని జనస్థానం లో రావణుడి చేత అపహరించబడిన సీతమ్మవి కాదు కదా?”

To the above question, seetamma responded in the following way.

“

1.    ఈ ప్రుధివిని పాలించిన గొప్ప రాజైన దశరథ మహారాజు కోడలిని

2.    విదేహ వంశ ప్రభువైన జనక మహారాజు కూతురిని.

3.    నా పేరు సీత.

4.    గొప్ప బుద్ధిశాలి అయిన రాముడి ధర్మ పత్నిని.”

The above conversation very simple and straight forward. But under the circumstances, there are lots of things to learn from the above conversation. Let’s look at Hanuma’s question first.

·         Talking politely to someone is very important, especially when the other person is under stress and suspicion.

·         By talking about great people like Vasishta, Agasthya, Arundhati etc, it would appeal to seetamma. Since last 10 months in Lanka, Seeta never heard of such things except about Raavana. Based on the appealing factor of the other person, conversation should be initiated so that the opposite person can gain confidence in answering to us.

·         Talking about Devathas, shows the knowledge levels of Hanuma, which would instill confidence in seeta that he is not just another Raakshasa (or Raavana himself) who knows only to flatter Raavana.

·         Though he clearly knows who she is, he still asks her if she is actually her. When we make people provide answers that we know it makes them more confident and they will know that we are not assuming anything on their behalf. This is a very important attribute while speaking. State assumptions, if you make any, rather than just assuming and speaking based on your assumptions.

Obviously that gave lot of confidence to Seeta about Hanuma and she gave her response. Look at the order of her response.

1.    A married woman should always first say whose daughter in law she is.

2.    Followed by whose daughter she is. (I am daughter/son of so and so. Not My father’s name is so and so)

3.    She then states her name, which is less significant than the above two.

4.    Finally, she states whose wife she is. Not who her husband is. Most importantly, it’s not about providing the name of her husband, but more importantly stating an attribute of her husband.

Framing of sentences, order of those are very important, which will make our speaking very pleasant and more importantly correct as per the sanaatana dharmam.

సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు

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