Chakara kaiyane acho acho!

One day in the cool glades of Dwaraka, spanned by the great ocean, Arjuna and Krishna are strolling with the former asking his usual questions. Krishna was playing the part of a Guru to His favorite disciple.

Finally Arjuna, the eternally doubtful, comes to the point when Krishna in the avatar of Vamana, buries underground the king who had given Him alms. Well! A small smile playing on His lips, Swami starts to explain.

The situation goes :

Lord Vishnu has ten avatars. The fifth avatar was Vamana, a brahmin dwarf born to Aditi, the mother of the Devas. He is born to wrench from Maha Bali's hands the throne of the Devas due to their insistent prayers.

Maha Bali is the Lord of the Asuras. He is much famed, renowned for his Dharma aside from hating the Devas which is the national sport of the Asuras. He is righteous towards his subjects, generous to a fault(Which soon consumes him), devoted disciple, loving husband and much much more. Also not to forget :the great grandson of Prahalada, one of the Lord's favorites.

He was holding a Mahayagna for the victory over the Devas. The rules of the Yagna was that you must give away whatever the attendees wanted esp. the Brahmanas. Now this was the loop hole that the Lord was after.

Popularly called Vamana, the dwarf, He takes a umbrella in His cherubic hands, Kamandala in His right and strides to where the Yagna was going on.

Seeing the beautiful Brahmin kid, captivated by His charm, Mahabali comes down and asks what he could do for Him.

The Child says, "I want land that is equal in measure to three paces of my feet".

Smiling, the King replies, " Is that all? Ask for more, jewels, money, cattle, villages, anything will be yours".

The Child : "No. That is all I need"

The Kula-Guru of the Asuras is Sukracharya. He is the much famed Venus which is equivalent to the brightness of the Sun in the evening sky and is renowned as the Evening Star.

Sukracharya : "O mighty Lord of the Asuras, I perceive through my tapas that this is no mere boy. His tejas and persona are reflective of the Lord Himself. Do not be deceived by His charms. Refuse Him anything He asks."

Mahabali : "O much revered Acharya! I salute thee! But this young one? How can I not refuse whatever He asks? Already my heart wants to embrace Him and take Him to be my own? Also, what can even the Lord do in such a small form? I will give up anything He asks for"

Sukracharya not knowing what to do and being the Kula-Guru, takes the form of a "vandu" or the bee and sits in the spout of the kamandala that is used for the dhana - renouncing purposes. So when Bali tilts the spout to water away the three paces of land, the water does not flow.

The Lord smiles, captivating and bewitching everybody in the process, takes a small "dharpai" or sacred grass and punctures whatever is blocking the spout. Lo Behold!! The bee's eye is pierced and it flies out allowing the water to flow in its wake. This is the reason why Sukracharya has only one eye.

The Lord (As usual!!!) rises to Viswaroopa and stands as Thiru Vikrama and takes the Earth in a pace, Heavens in another. He looks formidably at MahaBali and asks Him for the third measure.

Humble and gracious as ever(without a feeling of remorse) offers his head to the Lord. Swami then pushes him underground. But love and affection abounded in His heart for the most generous of the Asura Kings and He spares his life and grants him a boon becoming his Guardian forever.

Back to the current avatar:

Arjuna : "The king was gracious and generous. You took unfair advantage of him.

Krishna : "No. He disobeyed his Guru who asked him not to give me anything? Is this not a crime? Are you not supposed to listen to anything that your Guru says?"

Arjuna : "Well. Then why was Sukracharya punished? He wanted to save his kulam and the king"

Krishna : "He tried to prevent a person from giving alms which is not righteous at all and definitely not the manner of a Guru"

Thus ended one of the most famous repartees in Mahabharata. Alwar further glorifies the Lord's actions to posterity by

This beautiful chapter in Mahabharata expostulates the importance of listening to ones'Guru and also the benefit in giving alms: even though you know not what comes out of it, it will save you.

" Sukiran kannai thrumbal kuthiya
chakara kaiyane acho acho"

Acho Acho!

Udanga

It is said that everything in this world will happen in its own sweet time and in a predetermined manner. (Evolutionists: dont argue at this spot) Whatever is happening is for the good and happy is he who realises it.

This morning for no reason at all I was reminded of Udanga Maharishi and his devotion to the Lord. This character is one that is publicly trounced for all his devotion.

Udanga as a young sage was the disciple of Sage Vishwamitra. Now, who hasn't heard of the legendary anger of him? As soon as Udanga completed his education, Vishwamitra extremely pleased with him told him that he did not have to pay Guru Dakshina. But Udanga argued and counter argued to a point that the sage completely went berserk and asked him to bring 48 horses of a given Sabhurikha lakshana.

Now these horses are extremely rare and were owned by a king who lived eons away. And also there were only 48 horses in the entire world. The king also had 48 beautiful daughters of a lakshana found nowhere else.

Udanga was dismayed and pleaded with Vishwamitra. But now, the sage would hear nothing of it. Udanga set out and reached the king after a long and wearying journey.

The king refuses to part with even one of his horses. But as Udanga pleads, begs and points the wrath of Vishwamitra if he returns without the horses, he finally yields.

But as fate would have it, Udanga gets caught in a storm near a river on his way back with the 48 horses. Three of them go wild and jump into the river to be swallowed forever. The storm stops and Udanga is disconsolate. He rushes back to the king and begs with him.

But now there is nothing that even he can do. So he offers 3 of his daughters in place of the horses. Shaking with fear and trembling as a leaf, Udanga reaches Vishwamitra. He narrates the issue and seeks forgiveness. But to his surprise and mortification, the sage bursts out laughing.

He says,"Udanga, If you had any real brains, you would have got the 48 daughters of the king than the horses."

Udanga leaves the ashram ashamed and chastised.

So what do we have here? Is it that Vishwamitra is a womanizer? Or is the lesson that Udanga learnt was that women are better than horses?

Not at all. The lesson is that blind obediance to the Guru is required. He definitely knows what is going to come. If Udanga had only listened to his guru instead of thinking himself to be capable of much more than what the Guru could ask, he would not have been subject to such discomforts and humiliation.

Either he must have got all the 48 horses or the 48 daughters. Now he has got an incomplete number of both. The application of the knowledge imparted is not present. It is not to be assumed here that Vishwamitra prefers the 48 daughters. He is a sage who has won the senses.

So Udanga is left to no doubt about the incompleteness of his knowledge: application to practical issues and the inferiority to his guru.

He sets out to seek the permanence that exists beyond all and the knowledge that he craves for.

We shall see more of Udanga in the coming days