Are we destined to do certain actions

I am sure many of you, if not all, are enjoy watching Mahangalum Adisayangalum show in Vijay TV telecast from Monday to Friday every week at 6 p.m. I am not a big fan of soaps in TV but now my evenings are filled with a show “Shivam” at 5:30 p.m., “Mahangalum Adisayangalum” at 6 p.m. followed by “Mahabharatham” at 7 p.m. In order to accommodate seeing these three wonderful serials, I start the day early and finish my Yoga class very early in the morning. As the Yoga class is getting intense day by day, I have moved my Pranayama to evening after 7:30 p.m. and had to push my dinner from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. But these three shows are worth making any adjustment in life.

For those who have seen all 10 episodes of Mahangalum Adisayangalum, what I am about to say might be boring and of no interest. This serial is about Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal also known as Paramacharya. Right from the time he was born as a child, there were signs of extraordinary happenings in the house such as, the child crying nonstop until help reaches a cow that is strangulated in a rope, an astrologer predicting that he would not be at home and was born to teach right living to millions of people, etc. They passionately named him Swaminathan and his mother was very nervous throughout his childhood as he was showing unconditional love to total strangers and learned and repeated Vedic chants in a heartbeat. One day, the head of Kanchi Kamakodi Peedam visited their house and he was able to identify that Swaminathan was truly divine and would be a great successor for him.

The parents keep resisting the child’s natural interest to learn Veda and go to Kanchi mutt. Instead, they decide to put him in a convent. He obliged his parents and showered a lot of love to his parents. He kept promising them that he would never leave them under any circumstances to alleviate the fear of his mother that one day he would become a Sanyasi. One day, he left for Kanchi Mutt without telling his parents and the head of Kanchi Mutt asked him to stay in the Mutt for 4 days. The parents kept looking for him all over and finally the Mutt sent information that Swaminathan was safe in the Mutt. 4 days later, the Mutt sent him in a Palanquin and that scared the parents so much. The mother again took a promise from the child that he would never be away from the mother.

Finally, the Head of Kanchi Mutt reached the Lotus Feet of the Lord and the Mutt appointed Swaminathan’s cousin as the successor. However, a message was sent asking Swaminathan to come to the Mutt immediately. Knowing a successor was already appointed, the mother decided to take Swaminathan to Kanchi. The circumstances divide mother and son in two separate carts and Swaminathan reached Kanchi much earlier. He was shocked when he reached Kanchi that both head of Mutt and the successor (i.e. his cousin) reached the Lotus Feet of the Lord. Everyone in the Mutt told Swaminathan that he had to guide the people and take responsibility of the Mutt. After much thought, he decided to take the responsibility.

Finally, the parents reach Kanchi Mutt and asked for him. He allowed his parents to come in. His mother cried and asked about his promise. Finally, he asked a question back to her, “If you get a life like me, would you like to please one mother or many mothers?” The parents quietly fall at his feet and leave without any further questions.

Every one of us who watched the program at home was in tears and entered into a serious Satsang whether the decision taken was right or not. Both my wife and her mother strongly argued that the parents were the ones who were wronged (especially his mother). I understand the pain the parents went through.

However, it is my humble opinion, every life is wired to do certain acts and in the absence of the knowledge of each person’s prior lives, there is no way we can come to the conclusion which is right or wrong. If Swaminathan was forced to stay back at home, the world would have lost one of the greatest teachers of 20[SUP]th[/SUP] century. Moreover, he had to take another birth to fulfill his obligations. The parents of Swaminathan should be proud that they were blessed to raise a child that came into existence to teach Advaitham to the world. I have written about free will earlier and I repeat it again. The only free will the body, mind and intellect have is whether to pursue the permanent and real Truth or pursue the transient and unreal worldly pleasure. Within this broad category, one can claim their actions as free will of each individual person. We are like a cow tied in a pole with our Karmas and we can only move around within a certain radius. Not a blade of grass moves without the Will of the Lord.

At present I am reading “Theivathin Kural” the teachings of Paramacharya and I am able to understand what the world would have lost if he were to decide to pursue the worldly life instead of becoming a Sanyasi.

This forum is full of young ladies, mothers and grandmothers and I leave the judgment to them.

 

Dear Jayasala,

Thank you for your first response to this post. She used to dream him as Sanyasai and later used to describe those dreams as "bad dreams" to her son. I can clearly understand the state of mind in which she lived until he actually became a Sanyasi. For that matter, she refuses to leave Swaminathan even for a second out of her sight. In a particular scene, an astrologer was called in to predict Swaminathan's future. After reviewing his horoscope, the astrologer calls in for a plate and water and washed Swaminathan's feet and kept it in his head stating that he was born to rule the world. Such scenes were very emotional and touching.

When Paramacharya ask that question to his mother, she cried with no answer but his father quickly realized the inevitable. He saw his son's posture with his hands raised to bless the couple. Then, both of them take his blessings and leave.

It is easier for the soul which is born to serve others to get out of bondage of the parents than the parents themselves. Thought that they have to be visiting him just like any other devotee in future would cause some pain. As you said rightly, after sometime, thought of raising a great Guru will overcome the emotion to let the son go. The time is a great healer and I am sure more and more people would have reminded the couple how blessed they were to raise a child like that.

Viswa

 

Dear Jasmine,

I am so glad to hear your husband is a great fan of Shivam serial and you both watch Shivam and Mahabharatham together. Please make sometime to watch this show as well. Only last Friday, he took charge of the Mutt and there is so much to happen from now on. I am sure you will enjoy the show.

The serial showed how hard it was for even the son to snap out of the bond. When everyone is falling at his feet asking him to take charge, he was wondering how he was qualified and how he could leave his parents to take this great mission. Then, he was able to recall all happenings from his childhood including the Head of the Mutt telling him that he would return when the time is right. Then, he assumes the responsibility.

We were all in tears to see the mother begging and crying to see her son outside of the Mutt and finally, when she confronts him about his promise to be with her always, he quietly responds, "Are you going to forget me when you walk away from here, mother? Therefore, I will always be with you." When she refuses to accept that finally he asks, "If I get a life, do I try to satisfy one mother or many mothers?" His mother being such a wonderful soul could not answer that question with selfishness.

There is no question in mind she was a very blessed soul.

Viswa

 

Dear Vjan,

You are absolutely right. There is no escape from what we are destined to do.

I am not sure whether you have seen the Sanskrit movie about Adi Sankara that is available online and if you have not seen it already, you should watch it. It has subtitles in English for someone like me who is not well versed in Sanskrit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VOjMy7pa-4

Viswa

 

Dear Sabitha,

Thank you for your response to this post. Perhaps, Paramacharya came into existence in that life to serve people with passion and teach them Advaita and he would have done it whatever manner it was possible. When that passion overwhelmed him, the opportunities aligned for him to perform the action he always wanted to do. In the absence of knowledge of his prior life, it is impossible to predict what resulted in him assuming that role at such a young age without waiting any further. For that matter, Adi Sankara assumed the role of Sanyasi even earlier.

Regarding mother, you are absolutely right. Any mother would do everything to keep her son with her. In this serial, she is a very righteous person serving her family with unconditional love and also worship the Lord for being so blessed in her life. Her reactions are understandable and that is why we all were with wet eyes after seeing last Friday's episode. Why can convince her to let it go other than her own son who was one of the greatest soul that walked this planet?

I have no doubts in my mind that we do have free will to choose how to conduct our lives. No scriptures are suggesting that life should be led reconciling to the fate that is predetermined with no actions carried out in life. Everyone of us are here only to do actions. But depending on what actions we had performed in the past, we are either burdened or blessed to do certain actions. In the absence of our ability to look back or look forward the prior and future lives, without which the complete picture of our Papa/Punya account won't be visible, the only thing we can do is to do good karma as part of right living. That is why I said we have choice to make to pursue the Self inside of us or the worldly pleasures. They are not mutually exclusive and there is no way one can pursue only Self not worldly pleasure unless we have transformed and made substantial progress in our series of journey. Besides, we have to perform the duties in each life for our kith and kin besides pursuing good actions to the outside world. The options that are in front of us is to pursue worldly pleasure, delve in bondage and continue our journey for a long period of time or to pursue right living, practice equanimity, detachment and ceiling on desires (moderation of desires) to reduce our time of the journey. But we have to remember that the Self inside of us is always Blissful and will attempt to shrug off the encryption in the form of Karma to set itself free. In my humble opinion, that is the premises for everyone pursuing happiness in life. The question we have to ponder is do we want to look for happiness outside of us or access the inherent Bliss that resides inside us.

In simple terms, I gave that example of cow tied to the pole example only to express my view that we have encryption in the form of Karma and will have to face the consequences of our past actions. We need to gracefully accept them and make progress within the parameters with ultimate goal in mind. For example, if a person dies thinking about how he suffered in life because of lack of money, she is going to come back to pursue a lot of money. It is difficult for her to resist that passion but she could pursue it and use it for good causes.

Viswa