Yanthraaroodaani Maayayaa...

ॐ

Yanthraaroodaani Maayayaa....

"The Paramaatman, through His Maayaa, fixes all the Jeevas on a Mahaayantra, (Huge Machine or a Giant Wheel) and makes us "Dance to His Tunes". That is 61st Shloka of the 18th chapter in Geeta. Many queries rise instantly on hearing this idea. It may be an unending debate. But, many incidents happening around us again and again reaffirm this idea.

• He was enthusiastic, energetic and active, till yesterday. He travels on an unplanned path, meets with an accident and ends up spending rest of his life on the cot or wheel chair. (Yes. He need not lose his enthusiasm with the accident. Nellai Ramakrishnan for instance, a meritorious student, got selected as Indian Air Force officer, successfully completed training and crashed in his first flight after being commissioned. He lost his sensation and plunged into a wheel chair. But he never lost his enthusiasm. Now after 15 years or so he runs a very good school and also a school for the handicapped housing over 1500 students.)
• Ten minutes back, he was seated on the window seat in the bus. The passenger on the next seat evoked an arguement and virtually fought and snatched the window seat from him. A mishap occurs in next ten minutes and the only person to die was the person who fought his way to the window seat.
• Many vehicles wait for the Railway gate to open. He too waited. He was on his motor-bike. A vulture carrying a snake dropped it. The injured snake fell on this biker's shoulder and struck on his neck. He died.
• This teacher was not supposed to accompany the students in the excursion. On the previous evening, he was instructed by the school authorities to accompany the students, as the other teacher took ill. He went with the students and drowned in the lake at the picnic spot.
• He reaches the airport late, and is refused permission to enter. He is denied the boarding pass despite his pleadings. He returns home dejected only to get the news of air-crash of the plane immediately it took off from Airport and explosion and plunge into the Mumbai sea.

Accident, death etc. are dramatic and sudden and hence may seem to justify this idea. What about other aspects in life?  On closer observation of other happenings in life, we'll surely find ourselves to be 'puppets in His Puppetry', 'coins on His Chess Board'.

1. A person who got introduced and forgotten long, long back suddenly comes back into our life and the course of our life changes drastically.
2. We are introduced to a subject in childhood. It is forgotten in course of life and the life goes on centered around a different subject. An insignificant incident brings back the long forgotten subject back into life, changes the life track drastically and suddenly becomes the center of life.
3. A minor injury caused long back grows in magnitude to become a hurdle in progress. I know a 12th student, meritorious, well-prepared for the exam, but had to miss the exam due to a small thorn-intrusion into his fore finger on the exam eve. I also know a person who had to miss IAS examinations, due to swollen leg and high fever caused by a minor injury and hair-line fracture ignored and forgotten long back.

An Engineering graduate, employed in a technical position in a reputed company, suddenly quits the job and plunges into Music, Drama or political field;  A highly educated person, migrated to and employed in a top university there, suddenly quits everything, returns and takes to study of Veda; A person, denied admission into a college for lack of percentage marks, grows  to become an educationist and owner of a College;  Classmate in school days reappears after long to become part of family, through marriage;  An object, considered 'useless' and thrown as scrap is spotted at the most opportune moment to serve a very crucial purpose;  Money lent long back, regarded as 'gone' and forgotten returns at the time of a crisis causing an unexpected and dramatic solution to the crisis.  We might have come across many such instances.

Every person introduced, every minor or major happening, every experience has a purpose.  Nothing happens without reason.  He moves coins and our life moves accordingly.

Some instances in my own life clarify this idea further.

• I was given the habit of listening to Radio-News by my Grand Father. The discussion that followed infused an interest in me for National politics.  I became an ardent reader of Tuglak, a political magazine even when I was in 7th class.  Shrimati Indra Gandhi clamped Emergency and resorted to dictatorship rule in 1975. Naturally, I developed strong anti-Indra thoughts. Elections were announced by her in 1977 and I worked actively in favour of Janatha Party. In August 1977, there were floods in the river near Buti-Bori, a village 20 Kms from Nagpur. There was a tiny news in local newspaper inviting volunteers to work in flood affected areas, on behalf of Janatha Party. I reported at 7.00 AM, at Janatha Party office, Mahal, about 10 Kms from my home only to know that the relief work was cancelled due to lack of support. The office bearer suggested that I may join the RSS group of workers assembled at the next square. I did the same and got introduced to RSS and the whole course of my life changed dramatically.

• I had not then decided on what to do, after I retired from active RSS work, in year 2000.  I visited one of my college-mates, working with a spark-plug company, in Nasik.  He was a good singer, a Tabala player, very enthusiastic and energetic, during college days. Now, he seemed tired and exhausted. I asked him, "Do you play Tabala?  Are you in touch with music?"  He sighed.  "What could be worrying some one who has a good job and five- figure salary?"  "Uncertainty of future of the company, of my job, anxiety of finding a better job", he replied.  "Do you go out with your wife?; Do you converse with your son, about to face 10th class board exams?; Do you find time and sit near your old mother?" His answer was "Where is the time? I reach home by 9.00 in the night".  "How much time will the company take to replace you, in case you die suddenly?" I asked. He laughed and said, "Oh! there are ten assistant and deputy managers waiting outside to occupy my seat the moment I vacate".  "How much time will your wife, son or mother take to find a replacement?" He turned serious. "Is it not funny that you devote very time to those who need you the most and devote almost 16 hours to the company which needs only your thumb impression on its files and cheques?  Should you not balance your life a bit?" I suggested.  Now this suggestion I posed to him was not a pre-thought one. It was a momentous one, but it turned out to be the 'seed' for my decision on further life. He asked me to stay there for three days and converse with his managers. That suggestion of his, was the cause of my decision to study the Gita.

• BJP, the ruling party then, had organized its National meet in Chennai and I was asked to sing the National Song, Vande Mataram, in the opening session. I was known as a good singer, with a good voice. I do not know, what, how and why it happened, but my singing was the worst on that occasion, with a very bad throat. In an assembly, where the top of BJP, right from Shri Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister. If I had sung well and caught their attention, probably, my life today might have been on a different track.  God's wish was different, it seems!!

So, there is nothing in our hands??? That is the natural doubt arising out of this idea. "Yes. There is absolutely nothing in our hands." That is my firm view. We must perform. We must put in our efforts. We must be active according to our Swabhaava. Act, we must, but without the feeling that "I am the Doer". Act, we must, with an acknowledgement that "I am an instrument in His hands". Act, we must, without insisting on favourable effects of our efforts. Act, we must with full might, with fullest mind, with a firm conviction that everything is His Wish. Yes. That is all in our hands.

Yanthraaroodaani maayayaa... It is a beautiful phrase in the Gita.

The next shlokam suggests that, "Thameva sharanam Gachcha..." Let us surrender at His Feet.