Naam Ramayana 18 – Purity of intention makes even an impure-seeming offering pure

Transcript

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NAMRAMAYAN SHABARI DATTA PALASHANA RAMA KABANDHA BAHU CHEDANA RAMA SHABARI DATTA PALASHANA that Shabari means she gave what did she give? FALA the fruit that Shabari gave ASHANA Lord Ram accepted them and then Kabandha was a demon Bahu Chedana he cut off his arms so as Lord Ram continued his search for Sita he found that actually Sita was Sita was not to be found but then they came to the ashram of Matanga Rumi where there was this Hermitess a female Hermit Shabari she was from a outcastable community Lord Ram did not see the see her birth Lord Ram saw her disposition her devotion and she had such great devotion to the lord that she wanted to offer the best possible fruits she could to him and how could she get those best fruits she would pick berries and then wanting to make sure that the most delicious berries were there for Ram she would just bite them slightly and if they were tasty then she would put them aside for offering to Ram and otherwise if they were not tasty she would put them aside and she would do this everyday her spiritual master told her that Ram will come and she waited and waited and as she was waiting day after day, month after month year after year, one day Lord Ram came and she welcomed him seated him honoured him and gave him the fruits and normally we will not think of giving something which is like our left over to god according to normal standards of deity worship it would be an offence if something is our jhuta and then we offer it but then the lord doesn’t need food what he accepts is our devotion Krishna says I accept the food offered with bhaktia, with devotion so devotion is Krishna’s appetizer and as an expression of our devotion we try to cook the food with as much purity as possible and one aspect of purity is it involves not touching the food not tasting the food because we want it for the lord’s enjoyment but Shabari her tasting the food was an expression of her profuse devotion and it was her profuse devotion her immense desire to serve the lord to offer the very best to the lord that made her taste the food and then offer it to the lord so what Ram saw was her devotion and by seeing her devotion he accepted the food and thus he demonstrated the truth that nothing pleases him as much as his devotion and when there is devotion then he doesn’t need anything more so Shabari, Tattapalash and Rama and then Kabandabahu Chedana Rama the demon Kabanda who had giant arms in which he caught Ram and Lakshmi then actually the two brothers cut off his arm and then when they buried him he revealed his form as celestial and Sudhana the demon that Virat who had been killed earlier and he also revealed his celestial form later and Kabanda is another but Kabanda here he directed lord Ram he said that actually go to Kishkindha and make strike an alliance with Sugreeva and then you will be able to progress in finding Sita Sugreeva and his Vanaras will help you and saying this he departed so when we chant the holy names Krishna is he interested in just the mutterance of some sound vibrations of course these are not any sound vibrations these are sound vibrations of his holy names now what attracts Krishna is the devotion of our heart or at least the intention for devotion of our heart to the extent we have that devotion or we strive to have that devotion to that extent we will be able to attract the lord and more important than yes certainly we try to pronounce each mantra properly clearly we try to sit in a proper posture so that we can be attentive and all this is good but we shouldn’t judge others if they are not able to follow it and we shouldn’t judge our performance of japa only by these standards see I sit so erect I don’t sleep I pronounce each mantra clearly so therefore I must be a great chanter no these are important things to the extent they help us in calling out to the lord in offering our devotion to him and when we offer our devotion to him that is when we get the deepest satisfaction and that is when we find our bhakti pleases the lord and because it pleases the lord in return we get pleasure, we get fulfillment and that is what we can aspire for when we call out his holy names let’s say somebody offered a devotion we can try to offer our devotion to the lord through our offering of the chanting of the holy names to him