Cursing

How often have you cursed something or somebody when something has not gone your way? Knowingly or unknowingly we curse. There are times when it comes so naturally that you will not realise that you are actually cursing.

We are still humans, even great sages with lot of self control curse. But for them by the grace of God the curse becomes a blessing!

Even Sage Narada, the mind born son of Brahma once cursed Lord Vishnu. It so happened that once Sage Narada was in deep meditation. The king of Gods, Lord Indra got worried and sent his retinue of Kamadeva and celestial damsels to disturb Sage Narada. But Sage Narada did not move a bit. When Narada awoke from his meditation he noticed Kamadeva standing in front of him. Sage Narada understood what happened and was immediately filled with pride. The sage went to Mount Kailash and told Lord Shiva that he was greater than Lord Shiva because he had conquered Kamadeva. Lord Shiva smiled and asked the sage not to tell Lord Vishnu about it. But as he was filled with pride, Sage Narada went directly to Vaikuntha and reported it to Lord Vishnu.

Lord Vishnu was naturally sad that his devotee was filled with pride so decided to teach him a lesson. He asked Goddess Lakshmi to incarnate as the beautiful princess, Srimati, of Ayodhaya.

Once as Sage Narada was moving about the three worlds, he reached Ayodhaya. He saw princess Srimati and fell in love with her. He wanted to marry her and approached her father. The king told the sage that he had arranged a Swayamvara for his daughter for the next day and invited the sage.

Now, the sage wanted to look irrestitible to the princess. He went to Lord Vishnu and asked for a face that would make the princess pick him in the Swayamvara. Lord Vishnu used the oppurtunity to curb the sage's pride. He gave him a face of a monkey. Sage Narada didn't realise this. He went happily to Ayodhaya and was sure of being the chosen suitor. When the princess came towards him with a garland she burst into laughter. Sage Narada was confused. Just then, Lord Vishnu appeared in the Swayamvara hall, and the princess chose him as her husband. Sage Narada went to the pool of water and saw his monkey face. He was furious that he had been tricked by Lord Vishnu. In his anger he cursed Lord Vishnu that the Lord will be born on Earth, will have to bear the pangs of his wife’s imposed separation from him and only a monkey will be able to relieve him of his sufferings.

This curse caused Lord Vishnu to be born as Lord Rama and the rest of the story forms the Ramayana.

Sage Narada was spirutally advanced, but even he in anger cursed. This reduced his spirutual merit. Each time we curse somebody our spiritual merit goes down. The sage's spirutual merit was so much that he was an immortal. But, we mortals, have so little spiritual merit. Can we afford to waste it in cursing???!

SALE! Everything is Free!

Some of life's best things come free. Have we ever stopped breathing for a moment and thought we are taking in too much air? Well we care little about free things that have been eternally free...but jump on something that says SALE!!

So here are a few things that come/came free -
1. Air - Since we take air for granted and dont bother about keeping it clean, we will soon end up thinking about how much air we are breathing. Pay for a cylinder of clean air and get excited about "Sale" on a can of air.
2. Water - When God made the earth he gave majority of the space on the surface of the earth to water. As per Wikipedia -"about 1.460 petatonnes (Pt) of water covers 71% of the Earth's surface". You may agrue that only about 0.6% is portable. But, we humans arent able to look after even this small amount so we end up paying money for even water!
3. Happiness - Happiness is meant to be free...but with our everchanging lives we have changed the condition for happiness. It no longer comes for free :) The more money you pay the happier you get.
4. Peace - Mental peace is free but again the conditions for it have changed. Everything is money - Am I making more than them? How do I secure my money? etc etc.
5. Thoughts - All our thoughts are free. Only great people - like Nobel laurettes and rich people like Bill Gates get paid for their thoughts ...for now! :)
6. Gossip - Interesting right? Yes it comes free. Wanted or unwanted all gossip is free.
7. Advice - This was an after thought...something people love to give free

There may be more things...but I can think only so much for the day...free thoughts are limited !!! ;)