Without expectations
The Hindu, March 30, 2017
Faith
Without expectations*
In
Her Tiruppavai, while talking of
flowers offered in worship, Andal
uses the word ‘thoomalar.’ Here She
wants to indicate that the flowers should be offered out of bhakti, and not
expecting a quid pro quo, elaborated Kidambi
Narayanan in a discourse.
Suppose a man owns some property. His
son cannot demand that his father should give him a share in the property. Nor
can he lay down the quantum to be given to him. It is for the parent to decide
when and how much he should give to each of his children. In the same way, it
is not for us to demand things of the Lord. It is the Lord who will decide what
each of us should be given.
Kooratazhvan’s
sons were not married and Kooratazhvan,
immersed in service to Lord Ranganatha and
to Ramanuja, did not give the marriage
of his sons a thought. But his wife was worried about their sons remaining
unmarried. She wondered why her husband did not take steps to get them married.
She urged him to do something for the future of his sons, and to ask Lord Ranganatha to help in the matter. Kooratazhvan, however, was determined
not to ask the Lord for anything. When he went to the Srirangam temple as he did everyday, the Lord asked him if anything
was the matter. Kooratazhvan, said
that people were talking about the unmarried state of his sons. But Kooratazhvan did not pray for their
early marriage. He did not put forward any request before the Lord. But the
Lord took it upon Himself to see that the sons of Kooratazhvan were married soon. The Lord knew what Kooratazhvan’s family needed and He
ensured that the sons of His devotee were married.
The
Lord knows what our problems are; and when the time is ripe, He offers us
solutions. Sometimes the solutions may not be what we looked for, but we must
learn to accept them as His will.
*Please read the note below:
Prayers, wishes, goals
Bloggers generally prefer to post
quotes and comments which are in alignment with their own thinking. Till
sometime back, when daily average page views of his Blog did not go to three
digits, I had the comfort that those who open my Blog are aware of my thinking.
Now, I find, some days over 300 times my Blog is accessed and the Google
statistics show that the readers are from different parts of the world. Though I
am consistently pursuing the broad norms included in my first Blog
(Jyotirgamayah), some explanation as to the mix of subjects covered may be in
order at this stage.
Human Rights
This Blog takes cognizance of current
thinking on human rights, universal healthcare, literacy and social security
issues.
Financial Sector
As the best years of my life was
spent in Reserve Bank of India, I try to respond to current policy issues
affecting financial sector. To be precise, a couple of letters published in/addressed
to, in mainstream financial dailies will find a place here in addition to an
article which I contribute to The Global ANALYST, a monthly Business &
Finance Magazine published by Iupindia (a part of IFCAI, Hyderabad).
Workers’ problems
I was associated with trade unions in
central government and banking industry during 1960’s and 70’s. So, my
responses on HR issues including career progression, wages and retirement
benefits will be pro-labour.
Faith, spirituality, leisure
As my mail-friends are elderly
people, many of them my ex-colleagues, occasionally I include subjects like the
one in this post.
Many thanks for the support and
encouragement.
Warm regards
M G Warrier
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