Sri Bharatamata

Ashtottaram 100

100) OṀ ĪŚWARA ME'ḊHĀ PRASĀḊA-

                                                BHŪMYAINAMAH:

        OṀ (AUM) -EE-ŚVA-RA-ME'-DHAA- PRA-SAA-DA- BHOO- MYAI- NA-- MA- HA

(Īśwarah-means-The Lord; Medhā: means-Intelligence, retentiveness;

                 Prasādam: means-what one partakes of with an attitude of acceptance

                                                                     after offering to the Lord)

If somebody offers a sweet and you happened to be a diabetic patient, your immediate reaction is 'sorry! I am diabetic and I cannot have sweets, my doctor said I cannot have sugars'. On the other hand, if that sweet laḍḍu is from Tirupaṫi, Sri Lord Venkateswara's prasāḋam, immediately you take it with bhakti (devotion) and eat it. Everything is bhāvana (attitude, notion, and perception) towards an object. The reason you take that laḍḍu rightaway is because you know it is the prasāḋam from Bhagavān and that changes your attitude 180 degrees. Same way, anything we offer to God, either a fruit, flower, leaf or water, becomes sanctified because we do not look at that as normal ordinary object because of our devotion toward the Supreme!

The five gross natural elements that have undergone the process of quintuplication (pancheekaraṇam) are the space (ether), air, water, fire and the earth. Without any one of them we cannot survive a minute. Our own gross body is made up of these five subtle elements. The solid part is related to earth, the liquid part to water, body temperature to heat, breathing in and out motion is air and body is occupied by space. Thus these five elements are grossified  to form into our body, which we are enjoying without thinking of it. However, any person who stops and thinks for a second, realizes the grace of God, who has provided us all these without being asked. He has also provided to us the 'power of free will', 'power of action' and 'power of creation'.  He gave us the mind, and discriminative knowledge. We take everything as prasāḋam from the Lord.

Because of the free will power, and discriminative knowledge, our actions will become 'karma' as opposed to the animals, which act by instinct. Hence, our actions have results and will become meritorious and sinful actions. According to those results and their fruits cumulated for millions of births, we entangle ourselves in the cycle of birth and death and rebirth (we call it saṃsāra). We are responsible for our own actions and have to experience the fruits of those actions in one way or the other during this life time or in future births. That's why a jnāni (spiritual- wise person) stays neutral toward pleasure and pain. He neither jumps up and down, nor dejected, and stays humble. He performs all his actions without selfish motives (nishkāma- karma) and offers his actions to the Lord (Bhagavān). At the same token, everything he partakes off with an attitude of acceptance after offering to the Lord.

Our land preached us not to show anger toward God for our miseries and take our successes as our greatness; but, should take everything as the fruits of action from Īśwara and Him alone as the 'karmaphalaḋāṫa'.

Our nation is 'Īśwara Medhā Prasāda Bhūmi'.