Bhakta Charitra – Punch Line - The Story of a Devotee

So, before you guys watch ‘Raktha Charitra’ and start posting your views on facebook. And before you start thinking that history is full of negativity and bloodshed. And before you start falling into the trap thinking that ‘Revenge is the purest emotion’. And before you forget that ‘Mother’s love and devotion are the purest emotions’. Here is a positive story of a great devotee who lived in the 20^th Century and changed your world. His sacrifices had revolutionized the way we live and yet very few remember him. He was considered Mad by his contemporaries and criticized for his dreams. There was only a small portion of time before his death that he was considered a genius and now he is nearly forgotten. And yet he was devoted to his goal, so much so that he did not have time to get married. Even ‘his story’ is a part of ‘history’ but alas there is no director to make a movie on such stories.

If you guys have figured out by now who I am talking about then I bow to you. But I think you will have to read on a little more to actually know him. Ok if you are thinking that I’m going to tell you a story about Prahlada, Dhruva, Hanuman or Narada they did not live in 20^th Century. If you think I will tell you something about Ramakrishna Paramahamsa or some other saint you are still wrong though they are related. Generally we assume that only saints are great devotees and eliminate many other possibilities. This devotee was devoted to Science and Engineering and he courageously built a system which forms the basis of our lives today. I know you are getting little anxious to know the name so here is a hint. He was from Serbia and he got the patent for the invention of the radio. No it is not Marconi. He was a great friend of Mark Twain and when they met Swami Vivekananda he was influenced greatly and remarked that ‘Electricity and Hindu Vedic thought are so related’. He was a major influence in commercializing electricity and he emerged the winner in the ‘War of Currents’. The unit of magnetic field is named after him and he is the Father of AC Induction motors. He is none other than Nikola Tesla.

Tesla’s inventions, patents and life history are all available on the internet you should be able to find them if you have sometime. But I’m more interested in to showing the purest form of devotion with which he pursued Science and Engineering without thinking about money. Tesla initially worked under Edison who was already rich and famous for the invention of light bulb. Edison was working on the commercialization of electricity and proposing a DC Transmission system. Tesla soon realized that the DC transmission system was not very efficient and proved mathematically that AC Transmission was more efficient and cheap. You all know the solution for all life’s problems ‘All Things Cheap Always Win’ but then AC Transmission did not win solely for one reason. DC Motors were already in vogue and the vision behind commercializing electricity was to use the MOTORS to do the mechanical work. And it was not possible to convert AC to DC back then so basically you couldn’t use a DC Motor with AC Transmission. So ‘All Things Cheap Don’t Always Win. You Have to Make Them Win’.

Tirumala (The world’s most famous temple) was built by a King Tondaman who was great devotee of Lord Venkateshwara (the deity). Legend has it that Tondaman had a profound dream in which he saw God who asked him to build the temple. We don’t know if the dream part is true but the temple was built and still exists and is the most visited place of worship in the world. Tesla, the devotee also had a dream in which he saw the exact construction of AC Induction Motor. We don’t know if the dream part is true but the AC INDUCTION MOTOR was built and still exists and is the most widely used MOTOR in the world. Its design hasn’t changed much over time and the New MOTOR could do all the work and hence AC Current won the ‘War of Currents’. If Tondaman built the Temple, Tesla built the Electric Grid and we get to use all our electrical appliances. Their devotion is their secret which immortalized them.

We have Bachelor’s Degrees, Master’s degrees and other higher degrees but it is mostly to show that we have some knowledge and to make a living. Is a Bachelor of Science guy devoted to Science like a Bachelor or the Master’s of Science guy really a Master? Are we devoted to a Goal, why a goal, are we atleast devoted to a field of interest, are we devoted to anything but money and lust. There is inherent negativity within us which makes us ‘Lazy Consumers lacking devotion and a goal’ and smart directors capitalize on that portraying all the negative emotion ‘Rakthi and Raktha Charitra (History of Lust and Blood)’. But luckily for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction so we also have an inherent positivity within us. But very few have the courage to capitalize on the positive emotion but smart saints like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa did that by creating the ‘Bhakti and Bhakta Charitra (History of Devotion and Devotee)’. So the choice to excite the inherent negative or positive emotion is yours but blood breeds fear, devotion breeds love. For everything negative on the internet there is always a positive alternative. What you see, that you become.

Chapter 2: The Road is Yours Now

It is March 2001 Steve Waugh’s men had won 16 tests on the trot and were all over the Indians with a 1-0 lead in a three match series. To top it all the Indian batting line up collapsed in the 1^st innings and in the ‘Follow On’ they were nearly out of the match when Dravid came to the crease. Laxman was close to his hundred (I guess) at that time. At this point it is easy to give up and they could give any reasons (Azharuddin used to do this well). And congratulate the Australians for putting up a better show, praise their exceptional batting, bowling and fielding skills and criticize the Indian management and the cricketing structure in India. But the two people at the crease chose to forget all this ‘Reasoning’ and ‘Concentrate’ ball by ball and give it a good try and then see where it leads. Luckily for them it led to a famous series win and they were instant heroes ‘Active components’ whose ‘contributions’ have changed Indian cricket and made it the No. 1 Test team. Last week, Laxman could manage it again but this time he was under lot of physical ‘pain and his sacrifice’ is appreciated all over. He is the recipient of ‘People’s Love through Facebook’ award.

Twelve hundred years back (there was no America then, Europe was squabbling for land and fighting among themselves). Hindus were under the influence of Mimamsa which means following strict rules and not thinking about abstract concepts. And so people who wanted to ‘think beyond’ the existing rules and system were criticized. And the Mimamsa school of thought was ingrained into the Hindu system at that time. At this point it is easy to give up, when the whole system believes in a set of rules, it is hard to fight the system and easy to praise the system. But a 16 yr old boy decided to take on the system and fight the system. So, he argued for 16 days with the greatest philosopher from Mimamsa School at that time and emerged victorius. He is Adi Shankaracharya, the man who revived the Advaita Vedanta School of thought and monastic tradition. He is the ‘Source of Inspiration’ for all the modern monks including Swami Vivekananda. He travelled tirelessly throughout India and established some of the greatest temples in India including Varanasi. It is due to his ‘contributions’ that people in India have so many temples to visit in their free time instead of a pub or a bar. In return he got ‘People’s Love through worship’ award and they worshipped him. He just lived for 32 years but his philosophy and teachings live forever.

Four hundred years back the Mughals were at the height of their power with most of the Northern India under their control and had strong armies when compared to Southern and Central Indian rulers. And as always there were some war crimes and political misuse of power which led to desecration some of the Hindu temples and religious conversions (Much like Iraq). At this point, it was easy to give up and if that had been the case the Hindu population today would have been much different. But a young man chose to differ and decided to take on the system and he fought valorously to revive the Hindavi Samrajya. The man is Shivaji and he conquered the major portion of India from the Mughal Empire and established the Maratha Empire. His main ‘contribution’ was ‘Shiva Sutra’ which is to use the brain instead of brute force to conquer strong opponents. He also eliminated the mistreatment to mosques, muslims, war criminals, women and children after the war. And in return he too got the ‘People’s Love through (guess what) Mumbai Chattrapathi Shivaji Airport’ award.

Three Fifty years back the world was still in some sort of confusion about the heliocentric view. Science was still in its infancy. Galileo’s legend was still fresh in people’s minds (Galileo was left house arrest all his life by the Catholic Church for stating that the Sun was at the center of Universe). At this point of time, it would be easy for anybody to give up and say that Earth was the center of the Universe and the general population did that and so we do not know their names. But one young man who was just an average student in the school, instead of ‘Giving up’ saw why it was easy for people to ‘Give up’ and ‘Fall Down’ when he saw an Apple falling down. And he framed the Universal Laws of Gravitation. His name is Sir Issac Newton and he led the ‘Scientific Revolution’. And his ‘contributions’ have also helped in using brain instead of brute animal force. Because of him and his equations, people use cars instead of horses and it is because of him that we know ‘Solution to Differential Equations (or Politics) lies in Integration’. And in return he got ‘People’s Love through Scientific Learning’ award.

One seventy years back the Britishers were in India, they realized that the back bone of India was in The Gurukula system of learning and realized it would be hard to conquer India if such virtuous learning centers continued to exist. So they decided to replace them with modern education and people took to ‘English’ as they have taken to ‘Facebook updates’ and suddenly they had this new found confidence because they could speak ‘English’. They started forgetting their origins (Source) and started criticizing spirituality, idol worship, and the prevalent customs in India etc. Even the various Hindu Societies which were formed by learned Indians to propagate the age-old teachings of India were getting corrupt under the influence of the preachers who preached more and practiced less and did not understand what they taught.

At this time, a villager who did not have any sort of education, wanted to test if what people say is correct and see if at all the prevalent Indian customs were really bad. So he started his experiment with the idol in front of him and he decided to forget all the ‘Reasoning’ and ‘Concentrate’ breath by breath and give it a good try and then see where it leads. Luckily for him it led to the source which was present in the idol and which was present everywhere. He managed to do the experiment again and again and that led to the rediscovery of the scientific spiritual laws which define man’s existence. He was a layman without any education or reasoning when he started but he decided not to ‘Give up’ and ‘Bow down to temptations’ which changed everything. He had tried the experiment with other religions and was successful in declaring that ‘Truth is One’ and people call it differently. He is famously described by his student who criticized him initially as

“Sthapakaya cha dharmasya sarva dharma svarupine,

Avatara varishtaya Ramakrishnaya te namah”

He is Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and his student is Swami Vivekananda who had modern education and the new found confidence initially. But he had to Bow down to the layman’s ‘Infinite Love for his Divine Mother’. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is a world famous saint now and his contribution to the people is ‘Pure Love to all the creation’. And in return he got the ‘People’s Love through Divine Love’ award.

The Navaratri celebrations for this year have begun and it is celebration of victory of good over evil. People celebrate the Divine Mother Durga or Kali’s victory over the wicked demon Mahishasura (I don’t know when this happened). But if you have observed the pattern till now we have seen the ‘Active contributors’ have emerged victorious over the ‘passive consumers’ in all ages from all walks of life (politics, science, spirituality etc.). The people of the past have travelled the harsh road called Life taking it step by step and wanted to see where it leads. It is your turn my friends to travel the road, and if you take it step by step and forget all ‘Reasoning’ and ‘Concentrate’ and give it a good try, you will be the recipient ‘People’s Love for trying hard’ award.

P.S-Guys Laxman’s effort doesn’t guarantee Raina (his runner) a place in the team. Where Laxman’s road ends Raina’s begins. Where the road of a previous generation ‘Active Source’ ends, the present generation passive consumer’s begins.