The Divine Name Is The Panacea
Thursday, April 30th, 2020
How in times of adversity can man win the oddities of nature and time by relying on The Divine Name, explains Bhagawan, citing the cholera epidemic that had hit Puttparthi when Bhagawan’s physical frame was just seven years old. A holy read during this testing time of coronavirus pandemic looming large over the globe.
Once the village of Puttaparthi was affected by infectious diseases like cholera and plague. Several people died due to these diseases. Then, I warned the children of the village that these diseases would spread through drinking polluted water and eating impure food. I, therefore, advised them to take proper care in this regard. I advised them to drink clean and pure water.
I told them, “Do not eat too much. Avoid unclean food. Eat only clean food in small quantities. Not only that, keep your mouth always fresh and clean. Several diseases affect you due to unclean mouth. It is not good to eat anything and everything when you feel hungry. Eat only wholesome food. God’s grace is important both for good health and happiness in life. Hence, always pray to God.” Happiness can be attained only through constant contemplation on God, nothing else. It is not something that can be attained from outside. It springs forth from one’s own heart. In order to attain health and happiness, we should constantly contemplate on God and thereby sanctify our time.
Each one should enquire for whose sake he or she is living. When any one poses this question to oneself, the answer is: “I am living for myself and not for others.” He justifies his answer by saying: “I am eating to appease my own hunger. I am taking medicine to cure my illness. It cannot be cured by anyone else taking the medicine.” When two persons are sleeping in the same cot, they do not get the same dreams but have different dreams. Basing on these facts man feels that he is living for himself.
Later on, when he grows up he seeks a job on the ground that he has a family to look after and support. The same person, who once said he was living for himself, later on pleads that he is living for his family. When invited by a friend to accompany him to Bangalore for an interesting sports event, he says that he has to attend his office and cannot take leave and hence he is unable to accompany him. He thus cites his duty as a reason for his inability to enjoy the sports. But when his wife or child is sick and in a hospital he takes leave even on loss of pay and goes to attend on them. The same person, when he is hungry and just sits for taking his dinner, leaves the meal served on the table and rushes out when he hears that his son or daughter is involved in an accident. Even hunger is forgotten. The person, who was proclaiming that he was living for himself only, now starts caring for his wife and children.
When the village is in the grip of an epidemic like cholera or plague, the same person comes forward to do his best to combat the spread of the disease, because this may affect his own family too as they are part and parcel of the village. Thus man is born in society and grows in society. It is the bounden duty of everyone to feel that his own welfare is bound up with the welfare of all others in society.
When this body was seven years old, this tiny hamlet of Puttaparthi was afflicted by dreadful and infectious diseases like cholera and plague.
Fear-stricken parents would not allow their children to go out of their house. But the children, out of their love for Me, would come to Me without even telling their parents. All those children were of the age group of six to eight. One day, nearly 12 boys gathered around Me and said in an anxious tone, “Raju, we have come to know that cholera and plague have spread in our village. It seems they are dangerous and fatal. What would be our fate?”
I told them, “The body has to perish one day or the other, whatever may be the precautions you take. So, do not be afraid of death. Contemplate on God and take care that the diseases do not afflict you.” The boys asked Me as to which form of God they should contemplate on. They were all very innocent. In those days, this was a very small village with a population of 106. They had no idea as to which form of God they should worship. I told them to light a lamp, place it at a thoroughfare at 6 o’clock in the evening and do bhajans. They did not know what bhajans to sing. Then I composed a few bhajans for them. I told them, “We need not search for God outside. He Is within us. Let us go round the village chanting the name of Ranga, wearing ochre robes and anklets and playing cymbals. Let us also get rid of the evil qualities of anger and desire.”
In those days, after 5 o’clock in the evening no one dared to go beyond the Sathyabhama Temple as people considered it to be far off from the village and believed that the area beyond the temple limits was haunted. I infused confidence in them, saying there were no ghosts or spirits and advised them to drive away the diseases of cholera and plague by chanting the Name of God. We wore anklets and walked up to the riverbed of Chitravathi playing the cymbals and singing bhajans. It was the Divine Name which eradicated the diseases of cholera and plague within a short span of three days.
II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II
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