Who are we in the grand scheme of things?

@15-Jan-2011:

Hope the Sankaranthi (Pongal) festivities had gone off well for all the blog visitors!!!

I just wanted to narrate an incident that I came to know of today evening. One month back, when I was meditating in front of Rayar brindavanam, I got frantic calls on my cell from a landline number but didn't attend to the call since I was sitting in front of Rayar. After finishing the darshan and coming out of the temple, I had just wanted to check out who had called and returned the call. There was a lady who was on the other side who said that she is calling after seeing
the advertisement about the brindavanam construction in TV. She wanted to know if she can get the prasad and I told her that you can come and collect the prasad since I had recently returned back from Mantralayam. But after a couple of tries, she could not come and collect it.

Yesterday, suddenly, I felt that I should be giving them a call and ask them to collect the prasad since I just returned back from Mantralayam on last weekend. They said that they will phone and come up to collect it. They came in the evening and started narrating their woes - due to some family relatives problem, their property and wealth has been taken in by their relative and they are being shown a lot of disrespect and their daughter is also not being able to get married....

All these problems had escalated to such a level that yesterday just before my call to them, the family members were contemplating to commit suicide and they were more or less planning the modalities of how to go about this. After getting the call from me stating that they can come and collect the rayar prasad, that they felt that things are going to start turn around and started getting confidence. I just consoled them and mentioned to them to continue their faith on Rayar very strongly and at the opportune time he will take care to lift us up. They felt more confident on hearing this and left my house.

When they left the house in the evening, I just realized all the leelas of Rayar - right from the call that I got a month back when I was in front of the brindavanam correctly and again yesterday 'instructing' me at the right time to save this family from a catastrophy.

Sri Krishna in Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 33) states thus:

tasmat tvam uttistha yaso labhasva
jitva satrun bhunksva rajyam samrddham
mayaivaite nihatah purvam eva
nimitta-matram bhava savya-sacin

This is the one of the verses that Krishna uses to very strongly convey the message to Arjuna to stand up and fight the Kauravas... The rough meaning of this verse translates to : "O Partha! Stand up and fight. Conquer the kingdom by defeating the enemies and go and enjoy the fruits of victory. They (the enemies) have been already been put to death by my sankalpa and O Partha! You are only an instrument in the fight!"

I have heard and read a lot of philosophers of our Sanatana Dharma write/talk in great detail of this verse mentioning that we mere mortals are just 'tools' in the hands of HIM to get things done in this materialistic world. This is one of the major verses that gets attention of all phiolosophical discussions in Hinduism. As we all realize in our lives, starting to learn a bicycle in our young days, there is no better way to learn anything but to experience it ourselves. Similarly, I take that this specific incident that happened over the last 2 days, is a LESSON from Sri Guru Raghavendrar, to teach me the real meaning of this verse in Gita to me with my own personal experience. It was a great realization that through this incident that we are mere tools and 'smaller than even imaginable specks of dust' in HIS grand scheme of things.

Sarvam Sri Krishnarpanamastu

Vasan