Loving God atleast as much as your child

[dattaswami]

Loving God atleast as much as your child

 

Kannappa roamed in the forest and hunted. Finally in the evening he got some flesh and offered it to the Lord. He neither ate nor gave it to his family. He never chanted hymns, never meditated upon the Lord, never read the scriptures and never wore any sacred dress. He broke the bonds with his family and even with his own body for the sake of the Lord. He even plucked out his eyes for the sake of the Lord and got salvation.

 

Shaktuprastha could not get food for ten days during a drought. Somehow he managed to get a little rice flour and cooked it. He was just getting ready to eat it with his family. But the Lord came in the form of a guest to his home and Saktuprastha sacrificed the entire food, which is the fruit of his work, to God. That sacrifice was not only a complete sacrifice but it was also the sacrifice of the fruit of his hard work. The Veda says that money should be sacrificed for the sake of the Lord’s mission (Dhanena Tyagenaike, Tyaktena…Kasyasvit Dhanam).

 

The Veda used the word ‘money’, which may even mean the ancestral property also. But the Gita used the word ‘fruit of work’ which means ‘self-earned money’. The bond with self-earned money is very intense. Therefore the Gita gave the strongest concept. But Indians misinterpreted the meaning of ‘work’ as the work done by words and mind because they are unable to sacrifice their money, whether ancestral or self-earned. Therefore to avoid such misinterpretations every verse of Gita should be referred back to the Veda.