God's grace and compassion

CHENNAI, JAN. 22. Many people who feel aggrieved when confronted with problems or difficulties, imagine that God is unkind to them. A deep study of the scriptural text, the Bhagavatham, reveals how God had been extremely merciful to all. It brings out the deep faith that two characters had reposed in Him, accepting which He had reciprocated by saving them on many occasions. Though born in affluent circumstances and steeped in wealth, the two were subjected to several trials which they withstood because of their total belief in God's compassion and grace. The sons of one of them were repeatedly protected from numberless perils, like being administered poison, pushed into a great conflagration, made to face an encounter with a cannibal, undergo forest life and face deadly effects of powerful weapons. But the chain of misfortunes never made her lose her morale as she held on to God's feet.

The other was about to be shamed in a public assembly by evil forces, abducted by one, solicited by a passionate warrior and was forced to work as an attendant. More than everything, her five children were mercilessly killed by a ruthless person but even then though he could have been destroyed easily, she pleaded for his release as he was the son of her husband's chief tutor in archery. Can there be a more glorious and magnanimous person than her? The former was Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, and the latter, Draupadi, their wife. The final act of the Lord was to save the only child in the womb of Arjuna's daughter-in-law which was being burnt by a red-hot missile aimed by an enemy, by ordaining its protection by Holy Discus.

Sri Krishna Premi, in a discourse, dwelt on Kunti's prayers to the Lord extolling His qualities and describing how He had extended His help to the Pandavas, when they faced several dangerous situations. ``May calamities befall us at every step through eternity because it is during adversity alone that we are blessed with Your sight, which eliminates our re-births. You are open to the perception of only those who have nothing to call their own. You are the only wealth of those who have no sense of possession. None can know what you intend doing when you are `acting' like an ordinary human being. No one is ever dear or loathsome to You, though men alone think of You in times of adversity. Your appearance and actions in the sub-human species as well as among men, sages and other creations are mere sport. You have come to this earth to perform acts fit to be dwelt upon by the tormented souls. Your devotees hence constantly listen to, sing and repeat to others and contemplate on Your stories and rejoice''.

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