abhyAsa : atithi dEvO bhava
Feel that your untimely/unplanned guest is God.
This kArtIka mAsa, I have not been able to go piligrimaging to s’iva kSEtrAs as I liked to.
So I was joking with a friend of mine, that if satyA can’t go to kailAs’, then s’ivA will have to come here and visit me as a sheer helpless reward for my laziness.
Since all the purANAs state that ordinary people are only visted by the dEvAs in human form, I keep thinking that my guests might be s’ivA and pArvatI.
So when I had some pardEs’I friends visit me directly after they had been to see a sOma yagnya in paNuati, nEpAl, I had the ‘feeling’ or ‘bhAvana’ of divine visitors!
Also, when dEs’I visitors come, you kind of know that it is an ’I help you, you help me’ sort of friendship. The larger your network the more you get to trade in the mutual service/help currency. You can grow quite rich in this favour currency, and can buy favours for your friends too!!
But with pardEs’Is you know you don’t meet them again and there is no “favour currency” that you accumulate. So you really have the “feeling” or bhAvanA of doing it for kRSNa!!
It is limited only by your resources!
I have now an idea of atithi dEvO bhava and an idea of ‘doing for krishna’. It is very pleasant, exhausting and energising at the same time.
It is a lot about bhAvanA or how we feel about things and how we regard them.
I think it is also easier to feel people are divine when you haven’t built a large database in your head about their ‘humanity’ – their intentions, their frailities and so on.
Satya
