The Story of AjaameeLa (అజామీళుడు, अजामीला) - Part 3

Continued from part 2….
Confused after the conversation with the messengers of Lord Vishnu, the messengers of the hell went towards south to meet the Lord of the South, Lord Yama. They told the entire story and asked their king, "Hey lord, who else has ultimate powers to punish the people who do not live gently? Which other leader has powers to punish the living for their Karma? You are the only dictator of punishments for the Karma done by people of all the 3 worlds. Who else has powers to wipe off your dictatorship? In the place where you are the dictator, some godly people has stopped us from giving the punishment and pushed us away. Whom should we bring and whom should we not bring to hell?"

Image courtesy - back2godhead.com

    Lord Yama smiled, pleased with his messengers, prayed Lord Vishnu and said "There is One. He is greater than everyone. He is there everywhere. Giving birth and dying is all his magic. He making the ignorant people as the most knowledgeable people. This whole universe is Him and under his control. My prayers are always for Him. Telling His name will free you from all the Karma. Even if I go with other Gods like Indra, Varuna etc, we cannot find him. His expansion cannot be identified by people with ignorance and people with ego and selfishness. He has no birth, no measurements. His messengers look similar to him. Those messengers will be roaming around the universe and save Vishnu devotees from you me and others and make sure they do not get difficulties. We cannot take the life of people who tell the name of Him at the time of death. Ajaameela is an example, although he was calling his son. So humans do not have to worry about me. They have a powerful weapon called "Name of Lord Vishnu". They are becoming ignorant of this fact and lazy minded to understand this point."
    He further said, "Those who pray the God and keep Him in their mind, we cannot punish them. Do not bring those people. They are saved by the wheel (Chakra) of Lord Vishnu. Do not bring those people who always talk about God and who fly in the skies of Advaita. Do not bring those who always think of the lotus feet of the God."
పద్మనయను మీది భక్తి యోగంబెల్ల     | The devotion on the lotus eyed Krishna
ముక్తి యోగంబనుచు మొదలెరుంగు     | is the only way to Salvation – Those who follow this axiom
వారి వారివారి వారి చేరినవారి     | those devotees, relatives of those devotees & people of those relatives of those devotees
త్రోవబోవ వలదు దూతలార !        | O messengers – do not go into their way.
He further said,
ఎగసెక్కమ్బునకైన ఇందిరా రమణుని పలుకంగాలేని దుర్భాషితులను | Those ill-speakers who do not speak of Vishnu even for sarcasm
కలలోనైనా శ్రీకాంతు ని సత్పాడ కమలముల్ సూడని కర్మరతుల     | Those task doers who do not want to Vishnu in their dream
నవ్వుచునైనా కృష్ణ ప్రశంసకు చెవి దార్పనేరని దుష్కళా శ్రవణుల     | Those who do not even laugh when there is a praise of Krishna
యాత్రోత్పవంబులనైన ఈశుని గుడి త్రోవ తోక్కనేలని దుష్పదుల     | Those ill-feet who do not even go to temple at least in tours
బరచు భాగవతుల పాద ధూళి | Those do not even realize that the dust on the feet
సమస్త తీర్థ సార మమరు తెలియని | of the great devotees is eternal
వారి వారివారి వారిచేరినవారి | those people , Relatives of those people and people of those relatives of those people
తొలుత పట్టి తెండు దూతలార !    | O messengers – Bring those people first!!
"These people never say God name, their houses will be full of sinners, those who never respect the elderly and great people, bring those people first."

Learnings/Observations/Points to Note:

1. It has been written and preached that, in Kaliyuga, one can attain salvation and service to God by either chanting His name or helping the needy. Rest of all are secondary. Surprising that this story mandates the importance of The name centuries ago. Thus communal singings (bhajans) are so important in daily life.
2. Notice the name of the city, kanyakubja, which symbolizes getting interwoven with worldly relational life with women.
3. The worst sins ever namely mahapathakas, are murder of a Brahmin, sleeping with wife of a teacher (cant imagine this), stealing gold and consumption of alcohol. Well, if you are able to say the God's name on death bed, you are exempted from this sins. However as mentioned in the story, its not as easy as the statement goes. People say, the mind sticks to what you like the most on the death bed. So increasing the love towards the God throughout the life can only bring peace at death. This is also the inner meaning behind that statement.
4. There is always a second chance.
5. Normally in stories like this, Brahmins are selected for portraying the characters. Brahmins are expected to gain physical as well as spiritual knowledge and share it with everyone. One who attains knowledge will always be on the highest step of a staircase and if he misuses the knowledge that he gained, he will be the worst hit person as he falls from top floor. However, the caste is decided based on Karma. So any person of the 4 varnas attains knowledge, he is considered Brahmin.
6. The points told by Lord Yama in the 3^rd part are crucial for any religion. Rename a "Hindu" god name with other religion's God name.
7. It hasn't been mentioned but the prostitute dies of a disease. Don't ask me how the story foretells about STDs.
8. The story is an important lesson for every person in teenage. Actually the story should be made part of the books is what I feel. Just because, saying the name, luckily, at the end of his life he got saved but this will not be the case with everyone. It is so important to try keep away from such activities and involve in something good, intentionally.
9. Ajaameela is not bad by birth. He got himself diverted from what is good because he misused his senses that are supposed to be used to attain knowledge.
10. This story was told to Maharaj Parikshit by Maharshi Suka in a situation where Parikshit knows that he is going to die in 7 days and was worried about attaining salvation. Maharshi Suka consoled him by saying stories of various devotees and said "Ajaameela was able to attain salvation just in a moment by uttering the name of God. So you do not have to worry as you still have 7 days." The idea is that Parikshit knows when he is going to die but for normal human beings like us, we do not know when we are going to die. So make the most of what you live in doing good service.
11. The judgement time for a person is when death is sitting beside that person. During that judgement time, it is normally the scenario that a person is in ICU of a hospital and his/her relatives are watching him from outside through glasses. He cannot talk to them or order them or request them to do a single worship to God on his name in a temple. Even if he wants to tell the God's name on that bed, he might not be able to do it. That person might think, "Ohh god, all this life I never did a good thing that you told as good. Now, even if I regret that fact and want to even spell your name, I cannot do it." This story gives a message that make use of your time. Do good things, believe in God and he will take care of the rest. The situation explained above if for people who are having slow death. Imagine people dying in accidents, incidents, dying out of sudden fear and what if they have not done single good.

The End