What is big ?

[Guest guest]

Om Namah Sivaya While travelling through an orchard, she noticed a jambu fruit tree. As everyone knows, Ganapati's favorite fruit is jambu. Thinking of this, Auvaiyar had an inkling to eat the fruit. She noticed a young boy perched on the tree. She asked him to give her some fruits. The young boy asked 'Do you want hot jambu fruits or cold jambu fruits ?' Auvaiyar was stuck, she did not that there were two kinds of jambu fruits. She prayed to Lord Ganesha for help, but the all intelligent one, the one who clears all obstacles refused

to answer. When one does not know the answer, one should say so and not pretend that we know the answer. But, auvaiyar did not want to admit defeat to a young boy. So, she pretended to know the answer and said, asked for "Cold fruit" and when the boy shook off some fruits she picked up one ripe fruit and began to blow air over it to shake off the sand; it was then, the boy confronted her : " You asked for cold fruit . Why are you taking hot fruit and blowing air over it to make it cool?( By 'Cold fruit 'ripe fruit and by 'Hot fruit' unripe fruit). There are no hot or cold jambu fruits. There are only ripe and unripe jambu fruits. Auvaiyar immediately recognized that this was no ordinary boy who had come to teach her a lesson in humility. When she sang a song in the honor of the boy, the boy revealed himself to be Lord Skanda Kartikeya, in his sweet voice, said 'Grandmother, I was just pulling your leg. I wanted to hear your voice and wisdom. I have four questions for you. Please answer them for the benefit of the world. What is hard ? What is sweet ? What is big ? What is rare ?' Auvaiyar replies to each of this in a long song. In

short: What is hard ? 'Poverty is hard, harder still is poverty in young age, harder is a faithless spouse, and the hardest is to take food from a spouse who does not love you.' What is sweet ? 'Solitude is sweet, sweeter is worship of Lord, sweeter than that is the company of the Guru and still more sweet is the abiding in the Self day and night.' What is big ? 'Oh, the Lord with Vel (Divine weapon of Lord Skanda), if you ask what is big, world is big. But the world was created by Brahma. Brahma was born in the navel of Vishnu. Vishnu sleeps in the ocean. The ocean was drunk by Agasthya. Agasthya was born

from a pot. Pot is a small grain (in size) in this earth. But this earth is hold by the serpent in just one head. But that serpent is a small ring in UmA's finger. UmA is there in one part of Siva, Siva is in the heart of the devotee. So the greatness of the devotee is great to explain.' What is rare ? 'Rare is the human birth, rarer still is the human birth interested

in wisdom, still rarer is one who is interested in wisdom and possessed of charity and penance.' Sivaya Namah

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