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A Saint once narrated a story with regard to the degeneration of our society .....The story goes like this....
There was a highly religious elderly person who used to perform Saligrama Puja daily and he was also a rich man with lot of Estates to manage ..lot of shops in the market and also had lot of cultivable lands. He believed that all his fortunes are God given because of his persistent Prayers to Him through the Saligrama Puja.
He had (4) sons and he wrote the will at his old age..this way :
· The first son who was married was assigned to take charge of the sacred Saligrama along with all other puja materials and was instructed to continue the Saligrama puja as he was doing....
· The second son was assigned to take charge of all the estates and manage them to profitability and was instructed to send 50% of his earnings to the first son (Pujari) and retain the remaining for himself.
· The third son was asked to take over all the shops in the market place ,manage them and to send 50% of his earnings to the first son for performing the Saligrama puja.
· So it was said to the fourth son to take over the agricultural lands and to send 50%of the harvest to the first son .
After writing this will the father died.
The first son with his wife were following the instructions of his father by maintaining the family tradition of Saligrama Puja and was satisfied with how he was sustained along with the implications of the puja. Everything was going well as long as the father's will was faithfully followed.
Trouble started when the second son got married . Sometime after the wedding, his wife disagreed with the action of her husband in funding the eldest son, who in her opinion was not contributing to the income of the family. And so the second son stopped his obligation to the puja and it happened gradually with the other sons after their
wedding and the Saligrama puja could not be performed anymore. But, what was forgotten here by the first son was the Sacred saying of Lard Krishna in the GITA.."Pathram Pushpam palam thoyam yo me Bhakthyaa Prayachathi...." (Whosoever offers to Me with bhakti a leaf, a flower, a fruit or even water, I will delightfully accept that offering .) and in his pursuit for his personal maintenance ..under the garb of Puja expenses he took up a job with a local Company . He could not find time for puja even though he had money because he had to earn that money at the cost of Puja timings...
The Estate management, Shop profitability, and the Agricultural production which were at pinnacle earlier ( when Salagrama puja was in place) , took a steady depression. All activities came to a halt and after sometime the local Company preferred a better qualified Manager in place of the Ex-Pujari and he was fired from work....
The Saligrama Puja and the Pujari (the first son)who was time and again repeating the veda vaklyam of.."Na karmanaa Naprajayaa Na dhanena...Naha Thyagenaiva Amruthathvamasathoho.." , sacrificed his prime duty for selfish gains and eventually caused the collapse of the whole family.
There was a permitted deviation for those in other activities by that is the reason why the father entrusted those assets with the less informed sons about the sanctity of Intellectual faculty compared to the ruling ..commercial and labour faculties...
The degenerated thinking of that chosen son who was a religious performer and sacrifice the traditional responsibility for material gains brought about the downfall of the entire family.
At last the story says the first son is Brahmin and the other sons belong to the other three varnas..And concludes that the present degeneration of the Hindu society is caused due to the deterioration of Varna dharma . Had the Brahmins could continue with their Varna dharma of performing the religious obligations instead of learning the English imposed by the British rulers and occupying all the top level bureaucratic positions and resorting to all the adharmic activities which are inevitable for the other varnas...the Hindu Society would have been saved even though the Varna of Brahmins might have had to sacrifice..... Regards, CHRM "To win...you must stay in the game" - Claude Bristol
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