THE FAITH OF THE SPARROW

The Biggest battle on Earth, the battle of Kurukshetra preparation was in full swing. 

The grounds were being cleared for the mammoth armies of both sides to arrive. 

Trees were being felled and uprooted to clear the path for the large cavalries. 

On one such tree lived a mother sparrow with her 4 young ones. 

Oblivious to its presence, the soldiers used the elephant to knock down this particular tree too. 

The Mother Sparrow's nest fell on the ground along with her just born, with no strength to fly, miraculously were unharmed. 

The frightened Mother Sparrow looked at the sky with a prayer for help. 

And Lo! its eyes fell on the ever-smiling Lord Krishna on his chariot with Arjuna. The Lord was there to personally examine the battlefield and devise a winning strategy to help the Pandavas win the war. 

Mother Sparrow with a renewed hope and spring in her wings, flew to Lord Krishna and fell at his feet. 

"Please save my children, O dear Krishna. They will be crushed under the feet of soldiers and the elephants tomorrow when the battle starts" pleaded the crying Mother Sparrow

Lord Krishna, took a deep breath "I understand Mother Sparrow. But I cannot interfere with the Law of time. What has to happen.... will happen" 

Mother Sparrow did not budge "Oh Lord, I have come under your shelter and its for me you the Law of the Universe and I surrender myself to you. Please protect my children" 

"All right....go and stock food for 3 weeks in your nest" assured the ever protecting Lord Krishna. 

The Mother Sparrow did as told and went deep into the nest with her newborn offspring right there in the middle of the Kurukshetra battlefield. 

2 days before the mightly battle, Lord Krishna and Arjuna once again came to the battlefield. 

Krishna asked Arjuna for his Bow and Arrow. 

Shocked Arjuna said "Lord, you have vowed not to live any weapon in the war. Order me, my Lord...whom and where to shoot. I will do it" 

Lord Krishna said "Look at that elephant... it's the same one which bought down a tree. It needs to be tamed" 

Saying this, the Lord took the bow from Arjuna, aimed at the elephant, and shot the arrow. 

The arrow hit the Huge Bell around the neck of the Elephant and the Bell fell on the ground. 

Amused Arjuna couldn't hide his chuckle at Krishna missing such an easy aim. "Shall I try?" said Arjuna. 

"Not necessary," said Lord Krishna and moved ahead. 

The Mightly War started and numerous lives on both sides were lost over the next 18 days. 

Post the war, Lord Krishna and Arjuna once again came to the battlefield now completely muddled and full of dead bodies. 

Krishna stopped at a certain spot & looked down thoughtfully at an elephant bell.

"Arjuna," he said, "will you lift this bell for me & put it aside?"

The instruction, though simple, made little sense to Arjuna. After all, in the vast field where plenty of other things needed clearing, why would Krishna ask him to move an insignificant piece of metal out of the way? He looked at him questioningly?

"Yes! This bell!" Krishna reiterated. "It's the same bell that had come off the elephant's neck I had shot at."

Arjuna bent down to lift the heavy bell without another question. As soon as he lifted it though, his world changed, forever.

Out flew 1...2...3...4...5 sparrows...

they were the same Mother Sparrow and its 4 offsprings. 

Fully protected by the Bell that had fallen from the elephant's neck which Lord Krishna had shot at!

Stunned Arjuna now understood the Lord Krishna's reason for hitting the bell of the elephant.

He prostrated before the Lord and said "Forgive me, O Krishna, Seeing you in the human body & behaving like ordinary mortals, I had forgotten who you really are."

Faith is the heart’s wisdom. It’s what your mind can’t grasp but your heart knows. Give it a place in your life and you’ll fly with a thousand wings. Higher and swifter. Across the seas, beyond the skies.

Have a Safe day! And let this be every day.

🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔🔔?

Srikanth Matrubai Author of the Amazon Best Seller DON'T RETIRE RICH 

Do read the book and give your valuable feedback and request you to post positive comments on the Amazon. https://amzn.to/3cHUM6M/ You can purchase the book on amazon and flipkart 

 Request the readers to join our TELEGRAM channel and get blessed Must See Amazing Temples https://t.me/joinchat/AAAAAEU4LPYf9pL45XB5XA Bhakti is Shakti https://t.me/joinchat/AAAAAFKlm9h_SyEtTyvv1Q 

 Please note : All the details are collected from various sources including texts, discourses, internet and stories heard. If there any mistakes/deviations.....please pardon and email us...we will be glad to correct the same.

STORY BEHIND WHY ONION & GARLIC ARE AVOIDED AS OFFERING (NAIVEDYA) TO DEVAS

There are not 1 but many stories behind why to avoid Onion and Garlic. 

I have picked the 3 most popular ones and here they are : 

STORY NO.1 

Vishnu Purana gives in detail about the churning of the Ocean by both the Devas and Asuras. 

During the Churning emerged many divine things among which the most cherished was the AMRIT (Nector) 

But an Asura (demon) called SIMHIKA absconded to Patala with the AMRIT (nector) which nobody noticed as everybody was busy with dividing other divine objects. 

Only after Simhika's disappearance was it noticed that the AMRIT was missing. At once Mahavishnu assumed the figure of a beautiful woman, got back the Kumbha, and gave it to the devas. The devas began drinking the amrita when, at the instance of some other devas, SIMHIKA, the demon, assuming the form of an old Brahmin reached swarga, (Heaven) got a share of the AMRITand began to drink it. 

Surya and Candra (Sun and Moon) who were on guard at the gates divined the secret of the 'old Brahmin' and informed Mahavishnu about it. Shri Vishnu immediately cut the throat of the pseudo-Brahmin with his Sudarshana Chakra. But, half of the nectar he had drunk stayed above the throat and the other half below it. Therefore, though the head and the trunk were severed they remained alive. These two parts, in course of time, evolved as Rahu and Ketu 

When the throat was cut some blood dropped on the ground and became the red onion and the white onion (garlic) respectively. 

So both onion and garlic originated from the throat and blood of the demons or asuras, thus their consumption brings us closer to tamo guna (mode of ignorance) which characterizes the nature of the demons and thus is detrimental to bhakti.

Srikanth Matrubai Author of the Amazon Best Seller DON'T RETIRE RICH Do read the book and give your valuable feedback and request you to post positive comments on the Amazon. https://amzn.to/3cHUM6M/

 

STORY NO.2 

THIS VERSION IS SHARED BY SRILA PRABHUPADA, the divine head of ISKCON

Once Prabhupada was asked, "Why should I avoid Onion and Garlic"?

Prabhupäda said with a smile that eating onion and garlic is as bad as eating cow's flesh. And he told them a story about a Muslim king, a cow, and a brähmana.

For Muslims, cow slaughter is a regular affair. This particular king, however, before having the cow slaughtered would call a brähmana and the brähmana would offer prayers to the effect that "In this life, these people are slaughtering you, but in the next life you will get the chance to slaughter them."

So one time a brähmana came there but he felt lusty and he wanted to eat the cow's flesh also. However, the system was that he was not allowed to see the slaughter going on, he was supposed to offer his prayers and then leave. So he hid in a corner and witnessed the butchering.
After the Muslims had all taken their share of the dead cow and departed, the brähmana came to that spot and he found an ankle of the cow. Because he was not supposed to eat any meat, he took the cow's ankle into the forest and buried it with the plan that he would return in the night, cook it and eat it. When he came back he dug out the cow's ankle and found to his great surprise that it had turned into onion and garlic.

Srikanth Matrubai Author of the Amazon Best Seller DON'T RETIRE RICH Do read the book and give your valuable feedback and request you to post positive comments on

Amazon. 
https://amzn.to/3cHUM6M/ 

STORY NO.3 

The following story source is unknown but is quite popular 

"Once, in Satya Yuga, the rishis were performing gomedha and asvamedha sacrifices for the welfare of the whole universe. A cow or a horse would be cut into pieces and placed in the fire. Afterward, the rishis would utter mantras and the same animal would come alive in a beautiful young body.

One time the rishi who was about to perform a gomedha sacrifice, his wife was pregnant. 

She had a very strong desire to eat and she had heard that if during pregnancy one has a desire to eat and does not fulfill this, then the baby that will be born will always have saliva coming from its mouth. 

Strangely, she desired strongly to eat meat, thus she decided to keep one piece of meat of the cow's body that was offered in sacrifice. She hid it and was making a plan to eat it very soon. At that time the rishi was finishing the sacrifice and uttered all the mantras for the new young cow to come to life. However, when he saw the new cow, he noticed that there was a little part missing from her left side. He went into meditation and realized that his wife had taken away a piece of meat during the sacrifice. Now his wife also understood what happened and quickly threw the meat far away. 

Due to the effect of the mantras uttered by the rishi, there was now living in this piece of meat. 

Then the blood of this meat became Red Lentils, 

the bones became garlic and 

the meat became onions. 

WHY AVOID GARLIC & ONION?

1. Both Garlic and Onion have a bad smell. 

Devas are very sensitive to smell and hence we offer them fragrant flowers, fragrant incense, scents, etc. 

Eating Garlic & Onion emits a foul smell and sweating too. 

2. Both Garlic and Onion are also TAMASIC food. 

Tamasic foods encourage dullness, sexual desires, increases appetite, increases aggressiveness, etc

 There are 3 types of foods in Hindu and Jain scientific understanding.

They are -

Tamasic, 

Rajasic, and sattvik.

ALTERNATIVE TO ONION AND GARLIC : 

Instead of Garlic & Onion, you can consider using alternatives like 

a. Asafoetida (more popularly known as HING)

b. Poppy Seeds (Khus-Khus)

c. Chickpea 

d. Celery gives good flavor

when chopped (or even when fried)

e. Fennel - onion type of texture. 

f. Cummin - can be a good alternative to Garlic

g. Ginger 

Pranams, 

Srikanth Matrubai

=======================

Srikanth Matrubai Author of the Amazon Best Seller DON'T RETIRE RICH Do read the book and give your valuable feedback and request you to post positive comments on the Amazon. https://amzn.to/3cHUM6M/ 

You can purchase the book on amazon and flipkart Request the readers to join our TELEGRAM channel BHAKTI SAGAR     https://t.me/joinchat/AAAAAFKlm9h_SyEtTyvv1Q/ 

 Please note : All the details are collected from various sources including texts, discourses, internet and stories heard. If there any mistakes/deviations.....please pardon and email us...we will be glad to correct the same.

Some images and text could be sourced. 
We are using purly for informational sharing purposes. 
If the rightful owner has an issue...do let us know...we will DELETE immediately.