Exactly 10 years ago on Sri Rama navami day in 2010, my life changed as I knew it then. How? Here is the story!
I grew up in a righteous household which was neither highly religious nor non-believers. One can call us a God fearing and maybe sometimes a God loving family. I definitely had drifted away from ritualism and religious activities in my 20s and 30s and had questioned the utility of all these rituals. I was not asking questions about them either. I was probably just lazy to perform any of those rituals anyways. On that Sri Rama navami day in 2010, something changed. The temple president had asked me to help with administration activities for the evening Rama navami pooja at the temple. I used to go there to help out as the treasurer of the temple but would restrict myself to just collecting money for the archana or pooja activities. After the rush was over, I went inside the "temple" to see what was going on. The temple acharyaji- Sri Venugopala Gattu had just finished the pooja for rama and his parivar and started saying something about Rama. His words are etched in my memory forever since then. He said it would do a lot more good for people to consider Rama as a human being who had divine qualities versus God in human form. We tend to treat our Gods as distant supreme beings who we cannot emulate. Approaching our Gods/Incarnations or Avatars as someone who took human form and lived out a life worth emulating has a better shot at self improvement and development. For someone who had not heard anything till that point which attracted me to my own religion, this statement hit me like lightning. That Rama navami changed something inside me forever. With Divine grace, I was back in the journey to know my Self. The journey continues...but I am ever grateful to Swami Sri Venugopala Gattuji for his intervention that day. As we celebrate Sri Rama Navami today on April 2nd 2020, I thought it appropriate to share this episode in my life. Jai Sriman Narayana!
I grew up in a righteous household which was neither highly religious nor non-believers. One can call us a God fearing and maybe sometimes a God loving family. I definitely had drifted away from ritualism and religious activities in my 20s and 30s and had questioned the utility of all these rituals. I was not asking questions about them either. I was probably just lazy to perform any of those rituals anyways. On that Sri Rama navami day in 2010, something changed. The temple president had asked me to help with administration activities for the evening Rama navami pooja at the temple. I used to go there to help out as the treasurer of the temple but would restrict myself to just collecting money for the archana or pooja activities. After the rush was over, I went inside the "temple" to see what was going on. The temple acharyaji- Sri Venugopala Gattu had just finished the pooja for rama and his parivar and started saying something about Rama. His words are etched in my memory forever since then. He said it would do a lot more good for people to consider Rama as a human being who had divine qualities versus God in human form. We tend to treat our Gods as distant supreme beings who we cannot emulate. Approaching our Gods/Incarnations or Avatars as someone who took human form and lived out a life worth emulating has a better shot at self improvement and development. For someone who had not heard anything till that point which attracted me to my own religion, this statement hit me like lightning. That Rama navami changed something inside me forever. With Divine grace, I was back in the journey to know my Self. The journey continues...but I am ever grateful to Swami Sri Venugopala Gattuji for his intervention that day. As we celebrate Sri Rama Navami today on April 2nd 2020, I thought it appropriate to share this episode in my life. Jai Sriman Narayana!
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