The Divine Name Is The Panacea

How in times of adversity can man win the oddities of nature and time by relying on The Divine Name, explains Bhagawan, citing the cholera epidemic that had hit Puttparthi when Bhagawan’s physical frame was just seven years old. A holy read during this testing time of coronavirus pandemic looming large over the globe.

Once the village of Puttaparthi was affected by infectious diseases like cholera and plague. Several people died due to these diseases. Then, I warned the children of the village that these diseases would spread through drinking polluted water and eating impure food. I, therefore, advised them to take proper care in this regard. I advised them to drink clean and pure water.

I told them, “Do not eat too much. Avoid unclean food. Eat only clean food in small quantities. Not only that, keep your mouth always fresh and clean. Several diseases affect you due to unclean mouth. It is not good to eat anything and everything when you feel hungry. Eat only wholesome food. God’s grace is important both for good health and happiness in life. Hence, always pray to God.” Happiness can be attained only through constant contemplation on God, nothing else. It is not something that can be attained from outside. It springs forth from one’s own heart. In order to attain health and happiness, we should constantly contemplate on God and thereby sanctify our time.

Each one should enquire for whose sake he or she is living. When any one poses this question to oneself, the answer is: “I am living for myself and not for others.” He justifies his answer by saying: “I am eating to appease my own hunger. I am taking medicine to cure my illness. It cannot be cured by anyone else taking the medicine.” When two persons are sleeping in the same cot, they do not get the same dreams but have different dreams. Basing on these facts man feels that he is living for himself.

Later on, when he grows up he seeks a job on the ground that he has a family to look after and support. The same person, who once said he was living for himself, later on pleads that he is living for his family. When invited by a friend to accompany him to Bangalore for an interesting sports event, he says that he has to attend his office and cannot take leave and hence he is unable to accompany him. He thus cites his duty as a reason for his inability to enjoy the sports. But when his wife or child is sick and in a hospital he takes leave even on loss of pay and goes to attend on them. The same person, when he is hungry and just sits for taking his dinner, leaves the meal served on the table and rushes out when he hears that his son or daughter is involved in an accident. Even hunger is forgotten. The person, who was proclaiming that he was living for himself only, now starts caring for his wife and children.

When the village is in the grip of an epidemic like cholera or plague, the same person comes forward to do his best to combat the spread of the disease, because this may affect his own family too as they are part and parcel of the village. Thus man is born in society and grows in society. It is the bounden duty of everyone to feel that his own welfare is bound up with the welfare of all others in society.

When this body was seven years old, this tiny hamlet of Puttaparthi was afflicted by dreadful and infectious diseases like cholera and plague.