Naanu hodare hogabahudu

 

When I visit my parents, I will have a feast waiting for me. Literally and figuratively.

I get to read various left leaning kannada magazines. Did I say left? Sorry, what I meant was slightly liberal. 

So in one of those magazines I read about the famous quote by Kanakadasa "naanu hodare hodenu". It is possible for me to go? To heaven.

Well the backstory goes like this. In a meeting of many poets like Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa etc., someone asked a question. "Out of all of us, who may go to heaven (after death)?" That is to say - who is so pious and good natured and all, so that they go to heaven instead of hell.

To this, Kanakadasa said "naanu hodare hodenu". How arrogant of him? He thinks he is the only bhakta (devotee) good enough to reach heaven.

But he really meant was that if we leave our pride, self centered behavior, we will go to swarga.If we leave "naanu" - self centeredness, self, we become pure and we can go to heaven.

But I think, we don't even need to do that. We just need to stop thinking about others. Feeling jealous about others, anger, hatred, revenge all these feelings are our enemies. They not only stop us from reaching heaven post death (who is so much worried about that?). They make our present life hell.

But even when we make this statement, we have some one else in mind. "I know some one who is always jealous". "I certainly know another person who hates everyone". And so on.

And we are under delusion that we don't do these evil acts. We think We never hurt others. Physically or emotionally. Not knowingly.

But what about our thoughts? How often we think ill of others? Some of us may express it (I am on the verge of putting some snide addition to that. No!). Some of us may not. That does not deny the thoughts we have. And these feelings may cause certain sub-conscious behaviors which hurt others.

Life would be so beautiful. World would be so beautiful, if all of us just worried about ourselves, leaving others alone. 

ಪರ ಚಿಂತೆ ನನಗೆ ಏಕಯ್ಯ
ಕೂಡಲಸಂಗಮ ಒಲಿವನೋ ಇಲ್ಲವೋ ಎಂಬ ಚಿಂತೆಯೇ ಹಾಸಲುಂಟು ಹೊದೆಯಲುಂಟು

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