Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Today it is Sankranti in India, the harvest festival. Farmers celebrate this day all over the country. In South India, it is called Pongal. People exchange sesame seeds and sugarcane with each other. Whatever you receive first, you have to give away to somebody. We exchange things.
In ancient times there was no money, only the barter system. Almonds were exchanged for apples, sugarcane with rice, there was always give and take all over the world.
Today we should exchange sweets (jaggery and sesame seeds). We have this and say, ‘Let us speak sweetly this year, let there be sweetness in our speech.’ “Have a nice day, happy birthday” are modern day wishes, but in ancient times we say, ‘let us be sweet to each other, may you speak sweetly,’ meaning, ‘The whole year, may you speak wisdom’.
If you scrub the sesame seed, it will become white outside also. We are like a sesame seed with respect to this Universe. If you see, what is our significance in this universe; what is life? Next to nothing, like a sesame seed; a mere speck! We are minuscule. We need to remember this message.
We are tiny and sweet; delightful like sesame seeds with jaggery. So stay small and sweet and you will truly become big. And if you think you are very big and important in any field or aspect, the downfall will begin. This is the experiential truth. We see that this is what happens in the lives of thousands of people. The moment arrogance comes up, or the delusion that 'I am something', the decline begins. I am very powerful - that is it, power begins to diminish.
The significance of ‘Makar Sankranti’ is ‘Uttarayana during makar’, which means movement of the sun towards the north direction during makar as the winter comes to an end. One crop having been harvested, they sow the seeds for the next crop.
There are twelve Sankrantis in a year, out of which Makar Sankraanti has been considered most important because from here begins the Uttarayana punya kaal (Uttarayana auspicious period), and Uttarayana is regarded as the period of Divinity (Devatas). Although the entire year is considered auspicious, this period is considered slightly more auspicious. All festivals begin following this.
No comments:
Post a Comment