I am a big fan of Puranas as they teach lessons of life through interesting stories. Everyday, I spend at least 5 minutes in listening to Puranas. Currently, I am listening to Ganesha Puranam. This is a small but fascinating Puranam which talks about past lives. Every story involves a past life instance and teaches us that we are souls and not the bodies limited to this life time alone as taught in Inner Alchemy Yoga Level 1 Course. While listening Ganesha Puranam, I came across an interesting story about Veda Vyasa.

Veda Vyasa or commonly called Vyasa is the rishi in whose memory and reverence Guru Purnima is celebrated every year. He is considered as a form of Lord Vishnu. He is the one who organized Vedas systematically and hence got the name Veda Vyasa. He wrote Mahabharatam which is considered as fifth veda. He also wrote 18 Puranas. His achievements are endless. One day, such a great man forgot Vedas and Mahabharatam. He struggled to recollect the shlokas of Mahabharatam. He becomes quite scared and immediately goes to Lord Brahma to find out the reason behind this.

Lord Brahma tells Vyasa that recently he developed the pride that he alone wrote Mahabharatam and he thought Lord Ganesha only scribbled Mahabharatam which he dictated. This pride led to his downfall. Truth is Lord Ganesha not only scribbled Mahabharatam but also gave the shlokas and intelligence to Vyasa and Veda Vyasa forgot to acknowledge this. Hence, he forgot Vedas and Mahabharatam.

After listening to Lord Brahma, Vyasa realizes his mistake and does intense penance for Lord Ganesha. Lord Ganesha becomes pleased with him and blesses him again with wisdom and memory.(I feel a gigantic personality like Vyasa must be definitely above pride and he would have done this leela to teach people like me the consequences of pride.)

This is a simple story that taught me the danger of pride. If a great man like Vyasa, who is considered as a form of Lord Vishnu, got this pride and had a downfall, what about a common man like me? Ok, I have not accomplished much in life to deserve to get pride but pride is such that even an ordinary person like me can also easily develop it. And Veda Vyasa had Lord Brahma to tell him his mistake. What about me?

Thankfully, I have Blue Gloves and inner reflection Techniques taught in Inner Alchemy Yoga Level 2 Course to remove pride and protect me from downfall. Firstly, to realize and accept that I have weakness itself is a big deal(both realisation and acceptance are very difficult) and secondly, to have tools and techniques to work on these weaknesses is a great blessing.Thank you IWC and all the great ones for giving me these wonderful teachings to work on my weaknesses. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

– Contributed by Geethanjali Balachander