(from the discourses of Sri Swamiji)

A man generally becomes egoistic due to education, wealth and indiscriminate spiritual knowledge. But he forgets that his wealth and erudition are god given. He thinks that these are obtained by self-effort alone and nobody has anything to do with it. Such a man’s fate is like the Sun, who rises in all his glory at dawn and reaches the zenith at noon and as evening falls, disappears. Similarly, egoistic education, wealth and indiscriminate knowledge are like the glory of sunrise. As time passes, they are bound to disappear. You should give up ego and pride when you praise the greatness of God’s superiority.

It is the duty of the wealthy to use their wealth to help those who are in real need. They should serve as a protective force to the society, especially for the poor and the needy. There lived a poor fellow opposite to a rich man’s house. The poor fellow used to give alms to the beggars and thus everyone liked him and despised the rich man because no one had seen him giving alms to beggars. One day the poor man stopped giving alms and all of a sudden, the beggars started scoffing at him. Later people came to know that the alms actually came form the rich man who wanted his charitable nature to remain unnoticed. He was doing it anonymously, not caring for name or fame.

A man of charitable nature is always charitable. His quality is inborn. There is no need to teach him it is not easy to change the basic nature of man. A person, who is basically wicked, remains so. It is very difficult to transform him. A neem fruit can not be made sweet by pouring honey at the root of the tree. True devotion to the Almighty alone is the means to self- evolution. This itself is Sadhana. Such devotion prevents you from unrighteous behaviour and mitigates suffering. Even if a devotee develops pride, the Almighty will correct him at an appropriate time by directing him to a Sadguru.

The story of Ambarisha glorifies the power of devotion to the Almighty. Ambarisha was a true devotee of Lord Vishnu and was able to see the Lord in his heart every moment.

The Lord says in the Bhagavad-Gita, "there is nothing whatsoever which is higher than me. I am the taste in water. I am light in the moon and the sun. I am the syllable OM in the Vedas. I am the sound in Ether and humanity in human beings. I am the pure fragrance in the earth and brightness in the fire. I am the life of all existences. I am the intelligence of the intelligent. I am the splendour of the splendid and I support the entire world with a single fraction of my splendour." Therefore, the entire world is only a fraction of His and not the whole.

Ambarisha knew this very well. He held the sacred scripture in high esteem and followed their instructions implicitly. He performed great Yagas and acquired great merit by virtue of which, he could travel to different Lokas. Once, he met Sumedha, an uncharitable and unqualified person in Swarga (heaven). Ambarisha asked Indra, the lord of heaven as to how Sumedha could be admitted in to heaven when he had not undertaken great meritorious acts such as Tapas, Yajna, Satsang, Charities etc.
Indra explained that Sumedha had performed such acts, which protected the country and the people and whatever he did, was with total purity of mind. He had discharged all his social obligations in an unselfish manner. Ambarisha was impressed by Indra’s answer.

Being a very religious person, Ambarisha performed intense Tapas and sought a very strange boon from Lord Vishnu. He begged Lord Vishnu to bless him with a progeny who would be fortunate enough to marry Lord Vishnu Himself! ‘So be it’ said Lord Vishnu.

One day, when Ambarisha was performing Ekadashi Vrata (a ritual performed on the eleventh day of each fortnight when the person has to fast and chant the names of Lord Vishnu), Lord Vishnu thought of testing his devotion. He wanted to disturb his Vrata. When the Vrata was nearing completion, Sage Durvasa (famous for short temper) came to his palace to accept the hospitality of the king.
Durvasa said that he would first have a dip in the river before accepting the hospitality. Ambarisha waited and waited but Durvasa did not return for a long time. As the sacred moment was slipping away, he drank Tulsi water after offering it to Lord Vishnu. Soon after that, Durvasa arrived, cursing Ambarisha for insulting him by drinking water before feeding the guest. He tried to create more obstacles to Ambarisha. But Ambarisha’s devotion and dedication were so pure and strong that he was not at all disturbed by Durvasa’s curse. It had no effect on Ambarisha. Not only that, he made Durvasa to give up bad temper. True devotion can do wonders.