“Tulsidas says that the Lord is looking especially beautiful joined with Sita and Lakshmana. The demigods are happily showering flowers from the sky, and the whole place has a good aura and good qualities.” (Dohavali, 2)

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सीता लखन समेत प्रभु सोहत तुलसीदास
हरषत सुर बरषत सुमन सगुन सुमन्गल बास

sītā lakhana sameta prabhu sohata tulasīdāsa
haraṣata sura baraṣata sumana saguna sumangala bāsa

1. After the software gets released

“Dude, you have no idea. We worked on this thing forever. I think the official records show that we began two years ago. We hired so many consultants to help. This was both a migration and a conversion. We had to get approval from the highest levels of the company. Everything was riding on this. At one point, we hit an impasse. It looked like we were doomed. Fortunately, everything turned around. We got the train started again, so to speak. This is such a monumental achievement that it certainly warranted a drop of confetti from the skies. I should have thought of it. Sort of like a ribbon-cutting ceremony or bestowing a plaque when the foundation stone is set for a building.”

2. After getting the high score

“You are going to laugh, but the feeling was like nothing previously experienced. No, this was not on the big stage. This did not involve participation in a league or club. We were two colleagues, seated nearby one another, in a small office. In our downtime, we started playing this game. It was online, on the computer. I am dating myself here, but I believe it was one of those games created in the ‘flash’ technology. You don’t hear about flash anymore, but that was all the rage back in the day.

“Anyway, my colleague one day dropped to the floor. It was in elation. He could not believe it. He got the highest score in the game. We were keeping an unofficial tally on the whiteboard. He said that it was the happiest moment in his life. I congratulated him, sure, but then I went to work. That night I stayed late. I worked and worked. On the game, of course. I beat his score and then some. It was one of the greatest moments of my life. If they dropped confetti from the skies, it would have been appropriate.”

3. After winning the big game

“You ever watch that big football game on television? You know, the one with the associated parties, with people placing bets on the score after each quarter? Well, they usually have this huge confetti moment at the end. I think that is a recent addition, true especially when the game takes place in an indoor stadium. Well, why shouldn’t we have more of those? My team has won big games before. Sure, it might only be in a local recreation league. It might have been in high school. I don’t see the issue. The achievement still means something to the people involved.”

4. After solving the puzzle

“I recently dreamed that I was on one of those television game shows. You know the one where you have to spin a wheel and then they allow you to pick different letters? After a while, they ask you to solve the puzzle. Basically, the letters fill in part of a phrase or saying. Well, in this dream I won big. I reached the final round and solved the puzzle in under two seconds. They immediately dropped confetti. It was incredible. I wish I could experience the same in real life.”

5. While worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead

The distinction in this area is that the triumph relates to someone else. If the objective in the science of self-realization could be described in two words, it would be kama and bhakti. Kama is the starting point. Kama can have several different meanings, but at the foundation is personal interest. Kama is gratification of the senses. Kama is desire. To pursue kama is as natural as waking up in the morning and falling asleep at night.

Bhakti is a similar kind of pursuit, with desire at the foundation, but with a different beneficiary. Genuine spiritual life is for transforming kama into bhakti. Take the aforementioned instances of dropping celebratory particles from the sky. In kama, I want my achievements to be celebrated. The confetti is for me, for something I have done, for a milestone I have reached.

In bhakti, the same desire is there, but for someone else. With bhakti-yoga, the individual links this desire with the object of worship known as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is Bhagavan. He has the opulences of beauty, wealth, strength, fame, wisdom, and renunciation to the fullest degree. He holds these opulences at the same time. This means that He is always worth celebrating. At any time and on any day. Wherever you turn and whenever you want. From morning until night. From childhood into old age. From birth until death. From the early stages of the universe to the moment of the cosmic dissolution.

In his writings, Goswami Tulsidas makes regular use of the Hindi terms “sumana” and “barashata”. These refer to flowers raining down from the sky. In his preferred form of meditation, the poet sees Shri Rama alongside His beloved wife, Sita Devi. Rama’s younger brother named Lakshmana is also in the picture. Within this meditation, which can be considered real due to the Absolute nature of God, there are flowers falling from the sky. There is a cause. There is someone dropping those flowers. The sumana is from the suras, who are the gods. They are powerful in their own right, but their alignment is with Bhagavan. They are always wishing Him well.

The flowers also fall when Rama does something amazing. When He follows the spiritual guide named Vishvamitra. When He lifts the bow in the contest of King Janaka. This signifies victory, which means that Rama is the only prince fit to marry Janaka’s daughter, who is Sita. The flowers accompany the couple on their return home, to Ayodhya.

होहिं सुमन्गल सगुन सुमन सुर बरषहिं
नगर कोलाहल भयौ नारि नर हरषहिं

hohiṃ sumangala saguna sumana sura baraṣahiṃ
nagara kolāhala bhayau nāri nara haraṣahiṃ

“With the great auspiciousness and the good aura, the demigods rained down flowers. The city was filled with sounds of rejoicing, and the men and women were very happy.” (Janaki Mangala, 181)

In this way, we see that there is ample cause for celebration. We can continue to offer flowers to that beloved couple, such that they cannot deny our outpouring of affection. This is the way to genuine and lasting happiness. We always celebrate the one who is always winning, who is always wishing us well, and who will show us the way back to the spiritual world.

In Closing:

Flowers in abundance to rain,
That blessed victory came.

Because Rama in this moment seeing,
The Divine and Supreme Being.

With wife Sita by His side,
Lakshmana in image to reside.

Fixed in poet’s blessed heart,
Raised at meditation’s start.

Categories: the five

Tags: celebration, dailyprompt, hare krishna, poem, poems, poetry