Devtaas and Asurs

Monday, February 1, 2010

On Sunday evening, I went with my daughter to the birthday party of a friend’s son, while my husband and son were in Mumbai at a friend’s place. The party was the usual ‘fun, frolic and food’ kind. The children were busy playing around the house, while the grownups chatted away merrily. The birthday boy’s mom shared with us a very pleasant memory of hers. She told us that her husband was working in Mumbai when she got married to him. He had rented an apartment there before going to his hometown for getting married and left the keys with his relatives living in Mumbai. When the newly married couple arrived in Mumbai, their relatives brought them to a beautifully done up apartment with a kitchen complete with all the supplies, crockery and cookware. The new bride was welcomed into the house in accordance with the customs and traditions of the family. The couple was served rich food in elegant dishes. The bride was impressed beyond words at the beautiful welcome presented to her by her hosts. The biggest surprise came to her when she discovered that those welcoming her were not the hosts, but guests themselves in the couple’s new house.


Her musings about that incident brought to my mind a story.


Once a feast was organized by Lord Vishnu and all the ‘Devtaas’ were invited to it. The ‘Asurs’, however, were left out of the party. As the feast began, Vishnuji was surprised to see that there were far many guests than were invited originally. He looked at his guests carefully and saw that each one of them had the appearance of a ‘Devtaa’. He understood that there were many ‘Asurs’ in the guise of ‘Devtaas’. He announced commencement of the feast. After the plates were laid before each guest, he, however, made another announcement. He said that he had plans for some fun at the feast and requested his guests to allow his servants to tie a stick around their elbows before beginning to eat. The guests found his idea funny and agreed happily to get their elbows tied to the sticks. The guests were then asked to enjoy the feast. After some time, Vishnuji started taking rounds around the party tables and saw that some of his guests had started to feed each other, while others were frantically trying to take food to their mouth but ended up throwing it behind their backs instead. Vishnuji then asked his servants to untie all the sticks. He waited for everyone to finish eating and then said that his party was for the ‘Devtaas’, for it is possible only for the ‘Devtaas’ to enjoy the party that our life is, as they are the people who serve others before serving themselves.