In the previous episode, we had witnessed yet another important event, wherein Sage Naarada pays a surprise visit to Bhagawan Krishna and family. As Sage Naarada observes Bhagawan Krishna and His wives, he is amazed to see how meticulously Bhagawan Krishna follows all the aspects of “Dharma” without any single blemish. Notwithstanding, Sage Naarada asks Bhagawan Krishna as to why is He following all the aspects of “Dharma” and isn’t He an exception from all of it? Of course, Sage Naarada’s question was very apt because, Bhagawan Krishna Himself declares in His Bhagawad Gita that He’s apart from all sorts of “Karma” that normal people like us in this world have to go through. He is truly an exception from all what we’ve to undergo in this human birth, and no “Karma” can ever attack Him in any way. Moreover, Bhagawan’s incarnation is not because of His past deeds, but it is He who voluntarily incarnates Himself for the betterment of the world. If this is the case, how is “Karma” even relevant in Bhagawan Krishna’s life? This is why Sage Naarada is posing this important question to Bhagawan Krishna – If “Karma” is not going to have any effect on Him, why should He follow all the procedures of a normal human being?
The important answer to this, as we witnessed in yesterday’s episode is that, although Bhagawan is not going to get affected by “Karma”, He performs all duties as a normal human being because, He wants to set Himself as a role model to all of us, that we too should perform all our “Karma” like how He does. He voluntarily takes it up on Him to follow all the procedures of education, obeying parents’ words, respecting the “Guru”, etc. This is what we’ve to learn from Sage Naarada’s interaction with Bhagawan Krishna.
Moving on with the interaction thus, Bhagawan Krishna performs the “Pancha-Maha-Yagnya” every single day. This “Pancha-Maha-Yagnya” should be performed by every male member of the household. They are, “Brahma-Yagnya”, “Deva-Yagnya”, “Pitru-Yagnya”, “Bhoota-Yagnya” and “Manushya-Yagnya”. Apart from this, some other important principles of “Dharma” like serving food to the needy, taking care of all living beings equally without blemish, performing our “Sandyavandana” and “Tharpana” for our forefathers and ancestors regularly, reciting the Vedas regularly, etc. should be performed without fail by any person who is leading a “Grihasta” lifestyle. Sage Naarada explains here that Bhagawan Krishna is doing all of these without fail and with utmost perfection.
We might have a question here – Why should we perform all of this? What are we going to gain by doing all of this every passing day? The answer is very important for all of us to understand here – While we’re in our “Grihasta” lifestyle, we are extremely vulnerable to commit a huge number of sins every single day. Even though we might be extremely careful in many regards, we might still commit one or two sins here and there without our knowledge too – For instance, we might kill a mosquito or an ant or a fly, etc. just because they would have bitten us during our sleep. This might have been an involuntary action of ours, but the sin remains, isn’t it? Whether we kill a mosquito voluntarily or involuntarily doesn’t matter – We might still be ending up on the wrong side. Similarly, when we lit our gas stove everyday for cooking, we might be killing thousands of germs that might be invisible to our eyes, isn’t it? If we’re sweeping our floor everyday with water and soap, again we’re killing thousands of germs. While we’re taking bath every morning, again we’re killing several thousands of germs that might be sticking to various parts of our body.
But having said all this, we might ask a counter question here – “Oh! If that’s the case, shouldn’t we cook? Shouldn’t we take a shower every day? Shouldn’t we mop our floor and keep our house clean? If we’re not doing all of these, how do we live our life?” Here is where we’re performing the “Pancha-Maha-Yagnya”. We’re performing this ritual to eliminate all the sins that we’re committing without our knowledge and because we do not have another option to prevent it. Thus, all of these are extremely important for us to eliminate then and there, because, if we let these sins accumulate, we’re only going to add to our “Paapa-Karma”. For eliminating all of these, we might have to take several births in the future too, which we never know! This is the reason why Bhagawan Krishna Himself illustrates to all of us that if we’re performing all these duties properly, we can escape the wrath of our “Bad Karma” accumulating. For instance, if we feed the left over food to the dogs, cats and other animals in our locality, this satisfies the “Bhoota-Yagnya”. If we regularly chant the Vedas and perform our spiritual routine every day, we’re satisfying the “Brahma-Yagnya”. If we’re fasting on the “Ekaadashi” day and serving a detailed breakfast or lunch to a guest (Atithi) who visits us on the “Dvaadashi” day, we’re satisfying the “Manushya-Yagnya”. Thus, we see here that these “Pancha-Maha-Yagnyas” are not really complex ones for us to implement – These are just part of our regular lives and if we’re consciously doing all of these properly, we can be rest-assured that Bhagawan is going to wash off all our sins that we’re committing unknowingly or without an option.
Thus, from yesterday’s and today’s episodes, we should clearly understand that Bhagawan is performing all the “Nitya-Anushtaanas” and all the important “Karmas” that normal human beings should perform, because He wants to set Himself as a role model for all of us to follow. It is only when He does it properly with perfection, will people like us do! 😊 Else we would start “passing the buck” thus – “Oh! Bhagawan Himself didn’t do anything! So why should I do?” In order to avoid such a situation, Bhagawan takes it upon Himself to perform all of it and show. So let us understand this important point today and let us wait till the next episode to witness further. Stay tuned! 😊
The Indian Dharma 