We’re at the midst of an important juncture wherein Sage Paraashara is explaining a few snippets of his past background. He’s narrating this to Sage Maithreya, as to how did the conversation between himself and Sage Vasishtaachaarya bloom up. He narrates how he got extremely angry, frustrated and upset with the way in which his father, Sage Shakti was killed. Unable to bear the frustration, Sage Paraashara commences a powerful “Yagnya” which would ensure that the perpetrators of the crime would be killed, no matter where they were, and what they were doing! Each and every person who had even the smallest role in the crime wouldn’t be spared in any way. As the “Yagnya” commenced, the entire world started shaking with fear! The vibrations that were emitted from the Yagnya was so powerful that it started to bring all those who were responsible for the crime, into the sacrificial fire! It is at this time, Sage Vasishtaachaarya, along with a few other senior Maharishis, get together and collectively decide to make Sage Paraashara stop this fierce “Yagnya ”.
As planned, the consortium of Maharishis approach Sage Paraashara and speak thus, “Oh Paraashara! Your father had to pass away because his lifetime in this world was over. This was due to his previous accumulated “Karma”. These people who were responsible for the crime, were just instruments in making the inevitable happen. Just because of this, why do you want to kill all of these people? If such a thing takes place, this would set a very bad precedence in the world moving forward, and people would start going around, killing each other with vengeance! Please understand that all that is happening in the world is due to the act of “Karma” and nobody is responsible for nobody’s happiness, sorrow, birth or demise!” As Sage Vasishtaachaarya narrates this, Sage Paraashara immediately stops the Yagnya then and there!
There are a couple of important learnings for all of us here. The important question to be asked here is that, what made Sage Paraashara stop the fierce Yagnya then and there? He was with a savage resolution to bring all the criminals to justice and how come one person’s words totally changed his stance upside down within just a few moments? We can answer this question in two ways – Firstly, the level of “Guru-Bhakti” that Sage Paraashara had within himself, made him realize that the words of his Guru or Aachaarya conveys a lot of sense. Moreover, irrespective of whether Sage Vasishtaachaarya’s words convey sense or not, these words have come from the mouth of the Aachaarya, isn’t it? Hence, no matter what, it was Sage Paraashara’s duty to obey his Aachaarya’s words. Thus, Sage Paraashara called it “stop” right away, without asking a second question!
Secondly, Sage Vasishta’s words were crisp and to the point – He clearly made Sage Paraashara understand that there’s no point in getting angry for things that are beyond one’s control. Upon hearing Sage Vasishta’s accord, Sage Paraashara was able to realize this fact and modify his act accordingly.
Many of us today fall into this same trap as well – We keep getting angry for a lot of things that are beyond our control. Instead of looking at and modifying what we have in hand, we keep thinking most of the time about things beyond our reach. For instance, if we’ve to travel from one place to the other at a given date and time, rather than directly making arrangements for all of it, (Transportation tickets, accommodation, sorting out the agenda, etc.) we keep thinking about so many other things isn’t it? For instance, we think about an auspicious time to commence the journey, what if something happens in the middle, will our plans be implemented in the right way, what if something goes wrong, etc. All of these questions keep lingering in our minds as we proceed to do something isn’t it? These are the negative thoughts that one should forgo when we decide to move along a path towards achieving a goal. This is where our total surrender to Bhagawan’s feet comes into play. If we surrender our actions to Bhagawan, we do not need to worry about those things that aren’t under our control! Bhagawan would take care of all that, isn’t it? This is where we need to attain maturity. For instance, after some disastrous incident has taken place, what would be our mindset? We would immediately start thinking of how to take vengeance for what has happened, isn’t it? This is where we fail to understand that all things in this world happen for a reason and at times, we do not have a hand in that! Of course, this is a tough realization to make, but this is where spiritual maturity comes – We should understand clearly that not all things in this world would happen according to our wish and will. We need to take things as they come and move forward with life, rather than brooding over what we failed upon!
This is exactly Sage Vasishta too is making Sage Paraashara understand. Now that Sage Shakti is no more, Sage Vasishta is advising Sage Paraashara to relax, forget what had conspired and move on. Even if Sage Paraashara succeeds in punishing people, is his father going to come alive again? No, isn’t it? Hence, why waste time on something that has already happened irreversibly? This is the message that we’ve to understand in our day-to-day life too. So for today, let us realize and understand this important message as we move on with the conversation between Sage Paraashara and Sage Vasishta, as Sage Maithreya hears on! We shall wait till the next episode to continue further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 