In the previous episode, we had been witnessing an important and an interesting accord on Vidura’s background. We’ve witnessed that Vidura was an incarnation of Yama-Dharma-Raja and was an embodiment of “Dharma” as a whole. But how did Yama-Dharma-Raja get into this tangle of incarnating as a normal human being in the “Manushya Lokha”? What happened to him and who was responsible for him to take a human birth? We’ve witnessed an interesting accord that happened between Yama-Dharma-Raja and Sage Maandavya. Once, Sage Maandavya was declared a traitor by a king, who gave him a death sentence for a crime that he was never part of. Sage Maandavya was in deep penance and did not even know that he was being taken to the guillotine to get executed. However, at the crucial juncture when the knife was about to kill him, Sage Maandavya woke up from his penance and understood what was happening! Meanwhile, the king also realized that he was punishing a wrong person, and immediately seeked refuge under the sage’s feet!
Notwithstanding thus, Sage Maandavya directly decided to confront Yama-Dharma-Raja who is responsible for maintaining the “accounts” of our “Paapa” and “Punya-Karma”. He directly travelled to the “Yama-Patna” in the southern direction and demanded an answer from him as to why was he subjected to such a harsh treatment! As Sage Maandavya angrily asked thus, Yama-Dharma-Raja began to shake with fear! However, he composed himself and answered that Sage Maandavya had harmed a butterfly in the same way when he was a child, and it was for this fault that he had to meet such a ghastly end to his life in this birth. Yama-Dharma-Raja clearly explains to Sage Maandavya that no matter whether he might be a great sage or a normal human being, a mistake is a mistake and the appropriate punishment have to be given! Yama-Dharma-Raja also explained to Sage Maandavya that there was no point in fuming towards him, as he was only doing his duty!
This is a very important point here, and from this accord we should clearly understand where we’re falling into! Every passing day, we’re killing hundreds and thousands of living beings for our survival, isn’t it? We might ask a question, how! Every day when we walk on the floor, we might kill so many ants, insects, worms, etc. under our feet as we walk on the ground, isn’t it? When we cook food in the kitchen, we light the stove for heating / boiling food items. Here too, the moment we start boiling, we’re killing hundreds and thousands of bacteria, viruses, and other living beings that we couldn’t even see through our naked eyes, isn’t it? Even when we’re washing our clothes, utensils, etc. we are unknowingly killing so many living beings. Even when we’re sitting simply at a place and if mosquitoes are biting us, what do we do? We have so many devices nowadays to kill these mosquitoes! Worse than all, we try to kill them with our own hands too! Thus, in these ways, we’ve to understand how many thousands of living beings we’re killing each day, and for all these, what kinds of punishments are awaiting us when we complete this birth! It is to be noted here that I’m still talking only about people who consume vegetarian food. I’m not even going to the other side wherein we’re consuming food items that are resultant of killing animals and birds.
Hence, the lesson from this instance is that we should refrain from killing living beings as much as possible. Of course, we cannot be 100% perfect, but we should try our best not to get into that heinous crime. We should understand that every living being has the right to live its life, like how we have our right to live a life in this world. We might ask a question here – How do we ensure that we implement this 100%? If that is the case, should we stop walking altogether? Should we refrain from cooking altogether? Should we resist the mosquitoes and experience diseases that come as a result of their biting? What is the solution for this? Let us wait till the next episode to find out! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 