In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhagawan Krishna explaining to Arjuna as to how one should dedicate all actions towards Him and should lead a selfless life. This springs Arjuna by surprise, who asks Bhagawan Krishna as to how this is possible. For this, Bhagawan explains how to dedicate our actions to Him. For instance, if we have to consume food, we’ve to first offer the food as “Neivedhya” to Bhagawan, and only then consume it. If we do so, the food that we consume would automatically become “Prasaadham”, which has Bhagawan’s divine “Anugraha” in it. Similarly, if we’re building a house for ourselves, we should make sure that we allocate considerable space in it for Bhagawan, and should perform our “Nitya-Anushtaanam” and “Thiru-Aaraadhanam” every day. Thus, we should dedicate whatever we do to Bhagawan, and of course we can enjoy whatever result we obtain, in the name of Bhagawan’s divine “Anugraha” towards us.
Moving on thus, Bhagawan Krishna is going to highlight a very important point here. He is now going to pull out some great illustrations of how certain people have attained the highest “Moksha” through “Karma Yoga”. He says thus,
“Karmanaivahi samsiddhihi maashruthaa janakaalayaha!
Lokha sangrahamevaapi sampashyan tyatthumarhasi!!”
Bhagawan says through this shloka thus, “Oh Arjuna! Please look at how King Janaka has attained the highest “Moksha” purely through the “Karma Yoga”! King Janaka was a great scholar and lived the life of a “Raja-Rishi”! King Janaka knew exactly what to do and what not to do as a righteous king and through the execution of his duties perfectly, he was able to attain the highest “Moksha”! Moreover, look at me! Even though “Karma” cannot touch me, am I refraining from what I’ve to do? I’m sitting right beside you to teach you all these things! Moreover, I’m performing my duty as your charioteer as well! I’m ensuring that the horses of your chariot are well nourished with adequate food and water. I’m ensuring that your chariot doesn’t have any issues while you will be on top of it and fighting the war! So if I myself am doing my duty, what stops you from doing yours?”
This is an important point that Bhagawan is focussing on here – We might wonder how King Janaka was so meticulous in performing his “Karma Yoga”, isn’t it? There was a day when King Janaka’s Guru, Sage Yajnavalkya wanted to illustrate to his other disciples the significance of King Janaka. Normally as the daily lesson begins, Sage Yajnavalkya would wait for King Janaka to come and take his seat before the lesson commences. This greatly irked the other disciples as they thought that Sage Yajnavalkya was biased towards King Janaka because he was a king. Hence, Sage Yajnavalkya wanted to teach a lesson to the other disciples. One day as Sage Yajnavalkya commenced the lesson for the day, he created an illusion with the help of his “Tapo-Bhalam” (Power of penance) that the entire Mithilapuri Desha was on fire! Upon seeing this illusion, all the other disciples started running here and there in panic, however, King Janaka did not get up from his seat at all! He did not even move an inch from his place! After running here and there, the other disciples came back to the Gurukula Ashrama tired and frustrated that they had never realized that it was an illusion!
Upon realizing that the entire fire incident was an illusion, the disciples wanted an explanation from Sage Yajnavalkya as to what exactly happened. To this, Sage Yajnavalkya replies thus, “Oh disciples! Look at the dedication of King Janaka towards the lessons that I’m teaching! When all of you started running here and there, he was the only one who sat down without any panic, even though he is the king of the country! Now tell me the reason behind why all of you ran around in panic! You are all sages, and what do you have under your possession? Nothing, isn’t it? Whereas, for King Janaka, it was his entire kingdom which was on fire, and yet, he did not move an inch! What does this show? It clearly shows King Janaka’s dedication towards learning the lessons. So, this is a big understanding for all of you today as to how King Janaka is not someone who is my favourite student or anything like that! From this incident, it is clearly proven that none of you have the amount of dedication and sincerity in learning the subject as King Janaka has! Hence, instead of feeling jealous about his stature, you should learn the lessons of dedication, sincerity and uncompromising attitude towards his “Karma Yoga”!”
Such was the reply from Sage Yajnavalkya on King Janaka! Now this is a great illustration that Bhagawan Krishna gives, so as to highlight the important point to Arjuna that it is very much possible for someone to attain the highest “Moksha” through the path of “Karma Yoga”! So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 