The Indian Dharma

In the previous episode, we had witnessed how the rivalry between Duryodhana and Bheemasena started growing. Beyond a point when Duryodhana was feeling humiliated more and more by Bheemasena’s raw muscle power and dominance, Duryodhana decided to give it back to him in the way that he would understand. He planned various plots to kill Bheemasena, like the one to push him into the River Ganges while Bheemasena was asleep! However, Bheemasena got out of the river unscathed! Next was to make a poisonous snake bite Bheemasena, which also failed miserably as the poison did not penetrate into Bheemasena’s ultra-strong body! Subsequently, Duryodhana decided that such simple plots aren’t going to work! He decided to mix poison amidst Bheemasena’s food, make him consume it and subsequently push him into the river water, wherein some immensely poisonous snakes were residing! Thus, the poison should work from all four sides – From the food and from the various snakes beneath the river! With this idea, a grand festive was arranged by Duryodhana amidst the river banks and he executed his plan against Bheemasena! 

As per his expectation, Bheemasena consumed the immensely poisonous food and as time passed by, the poison started to take effect in Bheemasena’s body. He started feeling giddy and slowly fell unconscious! Using this opportunity, Duryodhana and Co. pushed Bheemasena into the river where the snakes were residing! The snakes too started biting Bheemasena from all four sides! As this was happening on one end, on the river banks, people started to search for Bheemasena everywhere, only not to be found anywhere! Kunthi Devi and Yudishtra were deeply concerned, however, Duryodhana smartly deflected them by saying that Bheemasena was feeling tired and hence he went back to the palace! Believing Duryodhana’s words, the Paandava brothers and Kunthi Devi started walking back towards the palace. 

It is at this crucial juncture, Vidura comes into the picture! As Kunthi Devi and the Paandava brothers were thoughtfully walking back, they see Vidura. Vidura too sees Kunthi Devi who was with a worried face. Upon understanding what had happened, Vidura consoles Kunthi Devi and explains thus, “Oh Kunthi Devi! Please wait and do not talk about this to anybody! I shall take responsibility to enquire what had really happened to Bheemasena and get back to you with details. Hence, please wait!” Readers should remind themselves here – We’ve seen in our earlier episodes that whenever the Paandavas had a problem, it was Vidura who came in time to protect them and to guide them as per the path of “Dharma”. This is the first instance that we’re seeing how Vidura comes at the right time to protect the Paandavas when they are in danger. As Vidura says thus to Kunthi Devi and the Paandava brothers, he starts his enquiry process on one side. 

Meanwhile, as Bheemasena was under the water now, the poisonous snakes started to bite him left, right and center! Normally, the biggest enemy of poison is poison itself! Bheemasena had consumed the food with poison, didn’t he? This poison was neutralized when the poison from the snakes went into Bheemasena’s body! Thus, Bheemasena became free of poison and subsequently regained his consciousness. As the snakes saw this, they were surprised! Normally the protocol in this world is that when snakes bite humans, they should die of the poison. However, the case of this boy was very different isn’t it? When the snakes bit him, he woke up and sat upright! Unable to believe this, the snakes took Bheemasena further underground to meet their leader, Naagaraja! We’ve already seen that the leader of the snakes was “Vaasuki”. Snake Vaasuki meets Bheemasena and he knew who this boy was. Snake Vaasuki knows that Bheemasena was none other than Vaayu Bhagawan’s divine son and he was happy to meet Bheemasena! Snake Vaasuki blessed Bheemasena with enormous power and strength to overcome any danger that might potentially be caused to him in future! 

As Snake Vaasuki was conversing with Bheemasena, there was another person in the same “Naaga Lokha” who was Kunthi Devi’s good friend. Sage Vyaasa is going to give a short accord about this person here. So for today, let us understand until this point and in the next episode, we shall witness who this person was and what was his role in Kunthi Devi’s life. We shall also witness what happened to Vidura’s investigation and how Bheemasena came back to Hastinapura in the next episode! Stay tuned for an interesting accord! 🙂 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed Sage Vyaasa announcing to the world that the advent of Kali Yuga is nearing, and the Dwaapara Yuga is coming to a close. As a result of this change in “Yuga”, the amount of “Dharma” that is performed in the world is going to drastically decrease and this is going to be replaced by all sorts of “Adharma” from all sides. With this, he instructs his mother Satyavati to leave for her “Vaana-Prastha-Ashrama” to spend her last days and subsequently attain the “Svarga Lokha”. Satyavati too understood her son’s important words and she took both Ambika and Ambaalika with her to the forest. This marks the end of the initial two generations of the Mahabharata text. As Sage Vyaasa had said, from that point onwards, various forms of “Adharma” started creeping into Hastinapura itself. Duryodhana’s jealousy towards Bheemasena’s enormous muscle power was only going up northwards and there was no relent to it. At one point, Duryodhana and his Kaurava brothers couldn’t tolerate Bheemasena’s growing popularity amongst the kids and the respect he was receiving from all of them! He thus decides to take the extreme step of killing Bheemasena! 

Readers should remember here that when Duryodhana decided to kill Bheemasena for the first time, the children were barely twelve or thirteen years old! This shows how much of vengeance Duryodhana was born with! During the innocent childhood days itself, if one has to take the extreme step of killing his own brother, we can see how much of “Adharma” has already started creeping inside. Let us witness this accord further. Duryodhana convened a  meeting with all his Kaurava brothers to chart out an action plan to go about killing Bheemasena. What could they possibly do? Of course, they’re not fit enough to go on an all out war against Bheemasena yet. The easiest way to get rid of Bheemasena is to push him into the River Ganges and let the water take care of him to drown him off! Accordingly, the plan was set and Bheemasena was pushed into the river during the middle of the night! Since he was fat and sturdy, he immediately went deep into the river waters and was about to get drowned! However, with Bhagawan’s divine “Anugraha”, Bheemasena woke up at the right time, only to see himself at the water floor. Immediately Bheemasena used his swimming skills and managed to come up the water! He was safe and secure and nothing happened to him. When Duryodhana woke up next morning to celebrate Bheemasena’s disappearance, he was shocked to see him alive and walking down just as if nothing had happened last night! 

As this happened, Duryodhana’s frustration grew further. His plan was completely thwarted and he looked like a joker in the middle of everyone! He again planned a different strategy this time – He wanted to mix some poison along with the food that Bheemasena consumed. He did that, and subsequently Bheemasena’s stomach digested the entire food, including the poison! Thus, Bheemasena escaped again from the wrath of Duryodhana’s hands! This made Duryodhana even more frustrated. Subsequently Duryodhana decided that Bheemasena should somehow be bitten by a poisonous snake. Accordingly a snake was brought inside the palace and was let into Bheemasena’s room while he was fast asleep. The snake bit him, but due to the enormous fat that Bheemasena had in his body, the poison couldn’t penetrate into his body to do any harm to him! Thus, this plan was also foiled! 

Frustrated even more by this, Duryodhana charted out another plan. These kinds of snake poisons, pushing into the river, etc. are not going to work against Bheemasena’s strength! Duryodhana thus decided to take a different route this time – He arranged a big festival on the banks of the River Ganga and arranged enormous food for Bheemasena to consume. In the food, a treacherous poison was mixed. The poison was in such a way that if one consumes even a drop of it, the poison would infect the person immediately, which would result in death straightaway! The plan was made – Bheemasena would consume that extremely poisonous food and he would die on the spot. Subsequently to make things clearer, Duryodhana also had a “Plan B” this time! As Bheemasena would faint down, he would be pushed into the river waters, wherein some extremely poisonous snakes would be present. They would also bite him and inject poison into his body. Thus, the food poison and the snake poison would work simultaneously to kill Bheemasena! 

As Bheemasena consumes the food, now the poison starts to do its job. Bheemasena starts feeling giddy and is about to faint! Using this opportunity, Duryodhana and Co. pushed him into the fast-flowing river water and Bheemasena was drowned into the deep waters! As time passed, the festival got over and people started searching for Bheemasena. As Kunthi Devi and the Paandava brothers were unable to find Bheemasena anywhere, they became concerned! The search became more frantic and more and more people joined them with the search operation! As there was a lot of chaos around, Duryodhana announced to all of them that Bheemasena had already gone back to Hastinapura and there’s no need to wait for him! As Duryodhana made this loud announcement, Yudishtra and the others believed his words! Yudishtra was an embodiment of “Dharma”, and he believed that all the others would also be like him! Believing Duryodhana thus, the entire family was about to return back to Hastinapura, sans Bheemasena, who was drowning into the deep waters of the river! 

Now what is going to happen to Bheemasena next? Is he going to be protected this time? Who is going to intervene now and protect him? Let us wait for an interesting accord in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the Mahabharata main story wherein the Paandava brothers and Kunthi Devi have reached King Dhirdiraashtra’s Hastinapura. The Paandava children are just eight to ten years old at that time, and they’re happily playing with Duryodhana and Co. The entire palace at Hastinapura is filled with joy as the children were running around everywhere. Over time, Bheemasena started becoming very powerful amongst the lot, as he started to boss over Duryodhana and Co. He used to pull the other children’s hair, pinch their waist, beat them in their backs, etc. This is the way in which Bheemasena wished to play with others, however, this was not liked by the children, especially Duryodhana, who was slowly starting to feel jealous of Bheemasena’s enormous physical strength. Of course, Duryodhana was also powerful, but he could not give a match to the muscle power of Bheemasena, who was Vaayu Bhagawan’s son. This was going on for a few months and along with the passage of time, slowly the rivalry between the two camps started to grow. 

Meanwhile as this was happening at Hastinapura palace, Sage Veda-Vyaasa once again comes to meet his mother, Satyavati. It should be noted that this meeting happens when all these children are playing on one end. Satyavati had a long lifetime, and we now know who this Satyavati is – She is the mother-in-law of Ambika and Ambaalika, who are the mothers of Paandu and King Dhirdiraashtra. Thus, Satyavati was the great grandmother to the Paandavas and Kauravas, as two generations after her had passed by. Sage Veda-Vyaasa was witnessing all these happenings with his power of penance from where he was sitting. He knew of the demise of Paandu and that the Paandava brothers along with Kunthi Devi have come to Hastinapura palace to continue their life here. As Sage Vyaasa comes by, Satyavati receives him with all the due respects that she had to give for a sage, and asks him the reason for his visit. Sage Vyaasa said only three things and with that he left! Sage Vyaasa says thus, “Oh Mother! From now on, there is only going to be “Adharma” which is on the rise, as we’re nearing the Kali Yuga’s advent. There is no place for “Dharma” in the Kali Yuga. From now onwards, you wouldn’t have much work to do to protect this “Chandra-Vamsa”. You’ve done enough and more to these people. From now on, I shall take care of these people! You take your daughter-in-laws and ascend to the “Svarga Lokha” This is better for you than living here anymore!” 

As Sage Vyaasa explains thus, Satyavati too realizes his words and straightaway goes to her daughter-in-laws to explain the situation to them. Satyavati says thus, “Oh Ambika and Ambaalika! A few minutes ago Sage Vyaasa came and visited me. He wanted the three of us to immediately leave this place and take up the “Vaana-prasthaashrama” in the forest, and from there, we can ascend to whichever “Lokha” we’ve to go to. This place is not going to have any further “Dharma” left. If we’re here, we’ll have to witness enormous “Adharma” in front of our eyes. Hence, let us leave this place immediately without any further delay!” As Satyavati explains thus, Ambika and Ambaalika readily agreed to accompany her to the forest! Thus, all three bid goodbye to the Hastinapura kingdom and with time, the three of them ascended out of this “Lokha”! 

Coming back to the Hastinapura palace thus, as time passed by, the children are growing up fast. Duryodhana and Co. are unable to tolerate the “atrocities” of Bheemasena and his toruture! Thus, Duryodhana calls all his people for a meeting and discusses how to handle this Bheemasena and how to control him! As nobody had an answer for this question, Duryodhana decides that the only way to free themselves from Bheemasena is to get rid of him permanently! But how do they do that without the knowledge of the elders? Duryodhana decides that during the night time, Bheemasena would be fast asleep because of the enormous food that he consumes. As he was fast asleep, the plan was to tie him with ropes and push him into the River Ganges! By this, the water would take him far away and eventually he would never come back again to join them at Hastinapura! The plan was made and all of them were waiting for the night to fall! So for today, let us also wait for that night to witness what happened to Bheemasena! Was Duryodhana successful in drowning Bheemasena into the Ganga water? Or, was Bheemasena strong enough to come back alive? Let us witness this in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂   

In the previous episode, we had witnessed how Yama-Dharma-Raja had invited the curse of Sage Maandavya for “punishing” him for a mistake that he had done as a child, which cannot be counted as a mistake due to his young age. As Yama-Dharma-Raja had committed this mistake, he had to take a human birth in the “Manushya Lokha”, and this incarnation of Yama-Dharma-Raja was none other than Vidura, who was King Dhirdiraashtra’s brother. We had witnessed how Vidura had taken birth with the divine “Anugraha” of Sage Vyaasa. We had witnessed how Ambika and Ambaalika had Paandu and Dhirdiraashtra with the divine “Anugraha” of Sage Vyaasa. However, as both were handicapped in some way or the other (Dhirdiraashtra was born blind and Paandu was born with fits), Mother Satyavati was not sure as to how these two would be able to take the responsibility of the kingdom. She wanted another child who would be fit and fine to rule the kingdom and hence she again prayed to Sage Vyaasa. Accordingly both Ambika and Ambaalika were to approach Sage Vyaasa for his divine “Anugraha”. However, they both weren’t interested to go once again to him, and instead, sent a worker woman to Sage Vyaasa. Since this woman considered this as a golden opportunity to be blessed by a great sage, she took it seriously and approached him. With Sage Vyaasa’s divine “Anugraha” falling on her, she delivered a healthy baby and this baby was none other than Vidura. 

Thus, we should remember here that Vidura was the “half-brother” of Dhirdiraashtra and Paandu. Moving on from here, we shall now come back to the place where we had left earlier – Readers might remember that we’re at the juncture wherein King Paandu had passed away and along with King Paandu, Maadri Devi also jumped into the pyre to end her life. Subsequently owing to the advice given by the sages around that forest area, the five Paandava brothers were brought back to the Hastinapura kingdom along with Mother Kunthi Devi. All of them came back to the Hastinapura palace and at this point in time, Dhirdiraashtra had taken over the reins of the Hastinapura kingdom from King Paandu. Thus, King Dhirdiraashtra welcomes all of them into the palace. Initially as the Paandava brothers arrived at Hastinpaura, there was no ego clash of any sorts between anybody. King Dhirdiraashtra whole-heartedly welcomed all the five children along with Kunthi Devi. However, as time passed by, the situation became worse. 

As they were children of just twelve years of age, the Paandava brothers along with Duryodhana and Co. were happily playing with each other. Even as a child, Bheemasena had the power of a thousand elephants. As the children were playing with each other, Bheemasena was undoubtedly the most powerful child amongst all of them. Hence with his sheer power and strength, he was able to bring everybody under his control. He used to pull the other children’s hairs, hit them on their shoulders, give them some slaps on their faces, etc., and eventually Bheemasena earned a very bad reputation amongst the children. This was the starting point of the rivalry between the Paandava brothers and the Kauravas. Upon Bheemasena’s growing reputation of being the most powerful kid amongst the lot, Duryodhana started to feel jealous of this! We’ve already witnessed that both Bheemasena and Duryodhana were born on the same day, isn’t it? Yudishtra was the first to take birth to Kunthi Devi, and subsequently after a year’s time, Bheemasena was born to Kunthi Devi. On the same day, Gaandhaari had her first child by name Duryodhana, who came out from the pot. We’ve witnessed this event earlier as to how the Kaurava brothers who are hundred in number were born. 

Thus, as Bheemasena started exerting more power and authority, Duryodhana was itching to give it back to him in terms of his strength. We should understand here that Duryodhana was also very powerful since birth, as he was also born with the divine “Anugraha” of Sage Vyaasa. Hence, the rift between Duryodhana and Bheemasena commenced in a small way of some physical fights, and of course, it escalated to higher levels as days and months passed by. So for today, let us understand until this point and we shall wait till the next episode to continue further! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the angry conversation between Sage Maandavya and Yama-Dharma-Raja. As Yama-Dharma-Raja intended to punish Sage Maandavya through a king by hanging him to death, Sage Maandavya became furious and he straightaway confronted Yama-Dharma-Raja for the reason behind handing over such a corporal punishment. Upon this, Yama-Dharma-Raja came out with an analysis that he had killed a small butterfly when he was a child, and this is the reason for which he has been handed over this corporal punishment. In due course, this was also an eye-opener for normal people like us as to how many living beings we’re killing every passing day! All these go into our “Paapa-Karma” account and are getting accumulated day after day! But we might ask a question here – Is it a crime even if we kill living beings unknowingly? For instance, when we cook food, we do not have another option but to light the stove. When we do so, obviously we would end up killing thousands of small germs, viruses, bacteria and even ants and other kinds of living beings, isn’t it? So the question would come here as to whether should we refrain completely from cooking! In similar lines, we could ask simultaneous questions as to whether we should avoid walking on the road, etc. too! 

The answer to this is very simple – This is the reason why we perform something called “Brahma-Yagnyam” as part of our daily “Sandhya-Vandanam”. The main importance of this Brahma-Yagnyam is to wash away all our “Paapa-Karma” that we keep accumulating everyday without our knowledge. As we keep performing the “Brahma-Yagnyam” every day as part of our “Nitya-Anushtaanam”, all these things are being washed away just like how a drop of water doesn’t stay even for a moment on top of a lotus petal. This is one way of doing it. The other way is to keep chanting our “Mantra” at all times constantly. As we chant more and more, the underlying sins of ours, that we’ve accumulated for so many births due to unknown reasons would be slowly washed away, and we become very pure. This is why I always keep recommending to all of us, readers, that we should make an effort to obtain a Mantra from a “Guru” or a “Spiritual Master”. We should approach them and obtain it from them (“Mantra-Deeksha”) and subsequently we should keep chanting it at all times, depending on the guidance and instructions from our Spritual Master. This is perhaps the easiest way of washing out all our sins that we commit for unknown reasons without our knowledge. 

As we say thus, there might be a question immediately – Is it possible for us to wash away our “Paapa Karma” that we have accumulated knowingly? For instance, if we’ve to steal someone’s property, or if we do something that is against the principles of “Dharma” knowingly, will we be able to escape the wrath of it by just following the above procedures? The answer is “No”! We should understand here that Bhagawan is extremely smart! He knows exactly how we would use these procedures as “loopholes” and thus, he knows when and how to pull the plug! The above-mentioned procedures are only to get rid of our “Paapa Karma” that we accumulate without our knowledge. This cannot be applied to a case wherein we would do all possible wrong things in this world and then search for “Praaya-Chitha” for all whatever we’ve done. There would be no effect for such “Praaya-Chitha” and by doing all this, we’re only wasting our time and money. Nowhere in the “Sanaatana Dharma” it is written that every act of “Paapa-Karma” can be washed away just like that by doing a simple “Praaya-Chitha”. If we’re performing heinous crimes, we’ve to experience the punishment for that in the “Naraka-Lokha” and there’s no escape from this, by doing some stupid “Praaya-Chitha” that astrologers suggest! These are all the “blind-faiths” and superstitions that we have! The “Sanaatana Dharma” never gives any room for such superstitions! It is perhaps the only thing that has extreme clarity in whatever it says. Hence, let us not get into all these traps of superstitions and let us consciously refrain from performing heinous crimes of killing living beings! 

Moving on further thus, as Yama-Dharma-Raja explains thus, Sage Maandavya is not satisfied. He immediately fumed back thus, “Oh Yama-Dharma-Raja! How can you punish me for a crime that I had committed as a child? Don’t you know that you cannot punish someone for any crime that is done until the age of 9? This is a huge mistake that you’ve made! There might be so many mistakes that people do unknowingly and unconsciously. According to the rule, these cannot be under the ambit of getting punished! Hence, you’ve committed a mistake of punishing me for a crime that I’ve committed unknowingly! Hence, I’m cursing you – You would go down to the earth and take birth as a normal human being and experience untold miseries and sufferings just like how normal people undergo in the world!” 

Saying thus, Sage Maandavya walks back angrily! With this, Yama-Dharma-Raja too realizes his folly and understands that he has been cursed by a great sage! Now he has no other option other than taking birth in the “Manushya Lokha”, and this is where, Yama-Dharma-Raja incarnates in this world as Vidura, who was an embodiment of “Dharma” himself! So for today, let us understand up to this point and let us wait till the next episode to continue this accord further! Stay tuned! 🙂 

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! 🙂 

In the previous episode, we witnessed the concluding part of the important conversation between King Yayaati and Sage Ashtaka. Sage Ashtaka was very particular that he made King Yayaati narrate all his ordeals about how he experienced re-births at the “Svarga Lokha” and subsequently in the “Manushya Lokha”, to where he was falling down. Of course, Sage Ashtaka knows all these facts by himself as he was an extremely learned man. However, if someone who has undergone that experience narrates the ordeals, it would add more credibility to the entire discussion, isn’t it? By outwardly looking at the conversation, we might come to a conclusion that Sage Ashtaka (A Brahmana Rishi) is unaware of all these, and King Yayaati, a “Kshatrya Veera” has to enlighten him with all these ordeals. In fact, even King Yayaati was a “Raaja-Rishi”, on par with King Ambareesha and the great King Janaka in terms of spiritual knowledge and understanding. Thus, because of all these qualifications that King Yayaati had, Sage Ashtaka made him elaborate his past experiences so that the world would understand what it takes to be reborn again and again in this world! 

Moving on thus, I had concluded our previous episode by saying that Vidura had taken birth because of a curse that Yama-Dharma-Raja had accumulated in the past. Now let us witness this story also in brief, before we continue to witness what happened to the Paandava children at the Hastinapura palace. Sage Vyaasa explains this story in line with the event wherein the Paandava children along with Kunthi Devi are entering into the Hastinapura palace for the first time post King Paandu’s demise. We’ve witnessed this event in our earlier episodes and after this, we had deviated into the King Yayaati’s accord. As Sage Vyaasa describes the Paandavas giving an entry into Hastinapura, he explains that Vidura was the first person to receive them. Here, he talks about Vidura’s background story. Now let us see this in a bit of detail as we move forward. 

There was a great Sage by the name Maandavya. This Sage Maandavya was performing his usual penance until one day when he was caught by the guards of a king for a theft that he was never part of! Sage Maandavya was deep into his penance as this was happening. He did not know what was happening around him. However, since Sage Maandavya did not open his mouth and answer anything to the king who was trying to investigate the crime, the king concluded that Sage Maandavya is guilty and hence, the punishment of hanging to death was declared upon him! Accordingly, the guards took Sage Maandavya to the guillotine where he was supposed to be hanged. They put the sharp needle-like knife in position to kill him and everything was in place! Sage Maandavya was a great sage, and he is not going to be executed this way like normal people. With his extreme “Yoga-Balam” (Power of penance), as the knife narrowed down on him, it did not harm him in any way! With this, Sage Maandavya stood up from his sitting position, and the knife couldn’t move forward into his body to kill him! Upon seeing this, the security guards were shocked and ran to the king to convey this unusual happening. 

As the king heard this, he came rushing down and quickly realized his folly! He has tried to kill a great sage who was deep into his penance! With the fear of being cursed by the sage, the king immediately reversed his decision of hanging Sage Maandavya. He released Sage Maandavya and seeked his forgiveness. Sage Maandavya accepted his apology and let him go! However, Sage Maandavya did not leave just like that. With his “Yoga-Balam” he made his way straight to the place where Yama-Dharma-Raja was sitting! He questioned Yama-Dharma-Raja thus, “Oh Yama! Why did you give the wrong punishment to a wrong person? I had escaped the guillotine because of my power of penance. If this wasn’t there, I would have been dead by now. If I’ve to be killed this way, what mistake did I do in the past? I was in my penance most of the time, and where and when did I commit a heinous crime? I demand an answer from you immediately!” 

As Sage Maandavya asked Yama-Dharma-Raja furiously thus, Yama-Dharma-Raja started shaking with fear! However, he checked all his accounts and found out Sage Maandavya’s mistake. He explains to Sage Maandavya thus, “Oh Sage Maandavya! There is a reason as to why I punished you this way! In your previous birth, when you were a child, you had tortured a small butterfly in the same way. You had tried to poke the poor butterfly with a needle and with it, the butterfly was extremely hurt and fought for its life. It is for this mistake, you had to experience this punishment! Even though the butterfly might be an insignificant creature, a living being is a living being! We do not have the right to destroy another living being’s life for no reason, isn’t it? This is why I had punished you this way!” 

Upon hearing this, we might think thus, “Oh wow! If a great Sage Maandavya can receive a treacherous punishment like this for just killing a small butterfly, what kind of punishment would we get? We’re killing so many insects, flies, ants, mosquitoes, etc. every passing day without our knowledge, isn’t it?” This is a serious concern for all of us, and this is one reason why our “Sanaatana Dharma” says that we should avoid killing living beings unnecessarily. We shall elaborate on this point further in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the conversation between Sage Ashtaka and King Yayaati and we had witnessed how tough it is for a “Jeevatma” to be born and to survive in this world amidst enormous challenges and sufferings. This accord should be an eye-opener for all of us to understand many things with regards to the untold misery that an “Atman” has to undergo all through its five-point-process and also inside the mother’s womb. Of course, Sage Ashtaka is a great sage, and he knows all these things by himself! However, by taking all these words out of King Yayaati’s mouth assumes a lot of significance. We might have had a doubt here for a long time – Why doesn’t a great Sage like Ashtaka know all these basic things of life? The answer is very simple as I had mentioned earlier – He knows everything. But if he explains all these things, there wouldn’t be much credibility. Only if the right person who has undergone all these sufferings explains it from his / her own personal experience, will the credibility factor build in! Here, King Yayaati has undergone the experience of youthfulness, an “extended youthfulness” borrowed from his own son, the pleasures and luxuries of the “Svarga Lokha”, etc. which Sage Ashtaka has not experienced in person. Since King Yayaati has truckloads of experiences to talk about, Sage Ashtaka wants to get all these descriptions out of his mouth, so that the world can understand the first-hand experience of how is it at the “Svarga Lokha”! 

Even in today’s present context, why do we prefer experienced people over freshers for many jobs? It is because, experienced people would know how to handle tough situations better, and this is a very important requirement if we’ve to recruit people for top positions in the organization. Whereas on the other hand, if we’re giving such top positions to freshers who do not have that personal hands-on experience, how would they handle tough situations? How would they make effective decisions to take the company forward? This same concept is applicable here also! Of course, King Yayaati is not just a person with these kinds of experiences, but he is a “Raaja-Rishi”! He has enormous amounts of “Shaastra-Gnyaana” and only with all of it, he is able to give such detailed accords about life and death, even though he has that experience. Thus, we can see here that experience alone is not enough. A person should have a combination of both experience and the conceptual understanding of how things happen! This combination is very important. In similar lines, we talk about many other kings like King Ambareesha, King Janaka, etc. too, isn’t it? We’ve witnessed a detailed accord about King Ambareesha during our “Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana” project, wherein, he set the standards for fasting during the “Ekaadashi” days and how to finish the fasting on the subsequent “Dvaadashi” days. We’ve witnessed how King Ambareesha was tested by Sage Durvasa and how Bhagawan Vishnu took up the direct responsibility to save King Ambareesha from the anger of Sage Durvaasa. Moreover, we’ve witnessed how King Janaka was a Raaja-Rishi and in fact, Bhagawan Krishna Himself talks very high about King Janaka in the Bhagawad Gita. He explains that King Janaka was one amongst the very few people in this world who had attained “Moksha” through the “Karma Yoga”. 

Normally, Bhagawan Krishna doesn’t praise anyone specially by taking his name in the Bhagawad Gita! But King Janaka is an exception here, because, he was a highly qualified person in terms of “Shaastra-Gnyaana” and was a highly detached person from all sorts of wealth, although he had it plenty! Bhagawan explains that being rich and wealthy isn’t wrong! The mindset of we being rich is what causes all the problems in life! We might have enormous amounts of wealth under our possession. But the thought that we have such a lot of possessions is something that is extremely dangerous! This thought would lead us to pride, jealousy, overconfidence, over-ambition, etc. and finally would drive us away from Bhagawan completely! We should understand one thing here – All the property, wealth, etc. that we might possess today, would definitely become someone else’s after our demise, isn’t it? Forget the demise part – If something goes wrong, all the property would get into the hands of someone else even in front of our own two eyes, isn’t it? King Yudishtra was also extremely wealthy, but when he participated in the gambling game with Duryodhana and Co. what happened? All his wealth, including his wife, Draupathi was lost to the opponent camp within minutes, isn’t it? Hence, money, wealth, property, etc. are highly impermanent in nature! They keep moving around very quickly and we should not be carried away by it! We should basically have the understanding that all the money, property, etc. are owned by Bhagawan and He has given all of it to us for some good reason and benefit of the society. We should always have this thought within us. 

Thus, King Yayaati had this realization much later as we’ve witnessed how he wanted to “enjoy” the pleasures of the “Manushya Lokha” as well as the “Svarga Lokha”, isn’t it? Thus, the realization came very late after experiencing all the suffering that he had to experience! Thus with this, we conclude the important discussion between King Yayaati and Sage Ashtaka and this forms an integral part of the initial stage of the “Mahabharata” story. We’re going to witness many such accords and conversations between many other people as we move on. We would focus on these conversations more than the storyline, because all of us know the storyline very well. All of us know how Duryodhana followed the path of “Adharma” and how the Paandavas followed the path of “Dharma”, how the Kauravas were finally defeated during the Kuruksehtra war. However, the aspects of “Dharma” that are discussed in the Mahabharata text in the forms of such important conversations are extremely value-adding to all of us – Both in terms of our spiritual pursuit as well as in terms of how we conduct ourselves in this world and society. 

So for today, let us conclude this important conversation and readers might remember that I had explained Vidura’s birth in brief during our previous episodes. Vidura is none other than King Dhirdiraashtra’s brother and there is a small story behind Vidura’s birth, with regards to how Sage Maandavya cursed Yama-Dharma-Raja. We shall witness this interesting story in the next episode, as we move on with the Mahabharata story further! Stay tuned! 🙂 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the discussion on the “Yayaati-Ashtaka Samvaadham” wherein, King Yayaati explains in detail as to how an “Atman” undergoes five different “points of contact” with the nature, before entering into the mother’s womb to be born in this world again. As the “Atman” crosses these five stages, it is not the end of all the suffering that it has to undergo. The mother’s womb is even more of a wretched place, with so many difficulties that the “Atman” should encounter before getting born. The “Atman” has to wade through a sea of bacteria and viruses inside the mother’s womb, along with all the waste that swirls around without going out! Along with it, the blood and flesh inside the womb makes the “Atman” completely suffocated. It is thus waiting to be taken out of the womb, but there is another scare here – How will it even survive the treacherous challenges that the world would throw at it? Upon thinking this, the “Atman” feels that the suffering that it is undergoing inside the mother’s womb is much better than what it would have to undergo outside! As the time nears for the delivery, even though people outside are eagerly waiting for this child to be born, the “Jeevatma” inside is crying to Bhagawan as to why should it undergo this much torture and suffering! The child cries to Bhagawan, so as to repent for all the “Paapa_Karma” that it had performed during its previous birth(s). 

Upon hearing all these emotional accords from King Yayaati, Sage Ashtaka asks him again thus, “Oh King Yayaati! So the sufferings inside the mother’s womb is terrible, isn’t it? Atleast the child would get relief while being born in this world. It would get a lot of freedom, which it did not get while being inside, isn’t it? Hence, the child should be very happy while being born!” Upon hearing this from Sage Ashtaka, King Yayaati laughs a bit and replies thus, “Oh Sage Ashtaka! Do you think that the child takes birth very happily? The process of taking birth itself is horrible and the child takes birth just like how I’m falling down from the “Svarga Lokha”! Just like how I’m being pushed upside down from the “Svaga Lokha”, the child from the mother’s womb is pulled out in the upside down position only!” If we closely examine how childbirth happens, we would understand that the leg portion wouldn’t come out first. Only the head portion of the child comes out initially. However, if the opposite happens, it means that there’s some problem with the child inside the uterus and it requires immediate medical attention. Thus, if we view life in this world from this angle, it is very simple to decipher – The person is born upside down on the first day of birth, and from there, the person tries to stand up straight for the next eighty to ninety years! When we say that we’ve to “stand up”, it encompasses all the various stages that we’ve to pass through as a human being in this world! 

Thus, the earlier we realize this, the earlier we would be able to stand up and pray to Bhagawan to attain “Moksha”! This realization set in early for little Prahlaada, little Dhruva, etc. wherein they attained what they’ve to within just ten years of their birth in this world! Whereas, we take upto ninety-odd years because we still do not have that realization within us! In many of our cases, these ninety years are also not sufficient to make this realization happen! We keep being born again and again in this world for ninety or hundred years each time without this realization happening! Thus, we should understand one thing very clearly here – Why are we listening / reading through all these stories of King Yayaati, Prahlaada, Dhruva, etc.? We’ve witnessed detailed accords of Prahlaada and Dhruva in our previous projects as well, isn’t it? Why do we do so? It is only because their life stories should become great inspirations for all of us to start taking efforts to attain Bhagawan, instead of being born again and again in this world to undergo enormous suffering! These stories should serve as an eye-opener to all of us and should make us realize that we’re undergoing enormous suffering here! If this suffering has to come to an end, the only option left for us is to surrender to Bhagawan’s divine lotus feet! It is only Bhagawan who could pull us out of all these sufferings once and forever! 

Emphasizing all these points thus, King Yayaati continues his accord – “Oh Sage Ashtaka! Tell me who is a better person in this world who can explain to you all these things in such great detail? It is because I’ve gone through all these ordeals! I was thinking within myself that youthfulness in this world is something that we can enjoy a lot and with a lot of glamour and fun! But towards the end of my previous birth, I realized that all these so-called enjoyments only lead to more and more suffering! In fact, whatever we think of as enjoyments in this world, are not really enjoyments! They are ways and means to take us to more and more suffering! I realized this very late in my life, and when I realized this, it was too late! There might not be any person in this world who would have gone to the extent of borrowing the youthfulness of somebody else to continue the enjoyment! I got so carried away with all these! Subsequently, I thought that more than these enjoyments in this world, the enjoyment at the “Svarga Lokha” was better! There also I failed! I came to know that the “Svarga Lokha” enjoyment is also extremely limited and when the time came, I was pushed upside down without any mercy!” 

By saying all this to Sage Ashtaka, King Yayaati concludes by saying that the only way to escape all these sufferings is to attain Bhagawan permanently, which he had failed to do so in his previous birth! Hence, he requested Indra to push him to a place where there would be good people who would motivate him to follow the path to attain “Vaikunta” permanently and this is why he was falling amidst great sages like Sage Ashtaka! So for today, let us understand these points very clearly and let these points serve as an eye-opener for our progress towards attaining Bhagawan! We shall wait till the next episode to give the finishing touches to this important conversation as we move on further with the Mahabharata story! Stay tuned! 🙂 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the conversation between King Yayaati and Sage Ashtaka wherein King Yayaati explains the significance of the “Sthoola Deham” and the “Sookshma Deham”. King Yayaati now highlights five important points of contact that an “Atman” goes through, before landing up into the “Manushya Lokha” from the “Svarga Lokha / Naraka Lokha”. These five points are referred to as the “Pancha-Agni-Vidya” in the Upanishads. Initially when the “Atman” is pushed out of the “Svarga Lokha”, the “Atman” is strewn into the clouds that roam around in the sky. Subsequently, the clouds condense and pour down as rain on the earth’s surface. Now the “Atman” gets embedded into the raindrops as they fall down. Subsequently, the “Atman” grows into a plant with the combination of the raindrop and soil. Subsequently, this plant / tree is consumed by the existing living beings in the world, including human beings. Now the “Atman” goes into the stomach of the living being. Subsequently when the living being enters into a union for reproduction, the “Atman” gets transferred into the female womb and subsequently the “Atman” gets its new “Sthoola Deha” as it grows inside the mother’s womb. Thus, once the womb is fully grown, the woman gives birth to the child, and with this, we enter into our next birth in this world. 

As King Yayaati explains this, we should also understand that there is an uncertainty with respect to the time factor here. This five-point-process does not happen immediately in sequence for everyone. For instance, our “Atman” might keep roaming around amidst the clouds for several days or months. Depending upon where the clouds are going to dump the rains, the “Atman” would go into the ground and germinate as a seed. Again, if the seed germinates into a plant and then forms a tree, we’ve seen that several trees have extremely long lifespans. It is believed that some species of the banyan tree lives on for a hundred or even a thousand years! Hence, for the next thousand years or so, the “Atman” is in the form of that tree only and it cannot take a human birth until that thousand-year-lifespan is over. It is only after the tree dies down, will the “Atman” be able to get transferred into a body of another living being. Thus, we’re witnessing here that the time lag between the five stages is extremely uncertain. For some “Atmans” the process is faster, and for some, the process takes ultra-long time. This time lag totally depends upon our level of “Karma” that we’ve accumulated over time! Maybe if our “Karma” account is on the lower side, probably Bhagawan might speeden up the process and give us the human birth quickly, so that we can exhibit “Bhakti” and attain Bhagawan’s “Vaikunta”! All we can do is to pray for this to happen! Anyways, we’ve now got this human birth. Hence, isn’t this the greatest opportunity for us to utilize and get to “Vaikunta”? Let us ponder! 

Moving forward thus, Sage Ashtaka asks a counter question to King Yayaati here – “Oh Yayaati! You mentioned that the “Atman” enters into the womb of the mother in the fifth stage. Of course, there is a lot of difficulty that the “Atman” would have encountered while traversing these five stages. Atleast when the “Atman” enters into the mother’s womb, does it get some relief? Will it be very comfortable inside the mother’s womb?” As Sage Ashtaka asks this question, King Yayaati explains back thus, “Oh Sage Ashtaka! Do you really think that the “Atman” is happy inside the mother’s womb? Once the “Atman” slowly starts assuming its “Sthoola Deham” inside the mother’s womb, it undergoes a hell of suffering inside! Firstly, whatever sweet or spicy or sour food that the mother eats, is going to directly affect the child within. Since the “Sthoola Deham” of the “Atman” is new, it would not be accustomed to all the sweets and savouries that we’re eating in this world! The new “Sthoola Deham” of the child would not be able to digest such things, and the child would suffer because of this. Secondly, since the space inside the mother’s womb is completely cramped, the child cannot move itself here and there. It cannot even raise its hand or leg in the way it wants. Worse, it cannot even turn itself to another direction if it finds it uncomfortable!” 

King Yayaati continues further thus, “Oh Sage Ashtaka! Thirdly, there is a problem of being swarmed by infinite numbers of bacteria and viruses inside the mother’s womb! There might be lakhs and crores of them and it is amidst all these micro-organisms that the child should grow with for around ten months! Fourthly, there is no space to even pass our waste! There is no toilet facility inside the mother’s womb! All the waste that the “Sthoola Deham” generates, only keeps circulating inside the mother’s womb and there’s no space for it to go out! Apart from this, there is so much blood, flesh, tissues, etc. everywhere around and the baby grows amidst all of these! Amidst all these things, the child continues to grow and as the time of delivery nears, people outside are extremely happy as to when the child is going to be born! However, do you think that the child inside is happy? The answer is “No”! The child cries and cries inside with the extreme torture that it is undergoing! Moreover, upon understanding that the time is nearing for it to be thrown out into the world, it gets even more scary! How will it manage the harsh and brutal externalities of the external world?” 

Hence, such is the suffering that a “Jeevatma” undergoes within a mother’s womb before it is born! This might be very heart-wrenching for many of us, but having said thus, it is the fact and all of us have undergone this, knowingly or unknowingly! So for today, let us understand up to this point, and let us continue this discussion in the next episode to witness how the baby suffers while being extracted from the mother’s womb! Stay tuned! 🙂