The Indian Dharma

In the previous episode, we had continued witnessing a very strange story involving two people – Puranjana and Avignyaata. We witnessed the second half of the story yesterday wherein Puranjana married the strange girl whom he saw at the entrance of an equally strange city! He spent his married life with her with all happiness, however, at a certain point in time, he was defeated by a king of his neighboring territory. There was another strange woman who plotted King Puranjana’s downfall and eventually during the war, both Puranjana and his wife were killed! After this, King Puranjana and his wife took multiple rebirths in this world and underwent sufferings and untold miseries until a point in time wherein Puranjana was extremely frustrated! Towards the end of his fifth birth, he suddenly remembered that he once had a good friend by name Avignyaata and he had promised that he would offer help at time of need. As Puranjana was thinking thus, Avignyaata was incidentally passing through the way and both recognize each other! As promised, Avignyaata offers Puranjana a timely help by removing him from that place and taking him to a new place wherein both the friends led a happy and peaceful life, devoid of any further suffering!

This might have been a strange story – In fact, many readers who had read yesterday’s story had posted many comments too! Some of them were very interesting and they go like this – Although Puranjana has taken five births and as per the story, he meets Avignyaata only at the end of his fifth birth! If that is the case, has Avignyaata also taken five births? If yes, how would we be able to carry forward our memory from one birth to the other and how do we identify our friends whom we had five births earlier? If on the contrary, Avignyaata hasn’t taken rebirths as Puranjana did, how is that he remembers Puranjana after so many hundreds of years? Moreover, how can a person have a lifespan of time that which is equivalent of five births? These are some intriguing questions that had come up for this story!

In fact, we should remember that during the course of the story and also at the end of it, I repeatedly emphasized the word “Strange”! I’ve also asked a question at the end of the previous episode – What is the connection between this story and the Shrimad Bhaagawatha text that we’re discussing so far? The answer is that, there is absolutely no connection between anything here! It is only us, who are in this story! Now when I start explaining the story in a different viewpoint, we would know how we’re directly involved in this! Every “Jeevatma” (Normal living beings in this earth) are all like this King Puranjana. The character by name Avignyaata (Puranjana’s friend in the story) is none other than “Paramatma” (Bhagawan) Himself! This Paramatma is always embedded within every Jeevatma and He comes all along with us throughout our life. Thus, He is our best friend, isn’t it? Just like how Avignyaata was the close friend of King Puranjana, Bhagawan is the close friend for all of us! Now, if we trace back into the story, both Avignyaata and Puranjana go in search of a city to live peacefully, isn’t it? This city is nothing other than our own human body! Just like how both the friends went searching to find a suitable place to live, this human body is the place where both the Jeevatma and Paramatma were jointly searching together to take birth in this world. Just like how this city had nine entrances, our human body also has nine entrances – Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, one mouth and two exit points for our urination and solid wastes. If we total it up, we would get nine entry / exit points, isn’t it? As we’ve seen in the story, there was a beautiful girl emerging from one of the entry / exit points of the city, isn’t it? This beautiful girl is none other than our own intellect or our mind! This mind, similar to the girl, has ten bodyguards, in the form of ten “sense organs”. Five physical senses like seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and inhaling, and five mental states of senses. Our Atman, which is like King Puranjana, wants to marry this girl, who is like this mind! However, he doesn’t realize that it is extremely dangerous in getting married! As King Puranjana went in all directions as instructed by his newly-married wife, we too start going into all unwanted directions as per our mind! The five-headed snake which was on top of that girl’s head as per the story, is nothing but our five different types of “Vaayu” (Breath) – “Praana Vaayu”, “Apaana Vaayu”, “Vyaana Vaayu”, “Udaana Vaayu” and “Samaana Vaayu”. These five combined together comprise of our “Praana” or “breathing pattern”. As long as our breathing is normal, every aspect of our human body works well enough. However, if our breathing stops for whatsoever reason, what will happen to our human body? It would totally stop functioning and we would be declared dead by the doctor, isn’t it?

Thus, the Atman is the groom and the mind is the bride. Both of them are getting married now, just like King Puranjana and this strange woman get married to each other! As this marriage happens, it should be remembered that Avignyaata had warned King Puranjana, but after a point, he leaves his free will to take over! He leaves King Puranjana and goes away, isn’t it? Similarly, if we start going behind our mind’s will and wish into all worldly activities that are going to ruin us, what can Bhagawan do? He can only advise us not to go behind our mind’s temptations. But the onus of controlling our mind rests with us, isn’t it? This is where the comparison comes – Just like Avignyaata tells King Puranjana that he is available, whenever he needs help, Bhagawan also tells us the same thing – “When you realize that you’re getting nowhere by going behind the whims and fancies of our mind, you can be rest assured that you have Bhagawan to protect you and bring you out of all your miseries! Just call me out for help and I would run and come to rescue you!”

Just as King Puranjana and his newly-married wife started and proceeded with their married life, they went through innumerable trials and tribulations all through! King Puranjana however completely forgot about his friend Avignyaata! Similarly, as we’re getting carried away by our worldly pleasures, we totally forgot Bhagawan and His divine presence! It is only at an inevitable time when Puranjana takes multiple births and realizes that none of them can help him, except his friend Avignyaata, we also take innumerable births in this world, keep adding our “Karma” every moment of our lives, and at a threshold point, would realize that none other than Bhagawan can save me and liberate me from this vicious birth and death cycle! As King Puranjana thinks about Avignyaata, and he immediately appears in front of Puranjana. Similarly here too, frustrated by what is happening to ourselves, we call out Bhagawan for help finally, having no other option left in our hands! Hearing our fervent prayers and calls, Bhagawan comes to us, takes us with Him and finally liberates us from this world, just like how Avignyata takes King Puranjana away from that place to a peaceful place, where both of them live at peace!

Now can we see the connect and the deeper meaning of this “strange” and “peculiar” story? Therefore, rather than going into the specifics of the story, we should understand the deeper meaning of it by understanding the above explanation. So for today, let us start thinking on these lines and we shall continue this discussion forward in the next episode too, for more clarity! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we were at a juncture wherein King Puranjana is about to get married to a “strange” woman and we’re yet to witness whether this marriage is going to be successful or not! To get a glimpse of the whole situation once more, King Puranjana and his friend Avignyaata walk through like wanderers, searching for a suitable place to spend few days with peace and happiness. As they walk their way through, they approach a peculiar city which consisted of nine entrances! From this peculiar city, came an equally peculiar woman who was extremely beautiful and attractive, but had a venomous snake coiling her head and ten bodyguards surrounding her! From the look of it, it would seem that everything was so peculiar and strange in that particular place, however, King Puranjana eventually fell for that woman! It was an open and shut case of “love at first sight”! 😊 As Puranjana goes and proposes his love for her and his desire to marry her, this woman readily accepts him, which thrilled him even more! He thus decides that his marriage is only going to be with this woman and he’s all set for it as well! However, his friend Avignyaata had other thoughts in his mind! He smelled a great danger that was approaching his friend if he gets married to this woman. He thus warns him of the same, but King Puranjana is in no mood to listen! Thus at one stage, Avignyaata declares that there is no point in staying with Puranjana anymore, and if at all in future if Puranjana had any problems with his married life, he can readily approach Avignyaata at any point in time! This, of course all of us talk when a couple is getting married! This is just an overall advice which we give to newly married people and this is nothing new here!

Now from this point, let us continue the story and witness what happened next. Was King Puranjana happy after marrying this strange woman? Was his decision right in marrying this woman? Let’s look on! King Puranjana got married to this woman finally and they had a very nice and romantic life together! King Puranjana was extremely in love with this woman and he eats only if she eats! He sleeps only if she sleeps! He laughs only if she laughs! He cries if she cries! All were good between them. One fine day, King Puranjana wanted to go out of their place for hunting. He expressed the same to his wife, however, she refused permission! Upon this, King Puranjana tried to convince her as to how long can he keep sitting idle at home and eventually he has to do some sort of an outdoor activity some day! Even after so much of convincing, his beloved wife didn’t accept his request! Sensing thus, King Puranjana wasn’t very happy. Hence he decided that he’s going out of their place during the night time and return back early morning before she wakes up! Accordingly thus, one day, there was a luxurious chariot that was arranged for King Puranjana secretly. This chariot was being pulled by five horses, which were extremely well-trained to drive the chariot swiftly, without any hassle. As King Puranjana wanted to go out for hunting, he had some ten assistants who were ready to accompany him like bodyguards. King Puranjana took a huge bow and few arrows with him and sets out secretly for hunting. He goes on and on in his chariot, hunting his way through!

As time passes by, King Puranjana’s wife slowly realizes that her husband has left her alone in the house and has gone for hunting. This is despite of her denial of permission for the same. Sensing her husband’s absence, she gets angry and lay on the floor with her open hairs! As King Puranjana returns back, he sees his wife full of anger! He somehow convinces her slowly day after day and finally wins her heart again. This kind of instances kept happening repeatedly and very frequently, however, their life was smooth and without any hassle. As their married life entered into their old age, both of them started to realize that they’re going to pass away very soon and their physical body and strength slowly start giving up.

It was at this time that there was someone who advanced towards them with a 360-member-army! This fellow was a king of a neighboring territory and he wanted to fight a battle with King Puranjana! As the enemy was advancing, King Puranjana gets ready to fight. A bitter war was raging and it continued for days together. As days and months passed by, King Puranjana, due to his old age and slowing down physical capabilities, started to be on the receiving end of the enemy. At this moment, someone enters into the kingdom. In fact, there were two people who enter – One is a lady and the other is a gentleman. This lady peculiarly runs around amidst many men in the battlefield asking if someone can marry her! Unfortunately at that moment, nobody is interested in doing so, and they realized that she has come to destroy King Puranjana and his kingdom! Eventually, she bumped into someone from the enemy camp who was extremely handsome and well-built! She asks the same question to him too, upon which he replies thus, “Oh! I cannot marry you, however, I can offer you some help. I know your agenda and for what you’ve come. I can help you in destroying King Puranjana and his kingdom totally. Here is my brother. You can take him along with you and all of us can jointly attack the king and finish him off!”

This offer seemed to go well with this woman! The plan was made! All of them join hands and attack King Puranjana and eventually capture him and kill him too! Along with King Puranjana, his wife also gets killed! The kingdom is totally destroyed into shambles! Thus after this, King Puranjana and his wife take multiple re-births in this world and undergo similar sufferings! At the end of their fifth birth together, both of them are fed up of what was happening to them repeatedly! They’re totally exhausted physically and mentally and are completely mad!

It is at this crucial time, King Puranjana’s old friend, Avignyaata comes along this way! Avignyaata appears in front of his friend from nowhere! Avignyaata spots his old friend and his wife and immediately goes near them. He inquires about their well-being and thus, King Puranjana explains what all has happened to both of them for the past five births! King Puranjana says thus, “Oh Avignyaata! It is my mistake that I didn’t pay heed to your words when you advised me not to get into a married life! You had said to me that you can be contacted if in case I require some help! I had totally forgotten you all these days! Now that you’ve come in front of me, I’m asking you – Please, can you help me and bring me out of this suffering?”

Hearing thus from his friend, Avignyaata’s heart melts and he offers help to King Puranjana. He takes him out of that place somehow and takes him to a place where he finds the ultimate peace of mind and happiness! Now, both King Puranjana and Avignyaata spend their rest of the days happily with each other, as per their original plan five births ago! 😊

With this, the story comes to an end! Many of us might wonder, what kind of a story is this? Isn’t this a vague, foolish and an unimaginable story? Is there any connection with this story with Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana, which we’re currently discussing right now? Let’s try to answer all these questions in the next episode! Stay tuned! 😊

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the story after that of Dhruva’s. We’ve seen the family lineage that came after Dhruva, which spanned through Vena and Pruthu. Vena was a wicked king and he tried doing all possible acts of “Adharma”, which irked Mother Earth to a great extent. Thus accordingly, Mother Earth pulled out all of the wealth and knowledge from the surface and left it high and dry! As Vena passes on the reins of the kingdom to his son Pruthu, he takes up the initiative to bring all of Mother Earth’s lost glory. As King Pruthu was a righteous king, unlike his father, Mother Earth too agrees to his request of restoring the world with the lost treasure. Accordingly, thus, Mother Earth gifts King Pruthu with a divine cow and asks him to milk it. As King Pruthu starts milking the cow, all of the lost glory starts to re-appear one by one – starting from the Vedas, Upanishads, Nava-Ratnas (Nine precious gems), etc. As King Pruthu is doing thus, all the sages are extremely happy with the bountiful restoration of Mother Earth’s lost glory and they sing in praise of their righteous king. As they sing so, they use the term “Prithivi”, which signifies that it was none other than King Pruthu who had taken the effort to regain and reinforce the lost glory of Mother Earth to the future generations to come. Thus, from this point onwards, Mother Earth is also referred to as “Prithivi”!

Thus, we can infer here that since Mother Earth regained Her lost glory through King Pruthu, She is hailed as “Prithivi”. Moving on from this point thus, at the end of King Pruthu’s tenure, the next set of people arrive onto the scene. They are called “Dasha-Prachethas”. In other words, there were ten people who took birth at the end of King Pruthu’s tenure, out of which we’re going to witness the story of one amongst these ten people by name “Praacheena-Barhi”. We’re now going to witness the story behind this particular person, Praacheena-Barhi. This story can be looked at in two ways – I shall first narrate the story’s outline, which is just the various instances that happened. After we’re done with the story’s outline, we shall go into the deeper meaning associated with it. This is going to be a very interesting episode and hence, readers can sit back and enjoy reading through! 😊

There were once two people wandering around with each other. These two people were Puranjana and Avignyaata. These two people are roaming around different places searching for a suitable and a comfortable place to live. It should be noted here that this Puranjana was a great king and Avignyaata was his good friend. As they walk their way through, they come across a big city. Interestingly, this city had nine entrances. Upon seeing this mighty city, both spoke to each other thus, “Oh! This looks a luxurious place! Should we think of settling here? Let’s check out this place!” Thinking thus, King Puranjana is about to enter the place, but his friend Avignyata had a small doubt in his mind. As Puranjana goes ahead in entering, Avignyata stops him for a moment and says thus: “Oh Puranjana! This city looks extremely good from an outsider perspective! I don’t know how practical it would be for us to go inside and live here!” Saying thus, Avignyaata stops Puranjana from taking a step forward. At this moment, there emerges an extremely beautiful and an attractive woman from one of the entrances of this city. Although this woman looked so attractive at the outset, there was a huge snake that was coiled up on top of her head, like a protection for her. Alongside this woman, there are ten bodyguards – five each on either side of her!

Upon seeing this “strange” woman, King Puranjana immediately falls in love with her and thus he thinks that if at all there is a marriage possibility in my life, it should only be with this woman! Hence, Puranjana goes and proposes the woman. To his surprise and happiness, this woman accepts his offer immediately and both decide to get married.

As this happens, Avignyaata was not very convinced with the marriage decision taken by King Puranjana. He feels that King Puranjana has hurried into the decision a bit too much! He thus conveys it to King Puranjana that he should think twice before entering the relationship. However, as fate would have it, King Puranjana is not ready to listen to Avignaata’s advice. He goes ahead with his decision of marrying this beautiful woman. At one point in time, Avignyaata realizes that there’s no point in giving further advice on this, and says to his friend thus, “Oh Puranjana! Anyways, you’ve decided to get married to this woman! I’m of course not going to be a hinderance for your newly found happiness in your life. However, if in future you would require any sort of help, you shall always approach me any time!” Saying thus, Avignyaata leaves the place!

Now, the marriage between King Puranjana and his newly found woman is going to happen. Is King Puranjana’s decision the right one to go ahead with his life? Will he find real happiness in this marriage? Or, would it go otherwise? Let’s wait to continue this interesting story forward in the next episode! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had continued the discussion on Dhruva’s innocence and love-filled devotion towards Bhagawan and how his devotion had zero expectations in return. Even as Bhagawan wants to grant a boon to Dhruva, he declines the offer by saying that he had meditated immensely just to have Bhagawan’s divine darshan and now that it has been fulfilled, he doesn’t require anything else in this world! A similar kind of devotion was exhibited by the famous Aandal towards Bhagawan Krishna wherein, she invited Him to her place and offered loads of butter and curd to Him, as we all know Bhagawan Krishna loves it so much! As Aandal offers the butter with a pure and an innocent heart, Bhagawan Krishna is touched and He gives a similar offer of asking for a boon. In similar lines of Dhruva, Aandal too declines Bhagawan’s offer by saying that she had called and offered Him butter, only out of her pure love and devotion without any expectation from Him. Now that Bhagawan had offered to ask for a boon, Aandal goes one step higher and says thus, “Oh Bhagawan! Since you’re giving me such an opportunity, I’m giving you more butter for letting me ask you for a boon!” Such is the level of pure devotion Aandal exhibited towards her Lord and in turn, Bhagawan was also moved by it!

These kinds of instances are thus important messages for all of us to learn and understand the way in which we should invoke Bhagawan’s presence. If we’re trying to call Bhagawan to fulfill some of our worldly expectations and needs, this would not account to pure devotion. Instead, this would be termed as selfishness. Rather, if we’re able to invoke Bhagawan’s presence, just for the sake of being with Him and enjoying His divine presence without any form of expectations, this would account to the highest level of devotion and this is the highest level of spiritual progress that we could make in our lifetime! Hence, let us try and understand this point and do the needful.

As Dhruva explains his stance thus, Bhagawan is completely moved with the little child’s innocent love towards Him. He thus blesses Dhruva that there would be a star (Nakshatra) created in his name, and after his human life gets over, Bhagawan blesses him that he would be part of the huge cluster of stars in the sky, thus finally attaining the highest Moksha! Thus with this accord, the story of Dhruva comes to an end. We shall now move on with the subsequent story that happened after Dhruva. To continue further, Dhruva later had a son by name Angan. This Angan had a son by name Venan. This Venan had a son by name Pruthu. This Pruthu was a great king. Now we shall commence with the story of this Pruthu Mahaaraja.

To trace backwards a little bit, of course all of us know by now that Dhruva was a gem of a person. Dhruva’s son Angan was also good by nature. However, Angan’s son, Venan was a wicked guy. He unleashed all possible “Adharma” in the world and thus earned the wrath of many great sages! Finally at one point in time, the sages got extremely frustrated with Venan, planned a plot and eventually killed him! It should be understood that Venan was also a king and as Venan had a premature death, there was no apparent heir after him to administer the kingdom. Hence the sages decided to bring out the next heir directly from Venan’s dead body and with their high spiritual powers, created a baby boy through a spark of fire. This boy was none other than Pruthu. Thus it should be noted here that King Pruthu did not have a normal birth from a male-female relationship. He took birth from the corpse of his father, Venan. Since the earth was ruled by this King Pruthu, we have another name for Mother Earth as “Prithivi”.

There is a story as to why the world is also called as “Prithivi” in Sanskrit. As I had mentioned earlier that this King Pruthu was a noble person by heart and by his actions, he prays to Mother Earth thus: “Oh Mother! I understand that my father was a wicked person and did all possible misdeeds during his tenure as a king. I also understand that you had taken away all the wealth and prosperity of the kingdom because of his bad nature, Now that I’m trying to reverse all his bad deeds, please, could you help me by restoring all that you had pulled off from my kingdom?” Heeding to the request of King Pruthu, Mother Earth blesses him with a sacred cow. As King Prithivi starts milking the cow, all the lost wealth of this world, including the Vedas, Upanishads, the “Nava-Ratnas” (nine gems), medicinal herbs, etc. start appearing through the milk that the cow is generating. As this miraculous episode was unfolding minute by minute, all the sages were extremely pleased and grateful to Mother Earth! They are extremely happy with the compassion and love that Mother Earth is showing towards the world and thus they pray to Her by chanting the term “Prithivi”!

Thus we can understand here that since Mother Earth, moved by the prayer of the noble King Pruthu, is bestowing the world with all its lost glory, She is also addressed as “Prithivi”! So for today, let us understand this point and let us wait till the next episode to continue this further! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had continued to witness an interesting accord on the divine experience that little Dhruva had. As we’re aware by now, Dhruva, who was deserted by his father and his step mother, took it upon himself as a challenge to attain the divine grace of Bhagawan, come what may! He realized at a very young age that Bhagawan is the only permanent source of trust and savior, but not his biological parents or anyone else! Banking upon this trust, little Dhruva undertook an austere penance that lasted for six months, and by the end of the sixth month, Bhagawan’s heart melted! He thus appears in person before the child and wanted to bless him! However, the penance of Dhruva was so deep that he didn’t even realize Bhagawan standing right in front of him! It took an ordeal of time for Bhagawan to make Dhruva realize that He’s waiting for him to open eyes and worship His divine form! Here we can witness that if a devotee is steadfast in his / her “Bhakti” towards Bhagawan, He becomes a mere servant of that devotee and is prepared to do whatever it takes to protect the devotee!

As Dhruva opens his eyes finally, he couldn’t believe his eyes that he’s seeing the all-pervading Bhagawan in front of him! Not knowing what to do, the little child starts crying! Upon understanding from the child, the reason for his innocent pouring out of his feelings, Dhruva explains that he’s extremely happy that Bhagawan has heard his ardent and fervent calls, however, he doesn’t know how to formally worship Bhagawan according to the rituals and procedures prescribed by the Sanaathana Dharma text! Hence, he feels totally embarrassed and ashamed to stand in front of Bhagawan, not knowing anything! Hearing thus from the little Dhruva, Bhagawan’s heart was moved further and He’s into tears of joy! Such was Dhruva’s innocent and pure devotion! He wanted Bhagawan in front of him, just for no reason! He did not want to bargain anything with Bhagawan! He did  not want to ask Bhagawan for any boon, even though Bhagawan was keen in offering it to him! Dhruva’s only contention was that, he wanted to worship Bhagawan for Bhagawan’s happiness, and not for his own personal happiness!

This is touted to be one of the most supreme forms of devotion. We had witnessed a brief accord on this point during the last episode and today let us take this discussion forward to witness what it takes for us to attain this level of devotion.

This same point is illustrated by Aandal, who was an ardent devotee of Bhagawan Krishna. Many of us might know that Aandal is considered one amongst the great “Aalwars”, who incarnated in a small town called Srivilliputthur in the South-Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is also believed that Aandal was an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi herself and She is the person who authored the famous “Thiruppaavai” – A collection of 30 “Paasurams” (Hymns) in Tamil, dedicated to Bhagawan Krishna. This Thiruppavai occupies a prime position in the Sanaathana Dharma literature and is an epitome of complete surrender to Bhagawan’s lotus feet!

In one of Aandal’s such conversations with Bhagawan Krishna, she invites Him to come to her and spend some time with her. Paying heed to Aandal’s fervent requests, Bhagawan Krishna comes to visit Aandal. In the process of welcoming Bhagawan Krishna, Aandal offers Him a huge thousand gallons of butter and curd, as all of us know that Bhagawan Krishna loved butter so much during His childhood days. As Bhagawan comes to see Aandal thus, she offers all of this to Him and Bhagawan is very happy with Aandal’s selfless love and devotion-filled hospitality. Moved by this, Bhagawan Krishna requests Aandal to ask something in return from Him, for all what she had offered to Him. However, Aandal wasn’t interested in all that! She replies back to Bhagawan Krishna thus, “Oh Bhagawan! My heart is filled with happiness and gratitude that you’ve heard my prayers and come all the way to see me! This in itself is a huge thing for me! Moreover, you’re wanting me to ask for a boon, just because I offered you thousand gallons of butter. There might be ‘N’ number of people in this world who are ready to offer you 100 times more butter than I’ve offered you! Despite all of that, you’ve come to me and I’m extremely grateful for your gesture!”

Aandal continues thus, “Oh Krishna! Let me tell you one thing – I did not call you to do any sort of business deal that I give you butter and in turn, you give me something else! All I wanted is to enjoy your divine presence with me! Now that you’ve come all the way for me and wanted me to ask you something, I’m offering you another 100 gallons of butter at your lotus feet! I would love to witness the childish way in which you would consume the butter and enjoy every bit of it!”

Thus we can witness from this instance that if we’re offering something to Bhagawan and if Bhagawan accepts our offering, we should give another offering for Bhagawan’s divine gesture of accepting our first offering! This is one step more than what Dhruva exhibited, isn’t it? From Dhruva’s case, we had witnessed that he did not want anything in return from Bhagawan, as He gave his divine Darshan to Dhruva! Here in this case of Aandal, she is offering one more round of butter to Bhagawan Krishna, just because He had accepted her first round of offering!

Now which level of “Bhakti” is higher? It is for us to think and comprehend! So for today, let us understand and analyze different levels of “Bhakti” and let us learn our lessons accordingly! The important point here is that, our devotion and surrender towards Bhagawan should be as pure as possible from our end. We should make sure that we don’t do “business deals” with Bhagawan, which might not be liked very much by Him! Of course, Bhagawan is ready to give us whatever we want, but why should we ask some worldly things from Him, if He’s ready to offer His total divine self to us? We shall wait till the next episode to move forward with the next important point! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed an important juncture where Dhruva’s impeccable and persistent “Tapas” and chanting of his Mantra bestowed by Sage Narada, is bearing fruit. Six months after little Dhruva takes up this severe penance, Bhagawan’s heart melts! He decides that he has seen enough of Dhruva’s austerity. Thus, Bhagawan quickly hops on to his “Garuda Vaahana” and rushes to see little Dhruva and bring him out of his deep penance mode. As Bhagawan appears in front of the little child, he doesn’t even realize what was happening around him. After waiting for a few minutes for Dhruva to open his eyes, Bhagawan decides that waiting like this is not going to work! Dhruva has imbibed Bhagawan’s divine form into his mind and heart and is unable to come out of that state, even though Bhagawan is right in front of him in the physical form! Hence, Bhagawan unleashes his grace on little Dhruva, destroys the mental form and finally makes Dhruva open his eyes on his own! Upon opening his eyes, Dhruva couldn’t believe what he’s seeing in front of him! He doesn’t understand what to do as he sees Bhagawan in His most beautiful, ever-compassionate and loving form in front of him! The mission is accomplished! Dhruva had initially started off the pursuit with the sole aim of obtaining the divine “Darshan” of Bhagawan and with his steadfast approach and persistence, he has achieved it within just six months!

Upon seeing Bhagawan in front of him, Dhruva didn’t understand what to do or what to talk to Him! Little and tender as he is, Dhruva starts to cry profusely! Upon seeing the little child sobbing pitifully, Bhagawan comforts him and asks him pleasingly for the reason of his cry. Dhruva explains the reason that he is an illiterate and doesn’t know any of the procedures in welcoming and worshipping Bhagawan as do the great sages and other scholarly people and that, he feels so embarrassed that Bhagawna is standing right in front of him and yet, he feels that he’s not doing justice to Bhagawan in any way! Upon hearing this explanation from the child, Bhagawan’s heart melts even further! He blesses Dhruva with all the necessary knowledge and scholarliness and once again asks him thus, “Oh Dhruva! From today onwards, you wouldn’t feel that lack of spiritual knowledge and understanding would be a hinderance in worshipping Me! Now that I’ve come in front of you, please feel free to ask me whatever you want to! If you would want to ask me for a boon, I shall grant it to you then and there!”

Upon which, Dhruva replies to Bhagawan thus and this is very important for all of us to understand deeply. Dhruva says thus, “Oh Bhagawan! I had a wish that I should get your divine Darshan, when I started this whole exercise. Now that you’ve come in front of me and gave me your divine Darshan, my wish has got fulfilled! Apart from this, I never wanted to ask you anything. When you’re giving me the assurance that you’re with me every moment, what more this little Dhruva is going to want from you? Hence Bhagawan! I don’t require anything else as a ‘boon’ from you! I’m very happy and contented with what I’ve got!”

This is where we need to grow up and mature a bit more – For instance, whenever we go to a temple and worship Bhagawan in front of His “Vigraha” (Divine form), how do we pray? Normally we offer a prayer by saying that, “Oh! I want this.. I want that… I want some comfort.. I want this luxury… I want to buy a house..”, etc. The list goes on endlessly as different people have different demands in life! However, let us think for a moment here – Are we going to Bhagawan with an open heart and a prayer, saying “Oh Bhagawan! I’ve come to offer my prayers just to see you and for nothing else! I’ve come exclusively for you!” I’m sure many of us are getting to that state, but for others, we need to work towards this from now! Bhagawan expects only this from us – Selfless love and devotion! The moment we go and stand in front of Bhagawan with a long list of “do’s and don’t’s”, are we going for any sort of a business deal with Him? Because, only if it is a business deal, we would go with loads of expectations and wants from the other party. If the deal is just worship of Bhagawan, the attitude should always be selfless! If we go with the big list, Bhagawan Himself feels unhappy thus:”Oh No! You too have come with a long list of things for yourself! You’ve not come for me? I was under the impression that atleast you out of thousands of people who come to me would be selfless in your approach!”

Thus, the point here is that, whenever we worship Bhagawan, we should worship Him with a totally selfless attitude! Maybe the only thing that we can ask him is to bestow us with pure “Bhakti” (Devotion), with which we can intensify our selfless worship towards Him! This is exactly what Dhruva is doing here – Even though Bhagawan forces him to ask for a boon, he doesn’t want to do so, because his devotion is pure and selfless! This is the kind of devotion we should develop within ourselves after reading through Dhruva’s important reply! So for today, let us try and start working on this important point. From now on, whenever we go to a temple, let us try and pray for the sake of Bhagawan and not for the sake of us! Once Bhagawan bestows His divine vision on us, He’s automatically going to satisfy all our daily needs, isn’t it? We don’t even need to ask Him all of these! Hence, let us try and understand this important point and let us consciously strive for attaining the state of “Selfless devotion” towards Bhagawan! We shall wait for the next episode to take this point forward for further discussion and then move on from there! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed a significant aspect that is repeatedly been talked about at many junctures in our Sanaathana Dharma literature – Why should we always chant our Mantra continuously? To drive this point home, the Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana invokes the episode of Dhruva and his “Charithra” to emphasize and re-emphasize the importance of such a spiritual practice. We had witnessed yesterday as to how Dhruva was steadfast on undertaking intense penance although many great sages tried stopping him from his pursuit. Amidst all of the sages, it was only Sage Naarada who supported little Dhruva’s cause and instilled the great Mantra of Bhagawan into Dhruva’s heart. According to the advice of Sage Naarada, little Dhruva commences his penance by repeatedly chanting the sacred Mantra. As the Mantra gets chanted, the vibrations that are emitted from Dhruva becomes more and more powerful that even Mother Earth couldn’t bare it after a point of time. As Dhruva was changing his standing position from the left leg to the right leg, Mother Earth started to equally sway left and right, unable to withstand the pressure that his legs were creating! The penance continues for six long months without a break, wherein Dhruva also undertakes immense austerities in terms of food intake too! At one stage he goes into such a state of divine bliss that he forgot hunger, breathing, etc.

As the fifth month of this intense penance is in progress, the Devas (Celestial Beings) start getting a bit jittery! Normally it is a known fact that the Devas, headed by Indra have their own fear of insecurity! Everytime someone tries to undertake a deep penance of any sorts and invokes Bhagawan’s divine presence, they feel scared that what if Bhagawan’s attention and time goes more into this person and what if their significance goes down! Out of all the Devas, Indra is the person who has the maximum amount of insecurity! 😊 Indra thinks within himself thus, “Oh no! This Dhruva is deepening his penance day by day! What if Bhagawan appears in front of him and appoints him as the leader of the Devas? Will there be a ‘job loss’ for me? 😊 What if Dhruva overtakes and overrides me in future?” Thinking thus, Indra straightaway runs to Bhagawan and confesses thus, “Oh Bhagawan! This Dhruva is undertaking deep penance at the moment! What if tomorrow I lose my leadership position to him? What would happen to me after that? Please try and stop him for my sake!” As Indra says thus, Bhagawan doesn’t know whether to laugh or to cry! He replies back to Indra thus, “Oh Devendra! Why do you always doubt on people like this? Do you think people are going to challenge you and your leadership position every time? Please have some mercy on me! Why shouldn’t people strive to come to me too, rather than always coming to you? This Dhruva is my ardent devotee! He’s not striving for anything else except my presence. Hence, don’t worry! There is no threat for your leadership position!”

As the sixth month comes to an end, Bhagawan Vishnu is moved by Dhruva’s exceptional “Saadhana” (Spiritual practice). His heart melts for Dhruva and finally decides to appear in front of Dhruva! Accordingly, Bhagawan hops on to his “Garuda” vehicle and directly flies down to the place where Dhruva is meditating. Bhagawan comes in front of Dhruva in the most appealing and beautiful form – With a sweet smiling face, eyes full of mercy and divine compassion, etc. As Bhagawan comes and stands before Dhruva, He just keeps gazing at Dhruva’s impeccable spiritual practice! Even though Bhagawan Himself has come to see him, Dhruva is totally unaware! He’s now deeply engrossed into the meditation that he doesn’t realize Bhagawan’s presence near him in the physical form! Dhruva has imbibed the divine physical form of Bhagawan into his mind and heart as he meditates, and he’s thus seeing Him within him!”

Seeing thus for few minutes, Bhagawan comes to a conclusion thus: “Oh! This Dhruva is never going to open his eyes and see me if this same statuesque continues! In order to make him look at me, I should first destroy the mental image that he has imbibed!” Concluding thus, Bhagawan shatters Dhruva’s mental image of Bhagawan and immediately Dhruva opens his eyes! To his utter amazement, he saw the exact physical form of Bhagawan in front of him! Finally, Dhruva has succeeded in his pursuit! He has melted Bhagawan’s heart! He has made Bhagawan appear in front of him in the divine physical form! What a great achievement! Upon gazing at Bhagawan for a few seconds, Dhruva couldn’t believe himself for a moment! He thinks within himself thus: “Oh my goodness! Is it real or am I imagining too much? Has Bhagawan really come in front of me?” Not knowing how to react at that moment, little Dhruva starts to cry!

Moved by Dhruva’s innocent gesture, Bhagawan wipes Dhruva’s eyes and asks him the reason why he is crying. Dhruva replies to Bhagawan thus, “Oh Bhagawan! At this small age, I should have gone to the ‘Gurukula’ and learnt some spiritual lessons and procedures through which you should be worshipped! However, here I am, like an illiterate! I have zero knowledge on how to worship you in a formal and a procedural way! That’s why I feel dejected! You’ve taken all the pain to come and appear in front of me, but I’m unable to do any kind of reciprocal in the form of performing the formal worship! How shameful!”

Hearing thus, Bhagawan’s heart melted even further! Such is the innocent and pure devotion of Dhruva and this moves Bhagawan into tears of joy! Bhagawan thus takes his “Shankam” from his left hand and slowly caresses Dhruva on his cheeks and this gives him the entire spiritual knowledge and wisdom! Pleased with Dhruva’s unconditional surrender and love, Bhagawan asks him thus, “Oh Dhruva! From today, you’ll possess all the necessary spiritual knowledge that should have been learnt by you! As I’ve come all the way to see you, why don’t you ask me for a boon? I shall be pleased to grant you anything you want! Please feel free to open up to me and ask me!”

Listening to Bhagawan’s words of divine compassion, Dhruva is going to ask Bhagawan something very important, which all of us should know and understand very deeply! He’s going to ask something to Bhagawan, which in a way, is going to be a great learning for all of us! What is Dhruva going to ask? Let’s wait till the next episode to find out! 😊 Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had commenced a very interesting event that is being narrated by Sage Sukhaachaarya to King Parikshit, with respect to Dhruva and his “Charithra” (Story). We are currently in the fourth Skandha of the Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana, which starts with this particular incident. As we’ve seen yesterday, Utthamapaada had two wives, Suneeti and Suruchi. Utthamapaada had a son with Suneeti and he was none other than Dhruva. Similarly, he had another son with Suruchi and he was Utthama. Once upon a time when both the children Dhruva and Utthama were playing, they wanted to rest for a while on their father’s lap. At this moment, Suruchi with all her jealousy over Suneeti, ruled that Dhruva has no moral right to occupy his father’s lap and that, only her son Utthama has the right to do so! This infuriated the little child Dhruva and he set out to his mother Suneeti, seeking justice. However, Suneeti was a calm person and she understood the situation very well. Rather than going on to have a fight with Suruchi, Suneeti took this as an opportunity to initiate her son into worship of Bhagawan. She advised Dhruva to set out to the forest, take up austere spiritual practices and thus try and attain Bhagawan’s divine grace! In fact, she went on to advise Dhruva that if he’s able to secure Bhagawan’s divine grace, he doesn’t even need to come back to his biological father, as he becomes insignificant as compared to Bhagawan’s stature as the “father of the whole world”!

Listening carefully to his mother’s advice, little Dhruva sets out on his treacherous pursuit of attaining Bhagawan’s divine grace. He takes up a great amount of austerity and starts performing various spiritual practices like going into deep levels of penance, etc. meticulously and with 100% sincerity. As Dhruva sets out in his pursuit, various people around him try and stop him from doing all of these. Even the great Maharishis try and make him understand that this is not to be his way of life at such a young and tender age! The Maharishis advise Dhruva thus, “Oh little Dhruva! You’re hardly six years old! You might not be able to take up such levels of austerity and perform high-end spiritual practices at this young age! You should go back to your parents for the moment and get a little more matured. But Dhruva was steadfast in his approach! He’s not going to pay heed to such words! He has had enough! As Dhruva was proceeding further, it was only Sage Naarada who understood the real intent of what Dhruva was striving for! His heart melted in mercy and grace for the little child and out of compassion, prescribed the “Twelve-Akshara-Mantra” – “OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VAASUDEVAAYA”. Sage Naarada tells Dhruva thus, “Oh Dhruva! Please undertake deep penance by continuously chanting this divine Mantra without a break in the middle! Bhagawan’s heart would melt and He would bestow you with whatever you desire for!”

Hearing this assurance from the great Sage Naarada himself, Dhruva was rest assured that he is going on the right track. Thus, he proceeded to the forest, selected a good place, stood in one leg, closed his eyes and started to chant the Mantra as per Sage Naarada’s advice. As he prepares himself for the complex pursuit, Dhruva places his left leg on the ground and lifts his right leg and places it over his thighs. As Dhruva starts chanting the sacred Mantra in this position, Mother Bhoomadevi starts melting with grace and she’s unable to bare the divine vibrations that this child is emitting through the Mantra. Thus, as Dhruva keeps on chanting, the earth starts tilting on one side, towards Dhruva’s left leg! As Dhruva changes his position after a while by stamping the right leg on the floor and lifting his left leg, the earth tilts towards the right! Thus, as Dhruva alternates between his left and right leg, Mother Earth also tilts herself accordingly to the left and to the right! Such is the power of the process called “Mantra-Chanting”.

From this particular section, we understand how important it is for us to chant a “Mantra”. Of course we’ve discussed this point few times in the past as well, this is a clear evidence as to how Mantra-Chanting can help us realize Bhagawan directly! It is to be understood here that the vibrations emitted by the continuous chanting of a Mantra has cascading effects on the individual who is doing the chanting, as well as for the world itself! This is why we witness here that as Dhruva keeps chanting Bhagawan’s divine Mantra, the whole earth tilts left and right and is dancing to the tunes of the person who chants it! Such is the power of the divine Mantra. Many people might have this doubt in their mind whether, such things are possible in today’s Kali Yuga. My answer is, “YES”! “Yuga” has nothing to do with the nature and laws of Mother Earth! In every Yuga, spiritual practices and their sacredness remain the same. If we follow the right procedure while performing the spiritual practices, we would certainly feel the effect of them coming through. Here in this case, if we obtain the Mantra from a Spiritual Master (Guru) and if we meticulously keep chanting it repeatedly, we are bound to experience the state of divine bliss. There are people who have attained this state even in this present Kali Yuga. Hence, rather than blaming the Yuga in which we are, we should strive forward to undertake whatever little spiritual practices we can, within our timeframe and capability.

Now moving on further, we are going to witness how this Mantra chanting is going to lead Dhruva into various stages of strict austerity and how ultimately this is going to melt Bhagawan’s heart!

“Iti deva rishinaam proktam vishrutya jagadeepathihi!

Raajalakshmeem anaadrithya putramevaan va chintayan!!

Triraatraan te triraatraan te kapitva adharaashanaha!!”

For every penance, there are certain austerities with respect to food habits. For the first one month, Dhruva was just eating once every three days. All he eats was just a bunch of fruits or vegetables that he might get from the trees in the forest. As the penance moved on into the next month, Dhruva tightened his austerity by only eating leaves from trees. Fruits and vegetables were out of his menu now! This was again once in three days! As Dhruva entered the third month of penance, even the leaves were out of his food agenda! He just survived on water and that too, once in nine days! As he entered the fourth month now, Dhruva was just inhaling air and surviving with that, and that too, once in twelve days! As he moved into the fifth month, this air too became a non-existent item for Dhruva! He was now physically inactive and his whole body system and mind was totally focused into Bhagawan! Finally by the sixth month, Bhagawan’s heart melted by Dhruva’s ardent penance and He appeared in front of Dhruva in person!

Such is the power of the Mantra! Thus, Dhruva, with his austere practices and with persistent and continuous chanting, draws Bhagawan towards him! What happened next? What did Bhagawan tell Dhruva? What did Dhruva ask Bhagawan? Let’s wait to answer these important questions in the next episode! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the extension of Sage Kapilaachaarya’s point on how we liberate ourselves from the vicious cycle of birth and death. For this, we invoked an instance from the Valmiki Ramayana and witnessed why Bhagawan Rama had killed the demoness Thaataka and her first son Shubaahu. However, Bhagawan Rama didn’t kill Thaataka’s another son, Maareecha and let him escape. The important question was, although all three were “Raakshasas”, why did Bhagawan Rama let one escape, but kill the others? Here is where, Valmiki indirectly explains the “Karma theory” and how does Bhagawan liberate us from our two types of “Karma” – Sanchita Karma and Praarabdha Karma. In the case of Sanchita Karma, Bhagawan burns it out when we surrender to His feet wholeheartedly, just like burning a ball of cotton in fire! However, in the case of our “Praarabhda Karma”, Bhagawan doesn’t burn it right away because it would still be sticking on us till this current birth of ours gets over. Hence in this case, Bhagawan tries to wash away our Praarabdha Karma, just like how He chased away Maareecha!

It is only to illustrate this difference, did Valmiki Maharishi narrate this particular episode in the Ramayana text. But the ultimate point here is that, both of these processes, that is, burning and washing would be performed by Bhagawan only if we surrender to His lotus feet with all our devotion. Eventually, only if this burning and washing processes take place, will we be liberated from the birth-death cycle. This is exactly what Sage Kapilaachaarya is also explaining here. At this juncture, it is to be noted by readers that, anything that is in the form of a story in our Sanaathana Dharma text, is just not a mere story! There are deep messages that are hidden inside each and every story, and this in-depth analysis is what we should be interested in! Of course, all of us know the Ramayana story by now, starting from the birth of Bhagawan Rama, His marriage with Mother Sita, Bhagawan Rama ascending to the forest for fourteen years, Mother Sita being abducted by Ravana and finally Bhagawan Rama waging a war against the wicked Ravana to retrieve Mother Sita. This story is being propagated to us mostly from our time of taking birth. However, this is not just a storyline! Every action that Bhagawan Rama and Bhagawan Krishna performed on this earth, during their respective times of incarnations, have deep meanings and messages for people of future generations as to how to lead a peaceful life, according to the path of “Dharma”. We should always remember this as we move on with more and more narratives and storylines in this text as well. Just like how we understand the Ramayana and the Mahabharata storylines, we should make a conscious effort to understand the in-depth meanings and messages behind all of these texts!

Moving on further thus, as Devahooti (Sage Kapilaachaarya’s mother) listens to her son’s divine and message-filled accord, she obtains the required knowledge for herself to get liberated and of course with the divine grace of Bhagawan too, and eventually thus, she gets the highest Moksha that she was looking for. With this, we come to the end of the Manu-Kardhama Samvaadha in the third Skandha of the Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana text. Now it’s time for us to move into the fourth Skandha, which primarily talks about the narrative of someone by name “Dhruva”.

In one of the previous episodes, I had given a brief introduction of who is this Dhruva. To recollect and refresh our memory on this a little bit, we had witnessed a short brief about two people – Priyavratha and Uthaanapaada and this Dhruva is the son of Uthaanapaada. Utthaanapaada had two wives namely Suneeti and Suruchi. Dhruva is the son of Suneeti, the first wife of Utthamapaada. Suruchi also had a son, who’s name is Utthama. There is an interesting story that is being narrated by Sage Sukhaachaarya to King Parikshit, with respect to this particular family. Let us witness the story in a bit of a detail.

One day, these two kids, Dhruva and Utthama were playing with their father, Utthamapaada. As the kids were playing for a while, they became tired and both of them wanted to go and sit on their father’s lap. At this juncture, Suruchi, who was witnessing this happening, thought to herself that only her son, Utthama has the right to sit on her husband’s lap, and not Dhruva. Accordingly, Suruchi straightaway went to Dhruva and conveyed thus, “Oh Dhruva! You’re not supposed to sit on the lap of Utthamapaada! Only my son Utthama is entitled to do so, because he is superior to you! If at all you want to sit on your father’s lap, you should lift up your eligibility for the same! For becoming eligible this, you need to go to the forest on an exile for few years, undertake penance, obtain the grace of Bhagawan and then come back!

Listening to such hasty words from Suruchi, little Dhruva got extremely irritated and annoyed at the same time! How can someone openly deny his right to sit on his father’s lap like that, and more than that, who is she to give him orders of going on exile? He rushed home immediately, unable to bare the insult and reported the incident to his mother Suneeti. Upon hearing the accord from her son Dhruva, Suneeti equally got annoyed, but advised her son a bit differently. She said to her son thus, “Oh Dhruva! Do as per Suneeti said! I’m happy that she has given you a spark of doing worship towards Bhagawan! Take it in the positive sense. If however, you’re able to obtain the divine grace of Bhagawan, you can get the opportunity to sit on the lap of the Divine directly! Why should you worry about sitting on your father’s lap? This father of yours is only for this birth! But Bhagawan is the divine father for all of us in all our births! Hence, junk your desire of sitting on your father’s lap and focus yourself on somehow realizing the opportunity of sitting on the lap of Bhagawan Himself!”

Hearing this from his mother, Dhruva understood the seriousness of what his mother was advising him about and off he went in a flash! His sole aim is now to realize his mother’s advice and to attain Bhagawan’s grace! Is Dhruva going to succeed in this great pursuit? Let’s wait till the next episode to find out! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed yet another important point from Sage Kapilaachaarya that in order to obtain total liberation from the cycle of birth and death, we need to surrender to Bhagawan completely with all our heart and mind. This point is driven home by Sage Kapilaachaarya by explaining the entire cycle of human birth, right from taking shape inside the womb of the mother till the child takes birth in the world. We’ve witnessed the various hardships that a child has to go through inside the womb of the mother at various stages of the birth process. In the middle of everything, the child cries to Bhagawan and pleads for mercy! Bhagawan answers to the child’s relentless plea, but He is firm on one point that whatever might be the suffering, we have no choice but to undergo it! The moment we read through all of these, I’m sure many of us would have got terrified! But is there no solution to come out of these things at any point in our lifetime? Here is where Sage Kapilaachaarya sends out the important message that by surrendering ourselves completely to Bhagawan’s or the Guru’s (Spiritual Master) feet, we can liberate ourselves from this vicious cycle of birth and death! Many of us might wonder if this is really possible, but as per various incidences that are described in our Sanaathana Dharma literature prove that this is possible, but we need to put in our effort in a sincere and a conscious way.

Saying thus, Sage Kapilaachaarya concludes his long discourse to his mother and after hearing all of this from her son, she finally attains Moksha with the divine grace of her son. In the previous episode, we had left at a point wherein we said that there is a very similar instance in the Valmiki Ramayana that explains a similar point. It was during the time when Bhagawan Rama kills the demoness Thaataka. Along with that, Bhagawan Rama does two important things as well – He kills one of Thaataka’s sons, Shubaahu, but chases away the other son Maareecha to a far-off place amidst the vast ocean waters! Firstly, Bhagawan destroys the mother (Thaataka) and then takes the sons to task. Why does he do so? It is because, in this context, the mother signifies “Avidhya” (Ignorance). Only if the ignorance is destroyed, can the other Karma be destroyed too! Therefore, Bhagawan Rama kills the mother Thaataka first, before dealing with the two sons.

If we look at this part of the Ramayana story closely, ideally, Bhagawan Rama should have killed both since both were trying to destroy the “Yagna” (Spiritual Offering) performed by Sage Vishwamithra. But why did he kill one and let the other one escape? Ideally if Bhagawan Rama would have killed Maareecha then and there, the entire Ramayana story after Mother Sita being abducted by Ravana wouldn’t have taken place at all! 😊 Readers might accept this point with ease! But still, why did Bhagawan Rama let Maareecha escape at that point?

Now here comes an important discussion – Why did Rama kill one “Raakshasa” and chase away the other one? This traces back to our “Karma Theory” again! These two Raakshasas signify the two types of Karma that we accumulate – Sanchita Karma and the Praarabdha Karma. If we’ve to talk about it in a nutshell, Sanchita Karma is the truckloads of Karma that we’ve accumulated over and over various births, through the vicious cycle of birth and death! Praarabdha Karma is one such load from the huge truckload, that we pull out and experience the after-effects of it in one birth! Once this load is over, we take the next load and again start experiencing the after-effects of it in the subsequent births! But that’s not the end of it. As Sage Kapilaachaarya here narrates, we would still be doing many Karmas in this present birth too, that would keep going into the truckloads of our Sanchita Karma. This is where we raise the question that whether there is going to be no end for this! Now, if we go and stand in front of Bhagawan, seeking mercy and surrender, Bhagawan helps us getting rid of all these things in two ways – Firstly, He burns away all our Sanchita Karma (previously accumulated Karma) just like a cotton ball is burnt when it is thrown into a fire! However, the Praarabdha Karma that we keep experiencing and accumulating during this birth would still remain, isn’t it? Unless and until we are bound by the “Samsaara” (Family bonding and worldly pleasures) we would invariably keep accumulating Karma more and more! This is where Bhagawan plays the game – For these kinds of Karma that still stick on to us after surrender, Bhagawan makes sure that he “washes” them away from us through His divine “Sankalpa” (Will). We should be careful in understanding here – When does Bhagawan take this initiative? Only if we surrender to him completely! It is only when Bhagawan’s heart melts with our cries and persistent prayers, will Bhagawan do this.

Thus we can see clearly that Bhagawan doesn’t destroy both the Sanchita Karma and Praarabdha Karma in the similar fashion. The former one is getting burnt away and the latter is getting washed away due to the divine “Sankalpa”. Hence it is only to illustrate this difference to us, is Bhagawan Rama killing Shubaahu and chasing away Maareecha! Here, Shubaahu is equivalent to the Sanchita Karma. Just like how Bhagawan kills Shubaahu, He burns away our Sanchita Karma. Similarly, just like how Bhagawan chases away Maareecha and giving him a breather, He is washing away our Praarabdha Karma and ultimately giving us the liberation!

This is exactly what Sage Kapilaachaarya is also trying to convey here. So for today, let us understand this point in a much deeper sense and let us try to invoke this unconditional surrender towards Bhagawan as we read through this important episode. We shall wait till the next episode to continue with the next important point. Stay tuned! 😊