Vidura Neethi – 5

By Chitra Devaraj

The soul is eternal and everlasting.Vidura said to Dhrithrashtra, “Virtue is everlasting; pleasure and pains are transitory. Life is, indeed, everlasting, but its particular phases are transitory. Forsaking those which are passing, betake thyself to that which is everlasting and let contentment be thine, since contentment is the greatest of all acquisitions”.

WHAT IS EVERLASTING HERE IN THIS LIFE?

The human body is a house with nine doors, three pillars and five witnesses. It is presided over by the soul – which is eternal and everlasting.


TRUTH ABOUT LIFE

Great kings, great people who have lived in glory, wealth and joy, have all become victims to the Universal Destroyer called Death. This world is ever threatened by death. The span of one’s life is, helplessly as it were, reduced every night when he goes to sleep. Death waits for no man. It is nearing every one every moment. Its progress cannot be judged by us but it is ever steady. With the passing of each day, man’s life is shortened. When we are busy fulfilling our desires, much like plucking flowers in the garden, death snatches us away. Bheeshma says Yudishtra,”What you have planned to do tomorrow must be done today. What you have planned to do in the afternoon must be done in the forenoon. Death is ruthless. It will never wait and see if all your acts have been carried out. Man should therefore hurry and practice virtue in the prime time of life. Life is so uncertain and death is certain”.

HOW TO CUT THE WEB OF ATTACHMENT?

Man is plagued with a thousand desires in the world. He is attached to many things and many people. He is attached to his works, to his children, his home. All these have woven the web of attachment from which he is torn away by death. We need to understand that nothing can resist the force of this web of attachment except truth. Knowledge about the true value of things of the world man becomes wise. This world is dhukaalayam and asaashvatham as said by the Lord Krishna in the 8th chapter of Gita. Anything we derive from this world is impermanent. One who understands this fact faces death without fear. TRUTH IS IMMORTALITY. Immortality as well as the germs of death can be found in this same body. It is all in our hands whether we want to nurture the one or the other. The web of attachment is so easily formed. It is easy for anyone to nurture the plant of attachment. (Mruthyunjaya mantram compares the attachment to a cucumber – oorvaaruham iva bandanaath. Cucumber is the only fruit that never falls even when ripe. It is difficult to pluck. Even though the climber is thin and unable to bear the weight of the fruit, it doesn’t fall. The attachment to the stem is so strong similar to our attachment to the world. Bhagawad Gita says Asanga-sastrena drdhena chittvaa – use the weapon of non-attachment to root out this ever growing tree of samsara).

WHO IS THE FRIEND WHO FOLLOWS A MAN AFTER HIS DEATH?

All great people went away from this world leaving behind their kingdom, wealth and glory. Man has not a single companion in this march through this incident called life. The dead body is cast in to the funeral pyre like a piece of wood. The wealth is enjoyed by many whereas the dead body is enjoyed by the birds and animals. After death we are followed by our own actions (sins and merits). The righteousness, the Dharma is the only friend of man. Therefore, should men carefully and gradually earn the merit of righteousness. (Yudishtra was the only one among the Pandavas who could reach the heaven with his mortal body because of his righteousness. We remember great kings like Ashoka, Mahatma Gandhi, all great saints only because of their actions not with the way they look physically)

WHAT ARE THE TWO ETERNAL RIVERS?

The life is spoken of as an eternal river.

Five senses = waters

Desire and anger = crocodiles and sharks

Self control = boat

(BG Dhyaana sloka says, “Bheeshma Drona Tada……“. The ocean of Samsara was successfully crossed by the Pandavas because they had Krishna as their boatman.)

The soul is spoken of as yet another eternal river.

Righteous merit = sacred bath

Truth = waters

Self control = banks

Kindness = waves

When we are in ignorance, we are in the river of life. When we become wise we are in the river of the soul. The boatman (Krishna) plays an important role in the river of life. The boatman is none other than the soul which is sacred and everlasting. The river of life ends in a man who takes refuge in the Lord and merges with the river of soul.

Like all of us, Dhrithrashtra wanted to know more about the soul and also the way to meet the ancient and the eternal one when in this body.

Vidura then invoked Rishi Sanatsujata to clear the doubts of the King. Being invoked by the pure heart of Vidura who is wise among men, the Rishi arrived there. The king prostrated the Rishi and asked his doubts to him.

WHAT IS DEATH? WHAT IS IMMORTALITY?

Ignorance = death

Absence of ignorance = immortality

Animals like tiger, lion are not afraid of death because they cannot perceive clearly with the mind or the senses. It is only men who imagine the Lord Yama who holds his sway in the region of Pitris. It is at the command of Yama that death in the form of wrath, ignorance, covetousness arises among men. Pulled by the attachments and pride, men walk in the ways that are unrighteousness. Senses dominate their life and repeatedly they fall into difficulties (hell). Thus, that ignorance receives the name Death.

Those who desire the fruit of actions and perform yagnas as prescribed in the Vedas, are again born into this world after exhausting all their merits. The one who desires earthly enjoyments cannot avoid the round of rebirths, up and down and around. Attachment is the most terrible of all sorrows (death).

The death Yama cannot even come near a man who kills desire by self restraint. The wise are never misled in their lives as they walk in the light of soul. Whoever wins over the death called ignorance in this very body by controlling the senses with the weapon of dispassion and discrimination attains immortality.

HOW TO WIN OVER DEATH?

Destroy the desire which arises because of the ignorance (I am the body).

NO WISH, NOT EVEN THE SLIGHTEST ONE IS EITHER TO BE ENTERTAINED OR PURSUED.

(Attachment leads to desire; unfulfilled desire leads to anger; anger to delusion; delusion to loss of memory and the whole process ruins one’s life itself)

CONCLUSION:

The banana peel has little sweetness of the fruit being associated with it. We being wise, we know that the fruit is different from the peel. So we throw the peel into the dust bin and have only the fruit. Vidura is teaching us that the peel is the body, senses and the mind. The fruit is the soul. The problems what we face in our day to day life belongs to the peel, the body. The fruit is ever sweet and not touched by anything. The time we shift our focus on the fruit, negating the peel, we attain immortality or in other words we win the death. Whatever happiness we derive from the sense objects are temporary. Initially it will show us happiness but always ends in sorrow. This path even though is difficult initially, will give us happiness which is permanent.

Guruji is always wanted and loved by everyone because he is a giver of happiness. We can give to people what we have. When we are beggars of happiness, how can we serve the world? Serve the people at home? It is out of great compassion the great saints are living among us. They inspire us to reach that state of bliss they are reveling in. We are children of amritha; children of immortality. The fruit within all of us are one and the same. Let us live this truth.

HARI OM!