PART 20 - YAKSHA PRASHNAM SATSANGH

PART – 20 YAKSHA PRASHNAM SATSANGH

This week let us meditate on the following questions of Yaksha and the answers of Yudishtira.

What is the path? – That alone is THE PATH along which the Great have trod.

What is the news? – Time is the cook that is cooking all creatures of the world full of ignorance. That is THE NEWS.

Who is truly a man? – The report of ones good actions reach heaven and it is spread over the earth. As long as that report lasts, so long is that person called a MAN.

Which is the man who is considered to possess every kind of wealth? – The man to whom the agreeable and the disagreeable, weal and woe, the past and the future, are the same, is considered to possess every kind of wealth.

 

WHAT IS THE PATH?

THE TRUTH ABOUT RELIGION AND DUTY IS HIDDEN IN THE CAVES. THEREFORE, THAT ALONE IS THE PATH ALONG WHICH THE GREAT HAVE TROD.

(Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita in the fourth chapter that this knowledge (the knowledge of supreme self) is passed from Vaivasvan to Ikshvaku indicating the flow of knowledge through the guru parampara. The great saints have meditated on the ways and means of attaining the supreme truth by the grace of the Lord and of their great tapas and have written scriptures which help ignorant people to easily walk their way to success. Without Guru there is no liberation as He alone can guide us.

Our scriptures always point that one should surrender their ego to realize the Self. Finding our own ways and our own interpretations on the scriptures only swells our ego and it is a clear indication that we don't want to walk the path treaded by our saints. Moreover, we are only wasting time by finding new ways without understanding that our intellect is limited. The Guru alone can measure our growth. Sai satcharitram says that if we take a guide with us to cross the dense forest, the guide will take us safely in a short while as he knows by his self experience - the places of danger. If we want to find our own way we may get lost and we lose the valuable human birth.

Yudishtira says here that the path is not simple which we can understand easily. Ramana Maharishi says that this path is like walking on the razor's edge. The best way to realize the truth is to just surrender our ego and do whatever our Guru says.)

WHAT IS THE NEWS?

THE WORLD FULL OF IGNORANCE IS LIKE A PAN. THE SUN IS FIRE. THE DAYS AND NIGHTS ARE THE FUEL. THE MONTHS AND THE SEASONS CONSTITUTE THE WOODEN HANDLE. TIME IS THE COOK THAT IS COOKING ALL CREATURES IN THAT PAN. THAT IS THE NEWS.

(We generally don't miss to hear to news every day. Not once a day but 'on the hour every hour' we are updated on what is going on around the world at our drawing room. But hear to this news which Yudishtira is saying here!

All of us are handled by time every moment in our life. Time doesn't wait for anyone. All experiences toss us up and down in the cooking pan of world. The desires and anxieties make us run like mad because of our ignorance. We have no time to look into ourselves – what are we doing? What is right? Am I in the right path?

We want to know about everything in the world other than what is the real stuff inside us. We don't want to know what is to be achieved with this human birth. Even if we know, we don't want to take it up 'now'. Isn't it the news?

We too know the truth and see this everyday helplessly. But we tend to ignore since it is the automatic benevolence of the Lord. We see people who were there yesterday are not with us today. When we look into our past, it clearly reveals that things have continuously changed and are changing – time cooking all the creatures in the pan of world of ignorance.

Lord says in Gita as well as in Bhagavatham that a devotee who has surrendered his ego, goes beyond the time and the space. The experiences of day and night; the change of seasons; do not affect a person who becomes a witness to this unfailing nature. He lives happily and dies happily firmly established in the inner self).

 

WHO IS TRULY A MAN?

The report of ones good actions reach heaven and it is spread over the earth. As long as that report lasts, so long is that person called a MAN.

(Man does not mean one's physical form. The inner purity is what really matters. When one performs actions which are selfless (as the nature does), that attitude grants him the heaven, the happy place. The goodness spreads in no time in this world as said in Gita, 'whatever great people do, the other people follow'. As long as this body is used to spread the divinity, the body gets the name MAN. Otherwise it is all animal life of sensual proceedings). 

WHICH IS THE MAN WHO IS CONSIDERED TO POSSESS EVERY KIND OF WEALTH?

THE MAN TO WHOM THE AGREEABLE AND THE DISAGREEABLE, WEAL AND WOE, THE PAST AND THE FUTURE ARE THE SAME, IS CONSIDERED TO POSSESS EVERY KIND OF WEALTH.

(Equanimity is by far the best wealth one can possess. Without this pristine quality any amount of wealth ceases to be a permanent source of pleasure. As said by Yudishtira earlier, contentment is the best of the wealth. The qualities listed here by Yudistira remind us about the Stithaprajna of the second chapter of Gita. Agreeable and disagreeable are for a person who has desires. When these look the same, it is understood that the person has no desires. The past and future are for a person who has worries and anxieties which are the products of the mind. Happiness and difficulties are also the products of desires. When these do not create any disturbance in a person, it means that person has controlled his mind and the senses. It shows his complete surrender to the Lord. It is understood that the person has become witness to his life. A person who is with the self is ever happy and he alone possesses the wealth of every kind. This wealth of the knowledge of self is great because it is not taken away by time. It cannot be cut; burnt; wet; nothing touches this truth whereas every other wealth is bound by time and meets its end).

 

SUMMARY:

Let us not reinvent the wheel. By just following the words of the Guru without any doubts, questions and with complete faith and surrender is the way to success.

Keeping the NEWS in our mind all the time, let us see and act everyday with an attitude of selflessness. Let us use this limited time effectively to live in knowledge. As long as we live in desires, we live in ignorance.

Fulfilling the desires is not the way to happiness; contentment is the only way to happiness.

All experiences are only to the body. It comes and it goes. It is the nature of the world. Understanding that we are the SELF, untouched by anything, we become wealthy here and now.

HARI OM!