Vidura Neeti - 8

By Chitra Devraj

Today's satsangh is the concluding part of the Vidura Neethi.

WHAT IS ‘AARJAVAM’?

Vidura narrates the greatness of this quality ‘Aarjavam’ through a conversation between Suthanva and Virochana.Aarjavam comes from the word ‘rju’ or straight – forwardness. It is one of the great qualities of a bhaktha. Diplomacy is needed when we go down in our values to make money or to handle power. Aarjavam means no diplomacy whatsoever. Children are straight forward. They are plain minded and they have not learned the tricks of the grownup people yet. Such a quality is highly praised in our scriptures and also by Vidura here. (When our own children do a mistake, we forgive them and support them by justifying their action. The same action if it is done by somebody else, we don’t mind saying it is wrong and show all kinds of reaction to punish them. This partiality is because of the attachment of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. A person becomes great if he can tell right or wrong irrespective of who is there before him. That is Aarjavam’. Lord Krishna stresses on this quality in the BhagvadGita (16th chapter 1st sloka, 13th chapter 7th sloka, 17th chapter 14th sloka, 18th chapter 42nd sloka)).


Vidura now narrates the greatness of this quality ‘Aarjavam’ through a conversation between Suthanva and Virochana.

CONVERSATION BETWEEN SUTHANVA AND VIROCHANA

Once there was a princess called Kesini. The king arranged for a swayamvara for her. Many princes from various kingdoms came for the swayamvaram. Among them there was a brahmana called Suthanva and an asura king called ‘Virochana’. Kesini came to know about both of them. When they came to meet the princess, there was a golden seat in the hall and Virochana tried to sit on that. At that time, Kesini put a question to Virochana – “Virochana! Who is greater, the brahmanas or the asuras? Why not the brahmana Suthanva sit on that seat?”

Vircohana:”We are the sons of Kashyapa. So we are greater sadhus than others. All worlds belong to us. Nobody be it a deva or a brahmana is greater than us.

Kesini: “Virochana! We will meet in the same place tomorrow morning. At that time we will decide who is greater, you or that brahamana!”

Next morning, all of them assembled as planned. Virochana was sitting on the golden seat. Suthanva entered the hall. Kesini immediately got up from her seat and offered the brahmana arghyam and paadhyam. Virochana did not show any sign of respect. He offered a small place in same seat itself for Suthanva to sit.

Suthanva: “A father and a son can share a seat. Two kings can share a seat. Two brahmanas can share a seat. But a Kshathriya and a Brahmana cannot share the same seat”.

Virochana: (spoke sarcastically) “It is true! You cannot sit with me. You need to sit on a wooden plank or on the Dharbhaasan. You are not qualified to sit in this high respectable seat”.

Suthanva: “Virochana! You don’t know anything. Even your father will sit down when I sit on a seat. That is the respect a Brahmana gets!”

Virochana: ”Let us not argue here. Let us go to knowledgeable ones to decide who is greater. I pledge all my properties on this. If they decide that you are greater than me, I will give all my properties to you.”

Suthanva: “Let us keep our lives itself as a pledge as property is of no use to me”.

Both of them decided to keep Prahalada (father of Virochana) himself as the judge. Suthanva told Prahalada after accepting his respect, that a father can give things to the son to show his affection to the son. But when it comes to an argument, it is wise to speak only the truth.

Prahalaada remembered the instruction got from Hamsa (which accompanied the sun god) why one should speak the truth. By telling a lie for the sake of human beings, one loses all goodness in the next 1000 generations and one who tells a lie for the sake of land, loses everything in this life and hereafter.

Meditating on this, Prahalada told Virochana “Virochana! Angiras is the father of Suthanva who is greater than me. Suthanva by himself is greater in many aspects when compared to you. Suthanva’s mother is greater than your mother. So he is greater to you in all aspects. Now your life is in the hands of Suthanva”

Suthanva was very happy about the judgement of Prahalada. He didn’t lose his balance of mind because of his affection for his son. So Suthanva left Virochana free and also asked him to marry Kesini.

VIDURA’S ADVISE TO THE KING:

Vidura after narrating this story to Dhrithrashtra told him that - A MAN SHOULD ALWAYS SPEAK TRUTH. WHEN A MAN TELLS LIES FOR THE SAKE OF CHILDREN HE LOSES EVERYTHING IN LIFE.

THE TWO GREAT EVIL QUALITIES:

Then he added that seven persons should never be considered as witness (saakshi). 1) one who knows palmistry, 2) one who was a thief before and now a merchant, 3) one who uses sticks and ropes to tell fortunes, 4) a doctor, 5) enemy, 6) a friend and 7) one who has bad conduct. Vidura warned Dhrithrashtra that Sakuni belongs to category number 7. So he advised the king not to believe in him. The ‘I’ness and ‘my’ness are the greatest of all evil qualities. (There are no problems without these two in our lives. When the light passes through the prism, it comes out as seven colours. When the light of life reflects through I and mine, all differences and sorrows comes out of us. The mind needs to be a plane mirror and not a prism. That is our saadhana. All devotional activities should culminate in chittha shuddhi, purity of mind. All external signs are only reflections of our ego. The inner purity is very important).

SIX SHARP SWORDS WHICH KILLS OUR LIFE:

The ego, more speech, doing mistakes after mistakes, anger, being selfish, not truthful to a friend – these six are the sharp swords which cut off the life of a man, not death. All these sharp swords are the properties of your children Dhrithrashtra! Let them leave all that and live happily with their brothers. (Repeating mistakes is only out of negligence. It shows our Tamasic nature, lack of awareness. Committing a mistake is not wrong but repeating a mistake is unforgivable. Drithraashtra even after listening to great people’s advice repeats mistakes because of his affection for his sons).

VIDURA WARNS THE KING:

The fire hidden in the wood is not harmful to anyone as long as they don’t rub it. But when they rub, it burns the wood and also the entire forest. Similarly the Pandavas, who are saatvik in nature are in patience like the fire in the wood. When your children, the Kauravas rub them, they are going to be ruined and also the team associated with them. It is my final decision.

With this Vidura concluded his neethi to Dhrithrashtra. He covered everything under the sun, to teach the king what is right and what he needs to take up. He clearly explained the consequences of certain behavior and how to get in line with Dharma. He explained in great detail, what is the purpose of human birth.

After this beautiful discourse of Vidura, now let us listen to what our Dhrithrashtra says.

DHRITHRASHTRA SAID:

“VIDURA ! WHATEVER YOU HAVE TOLD TO ME NOW, ARE GREAT TO HEAR AND I ACCEPT THEM WHOLE HEARTEDLY. BUT WHEN I THINK OF DURYODHANA, MY LOVE FOR HIM WINS OVER THE DHARMA. I LOSE CONTROL OF MYSELF. WHAT CAN I DO?” (This is the problem in our lives too. After listening to a sathsang or to some good discourses or reading a good book, we feel it is right and it will definitely do good for us. But when it comes to practice we lose all our strength because of our attachments. Always the ‘I’ and ‘mine’ wins in the war. Guruji used to put a question to us. There are two foxes inside you. One is good and the other one is bad. Which will survive? The one which we feed the most only will survive. It is the truth. So many Viduras (opportunities) come across our life to keep us in line with Dharma. We fail to notice it in our busy schedule to fulfill the desires and put the same question of Drithrashtra to all the Mahatmas who come to uplift us. The beauty is we feel this question itself is the answer and nothing can be done to better the situation).

CONCLUSION:

Even though we have eyes, we are considered to be blind if we miss our dharma as a human being. The whole of Bhagavad Gita talks about what is our Dharma (the Gita starts with the word ‘mama’ and the last sloka of gita ends with the word ‘dharma’) and here also Vidura speaks on it. Like the king who is blind because of his affection to his sons, we are also blind not only in one aspect of life but in many aspects.

The wisdom eyes need to open. All goodness need to be practiced here and now. As our Guruji often says ‘experience is a costly school and fools learn from it’. Let us wake up with the experience of the King Dhrithrashtra. One Vidura neethi is enough for us to wake up to our inner silence and walk in the path of Dharma.

THE BODY CONSIOUSNESS IS THE CENTRE OF ALL PROBLEMS IN LIFE. ATTACHMENT, EGO, DESIRES AND ALL OTHER EVIL QUALITIES SPROUT WITH THE THOUGHT THAT ‘I AM THE BODY’. THERE IS A BEAUTIFUL LORD RESIDING WITHIN ALL OF US WHO IS MAKING US TO HEAR, SPEAK, SEE, TOUCH AND SMELL. HE IS THE POWER BEHIND OUR THOUGHTS AND INTELLIGENCE. LET US MAINTAIN THE TEMPLE (BODY) WELL BUT LET THE FOCUS BE ON THE DEITY INSIDE THE TEMPLE, THE EVERLASTING, ETERNAL ATMAN.

HERE WE CONCLUDE THE VIDURA NEETHI AND WILL CONTINUE ON THE TOPIC ‘YAKSHA PRASHNAM’ IN THE NEXT WEEK.

HARI OM MAHATMAS!!!!!!!!