॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Saturday, 7 January 2023 VI.15 - Sage Angiras and Narada explian the impermanent nature of all existence and relationships in life.
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While King Citraketu, overcome by lamentation, lay like a dead body at the side of the dead body of his son, the two great sages Nārada and Angiras spoke to him.
"Oh, King Chitraketu, do you have any relationship with this dead boy. Indeed, what was the nature of your relationship with him even when he was alive? People come together and drift apart like sand particles on the shore!"
"Sometimes a prospective father, being impelled by the potency of the Supreme Lord, can beget a child, but sometimes conception does not take place. Therefore one should not lament over the artificial relationship of parenthood, which is ultimately controlled by the Supreme Lord. Human existence itself is a short-lived reality! It is the Lord alone who controls creation, existence and dissolution."
Wiping his dishevelled face with his hand, the King began to speak. "Oh, Avadhutas! Who are you? Wise sages, some great saints, or one of the great heavenly sages like Vashishtha, Narada or Amgiras!? Thank you for bringing your wise words of consolation!"
Sage Angiras replied."My dear king, when you desired to have a son, I approached you. Indeed, I am the same Sage Angiras who gave you this son. And this here is the great sage Narada, the direct son of Lord Brahma. I know you are spiritually advanced, and therefore you should not allow this sorrow to overcome you."
तदैव ते परं ज्ञानं ददामि गृहमागत: । ज्ञात्वान्याभिनिवेशं ते पुत्रमेव ददाम्यहम् ॥
अधुना पुत्रिणां तापो भवतैवानुभूयते । एवं दारा गृहा रायो विविधैश्वर्यसम्पद: ॥
शब्दादयश्च विषयाश्चला राज्यविभूतय: । मही राज्यं बलं कोषो भृत्यामात्यसुहृज्जना: ॥
सर्वेऽपि शूरसेनेमे शोकमोहभयार्तिदा: । गन्धर्वनगरप्रख्या: स्वप्नमायामनोरथा: ॥
T: "When I first came to your home, I could have given you the supreme transcendental knowledge, but when I saw that your mind was absorbed in material things, I gave you only a son, who caused you jubilation and lamentation."
"My dear King Chitraketu, now you are actually experiencing the misery of a person who has sons and daughters. Wife, house, the opulence of this kingdom, riches and possessions are all the same - temporary. One’s kingdom, military power, treasury, servants, ministers, friends and relatives are all causes of fear, illusion, lamentation and distress. Because they are impermanent, they are no better than illusions, dreams and mental concoctions they are no better than the hallucination of a celestial palace imagined in a dense forest."
"The Karma cycle makes us act, reap rewards, and imagine that everything is for real when indeed it is a temporary experience, nothing more."
"Through the mind, the Jiva suffers three kinds of tribulations — adhibhautika (natural and physical phenomena), adhidaivika (experiences brought about by the gods who control the elements) and adhyatmika (self-imposed as fruits of Karma). Therefore this body is a source of all miseries."
"Try to understand who you are — whether body, mind or soul. Consider where you have come from, where you are going after giving up this body, and why you are under the control of material lamentation. Once you understand the nature of existence, you will develop true devotion to Bhagavan, and thereby you will obtain peace."
Sage Narada then told Chitraketu that he would teach him a special mantra. After seven days and nights of chanting it, with devotion, the king would receive the gracious Darshan of Lord Sankarshana, whom even Lord Shiva and others had prayed to for grace in the distant past.
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॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
