In an age where identity theft is a very common practice, it is easy to connect the dots that it is a crime with some innocent victims. But Bhagavatam reveals that abuse of another person’s identity seems to be an old problem. The victim was none other than Sri Krishna himself. Looking through the modern or secular prism, we will fail to grasp the real purport. The incident has the potential to transform the way we look at ourselves as we are all the biggest victims of an identity fraud. The culprit is not an external person like how Krishna confronted, but our own selves. To grasp the details, let us quickly recall the sixty-sixth adhyaya of the tenth skandha (canto) of Srimad Bhagavatam.
Storytime:
Balarama left Dwaraka, eager to spend some time with his friends, as he got nostalgic of Gokula. He stayed a couple of months with them. During this absence, a special messenger came from the King of Karusha, Paundraka. Krishna was at the royal court of King Ugrasena. Paundraka claimed that he was the real Vasudeva. Paundraka was surrounded by sycophants and flatterers, who fed his ego that “He was the master of the universe, who has descended to the earth”. He was such a dullard with the thinking of a child pretending to be a King while playing with others.
The messenger echoed Paundraka’s thunder that, “He was the real Vasudeva who has descended to the earth on account of his mercy and Krishna must give up his false identity of pretending to be Vasudeva”. He further accused Krishna of holding on to his personal symbols – shanka, chakra, gada, padma, which he demanded to be given back to him immediately. Surrendering to him, Krishna could expect mercy, else will face grave consequences in the battlefield.
This vain boasting sent the courtiers and the King into peals of laughter. After the laughter died down, Krishna informed the messenger that he will definitely let the weapons loose and make Paundraka’s the abode of dogs and vultures to feast. The messenger delivered the message to Paundraka and shortly took his chariot and headed towards Kasi, where Paundraka was staying with his friend, King of Kasi.
With the arrival of Krishna, Paundraka attacked him with two akshauhinis of army with the King of Kasi supporting his rear with another three akshauhinis. Krishna saw that Paundraka’s imitation was complete from his shanka, chakra, gada, saranga bow to imitation Kaustuba mani, Srivatsa mark on the chest. The fakery included yellow silk, vanamala, garuda dwaja and even makara kundala. The imitation was so perfect that Krishna burst out laughing at the pains Paundraka has gone to look like Krishna.
The enemies attacked Krishna with a huge range of weapons only to get a taste of destruction from his gada, chakra, sword or arrows from Saranga bow. Confronting Paundraka, he addressed that he will release his weapons per the message through the messenger. Krishna said he will surrender when Paundraka can force him to, till then he was there to fight. After smashing his chariot, he cut off Paundraka’s head with his sudarshana chakra. The King of Kasi followed suit to a volley of arrows and Krishna hurled his head back into the city. Paundraka who was constantly meditating upon Krishna’s form, though with a wrong intention, had all his material bonds severed and attained Sayujya mukti, by getting a form similar to Krishna.
The head of Kasiraja sent anguish and anger in the city. His son Sudakshina, performed the obsequies to his father and vowed to kill the slayer. With the help of upadyayas, he began to worship Mahesvara intensely. When the pleased Siva asked Sudakshina to seek any benediction, he chose for obtaining the means to kill his father’s slayer. Siva told him to retain the original ritvik and propriate dakshinagni through abhichara rituals (black magic). The dakshinagni and the attending Pramathas (accompanying Bhutas) will be able to carry out this mission on anyone except brahmanas (abrahmaṇye).
Sudakshina performed the rituals as directed and out of the sacrificial fires a fiery creature accompanied by other beings rose. The huge being ran towards Dwaraka scorching everything in its path. As it approached Dwaraka, the panicked denizens sought the protection of Krishna. Understanding the power behind the being as Mahesvara, Krishna dispatched his Sudarshana chakra. The chakra was blindingly effulgent and hot that even the fiery being could not handle its heat. The creature retreated in anger and returned to Varanasi. It unleashed its fury by burning the city and killing the priests and Sudakshina who invoked it. The pursuing Sudarshana chakra entered the city and burnt whatever was left in the city and returned to Krishna.
Anyone listening to these heroic deeds of Krishna with concentration is released from all his papas (य एनं श्रावयेन्मर्त्य उत्तम:श्लोकविक्रमम् । समाहितो वा शृणुयात् सर्वपापै: प्रमुच्यते ॥ ya enaṁ śrāvayen martya uttamaḥ-śloka-vikramam samāhito vā śṛṇuyāt sarva-pāpaiḥ pramucyate SB 10-66-43). This is an interesting aspect - why give phalasruti for a seemingly normal incident in the wondrous life of Krishna?
Understanding Krishna – applying in our lives:
Tamas: A very important dimension in our spiritual journey is to identify the tamasic baggages that weigh us down. This matters more for the sadaka than for a worldly minded materialistic mind, as the latter lacks enough sattva to grasp this subtlety. Tamas has a nature to accumulate ignorance and darkness, which is exactly what Paundraka displays. He is so dull that he is unable to differentiate what is flattery and truth. Tamas also attracts similar minded characters to its cause. Paundraka had his friend, Kasiraja, similar to the way Duryodhana surrounded himself with similar minded adharmic people like Shakuni and Karna.
Sudakshina had
enough mental strength to invoke Maheswara,
yet instead of seeking his Moksha or
gain knowledge, he merely wanted an outlet for his rage. A tainted mind seeks
only self destruction when seeking even the most grandiose of benedictions. Tamas
accelerates the accumulation of more papas
and quicker fructification of papa
karmaphala. We see that Sudakshina,
blinded by his rage and tamas
fails to listen to Siva’s
instructions (साधयिष्यति
सङ्कल्पमब्रह्मण्ये प्रयोजित: । इत्यादिष्टस्तथा चक्रे कृष्णायाभिचरन् व्रती ॥ sādhayiṣyati saṅkalpam
abrahmaṇye prayojitaḥ ity ādiṣṭas tathā cakre kṛṣṇāyābhicaran
vratī SB
10-66-31). Krishna being Parabrahman, a fact he proved by killing
Paundraka, should have clarified Sudakshina not to wage war, that too one
based on abhichara rituals. Yet tamas works in an accelerated self
destruction mode. Tamas also blinds
us to our basal side. Sudakshina could
have easily asked Siva for directions
for his Moksha, yet all his mind
could conjure was more hate.
Mukti even for wrong reasons: Paundraka was constantly thinking of Krishna, though with the most tamasic mindset. We saw in Choose Krishna, even if for wrong reasons, how meditating upon Krishna, even without proper understanding can result in great results. A patient taking the right medicine, without understanding the biochemistry and biology of the ailment is still cured. In the same way, Krishna worship in any form is beneficial. However, one must cease the twisted kutarka way of imagining that if we do all the wrong things against Brahman or Dharma, we can get benefited. Two flaws in such distorted outlook – we merely are going to increase our papa because we are not fallen mahatmas and we never will be able to measure up in front of the intensity of even these negative characters.
If our argument is let us emulate Kamsa, Paundraka or Shishupala and reach Bhagawan’s feet through the negative, the first shortcoming is that we lack the intensity of these negative upasana. Secondly, the papa that we accumulate tends to push us into deeper tamas and samsara that we get confused easily on the purpose behind. So it is better not to experiment the negative paths and stick to safer options.
Bhagavatam explains that Paundraka’s meditation upon Krishna was constant and this was complimented by his unbroken imitations at every step of his life (स नित्यं भगवद्ध्यानप्रध्वस्ताखिलबन्धन: । बिभ्राणश्च हरे राजन् स्वरूपं तन्मयोऽभवत् ॥ sa nityaṁ bhagavad-dhyāna-pradhvastākhila-bandhanaḥ bibhrāṇaś ca hare rājan svarūpaṁ tan-mayo ’bhavat SB 10-66-24). Owing to these and the personal grace of Sri Krishna, Paundraka was able to break the samsaric bonds. This was not the case for Kasiraja, who aided this cause.
Tamas also can lead to Bhagawan as everything is part of Paramatma, but for a normal person, such a path is highly discouraged.
What is your true identity: At the outset, it appears that there is an identity crisis. One person has stolen the identity and the other is trying to reestablish it after a fight. If this is a mere story of a hero being challenged by powerful fools, who perish in a conflict, then why aggrandize it with a phalasruti (SB 10-66-43)? This is a serious pointer given to make us pause and think.
नित्यं भगवद्ध्यान nityaṁ bhagavad-dhyāna is a clear message given how Paundraka realized Krishna Consciousness though he was deluding himself. Our true nature is that of Atman. This is the confusion Arjuna got into, at the outset of the Mahabharata war. We assume we are the body in all our daily transactions. This myopic misunderstanding is rooted in our avidya (ignorance). Some of us feel the emotions bubbling through the mind as our real nature. While they may represent the transient nature of our personality, it still doesn’t define our real identity. Yet others intellectualize and rationalize the buddhi as our essence, as often humanity is identified with his human nature.
This reduction of our identity to body-mind-intellect is powered by our ahamakara, the self arrogating principle in all jivas. The important thing to note here is the divine aspect of the Atman is completely replaced by the degraded materialistic misrepresentation. Once we lose sight of our real identity, then it buries itself in its own self-created samsara. With the divinity hidden and forgotten the jiva thinks itself as body or mind or intellect and even worse as one of the sensory objects. For instance, a miser is extremely attached to wealth over even his life. The misunderstood identity makes us leave a trail, vasanas, as there is an artificial otherness it places between its true self and the world.
Sanatana Dharma reduces the entire Universe into three essential ideas - the true Self (Jivatman), the world (Jagat) and the Supreme Being (Paramatman or Brahman). Different acharyas have tried to explain the relationships between the entities giving rise to different vedantic schools of thought. Dvaita from Madhwacharya declares the Jivas to be different amongst them (jiva bheda) and distinctly different from Paramatman. Ramanujacharya’s Visishtadvaita views the uniformity behind all Jivas as one class and respects the three categories as distinct, yet the Jiva can attain some attributes of Paramatma at the time of Mukti. Adi Shankara’s Advaita feels that there is no difference between Jivatma and Paramatma except for a veil of avidya over the former. The Jagat is also an illusion; thereby Mukti is truly realizing one’s real nature.
Despite the variations in the acharyas expression, they are all unified in declaring the divine nature of Jiva and in the real source of jnana for the individual that arises from Atman, which powers all the aspects of Body-Mind-Intellect. Thus Vedanta puts the spotlight on the true identity of us as Atman. This Atmic nature must be realized and it must be the guide for our daily activities.
Before getting mired into what happens to the Jivatma at the time of Mukti, one must first realize that they are the Atman first. Depending on our vasanas, we will favor one or more of the instruments – body, mind and intellect. Irrespective of this leaning, we must start scrubbing our vasanas by taking charge of our current Karmas. The solution of our self created future, overcoming the proclivities due to our past actions, lies in our present. Karma yoga can help us act in the now, overcoming the past vasanas and not creating new ones. Jnana Yoga helps us cut through the clutter and keep us focused on our Atmic nature at all times. Bhakti Yoga helps us use our familiar emotions to expand our consciousness. Dhyana yoga can help us achieve the same results through meditation and focus.
Nonetheless, there are two stages of our progress in understanding our real identity – a) realizing that we are the Atman and not the body, mind or intellect, at all times; b) realizing the Atman-Paramatman equation. This story of Sri Krishna forces the listener to ponder along these lines and makes them to question their current understanding of their true identity. Ramana Maharishi succinctly and simply asked “Who am I?”.
Sanatana Dharma points us to the fact “akasath patitam thoyam yada gachchati sagaram”, that there are many paths, just like the different rivers all merging into the same ocean. This understanding is very deep, as these paths are governed by the vasana packages of the individuals, which are as diverse as the individuals. Hence no two person’s paths will never be the same, however one imitates. Thus there can be no bigotry like some myopic political ideas which masquerade as religions. A self realized person (atma pramana) has to validate with others with similar experience (apta pramana) and scriptures (shastra pramana). This cross validation ensures that one is not lost into flights of fantasy like making others believe they go to heaven on a flying horse.
A seemingly small incident to fight an adversary over stolen identity has presented huge questions that transcend life and death. Just like Krishna fought to establish his real identity, we all must fight our ahamkara which defines our false identity that gets mired in samsara. This episode forces us to question this charade and seek our real identity. May Krishna’s grace and guidance, his words and life, inspire us to embark on this real adventure to seek our true identity. The assurance given in Bhagavad Gita is that every progress is locked in our favor. There may be many duels where our vasanas and gunas might try to set us back, yet for every seeker on this journey, there is the strong inner guidance of the Paramatma and the natural urge of the Jivatma to manifest its true SELF. Let’s begin!
ॐ तत् सत
No comments:
Post a Comment