The Rishis opine, to remain fixated on Brahman, the Supreme SELF, is the ultimate goal of human existence. The Rishis of the yore recommended aligning our lives with Dharma to facilitate the eventual ascent of the human mind. The world of samsara doesn’t make this easy. The dense forest of this samsara is filled with too many traps for the senses. As the mind and the senses dwell on the objects (be it external or a mere internal notion), it gets entangled. More the entanglement, more the changes in the gunakarma of the individual and more it sinks into the samsaric quicksand. This need felt by the Jiva, the individualized Self, for these objects, for feeling fulfilled or more complete, is called Desire. This desire morphs into all the other human emotions from happiness to sadness, greed to jealousy and anger to hate. One such modification is the stubbornness to attain an object of attention at any cost. Any compromise appears to be worth, as there is no understanding or care for the consequences. We realized, in Boons or Curses article, that such individuals even abandon the crucial gunakarma change required to hold on to these fruits of their sadhana as boons and eventually hurt themselves. The asuric mind is more keen to tap into the fruits of the sadhana than to maintain the right gunakarma balance for its application or realize the outcome.
Typically for doing any action there are prerequisites. Even for a simple act of burning, one needs a heat source, oxygen and fuel to combust. In the same way one needs good school education before aspiring for college. But the mind intent on attaining a desire can compromise these requirements. In Boon or curse, we realized that merely having the fruits of sadhana doesn’t provide endless protection from the misapplication without an underlying gunakarma change. In this article, we are going to understand that without having a foundational grasp of the prerequisites, one doesn’t have the proper gunakarma framework to hold knowledge.
Storytime:
The Mahabharata contains so much wisdom that it is referred as the fifth Veda itself. While there are many instructional texts like the Bhagavad Gita, Sanatsujatiya, Viduraniti within it, amongst others, the large portion of easy to digest wisdom is available in the form of stories. The entire multi-generational story of Mahabharata contains innumerable stories narrated by Bhishma in Shanti and Anushasana Parva, by numerous rishis like Markandeya and Lomasa in Vana Parva. These stories are highly thematic and help us grasp one or two highlighted nuggets of wisdom for easy assimilation and application. This story is narrated by Lomasa Maharishi to uplift the spirits of the Pandavas, who were mired at their own inabilities and problems. Lomasa was leading the Pandavas through various pilgrimage places.
As they arrived near the river Samanga, he pointed out the place where Indra did his ablutions and penance to overcome the Brahmahathi dosha of killing Vritasura. He pointed out to the Kanakhala range of mountains where many rishis of the yore did awesome tapas. Lomasa indicated to the nearby ashrama where Raivya, where Bharadwaja Rishi’s son, Yavakri with profound mastery of the Vedas had perished. Yudhishtra piqued by the tidbits wanted to know the complete details.
Bharadwaja and Raivya were great friends. Yavakri was the lone son of Bharadwaja, while the latter had two sons – Paravasu and Arvavasu. Bharadwaja confined himself to the path of tapasya while Raivya was a renowned Vedic scholar. Yavakri was saddened to observe that the society tended to celebrate Raivya and his sons for their knowledge and ignored his father’s feats. In his understanding, it was the knowledge of the Vedas that differentiated them. Determined to master the Vedas, Yavakri undertook extreme austerities like doing penance midst fire on all sides. Indra, thus being invoked, inquired the purpose. Yavakri wanted to attain Vedas that were not even in the grasp of the Brahmanas. He requested that using his austerities he would like to attain all the Vedas. Indra suggested that such knowledge comes only over a long period, studying under a competent Guru. Indra urged Yavakri to stop this futility and recommended to start his quest immediately, through hard work and Guru’s grace. Vedas will be useless to him and his father, as they have not performed the prerequisites. Indra wondered why the Brahmana was bent on destroying himself and the goal is easily attained at the feet of a preceptor.
Yavakri resumed even greater austerities that made Indra revisit the resolute. Indra told even if the knowledge of the Vedas are manifest, it will do him no good, as his exertions and actions are not grounded. The determined Yavakri was committed to increasing the austerities at all costs. He challenged Devendra that even if he has to cut his limbs as sacrifice, he will proceed.
Baffled, the sagacious Indra hit on a plan. He disguised himself as a frail, old Brahmana and positioned himself where Yavakri usually took his bath before austerities. He started taking small fistfuls of sand and threw into the fast flowing currents of Ganga. The futility caught the attention of Yavakri and enquired about his actions. Indra waxed at his grand plans to tame the Ganga with his sand bridge. Yavakri tried to reason at the uselessness of such an endeavor. Indra returned favor by questioning Yavakri’s attempts to master the Vedas without studying. Yavakri realized it was Indra and asked him to grant him boons that can make him excel others and that will be practicable.
Indra told that the knowledge of the Vedas will appear to him and his father. Interestingly, he also granted Yavakri that all his desires will be fulfilled. The satisfied Yavakri informed his father of these wondrous boons. Bharadwaja warned that these stubborn boons do not have to foundational gunakarma and will lead to ahamkara. Manifesting desires without proper dharmic validation will result in pride leading to assured destruction.
Bharadwaja’s insights on ahamkara: To educate Yavakri on the perils of Ahamkara, the ego centered selfish arrogance of believing the limited self actions as superior than others, he narrated a story. There once existed a powerful rishi, Valadhi. Disturbed greatly at the loss of his son, he engaged himself with severe penances, so he can be blessed with an immortal child. The pleased Devas informed the Rishi that no human being can be immortal. However, based on the Rishi’s choice, the life of the son can be tied to the existence of any object. So the Rishi chose a mountain, as his son can have a long life and thus obtained a son, named Medhavi. The boy grew up haughty and abused the other rishis owing to the power of his boon.
Specializing in violations, Medhavi, reached Rishi Dhanushaksha and extended his usual maltreatment. Enraged the Rishi cursed him to be reduced to ashed, but found him cocky and unhurt. Realizing his boon, Dhanushaksha understood that the mountains as the instrumental cause for his life. He shattered the mountain by morphing as a buffalo, which led to the boy’s death. Bharadwaja cautioned that if one is puffed up due to the power of boons, it only hastens their fall. Bharadwaja cautioned that Raivya and his sons were powerful Rishis due to their sadhana. He must stay away from them, lest he does some accidental unintentional blunder that may arouse their anger.
Practical Applications:
End cannot justify the means: In today’s world the end justifies the means. Unfortunately this is farthest from the truth. The journey is as important as the destination. The journey molds the character in a unique way that makes us qualify for the results. If a shortcut/stratagem is deployed or sufficient sadhana is not undertaken as the results materialize, then the results will bear more than fruitful seeds. One must be extremely careful with such an outcome. In Boon or Curse, we saw that even the best boons can work in exactly opposite ways, as the end remained in the cross hair of such a sadhana and not the means.
Listen to the advice given: Lomasa and Yudhishtra, along with Indra and Bharadwaja have done so much foreboding of the story that we already know about Yavakri’s imminent destruction. Lomasa is eagerly recounting numerous stories for the benefit of Yudhishtra who needs not only a shield from great sorrow and misery he had put his brothers and wife, but also a sword to cut through it. He represents an eager qualified student, who is anxious to implement the advice given to him by the Rishis. On the other hand, Yavakri is bent on getting his boons at any cost. Yavakri fails to listen to the repeated advice of Indra and merely corners him to extract his boon. Indra cleverly sets a trap by giving Yavakri an additional blessing of the fruition of all his desires. Since Yavakri never listened to Indra and subsequently his father, he merely activates the trap.
Comparison cannot be the foundation of progress: Yavakri did not want the knowledge of Vedas to attain Atma Jnana nor did he want it for any other noble cause. It was a myopic reason based on raging jealousy and comparison. Despite all the austerities he did, he never overcame this overwhelming stain on his character. This made all the sadhana and its phala misdirected. The more Indra tried to make sense, the more Yavakri misunderstood it as a test. It only reinvigorated his resolve but not his clarity or intellect.
Sometimes in New ageism, such an emotion is celebrated as an inspiration. But if one were to study carefully the idea of comparison is rooted in Object referral, an idea that the object of desire is more important than the Self. Thus constant comparison only accelerates our character fall and eventually us. Drawing inspiration is a process of digging deep into oneself and challenging against the background of another success. It doesn’t involve envy.
GunaKarma change through self-effort: Raivya, Paravasu, Arvavasu and even Bharadwaja were practicing different sadhana but were unified by an underlying Gunakarma change. This not only prepared their minds for the Sadhana but also provided them the prerequisites for the next phase. Yavakri’s fault was to repeatedly ignore Indra’s advice that what can be obtained by long arduous studenthood was merely replaced by brute tapasya. Recall the incident where Aswattama pleads with Krishna to yield his Chakarayudha. Krishna placed it in front and asked him to take it. Aswattama despite numerous attempts could not even move it, let alone use. Also recall how Duryodhana borrows the kavacha of Drona only to be beaten thoroughly by Arjuna.
Having the prerequisites is called Adhikara. Only an Adhikari can maximize the results or in many cases hold on to the fruits of the results. So the prudent path will be to do more efforts to have this gunakarma which will give us the qualifications to pursue on the chosen path.
What prerequisites should we aim for? While there may be a lot more lessons in Yavakri’s story, it makes us ponder on what pre-qualifications we need. Was Indra merely testing Yavakri or was he seriously guiding him? The repeatedly pleas of Indra was to protect Yavakri from himself. If we were to avoid Yavakri’s blunder, we can take refuge in the wisdom of this Hitopadesha - विद्या ददाति विनयं विनयाद्याति पात्रताम् । पात्रत्वाद्धनमाप्नोति धनाद्धर्मं ततः सुखम् ॥ vidyA dadAti vinayaM, vinayAdyAti pAtratAM | pAtratvAddhanamApnoti, dhanAddharmaM tataH sukhaM ||. It means that Knowledge must result in humility; humility yields worthiness. Worthiness (of character, behavior) yields wealth and Wealth ensures Dharma and happiness. The progression of knowledge can be gauged by its destination.
Yavakri was driven by jealousy and was overzealous to attain knowledge at all costs. Definitely as the foundation itself was wrong, it certainly cannot yield humility as the outcome. Indra was desperately trying to guide Yavakri that a protracted study at the feet of a competent Guru would iron out the kinks in Yavakri’s character and it would have made him an ideal person to learn the Vedas. The message for us is loud and clear. While the spiritual Sadhaka of today is interested only in shortcuts, quick techniques and unusual methods that work only for a chosen few, the time must be spent on earning and fine-tuning our prequalifications. Instead of trying to promote oneself as a great devotee through optics, we can instead focus on the inner basics. The same is true for Yoga, Dhyana or Jnana. There is no need to seek an external validation, but the Ahamkara driven modern sadhaka ends up mistaking the cover for the contents.
Whichever pathway we may follow on account of our Gunakarma, we need to ensure that we give importance to the prerequisites, so our footing and progress is on firm grounding. This way we need not have to waste time by repeatedly relearning the same basics. We will have to read the concluding part of this wonderful story to glean all the awesome messages that can transform our journey to gain knowledge – worldly or spiritual.
(Concluded in the next)
ॐ तत् सत
