Srimad Bhagavatham

When Yayati was gone, Devayani crying went home to her father and narrated as to whatever had happened. Shukracharya then decided to leave the place. But asura chakravarthi Vrishaparva fell at Shukracharya’s feet and asked forgiveness. Shukracharya then directed Vrishaparva to get Devayani married. But Devayani had a desire and condition that Gharmista along with other friends should come along with her and be servant to her in her husband’s house. Thus Devayani was married to Yayati and Gharmista along with her friends went there following and serving Devayani.

Explanation

We find here the nature of mind to keep things in memory and take revenge whenever possible. Devayani was saved by Yayati; though her life was saved but still she didn’t forget as to what Gharmista did to her. She wanted to take revenge upon Gharmista and hence Gharmista had to go along with her to her husband’s house as a servant. This is what is termed in Vedanta as dvesha or revengeful nature.

We find such revengeful nature in almost the mind of all people except spiritual saints who are as pure as water. The mind is so programmed to react to people and things based on its likes and dislikes. Whatever activity happens to a person is recorded in the memory or chitta. That which is disturbing or troublesome is given more priority and hence is never erased from memory. We find such nature of the mind to take revenge when the apt time comes in the fight and war between nations. Each nation is trying to cheat and take revenge of the other nature. India and Pakistan each are waiting for the right opportunity to take revenge though the PMs of both countries meet regularly. There is no use of such external show-off until the mind is cleared of such revengeful attitude.

What is the problem if there is revengeful attitude?
Revengeful attitude will only lead the seeker into more and more trouble. First of all, the mind is concentrating on taking revenge than seeing things in the positive aspect. Thus all time and effort is spent on trying to take revenge than for something fruitful. The life that we have got is very precious and every moment we are running towards Yama. This birth thus shouldn’t be wasted to take revenge because of some illusory activity in this birth. If a person goes after such revenge, then he will not be able to realize his very nature of non-dual Lord. Likes and dislikes causes raga and dvesha. Likes and dislikes are because of the illusory names and forms. As long as a person has likes and dislikes, he is concentrating on the illusion of names and forms; thereby such a person is not able to go beyond the names and forms into the substratum of Lord. As long as the person is not able to contemplate on the substratum of Lord, he will not be able to get liberated from the bondages of the illusory world. As long as a person is not able to get liberated from bondages, he will not be able to get eternal bliss. It is eternal bliss that we all are seeking each and every moment. We think that revenge will give us eternal bliss but it can give us only temporary happiness in the beginning and sorrow alone in the long run. Thus a seeker who is seeking eternal bliss should never succumb to such likes and dislikes of the mind. Such a real seeker will always be contemplating on everything as the ultimate reality of Lord. For him, there are neither likes nor dislikes because everything is the Lord alone. Such a seeker alone is able to go beyond the illusory names and forms thereby contemplating on the ultimate reality of Lord.

Such contemplation on the ultimate reality of Lord makes a person remove ignorance of his own very nature of Lord; thus he realizes his very nature of Lord; thereby rejoicing in the bliss which is the very nature of Lord.

Bhagavatham through this part tells us that we shouldn’t succumb to likes and dislikes of the mind as they will lead us only to sorrow. We should overcome likes and dislikes by constantly contemplating on the substratum of Lord seeing everything as an illusion of names and forms in the Lord.

We will continue with the story in the next day.

Thus Shukracharya married Devayani to Yayati. Devayani was followed by Gharmista and other friends as her servants. Shukracharya told and warned Yayati not to sleep with Gharmista. Once Devayani became a mother, Gharmista also desired to become a mother. When they were alone, Gharmista accepted Yayati as her husband and expressed her desire to become a mother. Yayati succumbed to Gharmista’s desire as he was a dharmista. Though he remembered Shukracharya’s warning, he still decided that let things happen by the desire of the Lord.

Explanation

Human mind is full of desires. Desiring pleasure from worldly objects is the very nature of mind. Majority of people in the world succumb to the desires of the mind. This is because they are unable to control the mind. As Arjuna says in Gita that controlling the mind is tough like controlling air, majority of people cannot but be controlled by the mind. Though we have great people like George Bush etc. controlling the world, they aren’t able to control their own mind succumbing to passions towards the world.

It isn’t wrong to desire things in the world nor is it wrong to enjoy the pleasures of the world. But those pleasures are temporary and short-lived. If they were merely temporary alone, then they wouldn’t have caused any issues. But they also lead a person to sorrow in the long run because of the struggle in achieving them and previous memory of such enjoyment at times of non-availability of those pleasures. Since the worldly pleasures are temporary and will lead us to sorrow alone, a wise person will not go behind such worldly pleasures. A wise person will instead seek that entity which can give him eternal bliss – long and ever-lasting happiness untainted by sorrow. Such a wise person after overcoming the passions of the mind to desire worldly objects will know that the ultimate reality of Lord of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss alone is real. Knowing the Lord alone to be real and everything else as an illusion of names-forms in the reality of Lord, such a wise person will always be contemplating on the ultimate reality of Lord. Constant contemplation along with the knowledge that the Lord alone exists will lead such a wise person to realize his very nature of Lord. Realization will make the wise person ever rejoice in bliss which is his very nature of Lord. Such a rejoicing person doesn’t have any more desires or cravings and is ever content with whatever is there.

But since majority of people aren’t wise (in the actual meaning of the term – wise is one who knows what is real and what is not real), therefore they succumb to worldly pleasures like Gharmista. When we see something in the world, we run behind that object. As explained earlier, it isn’t wrong to run behind things but we have to run knowing that those objects are temporary and cannot give us eternal bliss. If this knowledge is there, then when the objects vanish and are about to give sorrow, the seeker will not be sad as he already knew their nature of giving sorrow. Gharmista saw Devayani begetting children and she also had a desire. The desire to have children is one of the main desire in married people. This is more so in the case of women as they lose to play and take care of children. Little do such women understand that the very same child will become the cause of sorrow in youth and when he grows old. Married people think that their children will take care of them and keep up their tradition – but after becoming a youth, children go their own way as they have their own life. It is therefore that Yajnavalkya proclaimed to Maitreyi that “the husband is loved for the sake of the Self and not for the sake of the husband”. Gharmista also like normal women in the world didn’t realize the futility behind begetting children and that such futile desires will lead only to sorrow.

Yayati who was a dharmista succumbed to the desire of Gharmista not because he couldn’t refrain from it but he though it his duty to help a women under his control. JSuch is the thought of the mind that it thinks about helping others when it itself is not safe!!! It is like a drowning man trying to save another drowning man. There is one and only one dharma or duty in the life of a human being – that duty is to realize one’s own very nature of Lord. All other things are just means to lead us to do our primary duty of realization. If we forget this, then we will end ourselves up in sorrow as was the case with Yayati which we will see in the next day.