Srimad Bhagavatham

Rama-Krishna finally reached the place where Dhanuryaaga was to be conducted. A big bow was kept to be worshipped and which shone like rainbow. Krishna very easily took the bow and broke it like breaking a sugarcane thereby making sound vibrate in all directions.

Explanation

Here we again find the destructing as well as illusory power of the Lord which is termed Maya. This power of Maya is so strange and wonderful. The more and more we try to learn about this power, the lesser we will be able to understand it.

Sankara defines Maya aptly as
“aghatitha ghatanaa pateeyasee maayaa”
Maya is that which creates things impossible.

“Yukthi viheena prakaashasya samjnaa maayaa”
That which is beyond logic is called Maya.

All these definitions should let us remember that Maya is only an illusory power of the Lord even as the magical power of the magician. Even as the magician’s power is not real but might seem to be extra-ordinary and out-of-bounds, similarly Maya power which is controlled by the Lord is also not real but might seem to be extra-ordinary.

All these miraculous feats of the Lord who is just a young boy is to make us realize the bounds of this illusory power of Maya. Maya power not only does miraculous feats but it also is the cause of deluding people. All miracles of the Lord are meant to show that the Lord controls Maya unlike us who are controlled by Maya. If we have to get out of the delusion of samsaara, we will have to overcome Maya. This is easily possible if we surrender to the ultimate reality of Lord as the Lord controls Maya.

The Lord himself summarizes this beautifully in the 7th chapter of Gita thus:

Daivi hi eshaa gunamayee mama maayaa duratyayaa
Maameva ye prapadhyanthe mayaam ethaam tharanthi te

My divine power of Maya which is composed of three gunas is very tough indeed to conquer; but those who take refuge completely in me, they overcome this.

It is only Maya that stands between us and realization – us and the ultimate reality of Lord – us and eternal bliss. If we have to realize our own nature of blissful Lord, then we need to overcome Maya. The way to do this is only by complete surrender unto the Lord remembering always that everything is only an illusion of names-forms in the Lord and that the Lord alone exists here as non-dual reality of Consciousness.

Though we use the term of “we” there is in reality no “we” in moksha – AMMA always says that moksha is for an individual and not for a group of people. This is because the duality completely vanishes when a person realizes. Thus when “I” realize, there is none other than the Lord (who is my own nature of Consciousness); therefore who else to get liberated or get realized?

The main aim of the Lord displaying the power of Maya is to make us surrender unto him after understanding that we can conquer Maya only this way. This is not the only reason for the Lord’s action as we will see in the next day.

Let us all try to surrender completely unto the Lord after hearing the miraculous feats performed by him who is controlling Maya so that we may conquer the illusory (unreal) power of Maya and realize our own nature of blissful Lord.

The Lord ate dinner and rested for the night there itself. As it became morning, the place was decorated for the programs. Kamsa sat on the King’s throne. Everyone who was invited came over and they sat on places reserved for them. The stage was set for Malla Krida to start (body wrestling). Two mallas named Chanura and Musti got ready and positioned themselves in the stage. On the entrance to the stage (place where the malla krida was to happen – also termed godha in hindi), a gajendra named Kuvalayaapeeda was positioned. It was at that time that Rama-Krishna reached the entrance. Krishna fought with the Gajendra. Very soon Krishna sent Kuvalayaapeeda to death. Using the horns (tusks) of the Gajendra, Rama-Krishna entered into the stage.

Explanation

We have learned few perspectives to the Lord’s anger and destruction of the Ego thereby liberating the surrendered devotees from samsaara (surrender can be through anger like in the case of Kamsa and other asuras). But today we will try to see a very different perspective about the Lord killing people – our analysis is going to be about death in itself.

When Yaksha questioned Yudhisthira in Mahabharatha about the most miraculous or amazing thing in the world, Yudhisthira replied saying that “people see others dying yet consider that their body will never die”. Thus everyone is afraid of death all the while thinking that death will not come & that “I” am eternal.

JIf only this “I” was the Self or the Consciousness or the indwelling Lord, then the statement and belief would have been true to the end. But unfortunately this “I” is the anaatma or not-Self (the body-mind-intellect complex). Hence we often end our life in despair as we cannot hold on to anything at the time of death.

Here in this part we find the Lord coming in the form of death to various asuras. These asuras are almost invincible and even then they are very easily killed by the Lord. This means that death is pouncing upon us each and every moment of our life. We will not be able to resist death even though we may be physically or mentally or intellectually strong; even if we are very rich or very powerful still death will take whatever we have with us. This is what is beautifully shown here – Krishna who is young and not that powerful very easily killed the big Gajendra (whom even lions might find tough to kill). This means that death takes away everything very easily – it doesn’t need any effort at all. This is also because of the presence of the Lord with Yama (who controls death). Yama is seen as instructing the truth about the non-dual reality of Lord to a very young Nachiketha in Katha Upanishad.

This also means that if we are like Markhandeya (having surrendered completely to the ultimate reality of Lord), we will also be able to overcome death as at that time the Lord will be on our side rather than on the side of death.

We shouldn’t think that the Lord will come in a very beautiful form and take us with him making us life a long life with our family and possessions. The Lord liberates and makes us eternal by making us realize our real nature of Self (that which is the substratum of the illusory world that we are currently in). This is like a dreaming person waking up from the dream – we will wake up from this long dream of waking world and realize that there is only one thing here which is the ultimate reality of Lord.

So to summarize, nobody can overcome death as the ultimate reality of Lord is with death. But we can overcome death by surrendering unto the Lord and this overcoming means we go beyond all dualities (thereby getting rid of the attachment to the dying body).

We should always remember that if we don’t surrender to the Lord (and realize our nature of non-dual Lord soon), death will pounce upon us anytime. This cycle of birth and death continues as long as we are ignorant about the truth that everything is one Lord alone (the moment this knowledge dawns, birth-death is known to be an illusion like the dream state). If we end up our life as an ignorant person then depending on our deeds we may be born in a lower birth (animals or even lower species) wherein we will not even get the opportunity to realize the ultimate reality of Lord. Thus it is very important that we start in the spiritual path towards realization lest death succeeds in overrunning us.

We will continue with the story in the next day.

Let us all try to surrender unto the Lord remembering that everything is but the Lord alone so that we will overcome death and become eternal thereby not wasting many births in coming out of this illusion of duality.