Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Story 10 - Return of Vidura after pilgrimage
Srimad Bhagavatham – A Spiritual Insight - Story 10 - Return of Vidura after pilgrimage
Suta continued:
Vidura returned after teertha yaatraas after learning about the ultimate reality from Sage Maitreya. He thus had learnt about the ultimate reality knowing which everything else is known
Even though he had some questions left behind (to be asked), but still he remained content without knowing them because even before going to Maitreya, Vidura was well immersed in the Lord & devoted to the Lord.
All the people in Hastinapuram were happy on seeing Vidura & went to meet him & offered prostrations to Vidura. Vidura had his meals & after this, Yudhisthira questioned him about his journeys, the meetings with great saints as well as about the clan of Yadus (Krishna’s clan). Vidura answered all the questions except about Yadukula because he knew that Pandavas would not be able to apprehend the fact that Yadukula was completely destroyed (by fighting of the people against each other).
After having answered the questions of Yudhisthira, Vidura said to Dritharaatra that time comes very fast & it creates fear in a person.
Vidura thus continued:
Time doesn’t wait for even and for any reason also – that is what is called Time into which all beings are bonded.
The Self is dear to everyone – even dearer than Prana and dear ones. People easily and suddenly renounce everything for the sake of one’s own pleasure & welfare – so what to speak of wealth, women etc?
Isn’t it a shame that you are staying in this place and eating things as though they are being thrown by Bhima (meaning that like dog you are eating everything) and whom you had considered as your prime enemy?
Therefore, he who renounces everything and remains unattached to all the things & unattached to bondages & strives to know the ultimate reality – he alone is called WISE by people.
Therefore, you renounce everything, take refuge in the Lord & let us to go to Himalayaas and spent the rest of our life in contemplation of the Lord.
Hearing these words of Vidura, Dritharaashtra’s eye was opened and he shed aside all the bondages and thus they went to Himalayaas for contemplation on the Lord.
Explanation
Vidura was the younger brother and minister of Dritharaastra (both being born of Veda Vyaasa). Unlike Dritharaastra, Vidura was well learned and a great devotee of Lord or a person who knew the ultimate reality and its nature.
When the kurukshetra war began, Vidura went for a pilgrimage and to learn from Sage Maitreya the scriptures & the ultimate reality. After learning what was required to learn, Vidura returns back to Hastinapuram.
Here, we find a very important message for all seekers of reality. The Guru or teacher or the scriptures will not of themselves come to the seeker. Instead it is the seeker who has to seek them, it is the seeker who has seek the Guru & learn the scriptures from the Guru.
Sri Krishna thus says in Gita Chapter 4
Tadviddhi pranipaatena pariprashnena sevayaa
Upadeshyanthi te jnaanam jnaaninah tattva darshinah
In order to know the ultimate reality, a seeker should go to a Guru, serve him well after washing his feet & then should put forth questions in order to know the ultimate reality (Questioning is required in spirituality because the Guru is always established in the Self & he doesn’t have any doubts in order to himself clear the questions of the seeker. Also Manu Smrithi says that a learned person should never speak unless asked for) and thus that Jnaani will instruct you about the ultimate reality.
And knowing that ultimate reality, there will be no more desire left & what will be perceived after that is oneness everywhere – the God pervading everything & the God who is one’s own nature of Consciousness, one without a second.
Thus, a seeker should always go to a competent Guru to learn the scriptures through which alone the reality can be known. Here knowing the reality means to know one’s own nature which will remove the ignorance veil and then the seemingly veiled Self or Consciousness of the nature of Bliss will reveal itself as the all-pervading Lord of the illusory world.
If a person says that “I am unable to find a Guru and am waiting for a Guru to come”, such a person is an IDIOT and FOOL only. India is a country where at any point of time, there will be many Gurus. Even if Gurus are not available, the scriptures and the saints of the past are the Gurus. What is required is not just a physical presence of the Guru but spiritual import or instruction from the Guru. This can be had at any point of time.
Even today we have many Gurus in the form of Sankaracharyaas, Sadguru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Sai Baba, Sri Sri Ravishankar among many (this statement that these are gurus is not a personal statement but testified and can be proved by scriptural statements and statements of great saints like Sankara and Madhva).
Thus, what an individual seeker needs to do is to find out the suitable Guru for him & completely surrender to the Guru. Even during learning, the seeker should always remember the final goal to be realized which is one’s own real nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute.
This is exactly what Vidura also did. He had many more doubts to be asked to Maitreya but he did not ask any of those as he knew the ultimate reality that everything is Brahman or Lord alone & was fully devoted to this ultimate reality manifested in the form of Krishna. He did not perceive Krishna as a form but as the Lord who is all-pervading and one without a second.
After having answered Yudhisthira’s questions, Vidura started speaking to Dritharaastra reminding him that the time for shedding off the mortal coil was near & hence one should go to forests or pilgrimage places & meditate on the ultimate reality of Lord.
Here, Vidura says that time is something which cannot be controlled by anyone (in the empirical level). We all know this very well. A Jnaani or even an avatar cannot stop time which is always moving. This is very well known through the life history of Krishna himself. Time killed all his clan and then also Krishna could not do anything. Krishna could not even save his own mortal coil. But the important point to be learned from Sri Krishna is that he was never affected by the illusory plays of Maya. He was always immersed in the ultimate reality and hence there always was smile in his face. He did his part of acting as well as he could do it but knowing that there is no action or play here but all this is only an illusion in the ultimate reality of Lord or Consciousness.
Maya is the illusory power of Brahman or the ultimate reality. There is no such real power of Brahman but Maya is being brought in for the ignorant being in order to explain the creation and various things in the world. Thus Sankara says that Maya is something which is indescribable. Isn’t this very true? We see that most of the things in the world are indescribable. We see a person today and tomorrow he vanishes. We see sun rising and setting – yet it is not real. We see ourselves getting engaged in sorrows and sufferings but still unaffected by all these. Isn’t all this indescribable alone? Yes, it is.
But then is this Maya not at all controllable?
No, Maya is controllable because it is only an illusion in the ultimate reality of Consciousness. When the ultimate reality is known, then Maya ceases to exist as Sri Krishna says in Gita Chapter 7.
Therefore the one and only way to overcome the illusory Maya is to realize the ultimate reality and to know that “I am the Lord who is controller of Maya”.
This Maya firstly creates time and space. These are two main things based on which everything is being perceived in the world. These two are uncontrollable from the empirical level – only through knowing the ultimate reality, these are controlled. Therefore, Vidura says that a person should renounce all the bondage (which are mere illusions) and seek the ultimate reality of Lord.
Vidura also beautifully says that the Self alone is most dear thing (dear than any other thing in the world). This is very well known by the fact that the wife who loved her husband till the last day fears the body of the husband once he dies.
Sankara says thus in Bhaja Govindam
Gathavathi vaayo dehaapaaye
Bhaarya bhibhyathi tasmin kaaye
Once the vital force leaves the body, even the wife fears that body.
Thus, all these point out that the Self alone is dear than anything else in the world. Thus a real seeker should seek the Self and not the illusory and changing things in the world.
Such a person who renounces all possessions (internal or mental dispossession is important than external dispossession by varying an ochre rob or going to the forest) and seeks the ultimate reality is termed WISE in the scriptures.
Thus Vidura indirectly tells each one of us to become WISE people and realize the ultimate reality of one’s own nature of the infinite and blissful Lord. One need not renounce externally and take sanyaas. Here what is meant by renunciation is dispossession in the mind – unattached to all the objects in the mind. Even though Sri Krishna did all actions and possessed things, he was a sanyaasi as he was unattached to anything in the illusory world. Janaka was considered as Brahmajnaani even though he was a King. Thus, what is necessary is detachment in the mind & not mere external detachment or dispossession.
Hearing Vidura’s words, Dritharaastra’s eyes were opened & they thus went to Himalayaas.
Let us all try to open our inner eyes – the doors to the ultimate reality of the Lord situated in the heart – and thereby realize our own very nature of Lord or Consciousness and thereby rejoice in the eternal bliss inherent in the Self or Consciousness.
Suta continued:
Vidura returned after teertha yaatraas after learning about the ultimate reality from Sage Maitreya. He thus had learnt about the ultimate reality knowing which everything else is known
Even though he had some questions left behind (to be asked), but still he remained content without knowing them because even before going to Maitreya, Vidura was well immersed in the Lord & devoted to the Lord.
All the people in Hastinapuram were happy on seeing Vidura & went to meet him & offered prostrations to Vidura. Vidura had his meals & after this, Yudhisthira questioned him about his journeys, the meetings with great saints as well as about the clan of Yadus (Krishna’s clan). Vidura answered all the questions except about Yadukula because he knew that Pandavas would not be able to apprehend the fact that Yadukula was completely destroyed (by fighting of the people against each other).
After having answered the questions of Yudhisthira, Vidura said to Dritharaatra that time comes very fast & it creates fear in a person.
Vidura thus continued:
Time doesn’t wait for even and for any reason also – that is what is called Time into which all beings are bonded.
The Self is dear to everyone – even dearer than Prana and dear ones. People easily and suddenly renounce everything for the sake of one’s own pleasure & welfare – so what to speak of wealth, women etc?
Isn’t it a shame that you are staying in this place and eating things as though they are being thrown by Bhima (meaning that like dog you are eating everything) and whom you had considered as your prime enemy?
Therefore, he who renounces everything and remains unattached to all the things & unattached to bondages & strives to know the ultimate reality – he alone is called WISE by people.
Therefore, you renounce everything, take refuge in the Lord & let us to go to Himalayaas and spent the rest of our life in contemplation of the Lord.
Hearing these words of Vidura, Dritharaashtra’s eye was opened and he shed aside all the bondages and thus they went to Himalayaas for contemplation on the Lord.
Explanation
Vidura was the younger brother and minister of Dritharaastra (both being born of Veda Vyaasa). Unlike Dritharaastra, Vidura was well learned and a great devotee of Lord or a person who knew the ultimate reality and its nature.
When the kurukshetra war began, Vidura went for a pilgrimage and to learn from Sage Maitreya the scriptures & the ultimate reality. After learning what was required to learn, Vidura returns back to Hastinapuram.
Here, we find a very important message for all seekers of reality. The Guru or teacher or the scriptures will not of themselves come to the seeker. Instead it is the seeker who has to seek them, it is the seeker who has seek the Guru & learn the scriptures from the Guru.
Sri Krishna thus says in Gita Chapter 4
Tadviddhi pranipaatena pariprashnena sevayaa
Upadeshyanthi te jnaanam jnaaninah tattva darshinah
In order to know the ultimate reality, a seeker should go to a Guru, serve him well after washing his feet & then should put forth questions in order to know the ultimate reality (Questioning is required in spirituality because the Guru is always established in the Self & he doesn’t have any doubts in order to himself clear the questions of the seeker. Also Manu Smrithi says that a learned person should never speak unless asked for) and thus that Jnaani will instruct you about the ultimate reality.
And knowing that ultimate reality, there will be no more desire left & what will be perceived after that is oneness everywhere – the God pervading everything & the God who is one’s own nature of Consciousness, one without a second.
Thus, a seeker should always go to a competent Guru to learn the scriptures through which alone the reality can be known. Here knowing the reality means to know one’s own nature which will remove the ignorance veil and then the seemingly veiled Self or Consciousness of the nature of Bliss will reveal itself as the all-pervading Lord of the illusory world.
If a person says that “I am unable to find a Guru and am waiting for a Guru to come”, such a person is an IDIOT and FOOL only. India is a country where at any point of time, there will be many Gurus. Even if Gurus are not available, the scriptures and the saints of the past are the Gurus. What is required is not just a physical presence of the Guru but spiritual import or instruction from the Guru. This can be had at any point of time.
Even today we have many Gurus in the form of Sankaracharyaas, Sadguru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Sai Baba, Sri Sri Ravishankar among many (this statement that these are gurus is not a personal statement but testified and can be proved by scriptural statements and statements of great saints like Sankara and Madhva).
Thus, what an individual seeker needs to do is to find out the suitable Guru for him & completely surrender to the Guru. Even during learning, the seeker should always remember the final goal to be realized which is one’s own real nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute.
This is exactly what Vidura also did. He had many more doubts to be asked to Maitreya but he did not ask any of those as he knew the ultimate reality that everything is Brahman or Lord alone & was fully devoted to this ultimate reality manifested in the form of Krishna. He did not perceive Krishna as a form but as the Lord who is all-pervading and one without a second.
After having answered Yudhisthira’s questions, Vidura started speaking to Dritharaastra reminding him that the time for shedding off the mortal coil was near & hence one should go to forests or pilgrimage places & meditate on the ultimate reality of Lord.
Here, Vidura says that time is something which cannot be controlled by anyone (in the empirical level). We all know this very well. A Jnaani or even an avatar cannot stop time which is always moving. This is very well known through the life history of Krishna himself. Time killed all his clan and then also Krishna could not do anything. Krishna could not even save his own mortal coil. But the important point to be learned from Sri Krishna is that he was never affected by the illusory plays of Maya. He was always immersed in the ultimate reality and hence there always was smile in his face. He did his part of acting as well as he could do it but knowing that there is no action or play here but all this is only an illusion in the ultimate reality of Lord or Consciousness.
Maya is the illusory power of Brahman or the ultimate reality. There is no such real power of Brahman but Maya is being brought in for the ignorant being in order to explain the creation and various things in the world. Thus Sankara says that Maya is something which is indescribable. Isn’t this very true? We see that most of the things in the world are indescribable. We see a person today and tomorrow he vanishes. We see sun rising and setting – yet it is not real. We see ourselves getting engaged in sorrows and sufferings but still unaffected by all these. Isn’t all this indescribable alone? Yes, it is.
But then is this Maya not at all controllable?
No, Maya is controllable because it is only an illusion in the ultimate reality of Consciousness. When the ultimate reality is known, then Maya ceases to exist as Sri Krishna says in Gita Chapter 7.
Therefore the one and only way to overcome the illusory Maya is to realize the ultimate reality and to know that “I am the Lord who is controller of Maya”.
This Maya firstly creates time and space. These are two main things based on which everything is being perceived in the world. These two are uncontrollable from the empirical level – only through knowing the ultimate reality, these are controlled. Therefore, Vidura says that a person should renounce all the bondage (which are mere illusions) and seek the ultimate reality of Lord.
Vidura also beautifully says that the Self alone is most dear thing (dear than any other thing in the world). This is very well known by the fact that the wife who loved her husband till the last day fears the body of the husband once he dies.
Sankara says thus in Bhaja Govindam
Gathavathi vaayo dehaapaaye
Bhaarya bhibhyathi tasmin kaaye
Once the vital force leaves the body, even the wife fears that body.
Thus, all these point out that the Self alone is dear than anything else in the world. Thus a real seeker should seek the Self and not the illusory and changing things in the world.
Such a person who renounces all possessions (internal or mental dispossession is important than external dispossession by varying an ochre rob or going to the forest) and seeks the ultimate reality is termed WISE in the scriptures.
Thus Vidura indirectly tells each one of us to become WISE people and realize the ultimate reality of one’s own nature of the infinite and blissful Lord. One need not renounce externally and take sanyaas. Here what is meant by renunciation is dispossession in the mind – unattached to all the objects in the mind. Even though Sri Krishna did all actions and possessed things, he was a sanyaasi as he was unattached to anything in the illusory world. Janaka was considered as Brahmajnaani even though he was a King. Thus, what is necessary is detachment in the mind & not mere external detachment or dispossession.
Hearing Vidura’s words, Dritharaastra’s eyes were opened & they thus went to Himalayaas.
Let us all try to open our inner eyes – the doors to the ultimate reality of the Lord situated in the heart – and thereby realize our own very nature of Lord or Consciousness and thereby rejoice in the eternal bliss inherent in the Self or Consciousness.
# posted by vedanta : 9:29 AM
