Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Story 29 - Story of Prithu - 1
Srimad Bhagavatham - A Spiritual Insight - Story 29 - Story of Prithu - 1
King Prithu was considered as the first ruler of Earth. Prithu was very pious and devoted to the Lord. But he didn’t have any issues and therefore once when a sacrifice was being done, there was no result out of the sacrifice at that time. Then Prithu asked the priests as to why there is no result and then they found out that it was because he did not have any children. Thus he was sad and prayed to the Lord. By the grace of the Lord, a son was born to him named Vena. Vena was more involved with his maternal uncle Mrityu or Yama. Thereby his character also was bad – he didn’t believe in God and hated religious, spiritual practices and sacrifices.
Thus wherever Vena went, people were afraid and looked down upon him. Once his father Prithu went to do austerity and it was some time. At that time, there were no ruler and hence the thieves-dacoits started looting the people. Thus Prithu’s wife Sunithi had Vena installed as the Ruler even though the ministers did not agree upon the same. Vena thus entered into his chariot and attacked the people who were doing religious practices etc. He did not allow people to do sacrifices and wanted them to worship him as the God. The sages were very much angry on the same but still since anger is not the solution to all things, they approached Vena and advised him to pray to the Lord and stop whatever bad was happening. But nothing went into Vena’s head and he told them that “the ruler is the Lord and hence you should worship Me” – the saints were very much angry on hearing the words of Vena and thereby uttering sacred words caused death of Vena.
Explanation
There are certain things which are essential for a seeker. The first and foremost thing essential for a seeker is HUMILITY and DEVOTION to the ultimate reality of Lord. We have often heard the famous verse that “vidhya or knowledge brings humility and through humility we get happiness or bliss”. Wherever there is right knowledge, there is no scope for Ego there. Wherever there is wrong knowledge or right knowledge is missing, there is always the Ego present. Wherever there is Ego, there is limitedness. When limitedness is there, there is no completeness and perfection. That is perfect which is unlimited because a limited entity has still scope for perfection or improvement whereas an unlimited entity has no scope for improvement as it is complete and cannot have any change at all. Thus if the Ego is there, there cannot be realization of the ultimate reality of Lord and bliss cannot be rejoiced. The happiness that we get from the external world is only a modification of the mind and it is guided by the Ego. When “I” say that “I am well educated in Java”, this is the Ego speaking as the Self or real “I” cannot have any qualifications. Since here, happiness is temporarily derived because of the object of “Java” which is limited.
Thus when there is Ego, there is no scope for realization. When Ego is there, there cannot be any humility or devotion also. But those who really know the reality and are well learned in Brahma Vidya or Vedanta will always have humility as humility comes with knowledge. That person who really knows will never have any Ego because he has become part of the knowledge, that knowledge has become a part of him – such a person can never speak about his own knowledge of the subject in a high term as he worships that particular knowledge and considers it sacred. The moment a person speaks high about his knowledge, the knowledge is being degraded as it is show-cased. But that person who knows the reality will always be immersed in the ultimate reality of Brahman – thereby he will not have any differences perceived as such. Even if such a person sees duality in the world, he sees them all as the ultimate reality of Lord alone. Since the realized saint is completely devoted to the Lord, he will be equally devoted to any entity in the world. Thus there is no question of showcasing things because he knows that everything is the Lord and that it is the Lord who is giving him the knowledge.
Thus we should remember that wherever there is no humility, there is no real knowledge as there is only egoistic attitude. Thus we should try to have humility at all points of time. Humility is very easily achieved when everything is considered as the Lord. When everything is the Lord, there is devotion towards the Lord. Wherever there is an attitude of devotion, there is no scope for Ego.
Let’s understand this with an example: A person knows Java very well. He respects Java and therefore is devoted to Java. Since he is devoted to Java, he will never showcase his talents in Java but will be willing to share his knowledge on Java. As there is devotion to Java, Java will never be showcased and degraded through the showcasing.
Similarly when a seeker is devoted to the knowledge in the scriptures, devoted to the ultimate reality of Brahman or Lord propounded in the scriptures, he will have humility at all points of time. Thus there is no scope for Ego. When there is no scope for Ego, there is no feeling of limitedness or imperfection. The seeker feels everything as the Lord – thereby he has no limitations, no sorrow, no sufferings and no dual perceptions. Thus he is always happy and rejoices in the eternal bliss inherent in the Lord who is present in his heart.
The saints of Ramakrishna Mission often give an example of what Ego can do – when there is Ego, a person is standing at a very high place. Thus when he falls down, the impact will be more. But that person who is standing low doesn’t have great impact when he falls down – and also even though he is really devoted to the Lord, he doesn’t have any Ego and thereby the Lord takes care of him even when he falls down.
Wherever there is Ego sense, there is prone to be destruction only. Kamsa had Ego and hence was destroyed by the Lord. Many stories from Puranas can be mentioned for the same. We ourselves would have experienced the destruction of egoistic people around us. What Srimad Bhagavatham tells us through the story of Vena is that, wherever there is Ego and lack of devotion, there is prone to be destruction alone. Thus Vena was destroyed by the saints because of his Ego attitude.
Let us try to eliminate the Ego by having devotion to the ultimate reality of Lord that he alone is the doer and I am just a mere instrument in his hand.
King Prithu was very pious and his fame spread around the world. The various Gods praised so did the seas, land etc. Thus the people in the world were living happily under the ruler of Prithu. Once Prithu conducted a sacrifice. After conducting the sacrifice, people on Earth came to Prithu asking for food as they were starving. The reason was because there were no food-grains from the Earth. When hearing about this itself, Prithu understood the reason as the Ego attitude of Earth. Thus he started looking for Earth (Earth God). Seeing Prithu, Earth took the form of a cow and started running here and there. But Prithu would not leave the cow and thereby caught hold of Earth. Prithu then milked the cow of Earth – thereby the people on Earth got food grains and other things which they were not getting. Thus Prithu solved the problem of the people on Earth.
Explanation
This part of the story doesn’t require much explanation. We have already discussed about Ego but still we will try to analyze in depth as to what is Ego and the ways to conquer it.
All Mahatmas till date have stated one thing very clearly that “Ego is the cause of all miseries in the world”. Ego is the attitude of limitedness and having attachments to certain things alone in the world. Ego attitude is the sense of “I” and “Mine”. “I”-sense refers to considering oneself as great and having a good body, mind, intellect, knowledge etc. This knowledge is not pure and complete because real knowledge is that in which there will be humility – real knowledge is that in which the Ego vanishes & there is no difference as “I” and “YOU”. But when knowledge is not perfect or complete, the seeker has the sense of “I” – “I am Hariram, I am a software engineer, I am working in Infosys, I am well learned in Vedanta” etc. “Mine” refers to association with the “I”-sense or limited “I” with various things in the world – when the Ego named Hariram says “This is my company, this posting is my posting, this is my house” etc., these are also part of the Ego attitude.
Thus Ego is not just the sense of “I” but it is also the sense of “Mine”. The current day psychology and modern people call EGO as just the sense of “I”, but the ancient saints were far-sighted and thus considered the sense of “mine” also as part of the Ego.
Since the sense of “I” and “Mine” will be limited to certain objects in the world, therefore this Ego is limited. The Ego is also changing because the “Mine” always keeps changing. If the Ego likes a person, then it creates a thought of “my friend”, but when the Ego doesn’t even know a person, then that person has no relation of “mine” with the Ego. Let’s say this “my friend” loses contact with the Ego for a long period, then this “my friend” loses its status and there is no “mine” present. Thus the Ego which is the sense of “I” and “Mine” is limited as well as changing.
Any changing entity can never give eternal bliss but only limited happiness is achieved from that entity – this is because that entity is changing and will die one day. When the entity dies, then there is no entity at all to give happiness. Thus the happiness derived out of changing entities is limited alone.
Since Ego is limited and changing, it will one day die off & thus real happiness cannot be achieved out of the Ego. We all are striving for happiness each and every day. The happiness that we are striving for is permanent and long-lasting happiness. But since we will not derive such ever-lasting happiness or bliss from the Ego, it is not worth to nourish the Ego sense. Here, we might have the doubt that is there any “I” or real Self without the Ego sense? If the Ego sense vanishes, then there will be no individuality and thereby there will nothing present. It is right, when the Ego vanishes, there will be no individuality. Wherever there is limitedness, there is sorrow only. Only that which is full and unlimited can confer eternal bliss. Thus when the Ego vanishes, there will be no individuality which will in turn lead to unlimited Consciousness or “I” or Self called as Lord or Brahman which will confer eternal bliss to the seeker. It cannot be said that when there is no Ego, there will be nothing at all because Ego is changing. Any changing entity requires a changeless substratum. We say that the car is moving – this is only with respect to the stationary road (considering it as stationary). Thus any changing entity requires a changeless substratum. This changeless substratum of the Ego sense is “I” or Self as we always feel the change of “I” and “mine” at all times. It is “I” alone (pure “I” which is unlimited) which experiences the changes of the changing Ego. Thus when the Ego vanishes, the Self still remains behind as the substratum or source of the changing Ego. We will see the next day as to how to overcome Ego.
King Prithu was considered as the first ruler of Earth. Prithu was very pious and devoted to the Lord. But he didn’t have any issues and therefore once when a sacrifice was being done, there was no result out of the sacrifice at that time. Then Prithu asked the priests as to why there is no result and then they found out that it was because he did not have any children. Thus he was sad and prayed to the Lord. By the grace of the Lord, a son was born to him named Vena. Vena was more involved with his maternal uncle Mrityu or Yama. Thereby his character also was bad – he didn’t believe in God and hated religious, spiritual practices and sacrifices.
Thus wherever Vena went, people were afraid and looked down upon him. Once his father Prithu went to do austerity and it was some time. At that time, there were no ruler and hence the thieves-dacoits started looting the people. Thus Prithu’s wife Sunithi had Vena installed as the Ruler even though the ministers did not agree upon the same. Vena thus entered into his chariot and attacked the people who were doing religious practices etc. He did not allow people to do sacrifices and wanted them to worship him as the God. The sages were very much angry on the same but still since anger is not the solution to all things, they approached Vena and advised him to pray to the Lord and stop whatever bad was happening. But nothing went into Vena’s head and he told them that “the ruler is the Lord and hence you should worship Me” – the saints were very much angry on hearing the words of Vena and thereby uttering sacred words caused death of Vena.
Explanation
There are certain things which are essential for a seeker. The first and foremost thing essential for a seeker is HUMILITY and DEVOTION to the ultimate reality of Lord. We have often heard the famous verse that “vidhya or knowledge brings humility and through humility we get happiness or bliss”. Wherever there is right knowledge, there is no scope for Ego there. Wherever there is wrong knowledge or right knowledge is missing, there is always the Ego present. Wherever there is Ego, there is limitedness. When limitedness is there, there is no completeness and perfection. That is perfect which is unlimited because a limited entity has still scope for perfection or improvement whereas an unlimited entity has no scope for improvement as it is complete and cannot have any change at all. Thus if the Ego is there, there cannot be realization of the ultimate reality of Lord and bliss cannot be rejoiced. The happiness that we get from the external world is only a modification of the mind and it is guided by the Ego. When “I” say that “I am well educated in Java”, this is the Ego speaking as the Self or real “I” cannot have any qualifications. Since here, happiness is temporarily derived because of the object of “Java” which is limited.
Thus when there is Ego, there is no scope for realization. When Ego is there, there cannot be any humility or devotion also. But those who really know the reality and are well learned in Brahma Vidya or Vedanta will always have humility as humility comes with knowledge. That person who really knows will never have any Ego because he has become part of the knowledge, that knowledge has become a part of him – such a person can never speak about his own knowledge of the subject in a high term as he worships that particular knowledge and considers it sacred. The moment a person speaks high about his knowledge, the knowledge is being degraded as it is show-cased. But that person who knows the reality will always be immersed in the ultimate reality of Brahman – thereby he will not have any differences perceived as such. Even if such a person sees duality in the world, he sees them all as the ultimate reality of Lord alone. Since the realized saint is completely devoted to the Lord, he will be equally devoted to any entity in the world. Thus there is no question of showcasing things because he knows that everything is the Lord and that it is the Lord who is giving him the knowledge.
Thus we should remember that wherever there is no humility, there is no real knowledge as there is only egoistic attitude. Thus we should try to have humility at all points of time. Humility is very easily achieved when everything is considered as the Lord. When everything is the Lord, there is devotion towards the Lord. Wherever there is an attitude of devotion, there is no scope for Ego.
Let’s understand this with an example: A person knows Java very well. He respects Java and therefore is devoted to Java. Since he is devoted to Java, he will never showcase his talents in Java but will be willing to share his knowledge on Java. As there is devotion to Java, Java will never be showcased and degraded through the showcasing.
Similarly when a seeker is devoted to the knowledge in the scriptures, devoted to the ultimate reality of Brahman or Lord propounded in the scriptures, he will have humility at all points of time. Thus there is no scope for Ego. When there is no scope for Ego, there is no feeling of limitedness or imperfection. The seeker feels everything as the Lord – thereby he has no limitations, no sorrow, no sufferings and no dual perceptions. Thus he is always happy and rejoices in the eternal bliss inherent in the Lord who is present in his heart.
The saints of Ramakrishna Mission often give an example of what Ego can do – when there is Ego, a person is standing at a very high place. Thus when he falls down, the impact will be more. But that person who is standing low doesn’t have great impact when he falls down – and also even though he is really devoted to the Lord, he doesn’t have any Ego and thereby the Lord takes care of him even when he falls down.
Wherever there is Ego sense, there is prone to be destruction only. Kamsa had Ego and hence was destroyed by the Lord. Many stories from Puranas can be mentioned for the same. We ourselves would have experienced the destruction of egoistic people around us. What Srimad Bhagavatham tells us through the story of Vena is that, wherever there is Ego and lack of devotion, there is prone to be destruction alone. Thus Vena was destroyed by the saints because of his Ego attitude.
Let us try to eliminate the Ego by having devotion to the ultimate reality of Lord that he alone is the doer and I am just a mere instrument in his hand.
King Prithu was very pious and his fame spread around the world. The various Gods praised so did the seas, land etc. Thus the people in the world were living happily under the ruler of Prithu. Once Prithu conducted a sacrifice. After conducting the sacrifice, people on Earth came to Prithu asking for food as they were starving. The reason was because there were no food-grains from the Earth. When hearing about this itself, Prithu understood the reason as the Ego attitude of Earth. Thus he started looking for Earth (Earth God). Seeing Prithu, Earth took the form of a cow and started running here and there. But Prithu would not leave the cow and thereby caught hold of Earth. Prithu then milked the cow of Earth – thereby the people on Earth got food grains and other things which they were not getting. Thus Prithu solved the problem of the people on Earth.
Explanation
This part of the story doesn’t require much explanation. We have already discussed about Ego but still we will try to analyze in depth as to what is Ego and the ways to conquer it.
All Mahatmas till date have stated one thing very clearly that “Ego is the cause of all miseries in the world”. Ego is the attitude of limitedness and having attachments to certain things alone in the world. Ego attitude is the sense of “I” and “Mine”. “I”-sense refers to considering oneself as great and having a good body, mind, intellect, knowledge etc. This knowledge is not pure and complete because real knowledge is that in which there will be humility – real knowledge is that in which the Ego vanishes & there is no difference as “I” and “YOU”. But when knowledge is not perfect or complete, the seeker has the sense of “I” – “I am Hariram, I am a software engineer, I am working in Infosys, I am well learned in Vedanta” etc. “Mine” refers to association with the “I”-sense or limited “I” with various things in the world – when the Ego named Hariram says “This is my company, this posting is my posting, this is my house” etc., these are also part of the Ego attitude.
Thus Ego is not just the sense of “I” but it is also the sense of “Mine”. The current day psychology and modern people call EGO as just the sense of “I”, but the ancient saints were far-sighted and thus considered the sense of “mine” also as part of the Ego.
Since the sense of “I” and “Mine” will be limited to certain objects in the world, therefore this Ego is limited. The Ego is also changing because the “Mine” always keeps changing. If the Ego likes a person, then it creates a thought of “my friend”, but when the Ego doesn’t even know a person, then that person has no relation of “mine” with the Ego. Let’s say this “my friend” loses contact with the Ego for a long period, then this “my friend” loses its status and there is no “mine” present. Thus the Ego which is the sense of “I” and “Mine” is limited as well as changing.
Any changing entity can never give eternal bliss but only limited happiness is achieved from that entity – this is because that entity is changing and will die one day. When the entity dies, then there is no entity at all to give happiness. Thus the happiness derived out of changing entities is limited alone.
Since Ego is limited and changing, it will one day die off & thus real happiness cannot be achieved out of the Ego. We all are striving for happiness each and every day. The happiness that we are striving for is permanent and long-lasting happiness. But since we will not derive such ever-lasting happiness or bliss from the Ego, it is not worth to nourish the Ego sense. Here, we might have the doubt that is there any “I” or real Self without the Ego sense? If the Ego sense vanishes, then there will be no individuality and thereby there will nothing present. It is right, when the Ego vanishes, there will be no individuality. Wherever there is limitedness, there is sorrow only. Only that which is full and unlimited can confer eternal bliss. Thus when the Ego vanishes, there will be no individuality which will in turn lead to unlimited Consciousness or “I” or Self called as Lord or Brahman which will confer eternal bliss to the seeker. It cannot be said that when there is no Ego, there will be nothing at all because Ego is changing. Any changing entity requires a changeless substratum. We say that the car is moving – this is only with respect to the stationary road (considering it as stationary). Thus any changing entity requires a changeless substratum. This changeless substratum of the Ego sense is “I” or Self as we always feel the change of “I” and “mine” at all times. It is “I” alone (pure “I” which is unlimited) which experiences the changes of the changing Ego. Thus when the Ego vanishes, the Self still remains behind as the substratum or source of the changing Ego. We will see the next day as to how to overcome Ego.
# posted by vedanta : 9:34 AM
