Great Indian Kings
Yudhishtira
Importance of keeping one’s word
The kalyaanam of pandavas with Draupadi was an unusual one. However, it was perfectly according to dharma shastras. Infact Draupadi is one of the greatest pativratas and praised even by Lord Krishna for her Dharma vartana. A few reasons to justify the kalyaanam:
- Kunti Devi, the mother of pandavas, who never knew what a lie was, gave her will.
- Vyaasa Maharshi, one of the avataar of Lord Vishnu, ordered the kalyaanam to be done.
- Lord Shiva, pleased with her tapas, gave a boon to Draupadi to marry the pandavas.
- Pandavas, though were five physically, were all amshas of Indra, the King of the Gods. Hence, pandavas were actually one.
Yudhisthira, knowing the reason of the breach of their rule, said their is no need for Arjuna to take the pilgrimage. Since it is a mistake committed towards him, and that too for a good reason, he will pardon arjuna . However, Arjuna would never break his word. He immediately set out for a one-year pilgrimage. May be this is why Arjuna is such a favourite sakha of Lord Krishna.
Morals in the Story:
- The story shows how important it is to keep up ones word, whether it is of any consequence or not, how much ever difficult it is.
- Arjuna, knowing that he will be punished for breaching the rule, did not stop doing his duty as a king to protect his people and punish the theif. Thus, one must always perform his duty without any laziness or any kind of fear.
- Rewards for such people do show up as immediate difficulties, but in the end – it is truth is what always wins (Satyameva jayate). Arjuna's win was in the way of gaining eternal friendship with the Lord.
- Imagine if everyone keeps his word and always speaks truth — will we have corruption? will we have poverty? Though its a very difficult to inculcate, unless we are truthful there will be no development.
- Like Arjuna if everyone does they duty — will there be such slow development for such a large community of intelligent people?
- Temporal gains got by saying lies never will be permanent. They will not only bring us down on a long run in life, leave aside winning the heart of the God.
Following Dharma always
One day, near the end of 12 strenuous years of vanavaasam of pandavas, a deer rubbing its head against the samidhas of a brahmana, by mistake carries it away and runs into the deep jungle. The brahmana, knowing that the samidhas were carried away by deer, cried for help. Without them he cannot perform yagnyas. On listening to the cries, immediately pandavas set out for them. They all run deep into the jungle but loose track of the maaya deer.
After a very long chase, with great thirst, they sit under a banyan tree with despair and wonder the reason for not being able to render even a trifling service to the brahmana. Yidhishtara to divert their thinking, asks Nakula to bring him some water. Nakula, who was suffering with very strong thirst, hurriedly wanted to drink water from the pond. An Yaksha’s voice from the pond said “Do not be rash. This pool belongs to me. O son of madri, answer my questions and then drink the water”. In his extreme thirst Nakula continues to drink water and falls dead. Rest of the pandavas follow nakula and fall dead, except Dharmaraaja.
Dharmaraaja instead starts answering the questions of the Yaksha. He, with great ease, answers all the questions of the yaksha. Pleased with dharmaraaja, the Yaksha grants him a boon. Dharmaraaja did not ask the lives of any of his brothers, instead he asked the yaksha to return the samidhas of the brahmana! Impressed by the character of dharmaraaja, the yaksha grants him another boon: “One of your dead brothers can now be revived. Whom do you want to revive?”. Yidhishtira asks for the life of Nakula, after thinking for a while. The yaksha asks him: “Bhima has the strength of 16000 elephants and is the most dearest to you. Arjuna, whose prowess in arms is your protection, is the greatest warrior. Why do you choose Nakula instead?” . Dharmaraaja replied: “O Yaksha, dharma is the only shield of man and not Bhima or Arjuna. If dharma is set at naught, man will be ruined. Kunti and Madri were the two wives of my father. I am surviving, a son of Kunti, and so, she is not completely bereaved. In order that the scales of justice may be even, I ask that Madri’s son Nakula may revive.” The Yaksha was pleased with Yudhishthira’s impartiality and granted that all his brothers would come back to life. The yaksha was none other than Lord Yama. He also blesses him saying that the agnyaatavaasam will go on fine.
Morals in the Story:
- Importance of sticking to the path of dharma, even in times of difficulty. Samavartitvam (impartiality) is well shown by Dharmaraaja. Even though his own brothers were lying dead before him, he asked for the Samidhas of the Braahmana instead of asking for his brother’s lives!
- Gaining the knowledge of dharma, without which dharmaraaja could not have answered the questions of the Yaksha.
- Self control and never loosing hope even at times of difficulty. This was very well displayed by dharmaraaja.
Nahusha was raised in his childhood by the great Brahmarshi Vasishta. Since he was unaffected by happiness or sorrow and did not feel the slighest ahankaar when once Devatas praised him in his childhood, he was named Nahusha. He learnt all shaastras and after his education became the King. Due to his great qualities his fame spread quickly to all directions. Everyone was in praise of him, to such an extent that even vedas praised him. He performed 100 Ashwamedha Yaagas and hence was deserving the position of Indra.
Once, Indra killed an asura by name Vrutraasura. Though Vrutra was an asura, he was a braahmana and hence Indra had to suffer brahmahatyaa-paatakam and Nahusha was offered the position of Indra. Nahusha continued to be good, until one day he realized that he was the ruler, king of all the 14-lookas! He suddenly became very proud and once a person has Ahankaar, he does not think, he assumes he is the greatest and that he can never be wrong. Such was the power of being the king for the Devatas and all the worlds! He sends a message to Sachi-devi, the great Pativrata and wife of Indra (the previous Indra, the eldest brother of Devatas) that she must serve him as he is the Indra now. The very moment he wanted a Pativrata, all his good qualities, tapas-shakti everything were lost and his end was destined.
Sachi-devi tells Nahusha "O great Indra! You are the God of the Gods. You are very great, please come to my house. But you being so great deserve to be carried by none other than Saptarishis. So please come in a pallaqi beared by them". Nahusha really feels that what Sachi-devi said is true (did not realize that she was a pativrata and hence the real meaning behind her words) and immediately ordered the Saptarishis to do so. Obviously the Saptarishis have conquered anger and ahankaar so they carry him. Nahusha sits in the pallaqi beared by them and in the height of his pride says "Sarpa Sarpa" (go fast) to Agasthya muni, since he was very short and was taking small small steps. Agasthya muni said "sarpobhava", in order to teach Nahusha a lesson. And immediately from the high position of Indra, he falls as a Ajagaram (huge Python) in some deep forest.
He spends thousand and thousands of years repenting for his mistake. Once when Paandavas were in the aashramam of Vrushaparva, Bhima goes to the forest and sees Nahusha who was in the form of an incredably huge Ajagaram. Bhima gets surprised by the amazing strength of it and asks it who it was. Nahusha tells his unfortunate story and says only the great Yudhishtira, who never deviates from the path of truth, can save him from this form. Meanwhile, Yudhishtira searching for Bhima reaches that place. Yudhishtira on knowing that the ajagaram is his ancestor Nahusha, he prostrates to him and takes his blessings. Later he answers all the questions of Nahusha and Nahusha gets freed from the terrible form, takes the form of a divya-purusha and goes to urdhva lokas in a divya vimaana.
Morals in the story:
- As long as Nahusha had Vinayam he was respected by everybody. Once taken over by Ahankaar, he committed great mistakes and later had to experience the result.
- Even for a great person like Nahusha, the power of simhaasanam made him bad. One must be more and more careful to be good and humble as his power in the society grows.
- Yudhishtira showed the way elders must be respected. One must never evaluate an elder for respecting them. According to our culture they always must be respected.
- Gnyaanam, knowledge of shaastra helped Yudhishtira answer the questions of Nahusha. One must always give utmost importance to gnyaanam and vigyaanam — using them one can acheive great wonders and help others.
- Pativratas power is graeater than anyone. One must never want a para-kaanta.
Yudhishthira, who was a parama Dayaalu, was very sad that he lost all his relatives and aatmiiyas in the yuddham. Vidvaans suggested him to do Ashvamedha-yaagam and lighten his heart. According to the Pandita’s aadesham, Dharmaraaja immediately started Ashvamedha-yaagam. Chakravartis from Desha-Videshas, many Panditas from different Nagaras, lakhs of praja from various janapadas came to see the Divya yaagam.
For everyone Vastra, Anna daanams were done continously. Yudhishthira did Suvarna, Mani, Ratna daanas to Yogyas. There was not even one who was not satisfied. Seeing this Ashvamedham in which everyone was satisfied Devatas started Pushpa-varsham and did abhinandana of Dharmaraaja.
A mongoose then came to the Yaaga-shaala. Everyone was surprised to see how it came there. Smiling, it said “This is a Yaagam which even the Devatas praised”. Everyone became vismayas. Half of the mungiisa’s body was gold. It continued “compared to Saktuprastha’s Dharma-buddhi, where is this Daanam?”. Everyone asked who is that Mahaatma Saktuprastha and what is his story? The mongoose replied
“Very long time back in this Divya Kurukshetram, there used to live a Gruhastha by name Saktuprastha. He had only one putra, for whom he did Kalyaanam. All of them had Daya on sarva-bhuuta-koti (see this too). They left Kaama-Krodha-aadi arishadvargas and were doing Tapas. The putra and snusha always were involved in the seva of Saktuprastha-dampatis. They used to never harm anyone and live with samtrupti eating whatever they used to get by Vidhi, Praaptam. They used to take aahaaram only for living to do Parambrahma-dhyaanam.
Once they didnt get any aahaaam to eat for a long time. One day they collected some Dhaanya-beejas that fell in their surroundings, powdered them, cooked and shared it equally. Just when they were about to eat, a Vruddha came. He was very weak, thin. He had little energy to say that he was hungry. Saktuprastha brought the Vruddha in, with great aadaram, made him sit beside him and said
“Aarya! Please accept our aatithyam and bless us. We got this aahaaram by doing as less harm as possible to other creatures and without doing any Paapa-kaaryas. Also we cooked it as told in our Shaastras. Please lessen your hunger by accepting my share”. After eating it, the Vruddha said that he was still hungry. Immediately Saktuprastha’s arthaangi gave her share. After knowing that the Vruddha was still hungry, the putra and snusha also did the same. With great aanandam, the Vruddha said
“My son! Your atithi-satkaaram, annadaanam gave me Santrupti. Even though you all were hungry, you gave of all your aahaaram to me. You have also gained immense Punyam. You will be praised by many lokas from now on. A person who is suffering from Kshut-baadha, will dare do any Paapa-kaaryas. For aahaaram he may do any Daaruna-krutyas. In such a state, the aahaaram given to such a person will do immense hitam to the lokam too. Anna-daanam is one of the greatest daanams. It will give ananta-punyam too…” As the Vruddha was saying like this, a Divya-vimaanam came and before everyone, Saktuprastha and his family went to Uurdhva-lokas.
Seeing all this, after the Saktuprastha family went, I drank the water with which Saktuprastha washed the feet of the Vruddha and the parts of my body that touched the water became gold. After that I went to many many Daanams, but no where my other half of this body became gold. Here too it was the same case”.
Morals in the story:
- Saktuprastha and his family showed us what an Uttama daanam is. Saktuprastha had no ahankaar that he was giving and gave something he also wanted and something which is very useful to the daana-grahiita.
- Atithi-seva, Bhuutadaya, Samtrupti and other gunas of Saktuprastha must be learnt from the story.
Yudhishthira agreed, but was worried that being a Gruhastha, he was not able to even do poshana of his aashritas. Thinking like this, he approached his Purohita (Puratah hitam karoti — one who does hitam, before anybody else), Dhaumya, and said “Mahaatma! Atithi seva, satkaaram is sajjana’s prathama-kartavyam. We are ourselves in difficulties, so how to do Atithi seva?”. Dhaumya then told Dharmaraaja how to do Suurya-upaasana. He said “O Dharmanandana! Shrimannaarayana, in the form of Suurya-bhagavaan, does poshana of this shrushti. You everyday do Suryopaasana, by doing Paaraayana of Surya-ashtottara-shata-naamaavali. I am sure then Surya-bhagavaan will help you”.
With Kathora-niyamams, Dharmaraaja did Suryopaasana. Suurya-bhagavaan became prasanna and appeared before Yudhishthira. Yudhishthira had great aanandam, did stotram and said “O Bhaaskara! You are the netram of this jagat and the aatma of all the living creatures. This jagat is having prakaasham because of You only. Without any Svaartham, You are doing poshana of this prapancham. I am krutagnya to have Your divya-darshanam”.
Suurya-bhagavaan said “Dharmaraaja! I am pleased with your aaraadhana. I will make sure you all will never have kshut-baadha all these 12 years”. Saying this, He gave him the Akshaya-paatra. Due to Daiva-prabhaavam, akshaya aahaaram comes from the divya-paatra. Using the Akshaya-paatra, Draupadii devi used to serve the Atithi-abhyaagatas first, then following Pativrataa-dharmam used to serve Paandavas and then eat aahaaram provided by the Akshaya-paatra. The divya-paatra everyday used to provide whatever they wanted till Draupadii devi has her aahaaram.
- Once a person has sat-sankalpam and does Daiva-praarthana, as suggested by elders, God Himself will show the way. Yudhishthira, with the sankalpam of doing Atithi-seva, did Suryopaasana as directed by Shri Dhaumya. With this he was able to provide aahaaram to the Viprottamas.
- Atithi-seva of Dharmaraaja and Pativrata-dharmam of Draupadi are shown in the story. Panditas say that a Pativrata has greater power than even the Tri-muurtis!
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My humble greatfulness to Moral Stories dot com, Hindu dot com and Devotees for the collection)
( A tribute to the great Bharatiya Samskruti)
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