Kaushika and the Crane...

This is a story from Mahabharata that brings to light that our spiritual achievements are useless if we neglect our duties or Dharma.

Kaushika, a Brahmin boy was his parents' only son. One day he told his mother that he wanted to go off to the jungle and devote himself to spiritual studies.

His mother was concerned as her husband was very sick and they needed someone to take care of them. But Kaushika was adamant and he was determined to study the Vedas. His mother cried in vain as she watched her son turn his back on her and leave for the jungle. Eventually Kaushika acquired great mystical powers after doing a lot of penance and acquired completed knowledge of the Vedas.

One afternoon, as he was meditating under a tree, a crane flew up, and perched herself on a branch above Kaushika. Some bird droppings fell on Kaushika's head. Kaushika furiously threw a fiery gaze at the crane. The crane immediately went up in flames and fell dead. The sage felt sorry for what he had done. He felt bad for letting his anger control him that way.

Later in the day, he went to a village to beg for alms. The lady of the house asked him to wait and went to get some food. Right then her husband arrived. She immediately set aside the pot of food she was taking to the sage and went to attend her husband. After washing his feet, giving him food, and attending to his needs, she came back out to give the alms to the sage. The sage felt very insulted as she put her husband before a pious Brahmin like him. She calmly said that a true Brahmin is one who has patience and who has mastered his anger. She said that she is not a crane who will die by his fiery gaze. At this the sage was amazed. He was wondering how she knew what happened with the crane.

The lady said to him that he was a learned Brahmin but one who has not understood the truth about virtue. She asked him to go meet Dharmavyadha in Mathura to know more about it.

The sage thanked the lady and hurried to Mathura thinking that Dharmavyadha must be a great and learned sage. But when he finally reached Dharmavyadaha's place, he found it to be a butcher shop! A very ordinary looking man came out and and said that he was Dharmavyadha. Kaushika couldn't believe how a butcher could be spiritually enlightened??!!!

The sage could not contain himself and blurted that he is in the sinful profession of butchering animals. So he asked him if he doesn't feel ashamed of himself. Dharmavyadha replied that he wasn't ashamed as he was just engaged in a family trade and that he worked hard and honestly. He also said that as we walk we trample numerous creates under the soil, so there is really nobody who doesn't harm another living creature knowingly or unknowingly.

The butcher then took him to his house where his wife was doing her house hold chores and his two boys were playing. The butcher introduced the sage to his wife and boys. Then the butcher entered the house and touched his parents' feet. The butcher remarked that his parents were God to him and that his wife and himself attend to them with devotion and love. In doing one's duty cheerfully lies true virtue said that butcher.

The butcher said that the brahmin has run away from his worldly responsibilities by deserting his aged father and mother. He said any level of spiritual achievement is useless if one has neglected one's Dharma or duties.

Hearing this Kaushika felt very ashamed of having left his parents and immediately returned to them and served them lovingly until their end.

There are two things to be learnt from this story:

1. To achieve spiritual enlightenment there is no need to relinquish everything and make the Himalayas as your abode...but you can be a completely connected person living in your current state of life and executing your routine duties.

2. If a person is well-read or if he / she is born in a particular caste / creed it doesn't mean that they are automatically superior in spiritual terms to another fellow person. At a human level nobody can measure the level of spiritual prowess, so it better left to the Divine to gauge us.

Having ego blinds us to so many truths and makes us deaf to other people's pleas. So in order to deflate this balloon of ego which is a major hurdle to our spiritual ascent and be completely at ease executing our duties effectively just try Sahaja meditation. The meditation also teaches anger management techniques which will ensure that you do not burn down any endangered species with your fiery gaze ;-)

In search of the King!

This is a very interesting story which I heard first from my spouse. This story provides us a metaphor for how we may feel when we reach the deep state of meditation. Let's get on with the story...

Once upon a time there was a poor man living in a great kingdom. He one day decided to travel across far away lands and visit the king's court to meet the king. He thought that if he met the king all his problems would be resolved.

So he set out one fine morning and after walking for several days encountered a man who was dressed in rich robes. He thought, "Oh, this may be the king! But I am not too sure, let me ask somebody!". So he asked a passerby, "Is this the king?". For this the passerby laughed and said, "No, he is just an ordinary sentry who works for the king". Next he saw a man on a horse with 4 soldier's following him. He thought this might be the king and he again inquired with a passerby who said he was one of the king's Senadhipati (aka Defense Minister). Disappointed he walked further and came across a man going in a palaquin (aka caravan) followed by several foot and mounted soldiers. "Wow, this surely is the king", thought the man to himself. But alas another person on the street told him, "Nope, he's not the king, he is just the king's minister."

By this time the poor fellow was crestfallen and was thinking of returning back to his village. But then he thought of giving one last try. After walking for several more days, he entered a grand palace and after entering through several sentry guarded gates came upon a grand court where several bedecked Senadhipatis and Ministers were seated. At the head of the court was a throne made of gold and adorned with several gem stones. On that throne there was a man seated in all glory wearing the most expensive clothing and the most glittering ornaments. The man just had one look at the man on the throne and exclaimed aloud, "O Great King...I get to meet you finally!"

So the underlying moral of this story is that when we can feel that we have achieved the absolute greatest right for us then we will not need a third party endorsement to believe it. This kind of an achievement may be at a worldly level like securing a high paying job or scoring a top rank in an exam. But the true doubtless truth which we can all achieve and know and trust that it is the absolute, is the state achieved via meditation. In the meditative state, we know that we are there in the present, we know that we have tasted the greatest nectar of them all...we just know! So try meditating and enjoy meeting 'the king'.

Story of a chanticleer!

For those of you not familiar with the term 'chaticleer' it means 'cock or rooster' :-) I just learnt a new word too...

Some of you may already know this little tale but I wanted to put it down to demonstrate the power of 'witness'. Witness is a state where we do not react to anything that happens around us either positive or negative. But it doesn't mean that we do not help those in case of any emergency say an accident. It just means that we are always looking at an issue from a third person angle. The advantage of doing that is it helps us get out of the 'box' or problem per se and view it with complete detachment which in turn will lead to more creative solutions which will be most optimal from all perspectives. Enough of the theory...now let's get on with the story...

There was once a great king in the land of your imagination...he once wanted to organize a chanticleer fight and wanted to see who will rear a chanticleer well enough to make it win. So he donated one chanticleer to every one in his kingdom. So after a few months the competition to see which cock wins was arranged. So all the cocks were put into the fight arena. While all the other cocks were furiously fighting away there was one cock who just stood there unperturbed by all the mayhem surrounding him. All the other cocks saw this cock and thought that this cock must be possessing special powers and hence he is standing there right in the middle without any fear. So as a result none of the other cocks disturbed this one standing in the middle and in the end all the cocks died fighting while this cock was left standing alone. The king asked the great sage who had reared the cock the secret behind it. The sage told him that he only taught the cock to meditate and as a result of that its witness state had improved so much that he couldn't be perturbed by anything. So the king realized the power of the witness state and also realized that meditation is the only way to achieve that state...

I hope you enjoyed this post and if you are eager to meditate now then please click here