[17]
KUMBHA’S STORY
Once, Sage Naarada was
absorbed in contemplation inside a cave
of Meru Ganges flowed adorned by
the garland of white shining waves.
Suddenly sounds of laughter
and happy screams disturbed the meditation of the Sage. He peeped outside the
cave and to his amazement, saw a group of extremely beautiful Apsaraas sporting
in the waters with full abandon, without any coverings on their bodies!
His mind swerved from the
state of the Self for a fraction of a second; his ‘Veerya’ (semen virile),
slipped out instantly.
Naarada immediately brought
his mind under control; placed his Veerya-drop inside a crystal pot (Kumbha),
placed next to his meditation seat. He willed the pot to be filled with milk.
The shining drop increased in size like a moon; and after a month, a boy
shining forth with luster appeared out of the pot.
Naarada named his son Kumbha
(born from a pot). He took his son to Brahma Loka.
Brahma was pleased to see him
and taught him all the Vedas and scriptures.
Like his father, he roamed
all over the three worlds.
On that particular day, he
happened to cross the sky above the forest and saw the king engaged in penance.
He wanted to find out about the Sage who was doing penance in this forest and
descended down to this Ashram!
[18]
ShikhiDhvaja
told Kumbha, his whole story, as to how he had renounced everything and was
living in that forest for the past eighteen years.
Kumbha
chided him for wasting his life in the forest like this, doing actions
mechanically, without any fruitful result.
The
king begged Kumbha to instruct him about the highest Knowledge that could lead
one to the state of the Supreme. He promised to accept the words of Kumbha without
a question.
Kumbha
started his instructions, by relating to him two stories.
[19]
STORY OF THE CHINTAAMANI STONE
There was a rich man in a
village!
He was very learned. He was
endowed with all virtues.
He knew all arts. He had
studied all scriptures.
He also was also well-versed
in the ways of the world.
Though he had everything, he
did not have the knowledge of the Supreme state of Brahman; or did not know
much about it.
He wanted only one thing in
his life, the great magical ChintaaMani gem, which could fulfill all the
wishes.
Somehow he felt that the gem
was the greatest acquirement in life and by acquiring that he will be always
happy.
Without delay, he became
engaged in practicing the necessary rites that would get him his precious gem.
Because of his sincere and
hard effort, the gem appeared in front of him, just within the reach of his
hand.
But that fool did not even
extend his hand to take it!
He thought that it was an
illusion he was having!
How could he, an ordinary man
of no-merit, ever gain a ChintaaMani, that too so soon!
Even after years of practice,
people fail to get this Mani.
How could he, a person stuck
with misfortune, ever have the merit to get it?
He did not even touch that
ChintaaMani gem shining in front of him, fearing that it was an illusion which
may disappear if he even moved, and some other terrifying illusion may follow
it!
After some time, the gem flew
up in the sky and vanished.
The man continued his
practice for getting the ChintaaMani gem.
Some Siddhas who observed
this wanted to play a trick on him. They placed an ordinary glass piece which
shone like a gem, in front of him.
The fool took it, thinking it
to be the great gem of ChintaaMani.
He did not need any more
wealth or money, he decided. He discarded all the wealth he had previously
owned.
He left his city, believing
all the people there to be sinners.
He left his relatives
thinking them to be malicious and evil.
He went far into a jungle
carrying that worthless glass piece.
Soon he met an untimely death
attacked by some wild animal!
[20]
STORY OF THE KIND ELEPHANT
A huge elephant lived in the
great forest of Vindhya
Mountain
Unfortunately, one day it got
trapped in a huge net made of iron. The net had spikes all over and hurt the
elephant, if it moved ever.
The elephant-catcher climbed
a Taala tree nearby and sat on the top, keeping a watch over the trapped
elephant.
The elephant could not see
him. Anyhow, it struggled hard; and poking repeatedly at the net with its
tusks, it made a hole in it. Soon it tore the iron net and came out.
The elephant catcher saw the
elephant escaping and jumped on it from the top of the Taala tree. But he
missed and fell down at its feet.
The elephant could have
crushed him to death in a second; but it felt compassionate towards the
helpless human and did not injure him in any way. It hurried off to another far
off jungle, and started living there happily.
The elephant-catcher was
annoyed that he had let the elephant get away. Without giving up, he searched
for the elephant in all the jungles and found him at last, resting under a tree
in some forest.
He soon brought some tools
from the king’s palace and also some men to work for him. They all dug a huge
trench all around that forest in which the elephant rested. They covered the
trench with tender creepers on the surface.
The poor elephant got up
after some time and soon fell inside that deep trench. However much it
struggled, there was no way of escaping. It was quickly chained by that
elephant catcher.
Even today, the elephant is
still inside that hole, suffering immense pain, not able to come out of it.
If it had killed that
elephant catcher when he had fallen at its feet, it would have never got
trapped like this inside that trench!
[21]
ShikhiDhvaja asked Kumbha as
to what the stories meant actually.
Kumbha laughed and said that
both the stories were similar to the king’s own story!
He was the person who chased
the ordinary ChintaaMani gem instead of
Self-knowledge!
The ChintaaMani here refers
to the ‘SarvaTyaaga’, renunciation of everything which the king got obsessed
with.
Instead of trying to enquire
about the Self, he had stuck to the term ‘SarvaTyaaga’ in the literal sense.
Actually the term ‘SarvaTyaaga’ means renouncing the entire perceived
phenomenon along with the mind and remaining only as the Self. But ShikhiDhvaja
had missed the real meaning of the term and had literally followed the
renunciation to the letter, by renouncing the family, kingdom etc.
Though the ChintaaMani of
‘SarvaTyaaga’ was there for him within reach as Self-enquiry, he ignored it and
went to the forest.
Just like the idiot in the
story grabbing the glass-gem as the real gem, ShikhiDhvaja had chosen penance
as a means of self-realization.
Like the fool in the story
had suffered by the possession of the glass-gem, ShikhiDhvaja also suffered
through the hardships of penance.
By the routine life of the
forest in solitude, he had achieved nothing but the satisfaction of suffering.
Instead of possessing a kingdom, he possessed a hut and the accessories needed
for the forest-life.
The idea of possession did
not decrease in the least.
He had not done any
‘SarvaTyaaga’ at all and was stuck only to the mechanical routine-works of the
forest-life, like the fool who had let go off the ChintaaMani gem and pounced
on the glass gem.
In the ‘elephant story’, the
king was the actual elephant who was trapped by the elephant catcher.
The king was the elephant
with the two tusks of Viveka (Discrimination) and Vairaagya (Dispassion).
The elephant catcher was the
ignorance.
Though the elephant was
capable of throwing off the elephant-keeper, it humbly obeyed him and went the
way shown by him, like the elephant trapped in the iron net.
Attachment was the iron net
used by the elephant trapper named ignorance.
The ordinary iron-net may
rust in time, but the ‘desire for pleasures’ increases as time goes by!
The ignorance always keeps a
watch on the trapped Jeeva, like the elephant keeper sitting on the Taala tree.
When the king tore off the
net, he had renounced the kingdom with great dispassion. The ignorance then
fell down ready to get destroyed by the king. He should have killed it then and
there by Mana-Tyaaga (Renunciation of the Mind). But he did not!
The elephant-trapper namely
the ignorance got up again with more vengeance at heart and pushed the king
into the deep pit of penance!
The tools and the men used by
that elephant keeper are the worries and anxieties of the forest-life.
Kumbha also chided the king,
for not listening to his wife Chudaalaa, when she talked to him about
Self-knowledge.
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