For quite some time, the child’s mother was unaware of his death. When she sent
an attendant to bring the child to her, the latter fainted when she saw the boy dead on
his couch. Both the parents, the king and the queen, were overcome with grief.
Just at that moment, sages Angiraa and Narad came there disguised as
mendicants. They consoled the king by saying—‘Why do you grieve? Think who this
boy was for whom you lament so much. Think: what relationship this boy has with
you; who were you of this boy in his previous life, and would be in his next life. Even
as grains of sand flow in a river and collect to form big mounds at remote places from
the place of their origin, a creature trapped in the endlessly rotating wheel of Kaal and
Karma (time and deeds) is born and reborn in the endless cycle of birth and death as
this wheel turns. This naturally causes a continuous cycle of union and separation.
Just as some of the seeds produce fruits (trees) and some don’t, the influence of
Maya (delusions) creates a sense of a happy union and a sorrowful separation
between two independent individuals. Just like the grains of dust or sand coming
together or parting away as they flow with the current of water in a river, the
individuals come together or move away as they flow in the current of the river of
Kaal (time and circumstance) and Karma (deeds and their effects).
All such relationships are transitory and illusionary; nothing is permanent. Why
do you grieve; why and for whom do you lament? I, you and the rest of the creatures
of this world were not in their previous birth as they are now, and nor will they be
after their death at the end of this life.’ {Refer: Srimad Bhagwat Maha-Puran,
Skandha 6, Canto 15, verse no. 108.}
The king was consoled and enlightenment dawned on his mental horizon. He
wiped his tears and asked the mendicants who they were. Indeed you are highly
enlightened and wise, and it is so fortunate that great souls like you wonder in this
world to console ordinary people like us when they are submerged in a dark ocean of
grief and sorrows, and provide them mental peace, succour and solace.’
Then sage Angiraa revealed the true identity of himself and Narad, and told king
Chitraketu—‘You are a devotee of the Lord and wise, therefore it is not proper for
you to feel as sorrowful as it seems you are for such mundane worldly affairs as
losing a son with whom your soul has no relationship. When I visited you last time I
found that it was fruitless to preach you the profound philosophy of spiritualism and
metaphysics because you had still not tasted the bitter fruit of worldly attachments
and involvements. So I agreed to give you a son so that you can have a first-hand
experience of how miserable is this world and how miserable life becomes once one
gets entangled in its affairs—such as first raising a family, then spending the entire
rest of the life caring for it, and even at the final moments just before death worrying
about it and the things left undone. That is, once you allow yourself to get entangled
in worldly relations and developing a fallacious notion that such and such person is
my son, my daughter or my family, you get sucked in a vortex of eternal misery and
grief. Whatever happiness and comfort you do get are all transitory as well as
illusionary by their inherent nature because in the long run they only give pain, grief
and unhappiness.
A home, a family, a wife and a son, wealth and worldly prosperity—all are
transient, imaginary, and give nothing but misery and grief in the long run. All things
related to this material world are as transient and hollow as the world, which forms
their basis, is.
Hence, be at peace with yourself; don’t allow yourself to be trapped in a mirage.’
After this, Narad preached the Mantro-panishad to the king, and advised him to
faithfully recite it (i.e. contemplate upon its meaning and try to understand its subtle
spiritual implications; not just read it mechanically) for seven days at the end of
which Lord Sankarshan would reveal himself before him.
Then Narad decided to further enlighten the king about what sage Angiraa spoke
above. So he told the Spirit of the son whose body was lying on the ground, ‘Oh
Jivatma (the pure conscious Soul of the living being)! Look at the way the king, the
kiana
(Kiana)
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