queen and others are grieving for you. Re-enter your body which is lying on the
ground to provide them mental peace; live upto your duties and expectations in this
world. Provide comfort to your so-called father, and sit on the throne as ordered by
him because once you have entered the body which the world recognises as being that
of the king’s son, you must live to fulfil your moral obligations as ordained by the
Creator.’
The son woke up as from a deep sleep. He said—‘I have been wondering in
countless lives in different worlds, assuming countless forms and having as many
relationships, according to the deeds I had done in my previous births. Who is
anybody’s parent or child? In some birth these people may have been my children,
and in others I was their child. I had been a child of so many faceless and unknown
creatures in my previous lives on the one hand, and had parented so many of them in
my other lives on the other hand. Everyone is someone’s parent, child, friend, foe,
partner, servant or lord in one or the other birth.
So, how do these people think that I am their child and grieve for me; it is not
possible that I was their greatest enemy in my previous life where they simply loathed
me?
Just as gold, silver and other commodities keep changing hands amongst the
traders, the Jivatma keeps on changing relationships in every new birth depending
upon the obligations it had incurred during the course of its previous life just like an
accountant carries forward the credit or the debit balances from the previous
accunting year to the next. Till the time two individual Jivatmas are together, they
have some relationship with each other. Once they separate, this relationship vanishes
like a bubble of water.
[The gold or silver remains the same, only the person who holds control over
them for a certain period of time changes. For a given period of time, the gold
belongs to a certain person named “A”, and then it changes hand to belong to another
person named “B”. As long as “A” has this gold, he loves it as his asset and cares for
it. Once the same piece of gold goes to “B”, the first person loses interest in it.]
The Atma (Soul; the pure Consiousness that is the real ‘self’ of all living beings
as opposed to their gross body) is eternal and independent; it is subtle and sublime; it
is self-illuminated and without any relationships. ......’ {Refer: Srimad Bhagwat
Maha-Puran, Skandha 6, Cantos. 14-15; Canto 16, verse nos. 1-11.}
After this initial enlightening discourse, the Jivatma said—‘Listen, I will tell you
about my previous life. I was a king of a country called Paanchaal. I had developed a
sense of profound detachment and renunciation. I had once gone to a village. This
lady who has become my ‘mother’ in this birth had given me some dry cakes made
from cowdung to light up a fire to cook my meal because I was feeling hungry. These
cakes had a large colony of black ants. I did not pay much attention and set these
cakes on fire to cook my meal, as a result of which all the ants died. I cooked my
frugal meal and after offering it to Shaligram (a pebble-like stone worshipped as a
symbol of Lord Vishnu), I ate the food. The ants which died have become my step-
mothers in this life. They wished to take revenge upon me, and therefore they killed
me by poisioning. Since the food cooked by burning the cowdung cake infested with
ants was duly offered to Lord Vishnu before I ate it, and since I had done it without
any knowledge of killing of the ants, my sin was not so serious and its after-effects
were reduced substantially. Hence, all those ants got together as my step-mothers to
kill me in one go (i.e. only once) in this life. Otherwise, I would have had to suffer in
thousands of more births.
I have fulfilled my obligations; I have repaid for my sins. I have nothing to do
with these people any more. [My ‘mother’ gave me happiness by providing the
cowdung cakes so that I could cook and satisfy my hunger. So I repaid my debts to
her by giving her the joys a mother yearns for by becoming her child. Similarly, I
repaid my debts to the ants by giving pleasures to these step-mothers who avenged
my past mistake of killing them all in their previous life as ants.’
kiana
(Kiana)
#1