Relationships are Momentary

Vibha Class Notes | February 9, 2020

When we go to the store, or to work and we like the cashier or a co-worker, what makes us like that person? In our mind, we are thinking about how caring they are or how charismatic they are, but that’s not true. What we love and like most about others is the life inside of them. The life that IS them. Someone who is serving us very well in a restaurant and if they die, will we still like them or still want to be in that experience. We won’t. It’s the life that we are tuned into as we have the same life. The nature of this life is Sat-Chit-Ananda or Existence-Awareness-Joy which is ever present. We feel we will tune into Ananda tomorrow, we feel that the more mindful we become there will be more Awareness, that Existence is in the chair, but not in my skin. Satchidananda is ever present, is ONLY present. Our course is training in seeing that which is unseen. The substance of Vedanta is knowing that which is inside of us, inside the person across from us, in the person behind us.

As we wrap up the sixth Skanda, we have the sura, Indra-deva who we can relate to. He is very moody, sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes arrogant and sometimes humble, and he ignores his Guru. With that there is outer weakness, inner weakness and then the suras go to Bhagavan Brahma who then directs them to Rishi Vishvarupa. From Rishi Vishvarupa, they learn the Narayana Kavacha with which the suras again start to defeat the asuras.

Indra is sometimes very grateful and sometimes so ungrateful. When Indra finds out that Rishi Vishwarupa is secretly supporting his mother who is an asura, he murders the Rishi. He never sees that Rishi Vishvarupa is supporting his mother, but is focused on the fact that the Rishi is supporting the asuras. With that, Rishi Vishwarupa’s father Tvashta is saddened and angered and creates this yajna, from which comes Vritra, an awesome asura created to kill Indra. So Indra and the suras start running again, and this time they go to Bhagavan Vishnu for help.

Bhagavan Vishnu tells them to go to Rishi Dadhichi, someone who is strong both inside and outside. Rishi Dadhichi laughs at the suras as their selfishness is the cause for their lowered status. He tells them they can have his body and they take his bones and make the Vajra or the lightning bolt. With the lightning bolt, Indra is about to kill Vritra when Vritra shares beautiful thoughts on God and living with emphasis on sama. Sama is balance. Vritra knows he is about to be killed, but is unperturbed by it and is so balanced. Indra who is about to kill, on the other hand is not balanced. It is the asura who is deeper than the sura here.

After Vritra is killed, Raja Parikshita asks Rishi Shuka how Vritra being an asura is so thoughtful and sattvik. Rishi Shuka shares that just like particles of sand keep coming together and then separating with the movement of water on a beach, similarly with the movement of time or kala, people come together and move apart. This beautiful visualization leads into the story of Raja Chitraketu.

Raja Chitraketu was a noble Raja, but he was unable to have a child. He had many wives, similar to Raja Dasharatha who had 365 wives. Raja Chitraketu finally went to Rishi Angiras and said that he had everything, but a child. So Rishi Angiras blessed him with a child and said very emphatically that this child would be the cause of his joy and sorrow and that the child could be born to only one of his Ranis. However Raja Chitraketu only heard the word joy. As soon as one of his Ranis had the child, she became more and more attached to that child everyday and the other queens became more and more afraid that they would lose their status, their power, their privilege. Rani Kaikeyi went through a similar sentiment. Attachment is called raga and it is expressed as fear or bhaya, and fear in turn manifests as krodha or anger. So these Ranis ended up poisoning the infant and with the death of the child, everyone experienced shokha or sorrow.

During the funeral of this infant, Rishi Angiras came and reminded Raja Chitraketu that he had warned him before that this child would be the cause of a lot of joy and sorrow. Some insights that Rishi Angiras shares -

• Every relationship is like a dream, magic or a sleight of hand. They are like what we would feel in a trance or when hallucinating.
• All of these relationships are momentary. A moment and time are relative. For those who love Shrimad Bhagavata, there are not enough minutes in this class, but those who don’t, it feels like there are too many minutes in this class. So Rishi Angiras is sharing that Raja Chitraketu is making what is relative into an absolute. Every relationship, including our relationship with this body, it came in a moment and will be gone in a moment.

Rishi Narada came to this funeral as well. There was so much sadness in the funeral that Raja Chitraketu forced Rishi Narada to pull out the jiva from the body that was dead. Rishi Narada asked him if he was sure that he would like to interact with this jiva that was going to move on. So the jiva was pulled out, and Rishi Narada asked the jiva on behalf of Raja Chitraketu how come he died. How come he was causing sorrow to his father and mothers? And the jiva asked — Which birth are you talking about? Which father or mother are you talking about? I keep going from body to body to body, like objects for sale. It’s such a powerful message that our mind, intellect and ego are objects for sale and pass from one hand to another and to another.

Once that jiva was pulled out and shared the same message as Rishi Angiras, everyone got over their sorrow and fear. Rishi Narada told the jiva to continue on and that infant died fully. Our ego lives in the intellect and so our sense of doership and surrender are both notions of the intellect. Our problem is that when we study more intellectually, we become more of a doer, instead of more humble. In this case, no one could stop the sorrow of the Raja and the Ranis without the knowledge of the Truth and of the nature of living. And only with that knowledge did grief come to an end. And that was Bhagavan Krishna’s message to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita — “The wise do not grieve for the living nor the dead”.

So Vritra was so devoted because in his earlier life he was Raja Chitraketu. Chitraketu became very great because of the teachings of Rishi Angiras and Rishi Narada. How did he become this Asura then? One who does not think correctly or thinks with aviveka, assigns artha according to their own mind or own reference point. They assign likes and dislikes with their minds and that is how division is created. This is what Bhagavan Shiva is telling Devi Parvati.

Raja Chitraketu, after he left the kingdom, got to meet Bhagavan Ananta who is the support of Bhagavan Vishnu. He told Bhagavan Ananta that he knows all, he knows everything that is going to happen outside and inside so there is no reason for him to pray. When we’re in front of Bhagavan, just be silent as Bhagavan already knows. When someone is tuned into the Atma, there is only oneness. He shares desire is not the problem, but desire for pleasure, position and possession is. If we desire peace, there is no problem. After his meeting with Bhagavan Ananta, he went to Kailasa to meet Bhagavan Shiva.

As Raja Chitraketu was walking towards Kailasa, he saw Devi Parvati sitting on Bhagavan Shiva’s left lap. Seeing this, he smirked and said that even an ordinary spouse wouldn’t hold their spouse like that in public. He said that Bhagavan was supposed to be the dyaksha or the Teacher of dharma and He himself didn’t know dharma. He said this in front of the assembly of all the Rishis and Bhagavans. Bhagavan Shiva just smiled, but if someone insults Bhagavan, a bhakta is enraged. Devi Parvati hearing this, ripped into Chitraketu and asked if he realized whom he was addressing. She asked if he thought Bhagavan Shiva felt there was a difference between a deva and a devi. Did He think there was dvaita? Devi Parvati cursed him saying, “You are thinking and speaking like an asura, so may you become an asura.” So Raja Chitraketu became Vritra. He accepted the curse and left feeling sorry that he had caused Devi Parvati’s agitation. When he left, Bhagavan Shiva tried to pacify Devi Parvati and brought to her attention that Raja Chitraketu never asked for the curse to be taken back. He asked her if she had noticed how he was more concerned for her than himself. That was the greatness of Raja Chitraketu.

Swami Tejomayananda shared that a public and private life are only for those who are tuned into dvaita or duality or separation. For someone who only feels oneness, there is no public nor private life. Raja Chitraketu was judgemental, but Bhagavan Shiva never judged him. The message for us is to never judge others’ evolution based on what we see. Bhagavan Shiva and Devi Parvati are ideal icons for householders.

This Skanda ends with lots of details about the children of Aditi and Diti. These details are elaborated in further Skandas, children like Varuna, who gave birth to Rishi Vashishta, children like Bhagavan Vamana who addressed the ego of Mahabali.

Thus ends the sixth Skanda.

Discussion Question: When you felt the deepest or strongest level of protection, what caused that?

Vivekji’s insight was when we follow or further dharma, we feel the strongest level of protection.

The prayer from protection from meaninglessness — Sixth skanda, eighth chapter, sixteenth shloka -

mām ugra-dharmād akhilāt pramādān nārāyaṇaḥ pātu

Engaging in that which is not causing me security, and all that is meaningless, careless or inadvertent, Bhagavan Narayana protect me!