Slokam 5

To initiate the King into the reality that the atma can never be extinguished, Narada and sage Angirasa pay a visit to king Chitraketu.  With their yogic power, they show the soul of his son to Chitraketu.

With their yogic power,  they enable Chitraketu to hear his son ask – “whose son am I?”

With the conviction that existence in this body is only a small part of the infinite life of the Atma,  Chitraketu then understands that there is no need for grievance over worldly life and death,  which constitutes only a very tiny part of the eternal universe in which the Atma lives.

The Atma has no birth or death.  The Atma is eternal.  In the universe of the atma, there is no sense perception. So there is no space, or objects. So the Atma does not experience change.  This is why Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavath Gita, that in His lokam,  there is neither sun, or moon. The atma experiences only itself. The illumination comes from within itself.  The atma resides in itself. It is completely independent and does not need any crutches or support. 

The slokam throws light on two fundamental aspects of human existence, namely, desire and attachment.  These are the two crutches on which we rely to sustain illusions of success and failure. Both these illusions help sustain the ahankara or the illusory identity within us.  Caught in the web of this maya of desire, attachment and ahankara,  we become so engrossed in meaningless pursuits that we lose sight of the real objective of life. 

This is why the rishis of yore, as well as the four sons of Brahma,  took to sanyasa, and completely avoided the well known  traps that life has set for all of us. 

These traps of desire are so powerful, that we cannot avoid them by merely knowing about them. Even if we know the consequences that are likely to follow,  few can resist the traps of temptation. 

Sita mata developed a desire to possess the deer with a gold and silver hue that appears in the forest before her. She wants to take it back to Ayodha and keep it as a pet, that will not only give her the pleasure of the visual of beauty, but also gain a lot of admiration from others. The desire is so large, that all warnings of Lakshmana that this could be asura in disguise is completely thrown out of consideration.  What would be the benefit of having a deer with attractive colors running about in the palace.  It is going to live only a few years anyway. The risk of falling into an asura trap is immense and the consequences may even be irredeemable. Yet, at the moment of temptation,  desire overcomes all effort at rationality. 

Women are particularly prone to the weaknesses of temptation,  and the entire family is caught in the consequences of the attempted fulfillment of desire.

It does not matter whether desire is fulfilled or not. The needs are endless and feeds on itself to keep growing by leaps and bounds. If desires are not fulfilled,  it turns to regret and the forces of regret cause degenerative and destructive forces to be released in the mind. 

The moment we develop desires or attachments, we fall into the traps of worldly life from which escape is very difficult.  This is why Indira always seeks to disrupt penance of rishis,  by deputing Urvashi and Rambha to sow the seeds of desire in their minds. 

King Chitraketu, like all other kings, would have known the consequences of taking on multiple wives. He probably knew that the rivalry between them would get out of control.  He also would have known that the rivalry would not have been conducive for his children.  Yet, Chitraketu,  and almost everyone of us,  cannot help but succumb to the web of maya and temptation.

Knowledge of consequences of entrapment is not enough.  Sri Narada and Angirasa,  therefore decide to show king Chitraketu,  that there is this facet of permanence about the self,  the beauty of which far outshines anything that is known on earth.  King Chitraketu is given the experience of communicating with his departed son.  In that experience,  King Chitraketu understands that our Atma is indestructible.  The King also understands that the Atma has no identity, no desires and most importantly, no relationships.  The atma of his son wants to know – “whose son am I”?  Without these knots of bonding,  the atma is in a completely liberated state of existence. 

Knowledge of the properties of the atma is an effective means to release the mind from succumbing to worldy entrapments.  The knowledge of the atma is the only true knowledge that we can attain and possess in this life. Once attained, that knowledge elevates our existence on this planet to a state of sublimity, from which we will not revert or succumb to temptations. 

Unlike King Chitraketu,  we may not have either the experience of or the sensory perception of the Atma of his son, that was enabled by king Narada and sage Angirasa for his benefit.

Knowledge of the atma, for all of us,  is attained through the practice of any of the three paths of Gnanam,  Bhakthi and Karma. 

Attainment of this knowledge constitutes the only means to find our way out of this physical world that is full of suffering and misery. Once attained, it becomes our Sriman Narayana Kavacha,  and we will never revert to the cycle of births and deaths. 

There are two ways by which we can overcome the entrapments that are set to test us.

One is the fear of consequences.

When we realize the sublimity and eternity of our true self,  our desire to attain this state offsets the desire of transient temptations that come with huge attached strings of miserable consequences. 

As long as we make even the tiniest of efforts,  and do not succumb to worldly entrapments, we will succeed in our endeavor. 

May we take inspiration from the slokams of Narayaneeyam and remain on the path that is illuminated by the sublimity of the Paramathma.