Slokam 2

King Indradyumna carried on with his meditation and was unaware of the arrival of the sage.  The anger of the Sage at this apparent neglect was unmitigated. Sage Agastya cursed the King to be born as an elephant.  This was to punish the king for his slow action (like the elephant)  in honoring the sage. 

The King is reborn as an Elephant,  but retains his devotion to the Paramathma.

The chanting of the vedas and deep meditation endowed them with extraordinary mental powers including knowledge that overcame the barriers of time and extended beyond the five senses.   The kings of yore relied on their blessings as a source of strength to sustain and nourish and grow their kingdoms.

The slokam throws light on the different swaroopams that the atma can take. We can be born as an insect,  bird, animal, or any other creature and the form that we take can change from one life to another.  The slokam brings out the ability of sage Agastya to assign the king to the form that he will assume in his next birth.  The king did not intend to insult the sage.  So the curse was unjustified. 

The intent of the slokam is to provide a background for the birth of Gajendra,  and the reason why Gajendra had a spiritual streak even though he was born an elephant.  The narrative about Agastya throws a lot of light on the powers bestowed on sages by the mantras they chant and the penance that they perform.

The curse of the four sons of Brahma on the Dwarapalikas of the Paramathma, Jaya and Vijaya come to mind. That was also an unjustified curse.  That curse rebounded on humanity as Jaya and Vijaya took on demonic forms and were born on Earth. In that curse,  we get a glimpse into the mechanics behind curses.  The curse is heard by the Paramathma and He agrees with the sages and makes their curse come true.  The Paramathma has great regard and respect for the sages (although He may not always agree with them).  The sages, by intense meditation are heard and directly responded to by the Paramathma.  The sages do not live by their minds.  They live by their consciousness. 

The curse is their wish for revenge for what they think is a personal instances. As beings that live selflessly,  they are not supposed to transcend themselves.  The curse is the reaction of anger in the mind due to expectations not being met. They are supposed to have no expectations. 

Anyhow,  their curse is heard by the Paramathma, and He makes their wish come true.  Note that the dwrapalikas are the most devoted and so is Indradyumna.  So they always have a protective shield around them,  no matter what curse is thrown at them. 

The powers obtained by the sages by meditating on the Paramathma can never be misused for the wrong purpose.  So when the Paramathma implements these wishes that are supposed to cause harm to those who were only engaged in the discharge of their duties,  He always turns the situation around,  so they are unharmed and ultimately, only good emerges from the episode.  This is the work of the Paramathma whose manifestations are infinite, and boundless.

Let us transport Indradyumna and Sage Agastiya as well as the four sages and the dwarapalikas to being people in our everyday lives.   The karmic aspect of our mind engages in its assigned duties.  We are asked to perform our duties,  and at the same time bow down to the superiority of our work-life bosses and take instructions and admonishments from them everyday.  This happens to each and everyone of us, which makes life in the workplace, what it is.  We take hits from “superiors”,  quite often for no fault of ours.  This is exactly what happens to the Dwarapalikas and Indradyumna,  who are considered ‘inferior’ to themselves by the sages.  Essentially we absorb the deficiencies of our bosses and face the consequences.  This is unavoidable in the discharge of everyday karma.  The only way we can survive this apparent injustice is to surrender to the Paramathma.  All the events in our lives are designed to ensure that we surrender unconditionally to the Paramathma. 

Considering that all the observed manifestations are only the reflection of our own inner selves,  transport the characterizations  of the sages to attributes within our minds.  There is that part that goes about performing its duty of meditating on and guarding the Paramathma.  Our worldly duties, in the form of the sages,  distract us from our devotion to the Paramathma and cause disturbing conflicts.  We cannot ignore the worldly pulls and of course we cannot deviate from devotion to the Paramathma. The conflicting pulls enforce a decision to be made as to our priorities.  This is the test of devotion to the Paramathma,  on the one hand and the worldly karma on the other.  The Paramathma offers eternity and the world offers the means of daily survival. Both indeed are but the two aspects of the supreme singularity which is the Paramathma.  Torn between the two options, most of us would put the Paramathma on “temporary hold”  while we attend to our daily Karmas.  But the more that we deliver,  the more we will be snared more and more into the trap. At one point when we see what is happening, we halt and take a turn towards the Paramathma. This is when the “curse” of worldly life kick in immediately and takes back what is really our dues and puts us in all kinds of difficulty. 

May we, like the Dwrapalikas, Prahalada,  and Indradyumna, always choose our commitment to the Paramathma over the pulls of everyday life.  Let us choose permanence over transcience.