Slokam 3

Extract from https://sagesofindia.wordpress.com/tag/chitraratha/

Jamadagni & Renuka

Renuka was an embodiment of chastity. This chastity enabled her to perform feats others coudnt imagine. Everyday she used to bring water from the river in a pot made of unbaked clay. One day while she was fetching the water from the river a handsome Gandharva named Chitraratha was passing by in a chariot. For a split second Renuka was infatuated for the handsome being. This weakened her  powers and the pot dissolved in the river. Afraid to go back she waited near the riverbed. Sage  Jamadagni through his powers came to know of all that had happened. He called his sons and asked them to go and behead Renuka. None of the sons were willing to do it except for Parashurama. The other sons were turned to stone. Parashurama went and beheaded his mother with the axe. He was the embodiment of obidiency. Jamadagni was pleased and told Parashurama to ask for boons. Parashurama asked that his mother be brought back to life and that his brothers be revived.

Sages in a moment of anger curse the offender.  In this instance, Renuka actually loses control only for a split second. The punishment is disproportionate to the offense.  Sage Jamadagni grants a boon to Parasuramsa for having axed his mother and brothers. Parasurama, shows us his true nature in this slokam, by requesting that his father withdraw the curse and forgive his mother and brothers. Sage Jamadagni undoes the consequences of the curse and causes resurrection of his wife and sons.

The Paramathma clearly demonstrates His dedication to obeying His father’s instructions,  even though it is not just for His Mother and brothers.

Renuka, is extremely pleased with Parasurama’s good nature and grants him boons.

One may here validly question if it is possible for the sage to restore the jivatma of his wife and children within destroyed bodies.  It is possible only if you can rewind the entire universe to turn back time.  Even if that happens,  the episode will only repeat itself?  So there would be no question of restoring mother and children?   

Let us hypothetically look at the mechanics of a possible restoration.  The beheading means the jivatma is separated from the body.  So a restoration would not only involve physically  re-connecting the severed body parts,  it would also require re-ingesting the jivatma into the body. The is not possible except by the Paramathma’s own intervention and enactment of maya.  In this instance the direct intervention may be assumed due to Parasurama being His avatar, that wielded the axe.

The only other way is to reverse time.  If the Paramathma does that,  then the Sage would be rewound to his anger, which will again trigger  the same reaction and same consequences.  Sage Atri, being an accomplished exponent of memory and vision,  not only can perceive Renuka’s split second violation, but can also see into the future.  So if the Paramathma can restore time,  the Sage, because of His vision,  infinite memory, knowledge and ability to transcend time,  can restrain himself from making the same error.

If we make a mistake, there is no going back.  We have to suffer the consequences.  A word spoken,  an act done,  or a word not spoken or an act not done cannot be reversed in time. The impact is felt and suffered.  The only redemption is withdrawal of the word or act through apology and most importantly, forgivance.   Life puts us into situations, which results in mistakes.  We regret and wish we could go back and undo it.  With us,  because the incident is deeply etched in our mind,  we live in regret of the past.

If the clock were rewound for us, we would still  make the same mistake,  because we do not have the foresight to be able to check the consequences of our actions.  This is why life is structured for us to correct our future actions based on learning from the mistakes of the past.  It is a life of suffering because of the memories from the past.  There is also no guarantee that we will learn from one or more mistakes,  to redeem ourselves in the future.  This is why,  we go through multiple or infinite lives of births and deaths,  until we learn and evolve on the spiritual path,  and do not have the same weaknesses anymore.  Mercifully,  we do not remember what transpired in our past lives,  we only face the consequences.  If we carried baggage of memory as well,  there will be no evolution, because we will spend all our lives in remorse.

Our lives are designed as an interplay between reality and illusion.  The mind perceives reality as the world of the senses.  It perceives the happiness and misery that results from these sense events as the  reward for the effort it put into the making of these events or participating in them.  The results of happiness or misery assume garangutan proportions of reality that superseed the “reality” of the events themselves.  Actually the perception of success and failure is an illusion.  The same event can be viewed as “success” or as “ failure” when viewed from various perspectives.  There is no need to differentiate between success and failure or between illusion and reality.  The mind should evolve to take both the seeming opposites with equanimity.  Both should be ascribed only as the lessons of the Paramathma, to align us on the correct path.

Our Jivatma is the medium that carries the substance of our knowledge, experience and state of spiritual evolution into the next body.  The next body is given a set of karmic experiences, and tests and obstacles, based on the levels of spiritual evolution that has been attained in prior lives.

We can interpret the resurrection as a forgivance. 

May we ever retain equanimity under all circumstances that life throws in our path. May we imbibe the true nature of the Paramathma, which are  acceptance and forgivance.