Copyright@shravancharitymission
By Kamlesh Tripathi
By Kamlesh Tripathi
In the treasured mythological
scriptures such as Purans and Upanishads battles between the Devatas and
Asuras have often been been described in great detail and on many occasions.
Asuras, have always troubled the Devatas for some reason or the other. And, in
fact they were mostly stronger than the Devatas in strength, and therefore
Devatas were always scared of them. Even Devraj Indra who was extremely
powerful and laced with a lot of divine offence could not harm them in any
manner.
A time came when Devraj Indra had a
prolonged spell of atma-gyaan (self enlightenment). And with that his
power and inner strength increased exponentially when he defeated the asuras big
time. Thereafter, amongst all the Devatas he was rated supreme. He was awarded
the kingdom of Swarglok (heaven) and the ownership of Tribhuvan (Three
worlds—swarg, dharti and pataal). In this great battle he was assisted by
Pratardan the great warrior son of King Divodas. The spiritual conversation
below is between Devraj Indra and the warrior son Pratardan.
When with the help of powerful Pratardan, God
Indra was able to forge a grand victory over the asuras he took Pratardan along
with him to Swarglok. Impressed by his surreal warring prowess and
supreme purusharth (bold human endeavours) Indra said—‘Pratardan! I am
extremely happy with you, so tell me how to bless you?’
Pratardan humbly said—‘Devraj! Since you
consider var (blessings) to be beneficial for human beings, I want you only
to present me with a var that will be beneficial for me.’
Indra replied—‘Rajan! Everyone is quite
aware of the fact that no one asks for a var for anyone else, because no
one knows what the other person wants, and so: you only ask for a var,
for yourself.’ Indra’s point of view sent Pratardan into a spin. But he
recovered swiftly and said.
‘Then there
is no var likely to come my way, and I shall always remain devoid of it.
Because you won’t grant me a var in accordance to what is good for me,
and I wouldn’t know what to ask for myself?’
Even after hearing Pratardan’s pungent
plea, God Indra did not go back on his words because he had vowed to grant
Pratardan a var. And, because he was considered the epitome of truth, he
had to grant a var to Pratardan even when he had not asked for one.
Devraj Indra sermonised—‘Dear Pratardan!
You need to know my real cosmic profile and configuration. For, that alone would
be the most helpful var for mankind. If you so desire, you can ask what
is so special in me, that you should know in depth. And listen to what I have
to say for that will be beneficial for you. I’ve established a permanent unison
with Param-Brahma (supreme creator) and so I don’t have the arrogance of
a doer. My mind always stays steady and never deviates to nothingness. I never
aspire for any karmafal (rewards for actions) and no particular work can
confine me.
It
is said I killed the three-headed Wishwaroopa. Many pseudo sanyasis
and sadhus who never followed the discipline of ashrams and who were
away from bhramcharya (celibacy), I cut them into pieces and fed them to
the wolves. So many a times I killed the daitya (asura) kings who
troubled noble souls like Prahlad. Daanavas (a superior race of asuras) who
gave pain to Pulopasur and other asuras residing in the planet
such as Kalkhanj were also destroyed by me after removing all obstacles,
that came my way. And, while doing all of this, not a single pore of mine was
damaged because, I was bereft from desire—karamfal. In the same manner a
person who will endeavour to know me well, his punyalok (paradise) will
never get derailed by any action of his.’
Very attentively Pratardan kept listening
to God Indra. Indra further added—‘Pragyaswaroop (In enlightened form) I’m
the pran—the breath of life. I am also the cumulative age of all prans
and jeewanbhoot (past lives) put together. And that which is pran,
and that which is without the fear of amritpad (state of immortality),
is not separated from Indra. So age is pran and pran is age and pran
is amrit. Only till the time pran resides in the body there is age.
And from pragya alone a man decides on truth and finds alternatives in
life. Those, whose age and amrit reveres Indra, they alone in this loka
live to the fullest of their age and while moving to swarglok (heaven) drink
‘akshay amrit’ (Everlasting immortality).
Responding to Indra’s sermon, Pratardan
asked—‘Why is it that some intellectuals say, the holistic pran (breath
of life) of a human body which includes all indriyas (literally means
belonging to Indra, also means faculty and senses at work in a human body) work
together in a well woven and synchronized manner and individually they cannot function.
When the voice starts speaking, rest of the senses in the pran remain
silent and approve of what the voice is saying. When eyes start seeing then
other senses stand behind it and start watching. When ears start listening, all
other senses too start listening. When mind starts thinking, all other senses
also start thinking along with it. And finally when the lord & master—pran
is at work other indriyas endeavour to work in tandem with it. Is this
true?’
Devraj Indra thought for a moment and said—‘yes
it is like that only. All prans put together are one but are still
called by five names and without doubt are the form of ‘supreme bliss.’ I call
it supreme bliss because one is dumb without voice, blind without eyes, deaf
without ears and without a developed mind it is like a child or a simpleton. A
man can survive even when his body parts are severed, but without pran
he cannot survive even for a second. And, so, pran is the precursor for
power and knowledge. Pran is the supreme God. In pran resides Parmatma
(supreme-soul) whose darshan (occasion of seeing a holy person) is the
ultimate in knowledge, and that alone is pragya (enlightenment of
mind).’
Pragya and pran co-exist in a
human body. But both leave the body after the person is dead. Without pragya
(enlightened conscious) even if pran is there a person cannot register
anything. And any business of mind cannot be transacted without pragya.
Only knowing the voice is of little consequence. The desire to know the
inspirer of the voice which is the soul is of utmost importance. To know the indriyas
or the subjects of indriyas alone, is not sufficient, what is important is to
know about the adopter of these topics of indriyas, that is the soul.’
Indra further enlightened Pratardan—‘In the
manner topics of indriyas are merely about the past, in the same manner
sections of similar indriyas are related to pragya. If the past bit
won’t be there even pragya bit will not be there. Out of the two (matter
and indriyas) neither of the two, can survive alone in any form and obtain
siddhi (supernatural powers). The essence of life therefore is from indriyas
to matter and from matter to indriyas and that alone is considered the
holy domain of life.
The sense is, from indriya you
arrive at subject matter and from subject matter one can figure out the power
of indriyas. If there is only one subject matter that moves from the matter to the
same matter one can’t derive knowledge. Also, a single indriya will not have
the complete knowledge of other indriyas unless there is a subject
matter. So both knowledge of the past and pragya are essentially needed
for fusion of matter and indriyas.
Here it is important to understand that
between matter and indriyas there is disparity, but there is no
disparity between matters of pragya and the past. Past pieces are lodged
in pragya and pragya is well entrenched in pran,
therefore: the pragyatma (enlightened soul) of a pran is its
anandmai (fill of bliss) and is the supreme nectar of life (amrtimai). This
pran and pragyaroop (enlightened form) of chetan parmatma (conscious
soul—God) allows the person who is proud of his body to perform the duties of
his sadhu dharm. For he is the ombudsman, he is the king of the lokas
and he alone is supreme. And blessed with all these attributes and considering pran
to be Parmatma (Supreme soul) residing in Nijatma (one’s own
soul) it has obtained atma-gyan (self-enlightenment). And blessed with
all these qualities one must consider pran to be the ultimate Parmatma
or Nijatma and basis by which one can obtain the ultimate knowledge of the soul.
And impressed by Indra’s atmagyan (self-enlightenment)
and sermons Pratardan was quite satisfied and he returned to earth and started
spreading the sermons of Lord Indra that was extremely helpful for the mankind.
From brahmanoupnishad
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