Recently, a friend of mine posted
the following status on facebook
“This if for an old buddy: To all my friends
(including me) who are going through some issues right now--Let's start an
intentional avalanche. We all need positive intentions right now. If I don't
see your name, I'll understand. May I ask my friends wherever you might be, to
kindly copy, paste, and share this status for one hour to give a moment of
support to all those who have family problems, health struggles, job issues,
worries of any kind and just need to know that someone cares. Do it for all of
us, for nobody is immune. I hope to see this on the walls of all my friends
just for moral support. I know some will!! I did it for a friend and you can
too. If you want, you have to copy & paste this one, no share.”
Many of my friends copied and posted the same on
their wall and I too did.
As mentioned in the above message, none of us are
immune to problems. When we go through a
crisis, normally we lose motivation, confidence, belief, focus, equilibrium and
feel disillusioned and insecure.
One of my greatest regrets
in life is not having read the Ramayana
and Mahabharata during my childhood,
when I had a lot of time and energy at my disposal. While my siblings were very thorough with
every episode and character in the Epics, I had (have) very superficial
knowledge of the same. I had lot of
reservations on the genres and was averse to religion. Though I am still not open to religious
activities, I have started enjoying listening to Upanyasams and Pravachanams (lecturing/story
telling in an analytical manner) thanks to my parents, who now watch only Bhakti
channels day and night on the television.
As I listen to these
Upanyasams I don’t experience the usual feeling of Bhakti, but I try to
assimilate the information, analyze and later look for solutions in real life
situations. The advantage is that, I can listen to these, as I carry on with my
other chores.
A couple of years ago, I had
listened to a famous Pediatrician speak about an episode from the Mahabharata,
on a television show.
During
their exile in the forests, the Pandava
princes come across a Brahmin
who complains that a deer has taken away his Arani (The pair of wooden blocks to generate fire
by friction) on its antlers and therefore he is not able to light the fire for
the performance of Vedic rituals. The valorous Pandava princes set out to
retrieve the Brahmin's Arani and follow the hoof-marks of the deer.
In
the quest of the mysterious deer, Dharmaraja (Yudhishthira) becomes exhausted and thirsty. His
brother Nakula ventures
out to fetch water and finds a beautiful lake. The lake is devoid of any living
creature except a crane (Baka). When he attempts to take water from the lake,
the crane speaks, "O Nakula! The water of this lake will turn into poison
if you take it without satisfactorily answering my questions." Nakula, in
arrogance, does not pay heed and hurriedly takes water from the lake. Upon drinking
the crystal clear water, Nakula instantly dies of poisoning. Nakula's twin Sahadeva, comes in search of
brother, also finds the same lake, sees Nakula dead, and is also warned by the
crane. But Sahadeva again ignores the crane and dies after drinking the water.
In the same manner, both valiant Arjuna,
and powerful Bheema meet
the same fate.
As
none of his brothers return with water, Dharmaraja embarks in search of them.
Upon following the same path, Dharmaraja too comes across the lake and finds
his brothers lying dead. Before searching for the killer of his brothers, Dharmaraja
decides to drink some water from the lake. But when the crane warns him, the
virtuous Dharmaraja proceeds to answer the questions put forth by the crane.
Before
putting the questions to Dharmaraja, the crane reveals itself as a Yaksha.
The Yaksha asks questions with philosophical and meta-physical ramifications.
This dialogue between the Yaksha and Dharmaraja is known as the Yaksha Prasna
or the Dharma-Baka Upakhyan (Legend of the Virtuous Crane).
The
orator discussed three questions and I don’t remember two of them. The one question that remained in my memory
is
“What
accompanies human beings till death? And the reply was “courage and confidence”.
I
was so impressed with this question and answer session, I discussed it with
many of my friends and also occasionally quoted and every time I felt low or
lonely, I told myself that only courage and confidence are inseparable from me
till death and every time I felt charged.
When
I saw the facebook status update cited above, I thought of quoting this, but
decided to refer before I made a statement on a social forum as the lecture in
reference was in Tamil and I did not want to mess up with the translation and so
googled for the same.
The
nearest question available on the internet is “How does a man become secure? And
the reply to the same is; “man becomes secure by courage.”
I am
not sure if this is what the Doctor discussed.
Those who have read the Mahabharata, kindly enlighten me.
