Pratapbhanu, a righteous king who is cursed to be Demon

In my son's school, celebration of Dussehra is going on. So, we are instructed to make Ravan craft for Dussehra Activity. My wife along with my entire family is busy to prepare for Kanya Puja and therefore, it is only I who is free because I don't participate in such rituals. However, I don't criticise them. They do what they like. And I do what I think is right for me. As per my understanding, Maa Aadi Shakti is everywhere in every atom. To me, the best way to serve Her is to preserve nature, the feminine power and to respect women. 

So being the only member free at home, I have been given this responsibility.

 

To be honest, I am not good in Craft Work. Even during my B.Ed., it was one of the most difficult task for me. Nevertheless, I have to do and so I start. 

While making it, a thought comes -- very few people know the story of Ravan. Most of them know that he was a bad guy. However, he wasn't.

Ravan whom you burn every year wasn't evil in his previous life. His story of becoming Ravan is more than a tragedy. He was Pratapbhanu, a righteous king in his past life. Being very truthful, generous and philanthropic, he defeated and killed many demons and evil kings.

He won all seven islands and became Chakravarti. Also, he performed 1000 yagyas and ruled like Indra. His minister was Dharmaruchi (followers of truth) and very wise.

"Then, how did he become Ravan?" 

You may have this question in your mind.

See, the law of Karma is very strange. His digvijaya (victor over the World) and himsa (violence) also played a part.

Not because of his evil deeds but because of his ambitions. 

He was cursed for a sin which he didn't even commit. 

Now, let's see the point where he along with his entire family were cursed to be reincarnated as demons.

Once he went for a hunt and chased a wonderful boar. That boar was actually a demon named Kalaketu whose family Pratapbhanu had killed earlier.

After being lost and thirsty in the forest, he saw an Ashram. There lived a rival king whose kingdom Pratapbhanu had won. That rival was sitting disguised as a sage. He recognised Pratapbhanu but Pratapbhanu did not recognise him.

That false sage admired his ambition. He said he can make his empire greatest and immortal. He told Pratapbhanu to organise a grand bhog for Rishis and said, "I will cook with my maya and prepare it."

So a huge feast was organised. The food was secretly mixed with meat. Just when Rishis sat to eat, an Akashvani stopped them, "Don't eat, there is meat in it". The Rishis got angry and cursed Pratapbhanu that he along with his entire family will be born as demons in next life.

Then again a voice from sky said it was not his fault, he was innocent. So to balance it, he was given that he will not forget his knowledge even in demon body.

In Jain tradition, it is said that their next Tirthankar, enlightened man will be none-other-than Ravan himself. Chandramohan Jain popularly known as Osho Rajneesh also stated that one who has reached at the peak of evil will become good and vice versa.

To explain it vividly, he gave the example of a paper. If you write on it with black ink and keep writing, the paper will turn black. And now if you really want to write something on it, you have to use white ink only.

So, in his next life, he will definitely become an enlightened man.

Why and how?

Because he already had completed a Cycle...

From my perspective, Ravan is much better than us. 

Happy Dussehra!

Updated for privacy.

A Whisper I hear Every Morning

Life is by default full of uncertainty. Don't plan and re-plan your retirement after 60. And don't be too obsessed that you have to do this, do that for your child. But if that doing is coming from your very existence, do it without any second thought right now at this very moment.

40, 50, 60 are warning signs. Maybe you have only 60 years in aggregate. So, do what you want. If you feel like mediating, meditate. If you feel like writing, sit and write. It's what I strongly feel. You may feel a strong drive for something else. Do that. Don't wait.

In the attendance register of life, things will come suddenly, spontaneously.

Explore the truth inside you. 

Sit with yourself.

This very moment is very precious. Live it. Enjoy it. Feel it. But the way of living, enjoying and feeling should be your own. 

Don't borrow others' way because by doing so, you will never feel that fullness inside you. 

How I feel after completing The Play: Shakti…

This feeling is a very rare kind of experience for me. I am learning how to surrender my ego while writing. Still learning. 

I feel that the hands and mind are not mine and the words too are coming from somewhere else. Nevertheless, it doesn't mean I am a believer. 

No, I am not. And how can I? I need to be someone to be a believer.

You can call me void or Shunya. However, this word will never define me exactly. No words can define who actually I am. 

I am learning to relax my mind and let the mind do the rest of things for me, yet I remain a silent watcher. I feel that this body which I am using as a tool is not me. I am something else. Something beyond thoughts and feelings from where the life comes, from where the breath comes and goes.  

I have learnt that being an ordinary human being is something extraordinary. 

I finally feel contented to give words to my experience, to give words to that which is not. Some may say now it's time to rest. Stop writing. 

But rest is not for me until I am in this body. 

I know what I am writing will never be understood by all. Not because I am writing something difficult but because people lack patience. They lack stillness. And without stillness, my words will never work on them.

Even in dreams, I feel like writing or walking in old paths. Sometimes mountains, sometimes unknown paths, sometimes someone whispering thoughts in my ear. Most of them, I forget and a very few, I successfully recall. Like this morning, I felt a strong line inside my mind but I forget it now.

But the relics are there.

But the impressions are there.

Day 8 and 9: Mahagauri, Siddhidatri and Krishna — The Rise of the Cosmic Consciousness, Shiva within the Human Mind

[Spotlight on the Child]

Child: Yesterday, Satya revealed us that there is only one power working in all living beings.

[Both Anant and Monk enter from the right.]

Monk: The goodness inside human beings is the only hope that can save this world.

Anant: What can I see, and where are all the people going?

Monk: They are shopping for Durga Ashtami and Maha Navami. They will worship the nine different attributes of Maa Jagdamba tomorrow morning.

Anant: Okay, I get it now. So they become good now and therefore overcome their inner weaknesses.

Monk: They can never. They all come under the dominance of Trigunamayi Mahamaya. So they can never surpass the three gunas: Sattva, Rajas, Tamas.

But if they learn to cut the string tied between their mind and their True Self, the Cosmic Consciousness, they can surpass the three gunas and reach the fourth level, Turiya.

Anant: You mean then they will become Drashta, like us.

Monk: No, we haven't achieved that state yet, because we still have two different identities.

Anant: But we are seeing the state of the world from a distance.

[Child appears.]

Child: But we are seeing it through the filter of our subtle ego, and thus we have subtle bodies, which are also called astral bodies.

[Monk smiles and Anant looks at the Monk in surprise.]

Monk: We have the dominance of Sattva, and that's why we sometimes come back into creation to save others, and it means we are still in duality.

Child: Yes.

Anant: Can we acquire that fourth state called Turiya?

Monk: We can, but for this we all need to take birth again.

Anant: You mean to become mortal again.

Child: Yes.

[Shakti appears suddenly.]

Shakti: Aren't you all forgetting something?

Anant: Yes, we forgot to see what's going on on Earth. So let's see.

[Curtain opens.]

Shree: Everything is looking so beautiful.[happily]

Satya: Yes, I am feeling so good.

Shree: Let's see what people are doing.

[Both of them take the form of 8-year-old girls and go towards the city noise.]

Shree: Everything seems so good.

Satya: No...[saddened]

Shree: What happened?

Satya: They are pretending to be good, but they aren't.

Shree: How can you say this?

Satya: Because I dwell inside their hearts.

Shree: What are these women doing?

Satya: They are doing Kanya Puja, but they are doing it only so they get wealth, prosperity and material possessions in their future lives.

Shree: It's so bad.

Satya: But there are some who genuinely worship Maa Durga.

Shree: And they are less performers, more like Karma Yogis.

Satya: Now you get it. Maa Durga wants us to be Karma Yogis.

Shree: Wait, but this message was given by Bhagwan Shree Krishna to Arjuna. Isn't it?

Satya: Yes, and who is Shree Krishna actually? Do you know?

Shree: You mean Maa Parvati is Krishna Himself. [startled]

Satya: Yes, I am Shiva. In Dwapara Yuga, I, Shiva, took the form of Radha, and Maa Parvati incarnated as Krishna.

Shree: You mean my Prabhu Shree Hari and Maa Shakti are the same?

Satya: Yes.

[Anant appears in the form of a common layman.]

Anant: Satya, also known as Radha Ji, is none other than Shiva, who is also called the Cosmic Consciousness, and Krishna is Maa Parvati, The Cosmic Force/Cosmic Order Herself.

Shree: But there is one more form of Maa known as Siddhidatri. Who is she?

[Monk appears as an old man.]

Monk: Don't be so ignorant, Maa! We already know who you are. You yourself are Maa Siddhidatri.

[After this, Krishna appears.]

Krishna: [to all] Thou art That.

[Thereafter, all living beings are absorbed into Krishna, and then neither Drashta nor Drishya remains. Now nothing left except Pure Stillness.]

The grand play ends and a new grand cycle is ready to begin because the Cosmic Play has no beginning, no end...

Writer: There is only one Cosmic Consciousness who manifests Itself into infinite mortal forms again and again.

May we all know our True Self.

Day 7: Maa Kalratri & Lord Ram — When Divine Protection Comes Out of Darkness

(Spotlight on The Child)

Child: Maa Shakti gave us a message yesterday that every living creature has an equal right to live. Humans need to understand this. Still, I couldn't see any difference. And today is the seventh day. There is great commotion everywhere and humans are pleading for mercy. Anant and Monk have left their positions to help them, but there seems to be no hope for mankind.

Let's see what Monk and Anant are doing.

(Curtain rises. Monk and Anant, disguised in different human forms, are working hard to rescue people.)

Anant: Give me your hand, boy. Don't worry, I will save you.

Boy (afraid): But I don't know you. Who are you?

Anant: Don't think too much, just give me your hand.

(The boy gives his hand and Anant saves him.)

Monk: Where are your family members?

Boy (worried): I... I don't know.

Anant (consoling): Don't worry about them. We will rescue them.

Monk: Yes, we will rescue them.

(Shree appears suddenly and the boy gets afraid.)

Boy (frightened): Who are you? And why are you looking at me with such angry eyes?

Shree (with anger): Do you forget what you did last week? You burnt a lot of poly bags just for fun. But you hardly thought what impact it would have on the environment.

Boy (startled): How do you know? I... I did it just for fun. I didn't know what impact it would have on our environment. I beg your pardon.

Monk: We can talk about it after saving his family. So let's save them first.

Anant: I can see them. They are on the roof of their house. They are also worried about this boy.

Boy: I was at my friend's home when this tragedy happened. My friend was saved by his family, but they left me as there was no more space left in their boat.

Shree: I know humans are selfish.

(Darkness spreads everywhere and Shree turns into Kalratri. Monk and Anant fold their hands and bow to show their reverence to Maa.)

Anant: All hail to you, Maa. Save them. Have mercy on them.

Kalratri: I will, because I cannot see them dying before my eyes.

(Then Shree looks at Monk and Anant and laughs.)

Anant: Please have mercy on them.

(Out of the heart of Maa Kalratri, Parmatma Ram emerges.)

Lord Ram: (Holds his Dhanush-Baan and recites the holy mantra and a divine arrow appears): I will save them all.

(A white light spreads everywhere and Ram, residing in everyone's heart, takes control of all human beings. Thereafter, every human being comes forward to save each other and in this way, all are saved.)

Shree (happily): Humans have goodness too!

Lord Ram: Yes, they have, because I reside in the heart of all living beings and that's why I am called Sarvavyapi Paramatma.

(All Devas appear in the sky and start singing the glory of Lord Ram and Maa Aadi Shakti.)

Devas: Maa Jagdamba, it is you who are Lord Ram Himself.

(Lord Ram changes into the form of Shakti and then Shakti into the form of Satya.)

Satya: There is only one power working in all living beings. 

(Curtain closes)

Deep Down

Whatever you hate is there in your mind,

Deep down

Whatever you avoid is there in your mind,  

Deep down

At the bottom,

In the darkest chamber of hell called shadow --

It lives there, waiting to come.

Day 6: Katyayani & Varaha - Nature as Destroyer of Imbalance

(Spotlight on. Anant and the Monk appear together.)

Monk: Satya saved us in the previous episode, but we still refuse to listen to her voice — the voice of conscience.

Anant: I already warned you — change and prevent, else there will be a positive check.

Child: (emerges from the heart of the Monk) Let's see what Shree and Satya are talking about.

(Curtain on)

Shree (to Satya): I already told you about them.

Satya (disappointedly): I thought I could change them, but they hardly listen to me.

(Shakti appears again, out of the heart of Satya.)

Shakti (to Satya): Don't be disappointed. You tried. Let them face the consequences now.

Satya: They are ignorant. They don't know what they are doing.

Shree (in disdain): No, they are not. They know everything. Actually, they are greedy and self-centric.

Shakti (turning into a storm): No, they have to pay for it.

(Thereafter, wind starts blowing and dark clouds cover the sky.)

Satya (talking to herself): There are many innocent people too.

(Monk reappears along with Anant, trying to save the innocent people. Anant takes the form of a strong, muscular man and Monk becomes an old, wise man.)

Satya (smiling): They will save them.

Shree: Where is the child?

Satya: He is there as Drashta — the Witness.

(Shree disappears after listening to it.)

Satya: Shree... Shree... Where are you?

(There is great commotion created by Nature. All the houses, schools, colleges are full of water. People are being rescued by volunteers and farmers have faced a big loss. Some of them even died while saving others, and Satya is watching all this from a distance.)

Shakti (appearing in front of Satya): Now they will understand why nature and wildlife should be preserved.

(Satya remains quiet, saying nothing.)

Shree: (reappears) They get what they deserve.

(That evening is beautiful. The air is cool. No pollution, no noise — just a surreal silence and a blissful sunset. It seems as if Shakti is smiling.)

Shakti (appearing again in a different form half Varaha and half Shakti): Every living creature has equal right to live. Humans need to understand this.

(Curtain close.)