Sri Swamiji's discourse on Katho:panishad on 10/27/2001 - Part 1of 2

[Guest guest]

Jai Srimannarayana!,

 

Asmad Gurubhyo Namaha!,

 

Dear Devotees,

 

This is a humble solo attempt by me to present what Sri Swamiji spoke

about in His discourse on the 10th manthra of the Katho:panishad. I

seek Asmadacharya's blessings in this venture. Many thanks to Sriman

Seshagiriji who helped me in preparing this content.

 

Any mistakes or errors in understanding Sri Swamiji's message are

entirely mine. Kindly pardon this soul if he is misleading you. Please

also pardon me for this long mail.

 

Previously in the first 9 slokas of the Upanishad, Nachiketas was sent

away as da:na to Yama by his father. The boy arrives in Yama Loka

and he waits there for the arrival of Yamaraja, who was out of the Yama

Loka, for three days without food and water. Yamaraja was pleased with

the boy's austerity and offers Athithi Sathka:ram and inquires about

the boy's arrival there. Later knowing the things that took place Yama

understands the situation and talks to the boy.

 

Sri Swamiji after giving the above brief introduction/review proceeded

thus. Lord Yamaraja pointed out to Nachiketas that he was mistaken at

what his father was doing as part of the Yaga. Nachiketas saw his

father distributing only cows that are useless and old to people. But

he didn't see his father giving away lot of money, lands and other

precious things too. He didn't see all the da:na programme and based

his opinion on what he saw for sometime only. Yamaraja pointed out that

Nachiketas took unwarranted responsibility of questioning his father's

activities.

Sri Swamiji specifically mentioned about the three monkeys example.

 

One monkey closes it's eyes to tell everybody not to see bad.

One monkey closes it's ears to tell everybody not to hear bad.

One monkey closes it's mouth to tell everybody not to tell anything

bad.

 

Each monkey should take care of his own responsibility. They shouldn't

do others' jobs. Meaning the monkey which should close it's eyes

shouldn't do the job of closing other monkeys' ears and mouth. That way

he is not doing his job and there is no guarantee that he

will do the others' job well. This is totally unwarranted. This is not

right.

 

Yama who was pleased with Nachiketas because of his austerity later

tells the boy to ask for three boons. Sri Swamiji touched upon the

topic of the three types of Runas here. Everybody(human) takes birth in

this earth to fulfil three debts (Runas). Humans are highly intelligent

beings and they are capable of thinking about God. Animals and other

insects, etc on the other hand cannot think of God. Devotees may ask

adiyen about Sri Hanuman who was born as a Va:nara, but he took to Rama

Namam. My humble opinion is that it is Lord's kata:ksham that lead him

to do that. For that matter any living being(insects, birds, etc, also)

can think about Him when Lord's Grace falls on it.

 

1. Pithru Runa

 

To fulfil this Runa towards our parents, grand parents, etc, one way is

by giving birth to good children or if one cannot have children, one

can adopt or take care of homeless or ana:tha or desolate children.

Giving them knowledge and guiding them properly so can practice

righteous things as per Sa:stra.

 

2. Rishi Runa

 

Rishis are sages and great people who contributed to the scriptures and

the knowledge we have today. We are expected to follow them. One way we

show our indebtedness is by performing tharpanams(giving alms), etc. We

should read the scriptures and try to understand the purport of them,

and also put sincere efforts to follow them in practice. If we cannot

read them due to disabilities or time constraints, we should at least

request other people read them for us. If we are not knowledgeable or

unqualified to read them, we should at least find such people who can

read them and offer them Sambhavana(some gift) for their Auda:ryam.

 

3. Deva Runa

 

Devatas are “unseen forces" who provide us with natural resources,

without which we cannot survive. Varuna devata gives us rains, Vayu

devatha gives us air and the movements in the air. It should be noted

here that the inner soul and master of all the devathas also(including

others) is Lord Srimannarayana. One way we fulfil this Runa towards

them is by offering tharpanams to them. We should also respect all the

devathas. All Devathas respect all humans and other moving and

non-moving entities in this universe. All the Devathas respect humans

and other forms life as they follow the Lord's orders. We too in the

same way should follow Lord's orders and respect the Devathas for

providing us the benefits. How do we know what devathas are responsible

for what activity and we don’t know all the 33 million of them. So the

recommended way is to worship Lord Krishna who is root cause of

everything. This way there will be prosperity all over the place.

Manu said “ Runaani Threeni Apaakruthya…” explains why, actually one

needs to get rid of these 3 runas? What is the need? “…..Mano deve

Nivedyacha…”, to fix our mind on the Supreme Lord Srimannarayana. If we

don’t know the alphabet, we cannot read a book. So we should first

perform these three rites, then you can keep mind on Lord.

 

Please refer to Sri Swamiji’s earlier posting on 11/2/2001 about these

Runas.

 

Sri Swamiji narrated a Ramayana Episode where this issue of respect can

be noted.

 

When Lord Rama killed Vali, Vali in his dying moments asked Sri Rama

two questions:

 

Q1. Why Sri Rama killed him although they are not in a fight with each

other and also that they are not enemies of each other.

 

A1. Rama answered that as Vali was in the Land of Bharatha where Dharma

prevails and that he was not following Dharma and was thus killed. Rama

further said that He Himself was just an executor of the same Dharma.

It was not his own prerogative to do so.

 

Q2. Why didn't Rama ask him for any help to search out for Mother Sita

and also why Rama chose Sugriva to do so.

 

A2. Lord Rama answered him by saying that when He along with Lakshmana

entered this Vanara kingdom, it was Sugriva who approached Him and also

inquired about Him and knowing the situation we are in, offered to help

Us. We accepted their offer and that is the reason why Sugriva was

assigned the job. Here Sugriva did the righteous thing by approaching

Lord Rama and respecting Him, where as Vali out of Ahanka:ram neglected

Lord Rama's presence.

 

Let us continue with the remainder of the notes on the discourse in the

next mailing with the conversation between Yama and Nachiketas.

 

Adiyen,

 

Sai Ramanuja Dasaha

 

 

 

 

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