Satyopanisad

[Guest guest]

Swami! We often hear the word srti. Does this word have any bearing upon the

life of the ordinary man? This sr ti , is it only for scholars? For us, the

common people, does it have any relevance?

 

Srti is divine. Mati, mind, is human, worldly, and conditions your progress.

Srti guides buddhi, intellect, and furnishes it with fundamental discrimination.

Mati functions at the level of the separate individual. In man, three nitis or

principles operate: manavaniti , the human code, rajaniti , the political code,

and daivaniti , the divine code. Man's estate and fortune depend on the code he

follows. For instance, Bhishmacharya taught rajaniti , principles of kingship,

to Dharmaja. On another occasion, following daivaniti, he passed on to Dharmaja

the celebrated Visnusahasranama , the thousand names of Vishnu. But, when he led

the war as the Commander-in-chief on the side of the Kauravas, he forgot the

divine sr ti , and lost his fundamental discrimination. He followed his mati,

mind, which is his own individually. Because of this, he had to lie down on the

bed of arrows for so many days.

 

In contrast, note the role of young Abhimanyu. For that day's fighting in the

Mahabharata war, Drona had designed the military manouvre called Padmavyuha, the

lotus maze. The forces of the enemy were spurring Abhimanyu on to take up the

challenge. Noticing that the heroic Abhimanyu was getting ready to fight, his

mother said, " My son! Your father is not at home now. Your uncle Krishna too is

not here. You know your wife is pregnant. It is in these circumstances that you

are planning to enter the battlefield. Please desist from this! " Abhimanyu's

response reflects his adherence to rajaniti : " How come, mother, that you din

into my ears words of cowardice? When the enemy challenges you to fight, is it

consistent with rajaniti to say, `no'? Does it accord with the dharma of a

Kshatriya warrior? What an insult it would be to my father, the greatest of

heroes, Arjuna! Won't he hang his head down in shame? O Mother! Bless me to

return victorious, routing the enemies like the young lion leaping on to the

elephant in must! " This indeed, is rajaniti . In this manner, manavaniti takes

the cue from the mati, mind, of an individual even as sr ti , being divine,

stimulates the intellect into fundamental discrimination. Thus, Abhimanyu, who

behaved the way he did, died heroically. Similarly, in life the good meets with

only the good. Evil necessarily encounters only evil. This law never failed.