Spiritual Stories by Ramana

[Guest guest]

BRAHMA'S PRIDE

 

A family came from a distant place to seek solace from the grief of

losing six sons; the last child had recently died. As though Bhagavan

had inspired the question, a devotee asked about using pranayama and

other practices to prolong life to enable them to become realised

souls, jnanis.

 

Bhagavan gently replied, " Yes, people do live long if they do these

practices, but does a person become a jnani, a realised soul, by

living long? A realised soul has really no love for his body. For one

who is the embodiment of bliss, the body itself is a disease. He will

await the time to be rid of the body. "

 

A devotee said, " Some people say we have lived for fifty years, what

more is needed? As though living so long were a great thing! "

 

" Yes, " said Bhagavan with a laugh, " that is so. It is a sort of pride

and there is a story about it. "

 

IT SEEMS THAT in the olden days, Brahma once felt proud of the fact

that he was long-lived. He went to Vishnu and said, " Do you not see

how great a person I am! I am the oldest living person

(chiranjeevi). " Vishnu told him that was not so and that there were

people who had lived much longer than he. When Brahma said that could

not be, since he was the creator of all living beings, Vishnu took

him with him to show him people older than him.

 

They went along until, at a certain place, they found Romasa

Mahamuni. Vishnu asked him his age and how long he expected to

live. " Oho! " said Romasa, " you want to know my age? All right, listen

then and I will tell you. This era (yuga) consists of so many

thousands of years. All these years put together make one day and one

night for Brahma. It is according to these calculations that Brahma's

life is limited to one hundred years. When one such Brahma dies, one

of the hairs of my body falls out. Corresponding to such deaths as

have already occurred, several of my hairs have fallen out, but many

more remain. When all my hairs fall out, my life will be over and I

shall die. "

 

Very much surprised at that, they went on to Ashtavakra Mahamuni, an

ascetic with eight distortions in his body. When they told him about

all the above calculations, he said that when one such Romasa

Mahamuni dies, one of his own distortions would straighten, and when

all the distortions had gone, he would die. On hearing this, Brahma

was crestfallen. Similarly, there are many stories. If true

realization is attained, who wants this body? For a Realised Soul who

enjoys limitless bliss through realization of the Self, why this

burden of the body?