A short story

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Yudishthira was full of dejection and renunciation

after the Kurukshetra war. He went to meet Bhishmadeva

who was lying on the bed of arrows. Yudhishthira laid

bare his mental condition before Bhishma. Bhishma gave

him advice through the following story:

 

There was a Brahmin who had a beautiful and virtuous

eight-year-old son. Suddenly, the boy died of snake

bite. The Brahmin was very much overpowered by grief

at this. Later, the snake was caught by a hunter. The

hunter brought the snake to the Brahmin and told him

to punish the snake suitably for killing his son. The

sattvika Brahmin, however, did not want to punish the

snake. He said, 'By punishing the snake, I will not

get back my dead son; so please release the snake.'

 

The hunter did not appreciate the words of the

Brahmin; he started blaming and scolding the snake.

Then the snake said, 'Why do you blame me for killing

the Brahmin's son? I have just followed Yama's order.'

At this, the hunter started accusing Yama who said, 'I

am not at all responsible for the death of the

brahmin's son. His kala (time for death) had arrived

and I had to follow the advice of kala.' Kala was

called who said in defence, 'What more could I do? It

was the boy's past samskara which brought his death by

snake bite. Hence his samskara alone is responsible

for his death.'

 

Nobody had anything more to say and the Brahmin,

having come to know of his son's samskaras, was

relieved of the grief.

 

This excerpt is taken from a Vedanta Kesari article,

'Spiritual Talks' by Swami Vishuddhanandaji -

http://www.sriramakrishnamath.org/Magazine/VK/vkarticlecat.asp

 

 

 

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