It is said that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” But have you wondered what would happen if you internalized a good story? Well, that would be worth a thousand hours of meditation.
And so, this segment titled “Legends of Vedanta” promises to bring you fables, tales, and musings from the Vedantic tradition.
But what is Vedanta? Well, Vedanta is constituted by the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Geeta (Gita).
And today’s story comes from the Muktita Upanishad.
But before I proceed, let me tell you a short anecdote from real life, from the early twentieth century.
Well, it so happened that, in the early twentieth century, several great minds of Europe, especially Quantum physicists, found great solace in the Upanishads. Not only solace, in fact, they found certain mysterious idioms, a new kind of language, through which they felt that they could express their incredible findings in quantum mechanics. Now, one of these people was Erwin Schrodinger, whom you might recognize from that famous phrase, “Schrodinger’s cat.” It is neither dead nor alive.
Well, more on that later.
Meanwhile, Schrodinger, was one of those people who were deeply inspired by the Upanishads. In fact, he even named his dog ‘Atman.’ And Schrodinger, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his equations in quantum wave functions, famously called his second great equation “Atman=Brahman.”
That is to say, the individual soul is united or indeed one with the universal Spirit.
And now, to the story!
Before I proceed further, let me also add that there is a very common misconception regarding the Upanishads or what we call Vedanta. In the Vedantic tradition we do not have religious rituals. We do not have religious dogma. We do not have cultural icons, either. All that we have is a tradition of meditation. It is a tradition of deep inner soul searching. It is a tradition of observing. It is a tradition of renouncing your egotistical persona.
And so, one day, Hanuman approached the great Lord Ram asking him:
“O Prabhu! How do I acquire salvation?”
Hanuman had read the Vedas. He was a great pundit.
And Lord Ram, who knew what was ailing his most favourite friend, told Hanuman:
“Well, Hanuman! If you want to acquire salvation, all you need to do is read the twelve slokas of the Mandukya Upanishad. Yes … just twelve slokas … Twenty-four lines.”
Hanuman could not believe Lord Ram.
“Prabhu,” he asked. “Only twenty-four lines? Is that all it takes to acquire salvation?”
Lord Ram said, “Yes … But you have to read it … very, very, thoroughly … You have to internalize it … It has to become a part … of every fibre … of your being.”
And Hanuman asked Lord Ram, “But what if I am not able to internalize this Upanishad as you say? What will happen then? How will I acquire salvation … in that case?”
Lord Ram said:
“Well … in such a scenario … you will have to read an entire canon of 32 or 64 or perhaps even the 108 Upanishads. If you do not want to go down that route … you better concentrate on the Mandukya Upanishad.”
But what is the Mandukya Upanishad all about?
Well! That is a story for another day.
But maybe I will leave you with a different legend.
May something that will give you a slice of what Mandukya Upanishad is all about.
And now, to the final legend of our today’s episode! This story is told by Himalayan sages when they are very bored. It is told by seniors to junior disciples. It is told from generation to generation to bequeath the legacy of the Vedantic tradition. And it is the story of Sage Ashtavakra and King Janaka (the father of Sita).
It is believed that one day King Janaka had a frightful nightmare. In the nightmare, he saw that he had been suddenly defeated by an unknown king. He had been separated from his family.
He could not see his courtiers, let alone his generals. And he was out there in the open field, weak, emaciated, famished. He had not eaten for several days. And out in the distance he saw a long queue waiting for a bowl of porridge. And that is where he went. And so, after waiting for hours and hours, and finally reaching the finishing point … finally when he could grab that bowl of porridge, tt suddenly fell from his hand. Somebody had snatched it and thrown it away.
And there lay King Janaka, distraught, defeated all over again, entirely ruined in his mind. And suddenly he woke up.
Lo and behold! He should have been full of joy to realize that this was just a dream. He wakes up in his bed. His wife starts fanning him. His courtiers arrive. His family is relieved. But what happens? King Janaka senses that something has changed forever.
And that is he, himself.
He starts muttering:
“Was that true … Or is this true … ?”
“Was that true … Or is this true … ?”
And on and on he goes for hours and hours, and hours on end. His courtiers are now worried.
They bring documents for him to be signed. And all he can do is to say “Was that true … Or is this true … ?” Well, nobody knows what to say, what to do … They call doctors, but to no avail …
His wife is worried! His children are distraught.
His courtiers panic. The whole kingdom has come to a standstill. But coincidentally (as it generally happens in stories), Sage Ashtavakra happens to be passing on that very day through the city, the township, the Kingdom of Videha (in ancient Mithila). And Sage Ashtavakra, as you might come to know, is also credited with the authorship of the book ‘Ashtavakra Gita.’
Well, more on that some other day.
But this is how the story unfolded. Somebody told sage Ashtavakra in the market square that this is what has been going on in the court of King Janaka. He had a nightmare. He woke up. And now he cannot seem to come out of the trance of muttering:
“Was that true … Or is this true … ?”
And Sage Ashtavakra had an idea of what was wrong. He had an intuition. And so, he stepped into the court of King Janaka.
Ashtavakra asks King Janaka: “Alright King! Then answer just this one question … When you were down there in the battlefield … Lost … Emaciated … Fearful … Almost on the verge of death … And when the bowl of porridge fell from your hand … Were you conscious … Were you aware … Were you in touch with the circumstances around you?”
“Did you know what you experienced? “Were you FEELING anything? Was it you, are you sure, who felt all that?”
And King Janaka says … “Yes! I am absolutely sure … It was me!”
“Alright king!” says Sage Ashtavakra. “And now that you have woken up … And you are muttering … ‘Was that true … Or is this true …?’ Are you conscious that these are the words being spoken by you? Are you conscious that this is your family, your kingdom, your courtiers, your palace? Are you conscious? Are you aware of this all?”
And the king says … “Yes, indeed! I am … I am absolutely sure!”
And so, says Sage Ashtavakra, “Therefore, king … neither was that true, nor is this true … Only you are true.”
That is the message of the Vedantic tradition. Tat tvam asi (that thou art).
I hope you enjoyed these short legends of Vedanta. And I hope you will join me again very shortly as I take you through a five-thousand-year-old civilizational history in the form of Vedantic nuggets.
Arup K. Chatterjee 