Kenopanishad Part 4

Continued From:  http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2015/02/kenopanishad-part-3.html

The acharyan narrated an anecdote to explain the grace of the Lord and His supremacy.

‘Once, the Devas defeated the Asuras in a war. The Devas celebrated their victory.

‘Look at how we made the Asuras run for their lives!’ they exclaimed. ‘They did not dare to face our power!’

The Lord realized that the Devas had given rise to false ego (ahamkaram). He felt bad for them and wanted to teach them a lesson as, false ego causes down fall. Out of compassion, to protect the Devas, He took a giant form and stood in the form of a Yakshan blocking their path.

The Devas were returning to their homes when they saw the huge Yakshan. The moment they saw Him, they were overcome with fear.

‘Who do you think that person is?’ they asked each other. ‘We shouldn’t celebrate till we make sure that this person is not an Asuran who has come to avenge the defeat of his friends.’

‘Agni,’ called their chief Devendran. ‘Please go over to that huge person and find out who he is.’

Agni started towards the place where the Yakshan was standing as tall as a huge mountain.  As Agni neared the Yakshan he started to feel scared. He couldn’t bring the courage to interrogate the Yakshan. The Yakshan understood Agni’s fear and to start the conversation rolling, He asked Agni, ‘who are you?’

‘I am Agni’, replied Agni with trepidation. ‘I have the power to burn anything.’

‘Really? Can you burn this blade of grass?’

‘Sure!’ answered Agni looking at that insignificant blade of grass. He then used his power to reduce the grass to ashes, but in spite of his efforts the grass remained green.

Accepting defeat Agni returned to his companions.

‘I was unable to find any information about Him. He asked me to burn a blade of grass, but affected by some magic, I couldn’t reduce it to ashes!’

‘Vayu,’ called Devendran. ‘You are the strongest amongst us. Find out about the Yakshan for us.’

Vayu now approached the Yakshan. As before the Yakshan asked, ‘who are you?’

‘I am Vayu and I can blow anything!’

‘Can you blow this blade of grass?’

Vayu looked at the tiny blade of grass. He blew with all his strength, but was unable to even move the grass by a few millimetres. Vayu accepted defeat and returned to his companions.

‘I myself will go and gather information’, said Devendran.

As Devendran approached the Yakshan, the Yakshan vanished from their view!

We would wonder why the Lord as Yakshan did not test Devendran. The reason was because, Devendran is the leader of the Devas. The Lord appointed Devendran as the ruler of the Devas and it would be a bad management technique to humiliate the leader in front of his followers.

‘Where did this person go?’ murmured Devendran as he searched for the Yakshan. At that moment he saw Parvati Devi approach him. Parvati Devi is the epitome of Brahma Vidhya.

Devendran paid his obeisance to Parvati Devi and inquired about the Yakshan.

‘Para Brahmam came in the form of a Yakshan to teach you a lesson’, said Parvati Devi. ‘You had mistook His victory as your victory. It was because of His sankalpam that you could defeat the Asuras. You did not understand this and mistakenly believed that you had defeated the Asuras because of your powers! It is the Lord who gives you your powers.’

The Devas immediately understood their error. They glorified the Lord for coming to them in the form of a Yakshan to help them understand their mistake,’ the acharyan concluded the narration.

Why did Parvati Devi come to explain about the Lord and not Goddess Sri Devi? 
Continued On: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2015/04/kenopanishad-part-5.html

Reference:

This series is based on the notes adiyen took after listening to the discourse in Tamil on Kenopanishad by Sri U.Ve.Karunakarachariar Swamin. This series is for the benefit of people who do not understand Tamil. Those of you who understand Tamil please refer to the following link to listen to the original discourse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wBXKT9cCQo

I have done my best to take notes with due diligence; any error(s) in the series is because of my mistake only. I apologize in advance for any errors that I have made while writing this series