Yaksha Prashnam Questions 72 - 75

Continued From: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/03/yaksha-prashnam-questions-68-71.html

What is this world surrounded by? Why isn’t light emitted by this world? Why do people who reside in this world abandon their friends? Why do the residents of this world go to hell instead of heaven?

What is this world surrounded by?

The world is engulfed by the darkness of ignorance called as “agnanam”. It is impossible for anyone to know everything. If we have expertise in one area it means that we do not have knowledge in other areas. A learned Pundit was approached by a common man. The man had been given a piece of paper by his master and instructed to deliver items to the address on the paper. Unfortunately the man was an illiterate. He requested the Pundit to read the address for him. The Pundit made fun of the man because he couldn’t even read a simple address. A few minutes later the Pundit was a witness to a car accident. The police asked the Pundit if he had information about the car’s number plate. The Pundit answered that the license plate was in a language he did not understand and hence he was unable to provide this information. The common man who had earlier asked the Pundit to read the address was also present nearby. He in turn pointed out the Pundit’s inability to read the car license plate.

We can never obtain complete knowledge in this world. Swami Vedanta desikan suggested that we should try to gain only essential knowledge in this world; we should realize that the purpose of our birth is to strive to attain the Lord’s feet, we must abandon negative feelings of anger, lust and greed, we must do what we think and preach. By following Swami Desikan’s advice we can attain Sri Vaikuntham. Only after reaching Sri Vaikuntham we will be freed from the dark fog of ignorance.

Why isn’t light emitted by this world?

The world does not emit light due to laziness. The world’s light is the self-illuminated knowledge of its residents. Our laziness prevents us from attaining knowledge. The wrong type of food we consume make as lazier. Thus it is essential to eat only the prescribed food. It is said that anyone who consumes food before taking a shower in the morning is considered to be eating feces. A person who eats without meditating upon the Lord is eating blood and the person who eats without offering the food to God is consuming dung of animals like horses and elephants. Such wrong practices of consuming food prevent us from obtaining knowledge.

Why do people who reside in this world abandon their friends?

We abandon friends because we desire the things they possess. This leads to anger and jealousy which in turn makes us abandon our friendship.

Why do the residents of this world go to hell instead of heaven?

The people in this world go to hell instead of heaven because they keep wrong company. There are five major sins as listed below.

1. Lying
2. Coveting the other’s spouse
3. Using drugs and alcohol which numb our senses
4. Hating someone without reason
5. The fifth sin is remaining the friend of a person who does all of the above sins.

Thus by abandoning Asat-Sangam we can attain heaven. By heaven the Yakshan is referring to Sri Vaikuntham which could only be attained by developing Sat-Sangam.

Continued On: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/03/yaksha-prashnam-questions-76-79.html

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Based on, Yaksha Prashnam - A discourse in Tamil by Sri U.Ve. Karunakaran Swamy
(Any errors or inconsistencies in the following series are due to the mistakes I made while taking notes. ) 

Copies of the CDs can be obtained from Sri Karunakaran Swami’s website http://www.nadadoor.org/ . This series is for the benefit of people who do not understand Tamil. Those of you who understand Tamil very well must definitely obtain a copy of Swami’s Upanyasam. You can do so by contacting Nadadoor.org. Swami also renders discourses in English but I am not sure if Yaksha Prashnam discourse is available in English.  The experience of listening to Swami’s upanyasams could never be obtained by reading the following series. I have done my best to take notes with due diligence. I apologize for any errors that I have made while writing this series.