Yaksha Prashnam Questions 93 - 96

Continued From: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/03/yaksha-prashnam-questions-89-92.html

What does a person obtain by speaking only agreeable words? By acting with good judgment after analyzing the situation? What does a friend with many friends get? What does a person who always follows proper dharma get?

What does a person obtain by speaking only agreeable words?

A person who always speaks agreeable words will be loved by all but; a person should speak for the benefit of the listener. If agreeable words will not bring benefit to the listener, then the person must try to sugar coat his/her words or speak un-agreeable words even if it means losing the favour of the listener.

Ravana gathered a meeting to discuss about the impending war. He wanted ideas on saving his kingdom while retaining Sita. As the criteria of the meeting had been set as “retaining Sita & yet win the war”, his advisers tried to encourage him by commenting on his prowess. However, Vibhishana was the only person who advised with the intention to save Ravana. Vibhishana asked Ravana to return Sita as this was the only alternative left in order to save the kingdom. As Vibhishana’s words were not accepted by Ravana, Ravana cast Vibhishana out of his kingdom. Despite knowing, that he would have to lose his position in the kingdom, Vibhishana spoke words for the benefit of Ravana.

By acting with good judgment after analyzing the situation?

A person who acts with good judgment after analyzing the situation will always be successful. There was once a poet called Bharavi. He was very famous. The people appreciated his poems but Bharavi’s father always spoke harshly to him and mocked his poetry. Bharavi’s anger against his father slowly built up till one day when Bharavi decided to murder his father. The poet climbed onto the roof and removed the tiles over his parent’s bedroom. After making an opening the poet was about to drop a boulder on his father when he heard his mother speaking. His mother asked Bharavi’s father why he always made fun of Bharavi. Bharavi immediately stood still and waited to hear his father’s answer. Bharavi’s father stated that he was very proud of Bharavi. He was afraid that if everyone praised Bharavi it may cause Bharavi to suffer from the influence of evil eye (dhrishti). He also wanted to make sure that Bharavi did not become arrogant. Once Bharavi heard his father’s words, he felt sorry that he had wanted to kill his father. The nest day he confessed to his father and asked for a suitable punishment. His father asked him to go live with his in-laws till the day when his mother in law served him salt using her left hand. According to his father’s orders Bharavi went to live with his in-laws. The first day Bharavi’s in-laws held a feast in his honour. The very next day his brother-in-law wanted to know how long he intended to stay with them. When they found out that he won’t be returning to his parents’ home in the near future, they started making ordinary meals for him. After a month his mother in law asked him to graze their cattle so that they could save the salary paid to the cowherds. Bharavi grazed the cattle every day and he would write poems while looking after the cattle. His in-laws’ neighbour was a lady whose husband was a rich travelling business man. The lady collected Bharavi’s poems and kept them inside an iron pipe in her home.

Bharavi’s mother-in-law would wait for him to return before having her meals but soon she started to have her meals before Bharavi returned home. One day Bharavi returned early while his mother in law was having her meal. As he sat down next to her to have his meal, she gave him very sour curd. Bharavi asked for some salt to neutralize the sour taste. As his mother in law was eating, she grabbed some salt with her left hand and passed it to him. Happy that he had full filled his father’s order, Bharavi left his in-laws’ home immediately.

The lady who had collected Bharavi’s poem was living alone with her son. Her husband had gone to a foreign country just before the birth of their son and he hadn’t come home for a visit yet. After twenty long years the husband returned home. He knocked on the door but as there was no answer he let himself inside. As he went into the bedroom he found his wife sleeping next to a twenty year old man. Jumping to conclusion that his wife was involved in inappropriate behaviour with the stranger, the man grabbed an iron pipe from the cupboard to smash his wife’s brains. As he swung the pipe, a few scrolls fell down. Curious to see the content of the scrolls, the man picked them up. The scrolls contained the poems written by Bharavi. The first poem advised people to act only after they have all the facts. Taking this to be a sign, the man dropped the pipe and awoke his wife. She was happy to see him and woke their son who had never met his father. The man felt relieved that he had not acted rashly.

Thus a person who acts after analyzing all the facts will always be happy and successful

What does a friend with many friends get?

A person with many friends will always be happy. Yudhishtirar answered this question based on his personal experience. Previously when the five Pandavas escaped the attempt made by the Duryodana’s to assassinate them; they went to live in Ekachakra Puram pretending to be Brahmins. They soon came to know about Draupadi’s Swayamvaram. Durupadan the father of Draupadi had performed a yagnam in order to obtain a daughter who would marry Arjuna. As he had heard the news that the Pandavas had been killed in a fire, he decided to hold a shooting contest so that he can give his daughter’s hand in marriage to the best warrior. The Brahmins from Ekachakra Puram decided to go to Panchala the country of Durupadan to witness this contest as they felt that the king might shower dakshina on all Brahmins once the wedding of princess Draupadi takes place. The Pandavas in the guise of Brahmins accompanied the Brahmins from Ekachakra Puram. They wanted Arjuna to participate in the contest so that he can win the hand of princess Draupadi. Enroute the other Brahmins kept quizzing them on the rules & regulations to be followed by Brahmins. The Pandavas were tired of answering all the incessant questions. They decided to slip away at night fall and cross the river Ganges when the Brahmins were asleep. As per their plan at midnight, they started to cross Ganges on a boat when they were waylaid by a Gandharvan called Chitrarathan. He asked them to return back to the bank as human beings were prohibited to cross the river after 9 PM.  9 PM to midnight was the time allotted for Gandharvas and midnight to 4 AM the time allotted to Pichasas. Human beings could cross the river only after 4 AM. When the Pandavas refused to return, he challenged them by shooting arrows but to his utter amazement Arjuna was able to resist his onslaught by shooting arrows which destroyed the arrows shot by Chitrarathan. (Arjuna’s arrows were similar to Patriot missile sent to sink skud missile during the Gulf war) Chitrarathan immediately realized that Arjuna was a great warrior. He wanted to befriend Arjuna as well as all the Pandavas. Yudhishtirar gracefully accepted Chitrarathan’s friendship. The Pandavas were directed by Chitrarathan to seek Dhaumya Maharishi to be their Acharyan. He also gave 360 high quality horses as a gift to them which they asked him to keep it in reserve till the day when they needed these horses.

Many years later the Pandavas went to live in the forest after losing their kingdom to Duryodana. The evil minded Duryodana wanted to see the Pandavas suffer in person. He decided to set up a camp near the Pandavas’ residence and wanted to mock their modest living. He sent his men to set up a lavish camp near the very modest residence of the Pandavas. As they were setting up camp, Chitrarathan’s men arrived and ordered them to leave the area as it had been reserved for the personal use of Chitrarathan. Duryodana and his men refused to stop. Immediately Chitrarathan and his men started to wage war. Duryodana and his men were unable to defend themselves. Karna forgot the lessons on warfare due to the curse of sage ParasuRama; he therefore ran away from the battle abandoning Duryodana. Chitrarathan’s men captured Duryodana and his brothers. The Gandharvas dragged the Duryodanas away. Duryodana’s wife rushed to the residence of the Pandavas and sought the help of Yudhishtirar. Yudhishtirar was in the middle of a Yagnam. He convinced Arjuna and Bhīma to get the release of the Duryodanas from Chitrarathan. As soon as the two Pandava brothers requested the release of the Duryodanas, Chitrarathan immediately obliged. Duryodana felt humiliated. He couldn’t digest the fact that he had been rescued from the Gandharvas by the Pandavas.

Chitrarathan had planned this event as soon as he had come to know about the plans of Duryodana. Chitrarathan wanted to protect the Pandavas from Duryodana’s insults and had thus dragged Duryodana away as his prisoner only to release Duryodana when his release was requested by the Pandavas.

Thus a person with many good friends like Chitrarathan will always be happy.

Friendship is an important relationship. The reason why the shastras prescribe asoucham when someone we know dies or if there is a birth in the family is to give us permission to excuse ourselves from daily duties like visiting the temples so that we can concentrate all our time on helping our friends and family members in their time of need. The only Vedic duties allowed to be performed on such days are the Sandhya Vandhanam and Grahana Tarpanam. All other Vedic duties are put on hold in order to help family and friends.

What does a person who always follows proper dharma get?

Yudhishtirar answered that the best dharmam is the performance of kaimkaryam to Perumal. Once, there existed a devotee called Narayanaswamy who did not have any progeny. Narayanaswamy spent his entire life doing kaimkaryams to Lord Aramudan. He spent his earnings on building the temple’s Raja Gopuram. After Narayanaswamy passed away, the people were worried about who will perform his last rites. When the Bhattacharyar entered the sanctum of Lord Aramudan he noticed that Perumal was wearing the yagnopavithram in the direction worn while performing last rites. The Bhattacharyar thought that he had made a mistake while decorating Perumal on the previous day. Therefore he corrected the direction of the yagnopavithram but to his utter amazement he found that the yagnopavithram switched direction again. The Bhattacharyar realized that it was Perumaal’s way of saying that He was going to perform the last rite for Narayanaswamy. Perumal performed the last rite for Jatayu during Rama Avataram and as Aramudan performed the rites for Narayanaswamy. To this day the rites are continued to be performed for Narayanaswamy at Thirukudanthai.

The above incident illustrates that the best dharmam/duty is to perform Bagawath/Bagawatha kaimkaryam. A person who dedicates his/her life to perform Bagawath/Bagawatha kaimkaryam is looked after by our Lord.

Continued On: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/03/yaksha-prashnam-questions-97-100.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.