The Book Of Life – 4

“So, this was the tale of guard of Draupadi! And that prince must have been Dushashan – Du means “difficult” and Shashan means “to control.” I was triumphant after solving the mystery.

“I really appreciate these stories. They have added something to me.” I acknowledged.

By that time, the light had become so radiant that it was impossible to keep my eyes open. So I closed them.

As there was no external diversion, I started wondering again about Where was I and how did I come there.

“Am I on other plane?”

Something, hard to explain, inside me told me the answer – YES

“Is this what people call as Intuition or meditation?”

YES – the answer.

I wondered. But at the same time, I was thrilled. People call it God inside you, soul inside you, voice of self, intuition, hallucination… whatever they say, I wanted to feel that.

“Where am I?” I asked.

NO ANSWER! May be this intuition or voice of soul answers only objective questions. Never worry. Let me ask one smart question.

“I can’t get subjective answers. Can I?” I asked.

YES!!! Oh! There must be a way. I concentrated hard to find how this objective answers can become subjective. I found it was nothing but changing the focus. Focus on subtle plane. Ask for more and you will get more. And it worked. After much effort, I felt like getting something more than yes and no. Now, I was de-mystifying the hidden mystery.

I became dead few moments ago. I am now at different plane where I am to stay for some time and then go for my next birth. The book which I was reading is nothing but collection of my own autobiographies. I have written each page after living one life. All these characters are nothing but me in previous lifetime. The last page of this book contains details about my last life.

All this revelation was so quick and shocking that I didn’t react at all for some time. How couldn’t I remember my death just few moments ago and started reading the book? And this idea of previous lifetime and my own stories in that book… Have I become mad or so? I opened my eyes and noticed that light was normal.

I hurriedly opened the last page of that book and read it. I regained my memory. Yes, it was about my life. Well, about my last life. But so what? How can I believe that I had previous lifetime and all the accounts given in this book relate to me?

“GOD, HELP ME! Reveal your mystery! Show me the truth!” I prayed.

I closed my eyes and a source of knowledge sprouted inside me.

“Why did I have to read this book – the book of life?” – I asked.

“So that you can learn your lessons which you ought to learn. Life is nothing but opportunities to learn lessons. “– the answer

“But I didn’t get any lessons from it. I simply read it. That’s all.”

“That’s the mistake you have been committing each time you came across the book. Each story has hidden meanings behind it.

The first story – story of Brahmavetas is about your inborn divinity.  You were born spiritual, born self. You got devoted father and mother to help you realize your path. As each material life adds some karmik bondage, all you were doing was to remove that bondage to merge yourself with that higher Self. You had deep compassion for all Jivas. That is why you helped that lioness and cubs. But when you thought: “I have saved them. “; you forgot your knowledge and became ignorant.  The idea of doer ship implanted ego inside you and now you were bound with the fruits of your doer ship. You were therefore connected with that lioness and two cubs through invisible thread of Karma. And it was going to take many lifetimes for you all to break that thread! You also prayed and urged god to have your present lifetime parents as your parents in next life. That bound three of you in next few lifetimes.

Your link with your previous life parents remained intact as they became your next life parents. This time also they gave you spiritual Sanskaras and you were on the path of spirituality. Your name has significant meaning. Brahmavetas means the one who is inclined towards Brahma – the path of realization. Now, you became Uttamanas – means that one that has got sound and calm mind. Thus, you descended from layer of Atma (Self) to the layer of mind due to inclusion of Ego.

In the role of Uttamanas, you had great liking of truth. But that truth was relative, not absolute. The truth the mind creates after judging some criteria can never be the absolute truth. You expected others to follow the truth. When one realizes absolute Truth, one does not ask and force others to follow the path simply because one then only respects GOD’s plans.

Needless to say that your three friends were that lioness and two cubs. The bond that was formed between you linked you all together in that life. Shashivrata – the incarnation of that lioness – was fond of lions and tigers for obvious reasons.  That day, when you were fearful of a lion – it was in fact the lion who had found somehow that Shashivrata had some relationship with lions. That is why he followed you. But at last he found his food and grabbed the boy. The boy had, however, other link with that lion.

The tribal chief behaved against the Dharma. But you followed him. It was destined that before any of you were killed, the mother of chief would come and save you. But you acquired great hatred and revenge inside you. You became insane by two qualities – attachment and anger. And you attacked the chief. He then killed you. Thus, you interrupted God’s plan. And it then required many lifetimes to correct that defect!

The lifetime of Divakar was the time when you had stopped going downward. It was a complex expression of yours. You were clearly penchant for the path of knowledge. But the Sanskaras and Vrittis that you gathered during your previous lifetimes had their definite impacts. So, even though you got higher knowledge of path, you got under the impression of these Sanskaras. One of such unfulfilled and unripe Sanskaras was greed for knowledge and fame. Though former was for good purpose, later one unbalanced you.

Your thoughts about cast system were right but the way you executed them showed that the overall system was correct. Those who can not digest the knowledge may make it dangerous for them and others. That is what exactly happened to you! You learned all things but could not digest them due to your past Sanskaras and it is rightly said that ignorance is better than half knowledge.

The son of King that helped you learn was none other than Shri Ram! It is strange that if he was god and knew that this knowledge was going to destroy the virtue of Ayodhya, then why he helped you. It was because that was destined. It was simply plan of God and you both were playing your parts.

Your frustration for recognition overcame your knowledge and you wrote that letter. Though the letter itself contained nothing wrong, due to the motive you had while writing, you got attached with it. You hated yourself and repented for your whole life for the work that required no remorse. You were simply playing your part. But as you did not know that, you wasted your last years in regret – the fruit of your work of writing that letter!

While that which you did not recognized was the plan superior and the fact that you were one of the characters of that plan. Sitaji is symbolic form of Bhakti. Ram is Brahma. Ravan represented Pride. If Bhakti has got even the slightest touch of pride, it can not reach the lord. The slightest hint of pride destroys very nature of Bhakti and the bond devotee and God shares, is broken. It was then the symbolism that preached this. Bhakti has two sons – Gyan (knowledge) and Karma (work) in form of Luv and Kush. Both of them have to walk on their path to reach to God – Ram. That is why initially they were away from Ram. Both met their father after considerable effort.  When Bhakti gets its purest form, the physical form vanishes. That is why Sitaji abandoned physical form and merged into Ram. But then you didn’t know one thing. The Maya is Strirupa (feminine) and Bhakti is also Strirupa. Therefore, Bhakti is seldom seduced by Maya. Sitaji never got a slightest touch of Maya.