The story of understanding the life
(THE THREE MISERIES OF LIFE)
Once upon a time the sage Maithreya approached the great sage Parasara
to know about to attain Supreme Bliss. The
great sage Parasara started to narrate thus:
Oh! Maithreya! After learning about
the three afflictions, Aadhyaathmika, Aadhibhouthika and Aadhidhaivika, a wise
man attains knowledge and detachment which leads to Supreme Bliss.
Aadhyaathmika affliction is of two kinds: of the body and of the
mind. Bodily afflictions are of many
kinds-fever, headache, eye infection, leprosy, swelling, afflictions, vomiting
and so on. Afflictions of the mind are
also diverse-desire, anger, fear, hatred, greed, delusion, sorrow and so on.
Aadhibouthika afflictions are caused by birds, beasts, men, ogres and
Rakshasas, serpents etc.
Aadhidhaivika afflictions are due to extreme cold, heat, rain, thunder and
lightning.
Oh! The best of sages! The sorrow caused by conception, birth, old age,
death and the after world are thousand-fold.
Inside the mother’s womb, the beautiful baby is surrounded by blood and
mucus. The baby has to put up with the different
foods-salty, spicy and so on-consumed by the mother. It has to live amidst urine and feces. The birth of a child again involves a lot of
difficulty. The mother also undergoes a
lot of pain during delivery. In infancy,
one needs the help of others for drinking, eating, bathing and so on. In youth, there is a great ignorance about oneself. Who am I? Where am I going? What are the bonds that shackle me? What is the right action and what is
not? These are questions which baffle
one cause much unhappiness.
In old age the troubles are many.
One is not able to see afar. The
pupils of the eyes have gone inside. The
body shakes, the bones have become brittle and the back is bent. Sitting down and laying down have become
difficult tasks. There is difficulty in
hearing and seeing. One needs others
help to stand up and sit down. There is
the fear of being insulted by one’s own servants. One remembers one’s sturdy youthful days.
I shall now proceed to tell you what one experiences at death after
suffering the above ailments. The neck,
fingers and body have started shaking; there is tiredness all over. What will happen to my gold, my grain, my
sons, my wife, my servants and my house after I am gone? These are the troubling thoughts that occur
at the time of death. There is intense
hunger and excessive thirst when ine is afflicted by death.
Now you shall hear what one would experience in the after world. Initially one would meet Yama-kinkaras-the
servants of Yama-the god of death. The sight
of Yama is frightful; he pulls everyone with his long ropes and beats them with
his stick. The path is horrible to look
at. In Naraka, the sinners are tortured
with sand, gravel, fire, machines, weapons and knife. People undergo tortures commensurate with the
sins they have committed. They are
countless in number. Beating with stick,
roasting in a crucible, cutting with an axe, buried alive in the sand, set
aloft a spear, stuffed inside a tiger’s mouth, left to be preyed upon by
vultures, given as food to the leopards, boiled in oils-these and others are
the tortures to be endured in Hell. Do
not think that the sufferings are restricted to Hell alone. There is no respite even for those who have
reached Heaven. For they have to be born
again. They have to reside in the womb and
then emerge out. Those who are born have
to die. Whether in infancy, youth,
middle age, everyone has to undergo suffering of one kind or the other. There is a lot of worry when one is
accumulating wealth and tries to keep it safe.
Desire is the root cause of distress.
Thus a man has no recourse to escape from the travails of this world
with birth and death, except by resorting to the shade of Moksha-the salvation.
Therefore, endeavour should be taken by wise man to reach the goal, the
fruit of which will be wisdom of the special kind. One should be away from the ignorance
always. Ignorance caused by the senses
is like the darkness; knowledge born of discrimination is the sun which
illumines like the lamp.
Thus, by knowing these things with proper understanding one can become
wise and definitely he alone attains the Supreme Bliss.
(This story is
taken from the Mahaa Bharatam)
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