Part 47 (1/2)

There are divine music, divine beauty, divine objects of gratification in Svarga Loka - allurements enough for a man of desire. And if his merits be great, he enjoys the things of Svarga Loka for an enormously long period.

But a man by bare intellectuality can not cross the threshold of Svarga.

The Devas reject the intruder. However much Trisanku might aspire to have the enjoyments of Svarga, and however great his intellect might be, he was not allowed to enter the coveted plane, without the pa.s.sport of spirituality. Humanity had still to learn the proper means of securing life in Svarga.

Poor and chance spiritual acquisitions give only a pa.s.sing life in Svarga and that not of a superior character. So all the knowledge as to attaining Svarga life had to be revealed in time.

The Ris.h.i.+s made great efforts to improve humanity by securing for them a prolonged existence in Svarga, most of all Ris.h.i.+ Visvamitra, one of the seven sages of our Manvantara. Visvamitra failed in his attempt to send Trisanku to Svarga. He then tried with his son Haris Chandra. It is said he advised the Raja to make a human sacrifice to Varuna. But we find the victim Sunah-sepha living after the sacrifice, under the name of Deva-rata, or one given up to the G.o.ds, and some of the Riks even were revealed to him. Haris Chandra succeeded in entering Svarga. That was a great victory for Ris.h.i.+ Visvamitra. The Vedas were revealed to the Ris.h.i.+s and sacrifices came to be known.

Narada also helped the cause in another away. He related the beauty and the virtues of king Pururavas to the Devas in Svarga. Urvasi, the famous Deva nymph, hearing all that, became enamoured of the king. She had then, by the curse of some G.o.d, a human form. So she could keep company with the King. The king was enchanted by her beauty. When she left, he followed her advice and pleased the Gandharvas. The Gandharvas gave him the fire, with which the king could perform sacrifice. The fire became threefold. With one he could perform his duties to the Devas and go to Svarga Loka. With another, he could perform his duties to the Pitris.

With the third fire, he could perform the duties of a house-holder. Thus sacrifices meant duties. And it is by the performance of duties that men can perform Vedic sacrifices and go to Svarga Loka.

The Vedas laid down injunctions and prohibitions. They regulated the actions of men, propelled by Kama or desire. Men must eat meat. The Vedas said this meat was prohibited, but that could be used. Men mixed with women. The Vedas laid down restrictions. Even they regulated the relations between man and wife. Then the Vedas laid down the duties which men owed to all cla.s.ses of beings. In order to induce men to accept the Vedic injunctions, the Vedas held out Svarga as the reward of Vedic Karma. They even favoured the belief, that there was to be immortal life in Svarga gained by the performance of Vedic Karma.

Detailed rules as to the performance of Vedic sacrifices were given. So long as men did not aspire to become Indra, or the ruler of Svarga, the Devas were pleased with the sacrifices; they helped the performer as much as they could, giving them all objects of desire, and they welcomed them to Svarga, when they pa.s.sed to that plane after death. The Devas were as friendly to the performer of Vedic Karma as they were unfriendly to the immature Trisanku.

The Vedic Karma Kanda became thus fully revealed. The revelation was made in the last Treta-yuga of the present Manvantara. ”At the beginning of the Treta Yuga, the three Vedas were revealed through Pururavas.” IX.

14-49. ”The path of Karma was promulgated in Treta Yuga, by the division of the Vedas.” _Sridhara_.

The great churning was justified. The Devas a.s.serted themselves for the good of humanity. The Ris.h.i.+s got the revelation and helped men to place themselves in active relations.h.i.+p with the Devas. Men learned to regulate themselves and to give up the wantonness of material life. And they had a strong inducement to do so in the prospect of eternal life in Svarga. The great actor in this Vedic movement was Ris.h.i.+ Visvamitra, (Hallowed be his name!) Others followed him in quick succession, and there was a brilliant combination of Vedic Ris.h.i.+s who propounded the whole of the Karma Kanda of the Vedas, as it was revealed to them by the force of Kalpic necessity.

At all times there have been two parties, one following the current of evolution, and another going against it. At all times there have been cavillers and sceptics.

The Haihayas and Talajanghas were confirmed materialists and great sinners. They ridiculed the Brahmanas, who performed Vedic Karma, and often set themselves in opposition to them. They were very troublesome to the Brahmanas. King Sagar wanted to extinguish the race, but he was prevented from doing so. Possibly Atlantis was the country inhabited by these races and Nature helped the cause of evolution by dragging down the continent itself under water. The sacred Ganga also flowed at this time, spreading purity over all lands lying on her banks.

The Haihayas however still flourished; and they had a great leader in Karta-Viryarjuna. Then came one of the great Avataras, Parasurama. He extirpated the Haihaya Kshatriyas, and went on killing the Kshatriyas till Rama appeared, and it was then that he thought his mission was over.

If there were some Kshatriyas who disregarded the Vedas, there were others who found transitoriness, even in Svarga Loka, and honestly thought that the complete wisdom was not to be found in the Karma Kanda.

They were for further revelations At first, the Brahmanas did not look with favour upon these Kshatriyas. But when it was found that the Kshatriyas got real light, they were soon joined by the Brahmanas. The foremost of these Kshatriyas was Janaka, and the foremost of the Brahmanas was Yajnavalkya. The further revelations were called the Upanishads.

King Janaka found Sita, the consort of Rama, at the end of his plough.

Yajnavalkya defeated all the Brahmanas of his time in discussions held at the court of king Janaka.

When Rama incarnated, there existed the people of Lanka, a remnant of the Atlantean continent, who had inherited a mighty material civilisation, but who were called Rakshasas, on account of their gross iniquities. They reached the last point of material downfall, and lost all spirituality. They were called Rakshasas as final extinction was their lot, and as the force of dissolution was strong in them.

Then there were the regenerate cla.s.ses, who performed Vedic sacrifices.

There were a few again, who accepted the Upanishads as a teaching, but they could not boldly declare themselves against the performance of sacrifices.

Rama finally did away with the Rakshasas. The bard who sang his glory, the great Valmiki, thus began his lay: - ”O Killer of birds, thou shalt not live for ever, as of the pair of storks thou hast killed the male, so pa.s.sionately attached to his consort.” Verily the Purusha in us, the ray of the supreme Purusha, becomes pa.s.sionately attached to the element of Prakriti in us, so that we may acquire spiritual experiences through the body. And it is a cruel act to separate our Prakritic individualities completely from him by turning ourselves persistently away from the Purusha. But when Rama became an Avatara, the fate of the separator was sealed.

When the Rakshasas were killed, the Ris.h.i.+s were left free to perform the Vedic sacrifices.

Rama did something more. He married the daughter of Janaka, and by this act openly espoused the cause of the Upanishads.

Lastly Rama offered Himself as an object of wors.h.i.+p. This was the beginning of Vishnu wors.h.i.+p, which makes no distinction between cla.s.ses and castes. Rama openly made friends.h.i.+p with Guhaka, belonging to the lowest cla.s.s, whom it was an abomination to touch, for Guhaka was devotedly attached to Him, as an Incarnation of Vishnu.

The world admired Rama. No man could reach such eminence. He must be something more than a man. In time men accepted him as an Avatara. At any rate, he was an example to others in every respect. The ethical standard he laid down in his own life was unimpeachable. The world had never seen such sacrifices in the performance of the duties of life. A model king, a model son, a model husband, a model brother, a model warrior, a model friend, the model of models, Rama left an indelible mark as a religious and moral teacher, on the age in which he lived, and on all succeeding ages.

The example was not lost on the world. The many-sided picture, that Rama presented, produced a spirit of enquiry, which has never been rivalled in this Kalpa. Men thought on different lines. They studied the Upanishads, which had been favoured by Rama. They could not forget also that Rama taught salvation for the performers of Vedic sacrifices. Then there was the teaching of his own life. The light was manifold.

Independent schools of thought grew up, notably the six schools of philosophy. Each school tried to find its authority in the Upanishads and the divine scriptures supplied texts enough for all the schools.

Every school found a part of the truth but not the whole truth. Yet each school regarded its own part as the whole. So they quarrelled. The Mimansakas said that the performance of Vedic sacrifices was all in all.