Once, the king of Sindhusauvira, the great Rahugana went in a palanquin to offer curtsy to sage Kapila, and wanted to enjoy holy glimpses (darshana) of the holy man also. He wanted to get instructions from the sage about the spiritual knowledge, because thirst for the spiritual awareness increased each moment and therefore, he took a path along the bank of river Iksumati. After a long journey, the palanquin bearers were tired and, therefore, looked out for a man, who could provide relief.

Fortunately, they came across a wise, stout, strong and quite young brahmin with a muscular body. They thought him fit to carry a donkey load and therefore, employed him for carrying the palanquin and did not worry that it was humiliating for a learned brahmin. However, brahmin silently carried the palanquin without complaint but the technique of walking of palanquinbearers differed from the brahmin because he carefully examined the ground first before taking a step ahead, and measured a distance of three feet each time he took a step.

The king soon realised something wrong as the palanquinbearers lifted it and walked ahead. The bearers carried it unsteadily and erratically and gave jerks.

He said to the bearers, “Walk firmly. Why do you carry the palanquin unevenly, O bearers? Make it even and comforting.”

The bearers feared reprimand for the unsteady carrying of palanquin. A carrier said timidly, “O king, we are not casual and careless. We lift it quite befittingly as it should be. A new bearer, just recruited does not keep pace. Therefore, we are unable to keep tempo and control and so the palanquin appears unsteady.”

The king heard soft and pleading words, thought and analysed. A fault of one man, at times, travels. If he does not stop the new man, others will suffer for taking wrong steps and thus, jeopardise an easy and calm journey. The anger and annoyance (the rajas gunas of Rahugana, a ksatriya, a king of calm and serene nature) disturbed despite noble thoughts, equanimity, energy, love and wellbeing for the people.

He looked at brahmin of concealed divine radiance not obvious like the fire. He said kindly, “O brother, it is a pity. You are exhausted. It appears you carry palanquin alone without the help from other bearers. You are fatigued. You do not look very stout or healthy now. Old age is harsh, and therefore, you are not tough and strong.”

The learned brahmin, a realised soul, united and one with the Infinite was devoid of feelings of I or me or mine. He considered body as the concatenation, an inseparable linkage of organs and limbs as the five gross elements and ten senses/organs (like eyes, ears, nose. etc of perception and action) had lost existence for him. A cultured brahmin had attained complete detachment and self-control. Everything in the visible world had lost relevance, and the internal feelings and thoughts born of mind, heart and intellect had become dead for he was now, totally devoted to the lord alone.

Rahugana is unhappy and later, learned brahmin reveals the truth of identity.

He got infuriated after sometime when he observed that the wise words did not effect and the bearers still carried the palanquin irregularly, and caused uneasiness.

He said curtly, “Array, what it is? Are you living? It looks you are as good as dead since you ignore and disobey instructions. It looks you are nervous and hotheaded. I think I must punish you like Yama, and correct the headstrong conduct. I hate indiscretion.”

Rahugana’s conduct and behavior was a blend of rajas and tamas (earthly infatuation, ego and anger and creation and destructive and obsessive nature) qualities and so, he was rude and impolite and displayed contempt for the brahmin. Perhaps, the king did not know of the queer and deluding behavior of yogis.

Brahmin heard harsh words of the king but was silent for a bit, thought and then, with an even mind said, “O king, whatever you say, is truth. It is not ironical. If I carry load, it is for a man, who carries and if one looks at a path, it is for a man, who walks. If someone is fat and sturdy, it is the body, and not the soul inside. The wise people do not talk this way. I say a man like you must be sensible, wise and cultured in conduct. You understand what I say. The load carries a subtle meaning and therefore, the path symbolises new import.” Rahugana understood distinct meanings, and therefore, the learned brahmin did not clarify.

Nevertheless, after a pause, he said again, “O king, understand intricacy of the meaning when you speak of the gross and the subtle. You know the meaning of the body’s stoutness or leanness. What is the precise meaning of ailments, worries, hunger, thirst, fear, strife, desire, old age, sleep, and attachment to the pleasure of senses, anger and vanity arising out of ego and grief? You ought to understand. The variations and distortions in conduct appear only in a man, who identifies ‘the self’ with ‘the body’.” He was quiet and possibly, waited for a right reaction. Nobody spoke during the journey.

The learned brahmin took steps cautiously and after a few moments, said slowly and softly, “When you identify with the soul, the self, then, the words uttered hold diverse meanings and take you to the divine land but when you offer worldly meanings, the words ensnare and make lives miserable. I explain and so I understand. O king, if you think you are the master, what do you expect? What service I am to deliver? What objective you attain? I know what disturbs you. To reprimand, correct and teach a lesson, are not the virtues of the dignified men and so, do not behave like a king. What do you gain if you punish? If I am a fool, a stupid, a conceited or a nervous fellow, then it is again like grinding… flour. It is also worthless and odd. For, I am steadfast within and without.”

The wise brahmin of a tranquil and calm mind spoke in measured tone. The king understood clearly that he was not a captive of ignorance, harboured no love for identification with the body and nurtured no feeling of animosity or friendliness as he carried the palanquin. King Rahugana of Sindhu and Sauvira was lost in deep mystic thoughts, for the brahmin spoke words carrying restrained and veiled meanings, and required intensity in understanding if he wanted to know the true meaning.

King understands what brahmin wants to convey, asks about the identity of man.

The wise brahmin was fit to resolve the meaning and puzzle of ignorance. He knew unawareness existed in the hearts of the created beings and caused sufferings born of ego and pride. However, the king cherished genuine faith and true ability to enquire into the truth. He did not wish to annoy a learned brahmin for fear of a curse. Therefore, he alighted from the palanquin, stood on the ground entirely bereft of arrogance and conceit.

He fell flat at the feet of the learned brahmin, sought forgiveness and spoke modestly, “O godlike brahmin, you sport a sacred thread (a distinctive thread, a brahmin wears). Who are you O brahmin? You move happily and disinterestedly. Are you Avadhuta (a man, who abandons worldly joys, a recluse) from the pedigree of the divine sages – Dattatreya (a Hindu deity, who speaks of trinity – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) the Trimurti or the Supreme Soul and others? Whose son you are? Where were you born and how did you arrive here? Did you come for our deliverance and wellbeing?”

He looked at the learned brahmin and thought for some time.

He said again gently, “Are you not sage Kapila, a personified sattva (an embodiment of truth and righteousness and the lord in person)? I am neither afraid of Indra’s thunderbolt nor of Shiva’s trident. I do not fear Yama’s rod of punishment. The awful weapons of the fire god, the sun god, the moon god, the wind god and the lord of riches do not create fears in me. I speak out of no flattery but I tell you I am afraid of you. I respect brahmins.”

After a short pause, he said again, “O brahmin, please tell who are you roaming about as a stupid man? You hide profound power of wisdom and self-knowledge, and appear detached from the worldly pleasures. I am unable to penetrate the depth of the divine wisdom you hold. O virtuous soul, you speak like a yogi, and are also critical but it does not dispel suspicions.”

King Rahugana was apologetic, remorseful, obsequious and pleading.

After a few moments, he spoke, “I feel tired, for I was occupied with karmas (human acts of varied nature and consequences). I fought for many years and the incessant wars proved strenuous… I thought you a worn out man as you carried the load. I also thought similar feelings of lethargy and fatigue must trouble you when engaged in laborious and arduous work. I understand that the phenomenal world too, contains a little reality at the bottom, for otherwise I feel, it is without utility or benefit. A path of truth is right. None can bring water in a non-existing pitcher” Rahugana turned a little philosopher.

He continued, “Like cooked rice in the pot, men mature and attain knowledge of ‘the self.’ One puts water in the pot, it boils and then, as rice is poured into the pot, it boils again and ultimately, rice becomes worth eating. It means it transmits heat. It is identification with the body, the senses of perceptions and organs of activities. The mind and the heart define, understand and experience fatigue, heat and cold. Feelings and sensations travel to ‘the inner self’ (the soul) and therefore, condition life. Vague feelings of heat, hearing, seeing and touch offer singular meanings. You are quite aware. It is service to the body, to the lord and ultimately to the great lord because he creates, preserves and destroys.”

Rahugana, a man of wisdom in search of spiritual knowledge gave voice to genuine feelings and thoughts. Earlier, impulsiveness on seeing a brahmin’s strange conduct had disappeared. Now, he was sympathetic and understanding.

The wisdom revealed a great truth and as he calmed down, he desired true self-knowledge to get rid of delusions. If a learned man of wisdom and tapa carried load, it was also a prayer to the lord. Doing one’s duties with devotion is worship. The king extremely regretted unwanted behaviour and felt sorry for the infliction of disgrace upon a brahmin. Now, after deep deliberation, every hurting thought and feeling waned. The brahmin cast a benign look to purify the king’s sins. The king selfeffacingly felt penitent at the inappropriate conduct and prayed for mercy and blessing from a brahmin of tapa.

Jada Bharata reveals the essence of knowledge and wisdom and satisfies the curiosity of the king

That brahmin (Jada Bharata) was quite soft and humble and told that a man of wisdom and learning never talked much. The king spoke of the wisdom and self-knowledge for a long time. It did not speak well of a man of wisdom to talk of mundane relations when he was in search of absolute reality. The Vedic teachings, heavenly enjoyments, and the means of obtaining, form a separate wing through which man attains knowledge. He revealed that the knowledge contained in Upanishads and books did not prove adequate to tell the truth directly. Silence prevailed for sometime as they looked at each other.

After a thought, he said, “So long qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas dominate a man, he is unrestrained, and qualities yield either to the virtuous or the sinful fruit, and he knows it through the sense of perception or action.” Bharata told that mind conditions soul and therefore, identifies it with the body, remains a storehouse of assorted virtuous or wicked impressions and so stays attached to the pleasures of senses and the earthly existence because the three qualities disturb.

Thus, the modes of Prakriti (nature) play a significant role in identifying. He continued the discourse on mind and matter, “The mind is the reason of a besmirched state of mundane life, for the three qualities guide it and it is the cause of liberation when a man goes beyond the horizon of three qualities and feels as if the qualities did not exist. When the mind hangs about the pleasures of life, another figurative shape or variation of three qualities, it leads man to sufferings and miseries, and if one finds absence of the three, it is a life of beatitude. The organs of actions, senses of perception and ego distress mind and if a man exercises complete control, he is liberated.” Rahugana listened to the great wisdom of Bharata in the guise of a learned brahmin.

He was amazed and did not intercede. Bharata told, “A man is an embodied soul and continues to gyrate in the whirlpool of mundane existence so long he does not realise the true nature of ‘the self’. A man achieves serenity only when he shakes off illusions, maya (the delusory potency) and stops to identify it with the body.” Brahmin’s deep wisdom enthralled.

“One can stay away from the relationship of embodied living beings with the strength of wisdom, the wise brahmin revealed. Further, he shatters to tiny fragments and destroys enemies, who haunt with the feelings of anger, greed, lust, infatuation, arrogance and jealousy. If he does not, then the mind is habituated to a continual run of grief, infatuation, disease, attachment, greed and animosity and so, ‘Mine and I’ the enemies within, chase and drive a man to the cycle of birth and death.”

“The knowledge of ‘the self’ is possible when one concentrates at the holy feet of the lord. One gets rid of infatuation of worldly pleasures, and it opens gates of the divine glimpses before the eyes.” However, in spite of Bharata’s revelation, the king’s thirst to know more was unquenched.

One infers that the king symbolises aspirations of an embodied being, the one that tries to break the snares of earthly charms, fascination and pleasures the obstacles on the path of salvation that chain up the mind and body more and more harshly and bring sufferings. Every living being on earth encounters the dilemma born of the situation. Sufferings and miseries in the world are the effect of enslavement to dangerous qualities (the modes of the Prakriti).

If sattva gunas guide and govern mind and heart of a man, and restrain or hold back inclination to rajas and tamas qualities, life is happy and leads to deliverance. In fact, Bharata, a poor brahmin conveys the message of ‘the Self’. King Rahugana made another appeal to the brahmin to elucidate the teaching of deep spiritual import and make it intelligible and understandable.

He said, “A man lives under constant delusion and thinks he is a doer. It is not so. He lives in illusions and a dreamy state makes him lethargic, inapt and impotent, and he fails to probe into mystery of life on earth and beyond. The phenomenal existence is the creation of Maya, the creative energy of the lord with wide-ranging qualities and identities such as substance (the gross elements), nature (the mutability of phenomena), predisposition and the Time Spirit, which disturb equilibrium of the three qualities and karmas, good, virtuous or evil destiny. O king, consciousness is alone pure and absolute without ‘the inside’ or ‘the outside’.

He continued after a pause, “O king, one does not attain heightened consciousness through asceticism, Vedic rituals, feeding food and giving essential offerings to the needy and the poor. It is unworkable through the performance of religious duties or yajnas pertaining to the household life where entertaining a guest or serving an afflicted or suffering is involved. It is not a study of the Vedas or the Upanishads or the worship of gods or goddesses or the lords of water, fire, sun or any other god. It is the sprinkling of one’s body with the dust of holy feet of the exalted souls, and therefore, O king, concentrate on the holy feet of the great lord. It is a holy karma.”

Curiosity of Rahuguna subsided, and he enjoyed the glimpses of ‘the pure self’ out of enormous faith and confidence and at last, the holy soul said, “It is therefore, out of faith that I move about with a detached mind. I meander in disguise without attachment, as fears do not permit to associate ‘the Self’ with anyone. I severe ties of infatuation with the strength of wisdom attained at the feet of the blessed and the exalted souls of godly consciousness, and so, will reach the highest goal.”

Rahugana continuous inquiry was satisfied in the end. He realised the true nature of the Supreme Spirit as the saintly soul brahmin Jadabharata taught Rahuguna, the king of Sindhu and Sauvira. Quiet and tranquil mind drove out the darkness of ‘the inner-self’. He felt purified as false wisdom, ego and pride born of earthly existence vanished.

He did not wait even for a moment. He shed wrong notions, feelings, thoughts and the inessentials load created through ignorance and infatuation for worldly life. Now, he realised that the body was transitory and nothing else, and therefore, likely to perish and the understanding is possible when one dedicates life to the Supreme. Thus, the noble brahmin guided Rahuguna to the path of salvation.

An attachment to worldly pleasures of the senses, the materialistic aspirations and reflections bring miseries and inner dilemmas in the life of a man. If he stands apart, performs worldly duties and is conscious of modes of Prakriti, and adheres to truth and dharma, he definitely lives a life of harmony and prosperity. In the present scenario of violence, greed, corruption and predominance of rajas and tamas gunas if one guards ‘the self’ properly, life offers meaning and purpose.