The Greatest Wonder in the World
By Stephen Knapp (Sri Nandanandana dasa)
To me, one of the greatest lessons from the Mahabharata comes from the Vana Parva section, called “Book of the Forest,” Chapter 313, verse 116.
Therein we find an incident in which the Pandavas are near the end of their exile while living in the forest and when they grow extremely thirsty. They search for water and find a lake, but this lake is guarded by a Yaksha, or a subtle nature being. He tells the Pandavas that they can drink only if they answer his questions. However, the brothers ignore him and try to drink the water anyway, but then one by one they all fall dead, the water having become poisoned by the Yaksha. This is when King Yuidhisthira, the last of the Pandava brothers, arrives on the scene.
The Yaksha then explains that King Yudhisthira cannot drink unless he answers the questions that are quickly asked by the Yaksha. So, Yudhisthira complies and begins to answer over 100 philosophical questions presented by the Yaksha. Yudhisthira answers each one correctly, and then they reach the final question, which is: “What is the greatest wonder in the world.”
To this, Yudhisthira gives his famous answer, “Day after day, countless beings go to the abode of death, yet those who are alive believe or carry on as if they will never die. What can be more wondrous than this?”
In this way, we can look around us and see so many people who witness others around them dying all the time, and intellectually they know they are going to die, but mentally they remain attached to their existence and refuse to deal with the ever-approaching end of it, or think that they still have so much time that death is a long way away, so they continue life as if death does not matter, and they refuse to acknowledge the reality of their own mortality, and, thus, never prepare for it.
Fortunately, in the story it is revealed that the Yaksha is actually Yamaraja, the lord of death and father of Yudhisthira. Yamaraja, being greatly impressed with Yudhisthira in that he followed Dharma in every step, he then restores the Pandavas back to life.
However, in our case, how many of us can look around and recognize that in spite of repeated warnings in the deaths and difficulties of others, so many people are living as if there is no tomorrow, or no time when we will be forced to give up this body? Maybe we can recognize that in ourselves. Maybe we feel this topic is too depressing, a real drag, a huge bummer. Why bring ourselves down by dealing with this topic? I’ve got other things to think about that pre-occupy my life.
However, I take this episode in the Mahabharata personally. Why? Because I am now 75 years old. And as I look around, I see most of my friends and the people and devotees I know, all leave this world between 70 and 80 years of age. Some sooner, some later, but this is the average. So, time is of the essence and it is best that if I am going to be ready for leaving this world, then I better get prepared. But why should we get prepared?
Because death is the final test we face in this life. Even the Dalai Lama once said that he looked forward to the time when he leaves his body because that is the final test for which he has prepared all of his life, using all of his studies, all of his practices, for this final moment, and he is looking forward to see how well he does.
What we need to understand is that as spiritual beings, the body may drop, but we move on. As the Bhagavad-gita 2.20 explains: “For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” So, the soul does not die.
In this way, the soul moves on after it leaves the body. But what determines our next existence? It is further described that one’s consciousness is shaped by the impressions accumulated by one’s lifetime of thoughts, words and deeds. This is expressed in Bhagavad-gita 8.6, “Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail.”
So, the consciousness that we have developed by the time we reach the end of life is most important. We want to create the best level of consciousness that we can so we can enter death in the right frame of mind to help bring ourselves to the best possible situation in our next life. So, what can we do for this?
I have already written one book called “Facing Death: Welcoming the Afterlife,” which goes into detail about how to do this, but I won’t go through it all now. But a few features we can point to is having the right attitude. We should have an attitude of gratitude as they say. We should be thankful for and focus on how well we have done in enduring the many situations that have come our way, and how much we have helped uplift others with whom we have come in contact. We should not dwell on our failures and beat ourselves up over all the bad things we have done. We are all works in progress, and mistakes are bound to be made, but they are simply bumps on the road to help point us in the right direction. They are like lessons from which we learn, if we don’t miss the message. And in this way, life itself is like a classroom in a school. We learn and develop from it.
This also means that we should protect our consciousness by choosing the most positive level of association. This means we should disconnect from those who are overly negative or critical, and those who do not have our best interest at heart. We should disconnect from the discouraging news of the day, or from things we have little to do with, and from those people who are not supportive of us. We need to surround ourselves with beauty, encouragement, love and care.
Some of the things we may do to uplift our consciousness is to meditate, or chant our japa in the form of the Hare Krishna mantra, or read the sacred texts like the Bhagavata Purana, Mahabharata or Bhagavad-gita, which is a part of the Mahabharata. These and other such texts refine or spiritualize our consciousness.
They explain numerous ways to live life in an uplifting manner and how to prepare for death. And most importantly, they guide us to focus our attention on our spiritual identity and connection with the Supreme Reality. This prepares the mind for what is to come. In this way, we become prepared, or like the saying goes, we die now but leave later, ready to let go of the illusion of material existence, and focus on the spiritual reality of our real identity.
As Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita 8.7 further explains: “Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛṣṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.”
So, herein it becomes clear, that throughout our activities, and in the process of leaving the body, we focus our attention, our meditation, on the supreme destination. This form of thought actually helps bring that reality closer to us. And as we work in this way, the higher reality begins to open up to us, it reveals itself to us, and we can then slip from this material existence into that higher spiritual reality, which is the actual identity of the atman, or spirit soul, linked to the Paramatma, the Supreme Being, or Lord Krishna.
As we meditate in this way, our lives can enter a stage of ultimate peace and transcendence, which far outweighs the constant activity and even chaos that often surrounds us in this world. Then we also see that this world no longer needs us. We leave our mark on it in whatever we were able to do. We have done our part, or as much as we need to do, and we can leave this world behind while we reach our higher destiny. When we have done everything we have needed to do, then it is time to move on, on to our next stage of existence, our next step in our destiny. This is our goal. And this is what I am preparing for. And this is why this episode in the Mahabharata carries so much meaning for me.
Thank you so much, and Jai Sri Krishna.
[More information at www.stephenknapp.info]