Śri Maha-ganapataye namah

We discussed that distressed with Vali’s death both Sugriva and Tara began to lament inconsolably. Tara went to the extent of requesting Rama to kill her as she had no mental strength to remain alive in the absence of her husband. At that juncture, Lord Srirama consoled and imparted to them the Supreme Essence due to which most of them, barring Tara, calmed down. However, when these words of wisdom uttered by Srirama failed to have any impact on Tara, at Rama’s behest Hanuman stepped forward to console her.

Uttering the verse ‘asocyānanva śocastvam’ he said, ‘You are weeping for someone for whom it is incorrect to grieve’. In this way, Hanuman imparted Supreme Knowledge to Tara in the presence of his master Lord Srirama.

For whom do you weep? He for whom you weep is no longer present here as his life-force has merged into some distinct invisible principle. As such you are weeping only for his mortal remains that are placed before you. In the absence of life-force, the gross body loses value and it necessarily needs to be cremated, buried or thrown away to become food for vultures and animals.

In case you are weeping for his physical body, remember that it will cease to exist once it is disposed of. In case you are weeping for that soul which was in that body, then remember that it has flown away to another plane. Were that soul to be extremely attached to you, then shouldn’t it have merged into you or remained here hovering around you? But it did neither. It flew away to other planes. It achieved redemption and hence has no necessity to associate with you anymore. Just as a bird freed from a cage never returns into that cage, the soul which is freed from the shackles called the body will never return into it. Freed from imprisonment it travels ahead without even casting a glance at those it has left behind. Based on its past actions, its destiny and its intent, it travels into another zone.

Who in reality is the husband and who is the wife? Who are the children? The all-pervading Self (atma) exists within every living being. The Self is at par with the Supreme Self (Paramatma). How can such all-pervading Self be bound by worldly bondages? Can bondages and liberation be applicable to the Self? Never. The Self can never die. It is ever-existent. Can the Self be addressed as male or female? Never. Does the Self belong exclusively to you? No. Why then do you weep for that Self (atma) which has departed from the cage called body?

Who are you that is crying for another? Why are you crying? Having taken on a gross body you are crying for the gross body of another. Understand that this gross body is the cause behind your grief. The tears that you shed arise due to the presence of the eyes which are an integral part of this gross body. Using the senses and the limbs provided by this gross body, you are expressing your lamentation.

Do you believe that you will permanently reside within this gross body that you are now using? Is your body ever-existent? Why then are you using this body, which is impermanent, to shed tears for another who has flown away from his body?

Even as you were watching, your husband left behind his body and has vanished from our midst. Through this, you have witnessed the impermanency of the gross body. Yet you are using your gross body, misconstruing it to be permanent, to shed tears for another impermanent body.

Hanuman was preaching the real essence to Mother Tara.