Vishṇave namah

Maharishi Nārada continued, “A male deer while chewing tiny blades of grass enters into a flower garden and wanders happily along with its female partner. It will be enraptured by the melodious buzzing of the bees, which it thoroughly enjoys. Meanwhile a pack of wolves, which by nature are carnivorous, enter that garden. The deer fails to identify their presence in the garden. Exactly at that moment a hunter arrives and with his arrow kills it from behind.

O King, a human life is exactly as precarious as that of a deer. In the above allegory, flowers represent women. A lot of characteristics are common between women and flowers. A garden offers shelter to flowers. The male deer represents the man. When his fruitive actions yield fruit, man enjoys trivial sensory pleasures through tongue, genitals and other sense organs. These insignificant sensory pleasures enjoyed by him have been compared to the nectarous fragrance emitted by the flowers.

A man constantly chases sensory pleasures throughout life. For fulfilling his desires, he befriends a woman and then develops deep attachment towards her. The chatter of his wife and children, like the melodious buzzing of the bees, are delightful and soothing to his ears. For this reason, he develops excessive emotional attachment towards them.

The packs of wolves symbolize the days and nights which sequentially arise one after another. They constantly reduce his lifespan. However, as his mind is totally inclined towards enjoying sensory pleasures he is oblivious to their presence.

Lord of death (Yama) is the hunter who silently arrives into the garden and strikes him from behind. It implies that death is ever-ready to snatch life.

O king, you are the deer. Understand that your behavior is exactly like that deer. Withdraw your ears which, being eternally inclined towards the outer world, travel outwards and merge them into your mind. This is called Pratyāhāra. Merge the mind into the intellect (buddhi).

People who are enchanted by worldly pleasures, which in reality are illusory, always discuss or think about sensory pleasures. This is a characteristic of a house-holder’s life. As such give up this house-holder’s life and the pleasures it brings. Gradually begin to walk on the path of return (Nivrtti marga). Put in efforts to please Srihari, who is very dear to transcendentalists”.

Emperor Pracina-barhi then enquired, “O venerable great sage, I have heard with rapt attention the Self-knowledge you have preached and have pondered over it. Why do these scholars, who extol fruitive actions, refrain from preaching supreme Self-knowledge? Could it be possible that they are unaware of it? In case they had the knowledge, they would definitely have extolled the same, isn’t it?

Listening to the words of my teachers, I had many doubts pertaining to Self-knowledge. Now with your teaching, these doubts are totally dispelled. Even Maharishis get confused in understanding Supreme Essence. It is due to the nature of the subject as this subject cannot be comprehended by even the senses.

The exponents in Vedas declare that a human being takes a gross body for purposes of completing some actions. Thereafter he discards the body and leaving it on earth he travels to the other planes. In those planes, in a different body he experiences the results of his earlier actions. How is this possible?

When an action stipulated by Veda is performed, the action disappears upon completion, isn’t it? Can that action reflect in the other worlds (planes) in the form of its resultant fruits? Is it possible to experience the good or bad fruits of an action in another body?”

Maharishi Narada replied, “A person performs an action with a determination that he wants to experience the result of that action. The result of the action could be good or bad. He experiences the results for his actions in his subtle body (sookshma sareera) in the other planes (worlds). Subtle body remains even after gross body is lost. This subtle body thus exists both in this world and in the next. It does not change.

During dream, when the gross body is resting, the person travels either in that body or in another body to experience the karma vāsana (subtle mental impressions of past actions) in the form of joys and sorrows. Likewise after leaving the gross body on earth the person travels to other planes wherein he takes on another body to experience the results of his past actions which are stored in the subtle body.

Mamaite manasā yad yad asāv aham iti bruvan Gṛhṇīyāt tat pumān rāddhaṁ karma yena punar bhavaḥ

Towards a particular body a person has feelings ‘I am this body’. These are mental impressions. With such body he performs actions. He accepts others who are connected to this gross body to be his own family members. Due to these actions, he has to be reborn.

Based on the activities of his 10 senses (organs of action and organs of perception), we can decipher that it is the mind which instigates the person towards that action. Similarly, based on the varied types of thoughts that emerge in the mind of the individual, we can guess that prior to this body there existed some subtle mental impressions of his past actions (karma vāsana).

At times, the person has strange experiences pertaining to characters or forms he has never ever associated with during his lifetime. In other words, an experience or a form which is unknown to this gross body suddenly arises in the mind. From this it is evident that this person previously possessed another gross body in which he had undergone this experience through his subtle body.

This is because it is impossible for the mind to have an absolutely new experience, which it had never ever experienced before. This should be analyzed and thoroughly understood.

Mana eva manuṣyasya pūrva-rūpāṇi śaṁsati Bhaviṣyataś ca bhadraṁ te tathaiva na bhaviṣyataḥ

Subtle impressions of past actions (vāsanas) are of 3 types: Deha vāsana i.e. thoughts about body and sensory pleasures, Shastra vāsana i.e. addiction to studying scriptures/ philosophical books and Loka vāsana i.e. obsession for name, fame etc. associated with this world. The type of impressions contained in the mind indicates to the individual the kind of birth and experiences he could have had in a past life.

In addition, by observing emotions such as peace fear etc. that arise in the mind, the future auspicious or inauspicious body that will be obtained can be gauged. Having an absolutely pure mind is an indication that the person will be totally freed from re-births. O King, May you be blessed with auspiciousness!” Here it implies that Nārada Maharishi blessed the king to have a pure mind and attain liberation.

Vishṇave namah