The below incident is mentioned in Upanishads.
Once, Indra, the king of demigods, and Virochan, the king of demons, went to Lord Brahmaji, their grandfather, to realize their self.
They approached Lord Brahmaji and humbly requested, ‘Grandpa, kindly guide us to realize our self.”
Brahmaji replied, “For sure. Stay in the ashram and perform penance and seva. I will eventually guide you both.”
Indra and Virochan did exactly what Brahmaji said and performed seva for many years.
One day, Brahmaji asked them both to sit down in front of him for which they both humbly sat in front of him. Then, Brahmaji said, “I will now answer the question you both asked me so many years ago.”
Brahmaji continued, “This body is a person’s true form. You must take care of the body, eat and drink for the body, clean and decorate it well, and do everything with it, for it. There is nothing beyond this body. You must continuously remember that the body is your true self and contemplate on it every day. Then you would realize it.”
With the question answered, Indra and Virochan soon returned home.
Virochan was extremely happy that he finally got the answer he was looking for. He called all the other demons to his assembly and said, “Brahmaji, our grandfather, has revealed an important secret that I would love to share with you all.”
All the demons were curious to know about it.
Virochan continued, “Brahmaji told me that one’s body is his true self. We must take care of it, feed it well, decorate it well, clean and worship it, and enjoy it. If we continuously remember that this body is our true form, we will eventually realize our body as our self. The more we take care of our body and enjoy the body, the more is our self-realization.”
All the demons were happy to know the secret and started to work on it.
On the other side, Indra had his doubts. He thought, “I heard from scriptures that the soul never changes, never suffers, and never dies. On the other side, the body changes constantly, suffers with diseases, and eventually destroys. The mood of the soul never changes while the body might be in a good mood today and in a bad mood tomorrow.”
He continued to think, “There is a discrepancy between what scriptures say and what Lord Brahmaji had said.”
Indra didn’t take it for granted even if it was said by his own grandfather.
“Should I believe whatever my grandfather says? Shouldn’t I verify it and match it with scriptures?” Thinking so is the quality of an aspiring soul.
The aspiring soul always tries to listen and take only the right things into him and doesn’t let wrong things enter him.
Filling the mind with whatever is told, without verifying the correctness of it, is not the quality of an aspiring soul.
If a person goes in whatever direction he is directed, that is foolishness. He doesn’t have a stand, a plan, or a decision. He goes wherever people ask him to go. He doesn’t know what is good and what is bad. He is not an aspiring soul but a foolish soul.
Indra verified his own grandfather Brahmaji’s words.
Verifying someone’s words doesn’t mean that we are trying to find faults in them. After listening to something, if we get the thought of verifying its correctness, then we are a truly aspiring soul.
Indra went to his grandfather to clear his doubts. Then Brahmaji replied, “Your mind is the soul”.
Indra came back home and contemplated Brahmaji’s answers. He got new doubts and went again to Brahmaji to clarify them.
Thus, Indra had to go back and forth multiple times to Lord Brahmaji to clearly know the ultimate truth about self and finally was able to get the ultimate truth about self.
Indra verified it with scriptures and was finally at peace.
Virochan, on the other side, never came back. He accepted the first answer as the ultimate truth and was happy with that. He never reasoned it and never tried to get the right answer.
Both Indra and Virochan were good. Both went to receive teachings from Lord Brahmaji about the self. What is the moral of this incident?
When we believe in whatever we hear, we become good if we hear something good, and become bad if we hear bad.
Virochan quickly realized that his body is the self, while it took quite a lot of time for Indra to realize his true self.
If we believe something in the first attempt, that doesn’t mean that we are a great aspiring soul. The truly aspiring soul always questions the teachings he receives and attempts to get the right answer.
We should look back and check if we resemble a Virochan or an Indra.
References:
- Chosathpadi Katha Part 13 (Pad 12)