Angulimaan, the Saint

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Angulimaan, the Saint

Here, we can see the character of his father shine when he

religiously told the king about the doom his son could bring about as per his horoscope (Now don’t sit to ask the question, does horoscope predictions come true and all). That much high was the character of people in general and especially of the father of Ahimsaka who thought of the benefit and good of the nation before their own kith and kin. That’s why it was ‘Golden Era’. And look at the

character of the king! Inspite of knowing that he could be a threat to the kingdom, he did not kill the infant out of fear for self or blindly believing the horoscope. He thought of an alternative and believed in ‘raising the child properly and educating it so would mould his character. He was not wrong in thinking so and doing so too! Every circumstance brings with it ‘a decision’ to be

taken. What does the person taking the decision base his decision on – Dharma or emotions? General good or selfish motive? These decide and mould the character of the individual accordingly and thus he writes his ‘destiny’. No one can predict the future. You can only act out of Dharma and right and wrong based on present circumstances.

We can only assume few facts based on the story. Like the teacher probably expected that Ahimsaka, in his attempt to complete that deed, would be killed himself or, being caught by the king's men, would suffer the highest penalty of execution.  One of Ahimsaka’s motivations may have been that an unquestioning obedience to the guru appeared to him as the

first duty of a pupil, this being an echo from his earlier way of life that was governed by higher principles. But the stronger factor in his decision will probably have been that his hidden dispositions had actually emerged in his mind when vistas of violence were evoked by his teacher's words. He may have felt attracted by a life of violent adventure as a challenge to his manly prowess. These is what is called as ‘samskaras’ (psychic impressions from out past – which loosely is called karma too!).

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also read : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=horoscope

Angulimaan, the Saint

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Angulimaan, the Saint

Let’s go through his birth story first. At the court of King Pasenadi of Kosala, there was a learned brahman called Bhaggava Gagga who held the office of a Royal Chaplain and was thus one of the kingdom's highest dignitaries. One night his wife, Mantani, gave birth to a son. Soon afterwards, the father cast the boy's horoscope and to his consternation found that his son was born under the "robber-constellation" of the planets. This indicated that the boy would have within him a tendency to commit robbery. One can well imagine what the father must have felt when confronted with that shocking and unexpected revelation. On the day of the child's birth, there was another disquieting event: all weapons and armory in the city of Savatthi had suddenly begun to sparkle.

In the morning, the brahman went to the palace as usual, and asked the king how he had slept. "How could I have slept well?" replied the king. "I woke up in the night and saw that my auspicious weapons lying at the end of my bed were in bright sparkle, so I was afraid and perturbed. Should this mean danger to the kingdom or my life?"

The brahman said: "Do not have any fear, O King! The same strange thing happened in the entire city, and it does not concern you. Last night my wife bore me a son, and unfortunately his horoscope had the robber-constellation. This must have caused the weapons to sparkle."

"Will he be a lone robber or the chief of a gang?" — "He will do it alone, your Majesty. What if we were to kill him now and prevent future misdeeds?"

"As he would be a loner, O Teacher, let him be raised and properly educated. Then, perhaps, he may lose his evil propensities."

To further this aim, the boy was called Ahimsaka, which means "Harmless."

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also read : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=nature

Rama - The Purushottam

Rama – An Ideal Man?

Before going to answer other questions of comment on post dated:5^th march 2015, let me clarify that this is not a question related to Tretayuga. It’s a question related , applicable and sought answer in every yuga.  And this question of Rama not being right in doubting Sita etc has been asked and will be asked till the end of creation. And I for one see it as a very good sign. Because when a person asks, it means he or she is not blindly following rituals and traditions and is questioning the validity of morals of even the highest Ideal of Vedantic Philosophy – i.e.,Rama. Rama is “Purushottam” – the ultimate Ideal for a man, who has been the ideal son, brother, husband and king too! He is the only character who did justice to all the roles that he had to play in his life (explanation will come later. These questions come from a confused mind and this confusion is good – haan, kabhi kabhi daagh achche hote hai. Because, this confusion says you are trying to find the order. This type of chaos sets the ball rolling towards order – order of understanding higher Ideals and desire to raise to higher realms. Good! 

And there is nothing as Hinduism actually – it’s actually Sanatana Dharma – the eternal Dharma and that it is never dying inspite of influx of so many eternal power and bloodshed only because of one of its great principle. Only Sanatana Dharma gives both its believer and non-believer right to question about the morality of even Gods and Incarnations. Because, blind belief is no belief. 

In a village because of severe famine, it was decided that they should do a ‘yagna’ (fire sacrifice) en masse that would please rain god and as a result there would be heavy rains after performing the Yagna. Everyone contributed inspite of acute poverty and on the appointed day were going enthusiastically towards the ‘yagnasala’ – place where the sacrifice was to be performed. A six year old came carrying an umbrella. When asked he said “to protect myself from the rain that’s to come after the sacrifice”. Everyone laughed and said “how innocent are you to think it would rain after this yagna”. “Is it not why we are performing this yagna?” he asked surprised.

We like those villagers are always sincerely following various rituals prescribed by the religion that we follow, but we miss the soul of all these acts – faith. Because, we blindly believe. Inshort, we doubt our belief too! We trust our doubt and doubt our trust! To correct this wrong way of thinking it’s right to question and seek answers.

Before going into answering the question we need to look into the era of Rama. In those days along with political science, warfare techniques and social etiquettes that were required to be taught to Prince and Princesses, they were also inevitably taught ‘Dharma’ – the right way and right conduct in life. Duties of a king were also part of this ‘Dharma Philosophy’. And we all know that Rama was and is called “Dharma Incarnate”. I’ll only highlight few of the points or Laws of Dharma. 1. Its the duty of children to obey their parents and Gurus under all circumstances. Remember neither Sita nor Rama questioned their parent’s or Guru’s (respectively) decision to get both of them married to each other.

Imagine the scene in today’s context. In a certain case, father didn’t want his son to marry a girl because as per her horoscope, it was not good for her f-i-l. The boy asked his father “would you not die if I marry some other girl?”

I am not justifying horoscope or father’s fear. I am just stating a contrast situation.

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Guru

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In Mahabharat, Duryodhana accepted Shakuni as his 'Guru' - whose advice he followed blindly.

He believed that Shakuni had only his interest uppermost in his mind.

And let us for now assume it to be true too!

Assuming Shakuni - his own uncle had only intention to see Duryodhan rule Hastinapur - then why did Duryodhan face such a ghastly end?  Not only he, the entire Kuru dynasty and with him all the dynasties of Aryavrat (the entire Bharata Desa - India as was called in those days!)  met their end.  Because the battle of Kurukshetra was not fought between two brothers but involved all kings of Bharata Desa in short it was a la' world war.

The entire Kuru clan was wiped out.  There was no heir left of Kuru clan.  Did not Shakuni's advice effect janmas (generations ) to come?  That is one effect (in future!)

Next, since as per shashtras we know we have next life and that life's birth and quality depend on our present karma, can you in any way think of good life for Duryodhana?  That's the second effect i.e., the birth and the quality of our life is affected.

Next - since all this life Duryodhana was beaming with hatred, anger, jeolousy and insecurities, he would be born with these as his basic nature which we call as 'samskaras'.  This is what determines our horoscope.  Since he would be born with these qualities, he would be more prone to behave in a similar fashion in next life too thereby increasing their impression on his soul which effects his janmas to come..

In short, for many more janmas to come, he sould be literally 'living hell'....

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Angulimaan, the Saint

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Angulimaan, the Saint

But, putting aside his past life and horoscope, what exactly do you think were the circumstantial causes that brought about the change in him – that of a meek, humble and soft Brahmin boy into a heartless, dangerous and notorious killer and at such magnitude? Or in other words, who and what exactly were the causes of his change? Please go through the story again and get this answer.

He had killed 999 people already and was waiting eagerly for his 1000^th victim. That was the time his mother could no more hear evil and bad about him and decided to go in search of him and bring about the transformation in him. When his mother decided to go and meet her son, Lord Buddha saw in his vision the same and realized that if his mother went to meet him, then he would certainly kill her to complete his count and that would be a no-return point for him from his sins as matricide is considered as one of the unforgivable and heinous sins with immediate and irreversible result. That means he would be sent to lowest of hells. He couldn’t let that happen.

With his faculty of remembering his and others’ past lives he saw that Ahimsaka had been part of and close to Buddha in his previous lives. So, when he saw their lives crossing paths again, he couldn’t stop himself from trying to bring greater good in his life. So, instead he decided to reach the forest before her. Many advised him against it. They gave gory description of Angulimaan’s character and way of killing people. But Buddha didn’t let any of that change his decision. All these people out of love and respect for Buddha were doing ‘the right thing’ by trying to stop him from going into that dreaded forest. Their feelings and intentions were right. But Buddha didn’t follow their advice inspite of it being ‘right’.

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also read : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=sins