A story told by a powerful demon about a question put up by a boy “who has gone?”
Find out yourself, who is the boy, who is the demon and who has gone.
To get to know the story we have to search the history as old as few millions of years. It is a true story mentioned in the great scripture Srimad Bhagavata purana.
There was a great kingdom called Ushinara. Suyagna,a great king ,very powerful and valorous, was ruling the kingdom. He was an opportunistic, passionate king, who wanted to expand his kingdom as far as possible. During the course, he fought many battles and won over so many kingdoms. He became an emperor. But the powerful time has already made-up the king’s destiny.
In his ever-expanding drive, In one of the battles, king had to give up his life. When the king died, news reached to his wives, ministers and all the citizens. They became overwhelmed with the sorrow. They loved their dear king very much because he was very affectionate to them, more so because he was winning all his battles, bringing wealth and fame. The heart-breaking news brought great lamentation. Queens and ministers rushed to the battle field. Queens kept the lifeless body of the king in their lap and they were crying pitiably. It was about the time of sunset, time for performing the kings final rights fast approaching ,but they were not ready to move from that place.
This news somehow reached the heaven. Yamaraj, the king of death, looking at their pitiable condition became very compassionate and thought of imparting them the real knowledge. He changed his form to a small child and reached the battle field. As he was a small child nobody obstructed him and he reached directly to the place where the queens were crying. He heard them loudly crying and wailing. Intense grief was making them call their departed king “my dear king Suyajna , you have gone!!!you have gone!!!”. He observed them for a while and started speaking to them. He told them, “I can see that, you are very elderly to me and very well knowledgeable persons but I am not able to understand the Truth in your words”. He asked them “who has gone?”.
Then he addressed them in this way. Sharing here the exact verse spoken by the boy from the scripture.
“O lamenters , you are all fools! The person named Suyajna, for whom you lament, is still lying before you and has not gone anywhere.Then what is the cause for your lamentation? Previously, he heard you and replied you, but now, not finding him, you are lamenting. This is contradictory behaviour, for you have never actually seen the person within the body who heard you and replied. There is no need for your lamentation, for the body you have always seen is lying here”. Sb 7.2.44
Let’s put little bit light on the verse
The boy told them two instances
First one — “You are all lamenting for king Suyajna. You are lamenting that, the king has left all of you. But I can see that the body of king Suyajna is still lying in front of you. You say “he has gone”, but the one whom you have seen all the time was there in front of you. The one who spoke to you, the one who heard you is still lying in front of you”.
Second one — “But if you say that the one who has heard you, and who spoke to you all these days has gone, then you never saw him. Because one whom you have seen is actually lying in front of you”. So why you are lamenting for the one you have never seen”.
The Boy continued his speech ,” My dear queens and ministers, Everything is controlled by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the form of time. Try to understand the very powerful time. Living entities move from one body to another body by the arrangement of the time. Everybody has a particular designated time to live. Once the time finishes, we have to leave the body. Nothing happens by chance, everything is perfectly controlled. The person inside the body, the soul is eternal. He never dies when body dies.
Here comes our thoughtful and philosophical story to an end. So for your information, the boy was Yamaraj, the demon who told the story is Hiranyakashipu, and the king was Suyajna who died and left his body. The story is from Srimad Bhagavata purana.
Similar message is given by Lord Sri Krishna in Bhagavad gita. Soul is eternal and also there exists is an eternal Kingdom of God. In that kingdom the problems of Birth, death, old age and disease doesn’t exist, life is eternal and blissful. One has to develop pure love for the Supreme Lord Krishna to achieve the eternal place -Vaikunatha -the Kingdom of God”.
What we can learn from the story
1) Physical body can be seen by our eyes but soul is always unseen.
2) Body dies but soul, the actual person, is eternal and lives forever.
3) Everything is under the powerful control of Krishna or God in the form of Time.
4)We come together as friends and relatives like grass straws come together in the flowing stream of water, flow together for some time and get separated again.
5) Actual purpose of human life is to achieve the eternal supreme destination and serve the Lord there with love . That world is free from the miseries of birth, death, old age and disease.
Smitha krishna das, (Serving as Brahmachari)
also Co-president,
Sri jagannath mandir,
ISKCON Managalore.