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Men of wisdom

CHENNAI : A man desirous of liberation from transmigration should be able to keep this objective in mind amidst all his preoccupations in life. He may be a king or a pauper because this birth was determined by his earlier Karma about which nothing can be done except exhausting it in this life. So a spiritual aspirant's concern must be to utilise the opportunity of this birth to put an end to bondage. Karma yoga is the path open for such seekers to discharge their worldly duties.

In his discourse, Sri P.R.Vaidyanatha Sastrigal said, that spiritual seekers valued spiritual knowledge to the extent they spurned even kingdoms had been proved by the descendent of Janaka, Kandikya.

Even though he lost his territory to Kesidvaja, Kandikya taught him when he sought his help in completing a sacrifice without utilising this chance to regain his kingdom as his minister advised him to. Kesidvaja was not satisfied even after completing the sacrifice and when he tried to find out the reason it occurred to him that he had not recompensed Kandikya for the knowledge he had imparted. So he rushed to pay whatever he would seek as fee from him. Kandikya became angry at the sight of his foe who had returned and when he learnt the purpose of his visit, he rejected the advice of his counsellor to demand his kingdom as fee.

Instead, he asked Kesidvaja to impart spiritual knowledge to him through the path of Yoga in which he was proficient. Young Nachiketes immediately comes to mind for he also with total detachment refused all the riches and the pleasures of the world and heaven that Yama offered to distract him when he persisted in his quest for learning the ultimate truth from him.

The Katopanishad highlights the dispassion a spiritual seeker should show towards sensory attractions through Nachiketes' firm rejection of all that the god of Dharma dangled before him. Similarly, Kandikya also turned down his minister's advice to get back his kingdom explaining that it was ephemeral compared to the spiritual knowledge that he could learn from Kesidvaja and that as a ruler (Kshatriya) he should not seek anything material from another. These rulers of vast kingdoms could bury their enmity and utilise situations to their advantage to further their spiritual quest.

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