Clouds of confusion springs from seeds of doubts!
The recent goings on, between Brahma and
Chitragupta, stirred the pangs of jealousy in Yama's heart. His mind was
telling him that feeling jealous is not a virtue of an Immortal, but his emotions
reasoned it out as the side effect of dealing with the souls of human beings.
Collectively they wondered why the human being alone recipient of this trait are, and what is the function of their much touted about sixth or seventh
sense, in this regard!
To camouflage the state of mind, he preferred to raise questions as doubts, and doubts as questions. A doubt has to be posed or raised? This question confused him a little more. Not to miss an opportunity, he wanted to corner his bête noire, who has been freewheeling in a different orbit. Finally, he made up his mind, to do this way or that way, and went in search of Chitragupta to force for a one-to-one session and, raise his doubts.
Promptly, many troubling questions, in the garb of doubts, flooded in his mind, casting another doubt, whether he had contracted the disease of jealousy, as perks of his duties. There was no alternative, and he was duty bound to deal with every soul, that came calling. Having clandestinely watched Brahma preparing a question bank, he too wanted to do the same, though it would be a ‘doubt bank’. He did not want to abandon his fire-purified nugget of wisdom - easy to follow than lead and started to prepare the ‘doubt bank’.
As a contingency measure, he enlisted a few, amenable nerds for help. He wanted to position them, as inconspicuously as possible, to absorb the entire discussion, for a verbatim. Transcription. At leisure, he would analyse the content, to understand what transpired during the meeting. He was satisfied with this fail-safe plan.
Coming out of his residence, he saw Chitragupta lugging some heavy object, instead of entrusting the task to any one of the souls, hanging around. This act raised one more doubt in his mind. Would it be something sealed under 'heavenly secret? The vibe he got was another foreboding doubt - What secret force keeps on pushing Chitragupta closer and closer to Brahma? Would he be a contender to my throne, sooner than later?
Hiding them under wraps, for the present, he hurried to meet with Chitragupta.
He knew of himself as the first mortal to die and transcend to become a ruler of Yam Lok, yet his doubt was whether he would die one more time? Has any earthling has calculated his retirement age, by their standard year? Whether to include these doubts also, as supplementary questions? Like misfortune, which never comes alone, his doubts too appeared to come with companions. Literally with his back to the wall, he cursed himself for being the only fountain of doubts in all of Yam Lok.
First of all, I would like to share some insights, in the form of transient memory. You will hear and forget them, as soon as I finish. I hope this would settle some of your doubts, concerning me. Being Brahma's progeny, I am omnipresent and omniscient by design. This does not entitle me to any preferential Cosmic Rights and am happy to remain a protégé, till the end. I will answer to your nagging doubts. There is no secret force that keeps on pushing me closer and closer to Brahma, because I am already there by design and how can I get still closer to him? I have no such aspiration to usurp your throne, then how would I become a contender!’
By the way, you need not have troubled the nerds, to eavesdrop on our discussion. Let them go away. Because, from now on whatever I am going to say, will remain etched in your mind and there is no need for a backup plan. The effect of the imparted transient memory and disclosure of his secret eavesdropping plan made Yama to feel extreme discomfort. Deflated, he could not even summon the strength to instruct the nerds and managed to wave them away. However, he did not forget to wonder, how Chitragupta always managed to make me feel inadequate?
Chitragupta continued, “I will clear the doubts or questions, regarding your
dying once again and calculated retirement age, like this:
The infinite is the Creator. Then super immortals, immortals and semi-immortals get placed in the hierarchy. Super mortals, mortals and semi- mortals come in order on earthAs a mortal after death, you gate crashed and took over Yam Lok, escaping punishment due to a divine intervention. Your sense of righteousness, mindset on martinetical approach had to be pressed into, to deal with the souls of earthlings. As a quid pro quo, you have been bestowed with a quasi-immortal status. You are now, an undisputed judge, dispensing dharmic justice with unwavering dedication. Think of the chaos which otherwise would have rocked This Lok! Be happy, feel proud”
Yama felt proud and could not hide it. Chitragupta smiled because he intended to evoke that response.
Continuing, he said, “Yama, you might live for another 350 to 360 crore years, (now you are 4 lakh years old) or depart in about 500 crore years, when your ‘star father’ dies, whichever is earlier. Due to your quasi-immortal status, there is no exception whatsoever and you cannot hitchhike to another dimension. Take heart, your services are being well appreciated by Brahma.”
As the unrivalled ruler of Yam Lok, you cannot be all forgiving. Still, you can emulate Brahma in this regard.
"Why, and how " asked Yama in a
doubtful tone.
"Not an earthling forgets to blame Brahma
for the karma experienced or would be experiencing, on earth. Is he not
forgiving all of them and keeps his calm? Why not you welcome and forgive
death, whenever it comes calling? It will give you peace of mind, now” It might embellish
your reward, if you could brush aside attachment and think about forgiveness.
It is only a suggestion.”
Only, Chitragupta could pull it off, like a seasoned diplomat – giving a gentle and subtle advice, with a slight hint of reprimand, in the guise of a suggestion.
Yama became a bit emotional, after hearing such a precise analysis and
lucid explanation. For his part, Chitragupta felt his approach has started
yielding tangible result – instead of doubts, questions are being asked, though
tentatively.
“No doubt, you have the distinction of being the only fountain of doubts in all of Yam Lok. But once in a while, it is also being raised by the acts of humans, in the minds of the ‘truly Immortals’. For example, the temple runs have a fascinating story to tell. My survey pegs the reason like this: 25% are forced by peers, 25% enter to seek something in advance, 15 % as a means of getting away from home, 15% with mixed devotion and thanksgiving agenda, 10% in search of cure for illness. The twist is, these numbers change, like seasons, due to migration from one group to another. Of the remaining, 5% visit only to pray without accompanying applications. The rest 5% never coming anywhere nearby. The moral of the story has been breeding uncertainty, in the minds of the worshiped.
While as an earthling, you might have heard about illusions and mirages. Attachment, envy and jealousy etc; are its tools, to dominate. Every day, advances are being made by some of the current incumbents and while a few others are fixated on a particular star, anchor the position of a few planets, and then try to decipher a human’s life, till the end. The former tries, unsuccessfully, to breach the barrier while the latter, believes in positions and numbers of a horoscope they have cast. Both the factions assumed, without realising, that permanence and achievement are a mirage. Yet they go on about it, with a certainty that would lead somewhere. Certainty gives no room to doubt. As you are a welcome guest there, visit earth and mingle with them and experience it for yourselves.
Doubts are like the many headed Hydra. The effective way of dealing with them, is not to succumb to uncertainty but by hitting them with questions eliciting information. Instead, you are prejudging the outcome, burdened with uncertainty. Are you not aware that uncertainty itself is doubt? Naturally doubts are born out of this, assisted by fear of inadequacy or failure. Who gets doubts - one accepting anything at face value! Verifying or seeking for more information, through questions is the only way to illuminates the doubts shrouded in darkness.”
Hearing the wheels meshing, Chitragupta paused the discussion to create an opportunity in Yama’s mind, to absorb the content. Not allowing more time for Yama’s mind to wander, Chitragupta continued, “Just awhile back, you grudgingly thought why heavenly secrets are entrusted to me. Let me clear that doubt troubling you. The hefty object, I was dragging, happens to be a ledger accounting for the active black holes, neutron stars, dwarfs, supernovae explosions, space occupied by ejected star materials, nurseries forming new proto, aborted and baby stars and so on of celestial objects. Their records, numbers going beyond infinity, are in need of constant revision.
Besides this accounting, my task includes a responsibility of devising and monitoring the security protocols, at worm holes to detect and neutralize the threats from trespassers. These functions are not included in the scope of your duties and responsibilities. In fact, to dispel your misplaced doubt and misconceptions, I am circumventing the Rules of Cosmic Ethics here, by once again invoking the ' hear and forget' clause. Why to do you suffer from misdirected envy? If you could manage to clear off all your doubts and dislodge envy from the mind, this Yam Lok is yours as long as you live. Believe me but remember the sooner or later rider, attached to your longevity.
There are these special categories of doubts. To do or not? Possible or not? Beneficial or not? Better or not? Why and why not? and so on...
Having come
to some grips with the content, Yama wanted to know why?
Chitragupta
was waiting, exactly for this sort of an opening. He continued, " Did you
notice that all the special categories of doubts, that I mentioned, ending as
questions? You have to act and get them cleared in one way or another. They
result in information, the lack of which raises these doubts in the first place."
“I have a
question on life predictions by humans.”, said Yama.
Chitragupta
smiled and said, “Now you are seeking information, and it is progress. What do
you want to know?”
If the
stars and planets do not remain as such forever, and constantly change, then how
they are useful in predictions.”
Humans
considered the influence (light, heat magnetic and gravity) of a local proximity
star and the family of planets as adequate. They believed that even the far
away stars remain stationary much longer than their life span and wisely chose
them only as reference points to chart the movement of planets. Here the
operative word is belief. No doubt, they did not get to predict with total accuracy.
and rely on the thing dubbed as karma, as an escape route. But they keep on
adding information. That is why I used these words, earlier - ‘permanence and
achievements are a mirage.”
Chitragupta’s eloquence kept him spellbound. Yama remained speechless, after hearing this heavy dosage of illuminating talk. Though Chitragupta had managed to drive home some punches, they were not hurting. All at once his doubt about Chitragupta's proximity to Brahma and the reason for their frequent one to one meeting, got cleared. In doing so, Chitragupta had adroitly managed to kick start his thinking machine in the right direction., Yama wanted to plan a visit to Earth, along with Chitragupta. - he was not shy of picking Chitragupta's brain, for some more of the hard to come by and rare wisdom. No doubts now, he was certain that Chitragupta would definitely be willing to!