The king leaves his body in perfection free from all dejection
Dear readers, we approach the climax of our tale now, for the wise and saintly yet cursed king, at the juncture of the great ages was pleased with the message he heard from the self-realized sage. King Pariksit approached the young sage and bowed to him with folded hands, palms touching before his chest. He thanked young Sukadeva who had actually helped him achieve the purpose of his life.
By simply hearing about the true nature of his identity, as well as hearing about the existence of that original supreme source who is perceived in three forms, namely all-pervading impersonal brahman, localized Supersoul in the heart and personality of godhead Hari, the king felt that his life was perfected.
Great learned and self-realized beings like Sukadeva all manifest qualities of mercy and compassion to all the fallen conditioned souls who are tormented by life on earth. From a great king, all the way down to an insignificant ant, all living entities are tormented by the threefold miseries, namely miseries caused by nature, by other living entities and also by ones own mind.
On hearing the narration of the absolute eternal truth regarding our real identity and the nature of material life and spiritual life, the king was purified of any fear for another living being, or for the cycle of repeated birth and death. He had become absorbed in the absolute truth, that one same eternal truth that also comprises of the original cause of all causes, the personality of godhead, known by unlimited names.
All of this is also precisely what all the assembled sages, yogis and mystics had come to hear. They all appreciated hearing what young Sukadeva had revealed regarding the absolute truth. At this point the king was ready to depart this world. He resigned his senses into the absolute, followed by his mind. Having concluded his description of the nature of material as well as spiritual life, and the description of god, which took place over seven days and nights, the young enlightened sage departed.
The king sat absorbed in full self-realization, free from attachment and doubt. He meditated on the supreme absolute truth who is manifest in three features of impersonal brahman, localised Supersoul and supreme personality of godhead. His life air ceased to move and he became as still as a tree on a windless day.
At that point the snake bird arrived. Now we may wonder, dear readers, what this creature was, that was invoked by the naive son of the mighty yogi to kill the king of Bharat, the emperor of the world. From the descriptions in the ancient Sanskrit Veda, it appears that in such bygone ages their existed creatures that we might today know as dragons. After all, a snake bird is nothing more than a flying snake which is what we today call a dragon.
Numerous diverse cultures across the globe all narrate ancient tales of such creatures. From China to Europe, we hear of such mythic beasts who breathed fire. The Veda also tell of how certain snakes that live for many years, eventually become very powerful. Indeed, they allegedly become so powerful that a shining gem or jewel begins to manifest on their foreheads and they become able to fly.
Now just such a snake bird, or dragon if you will, arrived at the assembly of sages, being invoked by the curse of the immature son of the yogi. The dragon, whose name was Takshaka, first gave gifts to the appropriate priest so that he would not try to protect the king. We may today call this a bribe. It is a popular practice among many, if not all, politicians and self-motivated materialists and even has an official department in government, called lobbyists, where open bribery is facilitated and encouraged in today’s affairs.
By bribing the decision makers in government, any big corporation can push their agenda for trade or manufacturing through the houses of parliament with the needed votes to make it the law of the land. What might once have been considered a crime against humanity, something toxic to life or devastating to the planet, can easily be made law and normalised simply by lobbying in the halls of government and basically paying the right bribe to the people supposed to be protecting the citizenry and the land. This is what the dragon will do to fulfil his desires.
Having paid the bribe to ensure the king would not be protected, the dragon bit the king. Immediately the king of the world’s body erupted into flames and burnt to ashes. There was a cry of lamentation. All were astonished by the scene and drums were sounded, celestial voices from angels called Gandharvas were heard to sing and the demigods showered flowers from the sky.
In this way, the once mighty king, ruler of the entire planet earth, who had the most beautiful capital city called Hastinapura – today called New Delhi – was no more. “Hasti” is the Sanskrit word for elephant, and the departed king’s capital was the place of elephants, for they were harnessed for service and were a sign of great wealth and power in those days. Even that great military general Hannibal, in more recent times, was able to conquer the mighty Roman empire using elephants.
Thus King Pariksit ended his reign over a kingdom far mightier than Rome, clearly depicting the end of an era, the end of the Great Age of copper, called Dwapara Yuga, and the start of the iron age that we live in today called Kali Yuga. All of this is clearly described in the five thousand year old historical narration called Bhagavat Purana, and I, Jasomatinandan Das, lowly scribe and beggar, retell it as I have heard it from those texts.
(image pixabay)