Vashishtha and Death

Yoga Vashishtha and Death

 Vashishtha was a very noble sage.

According to the Scriptures, Vashishta emerged from the mind of Brahman. He voluntarily took up a human life so that he could experience what man goes through, in terms of trials and tribulations that worldly life inevitably brings.

Vashishta took upon himself the task of teaching mankind about the Spiritual Path.

The name of Vashishta’s wife was Arundhati

Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom, treated Vashishtha as a brother.

She was to help Vashishta and Arundhati, during their earth experiment, by helping them out, if they got caught in an enigmatic situation..

The adventures of the Great couple were compiled by sage Valmiki under the name of  ‘Yoga Vashishta’.

Let me tell you about one of their interesting experiences.

King Padma had a wife called Leela who loved the king so intensely that she wanted him to remain near her, (in any form) if he were to die before her.

Goddess Saraswati granted her the boon.

Time passed. The couple grew old. King Padma died. Queen Leela prayed to Saraswati and asked her where her husband was.

The Goddess explained that there were infinite number of universes, one within the other. She added that although the king was in a more subtle realm, he was present in the same room as the queen.

Leela wanted to know what her husband was doing at the moment in the other realm. Imagine her surprise when she was told that King Padma was 16 years old! How could that be, when he had died only a few moments ago. Goddess Saraswati explained that time and space were not measured the same way in the different realms of existence. Thus a moment on earth could be equivalent to hundreds of years in another, and vice-versa. Goddess Saraswati took Leela to a cottage where Arundhati and Vashishtha had lived ‘only a week ago’. The next moment Goddess Saraswati showed Leela her husband, who Leela had seen as a 16 year old king. Now the same king was an old man.

Leela tried to remind the king that he had been her husband. The latter was very confused and did not remember. The old king died soon after, to wake up and remember all his 3 incarnations and his queen Leela.

Hope you remember in the midst of all this confusing information that Queen Leela was Arundhati and the young and old king who died, sage Vashishtha!!!

Thus, they both learned, and we learn about the mystery of the cycle of death and birth!