Eating is a sadhana. Even foods are categorized by gunas, like sattvik foods, tamasik foods. Eating is a culture and we are supposed to eat a balanced composition of foods. However, is this attention to food causing us to be more entangled in maya? When we engage in any activity with mindfulness and focus, when our body and mind are in one place, that discipline makes us quiet. And the quieter one is, the more we experience our own Self, the more we experience Ananda, our true Nature. Here we are engaged in a katha, a history, a biography and this experience is helping us become more disciplined, which in turn makes us quieter and happier. This experience should make us feel Bhagavan in our own hearts.

Last week we saw how Bhagavan was invoked in a yajna. Though yajna means sacrifice, it feels like dedication, and we will sacrifice only if there is dedication. If we are truly dedicated, we will also feel happiness. Bhagavan Rshabha is an avatar of Bhagavan Vishnu, invoked from this yajna. He is “happiness” as he is the best. He came as a role model for grihastas or householders, who have a propensity to project happiness on to our spouses, our kids, our homes, our jobs. He shows us how to be happy first and then be a grihasta, and not seek happiness or completion in our various roles. Bhagavan Rshabha also showed us how sanyasis should live, like keeping a stone in the mouth all the time to eat and speak less.

Bhagavan Rshabha was often invited to speak publicly — about happiness, about discipline, about how to live. On one such occasion, he talked about the two gateways — the gateway to enlightenment and the gateway to hell. He shared that the gateway to moksha or the key to enlightenment is to serve mahatmas, is to serve great men because when we serve them, we tend to shape them in every manner — speak like them, act like them, live like them. The gateway to hell, to naraka is to serve the indulgent, be around them always and live with them. That will lead us to naraka, to sadness.

Bhagavan Rshabha then described who a mahatma is –

1. Samachittah — someone who is always balanced, in all circumstances
2. Prashanta — fully peaceful, in any context
3. Himanyavah — one who is not annoyed, always accepting
4. Suhridah — one who is largehearted, has no expectations and focuses only on giving, not getting

Living with or for such people is our path to enlightenment.

Another key message of Bhagavan Rshabha is that we are not the body. In the absolute sense, maybe we are not the body, but aren’t we using our body all the time, even to make such a statement? So Bhagavan Rshabha showed this to us after he was done ruling and he left everything behind and all he took with him was his body alone. He literally left all, even his clothes, and took with him his sole possession, his body. He knew he was the Spirit and he treated his body as clothes for the Spirit. That is why Bhagavan Rshabha is also known as Digambara. Dik means space, and ambara means clothed by, so the one who is clothed by space is Digamabara. He lived a very disciplined and minimalistic life and was blessed with many siddhis, like being able to move as fast as his mind, but he denied all the siddhis as he was a happy person and didn’t need anything more to feel happiness. Bhagavan Rshabha thus showed us how to be an ideal sanyasi.

How can we relate to these teachings and practice what Bhagavan Rshabha taught us? Here are three vratas that we could follow –

1. Maunavrata — Eating in mauna — Eat at least one meal a day in complete silence. Eat by yourself with no reading, or talking, or any communication of any kind.
2. Ekavrata — Eating in eka — Eat only one serving of food and not go back for more food.
3. Khandavrata — Eating fewer meals a day, maybe only two meals instead of three meals.

These are vratas that will help us feel that we are not the body.

After being the ideal householder and the ideal sanyasi, Bhagavan Rshabha made his eldest son, Bharata, the king. King Bharata was so great that our country became known as Bharat. He was great because he was the servant of Bhagavan just like Prince Bharata in Ramayana who served Bhagavan Rama with pure devotion. Once he completed his responsibilities, King Bharata distributed them, which is a sign of fine leadership. For someone never to be given any responsibility is a disservice to that person as it inhibits his growth. King Bharata then went to live in the jungle.

One day, King Bharata was by a river when he saw a beautiful, pregnant deer. All of a sudden, hearing the roar of a lion nearby, the frightened deer jumped and started running. As she was filled with immense fear, the deer delivered her baby in mid-air and the baby deer fell into the river, and the mother deer crashed onto the shore and died. Raja Bharata who was witnessing all this, dived into the river and saved the baby deer from drowning, and from then on started taking care of this deer. As each day passed by, Raja Bharata got more and more attached to the deer as if he and the deer were one.

Years passed and Raja Bharata became old and was ready to die and the last thought he had was of that deer. As we know from the Bhagavad Gita, the last thought we have in this life becomes our trajectory thought for our next life. So the great Raja Bharata, the servant of Bhagavan, was reborn as a deer. A human is known to be a yoga yoni as a human can evolve or devolve. In this case, Raja Bharata devolved to be reborn as an animal. Why did this happen? How come a servant of God became so attached to a deer? Because of prarabdha.

We are all sincere seekers, however hardships befall all of us. Why? Because it’s our prarabdha. We may not feel deserving of any hardships in this lifetime as we lead such sattvik lives. However, this is just one lifetime out of billions of lives we have already lived. The best way to deal with prarabdha is to accept it cheerfully, to live a life of prasada buddhi. Accepting helps quieten our minds, and we start feeling the grace of Bhagavan.

As soon as Raja Bharata was born as a deer, by the grace of Bhagavan, he realized how he had devolved from a servant of Bhagavan to being attached. So even as a deer he started living like a sanyasi, like the servant of Bhagavan living in a simplistic way. Soon the prarabdha of being born as a deer also came to an end and Raja Bharata was now reborn as Jada-bharata so that he didn’t have to relive the responsibilities of the great King Bharata.

As a servant of Bhagavan, one gives away everything one possesses. So if King Bharata had given away everything that was his before going to the jungle, how could he claim that the deer was his? Isn’t there a contradiction here?

When King Bharata was reborn as a deer, it was actually his prayashchita karma, his atonement or rehabilitation. But how does one know that one has truly atoned the wrong actions committed by them? By learning not to do those actions again, just as King Bharata who atoned his actions as a deer and then was reborn as Jada-bharata.

As the New Year awaits to welcome us, let us make sure we sincerely engage in prayashchita karma as we make and break our New Year resolutions.

Discussion Question: Reflect and share what you are going to practice in 2020 from the one year study of Bhagavata. Be specific and share practicable examples.

RAW: Dining with Divinity — Dine with Bhagavan and as you are eating, you are feeding Him too.