Story of Lavana, the illustrious king

Story of Lavana, the illustrious king

Sage Vasishta was explaining to Sri Rama, the attributes of our mind and how the mind controls time and space. It is a general perception that it is the other way around.

He said, “I will tell you the story of King Lavana and an incident which happened when I was in his court and hence this is not a just heresay.”

There was a country called Uttara Pandava, which was very prosperous, and people were free from wants. The country was blessed by sages living in the beautiful forests around. This country was ruled by an illustrious King called Lavana who was from the lineage of the great and renowned king Harischandra. He was very noble, brave, and just. His citizens were very proud of him. One day, after he dealt with his routine matters, he relaxed listening to exposition of puranas.

That time a majestic person walked in and said that he was a performer of Indra Jaal tricks (an illusionist) He wanted to show the King something wonderful, but also added that he did not want anything in return which intrigued the people assembled. Upon getting the nod from the King, he waved a bunch of peacock feathers he was holding, and a cavalier entered holding a magnificent horse. The illusionist asked the King to accept it as his gift. The King was staring at the horse intensely and suddenly looked frozen and motionless, staring vacantly, without even blinking. The entire court fell silent and waited anxiously for the King to return to normalcy. When minutes became hours, the ministers were exchanging nervous looks, whispering to each other. After a few hours, the King suddenly shuddered and was about to crash down from his throne when the nearby ministers supported him. The King blinked, looked around and asked, ‘Who are you people and what are you doing to me?” After a while he regained his composure and asked the illusionist as to what he did to him.

Since the illusionist kept silent, the King started narrating his experience of the last few hours, to calm down his anxious and frightened courtiers.

‘As soon as this illusionist waved the peacock feathers, I mounted the horse. It took off like a bolt of lightning and was airborne. It crossed many countries, mountains, rivers, and deserts. I enjoyed the ride but started wondering where the horse was taking me. Suddenly it flew very low, and I saw an oncoming branch of a tree. To avoid getting hit I held on to the branch and the horse slipped away and vanished. I dropped down to the ground and started looking around to get a bearing. Without knowing where I was and without the horse to take me back to my kingdom, I felt lost. It was a forest, and I did not see any human settlements in the vicinity. I had no idea whatsoever as to which country I had landed in. So, I started walking in some general direction and rested under a tree, where I spent the night, hungry, thirsty, tired, and exhausted. The next day dawned and after a while I saw a young girl carrying food walking along. I asked her to stop and give me some food to appease my terrible hunger. She said that it is for her father who was working in the field and hence she cannot share that. I again begged her as my hunger made me desperate. She said that the food was scarce in those parts and hence it can only be shared with family members. Further she pointed out that I appear to be from high upbringing whereas she was a forest dweller. I pointed out that in times of distress these rules need not be observed and once again pressed her to give me some food. She said that she will give me food provided I promise to marry her, as that will make me part of her family. I agreed immediately as appeasing my hunger was the only thing in my mind. She gave me half the food she was carrying which gave me immense relief.

As promised, I went with her, and she introduced a dreadful looking fellow as her father. Later, three of us reached their settlement which was even more dreadful and dirty. The people around greeted us and when the girl announced that she is going to marry me, there was a loud cheer. My marriage with that girl was conducted in a boisterous manner, with free flow of drinks, noisy songs, and wild dancing, which in fact made me wince.

As time rolled by, I became member of that tribe and accepted their way of life completely. During this time, I did not even know who I was. As life moved on, my wife gave birth to a daughter which was followed by three more children. With the responsibility of feeding my family, I hunted down animals and birds. Sometimes cooking them in fire and sometimes eating raw flesh. I was just wearing a loin cloth, slept many nights under some tree and like a dry leaf blown hither and thither I moved around with the sole aim of procuring food. Sometimes I had to fight with my own tribesmen for getting a share of food for my family. No other thoughts came to my mind during this period, except survival.

With time moving relentlessly, I became old, and our living only became tougher. I was surprised to note that even this tough life took a turn for the worst. There was a great drought and a consequent famine. Lack of water as well as food, pushed the entire tribe into complete chaos. Days were unbearably hot, and the forest caught fire and was reduced to ashes. People were dropping dead from hunger and the starvation drove the survivors to eat even corpses. I decided to move out of the place in search of some country where we could survive. The journey itself was very torturous and deaths all around made it more painful. We rested under a tree one day and my youngest child whom, I was very fond of, started weeping loudly due to hunger. He appealed to me to give something to eat. We had nothing. I could not bear this any longer. So, I told my wife that I will kill myself and she can cut up my body and feed themselves. She had gone so blank that she did not even understand what I was saying. I gathered dry material lying around, lit a fire and jumped into it. As my body touched the flame there, I shuddered and crashed from my throne here! I am, in my own palace surrounded by all of you, which took me a while to understand. Seventy years of my experience as a tribal man has happened in a few hours of this life. Now I am truly perplexed as to which is true, this life or that.’

So, saying the King looked around for the illusionist Sambarika, for that was his name. He however promptly vanished from the scene.

Sage Vasishta said ‘O Rama I was present in King Lavana’s court, and I knew this story first-hand. The courtiers and the King converged on me to explain the mysterious happening. Someone asked me as to who that illusionist was and why he was not seen around. I searched for the illusionist with my subtle vision and found that he was sent by Indra, the King of Devas (gods). The next question was, why a just King who had done no harm to anyone, had to undergo such a terrible and painful experience. I told them that the King had conducted a Yagna (Holy ritual) called Rajasuya Yagna, which is done to seek welfare to all and establish authority over other kingdoms. Normally this is to be conducted for a period of twelve years undergoing many bodily sufferings and hardships. Lavana had carried out the entire Yagna mentally in one year, reaped and enjoyed the results. He had bypassed the entire physical hardship associated with the yagna and hence he had to endure his deserved suffering. So, Indra, the King of Devas, sent a messenger to afflict the King with pains. This celestial messenger assumed the form of an illusionist Sambarika, meted out rare pains to the King and departed back to his realm. He had done the Yagna mentally and it was the same mind which underwent the suffering as well.

King Lavana however was restless regardless of the explanation given and he was wondering whether, such a place where he lived as a tribal man, existed in reality. He with his vast resources, sent his people in all directions to search for that place, after giving them the required details such as names of places, people etc. Eventually his people found out that such a place existed near Vindhya mountains. The King set forth to see the place and was stunned to see the tribe there and he could recognize some of them, one among them being his wife’s mother. She was wailing still at the turn of fate. However, no one associated the visiting King, in his royal paraphernalia, with the person who married the old woman’s daughter. He looked at his ministers with total amazement. Being a just King, he ordered them to furnish the tribe with necessary things, relieve them of their pains and conduct them to his kingdom. He was wondering as to how, what he felt was only a hallucination is a reality somewhere else.

Again, upon his return he consulted me, and I told him whatever one sees in a dream or hallucination is not true just as whatever one perceives as reality is also not true. The happening can be explained in two ways. The King’s consciousness had reflected the events which were happening in the distant tribal hamlet. It also can be explained by saying that whatever was happening in the King’s mind, took physical shape elsewhere.

Please bear in mind O Rama, mind is enormously powerful. Mind can collapse time or expand it, as in this event it collapsed many years of a man into few hours of the King. Mind can decide the length of time, for when one is happy, time flies and one is distraught it drags. In a twinkling of an eye, it can create a world and collapse it. It can create its own world, kingdoms, tribes, people, famine, flood etc. Mind is the world, the sky, the earth, the wind, the water, and the fire.

My salutations to those sages who have realized it’ concluded the wise one.

Author’s Note:

This story is at the concluding part of Utpatti Prakaranam of Yoga Vasishta) and is full of wonderful similes. Sri Rama asks many interesting questions, and the Sage Vasishta gives profound explanations. A must read for one with a scientific and analytical mind.

Author’s Reflections

A typical Yoga Vasishta story which after the enjoying the story makes us think in a different dimension. It set me thinking as to whether, our living now is real or are we into some flight of fantasy. This is because the King Lavana also, while he lived and suffered as a tribal man, did not remember that he was a King. It was hidden from him. So, the suffering as he was mentally going through, was real to him at that time. His other status as a rich King did not help him. While ample and variety of food would have been available, at a clap of his hands, he was reeling in hunger elsewhere. He was transported from his royal status to a poverty ridden life elsewhere. Now we go through our daily grind and that we do not remember anything of our past status or lives. Even as we live our lives now, we are compelled to suspect whether this life could be a fantasy of our lives elsewhere. If we are aged for example, maybe we are young somewhere else or even vice versa. Similarly, if we are beset with health problems, maybe we are of very robust health elsewhere. Our understanding of our own mind seems incomplete and  imperfect.

I have another line of thinking. The storyteller has cleverly depicted a transition from a King to a suffering tribesman. Please note that he could have given a story the reverse way, a poor suffering person deluding himself to be a rich King and enjoying a royal life. There is a message there, in line with the Vedantic theme of Yoga Vasishta. Vedanta says that our real nature is without any suffering, depicted by royalty in this story. We bring upon ourselves, through our own latent tendencies, unimaginable upheaval depicted by the life of tribesman. As in the story ‘A Man with thousand arms’ in this blog, we beat ourselves with stout sticks and never give ourselves any moment of peace.

As with these stories each reader may conclude according to one’s thinking but reflect, we should. Remember to share your thoughts, so that the rest of the group can benefit from it.a