Life is never guided by the winds but by my thoughts.
Thoughts in turn by beliefs.
Beliefs rooted in conditioning and circumstances till you can gain control of them.
And conditioning lies in the hands of our parents and guides till we become mature.
But his conditioning always the best to make you the best of your arena?
Or is there an ideal of the same?
Or a lesson to tell you objectively what’s right and what’s wrong?
Well, though your life is conditioned by parents and guides who might now be always the most objective ones,
There is a way to find out what’s right and what’s not…
I call them 5S of My Life.
These 5 sutras have been the best guides and have always succeeded the test of time.
Before I reveal to you the exact sutras
Let’s understand why are they required in the first place?
To know them better, let’s meet Manu
STORY OF MANU
Manu is a great artist who paints flawlessly connecting nature to the vibes of his learnings of the world and depicts the innate connection via his paintings.
His depictions are not the result of his observations but the pieces of evidence gathered by him during his stroll on the road every day.
He is an avid believer of God and at certain times quotes that he observes a pair of footsteps walking alongside but invisible.
He calls it the supreme power and believes in it more than himself.
One day it occurred to him that if he walks with the supreme power, he could consult it and find answers to his solutions and get happy at the earliest.
So, he thought why not ask Supreme Power about How to accomplish complete mastery over everything in the world?
With a lot of courage gathered in the process of rehearsal, he started in this manner
Hey God, are you there beside me?
Since it was a pretty simple question, it answered Yes!
This made him double sure that the supreme power was present and so he can go forth and ask the question, he had been planning to ask.
So he asked
Would you give me the true knowledge of the world?
Since Manu was too innocent, he never knew what true knowledge was but wanted it…
So an interesting reply came from the other side-
If you define True Knowledge – I would provide it to you!
Puzzled Manu was unable to answer
And simply replied – I don’t know but wish to learn
Looking at the eagerness to learn and acquire true knowledge, the power asked him if he was ready to do everything to learn it?
And without a second thought, he answered YES Indeed!!
Happy with the reply from Manu, God told him that he has a task for him and only after the successful completion of the same,
He will be in a position to gain true knowledge…
So, Manu ready for it asked about the task.
The reply was as follows:
You must leave the city today and go to the nearby city of Ayodha where you would stay for 7 weeks and return. The task you would be required to perform would be
Week 1
Day 1: Meet the King of the City and tell him that you have heard great praises about him.
To honour him, you would make 3 paintings for him as a gift but he could honour the paintings in his way…
Day 2: You would meet the King and greet him most sweetly and ask him if you could take a stroll in the garden and capture it in your painting
Day 3:You would again meet the King and greet him in a little sweet manner and ask him if you could view his royal court and capture the scene in your painting
Day 4: You would not meet and greet him but you would act like you are working on the first painting
Day 5: You would be nowhere present in the palace rather you would visit the entire area of the King, to discover a secret exit from the city
Day 6: You would meet the King and rather order him after showing him the first two ones that you would like to capture the view of the palace and King’s suite
Day 7: You would complete the painting and leave a letter behind mentioning everything that you learnt about him from the brief stay
One important point to mention would be that if the King wants to gift you something, he can get it delivered it your real address ( Don’t reveal it, let him search for you)
And you would disappear from the palace through the secret exit…
In the meanwhile, you would observe that you being an artist would attract too many eyeballs while you are involved in the paintings.
You would be required to choose from all the women, anyone which you wish to please with your painting for her.
Once you have chosen one of the women, you would perform the same tasks as performed with the King
In this case, you must act with your intellect as to what do you wish to capture in the paintings…
This would conclude Week 2 for you after you suddenly disappear with the same note left behind
The third in the row would a person in the city whim you wish to learn from, any guru residing in the city would be fine.
You would again perform the same tasks and after gifting the first two,
Talk sternly and ask for anything valuable and make the third one
Then disappear leaving the third one and the note with the painting
This time the note would also include all that you did in the past two weeks and all secrets if you wish to share them
The Fourth would be a Vaidya (Doctor in today’s language), whose praises would be spread in the city.
You will capture his vaidya shala and his medicine formations in the first two and the vaidya himself in the third one
Repeat the same process with the Vaidya by secretly disappearing from there leaving behind a note
The note would mention your learnings about the Vaidya only and some information about the previous meets
Last but not least important would a Seth (multimillionaire in today’s language) and you must repeat the same process.
Do mention brief insights from every meeting you had with others before meeting him in the note
This way you would be done with Week 5
After you have completed this far, you must find an abode in the city and stay there till the completion of Week 7
And after you are through with the seven weeks, return and meet me the next morning
Manu was surprised looking at the task but ready to start the journey…
A SHORT VISIT TO AYODHYA
After Manu went to meet the King, he was so impressed seeing Manu that he ordered the minister to make the arrangements for him in the Royal Suite especially allocated for only in-laws.
The day Manu presented the first two paintings to the King, the King couldn’t resist himself and made Manu his portrait maker showering upon him a great amount of Gold.
But the day Manu ordered sternly,
King got a little upset and thought of putting him in prison but didn’t do it rather asked the minister to shift his stay arrangements to the guestroom
While Manu was involved in the last painting, one of the cousins of King got fascinated by the paintings of Manu and wanted to see him in personal
This led to Dhara, cousin of the King come searching for him
And once she found Manu, she asked him to marry her as she always wanted to marry an artist
But Manu was here on a task and so he didn’t reply
After Day 6 concluded and Manu was making arrangements for the secret exit, he was under the watch of Dhara
And the moment he left, Dhara followed him to outside the palace into the city.
The moment Manu looked behind after getting far from the palace, he found Dhara right behind him
Though puzzled about where to go, he couldn’t resist Dhara taking him along with her to the nearby secret abode of hers.
He was safe and unknown to the people of the city
So, he started with the tasks of Week 2 and talked at length with Dhara to make his first painting
The talks slowly turned into relations and they became close
The day finally arrived where he asked sternly for something after showcasing his first 2 paintings, which led to Dhara in tears
She started crying as this was the first time, anyone spoke to her like this
Manu tried his best to calm her down and get the materials for the third painting
After he was done with it and Day 7 had ended, he stealthily escaped at night
Before he could have gone far, he met a Sage making preparations for the day
So he asked him a favour
If he could take him to a nearby ashram of a Guru, as he was lost in life…
In response, Sage took him to his Guru dwaar ( Guru’s abode) and he met the two gurus Shukra and Brihaspati
Within no time, he forgot the reason he was there and instead of making his paintings by asking and praising them,
He got involved in the daily rituals
He found the peace he was in search of for several years
And learnings from both the gurus made him forget about the time
By the time he had a dream whereby the power appeared in the form of footsteps during the stroll and reminded him about his task, it was already the end of Week 5
Now as he was about to leave in the darkness of the night, he accidentally injured his right foot
This got him irritated as he was to get to the next person before the next morning
But soon he realised that what he was seeking, was seeking him
And as he was about to take some rest after walking for several miles, he observed an inscription on the walls
Vasudev Vaidyashala
And went inside to his next person on the list- Vaidya
Not only he needed a cure but a week to recover
In the meanwhile, he would make the paintings for the Vaidya
This time it was difficult to escape secretly at the end of the week
To get the paintings done, he started and never worried about the exit ever again
He made one of the best masterpieces while on recovery for the Vaidya
And had prepared a note to leave behind for the Vaidya, when suddenly the Vaidya appeared
He enquired most admirably, where do I seek to go forth?
I couldn’t resist exclaiming that I was in search of the wealthiest man in the city
His reply was astonishing
A wealthy one with gold or a wealthy and at peace
It looked confusing as to whom should I choose?
But somehow my gut favoured the second one and I asked the way to his abode
Vasudev not only guided me but held my hand and took me with him to Shankar’s abode.
Shankar was not one of the wealthiest but the only wealthiest man at peace in his abode whereas all others were hustling continuously to increase the wealth
He was always seen at peace no matter what the issue
This lead to Manu believe in the fact that the wealthiest person can also be at peace and being wealthy doesn’t mean more trouble
So, with this dilemma that whether wealth brings trouble?
He set out to complete the task keeping the premise to learn about the answers to his questions
As he went to ask further, Shankar would ask something in return and he would promise to make an art especially for him for every answer
Soon he found that the wealth of knowledge that Shankar possessed was beyond comprehension and this would lead to him getting under pressure to make so many art pieces
Thus, after asking 5 questions he stopped but Shankar was no stranger to let him go unnoticed and so he asked Manu
What was the motive for coming to him when he didn’t belong to the city?
This made him remember the oath he had given to God before leaving for Ayodha that he would rather do anything but not disclose his purpose of visit.
So, he tried to build a story around his relative praising the King of the city
And this way he developed a desire to meet him
But since he was visiting the city, he thought of meeting the wealthiest ones too when Vasudev brought him to Shankar’s abode
Though Shankar was not convinced he acted in conformity
Slowly the end had come to the week and he was planning to leave Shankar’s abode
When suddenly he was noticed by King and Dhara together
What do you think happened?
Was he able to go back to his city or was he caught?
These questions will be answered at the end only after discovering whether he found the true knowledge or not.
THE LEARNINGS
Let’s hear his conversation with the God
When did this happen is not possible to know right now but it did happen…
This time God asks him the question and the question was
Did you discover true knowledge?
He was rather baffled on hearing this question and so he answered
I don’t know whether it is true or not but I gained a great insight into the world
And when asked what was it that he discovered?
He replied quoting that certain facts which were:
- One should never live in a city where there you don’t get the money, knowledge, law and order, and medical facilities but most importantly water to survive for a day
- One should never speak in a bitter tone before a person whom he wishes to take services of or take favours from, it would backfire
- One should never stay close nor too far from King, Fire, Guru and Woman ( in the context of a woman- a man) as they yield no positive result. One must be able to access them in times of need
- One should never reveal any secrets about the efficacious medicines, faith, his intimacy and the bad or evil things heard by them, as they put you in a troubled position
- Last but not the least important was that work makes you learn and become better
To this God replied, you have discovered the true knowledge to life…
Again baffled, he asks what is real knowledge?
This makes God reveal the real knowledge to him via sutras:
Dhanikah Shrotriyo Raajaa Nadee Vaiddyastu Panchamah.
Pancha Yatra Na Viddyante Tatra Divase Vaset.||211||
This implies that one must never stay in a city devoid of King bringing law and order, Seth (moneyed man ready to dole out money to help), Scholar ready to help with knowledge, Vaidya ready to cure you and River to meet one’s water’s need for a day.
Yasmaacha Priyamichhet Tassya Broo Yaatsadaa Priyam.
Vyaagho Mrigvadham Gantu Geetam Gaayati Suswaram.||190||
One must speak sweetly before the person you seek favour from.
This is the most important mantra for the Modern day world.
This is similar to the preparation of the ground for the germination of the seed as the compulsory “fore act”
Attyaasann Vinaashaaya Doorasthaa Na Phalapradaa.
Sevyataam Maddhyabhaagen Rajvahinagurnestriyah.||192||
Proximity with the King, Fire, Guru and Woman yield negative results.
Staying away from them does the same
Hence, remain in a mean position
Sushiddhamaushadham Dharm Grihachiddram Chamaithunam
Kubhuktam Kushrutam Chaiv Matimaann Prakashyet.||196||
One must always keep the secret about the following information:
The efficacious medicine discovered by him as the publicity will make it lose efficacy
His faith as faith is something one must adhere to rather than publicizing it and causing discord
The shortcomings of the household because they would reduce the accolades to the family and invite more trouble
His intimacy is not something to be publicized but kept private
Similarly, one must never reveal about a rotten food consumed and forget about the same
But most important would be never reveal bad or evil things heard by you as they cause rumours
|| 543 ||
Work enlightens one about the real knowledge
These are the sutras of Chanakya Neeti quoted by God to make him understand the real knowledge and it coincided with the insights he had already gathered…
Thus, his work made him wise to use the knowledge in the right way.
THE RETURN
If you have forgotten about whether he has able to return or not
Let me bring you back to Manu
Manu was about to leave when suddenly King and Dhara caught hold of him
King though not convinced by the last stern order that Manu had made to him for his artwork, was completely impressed by the creations and his thought flow
When he got aware of Dhara being in love with Manu
He couldn’t stop himself to make Manu part of his family by getting them married
So this Manu got married to Dhara and left for his home
If you are curious about the letters, what happened to them?
They were a source of information for each one of them about his learnings
And every single person he met appreciated the way he conveyed his thoughts and blessed him…
Post returning from the Ayodha, he met God the next morning and learnt about real knowledge!!
I have learned all the principles, which are core to my life and try and implement them in search of real knowledge.
Do you also wish to acquire real knowledge?
If you wish to acquire real knowledge, what are the steps you have taken for the same?
Let me know in the comments below or you can write to me at [email protected]
You can also tweet and tag me @honey_parlani and I would retweet