Destiny and Death: Part 1
Eastern Wisdom Weekly #3: First story in the series about destiny and death.
Happy Tuesday, everyone. It’s time for today’s weekly story. This and the upcoming stories will be on death. This story has been one of my favorites as it shows the play of factors (like destiny, luck whatever you might call it). In the later editions, we will also cover in detail:
What is life and death?
What are the factors that influence life and death?
How many of these factors are actually in our control and which are not?
Can you do something about these factors?
And many more such questions, but let’s start with the story first.
I wanted to share this story, as I have experienced situations where some of my dear friends faced an untimely death, and also some friends lost their family members or friends. Some part of it was their own doing and some were just external (out of their control, as it seems initially). For a normal human being, it’s hard to figure out things like these and come up with a logical explanation. And the more you don’t find an answer through the logical framework, the more you become frustrated, unless you start having strong faith on some higher power, or you try to find other answers.
The King of Birds Garuda, who is also the mount of Lord Vishnu.
The story starts with the King of Birds Garuda who is waiting for his turn to meet with Lord Shiva just on the base of Kailasha Mountains (Lord Shiva’s abode). Lord Shiva or Mahesh (literally meaning the Supreme God) is said to be solving issues of all divine beings and demons as well (democratic god). We briefly discussed about Lord Shiva in the previous Weekly Edition of Eastern Wisdom. Do read out, we will be covering him in detail in upcoming editions.
While waiting, Garuda saw a beautiful little bird that was playing there. He liked the bird and his playfulness and watched him with delight. Suddenly, the God of Death Yamaraj (grim reaper in Hinduism) visited Kailasha and strangely looked at the bird in a very confused manner. Yamraj was there to see Lord Shiva. Seeing all this, Garuda was taken by grief and shock and thought that the vision of Yamraj was not good for the beautiful bird and that the bird’s life was in danger. Yamraj is said to glare at any living creature and see when it is going to die and how.
The God of Death, Yamraj, is responsible for taking the lives of living creatures.
Garuda waited for Yamraj to climb up the mountains to meet Shiva, and he quickly took the bird and flew far away from Kailasha. Garuda was given the boon to fly as fast as the Wind. So he flew with the bird to great distances and found a serene little place where there was natural scenery and mountains and he kept the bird safely there and flew back to Kailasha as fast as he could. Upon arriving at Kailasha, he saw Yamraj descending the mountains. Yamraj stopped at the same spot where he was and looked around for the bird which was nowhere to be found. He smiled and then started walking out of Kailasha. Seeing all this, Garuda was again in confusion.
Garuda: Oh Lord of Death. I saw you glaring at the beautiful bird on your arrival, and while you were leaving Kailsha, you looked around for it and smiled. I didn’t understand the reason for your smile.
Yamraj: Oh King of Birds, yes I did smile looking around for the bird. You know me, I can see any living creature’s life span, its death, and its cause. When I first arrived, I saw the bird and clearly saw that the bird was going to die.
Garuda: Are you sure? I also figured out that the bird was in some kind of danger. But why were you looking confused looking at the bird for the first time?
Yamraj: Yes, I am sure. Not only that, I saw the reason for its death as well. But I was confused initially. I saw that the bird was short-lived, and the bird was going to die far away from this place, in a very beautiful place with mountains, while being eaten by a Snake. These things were clear as soon as I saw the bird and that’s why I was confused as well, because it seemed quite impossible for the little bird to fly away to such a far distance on it’s own. Now when I saw the bird was nowhere to be found, I was sure that the bird had been eaten by a Snake and was dead as I saw, so I smiled.
Garuda was shocked after listening to this. He thought that he was saving the bird from death, but proved to be just a medium to fulfill the bird’s destiny (which was death). Yamraj being aware of the situation smiled and knew that the events turned out as he foresaw. So it turned out, that the bird was helpless at the hands of nature, and at the same time, even Garuda had intentions of saving the bird but instead just paved the way for the bird’s easier death.
We would like to end this with different questions and let’s see if we can answer them in the coming editions. What can we do about death? Is everything pre-planned and destined, on who will die and how? Are we just slaves of our destiny or do we have some control over it? Is death the final stage of life, or just the beginning of something new? Is this the complete picture of the scenario or are we missing out on something? Do reach out to us with the answers. If you would like us to explore more such questions through small stories, ping us so that we can cover them in our next edition.
I believe that the human mind is incapable of considering all the factors affecting an outcome. And so came into existence the concept of luck. Luck is kind of the variable that comprises of all things unknown, or too small for our perception or perhaps too big. Just as we say that a higher dimensional being would be able to see 4 or more dimensions, but we can only hypothesize what those could be, so is luck, an imagined concept for us, a real factor for the higher being.