Unravelling the mysteries in the moment

Many a knots have a right end of the string and a wrong end of a string, one that unravels it and another that makes it tighter. Apparently*, situations are like that too, if thought of in a certain way, they simplify and resolve; but thought of in another way, they complicate and confuse. And that, of course, reminds me of a story, which goes like this:

A king called Vājashrava was once performing a sacrifice. The king had a young 8 year old son, called Nachiketa. Nachiketa, observing his father, realised that he was cutting corners and was thus, really, doing more harm than good. Thus concerned, Nachiketa, tries to gently point this out to Vajashrava, who naturally doesn’t want to hear anything about it. Nachiketa only ends up making Vajashrava fairly angry who in the heat of the moment, forgetting that he is standing at sacred place of worship and sacrifice, curses his son to be damned to death. The son, now realises, that he has been cursed without a just cause and thinks, “If every effect has a cause, then since I did not do anything wrong, what has happened to me can also not be wrong. Thus, even tho, it looks like I have been cursed, it is only likely that there is a great purpose to be fulfilled thru this situation.” Nachiketa then does go ahead and fulfils great purpose before the end; of which there is a glorious story told in the Katha Upanishad.

So, listen to Katha Upanishad here and think wonderful thoughts, that lead to glorious actions, that fulfil great purpose – no matter what life throws your way!!

*or so I believe