Yavakrit resurrected

Last week we saw how Paravasu, Arvavasu’s elder brother, had killed Rishi Raibya, his father, and asked his younger brother to do penance for him, allowing him to finish the yagna of the king. Thus, Arvavasu went into the jungle to perform the penance and after completing the same returned to the yagna. As Arvavasu entered the yagna hall, Paravasu told the king, “My younger brother has killed a Brahmin, my father. You will lose all the benefits if he as much as even lays an eye on this yagna, so please stop him from entering.”

The king believed his words and asked the guards to throw Arvavasu out of the hall. As they were pushing him out they kept taunting him that he was a murderer of a Brahmin. Arvavasu pleaded that he was innocent and his brother had killed the Brahmin, but no one listened to him. He then left the yagna quietly and went into the deep forest.

In the jungle he started practicing tapas of the Sun God. He went very deep into the mysteries of the Sun and even wrote a new Veda on what he had experienced. The Sun God was very pleased with him and appeared before the meditating Arvavasu and granted him a boon. Arvavasu said, “Bring my father to life again and he should have no memory of being killed, free my brother from the sin of having killed a Brahmin, also give life to Rishi Bharadwaj and Yavakrit, my father’s friend and his misdirected son respectively. This Veda that I have written should become the accepted path to worship you.” The Sun god said yes and all of them came back to life.

Yavakrit asked the Sun God, “Even though I had knowledge of the Vedas how was it that the Rishi Raibya was able to kill me?” The Sun God replied that Raibya was able to acquire the knowledge through great suffering and surrender to his guru, while Yavakrit had gained the knowledge through a shortcut. Saying these words, the Sun god left.

The word Yavakrit comes from ‘yava’ meaning new and ‘krit’ meaning done, that which is newly done; in today’s language, remixed. The shortcut being we take an old song with old music and add some additional beats and it is remixed. We do not have to go through the struggle to create the music or writing the lyrics. A song is ok, but what about higher knowledge? Yavakrit gained this knowledge the easy way without working under a guru.

When we work with a guru, every step of the way is a journey in dissolving the ego. In life we can react, get irritated or upset in small matters, but under a teacher we are not even allowed to show displeasure in our gestures and the teacher keeps on creating conditions that take us to the limits of our patience. The disciple also works on purifying his emotions and thoughts. Only then is higher knowledge attained.

Knowledge only increased Yavakrit’s vanity and as he had not worked on inner purity, it led him to commit a rape. Thus, in higher knowledge, shortcuts lead to disaster.