The King and the nine gated City - An Allegory

In the days of yore, there lived a king by name Puranjana. His bosom friend was one by name Avignayata and they were inesparable. One day Puranjana left his friend in search of a city, where he can enjoy life fully.

It was a long time before he came upon a city on the slopes of the majestic Himalayas with nine gateways. It was a very beautiful city, well planned with a great wall and a moat round it, for protection. All around were beautiful and lovely gardens with trees laden with flowers and fruits emanating sweet scents, that attracted bees and birds as well and they together made soft music, so enthralling that he could not resist going round to see the lay of the city and make up his mind to find out whether the city could come up to his expecations. On a further survey, he found the houses in the city, neatly built and embelished with gold and precious stones, a market place and what all he could desire including gambling dens. In their midst, he espied a tall and beautiful mansion of seven floors. As he went further up, he came across an equisitely well laid out garden full of flower bearing, fruit laden trees and bushes, the cool breeze wafting over them was thick with exotic scents leading him to suspect whether he was in Indra Loka or Bhooloka and as if to confirm it, he suddenly came upon a very beautiful maiden in her teens, an Apsara, in his eyes ,descended from the skies. She was though dark, tall, graceful, with a face full of charm, arched eyebrows adorning her wide eyes and curved long eye lashes, moving up and down her eyes, down cast, as they were in coyness, also sparkling now and then. A delicate chiseled nose, a very smiling inviting mouth, displaying a row of teeth as white as pearls adorned her face. Her heavy bosoms heaving as she moved among the groves of blooming flowers, her slender waist moulded to her wide hips and her whole body was captivatingly enticing, that would have put to shame any sculptor for such was her form that Puranjana had to hold his breath at the sight of the damsel. Her sweat smile suffusing her face and her bewitching eyes enlivened by quick flashes, as if conveying some message held Puranjana spell-found as if struck by the arrows of cupid, He drank the sight of her beauty and charm to his fill and while at it, he also saw that she had ten male attendants, who in turn had each a hundred female companions. The maiden also saw Puranjana and stood still gazing at his form, with shy and expression-full eyes. While adjusting her silks that were slipping down her bosom, Puranjana could not contain himself any longer and he approached her with a disarming smile and enquired her, as to whose daughter she was, her name and where she lived. In reply, she said coyly that she had no name as such and that she lived in the nine-gated city ever since she was a child. Puranjana also saw that a five hooded snake guarded her and the city, where she said she lived. Now or never as the saying goes, Puranjana made bold to express his love to her and said that if she refused his request he would not survive even for a minute. She in turn expressed her willingness to be his wife and added that she had always preferred a man of gaiety and not one always fearful of death and that one should in this life extract as much pleasure and happiness that the world can give. She promised him to fulfill all his desires and give happiness to him for a hundred years and he can be the Lord of her and her city as well. Puranjana was very happy and he entered the city with his wife Puranjani, for such was her name.

Puranjana was so enamoured of his wife that he followed her wherever she want; her tastes, her actions and what not, were all his. Puranjana thought himself very lucky in possessing a wife who gave him happiness beyond description. The days rolled by; Nay months and years slipped by. He was unaware of time that was slowly consuming him.

At the same time as Puranjana entered the City, Bhogavati, being its name, a gandharva chietain by name Chandavega laid feige to the city with an army of three hundred and sixty four warriors accompained by an equal number of women, dark in colour. Puranjana never bothered himself with this attack and assured himself that Prajagara, the five-hooded snake, would some how ward off the attack. He continued with his pleasures and soon reached fifty years. He had sons and daughters but his passion for his wife was unabated and he could not keep himself away from her. To his dismay, he found that over the years, he could no longer enthuse his wife as in the days gone by. Even Puranjani spurned his advances. He was taken back at the state of affairs as even his sons cared little for him and in course of time, he sunk slowly in a mire of misery.

Jara was the daughter of Kala (Time). She wanted to marry, but she was not fair enough to attract the attention of any suitor. She therefore travelled far and wide in search of a suitable husband but in vain. She then approached the young sage Narada, who was a bachelor and was always singing praises of Narayana, but he rejected her outright. Thereupon, she went to Yama, the god of death, who however not accepting her proposal, gave her some sane advice. He said that none would accept her as his wife, due to her unattractive form, if contacted directly. but on the other hand, she should slowly creep on people without their being aware of it and in that way she can have her sway over the entire world. Yama also promised that he and his brother Prajvara, would be her constant companions, travelling together, with 'Bhaya' as their army, unseen by mortals and in that way creep on them, When they were unmindful, while Yama would do the rest.

Thus, they in the course of their travels came upon the city Bhogavati ruled by Puranjana. In keeping with their agreement, Jara entered the body of Puranjana, without his being aware of it. The Yavanas, the assistants of Yama also joined in the attack of the city, which was already under pressure from Chandavega and his warriors.

Prajagara, the five hooded snake fought valiantly, but could not withstand the onslaught of seven hundred and twenty warriors of Chandavega. Puranjana old as he was, could neither help in the battle, not could he let the snake escape from the city. He could do nothing to save the city and he died soon and with his death, the city of Bhogavati crumbled into bits and nothing was left except its name. Puranjana's last thoughts were only on his beautiful wife Puranjani. As stated by the Lord in Gita Chap 8 Sloka 6, whosoever at the end leaves the body, thinking upon any being, to that being only he goes because of his constant thought of that being. Puranjana only thought of his beautiful wife hence he was born as the daughter of the king of Vidarbha as Vaidarbhi, who grew upto a beautiful woman and married one Malaya dhwaja the king of Pandya, through whom, she had children. After he attained a ripe old age Malayadhwaja retired to the forest, performed penance and austerities including Ashtanga yoga. Vaidarbhi also accompanied the king to the forest and helped him in all ways as a devoted wife. When Malayadhvaja reached the lotus feet of the Lord by virtue of his austerities, his wife Vaidarbhi, unable to bear the separation, lit his funeral pyre and was about to jump into it and give up her life, when at the very moment there appeared Avignayata, the companion of Puranjana in his earlier days.

He spoke to her softly and told her that she should not grieve over the death of her husband, as she was neither his wife in her previous birth, nor he, her husband. The soul in the body is eternal, imperishable or differentiated by sex, it is the body made up of the five elements which had perished, not the soul or the Jivatma, which continues its long journey through 'Kala' or time until it is united with Paramatma. He spoke in the same vein as Narada consoled king Chitraketu when his only son and heir to his throne died. Avignayata then recalled her previous birth as Puranjana and how Puranjana and himself were best friends and how Puranjana left him to enjoy worldly pleasures. He also related her that the Jivatma or soul residing in the body is one with Paramatma and how, deluded by Maya, forgets his real nature and identifies himself with body made up of the ten organs of perception and action and through the mind enjoys or suffers the fruits of his past Karma. Avignayata then reminded her of the inseparable friendship they (Puranjana and himself) had in the past and how they were together like two swans floating in the lake of Manasa and how Puranjana left him to enjoy the world of sorrow and misery and settled himself in the city of Bhogavati.

Having heard the words of Avignyata, Vaidarbhi seemed to recall her past life. Avignyata explained her that it was Maya, that enmeshed Puranjana to get himself involved in the city of Bhogavati, which was none other than the human body with nine openings viz. a pair of eyes, a pair of ears, a pair of nostrils, the mouth and the two organs of excretion. Puranani the beautiful damsel was his own mind enjoining the pleasure of senses. The bondage with the world of Maya was his own making and the desires he had conjured up got him deep in the ocean of Samsara.

The Manasa lake referred to by him, where they had floated as swans was the heart, the seat of Atma and Paramatma. In Chapt. 18 Sloka 61 of the Gita the Lord himself says that He dwells in the hearts of all beings.

Jivatma and Paramatma are the same, the former being the reflection of the latter, but due to its being clouded by Avarama, the Jivatma thinks that it is independent and gets itself in the meshes of Maya; the more the involvement, the deeper it sinks in the ocean of Samsara. The body was easily destroyed by Chandavega, which is really time; Jara is old age and Prajavara the diseases all put together, but the soul or Jivatma is imperishable. After explaining this truth to Vaidarbhi Avignyata invited her to join him in the lake Manasa, where they can dwell together.

To further elucidate, Puranjana is the Atma (Jivatma) residing in the heart and is illuminated by Purusha or Paramatma, who guides him in the right path and he is Avignyata in the story. In the begining after the great pralaya, Brahman or the Purusha was alone and due to his Maya, Prakriti was created. Out of Prakriti there followed Mahan and Ahamkara and the five tanmatras (five subtle elements). Thereafter the mind, the five organs of perception, the five organs of action and the five primordial elements, which are vikaras or evolutes of Prakriti came into being; the manifestation of Jivatma was out of Ahamkara. The Jivatma in order to experience the world of objects entered into the human body made up of the five gross primordial elements, with nine openings described earlier as the city of Bhogavati. The Jivatma as Puranjana entered the City to enjoy the objects of the world through the same organs. As they could be enjoyed only through the mind, Buddhi, it is Puranjani in the story. The ten attendants of her were the ten organs of perception and action viz. Gnanendriyas and Karmendriyas. The snake with the five hoods is the breath of life and the five hoods are its variations viz. Prana, Apana,Audana and Samana. The garden surrounding the city of Bhogavati is the world of objects, which gratifies the senses aided by Buddhi. The hundred years referred to is the life span of man. Chandavega is Time which never stops. They are hundred and sixty men warriors represents the days in an year and the three hundred and sixty women of dark complexion, the 'nights in an year. They shorten the life span as each day passes by. Jara as explained earlier is old age as it is but 'natural that it is associated with death or Yavaneshvara, as also Prajavara the many diseases which afflict man.

It will thus be seen, that the Jivatma, when it identifies with the mind and body, develops the qualities of "I" and "Mine" and it undergoes all the pleasures and pains of the body. It is for this reason that the Lord had declared that if one wants to attain salvation, he should move about without longing for anything and without the sense of "I" ness and "Mineness". When once the soul realised, that it is different from the body made up of the five gross elements, liable to decay and death and that it is a part of the Paramatma in his heart and is eternal, imperishable as described in the several slokas of the Gita and the relationship between Paramatma and Jivatma is of the nature of what is known as the whole (Amsi) and part (Amsa) Amsamsi sambandha, or relation of part and whole. The Lord himself has stated in sloka 42 of Chapt 10, Gita, "I exist supporting the whole world by one part of Myself". This is reiterated again in Sloka 7 Chapt 15 Gita. "An external part of myself has become a living soul in the world of life". While in dream state one conjures innumerable objects and lives in them but the moment he wakes up, he finds that what all he had experienced in his dream was false. Even so, one should realise that the involvement of the Jivatma with the body and mind was only a dream and realise the truth about himself and that the body dowered on man by god is the means of both bondage and liberation and the body is thus necessary to serve the soul to obtain liberation and hence one has to put to good use the body, without enmeshing oneself in the world of materialistic pleasures as did king Puranjana.

My ears open to hear my eyes to see this light within my spirit shines (beyond)

My mind roams with its thoughts in the what shall I speak, and (distance what really shall I think) - Rig Veda