Yaksha Prashnam Questions 106 - 110

Continued From: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/03/yaksha-prashnam-questions-103-105.html

What is the important characteristic to be possessed by a good woman?

Shyness.

Which is the best music?

Words uttered by a child learning to talk.

Which is always permanent in this world? Fame is always permanent in this world. We still continue to talk about famous personalities like Yudhishtirar even though they are not present amongst us.

What is best education?

That education which gives us confidence is the best education. Goddess Parvati wanted to find out who was more well versed whether Bhavabudhi or Mahakavi Kalidas. Lord Shiva agreed to help her by testing them. Both Bhavabudhi & Kalidas were employed in the King’s court. There was an old well on the way to the court. Lord Shiva pretended to be an old man who had fallen into a well. Bhavabudhi was the first person to pass the well. Goddess Parvati in the guise of a young woman stopped him and requested him to help her husband who had fallen into the well. She said that all he had to do was to answer her husband’s question. If he gave the correct answer, the husband would be able to rise out of the well.

Bhavabudhi agreed to this. The old man then said, ‘once, there was a struggle between words and life on who should go out first. When did this struggle take place?’ The old man asked the riddle in the form of a poem with 16 characters. Bhavabudhi completed the poem with 16 characters and answered that if a wealthy person lost his/her wealth overnight and is forced to borrow money to buy some food, the person will try to utter the words asking for some money while the person will also wish that he/she had been dead. Thus the person’s words as well as life fight with each other on who should leave the body first.

Lord Shiva in the guise of the old man asked Bhavabudhi if this was indeed the correct answer. Bhavabudhi replied that this was all he could think off and cannot be sure if this was the correct answer.

After Bhavabudhi left Kalidas passed the well. He was asked to help the old man by Parvati and the old man asked Kalidas the same question he had asked Bhavabudhi. Kalidas gave the exact same answer given by Bhavabudhi but when asked by the old man if this was the correct answer, Kalidas answered that he was 100% confident that his answer was correct.

After Kalidas left lord Shiva told Goddess Parvati that Kalidas was better educated as he was more confident.

Which is the lowest life on earth?

A person who exploits other people by constantly borrowing money/favours is the lowest person on Earth. For example while travelling with a friend this person will make the friend to buy tickets as he/she has only a $100 bill and doesn’t want to use it as it is difficult to get change. The person will use the same excuse everywhere they go. The friend will pay for all the expenses for which he/she will never be reimbursed.

After the above question we return to the Sanskrit Yaksha Prashnam from my next post.

Continued On: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/04/yaksha-prashnam-questions-111-112.html

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Based on, Yaksha Prashnam - A discourse in Tamil by Sri U.Ve. Karunakaran Swamy
(Any errors or inconsistencies in the following series are due to the mistakes I made while taking notes. ) 

Copies of the CDs can be obtained from Sri Karunakaran Swami’s website http://www.nadadoor.org/ . This series is for the benefit of people who do not understand Tamil. Those of you who understand Tamil very well must definitely obtain a copy of Swami’s Upanyasam. You can do so by contacting Nadadoor.org. Swami also renders discourses in English but I am not sure if Yaksha Prashnam discourse is available in English.  The experience of listening to Swami’s upanyasams could never be obtained by reading the following series. I have done my best to take notes with due diligence. I apologize for any errors that I have made while writing this series.