Seeking Bliss

Here goes a story mentioned in Buddhist Scripture Anguttara Nikayah … 

A prince on verge of his much-awaited coronation decided to learn something about human history and accordingly asks his best erudite friend to make a synopsis of entire human history. He is a much busy man those days could not afford to go through all the books in the library and hence deputed that learned fellow to make a synopsis

That scholar, being bestowed upon an uphill task starts reading all history books and make a synopsis which turns out to be 100 books. After 5 years of gruesome work that scholar, with the joy of achievement, meets the prince, who now is the KING on the throne. He suddenly gets furious and shouts at the scholar " do you think I don't have a country to run? How can I read a hundred books now! Make it precise ". Dejected, the scholar restarts the work and after the meticulous dedication of 10 years more reduced the content to 10 books.

Now this time the king was busy on the battlefield handling his enemy state and with utter dismay, he asked the scholar again to make it even more precise . The scholar could not utter any word against the king but felt very demotivated. But again starts his work of a lifetime

Few years after he, now an old septuagenarian monk, comes back to the king, but alas the king is in his death bed now and thus again he doesn't have time left. The king sees the scholar, his old friend who dedicated entire life and wisdom to carry out the royal order, beside his bed. King, with a few of his breaths left, asks the scholar, "have you made it precise ? I do not have much time left …tell me the synopsis of human history before I sign off ".The scholar with trembling hands bows down beside the king bed and whispers to the ears of king .." yes my lord ..I have …. it's only suffering ..the ultimate synopsis of human history is suffering only " !! And the King peacefully departs …..

A short beautiful aphorism in this story re-establishes the first of four noble truths of Lord Buddha … the world we live in is nothing but suffering !! Even a moment of joy is nothing but an interlude to the next suffering

And there comes the challenge of Vedanta that tells "Jagat Mithya Bramha Satya" as the world you perceive is Maya, not the reality that is supposed to be exposed to you by your knowledge. Once you assimilate yourself with that knowledge of keeping Nitya aside from Anitya, your divine self becomes "sat-chit-ananda". And thus we arrive at an intellectual loggerhead with Buddhism. Vedanta accepts the basic teaching of Lord Buddha, values it, and also prescribes that it is YOU who can get rid of it by your own virtue without any formalities, any Yagna – only with the help of "Gyan ".That purpose of assimilation is Gyana – Yoga, one among the four principles of Yoga of teaching of Bhagavad Geeta