Sage Vasishtha
PUNYA continued:
These false notions of father, mother, friend, relative etc., are swept aside by wisdom as dust is swept away by wind. These relatives are not based on truth, they are but words! If one is thought of as a friend, he is a friend; if he is thought as the other, he is the other! When all this is seen as the one omnipresent being, where is the distinction between the friend and the other?
Brother, enquire within yourself - this body is inert and it is composed of blood, flesh, bones etc.; what is the 'I' in it? If you thus enquire into the truth, you will realize that there is nothing which is you nor anything which is 'I': what is called Punya or Pavana is but a false notion.
However, if you still think 'I am', then in the incarnations past you have had very many relatives. Why do you not grieve for their death? You had many swan relatives when you were a swan, many tree relatives when you were a tree, many lion-relatives when you were lion, many fish-relatives when you were a fish. Why do you not weep for them? You were a prince, you were a donkey, you were a peepul tree and then a banyan tree. You were a brahmana, you were a fly and also a mosquito, you were an ant. You were a scorpion for half a year, you were a bee, and now you are my brother. In these many other embodiments you have taken birth again and again countless times.
Even so, I have had very many embodiments. I see them all, and your embodiments too, through my subtle intelligence which is pure and clear-visioned. I was a bird, a crane, a frog, a tree, a camel, a king, a tiger - and now I am your elder brother. For ten years I was an eagle, for five months I was a crocodile and for a hundred years I was a lion: now I am your elder brother. I remember all these and many more embodiments I have passed through in a state of ignorance and delusion. In all these embodiments there were countless relatives. Whom shall I mourn? Considering this, I do not grieve.
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