When Yudhisthira says that only foolish people seek worldly things in the famous “ascharyam” verse, why does he seek a kingdom?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question. When Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja says in his famous verse, आश्चरिमेतद्धिमानुशेलोक्या He says the most amazing thing is that people want a permanent solution even when they see everybody else is dying. अहन्यहन्यभूतानिगच्छन्तियहिमालेम् शेषस्तावर्मिच्छन्ति किमाश्चरिमधापरम् So, everybody sees hundreds and thousands of people dying every day and yet people desire a permanent solution in this world.
So, in this way, he talks about the inevitability of death and the futility of worldly attainments. Then why does he himself seek a kingdom and why does he engage in a severe war to seek a kingdom? Is he not living according to his teachings? Answer? Yes, definitely he is living according to his teachings. And the teaching is that one should not seek temporary worldly things at the expense of the conquest of death.
At the expense of cultivating spiritual knowledge, spiritual consciousness by which we will conquer death. And just knowing that we are all going to die, what are we supposed to do by that knowledge? Oh, just stop doing everything? Oh, I am going to die, I am going to die? No, there is a process by which one is able to go beyond that and that process involves purification. And for that purification, one has to do one’s duty, one has to do one’s dharma.
And that dharma will vary according to time, place, circumstance. So, for one who is married, for a Kshatriya with a family, doing the Kshatriya dharma is to rule. And so when Arjuna, when Yudhishthir is seeking a kingdom and is ready even to wage a war for the kingdom, that is so that he can do a Kshatriya dharma.
And by doing that dharma, he will become purified. And eventually he will become qualified enough to attain liberation from eternal existence. So what he is condemning is godless materialism where one seeks only material things and doesn’t think anything about the spiritual gains, spiritual growth.
That is what he condemns. But cultivating spiritual, but recognizing the need for spirituality doesn’t mean that we just suddenly reject everything material. Even those who renounce the world also have to follow a disciplined process of purification.
And those who are in the world definitely have to follow that process. So Yudhishthir Maharaj never lost sight of the ultimate goal. In fact, when they are returning, they stay in the Himalayan regions in Badrik ashram north side and for several years.
And when they are returning back to towards closer back to other human beings so that they can live in the Ajnaatvas in the 13th year and then eventually they can regain their kingdom. So at that time, when Yudhishthir is leaving, he turns and prays to the Himalayas, prays to the sacred rivers over there. What does he pray? Not that I attain my kingdom.
What he prays is that after I have done my worldly duties, I pray that I can again return and take shelter of you permanently. That means he is talking in the future about vanaprastha. So he is aware of his future duties and he wants to adhere to those duties.
But he can’t jump those duties. Somebody is in a grahastha ashram, one has to do the duties of grahastha ashram responsibly and that is the way purification happens. So as devotees also, we should be aware that death is inevitable and therefore we should be willing to invest adequate amount of time for cultivating spiritual consciousness.
But that doesn’t mean that we just neglect and forget everything else and don’t do anything material. We do material things also but in a regulated dharmic way. As Yudhishthira Maharaj did.
Without losing sight of the ultimate spiritual goal and the spiritual purpose that is to be served by our material engagements. Yudhishthira Maharaj was not greedy for a kingdom. And that’s why when he sent Krishna as shanti doodh, he told Krishna that whatever measures you want to take, you can take to get peace.
And that included just accepting five villages. So Yudhishthira certainly was not greedy for worldly things. But he wanted to do his duty.
And Krishna wanted that his duty be he will be the monarch of the world and he accepted that. So it’s a process that is to be followed to conquer that and that process involves doing our dharma and our dharma has spiritual and material aspects both. Thank you.