35. MERE LEARNING IS NOT ENOUGH :

KING Brihadyumna, a disciple of the sage
Raibhya, performed a great sacrifice at
which he requested his teacher to let his
two sons Paravasu and Arvavasu officiate.
With the permission of their father, both
of them went joyfully to the capital of the
king.


While arrangements were being made for
the sacrifice, Paravasu desired one day to
go and see his wife and, walking alone all
night, he reached his hermitage before
dawn. Near the hermitage, he saw in the
twilight, what seemed to him a beast of
prey crouching for a spring and, hurling
his weapon at it, killed it.


But to his horror and grief, he discovered
that he had killed his own father clad in
skins, mistaking him for a wild denizen of
the forest. He realised that the fatal
mistake was the effect of the curse of
Bharadwaja.


When he had hastily performed the
funeral rites of his father, he went to
Arvavasu and told him the doleful tale. He
said: "But this mishap should not interfere
with the sacrifice of the king. Please do
the rites on my behalf in expiation of the
sin I have unwittingly committed. There
is, mercifully, atonement for sins
committed in ignorance. If you can be my
substitute here for undergoing the
expiation I shall be able to go and assist in
conducting the king's sacrifice. I can
officiate unaided, which is a thing you
cannot do as yet."


The virtuous brother agreed and said:
"You may attend to the king's sacrifice. I
shall do penance to free you from the
terrible taint of having killed a father and
a brahmana."


The virtuous Arvavasu, accordingly, took
upon himself the expiatory rites on behalf
of his brother. That done, he came to the
court of the king to join his brother and
assist in the sacrifice.


The sin of Paravasu was not washed off,
since expiation cannot be by proxy. It
tainted his mind with wicked designs.
Becoming jealous of the radiance on his
brother's face, Paravasu decided to
dishonor him by casting on him an
unjustice as a person and accordingly,
when Arvavasu entered the hall, Paravasu
loudly exclaimed so that the king might
hear:


"This man has committed the sin of
killing a brahmana and how can he enter
this holy sacrificial place?"
Arvavasu indignantly denied the
accusation but none heeded him, and he
was ignominiously expelled from that hall
of sacrifice by the orders of the king.


Arvavasu repeatedly protested his
innocence. "It is my brother who has
committed the sin and even then it was
through a mistake. I have saved him by
performing expiatory rites."


This made matters worse for him for
nobody believed that the expiation he had
undergone was not for his own crime and
everyone thought that he was adding false
accusation against a blameless brother, to
his other sins.


The virtuous Arvavasu who, besides being
falsely accused of a monstrous crime, was
also slandered as a liar, retreated to the
forest in despair of finding justice in the
world and betook himself to rigorous
austerities.


The gods were gracious and asked him:
"O virtuous soul, what is the boon you
seek?" High thinking and deep meditation
had in the meantime cleansed his heart of
all anger at his brother's conduct; and so,
he only prayed that his father might be
restored to life and that his brother might
be freed from wickedness and the sins that
he had committed.


The gods granted his prayer.
Lomasa narrated this story to
Yudhishthira at a place near Raibhya's
hermitage and said: "O Pandavas, bathe
here and wash off your passions in this
holy river."


Arvavasu and Paravasu were both sons of
a great scholar. Both of them learnt at his
feet and became eminent scholars
themselves.


But learning is one thing and virtue is
quite another. It is true that one should
know the difference between good and
evil, if one is to seek good and shun evil.
But this knowledge should soak into every
thought and influence every act in one's
life.


Then indeed knowledge becomes virtue.
The knowledge that is merely so much
undigested information crammed into the
mind, cannot instill virtue.
It is just an outward show like our clothes
and is no real part of us.