Seven Questions

Seven questions of Garuda and Kakabusundi’s replies to them

Which form of all is the most difficult to obtain?
Which is the greatest misery?
Which is the highest pleasure?
What are the innate disposition of, or the essential characteristics of the saints and of the evil-minded?
Which is the highest religious merit made known in the Vedas?
Which is the most terrible sin?
What is the disease of the mind?

Kakabusundi replied:
1. There is no other form as good as the human body: every living creature – whether animate or inanimate - crave for it. It is the ladder that takes the soul either to hell or to heaven and again to final beatitude, and is the bestower of blessings in the form of wisdom, dispassion and devotion. Men who fail to adore Sri Hari even after obtaining this body, and wallow in the basest pleasures of the senses, throw away the philosopher’s stone from the palm of their hand and take bits of glass in exchange for the same.

2. There is no misery in this world as terrible as poverty.

3. There is no blessing as great as communion with saints.

4. Beneficence in thought, word and deed is the innate disposition of saints. The saints undergo suffering in the interest of others while impious wretches do so with a view to tormenting others. Tender hearted saints, like the birch tree, submit to the greatest torture (even allow their skin to be peeled off) for the good of others; while the wicked, like the hemp, have their skin flayed off and perish in agony in order to be able to bind others (in the form of cords). Like the rat and the serpent, the wicked injure others without any gain to themselves. Having destroyed others’ prosperity they perish themselves, even as the hail dissolves after destroying the crops. The elevation of the wicked, like the rising of the comet- which is a detestable heavenly body- is a source of calamity to the world. The advancement of a saint, on the other hand, is ever conducive to joy, even as the rising of the sun and the moon brings delight to the whole universe.

5. A vow of non-violence is the highest religious merit known to the Vedas.

6. There is no sin as grievous as speaking ill of others.

7. Note now the diseases of the mind, from which everyone suffers. Infatuation is the root of all ailments and from these again arise many other troubles. Lust is a counterpart of wind and inordinate greed corresponds to an abundance of phlegm; while anger represents bile, which constantly burns the breast. Should all these three combine, there results what is known as Sannipata (a derangement of the aforesaid three humours of the body, causing dangerous type of fever ). Source- Tulasi Ramayanam