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Yama does not begin
as a god, he earns that
distinction. He is merely
a man to begin with
but he is not afraid
to grow into his full
potential, he is not
afraid to travel beyond
the veil, he is not
afraid, period. He is
the first man to die
and the first man to
learn about death without
any fear of it. That
makes him the Lord of
Death, indeed so great
is his power over death
that he is even called
Mrityu, Death itself.
Since he was the first
sinless man to cross
over, he becomes the
Lord of that Realm,
and is also entrusted
with a new responsibility,
guarding the Dharma.
Hence his title 'Dharma
Raja', the Lord of Dharma.
It is a remarkable concept.
Death alone can reveal
the true ethical and
moral stature of a human
life; while that life
is being lived the issue
always hangs in balance.
The judgment seat of
Yama thus evolved in
later myth, helped by
his assistant, Chitragupta,
India's Recording Angel
who has every deed of
a life stored away in
his infinite ledgers.
This is the classic
weighing of the scales,
a great and momentous
decision that only the
first man, The Forerunner,
who showed the race
of man the path to salvation,
is entitled to take.
It is a dramatic representation
of Shaw's famous phrase,
"Life levels all men
but Death reveals the
eminent."
Yama's death had another
interesting consequence.
For Yami went into a
great inconsolable gloom
that rapidly threatened
the Universe. The gods
urged her to let it
go, to forget the death
of Yama and get on with
living. To all their
remonstrance she had
only one answer, "Yama
has died but today and
you want me to forget
so soon?" Since the
First Days had been
created without any
nights, this was indeed
an insurmountable difficulty!
To help put some
distance between Yami's
distress and the event
causing it, the gods
invented Night. Thus
came into being the
morrow, the passage
of time and the dimming
of memory, which assuages
grief. "Night and
day together let sorrow
be forgotten", says
the Veda about this.
Also, Yama seems to
have traveled to the
south to learn about
the great transition
of Death, so that he
has been deemed the
guardian of the South
quadrant and it is also
the direction of death.
To sleep with your feet
pointed south is regarded
as an invitation to
travel on the long journey
and avoided in Indian
culture.
Yama becomes somewhat
static in the mythological
imagination thereafter,
even declining to the
position of a stickler
for rules who implements
them blindly without
any thought for compassion.
This is perhaps exemplified
in the myth of Markandeya,
a boy-rishi who was
fated to die an early
death. The worship of
Shiva was his delight
and when Death came
for him the boy was
busy in worship. Since
death waits for nothing,
he was dragged along
with the Shiva lingam
to his inevitable doom
when a furious Shiva,
the Deathless One, erupted
from the lingam and
kicked the God of Death
away, and granted immortality
to the boy to boot!
Yama has a great
role left to play in
the Katha Upanishad,
where the boy-rishi
Nachiketas travels to
his realm, seeking instruction
from the only god who
really knows the secret
and mystery of death.
This text is one of
the glories of Indian
literature as well as
philosophy and it is
worth perusing in its
own right. Yama tries
to dissuade the boy
from asking to learn
about matters even the
gods prefer to avoid
in ignorant bliss, but
seeing that his resolution
would not be shaken,
he fires from both barrels
in a tremendous opening
statement of truths.
"The Good is one thing.
The Pleasant is another."
He then takes the boy
through ever ascending
realms of Awareness
and ends up with a blunt
statement of reality
about the Path.
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