One of the interesting aspect about the Raja Janak is that he has been shown as the Father of Sita(Vaidehi) in Ramayan but not much is said about his Vedhehi State(Avastha). It is later on Ved Vyas said in the Baghwat. We have to see the interdependency of these two Rishis in these aspects. The character Janak is introduced in Ramayan but its detailed staus is described by VedVyas. So to understand Janak , we must take the Vedhehi katha from the VedVyas.
There was a King called as Nimi and was supported by his Guru Vashisht. One day Nimi thought of performing a Yagna to which Guru Vashisht agreed. Vashisht told Nimi that this Yagna must be performed as according to the strict discipline and timing of the the Yagna must be honored so as to fatch maximum benifits. Nimi agreed to it and started doing arragement for the Yagna. When the stipulated day of Yagna arrived he found Guru Vashisht missing. Raja Nimi was in fix. Now he realized if Yagna is not started exactly at the stipiluted time then it would be against Guru's order. And if in the absence of the Guru, the Yagna starts then Guru would go angry. Thinking this he had to arrivee to a dicision since Vashisht did not arrive as Muhurat time was approching. He reasoned out himself by saying that after all Vasihsta is our Guru and he would be more happy in seeing his diciple honoring his word or command rather than him. With this he went ahead with the Yagna in the absence of Guru Vashisht. He only performed required rituals but did not take anything from the YagnaVedi as prasad. Guru Vashisht arrived later some time and was furious about Nimi performing Yagna in his absence. In that spur of the moment he curse him "Hey Nimi, since you insulted me, you should be dead with immediate effect". Nimi could not belived that his Guru can say something like this . He expected some sort of appriciation for honoring the Time of the Yagna. As he found no fault with him and un-nesscesary curse from Guru Vashisht, he as well gave the same curse to his Guru. The sitiuation was that both of them falling dead were lying on the floor. The kingdom was left without any Raja and Guru which was not possible according to the social and political system of that time. Hence Rishis and Munis of nearby area gathered to make these dead bodies alive. They made Guru Vashisht to wake up thinking that Guru Vashisht in turn will make Raja Nimi alive. Although, Atman of Guru Vashisht was ready to go back to the physical frame of the Guru , Atman of Raja Nimi saw this as an apportunity to wander here and there. Atman of Raja Nimi refused to go back to the physical frame of the Nimi saying that it will not be part of that world where in selfish and timid Guru like Vashisht resides. That created a huge problem. But Rishi Munis were also very adamant of making Nimi alive. If atman of Nimi refuses to occupy Nimi's Sharir then we shall ask some other atman with out Kaya or Deha(Body) to occupy Nimi's Kaya they said. According to the Perkaya Science it is not possible to occupy any Kaya by any Atman. Kaya and Atman must be complementory to each other then only it is possible. So Rishis started hunt for the Atman without a Kya suitable for Nimi's kaya. Ultimatly they obtained it but for that they had to make Nimi's body suitable for that Atman.Then only the Vedehi Atman could be restored to Nimi's dead body. Since body of the Nimi was made suitable to the Vedehi Atman the dead body was named as Janak as it has given a place for an Atman and since Vedehi Atman was installed in the dead body it was called as Vedehi Raja Janak. Of this Janak Sita is shown as daughter.
Raja Janak was shown as King of the Mathila. Mith+Ila is Mithila. Mith is what we refer as Mithya that is illusory. Mith means illusory or that does not exists in reality. Ila means Atman. So Mithila menas a illusion of Atman when there is no real Atman. This qualifies as Physical frame of the Raja Janak that has a Atman of some one else but not its own Jivatmas. hence illusion of Atman. This means that Mithila means Ved Vyas wanted to tell Physical Frame of the Raja Janak.
Such a King of Mithila Raja Janak is shown as Father of Sita wife of Ram. One day Raja Janak was farming in the field in his empire where he found a baby girl. Since she was found while farming in the field the girl was named as Sita. Now the question arises why should a King be farming personally in his kingdom?. In entire ancient history and Vedik culture it was not found to a King personally doing any peaseant work. But it is said that Raja Janak did it. What farm was that. Gita has an answer for it:
Idam Shariram Kounteya
Kshtrabhityamidhiyate |
Etatdho Vetti Tam PrahuH Kshrtranya Iti Tadwidha|| 13.1 ||
O son of Kunti, know that this body is called as Kshetra or field and one who knows this field is called as Kshetrajnya or knower of the field.
Field, a very good simile given to our body. A field, if left to itself, will grow up wanted as well as unwanted yields. A person, being intelligent,reaps such crops as are needed for his livelihod and does not allow other crops to grow which are not needed for his life. Kshetra or physical body that yields good results is called as Sita. The same Sita is shown to discard her life in the same Kshetra. Ram is the Kshetrajanya or Soul and Sita is the field or body. When this body(Sita) would be lost in the Dandakaranya(YogSadhana of MeruDanda) naturally Ram will cry like a child.
So from this we can say that Raja Janak and Mithila is nothing but expressions used to indicate the state of the Sadhak in the YogSadhana. The Guru-Shishya killing each other is nothing but the practice of the YogSadhana regularly done by the Sadhak under the guindence of the Guru. Sometimes it so happens that the Atman goes out of physical frame leaving the physical frame. This Avastha is called as Samadhee Avastha. One can go into the Samadhee Avastha and come back to the normal exisitence if guided by the proper Guru. The Samadhee Avastha is obtained by regular practice of meditation and Chakra Bhedan. The AbhiManyu in MahaBharat is shown with the skill of conquering the Chakras to go into the Samadhee but was shown not to have coming out of it. That is why Chakra-Vyu Bhedhan. So Raja Nimi and Vasisht were doing this Chakravyu Bhedhan but Guru was capable of coming out of the Samadhee state not the Shishya Nimi. Hence his body kept waiting to regain Consciousesness. When indeed it regain Consciousness he was totally a Transformed person. He no more remain Nimi. Since by reaching to Samadhee state and regaing Consciousness resulted in understanding of Brahma. Since Raja Nimi reached to Brahma State without his physical frame he was named as Vedehi. An atman reaching to Brahama State without Body is Vedehi Mukti. The totally transformed body with altogether different Aham Bhava was afterwards called as Janak since it had created a Vedhehi Mukta Avastha. This all was possible because of the knowledge our ancient rishis had about PerKaya Pravesh.That is how Nimi was transformed to Janak.
Raja Janak once reached to Brahama Avastha there after given due attention by the subsequent authours. The same character was later on use by Maharisi Valmiki in YogVasishta. It contains a story of Ved Vyas and his son Shuka. Shuka was shown to be a MahaYogi but was still not clear about the Bramaha Avastha. He asked his father Ved Vyas but he was not satisfied by his answers. So Ved Vyas aasked Shuka to go to Raja Janak. Raja Janak gave him correct answer and make Shuka to reach to the Brahma Avastha. So son of Ved Vyas to go to Raja JAnak to get the Mukti. Actually all this is to show that one must work as Janak did in his YogSadhana. Then only one can get the Brahma Avastha.
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