Part I-Myths-Sec.2-Anec 6,7&8

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Dear Bhagavatas,

Presented below are Anecdotes 6, 7 and 8 from Section 2 of Part I on

"Myths".

Dasoham

Anbil Ramaswamy

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6. The power of Anthima Smriti (Last thought) - ( Jadabharata)

 

Bharata was the firat of the 100 sons of Rishaba and Jayanthi. He was an

extremely pious person who practiced Dharma very scrupulously without

aspiring for the fruits of his austerity. He renounced his kingdom and

retired to the banks of the river Gandaki to do penance. He was

constantly meditating on Narayana.

 

But, one day, he witnessed a deer that soon after giving birth to a baby

deer was shot dead by the hunters. Bharata took pity on the deerling and

showered all his affection and reared it with utmost care. He became so

much attached to it that at the time of his death, the ultimate thought

in his mind was of his dear deer. He was himself born as a deer in his

next birth. But, his virtues enabled him to be born again as a brahmin

and his innate qualities and inclination to Dharma remained unaffected.

 

Though he was a great man of wisdom (Gnani), he posed as if he was out

of his mind and senses, unmindful of the joys and sorrows, gains and

losses and was without any desires but with a steadfast mind rivetted to

the Paramatma. Once, an evil minded person dragged him to be offered as

as sacrifice to Kaali but seeing his resplendent glory born out of his

virtues, Kaali helped him to escape the ordeal.

 

Once, he was made to be one of the palanquin bearers of King Rahuganan

and when he was too slow, the king asked him to move fast. In reply,

Bharata asked the king whether he was ordering his body or soul to move

fast. The king realized that Bharata was an extraordinary person who

should not have been subjected to the ignominy of being a palanquin

bearer. He begged pardon of Bharata and sought to be advised on the

transcendental reality. The advice of Bharata stands out as one of the

best pieces of exposition of Dharmic principles, valid for all time.

 

Comment

The story shows how attachment to worldy objects could distract and

spoil chances of liberation even for great sages like Jadabharata and

how when he gave up such attachments he became a true 'Gnani' and

attained liberation. In the Hindu scriptures, it has been laid down that

the "Anthima Smriti" (the last thought at the time of death ) determines

how one will be born in the next birth as it happened in the case of

Jadabharata who was born as a deer.

 

It is wrongly believed by some that the name 'Bharat' for India is

derived from the name of Bharata, the son of Dushyanta and Sakuntala of

a later age. Actually, India derives its name, Bharat from Jadabharata

mentioned above.

 

Jadabharata shed all his worldly attachments and therefore was deemed a

mentally deranged person And, thus it was the word 'Jada' meaning dull

headed came to be prefixed to his name even though in reality he was

one of the most brilliant Gnanis of his days. No wonder, a person who

insulates himself from worldly pleasures will certainly be dubbed a

lunatic in the modern times. But, our scriptures declare that such

'madness is the only form of sanity' because in such a disinterestedness

lies the royal road to liberation.

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7. The power of boon (Basmasura, Hiranyakasipu and Ravana)

 

Basmasura ( Viruka)

 

A demon by name Viruka did penance propitiating Siva. He got a boon from

Siva to the effect that if he touched the head of anyone, that head

should be smashed to smithereens. To test the power of the boon, he

attempted to place his hand on the head of Siva himself. Siva ran

helter-skelter, with Viruka chasing him wherever he went. Finally, Siva

reached Lord Narayana and prayed to him for being saved from Viruka.

Lord Narayana took the form of a bewitching damsel and lured Viruka into

dancing with her during the course of which the demon was made to place

his hand on his own head. Immediately, the demon's head got shattered to

pieces and Siva was saved. The demon came to be known as Basmasura

(Demon of the ashes)

 

Hiranyakasipu

 

Hiranyakasipu performed a big yagna propitiating Brahma and got several

boons - that he should not be killed by any created thing, on earth or

the sky, at night or day, inside or outside, by man or beast, by any

celestial being or Asura, by any poisonous being alive or dead or by any

weapons. He became invincible by virtue of these boons and commenced

tormenting all good people.

 

He had a son named Prahlada who was devoted to Lord Narayana.

Hiranyakasipu tried his best to wean him away from Narayana and accept

himself in the place of Narayana as the supreme being. But he could not

convince his son . Prahlada was tortured but he would not change. After

an altercation with Prahlada, Hiranyakasipu asked him if Narayana was in

a pillar pointed out by him. Prahlada answered in the affirmative.

Hiranyakasipu kicked the pillar with a bang. With a resounding crash the

pillar cracked and out emerged Lord Narayana in the form of half-man and

half -lion (Nara + Simha) to substantiate the words of Prahlada. It was

dusk which was neither day nor night. Nrisimha carried the Asura to the

doorstep where under the arch of the doorway he sat laying the Asura on

his lap. Thus, it was neither earth nor sky, neither inside nor outside.

Nrisimha tore Hiranyakasipu to death with his claws.Claw is not a

poisonous being nor a weapon, one that was neither alive nor

dead.Nrisimha was not a created thing, neither a man nor a beast, not an

Asura nor a Deva.

 

Ravana

 

Ravana, the great Rakshasa king also performed a great sacrifice and

obtained from Brahma boons similar to those obtained by Hiranyakasipu.

But out of contempt, he left out the poor, weak, humble humans from the

list of agents from whom he sought security against death. When his

atrocities became unbearable, Lord Narayana had to take the form of a

human being in the personality of Rama and killed him in war.

 

Comment

 

The stories above show that 'boons' obtained from Gods are inviolable

and bestow on the recepients immense powers. They also show how having

become invincible, they become intoxicated with power, pelf and

arrogance and inflict indicriminate torture on good people. The immunity

derived from boons is so efficacious that nothing could stop them from

their devilish exploits. The only way to neutralize the effect of boons

and destroy the perpetrators is by taking advantage of any loopholes.

 

The boons granted by Siva and Brahma had to be neutralized time and

again by the strategem of Lord Narayana

 

( i ) in the case of Basmasura, by enticing him to dance during which

he was beguiled into placing his hand on his own head which led to his

self- destruction

 

( ii ) in the caes of Hiranyakasipu, by contriving the manner of his

death without violating any of the alternatives he had secured and

 

( iii ) in the case of Ravana, by the Lord being born as a human being-

a clause haughtily omitted by Ravana while securing his boons from

Brahma.

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8. The power of Curse (Parikshit, Ahalya and Dasaratha)

 

Parikshit

 

Parikshit was a great devotee of the Lord.Once, he went for hunting.

After spending long time in the game, he felt hungry and thirsty. He saw

the hermitage of Sage Sameeka and approached him. Since the sage was in

deep meditation, he did not notice the arrival of Parikshit. Parikshit

got angry that the sage did not extend the customary courtesies due to a

king. He lifted a dead snake and put it on the shoulders of the sage

like a garland. Sringi, the son of the sage , also a great sage of

immense potential, returned. He saw what had happened. He spelled out a

curse that since the king had put a snake on his father's shoulders, the

king would die of snake bite of the Snake king Daksha on the 7th day

from then.

 

Parikshit came to know of the curse and that there was no way to escape

from the curse. He made over his kingdom to his son, and retired to the

banks of river Ganga awaiting his end. Many of the sages came to see

him, pitied his plight but they could do nothing about the curse. All

that Parikshit wanted to know was how on death one could attain

salvation. Sukha, the son of Vyasa arrived and narrated to Parikshit on

the last 7 days of his life the entire story of Bhagavatam which he had

heard from his father. And, what Sukha narrated has come to be known as

Bhagavata Purana.

 

Ahalya

 

Ahalya was the wife of Sage Gautama. One morning. Indra, the lord of the

Devas was attracted by the beauty of Ahalya, wife of Gautama. He gave a

wake up call by cawing like a crow. Gautama mistook it to be a sign of

daybreak and proceeded to the river for his morning ablusions. Having

Gautama removed from the scene, Indra came to Ahalya in the garb of

Gautama and she extended the usual courtesies to him thinking it was

Gautama himself. Sometime later, Gautama realizing that he had been

misled returned home and learned that she had entertained the imposter

in his absence. He got angry and cursed that Ahalya would turn into

stone. When she admitted her fault misled by the imposter, Gautama

stipulated that she would regain her original form when Lord Rama would

tread on her in the form of stone.

 

Dasaratha

 

Once while hunting, King Dasaratha heard a sound at a distance which

resembled that of an animal drinking water from a pond and he aimed his

arrow at the source of the sound. He was an adept in the art of

Sabdavedhi, a form of archery in which one could shoot out an arrow in

the direction of the source of any sound that could kill the animal

creating that sound even though it was nowhere in sight. Actually, the

sound emanated from a vessel in which a young boy was filling water from

a pond for quenching the thirst of his blind parents who were resting a

few yards away. When Dasaratha came to the place, he saw the boy in the

threos of death. He carried the boy to his parents and explained to them

what happened. The old couple were beside with grief and spelled out a

curse on Dasaratha saying that he would also die likewise unable to

bear the pangs of separation from his son. Incidentally, the curse

contained an unintended boon to Dasaratha because he had no children at

that time and had given up all hopes of having a child inspite of his

having numerous wives. Subsequently, Dasaratha had four sons and he died

on his separation from Rama whom he banished to exile in peculiar

circumstances..

 

Comment

 

If the power of boons is so invincible, the power of curse is

inevitable.The story of Parikshit cautions that even under the worst

provocations, one should not give room for anger especially towards

saintly souls, who by their penance had immense potential for conferring

a boon or pronouncing a curse. The only way to neutralize the effects of

a curse is to beg pardon from the person offended who might stipulate

the extenuating circumstances or define the happening of an event on the

occurance of which the accursed would gain relief. In other words, the

intensity or the period of punishment would be determined by the person

who pronounced the curse.

Numerous instances confirm this phenomenon.

 

( i ) In the case of Parikshit, he accepted the curse and was prepared

to undergo the ordeal of death and sought only the means to secure

salvation after death.

 

( ii ) In the case of Ahalya, she was also as misled as Gautama (who in

spite of his being a great sage could not differentiate between night

and daybreak). But, since she had been cursed, she had to seek relief

from Gautama and wait as a stone until at a distant date Lord Rama tread

on the stone to regain her original form.

 

( iii ) In the case of Dasaratha, he had to pay the penalty also for his

indiscretion in killing a boy mistaking him to be an animal.

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