Srimadbhagavatham-skandha 5.chapters 7,8 and 9

June 4, 2009

Chapter 7, 8 and 9- the story of Bharatha

Bharatha ruled the kingdom after Rshabha and his devotion to Lord Vasudeva increased over the years. He left the kingdom to his sons and went to Pulahasrama near river kantaki, where salagramas are found. Leading the life of an ascetic there he attained peace.

One day when he was doing his daily ablutions in the river he saw a female deer who came to drink water. At that time the roar of a lion was heard and out of fear the deer jumped into the river and dies caught in the caves under water. The deer was fully pregnant when it jumped into the river and the baby deer fell from its womb Bharatha seeing it being carried away by the stream, saved it out of pity and took it to his asram.

As the days went by he got attached to the deer cub and the thought of it filled his mind always so that he lost concentration in his spiritual practice. Whenever the deer was out of sight he used to worry about it. When his death came he was thinking about the deer worrying about leaving it uncared. Thus due to prarabdha, the one who renounced his kingdom and kith and kin was caught in the bondage of attachment towards a deer.

In the next life as the Lord says in the Gita, yam yam vaapi smaran bhaavam thyajanthyanthe kalebaramtham tham eva ethi, (BG.8.6) one gets that state in the next birth thinking of which he leaves the body, Bharatha was born as a female deer because his mind was full of motherly love for the deer. But due to his power of ypga practised in the previous birth he had the memory of it and regretted his attachment which resulted in the present birth instead of attaining mukthi.

He endured the life of a deer patiently observing a vrata of an ascetic eating only dried leaves and lived in the asrama waiting for his end. Finally he left his body in the holy water.

In next life Bharatha was born in the family of Brahmin learned in the Vedas. He acquired the jnana from his last birth as declared in the Gita, thathra tham budDhisamyogam labhathe pourvadhehikam (BG.6.43), one gets the jnana acquired in his last life , in answer to the question of Arjuna as to what happens to a yogi who has swerved from his path before reaching completion.

From his birth he was detached and was not interested in learning the Vedas since he had advanced far beyond the Vedas, which are described by Krishna in Gita as thrigunya vishayaaH, (BG2.45) being within the realm of the three gunas. He was wary from his previous birth and did not want to be caught in samsara. His father tried to educate him in the Vedas but he could not even learn gayathri manthra and his father died desolate that while his other sons were learned in the Vedas this one was ignorant. His brothers also took him for a jada, inert being, from which he acquired the name Jadabharatha.

He used wander along like a mad man or a dullard doing whatever anyone asked him to do, without any identification with his body, mind and intellect, that is, as a fully realized soul. Once the head of a group of robbers wanted to get a son by giving a man as a sacrifice to goddess Kali. The one they caught for the purpose escaped and they chanced to come across Bharatha who was having a well built body and they decided that he was the right victim for the sacrifice. He never objected and went with them. But when the Purohit was about to cut his head, the goddess became furious in their offering a brhamjnani as a human sacrifice and emerged and killed them all. The real sThithaprajna, he was, neither grieving over calamities nor elated over good fortune, being devoid of desire, fear and anger, duhkheshu anudhbvighna manaaH sukheshu vigathasprhaH, veetha raaga bhayakroDhaH (BG. 2.56) Bharatha never worried about it even and went on his way when the king Rahugana met him and got advice from him, which is another story related in the next chapter.