॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Monday, 5 December 2022 V.09 - Bharata takes birth in a good Brahmin family. His otherworldly behaviour is mistaken for utter stupidity and he is almost sacrificed by a dacoit to propitiate Kali, who then comes to save him.
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Whoever said that the spiritual path is easy? We need to just read the story of Bharata, born to Rishabha Deva, an incarnation of Maha Vishnu, ruling the land so well that our country came to be named after him, as Bharata Varsha, and who later went to Muktinath on the Gandaki to pursue his spiritual practices. This story holds many lessons. Succumbing to an ostensibly noble ideal of compassion for animals, developing an inordinate attachment to a fawn and losing all sense of why he went to Muktinath, Bharata was forced to be born as a deer, and later, he suffered differently in his next birth.
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After his life as a deer, Bharata was born to an exalted Brahmin family, descended from Sage Angiras. His father was learned and charitable. Kind, gentle, and tolerant, he was devoted to the Lord. He had nine sons from his first wife, while Bharata and a daughter were born to his second wife.
Bharata, by the grace of Bhagavan, fully recalled his past lives. He shunned his relatives and associates, avoiding the fall into samsara again. Before the public eye, he acted like a madman — dull, blind and deaf — so that others would not try to talk to him. In this way, he saved himself from worldly company. Within himself, he was always thinking of the lotus feet of the Lord and chanting the Lord’s glories.
The Brahmin was attached to this strange son, now called Jada Bharata (dull-witted Bharata). He refrained from getting Bharata married but conducted all other ceremonies including Brahmopadesha. He managed to teach Bharata how to wash himself and remain clean.
Bharata continued to behave like an idiot so that his father would stop trying to teach him the scriptures. He did not learn even Gayatri and Omkara.
Without succeeding in teaching Bharata how to be a learned Brahmin, the father passed away. Bharata's mother did sahagamana (entering the husband's pyre), leaving Bharata and his sister in their step-mother's and step-brothers' care.
The brothers were well entrenched in Vedic rituals and considered Bharata to be so dull that they did not even try anymore. Sage Shuka says that they showed that they had no spiritual insight at all as otherwise, they would have known that Bharata was intrinsically an advanced soul.
To all around him, Bharata appeared mad, dull, deaf and dumb. He did not protest or try to convince them that he was not so. If others wanted him to do something, he acted according to their wishes. Whatever food he could acquire by begging or by wages, and whatever came of its own accord - little morsels, palatable, stale or tasteless - he would accept and eat. He never ate anything for sense gratification because he was already liberated from bodily attachments which induce one to seek good food.
Bharata was handsome and strong like a bull. His limbs were very muscular. He didn’t care for winter or summer, wind or rain, and he never covered his body at any time. He lay on the ground, and never smeared oil on his body and never had a bath. His body was dirty in contrast to his inner splendour. He wore only a dirty loincloth and his sacred thread, which was blackish. Being teased as ब्रह्मबन्धु - a blot on Brahminhood- he carried on.
Bharata was made to work in their fields by his brothers, in return for which he would be given some humble food. He was not at all good at working in the field and ate whatever broken rice and burnt grains he was offered. He did not hold any grudges and ate all this very gladly.
One day, a dacoit chief, desirous of begetting a son, wanted to sacrifice a human being to propitiate Kali. He got hold of a dullard and was about to sacrifice him, but the man managed to escape. The dacoit gang went in search of the escaped man and finally found Bharata sitting in Veeraasana, in the middle of the agricultural field to ward off wild boar and deer केदारान् वीरासनेन मृगवराहादिभ्य: संरक्षमाणमङ्गिर:प्रवरसुतमपश्यन्. He looked impressive and was obviously a Brahmin. They were delighted to get a better replacement for the original one and took him to the sacrifice.
Taken away being bound hand and foot, Bharata was then ceremonially prepared by being given a good bath, and readied with new clothes, ornaments and garlands for the sacrifice. He was also fed well. He acted silently all the time. The dacoits were singing and beating drums in celebration before their deity.
Finally, Bharata was made to kneel down in front of the deity, ready to be beheaded. The dacoit chief priest came with the extremely sharp sacrificial sword decorated and consecrated with propitiatory mantras addressed to Kali.
Remember that this human sacrifice was to beget a worthy son!
इति तेषां वृषलानां रजस्तम:प्रकृतीनां धनमदरजउत्सिक्तमनसां भगवत्कलावीरकुलं कदर्थीकृत्योत्पथेन स्वैरं विहरतां हिंसाविहाराणां कर्मातिदारुणं यद्ब्रह्मभूतस्य साक्षाद्ब्रह्मर्षिसुतस्य निर्वैरस्य सर्वभूतसुहृद: सूनायामप्यननुमतमालम्भनं तदुपलभ्य ब्रह्मतेजसातिदुर्विषहेण दन्दह्यमानेन वपुषा सहसोच्चचाट सैव देवी भद्रकाली ॥
T: Full of Rajas (violence) and Tamas (ignorance), the dacoits were only after money and power. They could not, therefore, recognise the spiritual glow in Bharata. They were going to commit a heinous, murderous act which is against the Vedas that forbid the sacrifice of a Brahmin as he is the inheritor of the Vedas. Then a miracle happened.
The spiritual effulgence within Bharata, an exalted soul born in the family of a Brahmarshi lineage, now entered the idol of the deity that was being worshipped. Bhadra Kali manifested herself in her most virulent form. Suddenly the deity’s body burst asunder, and Kali emerged from it in a body burning with an intense and intolerable effulgence. The infuriated Goddess flashed her eyes and displayed her fierce, tigerish teeth. Her reddish eyes glowed, and she was most frightening, prepared to destroy the entire creation.
Leaping violently from the altar, Kali immediately decapitated all the dacoits with the very sword with which they had intended to kill Bharata. She then began to drink the hot blood that flowed from the necks of those beheaded, relishing it as if this blood was liquor. Her attendants joined in the melee. They all began to sing very loudly and dance as though they were prepared to annihilate the entire universe. At the same time, they began to play with the decapitated heads, tossing them like balls.
Sage Shuka says that the intended sacrifice was such a heinous act that this result was only to be expected.
न वा एतद्विष्णुदत्त महदद्भुतं यदसम्भ्रम: स्वशिरश्छेदन आपतितेऽपि विमुक्तदेहाद्यात्मभावसुदृढहृदयग्रन्थीनां सर्वसत्त्वसुहृदात्मनां निर्वैराणां साक्षाद्भगवतानिमिषारिवरायुधेनाप्रमत्तेन तैस्तैर्भावै: परिरक्ष्यमाणानां तत्पादमूलमकुतश्चिद्भयमुपसृतानां भागवतपरमहंसानाम् ॥
T: "Oh, Vishnudatta (another name of Parikshit who was blessed by Sri Krishna even before his birth)! This miracle of the Lord saving Bharata was only natural. Bharata was about to be beheaded, but he identified himself with his Atma and did not care for his body and so did not resist at all. The knots of bodily attachments were broken and he had developed universal love. Such a devotee will be personally saved by Bhagavan Himself, always. He manifests with His Gada and Chakra, or as the occasion demands, in this case, as Goddess Kali herself. This is His avowed promise to all the Bhagavatas and Paramahamsas fully surrendered at His feet."
This story is similar to what we have read about the Sage Sadashiva Brahmendra, another Paramahamsa who lived in a recent century.
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॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
