Great Indian Kings
Paushya
Long ago there used to live an obedient shishya of the great Paila maharshi. His name was Udanka. Udanka, due to his obedience, learnt quickly his lessons. After completing his Vidyaabhyaasam, before leaving the Guru-aashramam, Udanka requested his Guru to take Guru-dakshina. Paila maharshi replied “you being a shishya of me is itself enough. It is difficult to get good shishyas like you. Please go on”. Upon many times being requested by Udanka, finally Paila maharshi said “do the work that your Guru-patni tells you and then leave”.
He approached Guru-patni, did Yathaa-vidhi namaskaaram, with Vinayam, asked her to give him some work. She asked him to get the kundalas of the country’s Mahaaraani for a Vratam. Udanka immediately set out for it. On the way he sees a radiant brightly glowing God coming on a huge Vrushabham. He does the required namaskars to him and the God gives him goomayam. He eats the goomayam, takes leave from the God and continues his journey to meet Poushya, the king of the country. Poushya was a very great king, ruled his subjects as his own kids and made dharma walk on its four legs.
Poushya welcomed Udanka and offered him a warm welcome when he arrived at his courtyard. Udanka tells the reason for his arrival and immediately the kings granted him permission to collect the kundalas. He asked udanka to go to the queen’s palace and collect them from her personally. Udanka went into the palace and searched for the queen everywhere. Failing to find her returns to poushya informing that he could not find the queen. Poushya hesitantly says “O great Brahmana! How can I say that you are not clean? My queen is a Pativrata and hence only people who are clean can see her”. Udanka recalls why he was not in a clean state and realizes that in the hurry to finish gurupatni’s task, he forgot to wash his hands, feet and mouth and do aachamanam, after eating the gomayam. He immediately washes and does aachamanam and goes back to see the queen and sees her in her palace.
Story will be continued later in some other contexts. So will Udanka be able to complete his gurupatni’s task? who was the God? Keep reading for answers ….
Morals in the Story:
- It is very basic and important to always be clean.
- The mahima of pativratas is immense. It seems even the trimurtis do not have power to go against the will of a pativrata.
Neglecting the Indian aacharams and culture seems to be the main cause for today’s “modern” Indian’s un-cleanliness and other related ill-effects. So let us strive to uphold our culture reforms ourselves and think twice to act in this mad run for “technological advancement”.
Also now-a-days we miss our olden education system. Peviously Guru used to give Vidyaa, housing, food everything, expecting nothing in return. Shishya also used to learn with great Vinayam and try his best to give Guru-dakshina. This Unnata-aadarsham of Bhaarateey-Vidyaabhyaasam is well shown in the story through the conversation of Udanka and Paila maharshi. Contrast it with present day education — it has reached a level where educational institutes, in their hunger for money, do advertisements!!
For Indians, parishubhrata is of utmost importance and especially for eating. There are many rules in shaastras about how a person who eats must be, how the person who cooks must be and who clean the food itself must be etc. Even after following all the rules, some doshas might creep in. Hence Indians always put godhrutam (cow ghee) in the food before eating, considering the food as havis, the person who eats as havirbhokta and the the act of eating as a yagnyam!
Ukdanda gets angry on Paushya for offering uncleaned food. Since he knows all shaastras, he knows that neither the cook nor the person who served nor the head of the bhojanashaala must be blamed, it is the ajamaani who gave aatithyam, the King, who needs to be blamed for this (see this story). He, in the anger, says to Paushya “Since you gave me such food, may you become blind”. Knowing that Udanka gave him such a big punishment for a small mistake, Paushya says to Udanka “May you have no children”.
Since both Udanka and Paushya never deviated from the path of Truth, whatever they said now, in anger, became really true! The nature of a sajjana is that, he will never become angry and if he becomes angry, his anger will be like the spill of boiling milk, just for a fraction of a second. Immediately Paushya and Udanka realize their mistake and Paushya asks Udanka to save him from blindness. Udanka, with his tapas-shakti, told Paushya that he will be blind for a very short time. However Paushya could not give a shaapaavasaanam to Udanka. Paushya says “O great scholar! Since you are a sage and have immense tapas-shakti you were able to help me, but I cannot do it and my words cannot be changed, because of my satya-vaak-paripaalana”. Udanka then takes leave of Paushya and immediately resumes the work given by his Guru-patni.
Will Udanka be able to take the kundalas safely to his guru-patni? Wont Takshaka cause any trouble? Please keep reading to know the answers
.Morals in the story:
- For a person who always speaks Truth, whatever he speaks will become true!
- Anger, even for a fraction of second, may cause disasters.
- Importance of parishubhrata, especially for bhojanam, is clearly displayed in the story. The otherwise calm Udanka, became angry because the food offered to him (an Atithi, knowing Atithi-devo-bhava) had dosham. One must do bhojanam as if he was doing a yagnyam.
- The knowledge of shaastras helped Udanka to immediately decide who needs to be blamed for the dosham in the food.
- The power in Tapas (Daiva-dhyaanam) is clearly displayed by Udanka. With his tapas-shakti, he was able to undo his mistake.
Nahusha
maharaja
Nahusha was raised in his childhood by the great Brahmarshi Vasishta. Since he was unaffected by happiness or sorrow and did not feel the slighest ahankaar when once Devatas praised him in his childhood, he was named Nahusha. He learnt all shaastras and after his education became the King. Due to his great qualities his fame spread quickly to all directions. Everyone was in praise of him, to such an extent that even vedas praised him. He performed 100 Ashwamedha Yaagas and hence was deserving the position of Indra.
Once, Indra killed an asura by name Vrutraasura. Though Vrutra was an asura, he was a braahmana and hence Indra had to suffer brahmahatyaa-paatakam and Nahusha was offered the position of Indra. Nahusha continued to be good, until one day he realized that he was the ruler, king of all the 14-lookas! He suddenly became very proud and once a person has Ahankaar, he does not think, he assumes he is the greatest and that he can never be wrong. Such was the power of being the king for the Devatas and all the worlds! He sends a message to Sachi-devi, the great Pativrata and wife of Indra (the previous Indra, the eldest brother of Devatas) that she must serve him as he is the Indra now. The very moment he wanted a Pativrata, all his good qualities, tapas-shakti everything were lost and his end was destined.
Sachi-devi tells Nahusha "O great Indra! You are the God of the Gods. You are very great, please come to my house. But you being so great deserve to be carried by none other than Saptarishis. So please come in a pallaqi beared by them". Nahusha really feels that what Sachi-devi said is true (did not realize that she was a pativrata and hence the real meaning behind her words) and immediately ordered the Saptarishis to do so. Obviously the Saptarishis have conquered anger and ahankaar so they carry him. Nahusha sits in the pallaqi beared by them and in the height of his pride says "Sarpa Sarpa" (go fast) to Agasthya muni, since he was very short and was taking small small steps. Agasthya muni said "sarpobhava", in order to teach Nahusha a lesson. And immediately from the high position of Indra, he falls as a Ajagaram (huge Python) in some deep forest.
He spends thousand and thousands of years repenting for his mistake. Once when Paandavas were in the aashramam of Vrushaparva, Bhima goes to the forest and sees Nahusha who was in the form of an incredably huge Ajagaram. Bhima gets surprised by the amazing strength of it and asks it who it was. Nahusha tells his unfortunate story and says only the great Yudhishtira, who never deviates from the path of truth, can save him from this form. Meanwhile, Yudhishtira searching for Bhima reaches that place. Yudhishtira on knowing that the ajagaram is his ancestor Nahusha, he prostrates to him and takes his blessings. Later he answers all the questions of Nahusha and Nahusha gets freed from the terrible form, takes the form of a divya-purusha and goes to urdhva lokas in a divya vimaana.
Morals in the story:
- As long as Nahusha had Vinayam he was respected by everybody. Once taken over by Ahankaar, he committed great mistakes and later had to experience the result.
- Even for a great person like Nahusha, the power of simhaasanam made him bad. One must be more and more careful to be good and humble as his power in the society grows.
- Yudhishtira showed the way elders must be respected. One must never evaluate an elder for respecting them. According to our culture they always must be respected.
- Gnyaanam, knowledge of shaastra helped Yudhishtira answer the questions of Nahusha. One must always give utmost importance to gnyaanam and vigyaanam — using them one can acheive great wonders and help others.
- Pativratas power is graeater than anyone. One must never want a para-kaanta.
The baby had the tejas of Brahma and Puloma rākṣhasa turned into ashes on seeing Cyavana. Later Cyavana did many years of tapas and became a very great ṛṣhi. He and his wife Sukanya had dadhīci, pramati and āpravān as santānam. After a long time passed, once Cyavana maharṣhi did 12 years of tapas inside water. During his tapas, some fishermen came and as usual threw thier fishing net and were trying to catch fish. To their surprise, they saw Cyavana maharṣhi caught in their nets. The fishermen trembled with fear. But Cyavana maharṣhi said "it is not wrong to do your duty. Please do not be afraid that you disturbed my tapas". But the fishermen thought they were responsible for stopping the tapas of the maharṣhi and reported their mistake to their King, Nahuṣha
The maharṣhi told the King that it was not the mistake of the fishermen, they were just doing their duty. In addition he said "Please decide a rate for me and give that money to the fishermen, since their effort must not go waste." King Nahuṣha did not know how to rate the maharṣhi. He offered his artha-rājyam. Cyavana said that wont be enough. Then the King said then take my entire rājyam! Cyavana said that is not the approriate rate for him. Meanwhile a maharṣhi named Kavijāta came and told the King "Please offer one cow. That will be equivalent to a ṛṣhi." Knowing the greatness of the cow from Cyavana, Nahuṣha gave away a best quality cow to the fishermen and sent them off.
The fishermen were not any less in good character. They thought "we can get money anytime. Let us utilize this chance and get godāna phalitam by giving this cow to the great maharṣhi." Thus they gave off their cow to Cyavana. Cyavana blessed all of them with svargalokam.
Morals in the story:
- Cyavana, though his deep tapas was disturbed by the fishermen, did not get angry on them. This is because the fishermen did their duty and were unware of the presence of Cyavana.
- The fishermen, knowing that if not now sometime or the other the must face consequence of their acts, reported their mistake (what they thought was a mistake) to the King.
- Importance of Gomāta and Godānam is well displayed in the story.
- Nahuṣha was prepared to give away his entrire sāmrājyam for doing his duty as a King.
Bharata
(Rushabha putra)
During that time a Raaja by name Vishvaruupa, who was like Chandra in the group of Kings, used to be there. His putrika was Panchajani. Bharata, in a su-muhuurtam, did Kalyaanam with Panchajani. Similar to how Panchatanmaatras (Shabdam, Sparsha, Ruupam, Rasam, Gandham) are born out of Ahankaaram, Bharata had five putras — Sumati (Indradyumna was the putra of Sumati), Raashtra-bhrutt, Sudarshana, Aacharana, Dhuumraketu through Panchajani.
Bharata also did many Yagnyas, Yaagas for the benifit of his Raajyam and praja. He did all the satkarmas which need to be done at Amaavaasya and Pournima. He did all Agnihotras that are supposed to be done in Chaaturmaasyams. He did many Pashuyaagams, Somayaagams and did many great Daanams in them. As recommended by our Shaastras, he never did any of these Karmas with Svaartham and did “Parameshvara-arpanam” of these Karmas. Thinking about the greatness of Paramaatma, with Bhaktimaya-Hrudayam, he used to do Raajya-paalana.
Like this, with Satya-nishtha, Dharma-diiksha and Daiva-bhakti, he ruled the Bhaarata Varsham for 5000000000 years! to know Bhaarateeya Kaala-maanam)
He then divided his Raajyam among his 5 putras, left ananta-aishvaryam, palaces and other Bhogas and left for Pulaha-aashramam. In search of Mukti-maargam, with Vairaagyam, he left his house, sons and all bhogas and took Vaanaprastham. Though it was difficult to leave his sons and go away, knowing that all what we see is nothing but Vishnu-maaya, he controlled himself and left for Tapas at Pulaha-aashramam.
Shrimannaaraayana, in pratyaksha-ruupam, stays at Pulaha-aashramam and blesses the Bhaktas. The great Gandakii-nadii, which has many Saalagraamams, flows just beside Pulaha-aashramam. Staying there alone, Bharata did ekaanta-seva of Srimannaaraayana. He used to do Archana of Mahaavishnu with Pushpam, Toyam, Tulasi-dalam, Tiirtha-jalam, Kamalam, Phalam. Because of Bhagavat-bhakti, slowly he lost all his desires, stayed away from arishadvargas and gained Shama-Dama aadi gunas. He used to experience Paramaanandam.
Kaalamahima is great. Vidhi cannot be changed. Everyone must completely experience the result of his Punya-paapam. However if one has Bhagavat-krupa, God will only show us way in our difficulties, remove our durgunas and take us near to Kaivalyam. Bharata’s story is a perfect example of how strong is Praarabdham:
One day Bharata as usual was doing snaanam in Gandakii-nadii. He stood in water and did Pranava-japam for 3 Muhuurta-kaalam. Then a deer, who was pregnant, came and started drinking water from the Nadi. Suddenly it heard the heart-breaking roar of a lion and with fright it tried to jump. Due to the fear, the baby deer fell out and the mother deer hit a near by stone and died. Bharata took pity on the helpless baby deer and started doing poshana of it. He knew that it is his duty and a Punya kaaryam to save the life of a deer.
However
Bharata slowly became more and more attracted towards it. He used to always
think about it — while sitting, sleeping, taking bath, collecting Samidhas,
fruits, leaves, while bringing water, during Daiva-praarthana. Even during
Japam he used to think about the deer! He used to always protect the deer from
wild animals. Slowly he left doing Dhyaanam, forgot his dina-charya,
Nitya-karma.
Finally, the day when Bharata had to leave his physical body came. While leaving his praanam, he looked at the deer as his own son. He was only thinking about the deer and left his life. As a result, in his next janma he was born as a deer. However because of his ananta-Punyam, he had poorva-janma-smruti.
- One must have Satya-nishtha, Dharma-Diiksha and Bhagavat-bhakti. With these Satgunas, Bharata was able to rule the Bhaarata Varsham for a very long time and gained ananta-keerti.
- The Vairaagya buddhi of Bhaarateeyas and greatness of our Saampradaayam is shown in this story, through the Vaanaprastha-aashramam. People used to leave all the materialistic bhogas etc. and search for Moksha maargam.
- Vishnu-maaya is great. We must always be careful and do Karma, but not being interested in the materialistic aspects of it. Even for the great Bharata controlling Moham was difficult.
Bharata
(Dushyanta putra)
Bharata, the mahaa-yashasvi, became Chakravarti of the Sapta-dviipas. Since he is a Daiva-amsha-sambhuuta, his name will always be remembered. On his Dakshina hastam, Bharat had Chakra-chinham and on his legs had Padma-kosha Chinham.
He did 55 Ashvamedha Yaagas in the Karma Bhuumi between Gangaa-Saagara-sangamam and Gangotpatti-sthaanam. Later, with Diirghatapasa as Purohita, on the Yamunaa-tiiram, Bharata did 78 Ashvamedha Yaagas!
A collection 13084 Gomaata (cows) is called as “Dvandvam”. Bharata did “Dvandvam” daanam, along with the calfs, decorated with golden ornaments, to 1000 Viprottamas. During “Mashnaara” Yagnyam, he gave daanam of 1400000 Gajas (elephants), along with suvarnam (gold). Panditas say that, there has been none before and will be none after Bharata who did such adbhuta daanams!
Bharata was a great Dhairya, Paraakrama-shaali. During the course of the Ashvamedha Yaagams, Bharata caught 3300 ashvas and surprised the Kings! Bharata did dushta-samhaaram — he did vadha of Kiraata, Huuna, Yavana, Poundra, Kanku, Khashu, Shaku, Mlechchha and other Sanaata-Dharma-viruddha Raajas. Long ago, the asuras once defeated the Devatas, took away the Devata-striis and hid them in Rasaatalam. Bharata saved all of them and returned them to the Devatas. During his rule, both Svargam and Pruthvi used to give whatever the praja wanted.
Though Bharata had more sampada than Kubera and was unparalled in Paraakramam, knowing that Dhanam, Aishvaryam, Raajya-lakshmi, his priya putras … are all mithya, he never had Vishaya-bhogas and always wanted Shaanti. He did Yuddham of Dharma-sthaapana and not with Keerti-kaanksha or Raajya-kaanksha. Like this, with Vairaagyam, he did paalanam of this Bharata Khandam for 27000 years ! From him only the Bharata-vamsham originated. Also the Divya Mahaa-bhaarata aamnaayam, which was originally named by Vyaasa as Jayam, got its name as “Bhaaratam” because it describes this Bharata’s Vamsha-charitra. (this is only one of the meanings of Bhaaratam)
Morals in the story:
- The daana, paropakaara gunams of Bharata must be cultivated by all of us. People say a person who did so many divya-kaaaryas never ever existed or will ever exist (Na bhuuto na bhavishyati).
- Though Bharata had Paraakramam and Dhairyam, he did not do Yuddhams with Raajya, Dhana Kaanksha. He killed Kings who are against Sanaata-dharmam and did Dharma-sthaapana.
- The Vairaagya buddhi of Bhaarateeyas is well displayed in this story. They do Karma, but never are interested in the materialistic benifits of it and do it with Paropakaara-bhaavana.
It is indeed our adrushtam to be born as Bhaarateeyas. Bhaarata-desham is the only Karma-bhuumi. Hence, though Bharata ruled entire Bhuumandalam, he did all the Yaagas, Yagnyams, Vratams in this Karma-bhuumi only. As told in many of the previous stories, there are many Divya-kshetras, Siddha-pradeshas, Siddha-aashramams in this Bhaarata Desham.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( A tribute to the great Bharatiya Samskruti)
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