Canto 5 - Chapter 9: Bharata reborn for a second time in a Brāhmaṇa family ...

Discourse IX

Bharata reborn for a second time in a Brāhmaṇa family

Śrī Śuka resumed : Now from the loins of a certain holy Brāhmaṇa—the foremost in the line of the (celebrated) sage Aṅgirā (a mind-born son of Brahmā)—who had (duly) controlled his mind and senses, was rich in asceticism and the study of the Vedas, liberality, endurance, modesty, the knowledge of rituals, freedom from jealousy, knowledge of the Spirit (as distinct from the body etc.), and felicity (arising out of piety) were born through the same mother nine sons—(all) like himself in learning, good character, purity of conduct, comeliness of form, generosity and other virtues—and a son and a daughter (born as twins) through the younger wife. (1)
Of these twins the male child was, they say, (the same as) that supreme devotee of the Lord, the foremost of royal sages, Bharata, who, having shed his bestial form, had in that last incarnation attained the state of a Brāhmaṇa. (2)
Apprehending his fall through attachment to his people in that incarnation too and (therefore) terribly afraid of such attachment—remembering as he did, by the grace of the Lord, (the story of) a series of his previous incarnations—he showed himself to the world as an insane, stupid, blind and deaf fellow, clasping firmly with his mind the Lord's lotus-feet, that break asunder the fetters of Karma in the case of those who hear of those feet, think of them or utter their praises. (3)

The Brāhmaṇa, whose heart was knit with (ties of parental) affection to the child, actually performed all the Saṃskāras (purificatory rites) up to the ceremony of Samāvartana* (returning from the house of the preceptor after finishing one's study of the Vedas) according to precept even with respect to such a (stupid) son indeed, and, on the boy being invested with the sacred thread, he further instructed him well in the method of personal purity, rinsing his mouth (after easing nature, eating something and on other similar occasions) and other rules of conduct—even though they were not liked (by the boy)—believing as he did that a son must be instructed (in the rules of good conduct) by his father. (4)
The child, however, did everything (taught by his father) topsy-turvy as it were in the very presence of his father, with the result that the Brāhmaṇa, who wanted to start instructing him in the Vedas (as soon as the rains set in) was able to teach the boy the three-footed (holy) Gāyatri-Mantra (sacred to the sun-god) along with the Vyāhṛtis (the mystic syllables Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ and Swaḥ, prefixed to the Gāyatri-Mantra each time it is repeated) and the sacred syllable OM, the (very) crown of the Vedic texts, only in a disjointed fashion (without proper intonation) although he learnt it continuously all the (four) months of spring and summer. (5)

Having thus fondly given his heart to his son, who was his very self, he taught him personal purity, the recitation (with proper intonation) of the Vedas, austerities, self-discipline, service of the preceptor and offering worship to the (sacred) fire and other duties of a religious student observing celibacy for a limited period only, even though they were neglected by the boy—clinging to the ill-conceived notion that a son must be taught (under all circumstances). But, before his ambition (of seeing his son a learned man) could be realized, the Brāhmaṇa, who was himself steeped in error, was snatched away by the ever-vigilant Death at his very home. (6)
Thereupon the younger wife of the Brāhmaṇa entrusted her twin-born children to (the care of) her co-wife and herself attained to the realm where her (deceased) husband had gone, by (ascending his pyre and) dying after him. (7)

• The Brāhmaṇa had no intention to marry the boy obviously because he was stupid to all appearance. Hence there was no occasion for the performance of other Saṃskāras beyond the ceremony of Samāvartana, which is in ordinary cases closely followed by the nuptial ceremony.

On the father's death, the brothers (of the boy)—who were ignorant of his greatness and who had concluded the knowledge of the three Vedas (throwing light on rituals alone) to be the highest knowledge and attached no importance to the knowledge of the Self (which is the highest knowledge)—decided to give up their insistence on teaching their brother, taking him to be a dunce. (8)
As for Bharata, when he was addressed as a lunatic, a dullard or a deaf fellow by the common people, the two-footed brutes, he spoke words befitting such a description and would do work as desired by others when compelled to do so. (Nay,) he would eat any food got through forced labour or by way of remuneration (for services done by him), by begging or without asking, no matter whether it was scanty or plentiful, tasteful or bad, but never for the gratification of his senses. For, having realized his oneness with the all-blissful Self—that is of the nature of absolute Consciousness, ever without cause and shining by Itself—he never identified himself with the body in joy or sorrow occasioned by pairs of opposites (such as honour and ignominy). (9)
He roamed about like a bull, bare-bodied alike in heat and cold, as well as in storm and rain, yet stout and muscular, with his spiritual glory concealed under (a coating of) dirt that he had put on by lying down to sleep on the (bare) ground, and because of his never rubbing or washing his body—even like a precious jewel (whose splendour had been obscured by dust)—his loins covered by a dirty rag, and a still dirtier sacred thread on his person, and slighted by men who were ignorant of his worth by being (contemptuously) called a Dwija (a member of the twice-born classes), the son of a Brāhmaṇa (a Brāhmaṇa in name only) and so on. (10)
When, however, he was seen seeking his morsel of food (livelihood) from others through work done on wage, and was (accordingly) set to work at the field even by his brothers, he did the same. But he never cared to know whether the ground was level or uneven and whether he did more or less (than what was required of him), and ate as ambrosia even broken rice, oil-cakes, husk, worm-eaten grains and the charred remains of boiled rice etc., sticking to the bottom of a cooking-pot and other such things. (11)

Now on a certain occasion a chieftain of the Śūdras (thieves), desirous of an issue (a male child), proceeded to behead a human victim (as a sacrifice) to Goddess Bhadrakālī. (12)
Pursuing at dead of night the tracks of the man intended to be sacrificed, who had providentially escaped, the servants of that chieftain were unable to find him out in that dark night and by chance saw Bharata (the son of a Brāhmaṇa who was foremost in the line of the sage Aṅgirā), busy guarding the fields against (the intrusion of) deer, boars etc., from a shed overlooking the fields. (13)
Finding him faultless in every limb and (thus) feeling assured that the purpose of their master would be accomplished, they bound the sage with a rope and took him to the shrine of Goddess Caṇḍikā, their faces blooming with joy. (14)

Then the burglars washed him according to their own traditional usage, provided him with a new piece of cloth and graced him with jewels, sandal paste, a wreath of flowers, a sacred mark on the forehead and so on, and, when he had had his meal, they seated the human victim (with his head bent low) in front of Goddess Bhadrakālī according to the standard rules of animal sacrifice, offering incense, light, a wreath of flowers, parched grains of paddy, young leaves, sprouts, fruits and sweets etc., (to the goddess) and loudly singing (devotional) songs and hymns and sounding clay and wooden tomtoms (as an accompaniment to their music). (15)
Then the thief officiating as a priest to the chieftain of the Śūdras took up a most fearful and sharp-edged sword, that had been (duly) consecrated by pronouncing on it a Mantra sacred to Goddess Bhadrakālī, with a view to sating Her with the inebriating blood of a human victim. (16)

Perceiving the immolation, not permitted even when falling in the category of a slaughter permissible in the face of imminent danger to life, of the son of a Brāhmaṇa sage, who had actually become one with the Infinite, and who not only bore enmity to none but was friendly to all living beings—a most horrible act on the part of those Śūdras, in whom the qualities of Rajas and Tamas naturally predominated, nay, whose mind had been puffed up with the pride of wealth, which taints one's souls, and who wilfully trod the evil path, disregarding the Brāhmaṇa race—who represent a ray of the Lord—and delighted in acts of violence, the same Goddess Bhadrakālī suddenly emerged (from the image), Her (divine) body severely burning with the spiritual glory of the Brāhmaṇa, most difficult to bear. (17)
With Her arched eyebrows thrown up in the vehemence of extreme indignation and intensity of rage, curved teeth and wild bloodshot eyes She assumed a most dreadful aspect, as if intending to destroy the (whole) world, laughed a terrible horse-laugh in great anger and, springing up from the altar and lopping off the heads of those wicked sinners with the same sword (with which they were going to behead the Brāhmaṇa), drank to satiety along with Her retinue the exceedingly hot and inebriating blood streaming forth from their necks. Then, overpowered with intoxication through excessive drink, She sang at the pitch of Her voice along with Her attendants and also danced and played with the (amputated) heads like balls. (18)
Even so indeed does an act of transgression against exalted souls in the form of an attempt to kill them recoils in its entirety upon the offender himself. (19)
Nor is this any great wonder, O Viṣṇudatta (a name of Parikṣit, who was so-called because of his having been restored to life by Lord Viṣṇu Himself appearing in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa), that perfect equanimity should reign even on the eve of being beheaded in the mind of sages who are at the same time devoted to the Lord, who have succeeded in resolving the exceptionally hard knot existing in their heart in the form of self-identification with the body, mind and senses etc., who are friends, nay, the very Self of all living beings, who bear enmity to none, and who are protected on all sides by the (ever) vigilant Lord Himself with the help of His equally vigilant weapon, the great discus (Sudarśana), and through various forms (such as that of Goddess Bhadrakālī), inasmuch as they have resorted (for protection) to the soles of His feet, where there is no fear from any quarter. (20)

Thus ends the ninth discourse, forming part of the story of Jaḍabharata in Book Five of the great and glorious Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, otherwise known as the Paramahamsa-Sarhhitā.