Sharanagati

Collected words from talks of Swami Tirtha




(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 08.05.2017 morning, Rila)

(continues from the previous Friday)

In his previous birth as a deer Bharata Maharaja was an outsider. Here again he is an outsider. Nevertheless his inner satisfaction was undisturbed. So, sometimes you are little outsiders, but keep your inner satisfaction intact. And if you have a brahmana thread, don’t let it get dark.

“Jada Bharata used to work only for food. His step-brothers took advantage of this and engaged him in agricultural field work in exchange for some food, but actually he did not know how to work very well in the field. He did not know where to spread dirt or where to make the ground level or uneven. His brothers used to give him broken rice, oil cakes, the chaff of rice, worm-eaten grains and burned grains that had stuck to the pot, but he gladly accepted all this as if it were nectar. He did not hold any grudges and ate all this very gladly.”[1]

Once I heard a story. People went on a spiritual retreat, very ascetic – you cannot speak all day, you have to sit in meditation eight plus more hours, and when taking food, you can fill your pot only once and this is what you can eat. So, one of the very ascetic practitioners, knowing that it’s only one time that you can fill up your pot, came with two. ‘Because only once I can fill my pot, so let’s have two pots!’ This is human nature – ‘I go on an ascetic retreat to enjoy’. As the Master Beinsa Douno said: “People take the biggest pot and the smallest mattock.” I think there’s no need for further explanation.

“At this time, being desirous of obtaining a son, a leader of dacoits who came from a shudra family wanted to worship the goddess Bhadra Kali by offering her in sacrifice a dull man, who is considered no better than an animal”. A very frightening turn of the story! “The leader of the dacoits captured a man-animal for sacrifice, but he escaped, and the leader ordered his followers to find him. They ran in different directions but could not find him. Wandering here and there in the middle of the night, covered by dense darkness, they came to a paddy field where they saw the exalted son of the Angira family [Jada Bharata], who was sitting in an elevated place guarding the field against the attacks of deer and wild pigs.

The followers and servants of the dacoit chief considered Jada Bharata to possess qualities quite suitable for a man-animal, and they decided that he was a perfect choice for sacrifice. Their faces bright with happiness, they bound him with ropes and brought him to the temple of the goddess Kali.

After this, all the thieves, according to their imaginative ritual for killing animalistic men, bathed Jada Bharata, dressed him in new clothes, decorated him with ornaments befitting an animal, smeared his body with scented oils and decorated him with tilaka, sandalwood pulp and garlands. They fed him sumptuously and then brought him before the goddess Kali, offering her incense, lamps, garlands, parched grain, newly grown twigs, sprouts, fruits and flowers. In this way they worshiped the deity before killing the man-animal, and they vibrated songs and prayers and played drums and bugles. Jada Bharata was then made to sit down before the deity.

At this time, one of the thieves, acting as the chief priest, was ready to offer the blood of Jada Bharata, whom they imagined to be an animal-man, to the goddess Kali to drink as liquor. He therefore took up a very fearsome sword, which was very sharp and, consecrating it by the mantra of Bhadra Kali, raised it to kill Jada Bharata.”[2]

Interesting, ah?

Comment: Scary.

Swami Tirtha: Scary. Therefore I suggested don’t keep your brahmana thread black. You might get into trouble.

(to be continued)

[1] Shrimad Bhagavatam 5.9.11

[2] Shrimad Bhagavatam 5.9.12-16



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