III
After resurrection, Upbaharn lived a long
religious life and breathed his last at the bank of holy river Narayani. As
cursed by Lord Brahma he was born to a poor maid through a Brahman father. His
chaste wife Malavati also shed her mortal coil and took birth as a princess to a
king named Srinjay. Being pure to the chore, she harboured the memory of her
past life. In this birth also she longed to wed only Upbaharn.
In the state of Kanyakubj ruled a kind named
Durmil whose wife Kalavati was barren. As the couple intensely longed for a son,
the husband advised his wife to obtain a son from a sacred seer. One son of
sage Kashyap named Narad performed hard penance in a lonely forest where
Kalvati spotted him and felt instantly attracted to him to fulfill her wish of
having a son. She began to chalk out a strategy to please the austere seer in
her mind and waited upon him reverentially. As the seer opened his eyes after
meditation, a ray of hope beamed in her
mind. She tried to express her desire by offering herself at his service. Her
inticing smile to the austere seer, however failed to influence him and he
sternly rebuked her,saying-“O desireous woman!Whose wife are you?What brigns
you here?”
Kalavati got nervous to see
his shining face and rejecting looks. She somehow mustered courage and put
forth her wish,-“O great Soul! I am the wife of king Durmil. Only with the
permission of my husband have I reached here to seek your blessings. Be assured
that you will earn no sin by fulfilling the wish of my heart that is with the
consent of my husband…
The continent seer however got angry and
thundered back,-“ A husband who offeres his wife to another man is looked down
upon by the wife, proclaim Vedas. When he has sent you to me then how will he
accept you back? A Brahman who accepts the wife of a shudra turns chandaal and
inevitably goes to hell..”
Saying so, he wore upon him a stoic silence
that unnerved the disappointed woman. Rooted to the earth, she felt her throat
dried and tongue glued to the palate leaving her unable to utter a single word
further.
Though the circumstances augured against her,
as ordained by the divine power Menaka
the most beautiful celestial nymph flew through the sky, a mere glimpse of
which threw a serge of excitement in the mind of the holy man. However hard he
tried to control his mind but the semen dripped down his loins. The lady drowning
in despair got a ray of hope and lost no time in whetting herself. She bent
down and licked the seed containing soul of Upbaharn. She then saluted the
austere sage and went back to her husband who thanked heavens for having
carried out the task in such a miraculous way.
Having sensed the happening of the future by
merely looking at her he sad,-“You are endowed with the seed of a vaishnav
saint. Being pure and pious, you are sure to beget a great son who will surely
redeem our hundreds of generations by his pious actions. To ensure his growth
in a sacred surrounding you should stay with pious people now..”
He then asked her to go to live with holy sages
and after giving away all his wealth to brahmans and destitute, renounced the mundane
world. He made holy land of Badrikashram his home andbegan to practice limbs of
yoga and thus gave up life in due course.
Kalavati who was still staying with him had no
home or hearth left to stay and bemoaned her husband’s such untimely departure.
She was spotted by sages who took pity on her and took her with them to take
her care. He treated her as his daughter and she served him by doing household
chores. At the opportune time she gave birth to a glorious son whose bright
aura amazed everyone. The boy grew up with the holy men and imbibed all their
virtues spontaneously. His traits pleased the holy men. Even when called by the
mother to have food he would reluctantly utter,-“Mother! I am worshipping God.”
As if hunger never touched him though.
His mother named him Narad only after his biological
father.
When Narad was around five, a group of
realized saints visited the abode of his mother and mother reverentially put
her devout son to attend the rare saints. His heart found a great satisfaction
when the saints especially offered him their leftover meals the taste of which
filled the heart of innocent boy with divine devotion to Lord Krishna. Pleased
by the conduct and demeanour of the docile and devoted boy, a saint gave him mantradiksha
to invoke and kindle divine love in him.
Not much time elapsed when a
snake ended the life of his poor mother. Even though a boy, the divine soul of
Narad did not lament much for the untimely demise of his mother and rather
believed in his heart that this too was a blessing in disguise to him as this
event had sat him free from the mundane bond of motherly attachment. Left all
alone by the divine grace, the lonely soul began to indulge in divine romance
by remembering his lord SriKrishna peacefully and unconstructively. Having been
instructed by his mantra guru to practice his mantra and pray to the god in
solitude to grave him, Narad had no second thought or any other desire except to
please Lord Srikrishna and have his vision. His penance continued in a lonely
forest under a auspicious tree of peepal. Thus passed a long time
ranging in thousands of human years. The grace of lord had sat him free of
hunger and thirst and he felt ever energized and blissful. No mundane trouble
touched his body or mind and time passed as if being nonexistent and
meaningless. At last his lord was pleased. The worthy devotee was blessed with
the most inebriating vision of Lord Krishna accompanied by his eternal
companions,- Lord Brahma, Lord Shiv and Lord Vishnu. The evanescent appearance
of Lord Krishna who looked enormously charming and beguiling put Narad in an
inert state of existence out of bewilderment. He was driven dumb and stupefied.
He forgot how to meditate and began to wail like a nascent baby hankering for
his mother gone away suddenly, depriving the baby of her warmth and feed.
Though he found not the vision again to soothe his nerves yet a voice did enter
his ears after a while, -“This vision will not recur. A yogi who is not fully
purged and sanctified, can’t see this. Only after shedding this mortal coil
shall you have this vision again.”
Hearing the divine
insinuation, Narad began to sob uncontrollably. When time healed his heart, he
regained poise and began to lead a purer life. In due course he died and thus redeemed from the curse of Lord Brahma,
merged peacefully in the supreme divine light.
No comments:
Post a Comment