Chapter 8 - Bharata reborn as a deer

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

1. Once upon a time, after finishing the necessary (bodily) acts (e.g. urination), Bharata bathed in the great river (the Gaṇḍkakī) and completed his routine of general and special religious duties. He then sat on the bank of the river, repeating the sacred syllable Om, for a period of three muhūrtas.^[1]

2. At that time, Oh King, there approached near the river, a female deer, all alone, to satisfy her thirst.

3. Exactly at that time, while she continued to drink water with avidity, there arose, not far from the place, a terrifically loud cry of a roaring lion, panicking the world.

4. The female deer was timid by nature. Hearing it, with frightened looks, she became panicky at heart, with the fear of the lion. With her eyes swimming and thirst unquenched, she suddenly leapt across the river through fear.

5. When the doe which was carrying leapt over, the foetus in her which became dislodged through terrific fear, got discharged from her organ of generation and fell into the river.

6. That devoted female companion of a black antelope was afflicted with exhaustion caused by the abortion, (unusually) long jump and fear (of the lion), she strayed away from her herd, rushed into a cave and fell dead.

7. The royal sage Bharata noticed that the helpless young one of the deer was being carried away by the current. Out of compassion, he picked it up, as it was abandoned by its relatives, and took it to his hermitage, as it was motherless.

8. They say that he developed intense attachment for it, feeling the young deer to be his own. Day by day, he got engrossed in its feeding, protection (from wolves etc.), caressing and pleasing it (with scratching etc.). When he got so fondly attached to it in the course of some days, his daily righteous duties along with yamas (moral observances like non violence—ahiṃsā etc.), worship of the Supreme Lord and others, became neglected one by one, and soon all of them were abandoned by him.

9. (Bharata said to himself): “Alas! What a pity! This poor unfortunate young deer has, due to the velocity of the rotation of the wheel of Time, been separated from its kith and kin and friends, and has resorted to me as a shelter. It regards me only as its father, mother, brother and relative and as a companion in its herd. Nor does it know anyone else. It has placed its absolute trust in me. I know the gravity of the sin in letting down a person seeking my protection. Hence it is up to me that I, with envy towards none, should look after the feeding, protection, satisfaction and fondling of this young deer which completely depends on me.”

10. For certainly, self-restrained and tranquil-minded noble worthies who are friendly to the poor and wretched, disregard even their bigger interests for such (compassionate acts).

11. In this way he felt attachment to it. His heart was bound down with affection for the fawn while he was sitting, sleeping, wandering, standing, eating and doing such other acts.

12. When he wanted to bring the (blades of) Kuśa grass, flowers, sacrificial sticks, leaves, fruits, roots and water, he went into the forest along with the young one of the deer, as he apprehended danger to the life of the fawn from wolves and dogs.

13. When due to its innocent nature, it became stuck up at various places on the way, he, with his heart overwhelmed with excessive affection, bore it on his shoulder, out of pity for it. In this way, by placing it on his lap, hugging it to his bosom and by fondling it, he derived the highest pleasure.

14. Even during the course of performing his religious duties, he used to rise up frequently at intervals to have a look at it, and with his heart reassured, the Lord of the Bhārata varṣa) continent expressed his blessing with the words, “may you be safe from all sides, my child”.

15. On other occasions (when he did not see the fawn), he felt excessively anxious about it like a miser who has lost his wealth. With extreme anxiety and full of tenderness and compassion, his heart was tormented, with the pangs of separation from the fawn. Being overcome with great infatuation and lamenting for the young deer, verily, it is said that he used to lament (lit. express himself) as follows:

16. “Oh! Is it possible? Will that pitiable motherless young one of the deer place its confidence again in me who am, alas! ignoble, of deceitful and cruel nature like a cunning Kirāta and who have done no meritorious acts? Will it return (to me) forgetting and forgiving my faults by its inherent goodness and purity of heart like a saintly person?

17. Shall I be able to see it (again), protected by God, and safely grazing tender leaves of grass in the garden of the hermitage?

18. (How strongly I wish) that no wolf, or dog or any other gregarious animal (like boar) or solitary wanderer (like a tiger) eats it.

19. The glorious Lord (the Sun), which rises for the weal of the whole world and which is the Soul of the triad of Vedas (the Ṛg, Yajus and Sāman) is (now) certainly setting. But still the fawn, the charge entrusted to me by the female deer, has not arrived.

20. Would that the princely young deer return and delight me who have done no righteous deed, and remove the anxiety and sorrow of his near and dear ones, by its manifold beautiful, pleasing, sportive fawn-like activities?

21. When in joke, I close my eyes in sham meditation, out of anger resulting from affection, it would approach me hesitatingly with awe. And with the tips of its horns soft like drops of water, it would strike at me.

22. When it is chided by me for polluting (by nibbling) the Kuśa grass on which the sacrificial offerings are placed, it being extremely afraid, immediately desists from its sport (sportiveness) and stays steady without moving its limbs, like a boy-sage with all his senses controlled. Oh! What wonderful penance must have been practised by this fortunate earth!”

23. (After saying the above words, he went out and found the prints of the hooves of the deer and said): “By means of the rows of the imprint of tiny, charming, auspicious-most hoofs of the docile young one of the black-antilope, the earth indicates the track of the treasure-trove (viz. the lost fawn) to me, a wretched person, who am afflicted due to my being deprived of my wealth (the youny [young?] deer). And having got herself beautified with those foot-prints, she becomes transformed into a sacrificial place^[2] for the twice-born ones (dvijas) aspiring after Svarga (heaven) and Mokṣa (the final beatitude).

24. (Looking at the Moon that has arisen, he imagined that the deer-like spot on the disc of the Moon was his fawn). Maybe that, out of compassion, the glorious Lord of stars who is kind to the poor and afflicted, protects, from the fear of the lion, this fawn whose mother is dead and which has strayed away from its hermitage (shelter).

25. Or it may be that with its cool, soothing and (due to affection) profusely flowing drivel in the form of rays, the Moon soothes me whose land-lotus-like heart is scorched by the flames of the forest conflagration of the fever (torments) of separation from my child (-like fawn), and who, in search of the fawn, am following the young one of the doe.”

26. In this way, the heart of Bharata was overcome with wishes which could not be accomplished. By the force of his own destiny (lit. fruition of his deeds done in previous birth) which appeared in the form of that fawn, Bharata the Yogi and the sage, swerved from the yogic practices^[3] and his acts for propitiating the glorious Lord. How else there would be such an intense attachment to the young one of a deer—an animal of a different species—in Bharata who formerly considered his own sons—with whom it is so very difficult to part—as veritable impediments in the attainment of Liberation and separated himself from them. In this way, the practice of Yoga, commenced by the royal sage Bharata, got interrupted. He forgot the real nature of the Soul (or himself) while feeding, protecting, pleasing and caressing the young deer. Meanwhile just as a serpent rushes to the hole of a rat, the inevitable time of death, of terrific speed, arrived.

27. Even at that time, he wistfully fixed his glance on the deer which like unto a son was mourning by his side. With his heart fixed on the fawn, he left this world. He did not lose the memory of his previous life along with his dead body, but like other (ordinary jīvas with such obsessions at the time of death^[4]) got the body of (birth as) a deer.

28. Even in that life as a deer, by virtue of his (endeavouring at) propitiation of the Lord (in his previous birth) he remembered the cause of his birth as a deer and being greatly tormented with repentance, he said:

29. “Alas! How painful it is! I strayed away from the path of the knowers of the Supreme Self. With great fortitude I divested myself from attachment of every kind and resorted to a secluded sacred forest. Self-controlled as I was, I completely devoted and concentrated my mind on the venerable Lord Vāsudeva who is the (antaryāmin) inner controller of all, I utilized fully all the time, every moment of which was devoted with energetic efforts to the listening to the excellences of the Lord, reasoning and pondering over them, extolling his virtues, worshipping him, constantly remembering him. That mind of my ignorant self in a moment flowed (was attracted) to a young one of a deer from far afar”.

30. Thus being full of deep remorse, he left his mother- deer. And from Kālañjara^[5] hill (his birth place), he returned again to the hermitage of Pulastya-Pulaha at Śālagrāma, a holy place consecrated to the Lord, a place favourite with sages who have attained self-control and serenity of mind.

31. Even there, he waited for the termination of his life (lit. death). He was so terribly disgusted with attachment that he lived all alone. Subsisting on dry leaves, grass and creepers he was counting (his days) for the exhaustion of (his karma which was) the cause of his birth as a deer. (Ultimately) he cast off his body of a deer immersing half of it in the sacred waters of the Gaṇḍakī.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

muhūrta—a period of 48 minutes.

[2]:

Bhāvāratha Dīpikā quotes a Smṛti text to support the sanctifying effect of the foot-prints of black antelopes rendering that place fit for performing sacrifices:

yasmin deśe mṛgaḥ kṛṣṇas tasmin dharmān nibodhata / Cf. Manu 2.23.

[3]:

Bhāgavata Candrikā includes under these the three kinds of Yoga viz. Jñāna- yoga, Karma-yoga and Bhakti-yoga and these are regarded as the three kinds of austerities which Bharata practised.

[4]:

Cf. yaṃ yaṃ vāpi smaran bhāvaṃ tyajatyante kalevaram /
taṃ tam evaiti kaunteya sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ //—Bhagavad Gītā 8.6.

[5]:

Kālañjara in the Badausa Sub-division of Banda district.—N.L. De—GDAMI. 84.