Chapter 9 - Bharata, reborn as a Brāhmaṇa, saved by Bhadrakālī

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Śrī Śuka said:

1. Then (after Bharata’s quitting his body as a deer, the story of Bharata proceeds as follows).

There lived a certain holy Brāhmaṇa, foremost in the clan of Aṅgiras. He was possessed of self-control and tranquillity of mind. He was noted for his austerities, study of the Vedas, liberal hospitality, contentment, endurance, modesty, knowledge of rituals, non-jealousy, knowledge of the Supreme Self (as being different from the body) and felicity (as a result of righteousness). (From his elder wife) he got nine sons, all similar to him in scholarship, nobility of character, righteous conduct, handsomeness and liberality. From his younger wife was born a twin—a son and a daughter.

2. They say that the male among the twins was Bharata, the great votary of the Lord, the foremost among royal sages. He cast off the body of a deer and as the last incarnation (before final beatitude) was born as a Brāhmaṇa.

3. In this birth also, he was terribly afraid of attachment to his relatives. He specifically contemplated in his mind the pair of the lotus-feet of the glorious Lord who cuts asunder bondage of Karma of those who listen to, meditate upon and extol the excellences of the Lord. He remembered the series of his previous incarnations through the grace of the Lord and being apprehensive of his fall (as in his previous life), he presented himself to the world as being an insane, stupid, blind and deaf person.

4. With his heart deeply attached to his son through filial affection, the Brāhmaṇa verily performed all the sacred ceremonies (Saṃskāras) up to Samāvartana^[1] as prescribed in the Śāstras. To his son whose upanayana ceremony (for investiture of the sacred thread for the beginning of the study of the Vedas) was performed, he taught him well the rules of conduct such as the Śāstric way of personal purity of performing ācamana (sipping water before and after meal and while performing sandhyā etc.) and other rules of performing sacred duties, even though they were not to the liking of his son; for (according to Śāstric injunctions) a son must be instructed (in the observance of religious duties) by his father.

5. And he (Bharata) also used to behave in the wrong way,^[2] contrary to the instructions^[3] (of his father) in his father’s presence. The father intended to instruct him in the Vedas (in the month of Śrāvaṇa). But in spite of his continuous instructions during the months of the spring (Caitra and Vaiśākha), and the months of the summer (Jyeṣṭha and Āṣāḍha) he could hardly teach the boy the three-footed Solar-hymn (known as Gāyatrī mantra), along with Vyāhṛtis (the mystic syllables bhūḥ, bhuvaḥ and suvaḥ) with the sacred syllable OM at the beginning.^[4]

6. In this way, the Brāhmaṇa’s heart was fixed on his son who was his own self. He stuck fast to the false notion that a son must be made learned at all costs. He taught Bharata all the duties of upakurvāṇa^[5] celibate, viz., cleanliness and purity, Vedic studies, observance of vows, self-discipline, service of the preceptor, worship of the sacrificial fire and others, even though Bharata had no regard for them. But he could not realise his ambition. In the meanwhile, the Brāhmaṇa who, due to his attachment to domestic life, remained negligent (about his spiritual good) was taken away by the ever vigilant death.

7. Having entrusted the twin children that were born from her, to the care of her co-wife, the younger pious wife of the Brāhmaṇa died after him (by immolating herself on his funeral pyre) and attained to the region of her Lord.

8. When the father died, (Bharata’s) brothers who were ignorant of his superhuman power and greatness, and who, being (totally) ignorant of the higher knowledge (viz. that of the Self or Brahman), regarded knowledge of the three Vedas (i.e. karma-kāṇḍa enjoined therein) as the highest knowledge, thought him to be dull-witted and desisted from their duty of teaching their brother.

9. When he was addressed by ignorant bi-ped brutes (e.g. men) as madman, a stupid or a deaf fellow, he replied to them suitably (according to the implications of the epithets given by them). When he was made to work according to the will of another person, he worked. He used to partake whatever food he got, in return for wages or forced labour (without wages), by way of begging or unsolicited, whether it be little or plenty, savoury or otherwise, but (he never ate) for the gratification of his senses. For he attained the knowledge of his Self which is not the product of any cause but is self-existent, of the nature of extremely pure bliss; and he never identified himself with his body in pleasure or pain caused by pairs of opposites (like heat, cold, respect, disrespect).

10. Stout and muscular as he was, he wandered about barebodied like a bull, in cold (the wintec) and heat (the summer), in stormy winds and showers (the rainy season). He lay down on the bare ground to sleep; had not massaged his body (with oil); nor did he ever take a bath. Under the coating of the ḍirt (so accumulated on his body), his spiritual glory remained unmanifested just as the brilliance of a big gem is obscured by a coating of dust. His loins were covered with a dirty cloth. With his dirty-most sacred thread, he was (contemptuously) ridiculed as ‘a nominal Brāhmaṇa’, ‘an un- worhty Brāhmaṇa’ (a Brāhmaṇa by caste only), by persons ignorant of his real greatness.

11. When, however, he wished to have food (for his livelihood) in return (as wages) for work, from others, he was employed even by his brothers in farm work, on agricultural farm. He did it but he did not (care to) know whether the ground was level or uneven or whether he worked less or more (in proportion to the wages). He swallowed, as if it were nectar, the broken rice, oil cake, husk, worm-eaten grains (called Kulmāṣa), charred rice sticking to the bottom of the boiling pot (offered as remuneration for work).

12. Now, on one occasion, a certain chieftain of robbers (of Śūdra caste) desirous of having a child, was about to offer a man as a sacrificial beast to goddess Bhaḍrakālī.

13. The animal (i.e. the man brought for being sacrificed) providentially escaped. The servants of the chieftain who ran in all directions on the track of the (luckily escaped) victim in (the darkness of) the night, could not catch the ‘beast’, even at midnight owing to thick darkness. By chance (however) they saw the famous scion of the Aṅgiras family in the Vīrāsana posture guarding the fields against deer, boars and other beasts.

14. Observing him to be of defectless limbs and feeling pretty sure that it will serve their master’s purpose thereby, they bound him with a rope and brought him to the temple of the goddess Caṇḍikā (Bhadrakālī), their faces blooming with joy.

15. The Paṇis (robbers) bathed him in their own ritualistic way, covered him with new (unwashed) piece of cloth, decorated him with ornaments, pigments, garlands, a sandalpaste mark on the forehead etc., fed him (to his fill). Taking with them burning incense, lamps (torches), wreaths of flowers, fried grains, tender shoots and sprouts and offerings of fruits according to their traditional ritual of human sacrifice and in accompaniment of loud music, singing of panegyrics and beating of drums and the musical instrument called Paṇava, they made the human (sacrificial) animal sit before the goddess Bhadrakālī.

16. The robber chieftain of the Vṛṣalas (Śūdras) wishing to worship the goddess Bhadrakālī with the wine in the form of human blood of the man sacrificed as a beast, took a very terrible sword charmed with the specific incantation (of Bhadrakālī^[6]).

17. The nature of the Vṛṣalas (Śūdras) was dominated by rajas and tamas. Their minds grew haughty due to the rajas, the pride of wealth. In utter disrespect for the family of Brāhmaṇas, (who are) the leaders possessing (and preserving) the Vedas, the rays of the venerable Lord, they strayed wilfully on the wrong (sinful) way and sported in acts of violence (as an amusement). The goddess Bhadrakālī noticed the terrible-most act of immolating the son of a Brāhmaṇa sage who had become one with Brahman, and who was above enmity, and a friend of all beings—the killing of whom is not permissible^[7] even in (such an) imminent danger wherein violence is allowed. With her body fiercely scorched with the extremely unbearable Brahmanic lustre, the goddess suddenly exploded forth from the image.

18. In extreme wrath and indignation, her terrible face with her branch-like arched eyebrows thrown up in agitation, her dreadful, curved jaws and the movement of her blood- red eyes, showed that she was as if bent on destroying this world. In terrible rage, she roared forth a thunderous laugh. Springing forward, she cut off the heads of those wicked sinners with that very sword (with which the king was to slay Bharata) and drank to her fill, along with attendants, hot wine of the blood gushing forth from their threats. Intoxicated with over-drinking of that blood-wine, she sang at the topmost pitch of her voice in company of her attendants, and danced and played with the ball-like lopped heads.

19. In this way, verily, a malevolent aggressive black magic to kill the great-souled ones totally rebounds against the exorciser.

20. Oh Viṣṇudatta (King Parīkṣit)! It is not a great miracle in the case of the great devotees of the Lord who are free from all attachment to the world (Parama-haṃsas) that they remain unperturbed even if the calamity of getting beheaded is impending; for they have resolved the formidable knot in their heart—the knot viz., the identification of their Self with their body—and who are well-wishers of all the beings in their heart and are above all enmity. They have resorted to the feet of the Lord and are protected from all sides by the venerable Lord Himself directly, by the ever-vigilant weapon called the discus of Time and through various forms (like Bhadrakālī here).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Samāvartana was originally a ceremonial bath after finishing Veda study. It marked the termination of student-hood. Some texts on dharma Śāstra regarded it as a subordinate element (aṅga) of marriage. The Brāhmaṇa did not want to get the stupid son married. Hence he completed the purificatory ceremonies upto Samāvartana. For details of this ceremony vide Kane History of Dharma Śāstra, pp. 402-415.

[2]:

Bālaprabodhini: The word iva implies that whatever a knower of Brahman does, is right and true, though it may appear strange to ordinary people.

[3]:

VC. illustrates: He used to take ācamana before going for urination and not after. Bālaprabodhini explains: the words u ha express wonder at the necessity of compliance to bis father’s request when Bharata had realized Brahman.

[4]:

i.e. in spite of instruction for four months, Bharata could hardly pronounce the following Gāyatrī Mantra:

om, bhūr bhuvaḥ suvaḥ tat savitur vareṇyam /
bhargo devasya dhīmahi, dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt //

[5]:

upakurvāṇa—A Brāhmaṇa in a state of pupilage (Brahmacārin) who wishes to pass on to the state of a householder.

[6]:

Bhāvārtha-dīpikā-prakāśa quotes it as follows:

gṛdhrakarṇi, virūpākṣi lamba-stani, mahodari /
hana śatruṃ triśūlena kruddhasya piba śoṇitaṃ //

He gives an alternate incantation:

Kāli-kāli, Mahā-kāli etc.

[7]:

Bhāvārtha-dīpikā-prakāśa quotes an Āgama text-prohibiting human sacrifices in general and of a Brāhmaṇa in particular. The quotation from the Black Yajurveda indicating human sacrifice does not involve actual killing is explained by the annotator. A.B. Keith, the translator of the Black Yajurveda, also shows that actual human sacrifices were not current in Vedic times. (The Religion & Philosophy of the Veda and Upaniṣads—pp. 347-48).