Chapter 10 - Bhadrāyu Resuscitated

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Note: The aim of this chapter is to describe the efficacy of Bhasma (sacred ash). As usual the motif of rebirth is used as an explanation of the suffering of Bhadrāyu and his mother. Śivayogin who was served by them in the last birth resuscitates and cures Bhadrāyu and his mother

Sūta said:

1. Astonishing is the constructive ability of Śiva. Miraculous is the activity of Śiva. Wonderful is the greatness of Śiva; wonderful is the utterance of Śiva.

2. Strange is the conduct of the devotees of Śiva; it is destructive of sins; verily it is the means of heavenly pleasures and salvation. I shall describe it.

3. In the land of Avantī, there was a certain Brāhmaṇa named Mandra. He was of easy-going temperament in worldly affairs, one ruled by women and eager to amass wealth.

4. He had entirely abandoned Sandhyā prayers and regular ablutions. He was very fond of sweet scents, garlands and garments, attached to women of immoral ways, straying often into crooked paths like Ajāmila of yore.

5. He hovered round a prostitute named Piṅgalā, sporting about with her day and night. Of uncontrolled passion, he constantly remained in her house itself.

6. Once, while the Brāhmaṇa was staying in her house, a pious-souled Śivayogin named Ṛṣabha came there.

7. Having seen him arrived and considering (his arrival) the result of their powerful merit, that harlot and the Brāhmaṇa, both of them worshipped him.

8. They made him sit on a big pedestal covered with a shawl and a cloth. Devoutly they washed his feet and applied (sprinkled) the water over their head.

9. They honoured him with various services by offering cordial welcome, Arghya, obeisance, sweet scents, flowers, raw rice grains etc. and joyously gave him a meal.

10. After he had taken his food and rinsed his mouth, they made him sit on a bedstead covered with a good bedsheet and offered him betel leaves.

11. Urged by an auspicious fate, they devoutly massaged his feet. By various acts of attendance and service, they entertained him for a long time.

12. Thus honoured by both of them, the Śivayogin of great splendour spent a night there and went away in the morning duly respected by them.

13. As time went on thus, the Brāhmaṇa passed away and the harlot too died when the time came and attained a state deserved by her acts.

14. Carried by his own actions the Brāhmaṇa entered the womb of Sumati, wife of Vajrabāhu, king of Daśārṇa (Western Malwa, M.P.).

15. On seeing that senior queen blessed with pregnancy, the other queens, the cowives administered poison to her fraudulently.

16. Even after consuming that terrible poison, the queen did not die, as fate had ordained it. She had to undergo sufferings more unbearable than death.

17. The chaste lady of excellent complexion was afflicted with great pain. At the proper time, she gave birth to a son.

18. Barely more than ten days old, the prince who had already been affected by the poison, suffered the most acute pain and went on crying day and night.

19. The mother of the child was also afflicted with wounds all over the body. Thus both of them suffered acute pain as a result of the poison.

20. They were taken to physicians and treatment was given. Despite a number of efforts they did not regain normal health.

21. The queen afflicted with severe pain never had sleep at night. She became further emaciated by being miserable due to the affliction of her son.

22. A few months passed by like this. On seeing the mother and the child alive but no better than dead, the king thought thus within himself.

23-24. ‘These, my wife and son, have come here from the veritable hell. Crying out due to their incurable illness, they cause sleeplessness (to everyone). I shall have recourse to some means certainly in regard to these two sinners who cannot die or live. Let them suffer from their own sins.’

25. The king was enamoured of the other queens and their sons. Having decided thus, he called his charioteer and made him take them far away in the chariot.

26. They were abandoned somewhere in a lonely spot in the forest by the charioteer. Distressed very much by hunger and thirst, they suffered acute pain.

27. Carrying the boy, she faltered at every step and gasped for breath; she trembled apprehensively and cursed her own previous actions (and fate).

28. Now her limbs were pricked and bruised by thorns. Her hair was dishevelled. Now she took fright at the roaring sound of tigers. Now she was chased by pythons.

29. She was ridiculed and rebuked by ghosts, vampires and Brahmarākṣasas. Rushing through hedges, the soles of her feet were cut by razor-like sharp stones.

30. Wandering thus in the thick forest, the queen luckily reached the path of merchants frequented by cows, horses and men.

31. Proceeding along that path a very long distance with stress and strain, she saw the city of Vaiśyas abounding in men and women.

32. There was a great Vaiśya named Padmākara who was an eminent merchant and leader of that city. He was as though another Kubera.

33. The domestic slave of that lord of Vaiśyas saw the queen coming from far. She approached her.

34. After learning the full details herself, she introduced the suffering queen and her son to her lord and master.

35. On seeing her excessively ill, herself burdened with a child that also was suffering much, he took them aside and himself asked the details specifically.

36. She told him all the details. Realizing their pitiable plight, the leader of the Vaiśyas sighed repeatedly.

37. Treating her like his own mother, he accommodated her in a secret apartment very near his house and honoured her with everything essential such as food, drink, clothes and bedding.

38. Though the queen went on staying in that house well guarded and looked after, she did not find any relief from wounds, pulmonary consumption and other ailments.

39. Then, after a few days, as fate had destined it, the boy, afflicted with wounds died, setting at nought the efficacious treatment of all the physicians.

40. When her son died, the queen was excessively grieved. She fell into a swoon like a creeper dashed to the ground by an elephant.

41. Luckily, she regained consciousness, but shed tears profusely drenching her breasts. Though the Vaiśya ladies nearby tried to console her, she lamented much in the excess of her sorrow.

42-43. “Oh dear one, dear one, Oh my son, Oh saviour of my life, a full moon unto the royal household and the delighter of my own self! But, Oh prince, where have you gone leaving me, your mother, helpless and miserable, already abandoned by all the kinsmen? Verily my vital breaths depend upon you.”

44. Who could have consoled that poor lady with a dead child? She continued to lament uttering words like these that increased the worries and sorrow (of others as well).

45. In the mean time, Ṛṣabha, the Śivayogin, mentioned before, came there as the sole physician for her misery and sorrow.

46. That Yogin was duly honoured by the leader of the Vaiśyas with the Arghya ready in his hands. He then went near her as she continued to lament and spoke thus:

Ṛṣabha said:

47. Oh dear child, why do you cry for no reason at all, with your intellect confounded and deluded? Who among many is born in the world? Who is dead? Tell me now.

48. This body and other objects like it have characteristics similar to the bubbles of water. There is agitation and excitement in some place. There is peace elsewhere. There is restful state again.

49. Hence when the bubble-like body vanishes in death, learned men do not feel sorry, because there is no scope or reason for that sorrow.

50. Living beings are evolved by Guṇas (Sattva etc.). They wander about in accordance with their own Karmas. They are being dragged by Time (Death). They are involved in the Vāsanās (impressions left behind by Karmas).

51. The three Guṇas including Sattva etc., take their origin from Māyā (delusion). The bodies are born due to them. Once born, they have the characteristics similar to those (of Māyā).

52. Helpless by itself, a creature chased by Vāsanā, attains godhood through Sattva; human form through Rajas and brute-hood through Tamas Guṇa.

53. The soul undergoes repeatedly states not easily foreseen, involving happiness and sorrow as consequences of the Karmas in the present worldly existence.

54. There are ups and downs even in the case of Devas whose life span is of a duration of a Kalpa. In the case of human beings subject to innumerable ailments they are even more.

55. Some say that the cause of the body is Kāla (Time); some say that it is Karma; some say the Gaṇas bring about the body. But the body is common (to all).

56. (On the whole) this body with five constituents (the elements) is a product of Kāl[?]. Karma and/or Guṇas. Learned men are not delighted on seeing one born nor are they worried on seeing it dead.

57. The creature is born in the unmanifest; it gets dissolved in the unmanifest; only in the middle does it appear to be visible (though transitory) like water bubbles.

58. The destruction of an embodied being is already decided the moment it enters the womb. As ordained by fate, after being born, it may continue to live or die all of a sudden.

59. Some die within the womb; some are stillborn; others die immediately after birth; in some places young men die and in some when they attain old age.

60. The soul gets its body in accordance with its previous Karma; it experiences happiness and misery also in accordance with it (Karma).

61. Some body takes shape when, urged by Māyā and its efficient energy, the parents indulge in a sexual act. This body (so born) may be male, female or eunuch.

62. A creature is born bearing the writing on his forehead by the Creator, specifying his span of life, and extent of happiness, misery, merit, sin, learning and assets.

63. It does not behove you to grieve over anything as the (eff ects or fruits of) Karmas cannot be evaded, Kāla (god of Death) cannot be dodged and no object is permanent.

64. Where is fixity and stability in a dream? Where is truth and permanence in a magic feat? Where is the continuity in autumnal clouds? Where is perpetuity in the physical body?

65. Your previous lives are hundreds, thousands and millions. Since you do not know the ultimate truth, you have thus great misapprehension and delusion.

66. (You do not know) to whom you have been a daughter? To whom have you been a mother? To whom you had been a wife in your transmigration through millions of births?

67. The body is constituted of the five elements. The skin, the blood and the flesh make it stay together. It is filled and overspread by suets, marrow and bones. It is the receptacle of urine, faeces and phlegm.

68. O deluded woman! It does not behove you to feel sorry if you consider your son as another body—a waste product of your own body.

69. If anyone can surmount death by means of efforts, how do you account for the death and disaster of all those learned men of yore?

70. No learned man can avoid ultimate death by means of penance, learning, intelligence, spells, herbs and elixirs.

71. One creature faces death today; another tomorrow, O lady of excellent countenance. Hence, as to the death or destruction of the body, of perishable organs, you do not deserve to feel sorry.

72. Death is ever present at hand. Tell me where is (can be) the happiness of embodied beings. When a tiger stands before them, do beasts relish their mouthfuls of fodder?

73. Hence, O lady of excellent countenance, if you wish to conquer birth and old age, seek refuge in Umā’s Consort, the Lord of all, the conqueror of Death.

74. As long as an embodied being does not seek shelter in the lotus-like feet of Śiva, so long will he face the terrible fear of death, the fear from birth and old age.

75. When the mind becomes detached and devoid of cravings, after experiencing miseries in the extremely terrible world, Maheśvara should be meditated upon.

76. To a person mentally imbibing the juicy elixir of meditation of Śiva, there cannot be any lurking thirst for the liquor of mundane affairs.

77. When the mind is rid of all entanglements and is restrained by absence of desire and when it is turned towards the feet of Śiva, a being has no further birth.

78. Hence, O fair lady, do not make your mind affected with grief and delusion. It is the sole means for you to meditate on Śiva. Worship Śiva.

Sūta said:

79. Thus enlightened by the Śivayogin with consoling words, the queen bowed down to the lotus-like feet of the preceptor and replied.

The queen said:

80. What other goal can I have except death, O holy Sir? My son is dead. I have been forsaken by all my kinsmen. Further, I am distressed by a fell disease.

81. Hence I wish to die following this child. I am contented and have achieved my object inasmuch as I have seen you today at the moment of my death.

Sūta said:

82. On hearing her words, the Śivayogin, a storehouse of mercy, remembered the previous service and approached the dead body.

83. He took some ash previously charged with Śiva’s Mantras, and scattered it into his open mouth. He united the dead body with vital breaths.

84. That boy regaining the vital breaths opened his eyes slowly. Having got back the strength of his sense-organs as before, he cried out with a desire for breast-milk.

85. On seeing the resuscitation of the dead boy, all the people were struck with wonder. The leading citizens became glad.

86. The queen was filled with delight. Her eyes became excited as though she was intoxicated. With eyes welling with tears, she quickly caught hold of her son.

87. Embracing him, she reached the highest point of bliss. Like one in sound sleep after a laborious work, she did not know herself or others.

88. Further, Ṛṣabha, the Yogin, applied the ash on the body of the mother as well as on that of the son, which were covered with poisonous wounds.

89. When the ash was thus applied, the bodies became transformed into divine ones. Their forms became lustrous like those of Devas.

90. The excellent pleasure of the queen was hundred times more than the happiness of the people of meritorious deeds when heavenly pleasures and prosperity are bestowed on them.

91. When she fell at his feet, the affectionate Yogin Ṛṣabha lifted her up and consoled her. When she was fully free from misery he said:

92-94.“O child! O great queen! Live for endless years. As long as you are alive, you will never meet with old age. O chaste lady, this son of yours will become renowned by the name Bhadrāyu. He will regain his (lost) kingdom. O lady of pure smiles, continue to stay in the apartment of the Vaiśya till your son completes his study.”

Sūta said:

95. Thus reviving the prince by the efficacy of the ash, the Yogin, Ṛṣabha, went away to the land of his choice.