Part 7: The two physicians

Janārdana beat the drum to allay disease and so instructed two physicians, Dhanvantari and Vaitaraṇi. Of them Vaitaraṇi, capable of emancipation, named and practiced whatever treatment was suitable for any one and gave him his own medicine. But Dhanvantari made a treatment mixed with sin. The sādhus said to him, “This is not prescribed for us.” He replied to them: “I have not studied any system of medicine suitable for sādhus. Do not do what I said.” So the two physicians practiced in the city.

One day Kṛṣṇa asked Śrī Nemi, “What is their (future) status?” The Blessed One related: “Doctor Dhanvantari will go to the abode, Apratiṣṭhāna, in the seventh hell. Doctor Vaitaraṇi will become a monkey in the Vindhya-forest and, grown up, will become the head of a troop in that same place.

One day sādhus will come to that forest with a caravan. One of them will have a thorn broken off in his foot. He will say to the other sages waiting: ‘Leave me here and go on. Otherwise all, separated from the caravan, will die.’ Leaving him behind on bare ground in the shade, the sādhus, despondent, unable to extract the thorn from his foot, will go on.

The lord of the troop of monkeys will come there and the monkeys in front will give cries of ‘Kila! kila!’ on seeing the muni. Annoyed by their noise, the lord of the troop will stay in front. After seeing the sage, he will think, ‘Where did I see such a person before?’ Then he will recall his former birth and his being a doctor and he will bring herbs, viśalyā and rohiṇī,^[1] from the mountain. After crushing the viśalyā with his teeth, he will put it on his foot and will heal his foot, at once freed from the thorn, with the rohiṇī. He will write the words, ‘I was formerly the doctor, Vaitaraṇi, in Dvāravatī,’ before the muni. Having heard before about his life, the muni will tell dharma (to hint). After making a three-day fast, the monkey will go to Sahasrāra. He will see by clairvoyance the corpse of himself engaged in a fast and the muni near-by, pronouncing namaskāras. The god will say to the muni, after bowing to him with devotion, I By your favor this great magnificence of a god became mine.’ He will guide the sādhu and unite him with his sādhus; and the sādhu veil! tell the story of the monkey to the sādhus.”

After hearing that, Han, having faith in dharma, bowed to Nemi and went away. Then the Blessed One went elsewhere to wander.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Viśalyā, ‘N. of various plants (also of a specific for arrow wounds).’ MW. Here viśalyā is used to remove the arrow and rohiṇī to cure the wound.