DIVINE INFORMATION 2-26 Matsya Purana part12
Posted by: "DILIP KUMAR RAVINDRAN"[email protected] prdili Tue Sep 7, 2010 7:16 am (PDT) Brahmadatta There was asage named Koushika.Koushika had seven sons named Svasripa,Krodhana, Himsra, Pishuna, Kavi, Vagadushta and Pitrivarti. These sons all became disciples of the sageGarga. After Koushika died, there was a terribledrought on earth. Famine raged andpeople went hungry. Garga had asked his disciples to tend to his cattle and the seven brothers had taken thecattle to the forest so that they mightbrowse on the grass that grew there. Thebrothers suffered so much from hunger that they decided to slay one of the cows and eat it. "Killinga cow would be a sin," remarked the youngest. "If we have to kill the cow, let us at least perform itsfuneral ceremony. Perhaps that willreduce the severity of the sin that we are committing." The other brothers agreed to this. Thefuneral rites of the cow were observed. It was then killed and eaten. Thebrothers returned to Garga and toldhim. "A cow hasbeen killed and eaten by a tiger." Garga sawno reason to disbelieve them. But the sin remained a sin. And as a consequenceof having committed a crime, the brothers were born as hunters in their next life. But theywere born as jatismaras. That is, they remembered the incidents of theirearlier lives. Since thebrothers remember what they had been in their earlier lives, they saw no reason to live as hunters. Theytherefore fasted until they died. Theywere next reborn as deer. But the deer continued to be jatismaras and fasted to death. Thebrothers were reborn as birds. Four ofthe brothers continued to be detached from material pursuits and spent their time in meditation. But thethree remaining brothers were not solucky. The kingof Panchala hadonce come to the forest with his retinue. The kings name was Vibhraja.One of the birds was struck by the kings pomp and glory and wished to be born as a king in his next life.King Vibhraja and two ministers withhim and all the soldiers seemed to be following the instructions of theministers. Accordingly, twoof the birds desired to be born asministers in their next lives. The one whowished to be a king was born as Brahmadatta, King Vibhraja son.The two who desired to be born as ministers became Pundarika and Suvalaka, the sons of the twoministers whom they had seen. The remaining three brothers were not attached tomaterial pursuits and were born as brahmanas (the first of the fourclasses). Brahmadattamarried Kalyani. You will never guess who Kalyani had been in her earlier life.She had been the cow whom the brothers had killed. What wasmost remarkable was the fact that Brahmadatta could understand the languages ofall living beings. Brahmadattaand Kalyani were once taking a walk in their garden. Brahmadata heard two antsconversing. Since he could understand the languages of all living beings, hecould follow what the ants were saying. "Whyare you angry with me?asked the male ant. "Why are you refusing to speak to me?" "Goaway and do not pester me," replied the female ant. "You say you love me very much. And yet, when you gotsome grains of sugar yesterday, you gavethem to another ant and not to me. I refuse to speak to you." "Thatwas my mistake," said the male ant. "I thought that it was youto whom I was giving the grains ofsugar. I will never make such a mistake in the future. Please pardon me and smile. I cannot bear to see youso angry." The ants made up. The conversation made Brahmadatta laugh. Kalyani naturallywanted to know why Brahmadatta was laughing and the king reported the entire conversation to his wife. ButKalyani refused to believe her husband. "How can any man understand the language ofants?" she wanted to know. "You are lying. You must have been laughing at me." Brahmadattatried to convince his wife, but Kalyani would not listen. The king did not knowwhat to do. But while he was sleeping, he dreamt that Vishnu appeared before him and told himto wait till the next morning. Brahmadattasmind would be set at rest then. I hope youhave not forgotten that four of the brothers had been born as brahmanas. They had been born as brahmanas.They had been born as the sons of abrahmana named Sudaridra and were named Dhritimana, Tattvadarshi, Vidyachanda and Tapotsuka.Since they were born as jatismaras, theyremembered their earlier lives and had no desire to tie down by materialpursuits. They wanted to retire to the forest and meditate. butSudaridra tried to restrain his sons. "How can you do that?" he asked "How can you retire to theforest to meditate? Your duty is to look after me in my old age. If you do not look after, I shall starveto death. Please do not commit thatsin." "You will not starve to death,"replied his sons. "Go to King Brahmadatta and ask him for wealth.He will give you gold and villages. Tellhim to remember the sage Garga, the hunters, the deer and the birds. The foursons went away to the forest. Sudarida came to meet the king. He met the king on the day followingBrahmadattas dream. Sudaridras words reminded Brahmadatta of what he had beenin his earlier lives. He was ashamedthat he had forgotten those incidents and had become addicted to material pursuits. He decided to join his brothers in the forest. He gave Sudaridra as much wealthas the brahmana wanted and handed overthe kingdom to the prince, Vishvaksena. The brothersPundarika and Suvalaka also accompanied Brahmadatta to the forest. It was thus that Koushikasseven sons eventually attained salvation. "There is one thing we do notunderstand," said the sages. "How came Brahmadatta tounderstand the languages of all living beings?" "That is easily explained."Replied Lomaharshana. "KingVibraja had prayed to Vishnu that he might obtain such a son and the boon wasgranted." (TheBrahmadatta story is interposed in such a fashion that it breaks the continuity of therecital. The tone of the story is alsosuch that it seems to have been a later interpolation in the Matsya Purana.) The MatysaPurana now continues with a cataloguing of the major tirthas. MatsyaPurana part13 Posted by: "DILIP KUMAR RAVINDRAN"[email protected] prdili Tue Sep 14, 2010 6:06 am (PDT) Chandra and Budha Youforgot to tell us how Budha was born," remarked the sages. "Nor didyou tell us anything about Chandra’s birth." Lomaharshana filled in theblanks. The sageAtri was Brahma’s son. Atrionce performed very difficult tapasya. A tremendous amount of energy wasreleased as a result of this meditationand the moon-god, Chandraor Soma, was born from this energy. Brahmaappointed Chandra ruler over all stars, planets and herbs (oshadhi). Twenty-seven of Daksha’ daughterwere married to Chandra. Chandraperformed a rajasuya yajna (royal sacrifice) and the ceremony was an outstanding success. But all thissuccess. But all this success and glorywent to Chandra’s head. The preceptor of the gods was the sage Brihaspati and Brihaspati’s wife wasTara. Chandra’s eyesfell upon Tara and he forcibly abductedher. On several occasions Brihaspati asked Chandra to return Tara, but themoon-god would not listen. A terriblewar then raged between the gods and demons over Tara. The gods fought on Brihaspati’s side and the demonsaided Chandra. Shiva alsofought on the side of the gods. As the war raged, Shiva let fly a terrible divine weapon namedbrahmashirsha at Chandra. Chandra countered this with another terrible divine weapon named somastra. These two weapons of destruction threatened to burnup the entire universe. Brahma decided that it was time for him tointervene. "Stop this nonsense at once," he told Chandra. "What you have done is most improper.Return Tara at once." These wordsashamed Chandra and he returned Tara. But Chandra and Tara had alreadyhad a handsome son named Budha. Budha became very skilled in the handling of elephants. In fact, theknowledge of tackling and handling elephants goes back to Budha. Youalready know that Budha married Ila and that they had a son named Pururava. I will continue in next posting. Posted to googlegroups by R. Gopalakrishnan on 27-11-2021 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/985490421.3803979.1637988859064%40mail.yahoo.com.
