Continued
From: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/04/srimadh-bagawatham-bakthi-gnanam-and.html
Once, in
a city on the banks of River Tungabadhra lived a Vedic scholar called Atmadeva.
He was a very pious man but his wife Dundhuli was always fuelled by
materialistic desires. The couple was wealthy but they did not have any
children.
One day,
Atmadeva decided to go to the forest to seek a rishi to bless him and his wife
with a child. Atmadeva met a rishi in the forest.
‘What do
you require?’ enquired the sage pleased with Atnadeva’s devotion.
‘I am
very unlucky. If I feed a cow it never gives milk, if I plant seeds they never
germinate, if I buy fruits they rot even before I reach my home. I feel my life
would be better if I had a son. Please bless me and my wife with a son,’ begged
Atmadeva.
The rishi
looked at Atmadeva with compassion. He said, ‘you are better off without any
children. I can see that you will undergo great sufferings if you have a son.
Go home and rest happily. Don’t ask for a son.’
Atmadeva
refused to listen to the rishi and kept begging the rishi to bless him.
‘I can
see with the help of my powers that for the past seven lives you had no children
and you are not destined to have children in the next seven lives either. Don’t
seek that which you cannot have. Be happy with what you have. You cannot have a
good child even if you perform putrakameshti yagam.’ said the sage.
Even
after listening to the sage, Atmadevar was adamant.
‘Alas,’
said the rishi, ‘I can never prevent fate. If it is fated that you should
suffer because of your son, who am I to prevent it?’ So syaing the rishi
produced a fruit. ‘Give this fruit to your wife and you will soon have a son.’
Atmadeva
returned home with joy and handed over the fruit to his wife. He then left on a
tour. Dhundhuli was worried that she will lose her beauty if she became
pregnant. She approached her sister who was visiting her. The sister was
pregnant. Dhundhuli made a pact with her sister to get her child in exchange
for a portion of property to be given to the sister. She then fed their cow
with the fruit. In due course, the sister handed over her son after lying to
her inlaws that the child had died prematurely. Dhundhuli showed the child as
their son when Atmadeva returned home; the boy was named as Dhundhukari. In the
meantime, the cow gave birth to a human child but with ears like a cow and he
was named as Gokarnan. Atmadeva soon came to know abot his wife’s plot.
Dhundhukari
grew up in to an evil minded young man. Gokarnan on the other hand became a
great scholar. Dhundukari started to spend his time with bad company. He soon
learned to gamble, spend time with unscrupulous women and started to come home
intoxicated. Atmadevar tried to discipline him but Dhundhukari beat Atmadevar
mercilessly. Atmadevar ran out of the house and found Gokarnan reading
Bhagawatha Puranam under a tree.
‘Gokarna
save me from Dhundhukari!’ he cried. ‘My son is hitting me!’
‘Who is
whose son?’ asked Gokarnan. ‘Our body will definitely perish and all
relationships we have are experienced because of blood ties. Dhundhukari is
teaching you that it is futile to keep so much love and affection on a
relationship which will eventually perish. Instead, place your love and
affection on Lord Krishna. He will fulfill your needs and be your son.’ Atmadevar
understood Gokarnan’s words. He developed detachment for worldly life and
retired to the forest where he passed away peacefully.
Dhundhukari soon killed Dhundhuli for the
inheritance. He asked the women he was spending time with to move in with him.
The women plotted against him. They killed him and took all his moveable
property and ran away. The women burried his body in the back yard; as no one
performed Dhundukari’s last rites on time and as he had been very bad in life,
Dhundhukari became a ghost.
