Srimadh Bagawatham - Dhundhukari Moksham part 1

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.

Continued On: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/05/srimadh-bagawatham-dhundhukari-moksham.html