Srimadh Bagawatham - gajendra Moksham Part 1

Continued From: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/09/srimadh-bagawatham-prahalada-charitram_21.html

The Curse!

During the time of Tamasa Manu, there lived a king called Indradyumnan Pandyan. He was a disciple of Sage Agasthyar. He had noticed that the Sage performed Thiruvaradanam for Perumal by using dry tulasi leaves and soaked mung beans. The Sage used coconut shells as cups to offer food to Perumal and kept Salagrama Perumal inside a box made off betel nut tree bark. The sage was not rich and hence used simple materials in his everyday worship.

The King mistakenly thought that the Lord should be worshiped with a show of wealth. He secretly mocked the sage’s mode of worship. He wanted to show the proper way to worship the Lord. He invited the sage to his palace to witness the way in which the King worshiped the Lord. The king had collected exotic flowers from far and wide; he had offerings stored in gold cups. He had obtained paste from the most fragrant sandal wood. The water was steeped with expensive spices like saffron and cardamom. He had placed the Salagrama Perumal in a beautiful gold box studded with precious gems and inlaid with soft silk. He performed the pooja with pride and waited for Sage Agasthyar to come. As soon as the Sage entered the hall, the King pretended to ignore him. This was a mistake since it is said that while performing Thiruvaradhanam, if a Bagawatha comes to our abode then we must stop our worship in order to receive the Bagawatha. If we fail to do this the Lord will be displeased with us.

The King instead of welcoming his Acharyan with due respect, ignored the Sage and proceeded to offer most expensive pooja samghri to the Lord.

The Sage noticed that everything required for worship was present except the most important ingredient called “humility”. The Sage felt sorry for the King. The King was ignorant and was attempting to buy the Lord’s grace with money. The Lord cannot be controlled by anyone or anything except by love. Sage Agasthyar realised that at this rate the King would never attain the Lord’s abode. He wished to help the King and hence cursed him. The feeling of pride is a quality exhibited by elephants especially when they are in rut. Thus the Sage cursed the King to take birth as an elephant but he added that the King would attain the Lord’s abode when the Lord Himself would come and grasp His trunk to rescue him. Thus the curse was actually a blessing conferred upon the king by Sage Agasthyar.

In the meantime there was another Rishi called Devalar who was taking a dip in a holy river. A Gandharvan called Hoo-Hoo watched the rishi step into the holy river. The Gandharvan decided to play a prank. He dived into the river and pulled the Rishi’s leg from underwater. Devalar was caught off guard and fell in to the water. Devalar became very angry and asked, ‘this is the attitude displayed by a crocodile. Do you wish to become a crocodile? So be it!’ cursed Devalar.

As soon as Hoo-Hoo turned into a crocodile, Devalar felt sorry for his plight. ‘You will be relived from this curse when the Lord hits you with His Sudarsana Chakram!’

Both Indradyumnan as well as Hoo-Hoo had been cursed by Sages and both of them could be cured only if the Lord stoped by to release them from the curse. Lord Vishnu is very compassionate and makes sure that the words of His devotees always come true. The Lord decided to club both tasks into one job and incarnate just once to save both Indradyumnan and Hoo-Hoo thus ensuring that the words uttered by Agasthyar as well as Devalar came true.

Continued On: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2013/09/srimadh-bagawatham-gajendra-moksham_27.html