BRAHMADATTA Dearfriends,
Iwas very much attracted to the story of king by the name Brahmadatta. Normallyin Kerala Nampoothiri Brahmins have such a name. OneSri Brahmadattan was my General Manager while I was in Calicut working asDivisional Engineer there. He belonged to famous Nampoothiri village Mukkamnear Calicut. Laterhe joined Chennai telephones as Chief General Manager and retired from Chennai.He is settled in Trichur now. SriBrahmadattan was very much personal to me. He used to avoid me calling by myname. I did not miss to meet him while I came to Chennai after my retirement. Thestory of Brahmadatta is from one of the stories stored long back in my externalmemory device. Sincerely, GopalaKrishnan 25-4-2021 1 Introduction of Kousika’s sons Therewas a sage named KOUSHIKA.(Not the king Koushika who later became Viswamithra). Koushika had seven sons. All these sons becamedisciples of the sage Garga. Afterthe death of Koushika there was a terrible drought on earth. Famine raged andpeople went hungry. We will call the sons “seven brothers” for simplicity. 1.2 Sage Garga orders seven brothers totend cattle Gargaasked his disciples to attend his cattle and the seven brothers took the cattleto the forest so that they might feed on the grass that grew there. The brotherssuffered so much from hunger that they decided to slay one of the cows and eatit. "Killing a cow would be asin," remarked the youngest. "If we have to kill the cow, letus at least perform its funeral ceremony.Perhaps that would reduce the severity of the sin that we are committing." Theother brothers agreed to this. The funeral rites of the cow were observed. It was then killed and eatenby seven brothers. 1.3 Seven brothers tell lie to sageGarga Thebrothers returned to Garga and told him. "A cow has been killed and eaten by a tiger." Gargasaw no reason to disbelieve them. But the sin remained a sin. And as a consequence of having committed a crime they had to takerebirth as lower forms of animals. 1.4 Seven brothers take re birth asJatismaras Thebrothers were born as hunters in their next life. But they wereborn as jatismaras. That is, they remembered the incidents of their earlierlives. Sincethe brothers remembered what they had been in their earlier lives, they saw no reason to live as hunters. They therefore fasted until theydied. Theywere next reborn as deer.But the deer continued to be jatismaras and fasted to death. Thebrothers were reborn as birds.Four of the brothers continued to be detached from material pursuits and spenttheir time in meditation. But the three remaining brothers werenot so lucky. 2 Vibhraja king of Panchala come toforest Theking of Panchala had once come to the forest with his retinue. The king’s namewas Vibhraja. One of thebirds was struck by the king’s pomp and glory and wished to be born as a kingin his next life. Allthe soldiers seemed to be following the instructions of the ministers. Accordingly, two of the birds desired to be born as ministers in theirnext lives. 3 Birth of Prince Brahmadatta The one who wished to be a king was born asBrahmadatta, King Vibhraja’s son. The two who desired to be born asministers became Pundarika and Suvalaka,the sons of the two ministers whom they had seen. Theremaining three brothers were not attached to material pursuits and were bornas Brahmans. 3.1 Brahmadatta marry Kalyani Indue course Prince Brahmadatta married Kalyani. Actually Kalyani was in her earlier life the cow that thebrothers had killed. In due course a son was born to them. He wasnamed Vishvaksena. Whatwas most remarkable was the fact that Brahmadatta could understandthe languages of all living beings. This was because King Vibraja had prayed toVishnu that he might obtain such a son and the boon was granted. But theking Brahmadatta never used it in the presence of queen. 3.2 Kalyani disbelieve Brahmadatta Brahmadattaand Kalyani were once taking a walk in their garden. Brahmadatta heard two ants conversing.Since he could understand the languages of all living beings, he could followwhat the ants were saying. Hearing their conversation Brahamdattacould not control his laugh. PrincessKalyani naturally wanted to know why Brahmadatta was laughing like that and the king reported the entireconversation to his wife. ButKalyani refused to believe her husband. "How can any man understand thelanguage of ants’" she wanted to know. "Youare lying. You must have been laughing at me." Brahmadattatried to convince his wife, but Kalyani would not listen. 4 Lord Vishnu appear in Brahmadatta’sdream Theking did not know what to do. But while he was sleeping, he dreamt that Vishnuappeared before him and told him to wait till the next morning. Brahmadatta’s mind got a little bitof rest. 5 Story of “four brothers” Ihope you may be recollecting that four of the “seven brothers” had been born asBrahmans. Theyhad been born as the sons of a Brahman named Sudaridra. We will call them fourbrothers for simplicity. Since they were born as jatismaras, they rememberedtheir earlier lives and had no desire to tie down by material pursuits. They wanted to retire to the forestand meditate. 5.1 Sudaridra father of “four brothers”object to their desire for forest life ButSudaridra tried to restrain his sons. "How can you go to forest?" Heasked, "How can youretire to the forest to meditate? Your duty is to look after me in my old age.If you do not look after, I shall starve to death. Please do not commit thatsin." 5.2 Sudaridra comes to king Brahmadattaand gets wealth "Youwill not starve to death," replied his four sons in one tone. "Go to King Brahmadatta and askhim for wealth. He will give you gold and villages. Justtell him to remember the sage Garga, the hunters, the deer and the birds. Thefour sons went to the forest. Sudarida met the king on the day followingBrahmadatta’s dream. Sudaridra’s words reminded Brahmadatta of what he had beenin his earlier lives. Hefelt he got addicted to material pursuits. He decided to join his brothers inthe forest. He gave Sudaridra as muchwealth as the Brahman wanted and handed over the kingdom to the prince,Vishvaksena. 6 Brahmadatta retires to forest alongwith Brothers Knowingall truth Queen Kalyani remained with the Prince and permitted Brahmadatta to follow his brothers. Theother two brothers Pundarika and Suvalaka who became ministers also accompaniedBrahmadatta to the forest. It was thus that Koushika’s seven sonseventually attained salvation. -- 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]. 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