Śrī Bharat Maharaja ............... ------------------------- Bharat Mahārāja was the eldest son of Ṛṣabhadeva. He was indeed a great devotee of the Lord. Right from an early age he gave up all his worldly attachments as if they were excrement and retired alone to a secluded spot in the gardens of Harihara Kṣetra and began to perform bhajan. As he performed bhajan, his heart began to become infused with devotion and he arrived near to the stage of bhāva. One day having taken his bath in the river he sat down and began chanting. At that time a thirsty doe came to the bank of the river to drink water. As the doe was drinking water she heard the fearful roaring of a tiger. In order to save herself from the tiger the fearful doe leaped into the water. The doe was pregnant and due to being so afraid she gave birth to a baby fawn in the middle of the river, which began to drift away in the water. The doe, due to the pain and suffering of giving birth and the blow from her long leap, left her body and died. Rājarṣi Bharat took that drowning fawn to his aśrama. In his heart attachment and possessiveness (mamata) began to develop towards the fawn. His thoughts began to dwell on how to get milk for the fawn, and how to protect it from wild animals. Now his mind was not inclined towards bhajan. He thought, ‘it is my duty to protect this fawn for it seeks shelter’. Due to the awakening of attachment for th e fawn he would think about it while he stood, sat down, slept, and ate. When he would go to the forest to pick fruits and flowers he would take it with him out of fear of wolves and dogs. Placing the fawn in his lap sometimes he would scratch its chest and feel great joy. Sometimes when it could not be seen he would feel great anxiety, and his mind would become perturbed. In this way the renounced Bharatjī, who was intent in performing bhajan, strayed from his worship of the Lord. This same Bharat who renounced his family and sons etc. understanding them to be an obstacle on the path of bhajan, now became attached to this baby deer. One day that baby deer left the aśrama and met a flock of its own kind and at that time Bharatjī met his death. He left his body thinking of and remembering the deer. Consequently, in accordance to his mood at the time of death he attained the body of a deer. But because he had performed so much sādhana his memory of his previous birth was not destroyed. He understood the reason for attaining the body of a deer and began to feel great remorse and went to stay at his place of bhajan. When the time came he also gave up his deer body. Now he attained birth in the house of a brahmaṇa and he became known as Jaḍbharat. In this birth also by the mercy of the Lord he was able to remember the sequence of his previous births. Therefore he fixed the lotus feet of the Lord in his heart and kept himself aloof from all attachments and entanglements. From the life of Bharat Mahārāja we learn the valuable lesson that the practitioner (sādhaka) should at every step remember Kṛṣṇa and His devotees. If by remembering a deer one attains a deer’s body then certainly by remembering the Supreme Lord one will attain a body as an associate of the Lord. The compassion that Bharat Mahārāja had in his heart was of the mode of goodness and for that reason he became attached to the deer and wasted three lives. To engage anyone in the performance of bhajan is the topmost form of compassion. Do not show compassion that will cause you to give up your bhajan and make you come back to this material world. Solely by the performance of bhakti all kinds of anarthas go away and misery is destroyed. If one is doing bhajan of the Lord but is not feeling peace at heart then certainly there is some fault. By the performance of bhajan to the Lord jñāna and vairāgya will automatically manifest, realization will come and all difficulties will be diminished--here there is not even the slightest trace of doubt. Ambarīṣa Mahārāja is such a devotee that the sudarṣana cakra is always ready to protect him, so what kind of difficulties can he incur? The cause for the difficulties of Bharat Mahārāja is anartha. Misery is of three kinds - Sin (pāpa), the seed of sin (papa-bīja) and ignorance (avidyā). Out of these, sin is of two kinds-Un-fructified (aprārabdha) and fructified (prārabdha). Sin is bad work (karma) that is done through the medium of ones body, mind and words for on es body and senses. The desires to perform sin reside in our heart (citta) in a hidden way—these are called the seed of sin (pāpa-bīja). To consider temporary objects to be permanent, and to consider the body and senses etc. to be the self is called ignorance (avidyā). Un-fructified sins are those collected sins from many lifetimes that have amounted but have not yet manifest. In other words, one has not began to pay off the fruit of the sin. Fructified sins are some of the sins collected from many life times, which fruit one has began to taste and which is seen in the present body. By performing bhakti in the form of hearing and chanting not only are ones fructified sins (prārabdha) destroyed but also ones un-fructified sins (aprārabdha). In this regard Śrī Kṛṣṇa tells Uddhava in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.14.19): yathāgniḥ su-samṛddhārciḥ / karoty edhāṁsi bhasmasāt tathā mad-viṣayā bhaktir / uddhavaināṁsi kṛtsnaśaḥ My dear Uddhava, just as a blazing fire turns firewood into ashes, similarly, devotion unto Me completely burns to ashes sins committed by My devotees. A question arises here. Devotees chant harināma every day so why do they undergo happiness and distress? In answer to this, happiness is a side-effect of devotion and there is no prārabdha in it, and the cause of suffering is mainly because of vaiṣṇava-aparādhā. Then another question arises here, ones body is founded on and attained according to ones prārabdha, so then why doesn’t the body of the devotee get destroyed along with his prārabdha? The answer is that in order to assist bhakti, different types of karma exist and therefore ones body isn’t destroyed. This is due to the mercy of the Lord. Because of sādhana bhajan one’s body is not destroyed.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 19:11:24 +0000
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