A Brahmin and Vidhata

June - 17 - 2012                                                                        (Sunday)

Once upon a time, in a little village in Bengal called Sonarpura, there lived a Brahmin.  He had a peculiar fate.  He could never eat his fill at any feast on any occasion.  Something would invariably happen to interrupt his meal.  He bemoaned his luck, but whether he ate fast or he ate slowly, he found he could not cheat his fate.  That was fate, had written for him, and that is what happened every time.

Once he was invited to take part in a festival at the local Maharaja's palace and stay for the feast.  As you could imagine, he was very pleased.  He told his wife: "This time I feel I'll be able to eat my fill.  Please get my clothes washed so that I'll look presentable at the palace."

 So, wearing freshly laundered and crisply starched dhoti-kurta, the Brahmin set off for the palace.  He went past the lush green paddy fields and the rolling meadows, admiring the beautiful kash phool (flowers) nodding their heads in the breeze.

 When he reached the palace, he was welcomed cordially.  He sat down for his meal and the servants placed a silver plate for him and served him most respectfully and hospitably.  The Brahmin looked at the plate in front of him and his eyes popped out: there was maccher jhol, of course, and there was alu postho and begun bhaja, apart from the most divine rice, dripping with ghee, and there was jalpai chutney and, of course, mishti doi and twenty varieties of simply divine sweets. And there were many other dishes, too.

 Everything was going well and the Brahmin was really enjoying his meal when the rope basket in which a mud pot of curd was hung up from the     ceiling suddenly broke. The mud pot came crashing down and fell near the Brahmin's plate. Shards from the pot fell onto his plate, and the Brahmin had to get up, with his meal unfinished yet again.

 As he took his leave, the Maharaja asked him solicitously: "I hope the servants served you properly and everything was to your liking,. Did you eat your fill?"

 The Brahmin said: "Alas! That I was not able to do, but no one is to be blamed for what happened, except my own fate." And he told him all about his fate.

The Maharaja was quite upset.  He said: "Thakurmoshai, please stay the night here in my humble abode.  Tomorrow I’ll serve you myself so that you can eat your fill."

The Brahmin agreed. The next day, a fresh feast was cooked. The Maharaja, who was a good cook, made some of the dishes himself. Then when everything was ready, the Brahmin sat down to eat.

 There was nothing in the room that could break, fall, or in any way interrupt the Brahmin's feast. Now the Vidhata was really stuck.  He could not find any way to stop the Brahmin from completing his meal.

 So, he took the form of a small golden frog and jumped onto the Brahmin's rice. The Brahmin was so absorbed in enjoying his meal that he did not notice the frog and swallowed it along with a handful of rice. Finally, the Brahmin got up having eaten his fill and happily topped it with the richest, most fragrant and spicy mishti paan he had ever tasted. He went back home with many gifts from the pleased Maharaja.

 As he was walking to his village through the Maharaja's fields, he heard a voice say: "Ogo Brahmin, please let me out. Brahmin, please let me out." He looked here and there to see who was calling out in such distress but could see no one, so he walked on.

 Again he heard: "Brahmin, let me go."

"Ke tumi? Who're you?" he asked. "I'm Vidhata," the answer came in a frantic voice.

"Where are you?" asked the Brahmin next. "I'm inside your stomach. I jumped into your rice in the form of a golden frog, but you did not notice and swallowed me along with the rice," said Vidhata Purush.

 "Ah," said the Brahmin. "I was wondering how I completed a meal without something interrupting me. It's a good thing that I swallowed you. You cannot bother me any longer. I have you where I want you. I won't let you go now. I'd rather close up my throat."    

 Then the Brahmin walked on with his mouth shut and quite determined not to let the Vidhata out, no matter how much he yelled and screamed.

 In the meantime, there was total chaos in the three worlds, for it was the Vidhata's job to regulate matters in the universe. Without him, matters could not go on. It was worse than the total collapse of the Internet or a huge war. No one knew what to do, where to go, and what should cause what. To find a solution to the crisis, the gods had a general meeting where everyone was present. After a lot of discussion they asked Lakshmi, the goddess of Wealth and Fortune, to go to the Brahmin and ask him to release the Vidhata.

 Lakshmi tucked her owl under her arm and went down to the Earth quite reluctantly. The Brahmin was rather surprised to see her. Anyway he stood up, offered her a seat, and respectfully did a pranam.

 "What can I do for you, ma lokki?" he asked.

 "You've got the Vidhata imprisoned. Please let him go. Without him, the business of the universe can't go on," she explained.

 When he heard this, the Brahmin lost his temper.

 "Get my big stick," he told his wife. "I'll show this goddess what is what. All my life she has turned her face away from me, and now that I've some good luck, she wants me to let go of that rascal Vidhata. I'll give her the kind of beating she has never seen before."

 Lakshmi got really alarmed. Nobody had ever spoken to her that way before. She fled from there and went back to the gods and told them what had happened.

 Next, the gods persuaded the goddess of Learning, Saraswati, to go to the Brahmin and get the Vidhata released.

When the Brahmin saw the goddess of Learning, he got up even more respectfully and bowed     before her. "What can I do for you, devi?" he asked.

 When she made her request, the Brahmin lost his temper once again. He shouted again for his stick. "I'll show this goddess," he yelled. "Since the days of my schooling, she has shunned me and given me no knowledge or learning, and now she wants me to give up the Vidhata when I have him secure where he can't harm me. Give me that stick, and I'll teach her a proper lesson."

 Poor Saraswati, she also fled the place in alarm. This time Lord Siva himself came down to the Brahmin. The Brahmin was a devout follower of Siva and so he welcomed him with ceremony and worshipped him and then respectfully asked him what he could do.

  Siva asked him to release the Vidhata.

"My Lord," said the Brahmin. "You've asked me, and so I must do as you say. But what is the solution to my problem? I've had such a miserable life and the Vidhata is at the bottom of it all."  Then Lord Siva said, "Don't worry about that. I'll take you to heaven with me, and you'll be free of the Vidhata's machinations."

 So the Brahmin opened his mouth and let the Vidhata out.  Then Siva took the Brahmin and his wife, body and soul, to heaven with him.   

Compiler : Prof. Komaragiri Venkata Ramana Rao. Ph.D., (Retired Professor; Andhra University College of Engineering); Astrologer-Scienitst. Durham. NC; U.S.A.: (Tatayya = Grand-father). My e-mail address : pandit@jyothishi.com---------- I dedicate all these stories in the blog to Sri Parama  Paalakas (Supreme Rulers of this entire Universe): Bhagavan Sri Siddhi Vinayaka,  Sri Lakshmi Narayana and Sri Gouri Sankara and Sri Saraswathi and Bhagavan Sri Venkateswara !