Chapter 9: The Supreme Character of Jada Bharata

(1-2) S'rî S'uka said: 'After having given up his life of being embodied as a deer Bharata, the most exalted devotee and most honored of all saintly kings, in his last incarnation acquired the brahmin status. He was the male half of a twin brother and sister so one says, who were born from the second wife of a high-minded brahmin in the line of saint Angirâ. This brahmin being endowed with all the qualities was of a perfect control over the mind and the senses, of penance, Vedic study and recitation, of renunciation, satisfaction, tolerance, kindness, knowledge, of no envy and of spiritual happiness in the wisdom of the soul. With his first wife he had nine sons all equal to him in education, character, behavior, beauty and magnanimity. (3) Also in that birth by the special mercy of the Lord remembering his previous lives, he, being greatly apprehensive not to fall down again, was in associating with his own kind always afraid of being obstructed on the path of devotional service and kept his mind focussed upon his soul. For that purpose he by hearing and remembering the descriptions of the qualities which vanquish the bondage to fruitive labor, always thought of the two lotus feet of the Supreme Lord. But to the local people he posed as someone of a mad, dull and blind character [because of which he was called Jada]. (4) His brahmin father who affectionately felt obliged to his son, thought that he, as a father to a son, should teach him, although against his will, that the regulative principles should be followed, so that he until the end of his student life again as someone of the sacred thread would practice the duties of cleanliness of the purification process as prescribed by the s'âstras. (5) But he also in the presence of his father acted as if he couldn't understand a thing of what was instructed. During the onset of the rainy season the father wished to teach him the Vedic mantras including the Gâyatrî preceded by Omkâra, but despite of his thorough instruction, he during the four months of the summer didn't succeed in teaching him their full mastery. (6) Thus supposing that his son, although he didn't feel for it, should be fully instructed by him in all the cleanliness, Vedic literature, vows, principles, sacrifice and service to the guru that belongs to the celibate state [the brahmacarya-âs'rama], the brahmin who considered his son to be his life breath, in reality with this engagement was heavily attached to his household so that he, when he [was seized] by death who was not as forgetful [as he was], died as a man full of frustration about the insistent faking of his son. (7) His youngest wife from whose womb the twins were born, thereafter entrusted them to the first wife and then followed her husband to where he resided in his afterlife [Patiloka].

(8) Jada Bharata's stepbrothers, who having fixed their minds upon the ritual culture of the three Vedas had no understanding for the true knowledge of the Self, after the death of the father gave up the endeavor to teach anything to their half brother whom they, unaware of his faculties, considered a dullard. (9-10) When he was addressed as being mad, dull, deaf and dumb by the materialistic two-legged animals, he used to use likewise words in reply. The things that he by force was summoned to do he did. He used to eat whatever small or large quantity of palatable or tasteless food he obtained by begging, by wages or what came on its own accord. He never lived to please his senses as he had forever stopped to live for the material cause. All by himself he had accomplished the transcendental blissful vision as someone in knowledge of the true self who with the dual causes of happiness and distress, summer and winter, wind and rain, did not identify himself with the body. Firm of limbs he, as strong as a bull, never covered himself. Not bathing he was dirty from lying on the ground and he never massaged his body. With his loins covered by dirty cloth and with a of dirt darkened sacred thread, he in his spiritual splendor was like a hidden gem. He wandered around disrespected with ignorant folk calling him, a brahmin of birth, a mere brahmin's friend ['brahma-bandu']. (11) Because he only looked for work in order to obtain in exchange food from others, even his stepbrothers engaged him in agricultural work in the fields - a job to which he had no idea of what should be leveled or left uneven or where he had to pile things up. Usually only eating broken rice, oil cakes, chaff, worm-eaten grains or burned rice that stuck to the pot, it was nevertheless all nectar to him.

(12) Then at a certain moment some dacoit leader appeared on the scene who was looking for a human son not better than an animal whom he could use for a sacrifice to the goddess Bhadra Kâlî. (13) The animal type he before had captured, had escaped and his followers on their way to find him could in the dead of night not catch that animalistic man. As arranged by providence they stumbled upon the brahmin son from the line of Angirâ who from an elevated position was guarding the fields against deer, wild pigs and other creatures. (14) Discovering that he had the right character they next with shining faces understanding that he could serve for their master's work, elated took him to the temple of the goddess, tightly bound in ropes. (15) In order to get him as the man animal ready for the sacrifice, the followers of the dacoit then according to their own customs bathed him, gave him new clothes, covered his body with ornaments, smeared him with sandalwood pulp and garlanded him. Vibrating songs, prayers, drums and bugles they seated him before the goddess Kâlî, fully dressed up and properly fed, with incense, lamps, strings of flowers, parched grains, twigs and sprouts, fruits and other articles of worship. (16) The priest of that dacoit leader in  preparation of  offering a flow of blood from the animalistic man to the deity of Bhadra Kâlî, next took a fearful razor sharp sword and consecrated it with the appropriate mantras. (17) These contemptible types who, being of a passionate and ignorant nature, in their materialistic bewilderment were driven by minds full of imagination and thus acting to their own notions followed a wrong course, were in offense with the heroic association of the Supreme Lord, the brahmins. Proceeding with a lust for violence against others they acted most cruelly directly against an expansion of the Lord Himself, someone of a brahmin birth, a son of spiritual wisdom who had no enemies and who was a well-wisher to all. But at the very last moment the goddess Bhadra Kâlî, who saw what was about to happen in defiance of the law and against the will of the Lord, broke out of her statue with a burning physical appearance that was of an excessively bright, unbearable, spiritual effulgence. (18) Full of indignation she totally lost herself in the force of her anger with raised eyebrows, crooked teeth, bloodshot eyes, a frightening laugh and an agitated fearful face as if she wanted to destroy the entire universe. Released because of her great fury she, coming forth from the altar, severed with the same blade as they wanted to use [for the sacrifice] the heads from the bodies of all the sinful offenders and then together with her associates, drank from the blood that oozed from the necks as a very hot intoxicating beverage. Overwhelmed by all that intoxicating drinking she together with her associates next loudly sang and danced, making fun throwing the heads at each other like they were balls.

(19) When one like this in relation to great souls has crossed the line, one will always for oneself have to face the exorcism as a result. (20) Oh, Vishnudatta ['protected by Vishnu'; Parîkchit], to those who are not perplexed this is not such a great miracle. They who without animosity are of goodness to all are by the Supreme Lord of the invincible Time who carries the best of all weapons [the Sudars'ana disc] personally fully liberated from the very strong and tight knot in the heart [that is the consequence] of a false physical concept of life. Even when threatened by decapitation [or other attacks on their lives], those liberated souls and devotees who full of surrender are protected at His lotus feet are never upset by these kinds of emotional conditions; they have nothing to fear.'