SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM: CANTO 5

(1-2) S'rî S'uka said: 'After having given up his life in the body of a deer obtained Bharata, the most exalted devotee and most honored of all saintly kings, his last body as a brahmin so is said. As the male child of a twin brother and sister was he born from the second wife of some brahmin of the line of saint Angirâ who was endowed with the qualities 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, was he, being greatly apprehensive not to fall down again, in association with his own kind always afraid of being obstructed on the path of devotional service and kept he his mind close to his soul by always thinking of the two lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, hearing and remembering the descriptions of the qualities which vanquish the bondage to fruitive labor; but to the local people he showed himself as being of a mad, dull and blind character [of which he is called Jada]. (4) His brahmin father who for sure affectionately felt obliged to his son, thought that he, as a father to a son, should teach him, even though against his will, that indeed the regulative principles should be followed, so that, until the end of his student life, he again, as one of the sacred thread, would practice the duties of cleanliness of the purification process as prescribed by the s'âstras. (5) But also before his father he acted as if he couldn't understand a thing of what was instructed. For four months during the summer wishing to teach him the vedic mantras as also the Gâyatrî preceded by Omkâra, did he, despite of the full study of them, not succeed in having him completely mastering them. (6) Thus thinking that his son, although he didn't like it, by himself should be fully instructed in all the cleanliness, vedic study, vows, principles, sacrifice and service to the guru that belongs to the celibate state [the brahmacarya-âs'rama], was the brahmin, in that considering his son to be his life and soul, himself heavily attached to his home indeed so that, in the course of the in its turn not so forgetful time, he had to take leave of the world as a man frustrated by the unfit obstinacy of his son. (7) After that did the youngest wife, of whose womb the twins were born, entrust the care for them to the first wife and followed she her husband to where he resided in his afterlife [Patiloka].

(8) After the death of the father did Jada Bharata's stepbrothers, who of the three Vedas were well settled in finding their ways with the rituals and with their dulled minds did not understand how high he stood, stop the endeavor to teach their brother. (9-10) When he was addressed as being mad, dull, deaf and dumb by the two-legged, animal-like materialists, he used to use likewise words in reply as well. He did the things that he by force was summoned to do. He used to eat whatever small or large quantity of palatable or tasteless food that he got by begging, by wages or that came on its own accord. He never lived to please his senses as he had forever stopped to live for the material cause. By himself he had accomplished the transcendental blissful vision as one 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 did he, strong like a bull, never cover his body. 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, was he like a hidden gem in his spiritual splendor. He wandered around disrespected with ignorant folk calling him, as a brahmin of birth, a mere friend of them ['brahma-bandu']. (11) As he only looked for work to get in exchange food from others, did even his stepbrothers engage him in agricultural work in the fields - a job in which he had no idea of what should be leveled or be 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, was it nevertheless all nectar to him.

(12) Following, after a certain period of time, there came some plundering leader of the working class who was looking for a human son no better than an animal he could use to engage in a sacrifice to the goddess Bhadra Kâlî. (13) The animal-type he had, had by chance escaped and his followers on their way to find it could, in the midst of the night in the middle of the darkness, not catch the animalistic one. 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 such. (14) Finding out he had the right character did they next, with bright and shining faces understanding that they could help in the completion of their master's work, take him to the temple of the goddess, bound tightly with ropes. (15) Then did the followers of the dacoit, according their own customs bathe him, put him in new clothes, cover his body with ornaments, smear him with sandalwood pulp and garland him in making him, as the animal-like man, ready for the sacrifice. 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) Next did the priest of that dacoit leader, in preparation for offering a flow of blood from the animal-man to the deity of Bhadra Kâlî, take up a fearful razor-sharp sword, consecrating it with the appropriate mantras. (17) Thus was by those contemptible types, who, of a passionate and ignorant nature, materialistically bewildered were driven by minds full of imagination, the heroic association of the Supreme Lord, the brahmins, disrespected, in following a wrong course having taken their own way. Proceeding with a lust for violence against others they acted cruelly directly against a born brahmin, a son of spiritual wisdom who had no enemies and was a well-wisher to all. At the last minute though indeed, did the goddess Bhadra Kâlî, seeing what was about to happen in defiance of the law and against the will of the Lord, break out of her statue with a burning physical appearance of an overly bright, unbearable, spiritual effulgence. (18) Infuriated in utter intolerance she displayed her features of raised eyebrows, crooked teeth, bloodshot eyes, an agitated fearful face as if she wanted to destroy the whole universe and a frightening laugh. Of the great anger released, severed she, coming forth from the altar, with the same blade as they wanted to use, the heads from the bodies of all the sinful offenders and drank she together with her associates, the blood oozing from the necks as a very hot intoxicating beverage. Overwhelmed by all the intoxicating drinking played she, with her following loudly singing and dancing, then ball, using the heads for a sport.

(19) When one this way in envy indeed is in offense with the great, will one consequently for oneself get this as a result. (20) Oh, Vishnudatta ['protected by Vishnu'; Parîkchit], this is not a great wonder to the ones not perplexed who, of no enmity and of goodness to all, by the Supreme Lord of the invincible time who carries the best of all weapons [the Sudars'ana disc], directly are fully liberated from the very strong and tight knot in the heart of a false bodily concept of life. Even though threatened by decapitation, have those liberated souls and devotees who are of full surrender and who are protected at His lotus feet, nothing to fear and are they never upset by these kinds of moods of the Divinity.

S'rî S'uka said: 'After having given up his life in the body of a deer obtained Bharata, the most exalted devotee and most honored of all saintly kings, his last body as a brahmin so is said. As the male child of a twin brother and sister was he born from the second wife of some brahmin of the line of saint Angirâ who was endowed with the qualities 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.

S'rîla S'ukadeva Gosvâmî continued: My dear King, after giving up the body of a deer, Bharata Mahârâja took birth in a very pure brâhmana family. There was a brâhmana who belonged to the dynasty of Angirâ. He was fully qualified with brahminical qualifications. He could control his mind and senses, and he had studied the Vedic literatures and other subsidiary literatures. He was expert in giving charity, and he was always satisfied, tolerant, very gentle, learned and nonenvious. He was self-realized and engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. He remained always in a trance. He had nine equally qualified sons by his first wife, and by his second wife he begot twins--a brother and a sister, of which the male child was said to be the topmost devotee and foremost of saintly kings--Bharata Mahârâja. This, then, is the story of the birth he took after giving up the body of a deer. (Vedabase)

Text 3

Also in that birth by the special mercy of the Lord remembering his previous lives, was he, being greatly apprehensive not to fall down again, in association with his own kind always afraid of being obstructed on the path of devotional service and kept he his mind close to his soul by always thinking of the two lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, hearing and remembering the descriptions of the qualities which vanquish the bondage to fruitive labor; but to the local people he showed himself as being of a mad, dull and blind character [of which he is called Jada].

Due to his being especially gifted with the Lord's mercy, Bharata Mahârâja could remember the incidents of his past life. Although he received the body of a brâhmana, he was still very much afraid of his relatives and friends who were not devotees. He was always very cautious of such association because he feared that he would again fall down. Consequently he manifested himself before the public eye as a madman--dull, blind and deaf--so that others would not try to talk to him. In this way he saved himself from bad association. Within he was always thinking of the lotus feet of the Lord and chanting the Lord's glories, which save one from the bondage of fruitive action. In this way he saved himself from the onslaught of nondevotee associates. (Vedabase)

Text 4

His brahmin father who for sure affectionately felt obliged to his son, thought that he, as a father to a son, should teach him, even though against his will, that indeed the regulative principles should be followed, so that, until the end of his student life, he again, as one of the sacred thread, would practice the duties of cleanliness of the purification process as prescribed by the s'âstras.

The brâhmana father's mind was always filled with affection for his son, Jada Bharata [Bharata Mahârâja]. Therefore he was always attached to Jada Bharata. Because Jada Bharata was unfit to enter the grihastha-âs'rama, he simply executed the purificatory process up to the end of the brahmacarya-âs'rama. Although Jada Bharata was unwilling to accept his father's instructions, the brâhmana nonetheless instructed him in how to keep clean and how to wash, thinking that the son should be taught by the father. (Vedabase)

Text 5

But also before his father he acted as if he couldn't understand a thing of what was instructed. For four months during the summer wishing to teach him the vedic mantras including the Gâyatrî preceded by Omkâra, did he, despite of the full study of them, not succeed in having him completely mastering them.

Jada Bharata behaved before his father like a fool, despite his father's adequately instructing him in Vedic knowledge. He behaved in that way so that his father would know that he was unfit for instruction and would abandon the attempt to instruct him further. He would behave in a completely opposite way. Although instructed to wash his hands after evacuating, he would wash them before. Nonetheless, his father wanted to give him Vedic instructions during the spring and summer. He tried to teach him the Gâyatrî mantra along with omkâra and vyâhriti, but after four months, his father still was not successful in instructing him. (Vedabase)

Text 6

Thus thinking that his son, although he didn't like it, by himself should be fully instructed in all the cleanliness, vedic study, vows, principles, sacrifice and service to the guru that belongs to the celibate state [the brahmacarya-âs'rama], was the brahmin, in that considering his son to be his life and soul, himself heavily attached to his home indeed so that, in the course of the in its turn not so forgetful time, he had to take leave of the world as a man frustrated by the unfit obstinacy of his son.

The brâhmana father of Jada Bharata considered his son his heart and soul, and therefore he was very much attached to him. He thought it wise to educate his son properly, and being absorbed in this unsuccessful endeavor, he tried to teach his son the rules and regulations of brahmacarya--including the execution of the Vedic vows, cleanliness, study of the Vedas, the regulative methods, service to the spiritual master and the method of offering a fire sacrifice. He tried his best to teach his son in this way, but all his endeavors failed. In his heart he hoped that his son would be a learned scholar, but all his attempts were unsuccessful. Like everyone, this brâhmana was attached to his home, and he had forgotten that someday he would die. Death, however, was not forgetful. At the proper time, death appeared and took him away. (Vedabase)

Text 7

After that did the youngest wife, of whose womb the twins were born, entrust the care for them to the first wife and followed she her husband to where he resided in his afterlife [Patiloka].

Thereafter, the brâhmana's younger wife, after entrusting her twin children--the boy and girl--to the elder wife, departed for Patiloka, voluntarily dying with her husband. (Vedabase)

Text 8

After the death of the father did Jada Bharata's stepbrothers, who of the three Vedas were well settled in finding their ways with the rituals and with their dulled minds did not understand how high he stood, stop the endeavor to teach their brother.

After the father died, the nine stepbrothers of Jada Bharata, who considered Jada Bharata dull and brainless, abandoned the father's attempt to give Jada Bharata a complete education. The stepbrothers of Jada Bharata were learned in the three Vedas--the Rig Veda, Sâma Veda and Yajur Veda--which very much encourage fruitive activity. The nine brothers were not at all spiritually enlightened in devotional service to the Lord. Consequently they could not understand the highly exalted position of Jada Bharata. (Vedabase)

Text 9-10:

When he was addressed as being mad, dull, deaf and dumb by the two-legged, animal-like materialists, he used to use likewise words in reply as well. He did the things that he by force was summoned to do. He used to eat whatever small or large quantity of palatable or tasteless food that he got by begging, by wages or that came on its own accord. He never lived to please his senses as he had forever stopped to live for the material cause. By himself he had accomplished the transcendental blissful vision as one 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 did he, strong like a bull, never cover his body. 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, was he like a hidden gem in his spiritual splendor. He wandered around disrespected with ignorant folk calling him, as a brahmin of birth, a mere friend of them ['brahma-bandu'].

Degraded men are actually no better than animals. The only difference is that animals have four legs and such men have only two. These two-legged, animalistic men used to call Jada Bharata mad, dull, deaf and dumb. They mistreated him, and Jada Bharata behaved for them like a madman who was deaf, blind or dull. He did not protest or try to convince them that he was not so. If others wanted him to do something, he acted according to their desires. Whatever food he could acquire by begging or by wages, and whatever came of its own accord--be it a small quantity, palatable, stale or tasteless--he would accept and eat. He never ate anything for sense gratification because he was already liberated from the bodily conception, which induces one to accept palatable or unpalatable food. He was full in the transcendental consciousness of devotional service, and therefore he was unaffected by the dualities arising from the bodily conception. Actually his body was as strong as a bull's, and his limbs were very muscular. He didn't care for winter or summer, wind or rain, and he never covered his body at any time. He lay on the ground, and never smeared oil on his body or took a bath. Because his body was dirty, his spiritual effulgence and knowledge were covered, just as the splendor of a valuable gem is covered by dirt. He only wore a dirty loincloth and his sacred thread, which was blackish. Understanding that he was born in a brâhmana family, people would call him a brahma-bandhu and other names. Being thus insulted and neglected by materialistic people, he wandered here and there. (Vedabase)

Text 11

Because he only looked for work to obtain from others food in exchange, did even his stepbrothers engage him in agricultural work in the fields - a job in which he had no idea of what should be leveled or be 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, was it nevertheless all nectar to him.

Jada Bharata used to work only for food. His stepbrothers took advantage of this and engaged him in agricultural field work in exchange for some food, but actually he did not know how to work very well in the field. He did not know where to spread dirt or where to make the ground level or uneven. His brothers used to give him broken rice, oil cakes, the chaff of rice, worm-eaten grains and burned grains that had stuck to the pot, but he gladly accepted all this as if it were nectar. He did not hold any grudges and ate all this very gladly. (Vedabase)

Text 12

Following, after a certain period of time, there came some plundering leader of the working class who was looking for a human son no better than an animal he could use to engage in a sacrifice to the goddess Bhadra Kâlî.

At this time, being desirous of obtaining a son, a leader of dacoits who came from a s'udra family wanted to worship the goddess Bhadra Kâlî by offering her in sacrifice a dull man, who is considered no better than an animal. (Vedabase)

Text 13

The animal-type he had, had by chance escaped and his followers on their way to find it could, in the midst of the night in the middle of the darkness, not catch the animalistic one. 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 such.

The leader of the dacoits captured a man-animal for sacrifice, but he escaped, and the leader ordered his followers to find him. They ran in different directions but could not find him. Wandering here and there in the middle of the night, covered by dense darkness, they came to a paddy field where they saw the exalted son of the Angirâ family [Jada Bharata], who was sitting in an elevated place guarding the field against the attacks of deer and wild pigs. (Vedabase)

Text 14

Finding out he had the right character did they next, with bright and shining faces understanding that they could help in the completion of their master's work, take him to the temple of the goddess, bound tightly with ropes.

The followers and servants of the dacoit chief considered Jada Bharata to possess qualities quite suitable for a man-animal, and they decided that he was a perfect choice for sacrifice. Their faces bright with happiness, they bound him with ropes and brought him to the temple of the goddess Kâlî. (Vedabase)

Text 15

Then did the followers of the dacoit, according their own customs bathe him, put him in new clothes, cover his body with ornaments, smear him with sandalwood pulp and garland him in making him, as the animal-like man, ready for the sacrifice. 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.

After this, all the thieves, according to their imaginative ritual for killing animalistic men, bathed Jada Bharata, dressed him in new clothes, decorated him with ornaments befitting an animal, smeared his body with scented oils and decorated him with tilaka, sandalwood pulp and garlands. They fed him sumptuously and then brought him before the goddess Kâlî, offering her incense, lamps, garlands, parched grain, newly grown twigs, sprouts, fruits and flowers. In this way they worshiped the deity before killing the man-animal, and they vibrated songs and prayers and played drums and bugles. Jada Bharata was then made to sit down before the deity. (Vedabase)