Rishi Lomasha narrated
the Pandava brothers about what happened at that place, during the age of Rama.
He showed them the place where Rama’s brother, Bharata had a holy dip to get cleansed
of sins if any committed by him. Earlier also, Indra, lord of Angels had taken
a holy dip here, to get rid of sin of killing Vrutra, a Brahmana. Aditi, wife
of sage Kashyapa performed tapas and bathed here to beget Bhagavan Vishun, born
as Vamana.
Yudhistira was advised by
Rishis to have bath here, after climbing the mountain to get rid of anger and
frustration, after his defeat in the game of dice, which he followed. Great men
of those ages believed that taking a
holy dip in running waer would wash off any sins committed by them knowingly
or otherwise.
Lomasha narrated the
story of Yavakrita, son of sage Bharadwaja, a great friend of Raibhya Muni. Raibhya
had two sons, Paravasu and Aravasu. Both had learnt Vedas at a very young age,
and were respected as scholars. However, Bharadwaj was not respected like his
friend as he was not very competent in Vedas.
Yavakrita, son of
Bharadwaja was hurt since his father was not respected like his friend Raibhya either
by common people or Kings of those times. He was very upset by this and decided to learn Vedas than being a wise
sage like his father. He practiced hard penance to pleae Indra Deva, head of Gods.
Indra was surprised to
see this young boy engaged in deep penance, torturing his slender body. He manifested
before him as asked: ‘ My dear boy! Why are you so much obsessed of Vedic
learning?” innocent Yavakrita replied: ‘
Oh Deva! I wish to become a great scholar, learning the veda Samhitas. I am
doing this penance only to get hold of Vedic lore, please bless me’.
Indra Deva smiled at him
and said: ‘ My dear young boy, go home and request a Guru to teach Vedas to you,
instead of this hard penance here’ you should not torture yourself for this’. Yavakrita
did not heed to even Indra’s sane advice. He further tortured his body by cutting his limbs to offer to Gods.
He continued tapas o the banks of Ganga.
One early morning,
Yavakrita saw an old man doing a strange thing. He was throwing handful of sand
to water! When he asked the old man he replied: ‘ You are too small to understand
this. I am building a dam across river Ganga by doing this, so that people can
easily cross this large river’. Is it not useful? He asked the boy.
Yavakrita laughed at his
foolishness. ‘Can you build a dam by throwing handful of water? It looks very
silly to me. Instead of doing this stupid task of throwing sand into this
mighty river, take some more useful work to help people.’ He said.
The old man smiled at him
and said: ‘ Oh foolish boy! My work is better than doing just rituals and tapas
instead of mastering Vedas studying under a Master! Yavakrita failed to know it was
Indra deva himself, who looked like the foolish old man throwing sands into
Ganga! He begged him to grant him a boon to learn Vedas. ‘ well, I grant you
the boon you seek: go back to your hermitage and study Vedas, by which you will
become lerned and respected by people around you’.
Yavakrita returned to his
Ashrama and became a scholar, after studying Vedas. He was so proud that by boon
of Indra, he has mastered Vedas. It was not due to his Guru’s teaching Vedas to
him’. His father Bharadwaja did not like his son’s pride. He thought, by
arrogance, the foolish boy might insult senior Rishis like Raibhya and others’.
He warned his so: ‘ Look God,s grant boons to fool them, like merchants sell
intoxicants for money, by consuming them people ruin themselves finally’. He have
several earlier examples of fools getting mislead by Gods.
Yavakrita did not take his
father seriously, due to his blind arrogance. Once, he had to run in fear after
practicing a certain Mantra by practicing it, he turned mad. His evil eyes fell
on his friend’s beautiful wife. Raibhya after knowing his sinful behaviour, plucked a hair from head and threw on
Yavakrita, which made him blind. Meanwhile, his friend killed him after
learning his sinful attitude to his dear wife, even Bharadwaja failed to save
his foolish and arrogant son.
Sage Bharadwaja said: Oh my son, you died of your own
pride and vanity. He knew his friend Raibhya had killed him. So saying he killed
him, and sighed: ‘Alas! People with no sons are blessed indeed, I lost my arrogant
son, and killed my friend also. Saying so, he cremated his son’s body and burnt
himself by throwing into funeral pyre.
Mere learning is not enough: it is very essential to control one’s anger and pride, better than just learning texts and feeling arrogant’; Mere learning might turnout dangerous.
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