గురు బ్రహ్మ గురు ర్విష్ణుః గురు ర్దేవో మహేశ్వరః
గురు స్సాక్షాత్ప రబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః
శుక్లాంబరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం
ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే
శ్రుతిస్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం
నమామి భగవత్పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం
ఓం నమః శివాయ
It’s been a long while since I have posted something. The standard cliché “Been
busy” doesn’t hold any water J
One day Sage Narada visits the Pandavas after their marriage to Draupadi.
Vyaasa mahaamuni informs Pandavas to abide by what Narada maharshi says. So, after
the Pandavas perform the arghya paadya and aachamanam, they make him sit on the
highest possible throne.
Narada asks Draupadi to leave and ensures that only the Pandava brothers
are around and told them, “There have been multiple instances in the past where
close friends, brothers fought for the sake of women. This has led to the
destruction of many great men. While I know that you brothers have the highest and best possible virtues, its important to ensure
that you don’t fight amongst yourselves because of Draupadi.” He gives a full
description of the story of two rakshasas by names Sunda, upasunda. They were
close brothers who did great tapassu. The devatas and indra got scared and rushed
to Lord Brahma. Brahma said that he will take care of it and shows up in front
of the brothers.
Brahma asks them to seek boons. Of all their boons, Brahma rejects their
boon of “no death” and grants them the rest of the boons. These rakshasas start
carrying on heinous activities in the universe. The devatas once again reach
out to Lord Brahma who asks viswakarma to create an extremely beautiful woman –
Tilothama. She is instructed to get the asuras destroyed. She comes down to earth
and starts going around in the forests where Sunda Upasunda live.
As soon as they see her, each of them grabs a hand of her.
Both of them said, “Be my wife.”
Tilothama said, “I can marry only one of you.”
“Who would you want to marry?”
Tilothama responded, “I want you to fight with each other and I would marry
the winner.”
Both of them fought fiercely and killed each other.
Narrating the story, Narada wanted Pandavas to reach nd agreement with
respect to Draupadi. That’s when they took an oath on the following lines.
Draupadi would spend a year with each of the Pandavas. During that one
year, none of the other four brothers would visit the house where Draupadi stayed.
If that’s violated, then the brother(s) violating that would have to go on a
pilgrimage for one full year all alone. They have to spend that time like a
sanyasi.
Narada leaves and the Pandavas spend time happily. At one time a Brahmin
came running to the Pandavas saying that his cow had been stolen and that the
Calf has been crying continuously. Hearing this, Arjuna becomes very angry and
goes to the house where the arms are stationed. That’s where Dharmaraja was
staying with Draupadi. While Arjuna was aware of that and importantly that
would mean the violation of the oath, he still goes ahead and grabs his bow and
arrows and runs after the thieves. He finds them and the thieves fight with
Arjuna in which Arjuna kills the thieves and hands over the cow to the
Brahmana.
After that Arjuna goes to his elder brother and seeks his permission to
leave for Pilgrimage for having violated the oath they had taken collectively.
Dharmaraja said, “Killing a thief, who has stolen a cow, is equivalent to
performing Aswamedha yaaga. Removing the tears of a Brahmin is equivalent to performing
multiple other yagnas. So you have gained lot of Punya and so you don’t need to
go on this pilgrimage.”
Arjuna said, “Gaining punya doesn’t offset the sin that I have committed.
Both have their own separate channels. I still have to do praayaschitam for the
sin that I have committed. So, give me permission to go on my pilgrimage.”
Listening to this sound justification Dharmaraja could not contradict and
gives him permission to go on the pilgrimage.
Some times humans end up doing poojas or visiting temples or offering donations
in temples to offset the bad deeds that they do. But if we cause harm to some
one the good deeds would not erase those.
సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు
PS: There could be
typos and other mistakes in telugu and english, kindly pardon me with big
hearts.
