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Bhagavatapurana 5.9

English (machine translation) 5.9

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5.9.1

Śrī Śuka said: / Then, to a certain foremost brahmin of the lineage of Aṅgiras, endowed with calm, self-restraint, austerity, personal recitation and teaching of the Veda, renunciation, contentment, forbearance, humility, learning, absence of envy, and the bliss of self-knowledge, there were born nine sons of his own like him in learning, character, conduct, beauty, and noble virtues; and a twin boy and girl were born to his younger wife.

5.9.2

The male child among them, they say, was that supreme Bhāgavata, the foremost of royal sages, Bharata, who, having cast off the deer's body, had attained brahminhood in his final body.

5.9.3

Even there, deeply frightened of association with his own kin, holding in his mind the pair of lotus feet of the Lord that destroy the bondage of karma through listening, remembering, and expounding His virtues, fearing an impediment to his self, and remembering the succession of his own past lives through the Lord's grace, he showed himself to the world in the guise of one who was mad, dull-witted, blind, and deaf.

5.9.4

The brahmin, whose mind was bound by affection for his son, performed for that son the purificatory rites up to the completion of studentship according to injunction; and having invested him with the sacred thread, he instructed him further in the rules of ritual action, such as purification and sipping water, even though these were unwanted by him, thinking: "A son must be disciplined by his father."

5.9.5

And he, for his part, acted as if improperly right in his father's presence. Wishing to teach him the Vedic mantras, [the father] made him study the three-footed Sāvitrī verse along with the sacred utterances, preceded by the praṇava and crowned with its closing formula, through the summer and spring months; yet, though studying it, he grasped it without its proper form.

5.9.6

Thus, with his mind engrossed in affection for his own son, stubbornly insisting, "He must be thoroughly disciplined," he instructed his son in the duties of a student—such as purification, study, vows, observances, and service to the teacher and the sacred fire—though he was unsuited for them. Failing to attain his desire, careless in his own home, he was carried off by heedless Time.

5.9.7

Then the younger brahmin wife, having entrusted the twins born of her womb to her co-wife, followed him in death and went to the world of her husband.

5.9.8

When the father had passed away, his brothers, ignorant of his greatness, their minds settled only in the threefold Vedic lore and not in the supreme knowledge, considered him dull-witted and ceased from their insistence on instructing their brother.

5.9.9

And when spoken to by vulgar, two-legged beasts as "madman," "idiot," "deaf," or "mute," he replied in words appropriate to such speech; and when made to work by the desire of others, he worked by forced labor or for wages. Whatever came to him by begging or by chance, whether little or much, delicious or wretched food, he ate it—never, however, for the sake of sensory pleasure—having attained the gain of his own self, which is the bliss of pure, self-evident experience from which all worldly causes have permanently ceased, and devoid of the bodily conceit caused by the dualities of pleasure and pain.

5.9.10

In cold, heat, wind, and rain, his limbs uncovered like a bull's, he was plump, with well-knit limbs; his brahminical splendor was unmanifest, like a great gem hidden by the dust of lying on bare ground, unmassaged and unbathed; his waist covered by a tattered cloth, and with a sacred thread heavily soiled with grime, he wandered about, despised by ignorant people under the label of "twice-born" or "a degraded brahmin."

5.9.11

When, seeking food from others as wages for work, he was appointed even by his own brothers to work in the fields, he did that as well, but did not know what was level, uneven, too little, or too much; and he ate like nectar broken grains, oil-cake, chaff, spoiled grain, and the crust at the bottom of the cooking pot.

5.9.12

Then once, a certain leader of Śūdras, desiring a child, intended to sacrifice a human victim to Bhadrakālī.

5.9.13

When that victim escaped by fate, his attendants ran about in search of his trail at the hour of midnight, shrouded in darkness; failing to find the victim, by sudden providence they saw the son of the foremost Aṅgiras protecting the fields from deer, wild boars, and other beasts, seated in the heroic posture.

5.9.14

Then, observing him to be endowed with flawless marks and considering their master's business accomplished, they bound him with a rope and led him to Caṇḍikā's temple, their faces blooming with joy.

5.9.15

Then the scoundrels bathed him according to their rite, dressed him in fresh cloth, adorned him with ornaments, unguents, garlands, and sectarian marks, gave him a meal, and—with the ritual of slaughter accompanied by offerings of incense, lamps, garlands, parched grain, tender shoots, sprouts, and fruits, and to the loud sound of songs, hymns of praise, mṛdaṅga drums, and small drums—seated that human victim before Bhadrakālī.

5.9.16

Then the priest of the Śūdra king, intending to worship the goddess Bhadrakālī with the blood-liquor of the human victim, took up a sword that had been consecrated with mantras, terrifyingly sharp.

5.9.17

Thus, seeing that most cruel act of those outcasts—whose nature was rajas and tamas, whose minds were haughty with the pride of wealth and passion, who roamed at will on wayward paths showing contempt for the heroic lineage of the Lord's portions, and who delighted in violence—namely, the attempted sacrifice, forbidden even at a slaughter-bench, of one who was realized in Brahman, the direct son of a brahmin sage, free from enmity, and a friend to all beings: the goddess Bhadrakālī herself suddenly burst forth [from the icon] with a form blazing intensely, unbearable with the radiance of Brahman.

5.9.18

Her face extremely terrifying with the haughty display of reddish eyes, curved fangs, and the branch-like furrowing of her eyebrows flashing in a rush of indignation and wrath, as if desiring to destroy this [world], she released a great mocking laugh with violent fury. Then, leaping up, with that very sword she severed the heads of those most sinful villains; and drinking the steaming-hot liquor of blood flowing from their throats together with her retinue, thoroughly intoxicated and overjoyed by that heavy drinking, she sang loudly and danced with her companions, playing as if with balls made of their heads.

5.9.19

In this very way, indeed, transgression through sorcery against exalted devotees recoils completely upon oneself.

5.9.20

Nor is this a great wonder, O Viṣṇudatta [Parīkṣit], that there was no agitation even when the severing of his own head was imminent for those whose tight knots of the heart regarding identification with the body and the like have been completely released; who are friends and the very self of all beings; who are free from enmity; who are protected in various ways by the vigilant Lord Himself with His excellent weapon, the unblinking disc [Sudarśana]; and who are Bhāgavatas and supreme ascetics who have taken shelter at His feet, where there is no fear from any quarter.

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