Beauty and the Beast

31

Narasimha, pleased with her penance, arrived at the banks. Unlike the regular aggression of the form, he seemed extremely pleased in that moment.

His beloved had done a penance. Not in desire to receive any kind of power or any kind of wish. She had him. What else would Mahalakshmi desire after she had Narayana himself?

"I am pleased by your penance, priye. Ask for a boon." Narasimha told her.

She joined her hands before. "I wish for you to be situated here exactly in the same form you have appeared here. Just as peacefully and absent in rage. I wish for you to stay here in the most peaceful form. Even though they know that you are the fire of dharma itself, they fear reaching you. Your teja is such that they cannot stand it. Even if the meaning of the deepa is to destroy darkness, jeevas always fear the fire in it and fear being burnt by the heat. Jeevas do not fear reaching Narayana because he seems peaceful and calm. There is no difference between you and Narayana yet, only on the difference of form, they fear you. You have come here only to help jeevas out of samsara but this fear of you is stopping them from just taking the one step towards you." She requested.

Narasimha looked extremely pleased. "I will reside on the banks of this river Pavana by the name of Pavana Narasimha. You will be called Amritavalli. Anyone who arrives here and surrenders to me will receive my protection. I will protect them from the fear of early death, sin, enemies, and samsara." He blessed.

He knew exactly why she had preferred that moment to bring such a form of his.

Narada, floating in the happiness of having darshana of Pavana Narasimha, travelled all the words and went on chanting greatness of Narasimha. Singing songs of his grandeur.

In the travel, he came across a poor man. He was extremely poorly kept. Dirt covered him. He was extremely thin. His bones could be traced. He struggled to even breath. There were several burns on his body.

Narada's heart reached out to the suffering man. He walked over to him.

"Excuse me..." He brought out his jala Patra to give him water and some food when he recognised the person. His eyes widened in shock. "Maharishi Bharadwaj?!!"

The sage struggled but recognised the voice. He couldn't even muster the energy to get up and offer respects to Narada.

Narada instantly helped the sage. "What is this state, Maharishi? You are a great sage. A measure of your greatness does not exist. How has such misfortune fallen on you? It pains me to see such a great man reduced to this low."

Maharishi Bharadwaj chuckled and coughed. "W...what is circumstances, Narada? It is a mere reflection of our actions. This samsara is a great game of snake and ladder. Punya offers you ladders and papa offers snake bites and sufferings. I am no different than all the jeevas in this samsara playing this game of snake and ladder. I have seen several ladders and now it is turn for snake bites."

"Maharishi, you are one of the Saptarishis. Such immense knowledge you have given to the world. You are not like the jeevas. They do not realize their own jeevatva and nor do they realise the antaryami Hari within them. You, who have truly realised the presence of Hari and have recognised him as the charioteer, do not deserve such suffering. Please tell me why has this befallen on you."

"A while ago a King came to my ashram and requested me to perform a yagya for him. I accepted it. I told him all the requirements. The King assured me of getting them ready. When the day of the yagya arrived, I reached the King's place. We began the yagya with the king and the queen. At the end of yagya, i was given great dakshina by the king. I humbly accepted it. With very pious hope, my wife suggested that we should arrange annadaana for people. I wholeheartedly agreed with her and we prepared for it. With great happiness we performed the annadaana. One man came and took the food home for his family. After the annadaana was done, we were returning when we saw a soldier beating the man who came to take food for his family. He was beating the man so badly that there was blood everywhere. The soldier took the food and threw it away. I instantly intervened and caused the soldier to stop. The soldier said, "swami, you are not aware of this man. Out of goodness you have given him food but the man does not deserve it." I disagreed with him and said that even if he is a sinner, there was no reason one should deny someone food. He again and again insisted that the man should not be extended such goodness. The man was let go at my instance. The man took this food and went to a land lord. He offered the land lord the food as prasada. A few hours later, the land lord was found dead with all his land given to this man. This man had poisoned the food that I provided and fed it to the landlord. This brahmana land lord who had lot of land donated to him by the king in return for the great advises given. This man had killed the land lord out of greed. I, without letting any explanation be received, forced the soldier to free the man. This man committed murder. Being the cause of such a great event, the sin of brahmahatya had caught me. Soon, rakshasas terrorized the lands where my ashram was located. They ravaged the forests and began to turn them into Naraka yatana for people. No yagya were allowed to take place. In one such raid, my ashrama was set to fire. I managed to get others to escape but myself got burnt. I tried to go to the river to soothe the burn but the waters moved back. They complained that the sin of brahmahatya would touch their pure waters and turn it black and make it polluted. Hence, here I am suffering. The sin of Brahmahatya was suffered by even Rudra himself. What am I before the great lord Rudra?" The sage explained everything to Narada.