Vardaan 1...The Ultimate Boon

Chapter 3: The Real Mahapundit (Part 1)

The prophecy made by the monk for Krishna Chandra spread all around with the unwanted help of the neighbors.

Following the monk's suggestion, Beli Rama arranged a Satsang by placing a pandal (Tent) in the courtyard. There, Pundit Balkrishna started reciting religious stories from morning to noon and from noon to evening.

People from many nearby villages started coming to the 'religious Satsang'. Most people used to come to see the 'great man'.

There is a difference between Satsang and Religious Satsang.

Satsang means to be in the company of good as well as wise people. In ancient times people used to go to Satsang for brainstorming. Satsang was the trick to finding an appropriate solution to your big problem in very little time with the help of other good as well as wise people.

Religious Satsang means to tell and listen to religious stories in a group. The only purpose of religious Satsang is to tell religious stories to the maximum in less time. The people who came to the Satsang used to believe that God himself came in the Satsang.

It is very interesting to know how Satsang converts into Religious Satsang.

As people stopped asking questions to Pundits, they became blind followers of Pundits. If nobody asks you anything then why you will put your energy into finding answers? Just because of that, modern Pundits of old times stopped using their minds by asking basic questions to their aacharyas.

They kept learning mantras and religious rituals without asking about the purpose and benefits of many basic things.

In a life span when a simple Pundit performed many religious rituals successfully, people started calling him a great pundit. Many simple pundits turned into great pundits without knowing the exact purpose and special benefits of religious rituals.

The most important thing was pundits were not accountable for anything.

If someone dared to say, "Pundit ji, I am not getting benefits from the religious ritual that you performed." Then Pundit simply replied, "That matter is between you and God. I did what I could if God not giving you your desired results then either he is angry with you or your family persons were not honest during the religious ritual."

As people were blind followers of pundits they accepted their unknown mistake. Pundits kept giving them new remedies and people kept performing so until they got their desired results or sat down requoting the pundits, "My sins are pretty heavy. I was the biggest sinner in my past life. I will keep doing religious things so that I get the results of the good deeds of my current life in my next life."

This situation is such that the sinners of the previous birth have to suffer the sorrows of the previous birth in the current birth. These sorrows of previous births are not ending while the current birth has come to an end. That's why do so many good deeds in the remaining life that the results of the good deeds of the current life are found in the next life.

Here the thing to think is that you do not remember the truth of the past life, you cannot know the truth of the next life either. Whatever the pundits are telling you in this life is either related to the previous life or the next life. In such a situation, the responsibility of the pundits ended in this birth.

In such a way, the pundits started living an accountability-free life.

When Pundits were not accountable at all, the criteria to become a great pundit were so simple. One should perform as many religious rituals as he can in the smallest period and become a great pundit. Just like that many normal pundits became great pundits.

Thus a community of pundits was formed who were ignorant of the maximum important pieces of information.

When most of the great pundits did not even know the exact reason for performing most of the religious rituals and the exact reason for using most of the holy things used in Yagya was not known, then how would he know the exact meaning of Satsang and the exact reason for doing Satsang?

If Pundits did not know the true meaning of Satsang, then how could they tell to people? When Satsang organizers were unaware then ignorant common people couldn't join Satsang for genuine reasons. Thus Satsang became Religious Satsang for people as well as for Pundits.

In such a way, a great activity of brainstorming, discovered by the ancient Indians for easy and accurate solutions to problems, became a mere act of devotion.

The monk suggested the Religious Satsang to Beli Rama as he believed that during Religious Satsang God himself would come to Krishna Chandra and order him to do the next thing, either smadhee (Religious suicide) or renunciation.

So no real Satsang was practicing in the backyard of Beli Rama's house. The storyteller was telling stories and common people came to see the great man, because people had attended religious Satsang quite often, but the Great Man was a new creature for them.

'The Great Man' was the appellation that common people were using for the young aacharya.

People believed that just by the sight of the great man, their sins would be erased and, happiness, as well as prosperity, would come to their lives.

There was also a name Keshava Kumara among the devotees. He could not stop himself from the last meeting with his Gurudev. Calm-faced Keshava was proud to be the shishya of the great man. He was also sad to lose his great aacharya.

Krishna Chandra's mind did not support the prophecy of the monk, yet under the custom of obeying the elders, he accepted the prophecy as his destiny. Now he had nothing to do except wait. He sat in the corner of the pandal. He kept listening to the stories while looking down all the time.

He always looked silent as well as emotionless.

Krishna Chandra did not pay attention to anyone, whether the person was known to him or completely unknown to him. As he was no longer a normal young man for them, they looked strangely at him. To avoid staring eyes, he killed all his remained feelings by himself.

No feelings, no attachment, and no pain.