The Story Of Jadh Bharat And The Reality Of Life

The main goal of human life is to attain imperishable divinity, but man deviates from his ultimate goal due to lust, jealously, anger, greed and attachment and take birth many times and dies.

In the seventh chapter of the fifth wing of the holy Epic Srimad Bhagwat, the story of Bharat, the sole devotee of Lord Vishnu is narrated who, despite being the possessor of salvation was trapped in the fascination of a deer in the last moments of his life and put his mind in it. As a result, he obtained the birth of a deer in his next life.

Due to the memory of the divine, while living as a deer, he got the birth of a human again in the next life and became famous as (foolish) jadh Bharata and in the same birth, he attained salvation by meditating at the feet of Lord Vishnu.

Introduction to Bharat

In ancient times there was a great and visionary king, Priyavrat, reigned. He had a son named Agnidra. He was a great ruler like his father. The son of king Agnidra was Nabhi. He was an ultimate devotee of Lord Vishnu.

Lord Vishnu

Pleased with the sacrificial fire of king Nabhi, Lord Vishnu had incarnated as Lord Rishabhdev. Bharat was the eldest son of Rishabhdev. He was having the same unique qualities as his father. His mother's name was Devi Sumangala.

The childhood of Bharat was spent in the proximity of his father. He was an exclusive devotee of Lord Vishnu, similar to his father. He was very humble and always looked forward to serve his countrymen.

Bharat was married to Devi Panchgani, the daughter of king vishvavasu. Devi Panchgani gave birth to his five children. Lord Rishbhadev coronated Bharat considering him worthy ruler of the kingdom and went to the forest for the devotion of God.

King Bharat

King Bharat was a worthy ruler. He did many things for the benefit of his countrymen. He had done many sacrificial fires and offered the entire blessings of sacrificial fires to Lord Vishnu. His countrymen were very satisfied with him.

Renunciation Of The Kingdom By Bharat

The five sons of King Bharat were equally modest like him. In time, king Bharat divided his kingdom into five parts and gave it to his sons and went to the forest for the devotion of Lord Vishnu.

He chose the Harihar region for the penance which was a divine place situated near the river Chakra (Gandhaki). In the secluded place of that region, Bharat used to meditate on Lord Vishnu. He had abandoned all infatuation and passion from his mind. He used to see the divine form of Lord Vishnu in his mind every day.

Rajrishi Bharat worshiping Lord Vishnu

Fascination Towards A Deer

One day, Rajrishi Bharat was absorbed in the worship on the banks of the River Gandhaki. At the same time, a pregnant deer escaped from a lion🦁 appeared there. She was so distraught that her womb fell into the same river from lions roar and she fled from there to save her life. Rajarshi Bharat protected that cub and kept it with him.

Saving the infant cub

He started caring for him. Gradually, his fascination with the cub began to grow. He always stayed with him and protected him from other wild animals. Bharat's fascination with that cub increased to such an extent that he would worry about him all the time.

Sage Bharat getting attached to the deer

Bharat's routine deeds were being missed. He only kept on thinking about the deer by not worshipping God. Even after his last time came closer, he kept on his mind in that cub. At the end like an ordinary man, Bharat abandoned his body while worrying about the deer cub.

Sage Bharat renouncing his body in the fascination of deer

Thinking about the Deer cub while dying, Bharat received the birth of a Deer in his next life but the memories of the previous birth remained with him. Bharata was extremely remorseful in this birth and used to think that he lost the opportunity to attain salvation by falling in vain in the fascination of deer.

Bharat as a deer

He lived apart from a herd of deer and used to worship Lord's in his mind. He built his place of residence near the ashram of sage Pulah on the banks of river Gandhaki. He observes the activities of sages in the ashram and continues to follow the path of Lord Vishnu as a deer.

Reincarnation Of Deer As A Brahmin

Gradually, the time went on and after a few years, the deer gave up his lives on the bank of the river Gandhaki. Like a deer, when Bharat relinquished his body, he was thinking of the decent Brahmin clan, so he was born as the son of the Brahmin of the Angira clan. His father named him Bharat.

The memories of his previous births remained with him so he used to stay in solitude and worshipped Lord Vishnu. He was afraid of the infatuation so he lived alone. His father made many efforts to get him to study the Vedas, but his mind did not seem to be in them. People understood him to be rooted in intellect and foolish, but it did not affect him. Gradually, he became famous as jadh (foolish) Bharat.

Getting The Blessings Of Goddess Kali

Once Jadh Bharat was put on the field by his brothers. Finding him alone, some robbers kidnapped him and brought him to the Kali temple. Those robbers wanted to sacrifice Jadh Bharat to Goddess Kali.

The sacrifice of a theologian was not acceptable to Goddess Kali. No sonnet one robber took the sword to slaughter Jadh Bharat, Goddess Kali appeared there and in anger, she slaughtered all the robbers. Then Goddess Kali intermediate from there by giving many blessings to jadh Bharat.

Goddess Kali

Conveying Enlightenment To King Rahugan

Once Sindu King Rahugan was going to meet Sage Kapil to attain enlightenment. He was sitting in a palanquin and four people had lifted the palanquin. Somehow, One person was not feeling well to lift the palanquin. They need a person to lift it. They saw Jadh Bharat sitting in the fields and told him to lift the palanquin.

Bharat lifted the palanquin with the people but his feet could not fell on the ants running on the Earth, so he was walking carefully and not coordinating with the people. By his slow walk, King Rahugan and the people behaved very badly with him. but he ignored all these things and walked in the same way.

Jadh Bharat is lifting the palanquin

Due to the slow movement of Bharat, king Rahugan mocked, you look fat and stiff but you could not lift the weight of the palanquin. I punish you right now. Bharat reacted, "I am not fat and stiff and according to deeds, the body I have attained is fat and stiff. There is no distinction between us. You, me and the people present here are the part of that divine, being as a soul.

So we all are the same. We all work under the principles of Satv, Raj, and Tama, and even after being part of one God, we take births in different bodies to get the results of our deeds.

After hearing such words from Jadh Bharat, king Rahugan got down from the palanquin and fell on the feet of him. Jadh Bharat gave him many sermons related to the soul and the supreme soul and calmed his curiosity.

Preaching sermons to King Rahugan

Clearing The Doubts Of King Rahugan

Jadh Bharat also gave some examples to redress the doubts of King Rahugan. He spoke "O king, a businessman goes to another country to do business....He has a lot of money earned by him to do business. When he emerges from a forest, six thieves follow him and rob all his wealth.

Telling the story of a businessman

Somehow he escapes from the thieves and when he goes forward terrified, his foot gets stuck with a bush and he falls face down on a tree and gets stuck in it.... He becomes more distracted when he sees that a white and a black rat are constantly biting that tree and a giant snake is sitting down to devour him.

The terrified trader gets very distracted to know his death near him, but due to the hive of bees in that tree, a few drops of honey fall on his mouth, then he forgets his anguish and becomes very cool in drinking honey. After some time, the two rats cut off the tree, He falls and the venomous snake devours him.

Similarly, a soul is born on the Earth in human form, He gets a human birth only due to the virtuous deeds done in his previous lives which he should devout himself to God only, but when he comes into the world cycle, six thieves like Lust, Anger, Jealously, Greed and Attachment along with his Mind follow behind him and take away all his virtues.

Fascinated by the illusion of the world, when that person reaches the last stage of his life in old age, even then, his mind remains entangled in these five vices and he does not even realize that the time of death is near... . The mice of day and night are constantly biting his life cycle and the snake of death is ready to devour him.

Nevertheless, the person becomes so entangled in the fascination of his family, son and grandson that he forgets the real goal of his life and dies in due time and achieves miserable life in his next birth. Therefore, a person should subdue his mind and concentrate on the worship of God."

The doubts of King Rahugan were cleared by listening to the divine voice of the Jadh Bharat and he went to the penance of God to attain enlightenment.

Sage Shukdev says, "O Prikshit in due time Jadh Bharat meditated at the feet of Lord Vishnu and left his body through yoga practice and attained salvation.

The character of Bharat is extremely benevolent and has divine qualities and is going to increase age and wealth. By reciting his character, a person gets fame in this world and finally attains heaven and salvation".

।। OM NAMO NARAYANA।।

🙏🙏🙏