Nithya Deva 6

 saktuprasthena vo nayam yajnastulyo naradhipah 

Yajnas of the Tapasvins 

At the end of Yudhisthira's asvamedhayajna — the great yajna during 

which mountains of grains and rivers of ghee were consumed, and 

kings and people from all over the world were served for days and 

months together —a mongoose gets up, lets off a fierce growl that 

thunders like lightning and makes the birds and animals tremble 

with fear, and then adopting a human voice says: 

saktuprasthena vo nayam yajnastulyo naradhipah 

unchavrttervaddnyasya kuruksetranivdsinah1 

O kings of the earth, this great yajna of yours has not yet 

equalled the one single measure of roasted grain given away 

by a generous resident of Kuruksetra, who himself used to 

live off the left-over grains painstakingly collected from harvested 

fields and marketplaces. 

And on being asked the reason for this unbelievable assertion, 

the mongoose begins to tell the story of the austere, but generous, 

brahmana of Kuruksetra. 

Story of the unchavrttibrdhmana 

Once upon a time in Kuruksetra, the land of dharma, the land 

that is always inhabited by those who know dharma, there lived a 

1 Maha asvamedhika 90.7, p. 6293. 

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brahmana. He obtained his livelihood by unchavrtti - by gathering 

the left-over grains from harvested fields and marketplaces. Like a 

pigeon, he would painstakingly collect his food grain by grain. And 

on such food did he nurture his whole family, comprising his wife, 

son and daughter-in-law. 

This brahmana family, though living the life of a worldly household 

was engaged in great austerities. They were pure in their 

thoughts and actions. They had subdued their worldly desires. Of 

the meagre food that they gathered, they ate only once in six mealtimes. 

And if for some reason they had no food when the sixth 

mealtime arrived, they would skip the next five and wait for the 

sixth again. 

And then it so happened that the land was visited upon by a terrible 

famine. The crops in the fields dried up. There were no grains 

to be collected from anywhere. The brahmana family, who lived off 

the left-over grains gathered afresh for every meal, of course had 

no stocks in their home. They were reduced to total destitution. 

The sixth mealtime arrived and passed again and again, but the 

brahmana family had nothing to eat. 

They remained without food for many weeks. Then, one hot 

summer afternoon, when the sun was emitting fire, the whole of 

the brahmana family went out in search of left-over grains. They 

were suffering greatly from the hunger and the heat, yet they kept 

searching for long to somehow find enough grains for their meagre 

meals. They returned empty-handed. They could not find even a 

single grain of food. 

They waited and somehow survived the next five mealtimes. And 

then they set out again in search of food. This time they were in 

luck. They were able to gather one measure of barley. They brought 

it home, roasted and pounded the grain, and prepared for their 

long-awaited meal. They performed the proper ablutions and made 

their offering to the fire. And, only then did they divide the roasted 

and pounded grain into four quarters and sit down to partake of 

that austere meal. 

But before they could begin eating, there appeared a twice-born 

guest on the door. Hungry though they were, the sight of a guest 

arriving at mealtime pleased them no end. They warmly welcomed 

him, enquired about his welfare, acquainted him of their own learn: 

ing and antecedents, and escorted him into their little mud-house. 

And the head of the family respectfully invited him to take a seat 

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and partake of his quarter of the roasted grain, assuring him that 

what was being offered had indeed been justly acquired. 

On being thus invited and assured of the justness of the offering, 

the guest ate the quarter measure of grains. But this could hardly 

satisfy his appetite. And when the host saw that the guest had remained 

hungry, he felt deeply worried. How could he let someone 

go away hungry from his door? 

Noticing the anxiety of her husband, the wife suggested that her 

quarter-share of grains might be offered to the guest. The husband 

remembered that his old wife had been suffering the pangs 

of hunger for many many days: lack of nourishment had extremely 

weakened her and she had been reduced to a mere skeleton. He, 

therefore, felt hesitant in accepting the suggestion of his wife. But 

the wife insisted, reminding him that she was an equal partner in his 

dharma and artha, his duties and his seekings. The brahmana then 

took her quarter-share of grains and respectfully offered it to the 

guest. The guest partook of this second quarter measure of grains, 

but even this did not fully satisfy his hunger. And the brahmana 

host was left worrying again. 

At this the son offered his quarter-share of grains to be given to 

the guest. The father was even more reluctant to accept this offer. 

For him, as he said, the son — even if fully grown up — remained a 

child. And how could he deprive a child of essential nourishment? 

But the son insisted, reminding him that the sons are sons because 

they help in preserving the dharma of man, and in any case a son 

is the man himself born again. The brahmana was pleased to find 

that the son had well learnt the ways of self-control and propriety. 

He took the quarter-share of his son and happily offered it to the 

guest. But, the guest was still hungry. 

Then it was the turn of the daughter-in-law to respectfully urge 

the father-in-law to accept her quarter-share of grains and offer it to 

the guest. The hesitation of the father-in-law in accepting this offer 

was perhaps the most extreme. The daughter-in-law was a mere 

child, who was suffering the pangs of hunger, and who had been 

entirely enfeebled by days and days of fasting. It was his duty, as he 

told her, to protect her in all respects. How could he deprive such a 

one—who was a child, a woman, a fasting person and an enfeebled 

one — of her meagre food? And after all she, as the daughter-in-law, 

was the font of love and affection for everyone in the family. 

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The father-in-law was indeed hesitant. But the daughter-in-law 

insisted, telling him that for her he as the elder of the house was 

both the teacher and the god. And her dharma, her earthly body, 

and the life that animated it, were all dependent on the service of 

the elders. She implored him not to deprive her of this honour. 

The father-in-law was greatly pleased. He profusely blessed her and 

took her quarter-share of grains to offer it to the guest. 

The guest was finally satisfied. And, the guest was Dharma himself, 

who had appeared in the human form to test the depth of the 

brahmana's commitment to dharma. The brahmana had proved 

himself. He and all his dependents had offered justly and painstakingly 

collected food to a guest, even as they themselves were almost 

dying of hunger. Even the gods in the heavens were struck with 

wonder at the tenacity with which the brahmana and his family 

held on to the dharma of annadana, to the discipline of satisfying 

the hungry before eating for oneself. 

Such selfless offering of food, as Dharma told him, was greater 

than all the gifts offered in several asvamedha- and rajasuya-yajnas. 

With the gift of that one measure of roasted and pounded grains, he 

had in fact conquered, for all times, the brahmaloka: saktuprasthena 

vijito brahmalokastvayaksayah? 

Soon a celestial chariot appeared there. The brahmana, invited 

with great reverence by Dharma himself, took his place in the chariot 

along with his wife, son and daughter-in-law. And all of them 

ascended to the brahmaloka in great glory. 

Turning dust into gold 

After narrating the story, the mongoose informs the gathering 

of the great in the asvamedhayajna of Yudhisthira that he himself 

witnessed the whole sequence of events from his hole in the ground 

nearby. He came out of the hole after the ascent of the brahmana 

with his family. The smell of the roasted and pounded grains offered 

by the brahmana family to their celestial guest entered his nostrils, 

the soil moistened with the water offered by the brahmana touched 

his body, and he came in contact with a few grains that had fallen 

from the hands of the generous hosts and the celestial guest. Such 

2 Maha asvamedhika 90.104, p. 6300. 

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TURNING DUST INTO GOLD 

contact with that meagre, yet great, gift of anna turned the whole 

of his head and half of his torso to gold. 

The mongoose goes on to say that since then he has been roving 

across the earth to find a place or occasion that would make 

the rest of his body golden. He has attended many yajfias and 

visited many a forest where the tapasvins perform their great austerities; 

but to no avail. He came, he says, to the yajna of Yudhisthira 

in great expectation. But his hopes have been belied. The grand 

annadana of Yudhisthira's asvamedha has failed to compare with 

the gift of one measure of roasted and pounded grain made by 

that austere brahmana of Kuruksetra. A few grains fallen from the 

hands of the giver and the receiver of that insignificant gift of food 

turned half his body golden, but the unending annadana and other 

gifts of the asvamedhayajha could not repeat that miracle. That is 

why, says the mongoose, he is convinced that this great asvamedha 

has not equalled the giving of that single measure of justly and 

painstakingly obtained grains: saktuprasthenayajno'yam sammito neti 

sarvaiha? 

The kings and the rich, of course, must keep performing great 

yajhas and distributing anna and other precious gifts. Such distribution 

of food and wealth is a part of their responsibilities as 

repositories of power and riches in society. It is for them to so organize 

the affairs of society that nobody is left in hunger or want. It is 

for them to organize great yajhas so that the wealth accumulated in 

the treasuries may begin to flow through the society again, and the 

diverse skills emerging amongst the people may find opportunities 

for concerted expression. 

Such formulation of the responsibility of the kings and the rich, 

especially of their responsibility to ensure eradication of hunger 

and destitution, is part of the essential doctrine of political organization 

in India and we shall explore it further in subsequent 

chapters. 

The responsibility for sharing of food is, however, placed much 

more widely in society. It is for everyone to share food with others 

before partaking of it oneself. This, according to the classical 

Indian texts, seems to be the basic precept of righteous living as 

a human being. We have discussed this precept to some extent in 

3 Maha asvamedhika 90.115, p. 6301. 

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the earlier chapters and we shall have occasion to discuss it further 

in the following. 

The story of the unchavrttibrahmana of Kuruksetra, however, 

seems to teach that the call of dharma goes beyond the responsibility 

of the kings to distribute and the householders to share 

what they have. Dharma may even require going hungry oneself to 

assuage the hunger of another. Distributing wealth accumulated 

in the treasuries and sharing the food before eating oneself are 

of course righteous acts, but these merely amount to performing 

one's assigned duty. All kings and ordinary householders must do 

it in order to remain within the discipline of dharma. But it is the 

giving away of the last morsel of food one has that conforms to 

dharma at its best. Kings who perform great yajhas and give away 

plentiful food and wealth, and householders who always feed others 

before eating for themselves, merely avoid incurring great sin; it is 

only those who feed others even when they themselves have nothing 

to eat who earn great virtue. The former are the upholders of 

the worldly order, they make the world move; the presence of the 

latter, however, turns even dust into gold. 

The story of the kapotadampati 

The Mahabharata records another touching story of a host giving 

up his all, in fact his very life, to satisfy the hunger of the guest. The 

host in this other story is a bird, a pigeon, and the guest a hunter 

who has earlier encaged the bird-wife of the pigeon. The story is in a 

way a premonition of the story that the mongoose tells towards the 

end of Yudhisthira's asvamedhayajna: the story of the brahmana 

who gathers his food grain by grain, like a pigeon, and gives up 

what he has gathered for the sake of a guest, putting his own life 

and the life of his entire family in jeopardy. 

The story of the self-sacrificing pigeon is told, in the apaddharma-

parvan of santiparvan, to Yudhisthira by Bhisma, who says that in 

earlier times it was told to Mucukunda by Parasurama, when the 

former had sought to know the dharma of looking after one who 

comes to the abode seeking protection. The story goes thus: 

Once upon a time in a great forest there roamed a terrible hunter. 

He was fearsome to look at. With red eyes on a dark body, dark like 

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THE KAPOTADAMPATI 

a black crow, huge thighs, small feet, broad face, and a wide chin: 

he looked like kala, the god of death himself. His cruelty knew 

no bounds. No gentle thought ever crossed his mind. Everyday he 

would set up his snare, catch birds of the forest in droves, kill them 

all, and sell them for their flesh. This was his daily routine. And 

he continued to ply his cruel trade day after day, for a long long 

time. 

One day, while he was going about his business of dispensing 

death in the forest, suddenly there arose a vicious storm. Mighty 

winds began to fell the trees, the sky was overcast with dense clouds, 

and the darkness was broken only by the occasional glow of lightning. 

Soon it began to rain. And in no time the whole earth was 

covered deep in water. 

The hunter almost fainted in that incessant rain and the sudden 

cold. He lost his way. And while moving around wildly without direction, 

he could not even make out the mounts and the ditches in 

the forest. Around him he saw droves of birds and herds of animals 

running around in great fright. 

Birds hid themselves in their nests, animals sought out the safety 

of dry high lands. But many perished in the rain and cold. The 

hunter was also half-dead with cold. He could neither stand, nor 

walk. In this state he saw a she-pigeon lying on the ground. Suffering 

from severe cold, she was unable to move or fly. The hunter too 

was in an equally helpless condition. But, even then, by sheer force 

of habit, he picked her up and consigned her to the cage. Used to 

living in sin, he could think of nothing better even in his hour of 

intense suffering. 

Then, all of a sudden, he saw a big tree. Its foliage was thick, dense 

and dark like a cloud. Numerous birds, seeking shade, shelter and 

fruit, had made it their home. It seemed as if the tree, like a saint, 

had taken form only for the purpose of serving others. As soon as 

the hunter saw that tree, the clouds began to break, and bright stars 

began to shine through. 

In the clear dark night lit by the shining stars, the hunter noticed 

that he had strayed far away from his home. And, he was still shivering 

with cold. Therefore, he made up his mind to spend the night 

under the tree. And invoking the gods of the tree for protection, 

he spread some leaves on the ground and lay down with a stone as 

his pillow. 

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YAJNAS OF THE TAPASVINS 

As luck would have it, there lived a beautiful spotted pigeon on 

that tree with all his relatives. His wife had been away in search of 

grain since the morning. She had not returned in the evening. And 

as the night fell, the pigeon began to worry about her. When the 

hunter reached the tree, the pigeon was crying for his dear wife, 

recalling her beauty and her unswerving faithfulness. He recalled 

the way she provided him constant companionship and unerring 

assistance in all difficult situations. And he wondered what kind of 

a place would his home be if his loving and caring wife were not 

there to enliven it with her pleasant speech? Would such a home 

be any different from the wild forest? 

His wife, ensnared in the hunter's cage, heard him wailing thus 

for her. And she felt greatly fulfilled. If her husband was so intensely 

pleased with her, there was nothing more that she wanted in the 

world. Forgetting her own woes, she could think only of protecting 

the dharma of her husband. And she advised him that he had a 

guest in the house, and it was his primary duty to look after him. 

He should therefore stop worrying about her and prepare to offer 

proper hospitality to the hunter. She even advised her husband 

that he had been blessed with sons and daughters, he had already 

fulfilled himself, and therefore he need not be constrained to protect 

his own body while arranging the necessary hospitality for the 

guest. 

The pigeon almost cried with pleasure on listening to the sage 

advice of his wife. And immediately, he offered himself and his 

house at the service of that cruel guest. He graciously welcomed 

the hunter, asked him to feel free as if he were in his own house, 

and lovingly enquired after his needs. The pigeon also reassured 

him that he, the hunter, had come to his house and even an enemy 

coming thus ought to be offered proper welcome. After all, a tree 

does not withdraw its shade from the one who comes to it with the 

intention of cutting it down: chettumapyagate chayam nopasarhharate 

drumah.^ 

The hunter, accepting the offer of hospitality from the pigeon 

requested him to find a way of saving him from the biting cold. 

The pigeon gathered a large heap of dry leaves, and then flew to 

the blacksmith to bring fire. Soon he had a big blaze going. The 

4 Maha santi 146.5, p. 4807. 

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THE KAPOTADAMPATl 

hunter luxuriously warmed himself up on the fire. He was relieved 

of the cold. And then he began to feel the pangs of hunger. 

There was of course no food accumulated in the nest of the 

host. He was a pigeon, who ate as he picked the grains. He had 

no occasion to put away any of the grains he picked for use at a 

later time. For once he felt unhappy about such livelihood of a 

pigeon. Of what use was this livelihood that left him with nothing 

for entertaining the guests at his door? 

But, whatever be the kind of livelihood assigned to him, he could 

hardly allow a guest to go hungry. He, therefore, thought for some 

time and, quickly making up his mind, gathered some more leaves 

and let the fire blaze high again. He told the hunter that he had 

no food to offer him, but requested him to accept his body instead. 

With this request and with the resolve to satiate the hunger of his 

guest, he went around the fire thrice and then dropped himself 

into the blaze. 

The hunter was shocked to the core of his being. He had seen the 

pigeon so gladly sacrificing himself to honour and satisfy a guest 

like him. He could no more bear to continue the life he had been 

leading till then. He quickly released the she-pigeon that he had 

encaged, and leaving behind everything ^ the stick, the torch, the 

snare and the cage —he set out on a great journey, that would lead 

to his death, with the resolve that he would follow the example of 

the pigeon and bring himself back to the life of dharma by incessant 

fasting and by undertaking great austerities. 

The she-pigeon, released from the cage, began to recall the 

happy times she had spent with her husband, and unable to bear 

the pain of separation, she too jumped into the fire. Soon she was 

united with her husband, and the two of them together ascended 

to the heavens in a celestial chariot, escorted by hundreds of crores 

of men of great virtue, each of whom was sitting in his own celestial 

chariot. 

The hunter, overcoming all temptations, entered a deep and 

inhospitable forest, full of thorny shrubs and savage beasts. Soon 

he was consumed by a great forest-fire, which cleansed him of all his 

sins; and thus he too found a distinguished abode in the heavens. 

Thus did the sage pigeon-couple serve their guest, and fulfilled the 

dharma of grhasthasrama. Their commitment to dharma was, of 

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YAJNAS OF THE TAPASVINS 

course, extraordinary. Through such commitment they not only 

earned a place for themselves in the heavens, but also brought a 

violent person, like the hunter, back to righteousness and opened 

the path of heavens for him. 

But in honouring and endeavouring to serve the guest who had 

come to their house, the pigeon and his wife were performing, 

though indeed with extraordinary rigour, what is known to be the 

ordinary dharma of a householder. Because, as the pigeon told the 

hunter: 

SKM^Rld 4>l4Hl(d«t^MIJld I 

^MFk) 3NTH>Ki^ fT: II 

aravapyucitam karyamatithyam grhamagate 

chettumapy agate chayam nopasarhharate drumah5 

Even if an enemy comes to the house, he ought to be offered 

all hospitality. After all a tree does not withdraw its shade 

from those who come to it with the intention of cutting it 

down. 

And further, he said: 

$KuIMdW <+><MHlfd«f f^JPerT: I 

wnms % %ra" ^tfrr ^ra*r i 

cR^TTFT =T^"TTf ^T^t"HTfrT^frT: II 

saranagatasya kartavyamatithyam hi prayatnatah 

pancayajnapravrttena grhasthena visesatah 

pancayajnamstu yo mohdnna karoti grhdsrame 

tasya nay am na caparo loko bhavati dharmatah6 

It is the duty of all to offer hospitality to the one who comes 

to their house. But it is the special duty of the grhastha, 

the householder, who is committed to the observance of 

pancamahayajha.. 

5 Maha /anti 146.5, p. 4807. 

6 Maha santi 146.6-7, p. 4807-8. 

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THE KAPOTADAMPATl 

The grhastha who is so immersed in ignorance that he fails 

to perform pahcamahayajna cannot rightfully obtain a dignified 

place, either in this world or in the world hereafter. 

A grhastha is indeed like a great tree that provides sustenance to 

all who seek his shelter. The discipline through which the grhastha 

fulfils this onerous responsibility is pancamahayajha, the details of 

which we shall explore in the next chapter. 

The pigeon, and the brahmana of Kuruksetra who had 

adopted the kapotavrtti —had taken to the livelihood of 

a pigeon — performed extraordinary pancamahayajha. In the 

following we describe the ordinary pancamahayajha of the ordinary 

grhastha. 

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