Arrival of residents of Ayodhya at the bank of River Gomti along with Sachidanand Swami.
Arrival of residents of Ayodhya at the bank of River Gomti along with Sachidanand Swami.
Suvrat said:-
Eager to have a Darshan of Krishna, all those people, moving quickly along the route, reached the (river) Gomati on the first day of the dark half of the month of Magha. 1.
Some greedy Brahmins there, carrying the surname Gugali, did not allow them to bathe (in the river) without paying money. 2.
Then the house-holder (pilgrims), Jayaram and others, took bath with reverence after paying money to them as they desired. 3.
Supposing that there could be no restrictions to bathe for a penniless fellow, they bathed without asking Sacchidanand (if he had any difficulty in that matter.) 4.
On reaching the (river) Gomati, one of the sages was walking very slowly, with his heart absorbed in Krishna, reminiscing the latter’s exploits there. 5.
‘O king, those greedy people surrounded the great penniless ascetic who was roaming about, unmindful of his physical existence, even as ravens surrounded a lump of (Sraddha) rice placed on the his path. 6.
Children, youth and old people were tugging at his clothes (for money), but he was not at all agitated. So they concluded that he was a pretender, or he was mad or he was under the spell of narcotics. 7.
Abandoning him to his fate, those residents of Ayodhya took their bath. On sighting them from far away, those greedy came towards them for taking Daksina. 8.
Unable to walk, the sage Sacchidanand then sat on the road; transmigrating the three states (namely, waking, sleeping and dreaming) he attained Samadhi and was absorbed in Brahman. 9.
Those residents of Ayodhya, after taking bath and paying Daksina to the priests, hurriedly came to him and saw him in that state. 10.
They understood in what state he was, since by that time they knew the nature of Samadhi and hence after thinking for a short time, they lifted and transported him to another place. 11.
Then Gopalaram said to his brother Nandaram, What else are we pilgrims to do (in this case)? 12.
Then Mancharam said to him, How can we take him along the route? How can we leave him and go? 13.
Therefore, we should stay only here; this is my opinion.” Then Gopalaram told him, “I know this holy man. 14.
He is prone to go into Samadhi; and he continues in it for a long time, may be for three, five or ten days. 15.
He may stay in Samadhi even for fifteen days; I know that there is no time limit for how long he remains in Samadhi. 16.
Then Nandaram said:-
We shall quickly finish our pilgrimage and return to this place after eight or nine days. 17.
Holy men have nothing to worry about at centers of pilgrimage since old sages have declared these to be their domiciles. 18.
Those remaining two (Gopalaram and Mancharam) heard his words and responded affirmatively, staying there for that day, they departed (for Dwarika) on the next day. 19.
Then after paying money, they underwent the ritual of tapta mudra dharana in a village called Aravana and from there, they proceeded to sankhoddhara, (a place) liked by Krishna. 20.
They paid their fees to the people residing at holy places and had a vision of the Lord of Dwarika and offered him worship as per their capacity. 21.
Performing all the rites related to the pilgrimage as per their capacity, they stayed there for five days. 22.
Thereafter, thinking day and night only of him in their hearts, those Brahmins from Ayodhya came to that sage lying (in Samadhi) on the banks of the Gomati. 23.
The sage Sacchidanand, however, rose on the very day those residents of Ayodhya had gone to Sankhodvara. 24.
On knowing that all those who accompanied him had left, he went to river Gomati to take his bath; but since he had no money, the Brahmins and others there did not allow him to bathe. 25.
When they came to understand that he was a follower of Narayan Muni, penniless and celibate, nobody offered him even food, out of hatred. 26.
Indifferent to the body and unattached to it by nature, that sage also did not beg anyone for food. 27.
He stood on the banks of the Gomati for three days without food, but even then those merciless people did not allow him to take bath there. 28.
‘O king, he understood that it was according to the will of God (that he was not to bathe there); without food and in the absence of anger, he reached Aravana. 29.
On seeing destitute people suffering from hunger and deserving of the ritual of Tapta mudra dharana there, he realized that the name of the place was Aarambhada means crying everywhere). 30.
He saw that there were some who were without food for two days; some others were on fast for five or six days. 31.
He saw there old people and children, crying and helpless, with their faces pale and stomachs thin with hunger. He also saw women with their stomachs sticking to their backs due to hunger, lying on the ground motionless. The only sign of life in them was their breathing. 32.
He saw there some Brahmins who were plundered on their way by thieves, whose bodies had become weak on account of hunger and Sadhus (holy men) who were undergoing the ritual of Tapta mudra dharana from those authorized to perform it. 33.
He also noticed that even those who had no such authority (to perform the ritual) were abusing and ill-treating those poor people who were unable to speak on account of hunger and swearing by (their children) for not receiving Tapta mudra dharana. 34.
That yogi trembled with pity when he saw certain Sadhus on the point of death; already burnt by the fire of hunger, they were being given Tapta mudrikas, as if it were a punishment to them for being penniless. 35.
Roaming about there, he went up to the man giving Tapta mudrikas and said to him, ‘O Krishna devotee, please place the holy imprint on me. 36.
Then somebody remarked laughing that ‘this bull should be branded today’ while others wondered from where cheats like that came. 37.
Then someone said to that holy man, ‘Pay the money and get the hot-imprint.’ To that, he replied people like him do not touch money and women. 38.
Then they said there were silver coins in his Joli (begging cloth); so he gave them his Joli, which they searched for money. 39.
On realizing there was no money in it, they threw it away. At that time, another person belonging to the same group said that there was money (hidden) in his loin cloth. 40.
(He said that) holy men probably kept their money in their loin cloth or in the locks of their hair and that he had recovered money in the past searching this way. 41.
When his loin-cloth was being pulled by them, that Sadhu said to them that (hiding money in it) was not possible in the case of the (followers) of Swaminarayan. 42.
On hearing the name of Swaminarayan, they remarked in anger that his master possessed rupees in hundreds of thousands. 43.
If it is desirable for you to have Tapta mudrika, go and bring enough money for it; we shall never give you a Tapta mudrika without securing the desired amount (from you) 44.
‘Go, go away from here immediately.’ Spoken to in this way, that great yogi went and sat on a platform. 45.
Confident that later they would give him a Tapta mudrika then or sometime later, he remained there. 46.
When he saw the cruelty of the people of that town, who were fleecing the piteously imploring poor, he understood that they were crueler than ferocious animals. 47.
He saw that only those who paid money got the Tapta mudra; and about then, he saw this miracle- 48.
An unknown person, with long and grey hair, his eyes terribly blood-shot because he had taken a preparation made of cannabis (bhang), his body black like a dark mountain, holding a drug made of opium and canopy (khankha) in his hand, came there. 49.
Shouting in a shrill voice, ‘Victory to Krishna’, wearing an iron chain and a rope of Munja (grass) around his waist with nothing but a loin-strip (kaupina) on his body, inspiring fear in the minds of children by his slanting glances, that bearded one fearlessly demanded the Brahmins to give him a Tapta mudra on that very day. 50.
The king’s men scolded him and asked him to go away. But that fearless one did not move at all. 51.
The king’s powerful men, their eyes red with anger, caught hold of him as he was stubbornly standing in the middle, obstructing the Brahmins performing the Tapta mudra dharana ritual. 52.
It was difficult to hold on to him because he was very strong; but they forcibly apprehended him and threw him out with blows of their fists and elbows. 53.
Though he was strong, he could defeat them because they were strong men; he said to them that he was a Sadhu, a renounce and one who never accepted anything from others. 54.
I have come here for a Tapta Mudra; why are you throwing me out? They said, ‘Pay the money and take the Tapta Mudra. 55.
He said further, ‘I don’t have any money; I have only an iron chain around my waist. 56.
At that time, one of the king’s men belonging to the same group pulled his locks of hair gently; from it fell a golden coin on the ground that very moment. 57.
Then those men along with others (raving madly) threw him on the ground and disheveled the locks of his hair, as the locks ran helter-skelter. 58.
Then from his locks fell four more gold coins, which those king’ men collected and later released him. 59.
That ascetic, fatally wounded by their thrashing, slowly trudged to his place without claiming back his coins. 60.
That sage (Sacchidanand) having seen all this, which he had unseen and unheard of before, concluded that receiving Tapta Mudras of Krishna’s weapons was possible only by paying money. 61.
Some of the Brahmins belonging to the group sarcastically remarked to him, ‘O holy man, there is no doubt that holy men possess money.’ 62.
Now that you have actually seen how these soldiers extracted money from a holy man, we are going to do the same to you. 63.
To that the holy man replied, ‘I do not have locks of hair on my head; my ragged bag is such old cloth that even a thief did not touch it. 64.
Only my Kaupina (loin-strip) twelve fingers long is new; if there is any money hidden in it, just take it now and give me (the Tapta Mudra). 65.
When replied so, those group of Brahmins went away laughing and jeering at him; fearless, he stood there thinking only of Hari, though he was starving. 66.
Unmindful of his own distress, he observed fast for three more days and then, unable to witness the suffering of others, went away from there to Sankhoddhara. 67.
‘O king, the Sadhus cannot come to see the suffering of others; therefore their heart, full of pity, as described in the Purans, melts like soft butter. 68.
Thus ends the twenty ninth chapter entitled ‘Extortion of the pilgrims by Dwarika Brahmins and the story of Saccidanand Muni’ in the fourth Prakaran of Satsangijivan, the life story of Lord Narayan, also titled as ‘Dharmashastra’ (the rules of the code of conduct). 29
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