Thousands of years ego, In a beautiful forest near by a village there was a very serene place in that forest, where a small river used to flow. On the banks of the river was a huge tree giving shade to many. Under the tree Kaushika, a Vipra (a muni or a sage), was doing Tapas (Penance). At afternoons he used to go to village, seek Bhikshaatanam(alms) and divide the aahaaram(food) into four parts — 3/4 he would feed the needy and the remaining 1/4 he used to eat.
One day when he was meditating, a baka (crane) put its droppings on him. The sage got very angry and stared at the bird lifting his head. The baka got burnt just as he saw it with Krodham. That day as usual he went for bhikshaatana. He stood in front of one house and said “Bhavati! Bhikshaam Dehi”. On hearing this the Gruha-lakshmi went towards the kitchen to bring him some food. But at the same time, her Bharta (husband) came back after days work. On seeing him, she washed his feet with cool water, fanned air for him for sometime, gave him some aahaaram and made him sleep. After doing pati-seva like this, she came with some aahaaram for Kaushika. All this irritated Kaushika and he was extremetly angry was staring at the Pativrata as he saw her coming . Seeing this the Gruha-lakshmi said,
“Swaami! I am not the baka to get burnt. After Pati-seva-dharmam only there are other Dharmas for me”. Surprised, the muni replied “Oh pious lady! How did you come to know about the story that happened far off in the forest? Please do Gnyaana-bodha to me”. She replied “Muniishvara! Little away from here is Mithilaanagaram. There lives a Vyaadha who is a butcher and makes his living by selling meat. Approach him, he will tell you everything”.
Immediately the sage left for Mithila. He enquired about Dharmavyaada and reached his shop. Seeing different flesh of animals, fish, and poultry, for food , he stood away. Dharmavyaadha, seeing the Muni, went and did Yathaavidhi namaskaaram (prostrate)
and said “Muniishvara! Namaskaaram. Is the Pativrata who sent you to me doing well?” Kaushika was awe-struck to listen to these words of Dharmavyaadha. He thought “there that woman and here this person. Even after doing so much Tapas, Idont have so much power. May be because that woman was a Pativrata, she was able to know what happened in the forest. But how come this katuka (butcher), who lives selling flesh of animals, have Divya-drushti?” Seeing Kaushika thinking, Dharmavyaadha continued “Svaami! You cant tolerate this smell. Please come I will take you to my house and show you how I got all these divya-shaktis”. With great Vinayam, Dharmavyaadha took Kaushika to his house.
Just on entering his house, Dharmavyaadha did pranaamam to his Pita who was taking rest. After asking him Kushala-prashnas, he went to his Maata and did Yathaavidhi namaskaaram to her. He then did her seva. After this he told Kaushika “Svaami! This is the only thing that I do. Many ever Vratas, Japams, Tapas we do, if we dont do the seva of Maata-Pita, there will be no use. A Mother carries her shishu in her Garbham for 9 months, experiences prasava-vedana and then protects the shishu like how an eye-lid protects the eye. A Pita gives us this shariiram (body) to do paropakaaram and Daiva-praarthana. He experiences many difficulties in doing our poshana. Our very existence is because of them. How much ever seva we do to them, we will never to able to repay this runam.
I do seva of my Maata-Pita and so poshana of my Samsaaram. Thats all. Also I dont cheat people while selling maamsam. I dont expect obnormal returns and be happy with what I get. I never leave my Sva-dharmam of being a Vyaadha, neither do I take up Para-dharmam. I try to do poshana of people who come under my aashrayam and enquire their Yoga-kshemam. More important than all of these, one must have Samyamam. We must never have Raaga-dvesham. WIth Nirmala-chittam, we must always do Parameshvara-aaraadhana”. Listening to these Amruta-vaakyas of Dharmavyaadha, Kaushika went away and continued his Tapas, this time with a nishchala-manas.
