THE STORY OF BHARTARI’S BIRTH

The divine vision of Urvashi aroused Lord Sun’s power of creation. A part of it fell in the pot kept in Lomash Rishi’s ashram* and from that was born Agatya. The other part fell in a bhartari* kept in the porch of Kaulik Rishi’s ashram. He preserved that part of Lord Sun’s illumination in the same bhartari till the onset of Kali Yuga. And when it did, he shifted that bhartari in a cave on the Mandar Mountain. At that place the honeybees constructed a hive. Drumil Rishi entered that bhartari in the form of life. And that baby came out of the cave in sometime. He fell on the grazing field and started crying. A doe came there grazing and gave birth to two fawns. It felt that this child is also her own. The doe gave its udder in his mouth and taught him to drink milk. It nurtured that child and that is how he learnt the language of animals. Even he started walking behind exactly like the doe on four legs.

Later a couple, Jaisingh and Renuka when passing by in the jungle saw this human child. They were marveled looking at this child’s illumination and his walk like a deer. “He is for sure a human child! We should search for his mother and hand him over to her” thought Jaisingh. He went running to the child and picked him up. He started speaking to the child. But the child only kept bleating like a deer. Even the doe started making piteous bellows. Jaisingh was a Bhaat*. He decided to take the boy to his place where he was staying and they started walking hurriedly. The doe followed them for a long distance making piteous bellows but the poor being had to return from the jungle’s border.

The boy started growing up at Jaisingh’s house. They searched a lot for his mother but couldn’t find her. How could they locate his mother who didn’t exist in reality! The boy gradually learnt to stand on his feet and words of human language. They both started nurturing him, considering their own child.

Later one day they decided to visit Kashi to worship Lord Vishwanath. Accordingly they reached Kashi. They entered the Vishwanath temple along with that boy. Standing inside the shrine they joined hands and hailed, “Om Namah Shivay! Shambho! Jai Vishweshwar!” And a miracle happened! From the Shivalinga* came a loving and deep voice, “Welcome Bhartarinath*! DrumilNarayana, finally you descended in the Bhulok*!” Jaisingh and Renuka stood aghast! “This boy seems to be an incarnation! Lord Vishwanath himself called him Bhartari so we will give him the same name” they decided.

Jaisingh nurtured the boy as much as possible with utmost love and care. Days passed by and Bhartari turned sixteen years old. They had stayed in Kashi for all these years. On the way back to their village, a few thugs caught them. They robbed all their wealth and ran away after killing them. Bhartari had been somewhere away from them and so he was saved. He felt extreme grief at the death of his guardian parents. When he was crying a group of Vanjari* merchants were moving towards Avanti City with huge security. As they saw the boy crying, they came and consoled him. They thought, “This boy seems to be radiant and brilliant; he will be of use to us” and so took him along. Soon he became everyone’s beloved due to his characteristics. Those people did business in many villages and gathering a lot of mercantile moved towards Avanti city.

Fruition: The recitation of this chapter will destroy the sin of last birth’s infanticide and own children will live a happy life.

*Ashram – Spiritual Hermitage; Bhaat – A Tribe; Bhartari - The vessel for receiving alms; Bhartarinath – Since he was born in a Bhartari he was named Bhartarinath; Shivalinga – A representation of the Hindu deity Shiva used for worship in temples; Bhulok – One of the seven heavens; Vanjari - Tribes of India who were in the past engaged in carrying grain and supplies for armies, before the time of cart-roads and railways.