Glorification of Gita Chapter VIII
Bhavasharma and the first line of this chapter
(Chapter 182, Padma Purana, Part-VIII)Shiva said:
O Parvati, listen. I shall tell you the greatness of the eighth chapter, by merely listening to which you will get great joy. A city named Amardaka is well-known in the southern country. There was a brahmana named Bhavasarman, the husband of a courtesan. He, very fierce, ate flesh, drank liquor, stole the wealth of the good, dallied with others' wives, had a strong desire for hunting, carried out his strong desire. Drinking the nectar-like juice of tali-fruit up to his throat (i.e. excessively), he was very much troubled by indigestion. The sinful one died (in due course) of time, and became a great tala tree. A couple turned into brahmana-ghosts, lived there resorting to its shadow, dense and very cold. (1-6)
The goddess said:
Tell me, O god, what was their caste? What was their nature? What was their profession? Due to what deed were they turned into brahmana-ghosts? (7)
Shiva said:
There was a brahmana, Kusivala by name, who knew the essential nature of the Vedas and Vedangas, who was proficient in all holy texts, and whose conduct was good. His wife, named Kumati, was of a wicked mind. He along with his wife, was very greedy and accepted great gifts like a buffalo, a Kalapurusa(?), horses etc., day after day; (but) he did not give (even) a chowrie to brahmanas. As time passed, the two evil spirits, of the form of brahmana-ghosts, with their bodies oppressed by hunger and thirst, roamed over this earth. They then rested after having come to the root of the palm tree. "How will this great agony of ours go away? When will there be freedom from this stock of brahmana-ghosts?" Thus asked by the brahmana female, the brahmana (male) spoke (to her): "How can we be free from this calamity without instruction in the knowledge of the supreme spirit, metaphysical consideration, and the knowledge of the manner in which a deed is done."
The wife said:
"O best man, what is that Brahman; what is metaphysics? What is an act?" (Coincidentally this matched exactly with the first line of Chapter 8, Srimadbhagavad Gita)
Listen to the wonder that took place, when his wife spoke this much. That tree listening to half a verse from the eighth chapter gave up its form of the palm-tree and became an excellent brahmana. With his mind suddenly shaken by knowledge, he was free from the garb of sins. The couple became free due to that greatness (of the Gita). (8-17)
When these words luckily went out of his mouth, then from the atmosphere an aeroplane appeared, which had small bells tinkling, which was auspicious, which was adorned with faces resembling the orb of the moon, of celestial damsels, which was crowded with bees hovering round the lotuses in the form of the faces of thc celestial nymphs, which was adorned with chowries white like the foam on the shore of the Milky Ocean being churned, and charming like the ripples of Ganga, lovely with the singing gandharvas, and with hundreds of young divine damsels dancing. The couple got into the divine aeroplane and went to heaven. The entire occurrence of this place was amazing. Then the wise one wrote this half verse carefully. He went to the city named Varanasi, giving salvation, seeking to propitiate Vishnu, god of gods. The generous-minded one started to practise a great penance there. In the meanwhile, (Laksmi) the daughter of the Milky Ocean, after joining her hands, asked Visnu, the lord of the world, and the god of gods: "How is it that you are wakeful after having abandoned sleep? Tell me". (18-25)
The lord said:
An intelligent brahmana named Bhavasarman, full of a flood of devotion, is seriously practising penance on the bank of Ganga at Kasi. With his senses controlled, he is muttering half the verse from the eighth chapter of the Gita. O goddess, due to that penance I am very much pleased. Thinking for a long time desiring to give a fruit like (i.e. suitable to) his penance, I am now wakeful (like this). (26-28)
Parvati said:
O lord, if Vishnu, though pleased, became thoughtful, what fruit did Bhavasarman, the devotee of Vishnu, get? (29)
Sri Mahadeva said:
Then that best brahmana, Bhavasarman, having received the grace of (Vishnu) the enemy of Mura, got endless happiness. Those born in his family who had formerly experienced torture, also obtained the (highest) position due to his acts. O you fawn-eyed one, I have told a little about the greatness of the eighth chapter. It should be always noted. (30-32)
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SUMMARY
Thereafter Lord Shiva asked Parvati to listen to the glories of the eighth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita.
A brahmana of the name Bhavasharma once lived in the important town Amardakapura. He had taken a prostitute as his wife, and he enjoyed meat-eating, intoxication, stealing, adultery and hunting. Once, after a bout of drinking wine, Bhavasharma contracted a serious disease, and after many days of suffering he died and attained the body of a date palm tree.
One day, two ghosts (Brahma-raksasa) took shelter beneath this palm tree after unceasingly wandering over the earth, hungry and thirsty by their activities in a previous life, they had attained these ghostly bodies. One of them had once been the brahmana Kusibala, who had been conversant with many branches of knowledge and had been learned in the Vedas. The other ghost had been his wife, Kumati. Kusibala and his evil-minded wife, both greedy, had been in the habit of collecting much charity daily without ever giving charity to other brahmanas. When they died they both became ghosts.
So while these two ghosts were resting under the palm tree, the one who had been the wife asked her former husband how to atone. He replied that by having knowledge of Brahman, the self and Fruitive activities this could be accomplished. Upon hearing this, his wife inquired, “What is Brahman? What is the self? What are fruitive activities?” Because she spoke in Sanskrit, she coincidentally chanted the first two lines of the eighth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita.
Upon hearing these lines, Bhavasharma became freed from his tree body and again attained the body of a sinless brahmana. And suddenly a spiritual airplane appeared to take the ghostly husband and wife back to Vaikuntha.Thereafter Bhavasharma wrote down the two lines from the Bhagavad-gita and he went to Kasipuri with the intention of worshiping Lord Krishna by performing great austerities and continuously chanting these two lines: kim tad brahma kim adhyatmam kim karma purushottama.
After some time, in Vaikuntha Lord Vishnu once unexpectedly arose from His rest. Lakshmi devi inquired with folded hands what had awakened Him. Lord Vishnu said. “My dear Lakshmi, in Kasipuri, on the bank of the river Ganges, My devotee is performing great austerities by continuously chanting half a verse of the eighth chapter of the Bhagavad-gita. For a long time I have been thinking how to reward his devotion.” Lord Shiva then told Parvati that Bhavasharma pleased Lord Vishnu so much that the Lord awarded him a place in Vaikuntha to engage eternally in the service of His lotus feet. Moreover, all his ancestors also attained the lotus feet of Lord Vishnu.
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Online Sources:
1a) Padma Purana, Uttarkhandam : West Bengal Public Library Network
1b) Padma Purana, Uttarkhandam : Digital Library of India
1c) Padma Purana, Uttarkhandam : Derived from 1a,b
Hard Copy Source: (scanned "PDF"s from Online Source#1a,b)
"The Padma-Purana (English)" by Veda Vyasa, 1954 & 1956. Translated by Sri N.A. Deshpande, Indian Translation Series of the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works, jointly sponsored by UNESCO & Government of India. Part VIII & IX, First Edition. 2906-2970p. Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt.Ltd., Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi-1110007. Printed by Jainendra Prakash Jain at Jainendra Press, A-45 Naraina Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi-110028.
Online References:
- http://www.bhagavad-gita.us
- http://www.gita-society.com/scriptures/GitaMahatmya.IGS.pdf
- http://www.iskconbangalore.org/gitamahatmya-introduction
- https://archive.org/details/puran_padam
संस्कृत श्लोक - Sanskrit Padmapuran-8
বাংলা অনুবাদ - Bengali Padmapuran-8
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বাংলা অনুবাদ - Bengali Padmapuran-8
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Typed, OCR-ed, edited and uploaded by rk
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