STORY OF BHUSHUNDA
PART ONE
[1]
Lord Shiva resides in the Kailaasa Mountain
He is the personification of
dispassion yet is the Supreme lover of his beloved Umaa and keeps her as the
one half of the body so he is never separated from her. Umaa is his
Rudra-Shakti, his power of destruction.
He has many attendants with
weird faces who serve him at all times with devotion. His other powers are
known as Mother Goddesses and worshipped by all Gods and humans.
These Mother Goddesses also
have weird forms. Many have hoofs as their faces and hoofs as their hands. Many
are camel faced and donkey faced.
They wear garlands of limbs
and dance in front of him. They have extreme powers and are controlled only by
Shiva their Master. They devour lives in all the fourteen worlds. They drink;
they dance; they eat flesh; they seek the cremation grounds.
Of all the Mother Goddesses
there are seven who are considered as above all. Their names are Jayaa,
Vijayaa, Jayanti, Aparaajitaa, Siddhaa, Raktaa, Aalambusaa, and Utpalaa.
Among these Goddesses
Aalambusaa had a huge crow named Chanda as her vehicle. Chanda was dark blue in
color and very strong. His bones were made of diamond. He served the Goddess
with devotion.
[2]
The Goddesses always had a
meeting now and then to exchange their experiences. In one such meeting they
all got together; drank blood and liquor; worshipped their deities and
discussed many topics.
They all voiced the same
opinion about their Master who always seemed to be more attentive to Umaa than
them. He never even glanced at them when Umaa was with him. Even Umaa did not
regard them with respect.
All the Mother Goddesses were
angry and felt humiliated. They decided to prove their powers to these lovers
and see that such humiliations never occurred again.
When Shiva was absorbed in
contemplation, they stole Uma from his body and took her away to their private
abode. Umaa felt helpless in front of them. She trembled in fear in front of
those weird powers.
The Goddesses sprinkled
magical waters over her and converted her into some delicious food that could
be partaken by Shiva. Umaa remained in the form of food yet kept contemplating
on her Lord’s form. She knew her lover would rescue her somehow. She waited
patiently for her Lord to take action.
The Goddesses were mad with
happiness for they had achieved the impossible. They had converted the beloved
of that arrogant Shiva to a consumable food. They will offer his own beloved to
him as food and he will eat her off. That would be an end of the love-story of
Shiva and Umaa.
They laughed violently. They
celebrated their success by consuming varieties of flesh and liquors. Blood
overflowed in their cups. They all danced wildly making the three worlds
tremble. They sucked blood through their hoofed faces with gurgling noise
echoing in all the three worlds.
They shrieked; screamed;
laughed; shouted; embraced each other; threw fire at each other’s faces; jumped
up and down; danced shaking their hips and bellies. It was a horrifying site. The
ignorant goddesses thought that their actions were unknown to the All-knower
Shiva.
As the Goddesses made merry,
their vehicles also took part in the merriment. The seven female swans of
Brahma and Chanda the crow also drank liquor to their heart’s content and
danced wildly in the sky. Overcome by passion the swans sought Chanda’s
company. The mighty Chanda satisfied them all one by one. The swans were
overjoyed. They all became pregnant and returned to their abode at Brahma Loka.
Meanwhile the Mother
Goddesses took Umaa in the form of food to Shiva and placed it in front of him
to be consumed. Who can cheat Shiva? Shiva looked at them all angrily. Before
he opened his third eye, the Goddesses fell at his feet and begged for
forgiveness. They apologized and recreated Umaa sacrificing each one of their
limbs. Umaa returned to the embrace of her beloved Lord.
The Mother Goddesses returned
home chastised and more aware of the powers of their Master.
[3]
The swans in Brahma Loka
being pregnant were unable to perform their regular duties. Braahmi their
Goddess told them to retire from their duties till they delivered the babies
and she absorbed herself in contemplation.
The swans happily rested in
the lotus petals of Brahma Loka. In course of time they delivered twenty one
eggs. One of them was Bhushunda.
All these twenty one brothers
were taught the Supreme knowledge by Goddess Braahmi and they were liberated.
Then they all went to their father Chanda in Goddess Aalambusaa’s abode. They
asked their father to suggest some place where they could live in solitude
absorbed in the Self-state without the disturbance of the world.
Chanda informed them that he
had built a nest of precious stones on the topmost edge of the southern branch
of the Kalpa tree on the peak of the golden Meru Mountain
All the twenty one brothers
flew to the Meru Mountain
PART TWO
[1]
Always mortals dream of
becoming immortal!
But how many are evolved
enough to hold on to it?
A man who is attached to his
limited space time boundary, or his family or friends can never digest the
bitter pill of immortality. Yes! Immortality can be a curse to a man with
limited outlooks. Unless you have the courage to stand alone looming gigantic
over the infinite space and time, unless you master the art of being happy in
your own self, you cannot enjoy the long long life.
And this immortality had been
achieved by many by getting rid of their limited identities.
Those who are absorbed in the
Self remain as Brahman the Supremacy and thus exist as the principle of
existence itself, blissful in Self-Knowledge.
But there were many unique
personalities who did not want to lose their limited identities and wanted to
continue their life as themselves enjoying a never ending life-experience. They
did not hold on to the limited world patterns for their happiness.
They were ready to renounce
all that was theirs in their world and walk out of the limited space time
boundary.
Leelaa wife of King Padma had
ascertained her eternity by becoming a student-companion of Jnapti. As long as
she wanted to ‘know’, there won’t be an end of her identity as Jnapti’s devoted
companion.
Aeindavas had decided that
Brahma’s position was the highest identity that could be achieved and had
become Brahmas or creators and existed in all the Kalpas in all the creations
of all the Brahmas.
Sages like Vasishta and
Vyaasa also were ever-liberated and by the power of knowledge they were in-born
with, they could maintain their identity through many Kalpas. They took on the
same characters and same forms and participated in the world-drama for the good
of all.
Trinities had no problem.
They could take on any form they preferred at any time any where and continue
their identity in many Kalpas. They always kept the love for their spouses
alive in their hearts and held on to their particular forms and personalities
in all the Kalpas. They were ever-liberated.
Bhushunda the crow also
wanted to live forever but as Bhushunda the crow only.
[2]
Bhushunda as any other
resident of Brahma Loka had attained the state of the Self. He was a liberated
being. When his life-span on the heaven got over, he would have merged in the
Nirvikalpa Brahman, the Unmanifest Supremacy and would have attained ‘Videha
Mukti’ (Bodiless liberation) like Shuka and other Sages who did not want to
remain in their limited identity.
But he did not want to fully
dissolve his Bhushunda characteristics.
He loved his crow-identity.
He was not a Supreme Godhead
nor had he the inborn knowledge like the great Sages. Yet he wanted to live
through many Kalpas.
He wanted to see what
happened in all the successive creations of the successive Brahmas. He did not
want to lose his identity of the crow also.
All his brothers attained
bodiless liberation after the death of their bodies.
But Bhushunda did not ever
want to die. He wanted to live forever as Bhushunda and as a non-participator
of world-dramas. He just wanted to watch; he did not want to act.
So he thought and thought and
found a way to outlive dissolutions and creations. He learnt to equalize the
Praana paths. He learnt to escape the fires and floods of dissolution through
many unique contemplative methods.
Even after his mountain and
tree dissolved at the end of the Kalpas, he learnt to conceive his own mountain
and tree and remained in his own mental place with his own group of crows
conceived by him. After all, nothing was absolute and real except Chit. Each
and every creation was a mental projection of Brahmaa.
Originally Bhushunda belonged
to some creation of some Brahmaa or some Brahmaa’s mental space. But he had
cleverly jumped out of it to have his identity in tact without the interference
of a Brahma.
He sat now comfortably in his
nest on the Kalpa tree conceived by himself and watched the creations unfolding
one after the other. Like humans like to sit and watch movies one after another
seated comfortably in the best of seats and with best of delicacies around,
Bhushunda watched the movies of creations, lolling in his gigantic nest on the
Kalpa tree.
He never swerved from the
Self state; yet lived as a crow.
He could have taken any form
and conceived any world as his abode. But he preferred to be a crow, humble and
noble. That is all.
His abode was his own mental
conception. No one could approach him there. No one could visit him. No one
knew even where his Kalpa tree was.
Only Sage Vasishta, the all
knower visited him piercing through his mental space and conversed with him. He
asked many questions to Bhushunda about his birth and his life. He allowed
Bhushunda to explain in his own simple words the unique Praana-control method
he followed. That Knowledge he passed on to Rama for the benefit of the whole
world when he was discoursing about Brahman in Dasharatha’s courtroom
[3]
Nobody
knows from how long Bhushunda has been living.
He
has outlived kings, gods, Brahmas, Trinities, creations.
He
has seen a variety of worlds of countless Brahmas.
He
has seen some Brahmas contemplating and dissolving into Para Brahman even
before starting their creation work.
He
has seen the same stories of demons and gods repeated over and over again in
many creations.
He
has seen sometimes Vishnu’s Avatars getting mixed up and rendered different in
some creations.
He
has seen ‘land-less creations’; ‘human-less creations’; ‘godless creations’.
He
has seen creations where only mountains were there; creations where only trees
were there; creations where only demons were there; creations where only bones
of demons were there.
He
has seen creations where Brahmins treated Gods as untouchables.
He
has seen pure void without creations also.
He
remembers every event of every creation he has witnessed.
He
knows everything about everybody as he stays in the comfort of the nest itself.
He
does not move out of his abode at all.
He
does not bother about the good or bad of the events of any creation.
He
does not interact with any one.
He
is happy in his own Self-state and enjoys watching creation-works.
He
does not trouble any one nor is he troubled by anyone.
He
has no attachments, no desires, no wants, no hatred, and no pride.
He
just keeps on living happily as the ‘Bhushunda crow’!
SALUTATIONS TO BHUSHUNDA THE
EVER-LIVING ONE!
NO END…
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