After assuming the power as the King, subsequent to the Kurukshetra war,Dharmaputhra performed many a lot of yagnas, including Aswamedha yagna, and as part of the Aswamedha yagna, he organised Annadhnam in a very large scale.Everybody was in praise of Dharmaputhra, as hitherto neither such a large scale Annadhanam was arranged by anybody else nor the quantum and the magnitude was matchless and hence all were prasing him whole heartedly. It is not a big thing for the Pandavas, but performing the same with dedication and pleasing mind and vathsalyam is great.Though it {annadhanam} was a part of the aswamedha yagna,the pandavas performed the same not just for the sake of it, not as a routine duty, not that unless they indulge in annadhanam then only, they will be able to get the full result of the yagna,they organised and performed the annadhanam with utmost care and dedication and the whole world praised them whole heartedly. Lord Sri Krishna was little bit worried because of the over praising of the pandavas, as he suspected that it may lead to pride and if pride takes place, it will eat away the dharma.Keeping in mind the above aspects, Lord Sri Krishna worked out a plan to undermine the Pandavas for the Annadhanam.Not only to undermine the pandavas, but also to show to the world the greatness of performing such an act of pious [dharmam].With both the above purpose in mind, Lord Sri Krishna enacted a drama, as under
A good gathering was all praising Dharmaputhra for arranging the Annadhanam in such a grand manner.At that instance, instantly from nowhere, a typical Mongoose appeared in the midst of the gathering with special features.Exactly half of the portion of the entire body of the mongoose was glittering like gold.The mongoose visited the kitchen and put forth its entire body on the remnants of food articles found on the floor of the kitchen.Then, it exclaimed in an human voice, "why you people are praising for this small act of Annadhanam and yagna performed by Dharmaputhra.It will be in no way equal to the Dhanams and dharmams done by the poor unchavrithi brahmin of Kurukshethra". First thing was that the mongoose was glittering like gold, which was a special feature.Secondly, it spoke in human voice.Worst of all was that the subject matter that its comment over the Annadhanam performed by Dharmaputhra, who rules over the entire world as King of Kings and comparing it with the Dharmams performed by the unchavirithi brahmin of Kurukshethra was most astonishing thing.The people who have gathered there immediately questioned the Porqupine about its identity, who that unchavirthi brahmin was, what was the act of dharma performed by that brahmin and in what way the brahmin`s act was superior, etc.etc.The good old mongoose started narrating the story about the unchavrithi brahmin which happened long long ago in Kurukshethra.
A good gathering was all praising Dharmaputhra for arranging the Annadhanam in such a grand manner.At that instance, instantly from nowhere, a typical Mongoose appeared in the midst of the gathering with special features.Exactly half of the portion of the entire body of the mongoose was glittering like gold.The mongoose visited the kitchen and put forth its entire body on the remnants of food articles found on the floor of the kitchen.Then, it exclaimed in an human voice, "why you people are praising for this small act of Annadhanam and yagna performed by Dharmaputhra.It will be in no way equal to the Dhanams and dharmams done by the poor unchavrithi brahmin of Kurukshethra". First thing was that the mongoose was glittering like gold, which was a special feature.Secondly, it spoke in human voice.Worst of all was that the subject matter that its comment over the Annadhanam performed by Dharmaputhra, who rules over the entire world as King of Kings and comparing it with the Dharmams performed by the unchavirithi brahmin of Kurukshethra was most astonishing thing.The people who have gathered there immediately questioned the Porqupine about its identity, who that unchavirthi brahmin was, what was the act of dharma performed by that brahmin and in what way the brahmin`s act was superior, etc.etc.The good old mongoose started narrating the story about the unchavrithi brahmin which happened long long ago in Kurukshethra.
Once, there was a large scale famine in Kurukshethra. Even big landlords found it difficult to meet out their food requirements as the stock of good grains got depleted day by day. If that is the case, you can imagine the state of affairs of ordinary people, especially like the unchavrithi brahmin. The Brahmin had nothing to eat, but some old stock of wheat which were collected by him long ago from the fields, with lots of dust in it and it was also not in usable condition due to age.The family of the brahmin had churned that old wheat into flour and that was all available for them to eat and they had to pull on with whatever available then.The family consists of four people, the brahmin, his wife, his son and his daughter-in-law.The food, i.e. the wheat flour was sufficient for them only for one time in a day. They thought that they will share one handful each and eat it for the time being and pull on the day and for the next meal, even it was not available, let us pray and give up our life.Thus they sat and were about to eat. At that time, there entered an Athithi begging for alms.It so happened as if somebody was pulling their hands when they were about to eat. Every one in the family came forward instantaneously and offered their share of the meals -plain wheat flour -to the Athithi. Hospitality to be shown to the guest - Athithi devo bhava - is considered a social duty.There is a domestic duty also. Suppose in a family, there are four people , like in this case the Brahmin`s family, all are duty bound to carry out the social duty as well as the domestic duly and in this particular time, they preferred to be bound by the domestic duty. The Brahmin`s wife said that if the brahmin[husband] gives away his share of the meal to the athithi, then he may die of starvation and there will be no meaning for her to live without her husband and hence she came forward to offer her share of the meal to the athithi. Likewise, the son expressed that one`s parents are considered to be the living god - matha, pitha are equivalent to God Himself - and hence he cannot be a witness to the sufferings of his parents and hence he offered his share of the meal to the athithi. The son`s wife, i.e. the daughter-in-law of the brahmin also argued on the same lines as her mother-in-law and she offered her share of the meal to the athithi.
Generally speaking, in some such situations, one is inclined to get and partake anything that is coming on our way, but at the same time, one will think twice and go backwards when it comes to giving something to somebody. Whereas, the Brahmin`s family members were prepared to give up even their life for the sake of the Athithi.It is not that only big landlords or those who are rich alone can gift away and perform dhanams/dharmams, but even poor people like the brahmin`s family can also could be a good example when it comes to adhering the path of dharma It could be compared to that of what the famous king, Ranthidevan and his family had done and the sacrifice done by the poor brahmin`s family is extremely great.
At last the Brahmin silenced all the three family members stating that as the head of the family, he is duty bound to take care of the other family members and knowingly he should not allow them to starve and die under any circumstances and if he so does, he cannot be pardoned at all for the sin committed by him.Thus saying, he offered his share of the wheat flour - meal - to the athithi with great love and affection.The athithi - yachagar - ate it but expressed that his stomach is not full.Immediately the brahmin`s wife - pathni - offered her share.The athithi ate it, but still he wanted more.Then, the son of the brahmin without any anger or hatred, offered his share.After eating that also, the athithi expressed that if he could be offered more, he is ready to consume it also. Seeing the situation, lastly the daughter-in-law of the brahmin offered her share also to the athithi. After eating all the wheat flour offered as above by all the four family members,suddenly the Athithi disappeared and he was not to be found anywhere. Instantly it was raining flowers from above on them - pushpamari - Then, the Dharma Devethai Himself appeared in person and stated as follows: "Only to test you all, i only came in the guise of the Athithi and in that test, you have all won by your act of hospitality.I have never seen such a good hearted family anywhere and by offering your share of food to the athithi, you have all earned a permanent place in Deva Logam and reach the Devaloga happilly". Thus saying the Dharma devathai disappeared. At once a fully decorated Vimana appeared there and all the four family members of the brahmin got in that vimana and reached swargam.
Note: They reached swarga logam means that they died here, as all do and attained moksham. Like Sri Kuchelar, they did not reap wealth hereafter.Nor, they did offer the food to the Athithi, expecting that they will get blessed to go to the swargalogam.As a matter of routine, they showered hospitality to the athithi and that has earned them a place in swargalogam automatically.
After narrating the above story, the Mongoose continued to say what happened further.The Mongoose said that it was present physically at the Brahmin`s house when the above incident happened long ago in Kurukshethra. The Mongoose laid his body on the floor of the house, where some particles of the wheat flour have fallen and immediately that particular portion of its body became golden.[Even now, we comment on good and pious people as golden hearted men] After that the Mongoose thought that if such an act of hospitality/Dharma takes place in any other place like the one described above, it can go there and wished that the other portion of his body can also become gold, so that he can glitter with a full golden body. The Mongoose had been visiting lots of places wherever some such large scale Annadhanam took place but alas its wish could not be attained. The Mongoose said, keeping in mind that only, I also visited Kurukshethra where Dharmaputhra was doing Annadhanam, but here also i found no such thing has happened to my body and hence this Annadhanam can never be equal to the one done by the Brahmin`s family, thus saying the Mongoose went away.
Moral of the story: Dhanathil chirandathu Annadhanam. Even it amounts to give up our life, we should try to save another`s life by offering whatever we have. With Pranams to Kanchi Mahaswamigal.
Athreya Sethurama Sarma.R.
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