Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 5 Chapter 9:9-16

Book 5: Chapter 9

Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 5: Chapter 9: Verses 9-16 Bharata reborn for a second time in a Brahmana family As for Bharata, when he was addressed as a lunatic, a dullard or a deaf fellow by the common people, the two-footed brutes, he spoke words befitting such a description and would do work as desired by others when compelled to do so. (Nay,) he would eat any food got through forced labour or by way of remuneration (for services done by him), by begging or without asking, no matter whether it was scanty or plentiful, tasteful or bad, but never for the gratification of his senses. For, having realized his oneness with the all-blissful Self-that is of the nature of absolute Consciousness, ever without cause and shining by Itself-he never identified himself with the body in joy or sorrow occasioned by pairs of opposites (such as honour and ignominy). He roamed about like a bull, bare-bodied alike in heat and cold, as well as in storm and rain, yet stout and muscular, with his spiritual glory concealed under ( a coating of) dirt that he had put on by lying down to sleep on the (bare) ground, and because of his never rubbing or washing his body-even like a precious jewel (whose splendour had been obscured by dust)-his loins covered by a dirty rag, and a still dirtier sacred thread on his person, and slighted by men who were ignorant of his worth by being (contemptuously) called a Dwija (a member of the twice-born classes), the son of a Brahmana ( a Brahmana in name only) and so on. When, however, he was seen seeking his morsel of food (livelihood) from others-through work done on wage, and was (accordingly) set to work at the field even by his brothers, he did the same. But he never cared to know whether the ground was level or uneven and whether he did more or less ( than what was required of him), and ate as ambrosia even broken rice, oil-cakes, husk, worm-eaten grains and the charred remains of boiled rice etc., sticking to the bottom of a cooking-pot andother such things. Now on a certain occasion a chieftain of the Sudras (thieves), desirous of an issue (a male child), proceeded to behead a human victim (as a sacrifice) to Goddess Bhadrakali. Pursuing at dead of night the tracks of the man intended to be sacrificed, who had providentially escaped, the servants of that chieftain were unable to find him out in that dark night and by chance saw Bharata (the son of a Brahmana who was foremost in the line of the sage Angira), busy guarding the fields against (the intrusion of) deer, boars etc., from a shed overlooking the fields. Finding him faultless in every limb and (thus) feeling assured that the purpose of their master would be accomplished, they bound the sage with a rope and took him to the shrine of Goddess Candika, their faces blooming with joy. Then the burglars washed him according to their own traditional usage, provided him with a new piece of cloth and graced him with jewels, sandal paste, a wreath of flowers, a sacred mark on the forehead and so on, and, when he had had his meal, they seated the human victim (with his head bent low) in front of Goddess Bhadrakali according to the standard rules of animal sacrifice, offering incense, light, a wreath of flowers, parched grains of paddy, young leaves, sprouts, fruits and sweets etc., (to the goddess) and loudly singing (devotional) songs and hymns and sounding clay and wooden tomtoms (as an accompaniment to their music). Then the thief officiating as a priest to the chieftain of the Sudras took up a most fearful and sharp-edged sword, that had been (duly) consecrated by pronouncing on it a Mantra sacred to Goddess Bhadrakali, with a view to sating Her with the inebriating blood of a human victim.