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Annadana by Unchavrtti Brahmana (उञ्छवृत्तिब्राह्मणः) (view source)
Revision as of 13:32, 26 June 2018
, 13:32, 26 June 2018adding content
Soon a celestial chariot appeared there. The brahmana, invited with great reverence by Dharma himself, took his place in the chariot along with his wife, son and daughter-in-law. And all of them ascended to the brahmaloka in great glory.
Soon a celestial chariot appeared there. The brahmana, invited with great reverence by Dharma himself, took his place in the chariot along with his wife, son and daughter-in-law. And all of them ascended to the brahmaloka in great glory.
Turning dust into gold
After narrating the story, the mongoose informs the gathering of the great in the asvamedhayajna of Yudhisthira that he himself witnessed the whole sequence of events from his hole in the ground nearby. He came out of the hole after the ascent of the brahmana with his family. The smell of the roasted and pounded grains offered by the brahmana family to their celestial guest entered his nostrils, the soil moistened with the water offered by the brahmana touched his body, and he came in contact with a few grains that had fallen from the hands of the generous hosts and the celestial guest. Such contact with that meagre, yet great, gift of anna turned the whole of his head and half of his torso to gold.
The mongoose goes on to say that since then he has been roving across the earth to find a place or occasion that would make the rest of his body golden. He has attended many yajfias and visited many a forest where the tapasvins perform their great austerities; but to no avail. He came, he says, to the yajna of Yudhisthira in great expectation. But his hopes have been belied. The grand annadana of Yudhisthira's asvamedha has failed to compare with the gift of one measure of roasted and pounded grain made by that austere brahmana of Kuruksetra.