THE STORY OF PUNDARIKA From the book “Moral stories for
better tomorrow” by Dr. Puneet Chawla
Once upon a time, there lived a great worshipper of Lord
Krishna along with his wife. They produced a son named Pundarika who, however,
possessed all kinds of vyasanas (Bad habits). One day, he gets attracted to a
mere vaaraangana (an ordinary woman), for whom he deserts and drives away his
parents, abandons his wife and finally looses all his money and wealth as well.
The vaaraangana, whose love he believed was eternal, deserts him once he
becomes a pauper. Surrounded with the sorrow of being left by his beloved, he
walks into a forest and finally reaches a lonely hut which belonged to a great
sage named Kukkuta muni. There he observes some strange wonders happening
around him. He finds three extremely ugly looking old females, infected by
terrible diseases, cleaning the ashram. On finishing their errand, all three of
them would enter the hut and to his surprise, would get converted into three
extremely beautiful looking ladies, blessed with the brilliance and blaze of
the sun.
As a usual practice and out of his strong attraction for
women, Pundarika goes and holds the hand of one of them. Immediately, she turns
ugly like before. Out of displeasure and anger, the woman says to Pundarika,
‘it is because of people like you who take a dip everyday in our holy waters
that we get these ugly forms and have to bare with such dreadful diseases. We
three women that you see are the holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. Every
day we try to wash away the sins of people like you by cleaning the kutir (hut)
of Kukkuta muni and by having his darshan and get back our true eternal form.’
After this, she again goes to meet the holy sage, Kukkuta muni, and the trio
leaves the place.
Out of curiosity, Pundarika goes inside the hut to find
out what was happening therein. He sees nothing there- no jewels, no comforts,
but finds only a man who was completely engrossed in pressing the legs of his father.
The only other thing which was preoccupying that person’s mind, apart from his
duty, was the thought of Lord Shiva. He was none other than Kukkuta muni
himself. On seeing the muni Pundarika questions him about the woman but the
former, totally dedicated towards his service to his father, does not reply to
his queries. Out of pride and a feeling of dejection, not being able to bear
the rejection, Pundarika tries to kick the saint but instead falls to the
ground, losing both his legs. On hearing his deep cries, the muni attends to
him. Pundarika asks for forgiveness from the saint who immediately pardons him.
Pundarika realizes how unfair he had been towards his parents and repents for
all his past sins that he had committed in his present life on earth. He asks
the saint to show him the right path so that he could make up for his past
sins. The muni replies that only true service to his parents could fetch him
salvation and satisfaction and rid him off all his guilt. Immediately Pundarika
sets off in search of his parents whom he had driven away from the house. He
truly and whole-heartedly feels the repent for his mistakes and continues on
his journey in search of his parents.
Without worrying about food, clothing and shelter,
Pundarika walks through thorny paths and steep mountain slopes, until he falls
off a cliff and gets rescued by Lord Krishna himself. At every stage his heart
was only filled with the deep desire of serving his parents truly, until one
day he reaches the hut where his parents used to reside. He falls on their feet
and begs forgiveness from them and requests them to accept his selfless
service. His parents at once pardon him, on which Pundarika gets back both his
legs. From that day onwards, Pundarika got involved and busy in doing seva
(service) of his parents and remembering Lord Krishna in his mind.
One day, Lord Krishna comes to meet his devotee,
Pundarika. On seeing the Lord himself standing at his doorstep, to seek whom
even great saints spend their entire life doing deep meditation, Pundarika
feels highly elated, but since he was busy pressing his father’s feet, he does
not come up and greet the lord. Instead, he tells him that he could not
interrupt and stop his service to his father; he would come out to meet him
only after taking permission from his parents. Lord Krishna waits for some time
and then returns back to Indralok.
In the meanwhile when Pundarika’s father gets up and
enquires about what had happened, Pundarika updates him about the entire
episode and how Lord Krishna himself had come to their small little hut but,
unable to receive him, returns back to his world. Immediately Pundarika’s
father rushes out to receive the Lord but fails to find him there. He then asks
Pundarika to call Krishna, who appears at once on hearing the former’s call. He
blesses Pundarika, his wife and his parents with salvation and even stays
permanently at their house to bless his other devotees. Soon Pundarika’s house
becomes a well knownkshetram of Pandarpur. Till date, this kshetram (area) is
considered so ancient that the legs of the Pandarnath’s idol are half eroded
just by the touching of the devotees.
MORAL OF THE STORY
In the above story we see that only because of possessing
true love for his parents, Pundarika was so much loved by Lord Krishna who even
waited for him at his door step and immediately came when called by him. True
and selfless service towards one’s parents can fetch every happiness for an
individual; God does not like a person who goes against the words of his
parents either.
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