Post by Deleted on Dec 21, 2019 8:46:06 GMT 5.5
Excerpt From The Bhagavatha Purana
Once when Narada visited Krishna at Dvaraka, both went on aerial survey in the latter’s chariot and landed near a river. Ignoring Krishna’s advice, Narada went and drank the water to quench his thirst. At once Narada found himself turned into woman, and Krishna and his chariot were no longer there. After wandering a lot Narada arrived at an ashrama, just as a Rishi who was there was awakening from a samadhi.
Seeing this beautiful woman he readily assented to her request to be accept her as a disciple. In due course they were married and bore him sixty children. One day, the Rishi and all the children suddenly died, leaving the woman grief stricken. Alone and unable to complete the obsequies, and suddenly seized by hunger she looked around and saw a mango tree nearby laden with fruit.
Unable to reach the fruit, she piled the corpses on one another, climbed on the pile and retrieved one fruit. Just then a brahmana arrived her and admonished her for what she had done and directed her to go and have a purificatory bath first. Accordingly, she went to the river, and immersed herself in the water with the hand holding the fruit alone above the water so that it would not get wet. When the woman emerged from the water, Lo and Behold !, it was Narada restored to his old form, except for the hand that held the fruit, which, with its bangles remained a woman’s hand, simply because it had not been purified by the water. There on the bank, now stood the brahmana, now transformed as Krishna. Smiling, Krishna bid him immerse himself fully in the water. When he did that and then emerged, Narada was in his full normal form, with the mango turned into his Vina ! The Rishi you lived all this time, said Krishna, was Kalapurusha, the Deity of Time and your sixty children were the years that constitute the Sixty year cycle of time, that constitute our calendar on Earth. Could an allegory get more beautiful or imaginative than this ?
Once when Narada visited Krishna at Dvaraka, both went on aerial survey in the latter’s chariot and landed near a river. Ignoring Krishna’s advice, Narada went and drank the water to quench his thirst. At once Narada found himself turned into woman, and Krishna and his chariot were no longer there. After wandering a lot Narada arrived at an ashrama, just as a Rishi who was there was awakening from a samadhi.
Seeing this beautiful woman he readily assented to her request to be accept her as a disciple. In due course they were married and bore him sixty children. One day, the Rishi and all the children suddenly died, leaving the woman grief stricken. Alone and unable to complete the obsequies, and suddenly seized by hunger she looked around and saw a mango tree nearby laden with fruit.
Unable to reach the fruit, she piled the corpses on one another, climbed on the pile and retrieved one fruit. Just then a brahmana arrived her and admonished her for what she had done and directed her to go and have a purificatory bath first. Accordingly, she went to the river, and immersed herself in the water with the hand holding the fruit alone above the water so that it would not get wet. When the woman emerged from the water, Lo and Behold !, it was Narada restored to his old form, except for the hand that held the fruit, which, with its bangles remained a woman’s hand, simply because it had not been purified by the water. There on the bank, now stood the brahmana, now transformed as Krishna. Smiling, Krishna bid him immerse himself fully in the water. When he did that and then emerged, Narada was in his full normal form, with the mango turned into his Vina ! The Rishi you lived all this time, said Krishna, was Kalapurusha, the Deity of Time and your sixty children were the years that constitute the Sixty year cycle of time, that constitute our calendar on Earth. Could an allegory get more beautiful or imaginative than this ?