SATYAN
-13. A Difficult Solution

The next day, King Dharmaraja bid adieu to Bharadwaj but not before he spoke words of comfort to the latter.  “Let’s have trust in God!  Hopefully Vasudev’s visit with Sage Pradayumna would bear fruits.”  Bharadwaj only gave a faint smile and accompanied him to his chariot.  Shortly after the departure of Dharmaraja, Vasudev got ready to leave on his mission.  He, too, tried to give hope to his ruler, “Yesterday while you were conversing with King Dharmaraja, I was praying to Lord Krishna.  Something inside me gave the feeling that you will soon wed Chitralekha.”  He clasped the King’s hand and entered a chariot, which was arranged for his journey. 

After a couple of days ride, Vasudev reached the abode of Sage Pradayumna.  There was a big altar where a fire was burning faintly which indicated that a yagna had just been completed.  He asked his charioteer to wait outside and hurried to meet the sage.  As he entered his ashram, he found some youngsters of his age in ascetic robes standing in a row with pensive faces.  And there at the center stood a sage whose inelegant personality was enough for Vasudev to guess his identity. 

“Are you Sage Pradayumna?”  asked Vasudev with reverence. 

“Yes, I am!  Who are you?”  the sage queried. 

Vasudev immediately fell at his feet and introduced himself to be a loyal servant of King Bharadwaj.  Although Pradayumna was not too pleased to hear this, he handed over a silver pot he was holding in his hands to one of his disciples and helped Vasudev to his feet. 

“What brings you here?”  asked the sage.

“My lord, if you permit I want to tell you something in private.”  Vasudev requested. “These are only my disciples.  You can tell whatever you want in front of them.”   Pradayumna stressed.

“Please, O Sage.  I beg of you!  Please allow me to speak with you in privacy.”  Vasudev implored.

Finally, the sage agreed and the disciple who had taken over the silver pot returned it back to him and led the others out of the cottage. 

“Now tell me, Vasudev.  What’s your secret?”  the sage asked curiously.

“O Mahatma!  If you can recollect, after you had cursed my King, he and his father had requested you to take back the curse.  Through your spiritual powers you discovered that a youth, who under some strange circumstances, wanted to reform himself would liberate my King from the curse.”  As the sage nodded his head having a reminiscence of those events, Vasudev apprised him about all the happenings in his life.  Pradayumna was impressed to see the determination in Vasudev to lead a life of honesty.  When he learnt of the King’s predicament in getting married due to the curse, his face clearly showed that he was filled in with sympathy for Bharadwaj.  “…Please show me a way to pull my King out of this curse, O revered one.  I beg of you!  Believe me!  I can go to any extreme to liberate the King from the curse.” 

Pradayumna smiled at him, “You have come at an appropriate time, Vasudev.  Perhaps you may succeed in your mission!  But it is difficult!” 

“No matter how difficult it is, O Sage.  Please show me the way.”  Vasudev pleaded with the sage.

“As time passed by, although my anger against your ruler subsided, I had this strong desire in me to better my looks.  This thought troubled me that there may be many like your King who would be making fun of my appearance behind my back.  When I spoke with my guru in this regard, he was not too impressed.  He advised me to concentrate in providing proper education to my disciples and show them the proper path instead of devoting time for changing my appearance.  Since I am also very interested in the field of medicines he exhorted me to make more progress in exploring that field.  I did as per his bidding.  A few days ago, the renowned Sage Tejananda paid a visit to my abode.  He was immensely pleased to see the arrangements I made for his comfortable stay in the ashram.  Thus, before leaving he told me that it would be his pleasure if he could be of any help to me.  I decided to tell him about my desire of having a personable appearance, which I had suppressed in my heart all these years.  On hearing my wish, he told me that he could not help me directly in this regard for a person’s look is the will of God.  However, he asked me to perform a yagna and invoke the Goddess of Beauty.  Asserting that she would be able to help me in this regard, he took his leave.  Seeing that I had still not managed to overcome this desire from my mind, my guru allowed me to perform this yagna.  Just before you came, Vasudev, I met with success as the goddess of beauty emerged from the altar.  She handed me over this silver pot that would be a solution to my grievance!  Explaining it’s contents and significance, she said that this pot contained ‘amrit’ that would free the beneficiary from ailments, curse or any other defects from which he is currently suffering from.  While this ‘amrit’ would favour one person, it would also prove fatal for the other!  Explaining this factor, she said that the amrit should not be taken by the person who wants to benefit from it.  In fact, it has to be taken by some other person on his behalf!  In my case, someone else has to drink it so that it favours me. Before drinking it, the other person has to pray to the Almighty that my desire of having an elegant personality be fulfilled and drink it in one gulp.  Thereby, though my appearance would change for the better, my defect, which is my ill looks, would befall the person who has taken the ‘amrit’ on my behalf!  All my happiness of achieving this amrit drained away after learning about this condition.  After all, I did not want anyone to suffer for my sake.  I asked her as to what should be done if I do not want to take benefit of the amrit.  She conceived that once I decide that the amrit is needless for me it would not be of any use to me even if I change my mind later.  In such a case, my only option would be to offer it to someone else.  The goddess handed over this pot of amrit to me and disappeared leaving me in distress.  I decided that I will not use it for my benefit and pondered about my next move…..”

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