THE SEEDS OF UPHEAVAL
-11. A Remorseful Brother

Dhurjaya expounded, “Brother, yesterday I thought of carrying ahead your practice of roaming about in the kingdom in the evening to learn the grievances of the people.  As I was doing so, I came across a house where a small girl, who may be younger to Aditi by a few years, and two elderly people were standing at the entrance door with moist eyes.  Another small girl was standing besides a young man and a woman, who were trying to console the other three who were grieving.  Assuming that they might be having some grave problem, I went up to them and enquired about the matter.  The two elders were the grand-parents of the girl, Vaishali, who was weeping.  The other girl was her elder sister and the two young people, Govind and Bhairavi, were their parents.  As these girls were born to them within a year, the parents found it difficult to manage them and temporarily handed over the custody of the younger child, Vaishali, to the parents of Bhairavi.  For seven years, Vaishali had been under the care of her grand-parents!  The child was acquainted with the truth a long time ago but she was so attached to her grand-parents that she was not ready to leave them. The same was the case with Bhairavi’s parents.  During this period, quite a few times Vaishali’s parents had plans to take her back but later deferred from doing so seeing the close bond that the child and her grand-parents enjoyed, which prompted them to prolong the inevitable by some more time.  But now, they had finally decided to relieve Vaishali’s grand-parents of their responsibility and had come to take their daughter back to her home.  This was the cause of sorrow of Vaishali and her grand-parents. 

O brother, this incident reminded me of Aditi.  When, despite knowing the truth, Vaishali had so much pain in her heart to leave her grand-parents, how much trauma and mental affliction would Aditi have to undergo for being separated from those whom she had taught to be her own parents all these years?  This thought disturbed me.  All this while, I had ignored Aditi’s feelings thinking her to be a child who would just act as per the wishes of her elders.  How wrong was I!  Even Aditi has a small heart which could be hurt and broken like those of her elders.  I was talking to you of appeasing the Lord!  Now I began to wonder whether he could be actually pacified by giving so much grief to Aditi!  My mind also thought about Bhupendra and Chandraki.  Wouldn’t there condition be similar to that of Vaishali’s grand-parents?  In fact, their sorrow was bound to be much more!  Vaishali’s grand-parents knew that some day the child would return back to her home.  Therefore, they might have prepared themselves for this hard day.  But here, Bhupendra and Chandraki never knew that such a day might ever come in their lives!  Would the Lord be pleased with us for giving such sorrow to them, I began to wonder!  The more I thought from this perspective, the more I began to feel that you should not succeed in your mission for which you had gone to Kameshti.  I spoke with the Queen in this regard who also seemed to concur with my views, after much consideration.  O brother, all that I told you was because I felt that my thoughts were genuine.  Now I realise that I was wrong!  I, therefore, thank God that for not fructifying my wishes.  Please pardon me, brother”  Dhurjaya apologised. 

 These words melted away the anger which Dhuranjaya possessed in his heart against his brother for misleading him into believing in spurious facts.  He pardoned his brother.  Dhurjaya, as a personal decision, went and confessed before Bhupendra’s family that all which his brother did was after coming under the influence of his thoughts.  Bhupendra readily forgave him and exhorted him to forget the recent events which had unfolded, as a bad dream.

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Sage Suryananda who was narrating this story concluded, “Aditi stayed back to look after her brother till the time he recovered.  Sage Anantu returned from his yagna in a few days time and then once again started to meet the Prince every evening as he had promised Dhuranjaya.  It took another two weeks for Paramjeet to finally open his eyes, much to the glee of everyone!  The happiness of the royal couples and Aditi knew no bounds.  They effusively thanked Sukumaran for saving the life of the Prince and prayed to the Lord to keep them away from all sorrow and pain hereafter. 

Thereafter, the recovery of Paramjeet was fast.  Aditi not only told him about the truth which she was now aware of but also apprised him of all that had happened when he was lying unconscious.  Paramjeet, too, appreciated the sacrifice of his parents and endorsed all that Aditi had told to their father, Dhuranjaya, when he wanted to bring her back with him.  The Prince also had a feeling in his heart that all this happened owing to his tragedy which would have never occurred had he not tried to climb that tree for plucking mangoes.  He sought pardon from his guru and soon resumed his education under him.

Dear children, with due respect to Dhuranjaya’s and Dayanti’s sorrow, I will maintain that they should not have agreed to Dhurjaya’s views without becoming fully aware of it’s repercussions.  They should have been in a position to themselves realise about all that which Aditi later told her father.  People would offer different opinions to solve a problem but we should always use our intelligence and sense of reasoning to arrive at the best possible solution to the situation we are faced with.”