MAHATMYAM OF CHAPTER 11 - GHOST IN THE REST HOUSE

There lived a brahmin, Sanandan, in the town of Meghamkara situated on the banks of river Praneeta. He used to recite the eleventh chapter of Bhagawad Geeta everyday and reflect on its teachings. Thus he became a Bratima-Gyani (knowerof Brahman) and a fearless person. Once he set on a pilgrimage to river Godavari to have a holy dip in it.

During his journey, he joined company with a group of other travellers and reached a place called Vivaha-Mandapa- Puri. Usually, during his journey, he used to get invited by people for food and shelter. That night no one invited him. He wandered from house to house in the village along with his co-travellers in search of shelter, but all in vain. At last he met the village headman and placed his request before him.

"In this place, no one would invite a stranger to his house for food and shelter. But…" said the village headman, "the king has built a spacious rest house in the outskirts of the village for the convenience of travellers. Go straight this way, and you will reach the rest house."

Sanandan was happy. He and his friends walked along the path shown by the headman and reached the rest-house. They spent the night there. The arduous journey had made them weary and they slept well that night.

Next morning Sanandan woke up to find himself lying on the courtyard of the rest house. All his friends, it seemed, had deserted him and gone away. He found none of his friends anywhere around him.

Sanandan got up hurriedly and started searching for his friends, He came upon the village headman and told him:

"I don't find my friends anywhere. Perhaps they must have left earlier. Let me try to catch up with them."

The village headman fell at his feet and said: "Revered Sir, it seems you are a great yogi, having great powers of mantra. You do have the powers to increase your longevity".

Sanandan could not understand what the headman said, and replied: "Please let me go". He moved ahead.

"Oh, please don't, please don't go', pleaded the headman. "You must stay with me as my honoured guest for some time. I shall make all arrangements for your comfortable stay."

When the headman compelled him so earnestly, Sanandan yielded to his request.The headman took best care of his guest.

One morning, the headman fell at the feet of Sanandan weeping bitterly.

"What happened?" asked Sanandan. "Get up, and tell me."

The headman cried loudly.

"Last night the devil ate my son. Who is there now for me?"

"Devil? Which devil? Where is it?" asked Sanandan

"Revered sir! There is a monstrous devil in this area who eats up human beings When his atrocious actions became intolerable, we sought the help of a sorcerer and through him reached an agreement with the devil. The agreement was that he should not cat anyone from the village, but only those who take shelter for the night in the rest house outside the village, and that the village headman would direct the travellers passing through the village to the rest house He agreed to the condition Accordingly, all the were instructed to deny shelter and food for strangers in their own homes but instead to direct them all to the rest house."

The headman paused for a while, and continued:

"Revered sir! You also spent a night in the rest house. Your friends were all eaten up by the devil. Only you had escaped his clutches. Your magical powers are indeed wondrous, Please be kind enough to save my son!"

"How can I do that?" asked Sanandan indifferently.

"You can do it. Last night, a young man came to this village. He was a friend of my son. I did not know it, and so I directed him to the rest house. When my son came back home at night, he realised the mistake committed by me and immediately he rushed to the rest house to bring back his friend. But alas! He was eaten up by the devil along with his friend."

"My dear friend!" said Sanandan. "As you sow, so you reap I You made a number of innocent people food for the devil. And now he made your son his food!"

"Revered sir!", the headman continued. 'When I approached the devil with my unbearable grief and asked him if there was any remedy for my grief, he said thus. Please be kind enough to listen to what he told me."

Sanandan nodded his approval.

The headman started telling the story:

The devil told me: 'Yes, there is a remedy for your grief. If a brahmin who regularly chants the eleventh chapter of Bhagawad Geeta wants to help you, you can get back your dead son, and I too will get released from this state of existence of mine.'

'Is the Geeta so glorious a book?' I asked the devil.

'Yes', he said, 'and the eleventh chapter of the Geeta is specially so.'

"After a pause, the devil continued. 'Once upon a time, a vulture while flying over a lake, happened to drop a piece of bone from its beak into the water below. A wise man who saw the incident, at once remarked that the lake had turned into a sacred one, and he immediately made arrangements to perform rites for his ancestors on the banks of the lake by using its water. People who saw the man doing the rites, laughed at his apparent foolishness of treating the lake as a sacred one, and asked him what made him think so. He said in an unruffled voice: 'This stretch of water has been sanctified. I shall tell you how. A Brahmin called Vittaavan (Rich man. In this context a man rich in his spiritual wealth) was killed by a group of robbers. Vittavaan used to chant the eleventh chapter of the Geeta three times a day—in the early dawn, at noon and at dusk. It was a piece of his bone that the vulture had dropped here in this water. That is why this lake has now become a sacred Teertha'.

"People accepted the statement of the wise man."

'From that day, that lake became a sacred one.'

'I too will get liberated likewise through the glory of the eleventh chapter of the Geeta'.

The devil continued: "O village headman! There is a brahmin now in this village, who is competent to deliver your son and myself from our present state of existence. It so happened that I swallowed him up in the rest house, but because of his being a BrahmaGyani, my throat was burnt by his spiritual strength and I spat him out. If this great person pours a pot of water over my head after duly sanctifying it by touching it and chanting the eleventh chapter of the Geeta seven times, your son will come out alive and I too will be released from the state of devilhood."

"Revered sir', the headman addressed Sanandan, "kindly pour a pot of water sanctified by your chanting and liberate the devil as well as my son!"

Sanandan was in no great hurry to do the job. He was rather more intrigued by the story of the devil, and asked:

"What sin did he commit on account of which he became a devil and started eating the people who took shelter in the rest house?"

The headman said: "I shall tell you that also".

"In this village there was a brahmin who had taken to farming. One day while he was keeping guard over his fields, a huge vulture happened to pounce upon an unwary traveller. An ascetic saw this rushed to the rescue of the traveller but before he could reach the spot the vulture had flown up with the traveller clutched it's powerful claws. It was then that the brahmin keeping guard the fields could see the traveller up in the sky, held by the claws monstrous vulture,

'The ascetic, who saw the brahmin farmer, turned red with anger and cursed him: 'You stood there enjoying the plight of person who had fallen in danger. May you therefore become a Rakshasa (devil)'.

"The brahmin pleaded his innocence and said that he did not, notice the incident as he was completely absorbed in his work."

"He who is not prepared to help those in mortal danger and rendered helpless, will fall into hell, even though he might have earned a lot of merits. Though you did not notice the vicious vulture attacking the traveller, you will have to suffer the curse, as the incident took place within your fields over which you were keeping guard. People cannot be so insensitive to the things happening within their own immediate surroundings."

'Oh please!' implored the brahmin, 'don't keep me existing helplessly in the form of a devil. Please be kind enough to also indicate a way out from this cursed existence'.

'Alright,' said the ascetic. 'if a person, who chants the eleventh chapter of the Shagawad Geeta regularly, happens to pour water, sanctified by his chanting of the eleventh chapter several times over, on your head, you will get liberated from your state of devilhood."

So saying, the ascetic walked away.

"It was that brahmin who had turned into this devil. He can be rescued from his state of existence only by your good self. And through his liberation my son will also be saved".

The village head man concluded his narration and stood silently.

Sanandan's heart melted at the plight of the headman and the devil. He went to the place where the devil was residing. The headman and a crowd of villagers followed him. Sanandan sä down near the devil on a special seat and meditated on the Cosmic Form of the Lord, the subject of the Geeta. He then took a pot of water in his hands and started chanting the eleventh chapter of Geeta. Gradually, his face started glowing with the splendour and Brahma Tejas. People watched him with amazement and reverence. When he finished chanting the eleventh chapter sever times, he got up and poured the water slowly over the head of the devil.

Wonder of wonders!

Transformation!

The body of the devil slowly started transforming into a divine form! Released from the curse, the body of the devil transformed into that of an attendant of Lord Vishnu, with four hands holding lotus, mace, conch and the divine wheel, clad in yellow silks and adorning a multi-coloured flower garland. And by his side there
appeared a large number of similar forms, all with four hands holding the lotus, mace, conch and wheel, with flower garlands and clad in yellow silks. They were the various people whom the devil had swallowed up in the rest house.

"Our prostrations to you, who have delivered me and these persons from our miserable existence and elevated us to the world of Lord Vishnu", said the erstwhile devil and prostrated to Sanandan along with others.

"Where is my son? Where is he?" asked the headman anxiously.

"O headman! Look! There is your son, holding the lotus flower oft and smiling at you!" said the erstwhile devil.

"O my child! Come let us go home" said the headman.

"Me, your son? And you say our home?" the son burst out in laughter. He said: "I was your father twice, in two of my earlier births. This time I became your son. And, in this manner, I had innumerable births and innumerable houses. To which of these shall I come? And who indeed is my father?" The son again burst into laughter.

The strange laughter echoed in the heart of the headman.

"O my son! Are you abandoning me and going away?" asked grief-stricken father.

"O village headman!" said the son sympathetically. "Please behave wisely. No one belongs to any one. All persons, all these you see around, all belong to the Lord only. I have been liberated and am going to the world of Lord Vishnu, Cut asunder bondages of family, wealth, house and relatives and come to the Lord's world. Learn from this revered brahmin, Sanandan, at least the eleventh chapter of the Geeta. Give up all attachments to wealth and worldly pleasure! Elevate yourself with the help of the satsang you have just got, the association with Sanandan. Break the ties of samsaar and rise to the world of the Lord. Come! Come!"

So saying, all the transformed people rose into the sky and disappeared from the human vision.

Sanandari was pleasantly surprised at the strange happenings. He taught the village headman the eleventh chapter of the Geeta, and encouraged him with his companionship for a few months. In due course, both of them attained the world of Lord Vishnu.

Such is the glory of the eleventh chapter of the Geeta.

Thus I have narrated the glory of the eleventh chapter of the, Geeta. Even the act of listening to this story carefully will liberate one from great sins.